q&A

 after julian schnabel

q: how long does it take you to write a poem

a: simple arithmetic: take the number of years you are alive, & add 5 minutes

q then how do you know you are successful.  how do you know the poem is good

a: you can labor on a poem for years & never know if it is good or bad or meh so keeping going is the better action

q: you seem to love pop & lo-brow culture.  do you distinguish between hi & lo culture

a: yes

q; what is the distinction

a; yes

q: is that answer a distraction, an evasion

a: yes

q: you do say 'yes' a lot

a: yes

q: anything to add

a: sure, & yes

i saw the figure

i saw the figure

                  of a vole

in the talons

                   of a bird of prey

today in a photograph

                  that went viral

the bird flying like a rocket

the vole with such an expression 

in its eyes

staring

straight into the camera

a one in a million shot

beauty & brutality in one frame

from the notebook

 

the 40th anniversary of live aid

i turned 18 a little over a month before this historic concert held on two stages in two different countries.  july 13 1985.  it was a saturday.  i don't remember seeing any ads or promos for this show.  but then i was a bit of a knucklehead & wasn't keyed into the schedules & itineraries of pop culture of the day.  still, i found myself watching this concert live on TV & remember phil collins who was dubbed the hardest working man in rock&roll for performing both in london & philadelphia, on the same day.  below is a snippet of collins being interviewed as he flew on the concorde going from the london gig to the philadelphia show.  an extraordinary feat of logistics, at the time.  a proof that we reside in nations, but we live in a global civilization.  the internet is further proof of it.    

as for the 40 years between now & then, that is the thing about time.  it continues to flow, at least for us humans, in one direction, which is the future.  still, the 1980s were hardly the dark ages.  indeed, it set up the world we live in now.  namely, that we do live in a global civilization.  in 1985 a call to the concorde to phil collins as he flies across the atlantic to play a show on both sides of the pond on the same day is proof of that.  

peace

the funhouse [1981]

 

i watched most of this flick last night & the remaining 20 minutes today because i was in the mood for a gritty early 1980s slasher.  instead, i found a kind of slasher that belies the tropes that were in development at the time of this movie's release.  tobe hooper (Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974]) directed this film from a screenplay by larry block about four midwestern teens - two couples - who double-date to a traveling carnival.  they decide to stay after closing & spend the night in the dark ride, the funhouse.

hooper really knows how create a tense, sweaty mise en scene.  the carnival is gritty.  hooper employed real carnies.  i got flashbacks to when i was a lad going to similar traveling carnivals, & even the CA State Fair, in the 1970s with same attractions, like the Freaks of Nature, & the barkers who try to entice you inside their tents to see the freaks & wonders of the world.

even so, hooper enjoys his own inner monster kid.  the final girl, amy, played by elizabeth berridge, has a younger brother with his bedroom decorated with horror & monster paraphernalia.  even her parents are watching on TV, as she sits with them waiting for her boyfriend to take her to the carnival, Bride of Frankenstein [1935].  so it comes as no shock to find that the dark ride the kids sneak into is a melange of old-timey carnival tropes & horror movie things. 

berridge does a fine job as the final girl, vulnerable, resilient, tough & lucky.  the FX was overseen by FX maestro rick baker.  the slasher is not a creature of fantasy or the supernatural.  yet he is a monster.  complete with a hideous visage & mien.  as for the plot, it is well-constructed.  the teens in peril seem to do what teens might really do in their predicament.  this was hooper's first major studio movie after the success of the TV miniseries, based on stephen king's novel, Salem's Lot [1979].  

the denouement might seem forced but after what we, & berridge, have been thru it might be best to let it go as it will.  all in all, this is a worthy slasher that unsettles the viewer & recreates the genre just as the slasher genre was finding its feet.  proof that tobe hooper is no mean director of my beloved genre of horror!

once upon a time a poet tried to sell you jeans on TV

a brief, ordinary scene

on my way to work, between i & 24th st, deep in my stride, mind empty but for the tasks waiting for me.  she had all her gear on the sidewalk in a black garbage bag.  'good morning. love your hair.  slicked back & silver,' she said to me.  'thank you very much.  that is kind of you to say.'  'i have colon cancer,' she said.  'that sucks.  i am so sorry.'  'thank you for saying that.  i don't get to talk to many people during the day.'  

self-portrait with crow

 

california nite

 

lo-fi poetics: 4th of july

fireworks 

sounds like gunfire 

outside the window

it will go on 

till 2 AM or longer

ordnance of the holiday

while we make BBQ dinners

& roll up on our 

fixins & misgivings

listening to

'4th of july' by the great punk band X

again

that you repeat your last name

both syllables

allow it to roll on the tongue

the mouth-feel of a name

your name 

& what is your name

those two syllables

are they controversy or outlaw

a name by any other 

as the neighborhood explodes 

in the faux drama of exploding bombs

wars & not-wars

ongoing 

for your name is like everyone else

your name is american