don't let the sun go down on me

 

i love live performances.  i watch a lot of it on youtube.  be it music & poetry readings.  i prefer going to see bands/musicians in person, of course.  the energy one gets from the band that then feeds the band to take it higher is like going to church.  in the phrase of the late sly stone, live music can take you higher.  poetry readings too.  except that i find my poetry reading nourishment more on youtube than in person.  but nothing beats a good poet reading well in person.  it can take you higher.  so then, i have a couple of live performances to look forward to this month.  my mother-in-law & i will see humorist david sedaris this sunday.  i have been a big fan of sedaris for well over 30 years.  i remember the first time i read his essay, 'Diary of a Smoker' about the history of cigarette smoking in his family.  when he said that he had a picture of his mother breastfeeding his sister, while pregnant with another sister, then leaning forward toward the held zippo to light the cigarette between her lips i busted out laughing, & i felt seen!  i come from a family of smokers too.  later this month anna & will head over to the Crest Theater to see andy bell, the singer for the wonderful technopop duo, Erasure, who will perform solo.  dude has a magnificent set of pipes.  but i am bummed that the great rockabilly band, The Stray Cats, have cancelled their tour because of brian setzer's chronic illness.  we had tix to see the Cats later this month at the Hard Rock in wheatland.  i am, as i've stated before, at heart a greaser/hippie/punk, & i love, really love, rockabilly.  i saw the Cats, with my brothers, in 1983 at the Memorial Auditorium.  the doowop group, 14 Karat Soul, opened for them.  it was a killer show.  here's to brian setzer getting well soon.   praise be for live music & live poetry readings.  which have sustained me & continues to nourish me as i stare at my years of a, so far, not so short a life.  i am, after all, looking down the barrel of 60 years on this green & blue rock.  so, in the words of elton john, don't let the sun go down on me.  not yet, at least.  for their will be another show to see.

peace & love 

street song

dressed in work clothes he gets out of his car

in the Safeway parking lot 

holding a can of something

beans or soup? 

it was a long day at work

i just walked 2.5 miles home

thru downtown/midtown

my old muscles & bones feeling it

i pass him as i walk across the lot

excuse me, i say, when i pass

no bother, he says, then

hey are you homeless, he asked me

no

are you a teacher, he followed

i chuckled, no, perhaps i have that look

ok, you take care of yourself, he concluded

still with his can of soup or beans

in his hands standing

outside the entrance of Safeway

hope against hope married to the futility & beauty of living

belated halloween greetings from supercat jack

 

meeeow!

a final kiss of halloween 2025

a 2:00 AM stroll in salem, ma

boo!

today is halloween!

however, you boils & ghouls celebrate this high holiday, whatever the state of the world we live in, mr. pumpkin & i tip our hats to you, your family & friends, that we might live in a better, saner world soon enough, & that this Spooky Season be its start, for here there be tygers, oh my, i wish you all a very merry not-so-scary HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

boo!

everyday is halloween!

 house on haunted hill [1999]

there is a look, a style, an aesthetic in these old movies from the late 1990s/early 2000s that i didn't appreciate when they were current & oh so new.  but with a perspective of a couple of decades, with the '20s as we observe them now, there was a sheen to this turn of the millennium horror films that define their era.  a slickness of production, certainly.  a kind of mad haunted house design too.  a cast of very pretty people as well wearing the coolest clothes.  the lighting & editing too that screams of a style so common to films of the late '90s.  you gotta see 'em to get 'em!  

but you might wonder why this remake rather than the original william castle pic?  as much as i love castle's movies i have a hankering for that turn of the millennium vibe so well executed by this remake.  a haunted house movie par excellence.  here goes: geoffrey rush is a madman millionaire theme park owner cum designer.  he's been trying to murder - why? - his wife, played by famke janssen.  & the best way to kill her is to invite a few people to her birthday party in a former insane asylum that's been shuttered since the 1930s when the inmates took over & killed the staff.

oh boy!  but the asylum has its own plans.  somehow it hacks into rush's email & sends out RSVPs to a group of strangers that include taye diggs, ali larter & peter gallagher among others.  why them?  because the house wants revenge & will take it out on the relatives of those that had once done harm to the long dead insane asylum patients.  so far so good.  oh yes, rush's character offers each of these invitees 1 million dollars - i feel the need to put my pinky to my lips & laugh maniacally a la dr. evil in the austin powers movies - if they can survive the night in the asylum now house.

well now, we get ghosties, creepies, ghoulies, & all other sorts of nasties that torment our guests.  this was a time in horror movies when one of the creepies, to prove how fucked up they were, would violently spin their head in a fast blur while everything else in the frame stayed still.  creeeeepy!  at any rate, this is a fun film for the Spooky Season directed by william malone, from a script by dick beebe [original story credited to robb white] & with fx by gregory nicotero et al.  

& but who survives?  the house?  one or two of the guests?  the hosts?  does it matter since we are all in for a treat of a movie that asks us to drop all our conceits & critical acumen, grab a beer or two, maybe smoke a bowl as well, & a big bucket of popcorn & strap in for the ride.  yes, this halloween movie is that much fun!

boo!

everyday is halloween!

i love a good trailer.  hell, the reason i watched the academy awards when i was a wee lad was because they would show excerpts from the movies.  i really didn't care for who won what.  i wanted to watch movie clips.  even more so going to the movies, before the internet, before cable TV shows that featured movie trailers, was the pure joy of watching them at the theater.  so, it is my pleasure to post the OG dracula [1931] trailer below in observance of the high holiday.  the picture is muddied & dark.  but little beats the ways it is designed & executed.  old trailers like this one just hit me right in the heart.  i'm on record, somewhere, stating that i am not a hardcore fan of vampire lore.  but c'mon!  bela lugosi as the eponymous bloodsucker & the movie masterfully directed by tod browning!  woo boy!  this is a fucking film!  

boo!

everyday is halloween!

 give me your souls, ok?

boo!

everyday is halloween!

the great punk rock&roll band the ramones don't want to be buried in a Pet Semetary.  neither do i!  this song fucking rocks!  hail to the ramones & to stephen king, author of the titular novel, & a big fan of the ramones!  nine bows to my brother from another mother, jonathan hayes, who today reminded me of this awesomeness of this song.  a great tune for the Spooky Season!

boo!