art openings

Steve Bogdanoff


Lance Letscher

national poetry month

& many folk out there writing a poem a day all month. I first did that 40 years ago & feel no need to try again.

but I do feel a need to write something abt poetry. I rarely do because it always sounds so presumptious. there are poets who proclaim & pontificate until I get a headache.

I suspose my avoidance of manifestos can be interpretd as shallowness. abt the only glorious thing abt aging is that I don't care much abt what people think. I've been at this poetry thing for such a long time I trust that what I'm doing is authentic.

I think I wantd to write something abt poetry because last week in Las Vegas I experiencd one of those rare rushes -- 3 poems in one nite. I felt so giddy I cdn't sleep.

what spring produces a poem? I honestly don't know. there are times when I've ploppd down before a pad & made myself write. some of those results were instant meals for the wastebasket. other times I'm walking to the gym & a poem begins. I allow it to go where it needs to go. that means that sometimes it's raw autobiography & sometimes fanciful fiction   pieces of rainbow or shards of beer bottles.

an early criticism of my work was that it hemorrhagd language. when young we tend to imitate those we admire -- whether wearing the jeans & red jacket of James Dean or pilfering the dictionary of Hart Crane. altho some of those word-heavy pieces from my beginnings make me wince I can't deny they're mine. today I tend to write a starker verse altho I admit that a word can still make me hard.

I've been writing poems for at least a half century & it's still a mystery to me. I appreciate the kind of rush I had last week & respect the occasional lull. I like some poems better than others. I don't have the hubris to believe I'm writing for a society or even a generation. I'm just me doing what I have to do.

again

pollen plus wind

TV Guide

James Robert Parish -- knowing of my friendship with silent screen star Lois Wilson -- brightend my morning by sending me a pdf of the 1st issue of TV Guide which featurd Lois & her good friend Gloria Swanson on the cover.

I can almost hear the trivia experts gasp. they say everyone knows that Desi Arnaz Jr. was on the 1st cover in 1953:



well it gets complicatd. yes that was the 1st national issue of TV Guide. however it began in NYC 5 years earlier with Lois & Gloria as the original cover girls. (price of that issue was a dime. today a copy is worth $3000.) also in 1948 there were similar regional publications in Chicago & Philadelphia. the 3 mergd to form the national publication.

for a year or so during my teens I sent the magazine's covers to its subjects asking for autographs. among my papers at Kent State are signd covers from Steve Allen & Bennett Cerf   Bob Hope & Ricky Nelson. & I kept one as a personal souvenir: Walt Disney.

& one last Rhyolite image

at the bottle house

"what I was told was the whorehouse"

"the fragment of a bank"

Death is one step away

the year after
Shorty & Ed
found gold there
in 1904
the town of Rhyolite
was establishd

by 1908
its popultion
was 10000

in 1910
the mines faild

in 1920
its population
was 20

in 2010
I walkd
its dirt roads

the fragment
of a bank
had the feel
of a Greek ruin

what I was told
was the whorehouse
stood breathless

at the cemetery
I left a penny
for the dead
then departd
with friends
for a big city

we laughd
over salads
then lookd
both ways
before
crossing
the street

been crying

almost since I got here & I don't even gamble.

pollen is fierce. couple that with these winds.

a good day

another fabulous breakfast at Hash House a Go Go with my buds Darryl & Gary. then we went to a ghost town near Death Valley. pix when I return.

spent

1st part of day at City Center. this 66-acre playground on the strip in Las Vegas isn't totally complete but enuf is open to get an idea of it. I'm not much of a shopper but it's a fun place.

snow so
went west

Cherie DeCastro (1922-2010)

I was 11 when "Teach Me Tonight" was a huge success & one of my favorites. the record was the only major hit by the DeCastro Sisters but fixd them forever in my memory bank.

the group began as a sort of Cuban version of the Andrews Sisters. they appeard in a Carmen Miranda movie & "Over the Santa Fe Trail" later making their mark as headliners in Las Vegas. but "Teach Me Tonight" is their legacy.

I can't find my 45 of the song but did dig out this picture from that time which I got from a Cleveland radio station.



Cherie -- who was once married to cowboy star Monte Hale -- was the last surviving sister of the trio.

another day in DC

the noise of the crowd woke John Boehner. he rose from the tanning bed like Dracula from his coffin & lookd at the people. Boehner began to bellow abt deficits when one of the crowd spit on him. a look of shock came over his face. then he began to cry. Eric Cantor -- who happend to be nearby -- came running over. he cleand up the spit with his hanky then huggd Boehner. "faggots" the crowd began to yell.

Boehner & Cantor lookd at each other in horror & began to run. the darker of the two got out his phone & calld Mitch McConnell for help.

"the American people do not want me to take this call" McConnell sd & hung up.

he knew Michele Bachman had a home in the area & calld her. she answerd from the fallout shelter in her backyard. when Boehner askd for help she sd "but you told me to always say no."

"call Rush" Cantor told the man with the dark skin. Boehner punchd in that number. a woman answerd. "I'm sorry. Mr. Limbaugh is on his way to Costa Rica."

Mamie & me

what a wonderful surprise to find myself making a quick cameo (at 3:10) in this video.

Joe Bonamassa at the Lensic

the teabaggers must feel proud

at today's demonstrations in DC they yelld the most despicable epithets at John Lewis & at Barney Frank.

on the way back

from errands this ayem I saw large paw marks in mud along my arroyo. cd these be from the mountain lion? do I live dangerously while simply walking?

some days

I'm full of so much but it won't filter into a poem. today is like that.

on the way home from the gym I walkd the street where a mountain lion was caught yesterday. online I followd Dan Choi chaining himself to a White House fence & being arrestd but when I watchd the evening news there was nothing abt that. I keep waiting for the NY Times to report on Todd Moore's death. I keep waiting for Republicans to say yes   for teabaggers to stop shouting   for the rodent pope to react to the video of that ancient Brazilian priest having sex with an altar boy.

my head is all over the place today. no idea lasts.

I think I'll settle down with a Joan Blondell DVD & a bag of M&Ms.

green chilis
in
my breakfast burrito