Sunday, August 30, 2009

life in soul motion

Thursday, August 27, 2009

a short musical interlude

Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me...

Sunday, August 23, 2009

drama

I stand about 6 feet, but you knew that from the baby giraffe birthing post. Last year I said 23 words, this year I'm up to 19 words out loud already, and shooting for 30, but I don't want to be pushy, I hate pushy people don't you? I frequently laugh, not too much, mostly at dramatic films, rarely at comedies, except Woody's. Citizen Kane is a hoot, Welles said they laughed a lot on the set.
Or at real life drama too. The other day I was waiting at a red light, feeling lousy, the couple in an off-centered car in the next lane in front were arguing, well, mostly it was her and I could see his head shaking side to side then nodding, and a few moments later their right rear tire exploded. I had to pull off the street a ways up because the laughing tears were burning my eyes so bad. When my vision returned I looked back and they were still there. Arguing, backed by a melodious passing brass horn section.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Basie on his birthday

Count Basie's Orchestra, with the amazing Joe Williams vocal, on Peter Chapman's Every Day(I Have The Blues).
Towards the end of the song Mr. Williams holds a beautiful note for about 15 seconds, not to show off, but just to add the right touch to my favorite Basie number.



More celebration of Basie..here and there and a scene with Lockjaw Davis.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

death

Tangled beyond the trees off a pasture lane a deer struggled in a barbed-wire fence. The wind died down and the sunlight rolled across the ground as I moved in closer. A crimson hourglass was filling beneath an angry No Trespass sign. The wheels of giants whined on a concrete highway off in the distance.
It watched my shadow, then at arms length anchoring and bending down its black eyes watched me the entire time as it kicked and tightened the sharp rusty thorns. I said quietly and assuredly everything would be okay but it kicked harder. And then there was no more kicking, and both the trees and I shivered.

I hate fences.

Monday, August 17, 2009

I am a giraffe

Not saying it's better than being a walrus, but hey, in a way, I did let my face grow long, John.
Our local Zoo welcomed a baby g three days after my birthday, and he comes in at 6 feet, 156 pounds.

I kid you not...I AM 6 feet, 156 pounds!
Let's name him...Philip. That's a good name, yes?


Sunday, August 16, 2009

what now then??

Is this the one? I get an urgent e-mail on penis enlargement help then. Is this the message I forward to the Health Care For Nuttin' White House Website based in New Jersey? Do they send me a dollar for my trouble? I would take the dollar then and buy some candy. Would my e-mail then be placed on the White House list then? So then I get more information on health coupons for oxygen tanks filled instead with helium then for people who would need oxygen but then would end up dying but with a higher voice then?

[not particularly the best thing I've written, but you can play the home version and read it in your best Jackie Mason voice, and you'll laugh and laugh and...]

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

quote of these days #2

'Whatever it is, I'm against it!'
~Groucho Marx, Horse Feathers (1932)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Budd Schulberg(1914-2009)

I found this rare screenplay, with an introduction by Elia Kazan, and a revealing preface by Schulberg, for only three dollars and fifty cents, hidden deep amongst a pile of some indistinguishable paperbacks in a bookstore that burned down three days later.

I love On The Waterfront, but cherish his forceful script of A Face In The Crowd even more. Watch it tonight if you can!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

rez-oo-mey enhancement assistance

...and I was the little boy in the hospital Babe Ruth visited and later blasted a monumental shot over the right field bleachers for...

...even though inexperienced just like our President Obama, I feel I can offer hope to your company...

...I slept with Johnny Depp...

...and my high school senior class voted me most likely to secede from the union..


[Scratch that last one. And definitely the second one. And the one with Johnny even though it's punchy poetic.]

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

the screen is so lonely tonight




Marilyn Monroe/Neon And Waltzes
~written and performed by Nanci Griffith

The sun will stop shinin'
Hearts will stop poundin'
The screen is so lonely tonight
The men are out prayin'
The women are sayin'
She died for the loss of her prime
And lived on DiMaggio time

(chorus)
Farewell you old tinsel city
With your waltz in the mornin'
and your neon at night
I've bathed in your loneliness
Drank of your wine
I lived on DiMaggio time

Hearts felled to paradise still rest in her eyes
She was no fading light

Hot night in August
So Long to the Goddess
"America's fatherless child"*
Immortal forever
That Queen of the camera
The master of winkin' a smile
And leaving her shadow behind

(chorus twice)


*"America's fatherless child" quote from Norman Mailer's book, Marilyn.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

quote of these days

You can lead a horse to water,
but, a pencil must be lead.

~Stan Laurel, 'Brats'(1930)

Shelly on his birthday


Summer and Winter
~Percy Shelley
(1792-1822)

It was a bright and cheerful afternoon,
Towards the end of the sunny month of June,
When the north wind congregates in crowds
The floating mountains of the silver clouds
From the horizon--and the stainless sky
Opens beyond them like eternity.
All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds,
The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds;
The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze,
And the firm foliage of the larger trees.

It was a winter such as when birds die
In the deep forests; and the fishes lie
Stiffened in the translucent ice, which makes
Even the mud and slime of the warm lakes
A wrinkled clod as hard as brick; and when,
Among their children, comfortable men
Gather about great fires, and yet feel cold:
Alas, then, for the homeless beggar old!

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