The
Mysteries of Eight at BlogspotThe
Mysteries of Eight at Blogspot
Thursday, January 01, 2015
The Candlewood Isle Film Fest continued last Saturday night with a holiday dinner party screening of Meet Me in St. Louis,” a 1944 movie that introduced the Blane & Martin song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
During dinner we projected a 16mm kinescope TV broadcast print of the 6th installment of “The Judy Garland Show” (1962), which included memorable commercials of odd products of the time (Wondra Flour, Winston Cigarettes, Head & Shoulders Shampoo).
The show featured June Allyson and Steve Lawrence, as well as sidekick Jerry van Dyck. We focused our eyes on the screen when Ms. Garland began her solo finale, her “informed” heart throbbing version of a rousing Jeanette McDonald song called “San Francisco.” Triumphant as the credits ran, she contentedly rolled about the stage ending in a fetal position.
Then we projected the Blue Strip Technicolor transparencies of Meet Me in St. Louis, a print from Rochester New York, perhaps from the George Eastman House, purchased from The Cure Thrift Shop on East 12th Street for $5.
The movie commemorates the transformation of St. Louis’s marshland into fairgrounds for the 1905 World’s Fair. Its episodes cover a year of holidays in the lives of a St. Louis family threatened with a move to New York. Its screenplay drew from a collection of stories Sally Benson wrote for the New Yorker magazine as a series called 5135 Kensington Street. Ms. Benson’s varied credits include screenwriting Shadow of a Doubt, Viva Las Vegas and The Singing Nun.
By 1944 Vincent Minelli, had left set designing for Radio City Music Hall and had already directed for MGM the black and white musical “Cabin in the Sky.” He had a way of creating an intimate family atmosphere in his movies. Another highlight for me is his Shirley MacLaine bar scene in Some Came Running.
The Three strip Technicolor printing process used for Meet Me In St. Louis, developed by MIT scientists in 1918, was still precious in the 1940s, so the studio indulged Mr. Minelli’s attention to color detail while allowing him to direct this film. The color palette is intoxicating.
To photograph in Technicolor, Red Green and Blue filters cover the exposure of three strips of black and white film. The three films are imbibed into one strip of film, such as the strip we ran through the projector on Saturday.
The blue strip on our print suggests that the print itself was from the 1940’s when it was necessary to conserve on silver for the war. For some reason this adds to the softness of the high color saturation, giving viewers a blue rather than black base.
The no-place-like-home warmth of the film becomes satirical against such highlights as the anarchy in the streets bonfire of the Halloween segment,
This is the movie where a bonfire burns brightly in the background as Margaret O’Brien, playing a 5-year-old child, bravely goes forward toward the home of a cat killer and throws flower in his face. As she runs away the house-dog laps it off the floor. Throwing furniture into the street fire she yells, “I’m the most horrible.” Ms. O’Brien demonstrates her range to me in the Secret Garden (1949) where she and another boy engage in a yelling match and I think she wins. The camera crew must have stood back and let that happen. She’s a pretty great actor. . She’s still alive, by the way.
It was such fun having dinner with the movie that we plan to charge $10 and serve dinner and drinks at all future screenings, which are the third Saturday of the month.
posted by peter dizozza 4:56 PM Sunday, November 16, 2014
For The Candlewood Isle Film Fest Newsletter, an essay following the dogma, “Some people write about that which they know. We write about what we want to find out about.” --------------- Last month the Candlewood Isle Film Fest screened "Les Diaboliques," the movie of a script Alfred Hitchcock lost to French director Henri Clouzot, forcing him to make "Psycho" instead.
"Les Diaboliques" preserves the screen acting of Jeanne Moreau and Vera, Clouzot’s Brazilian wife who some years later passed away from a heart attack… just like in the…
This month we saw Sir Alfred’s “Under Capricorn,” a title descriptive of its 1800 setting; near Sydney, on the then prison island (an island the size of the 48 States) of the British Empire, Australia, below the Tropic of Capricorn. Yes, Glenn Moore knew … The Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn are on our earth’s 23rd parallel.
As with all Hitchcock possessives, “Under Capricorn” is collaborative. His Hollywood power was off the charts but look at the credits:
Writer, Alma Reville, was his wife since his movie career began in 1926.
In later decades, the blondness of his starlets distracted, or rather, inspired him, but in the 1940’s he focused on the project assigned.
After his off-the-charts British success (What are the “39 Steps”?) David O. Selznik brought him to the States and exerted over him some control.
Efforts to control Hitchcock inspired him; his greatest US inspiration: the Motion Picture Production Code.
Collaboration highlights through the 1940’s include:
-- with Joseph Cotton and Theresa White in "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943), featuring "Our Town" ambiance purchased from Thornton Wilder.
-- with composer Miklos Rosa, painter Salvador Dali and Ingrid Bergman in "Spellbound,"
-- again with Ms. Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Reins in "Notorious,"
-- and with Cary Grant and again Joan Fontaine (of Rebecca) in "Suspicion."
The efforts of Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotton combined (with help from Mr. Cotton’s friend Michael Wilding) in “Under Capricorn,” made in England in 1949 during Hitchock’s Transatlantic Studio movies, preceded by “Rope,” the movie that implemented the dogma of real-time single shot continuous camera continuity.
Did the box office for “Rope” (with script credit including Arthur Laurent, inspired by the case of Leopold and Loeb) suffer from a simplified perception of the relationship between its two murderers?
Did "Under Capricorn" suffer from its Ingrid-Bergman-has-a-baby-with-Roberto-Rosselini synchronicity?
Both Technicolor films disappeared for a time after their release. Today, for us to see “Under Capricorn,” we watched a Korean DVD.
Hitchcock did not again go Technicolor until "Dial M for Murder" which made everything all right again and opened the gate for Hitchcock's traipse down the stony end of blondness.
Like “Rope,” “Under Capricorn” uses continuous shooting, but not “real time.” Also here Hitchcock permits himself cutting between cameras when needed.
This means more amazing tracking shots. Hitchcock’s single-shot tracking journeys date back to his focus on the No-One-Can-Drum-Like-the-Drummer-Man drummer in his British film, “Young and Innocent” and can be dated forward to Brian DePalma’s focus on the bucket above the prom stage in “Carrie.”
“Under Capricorn” writing credits include John Colton, the “Shanghai Gesture” Playwright, Jessica Tandy’s husband, Hume Cronyn, and Warsaw Concerto Composer Richard Addinsell.
There are love lessons and life enhancements obtainable from directing one's attention to the two hours of "Under Capricorn" screen time. See it when you can. Peter
posted by peter dizozza 1:20 PM Saturday, January 18, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S72MmZ-C7So
posted by peter dizozza 8:20 AM Sunday, November 24, 2013
Revisiting The World of Lou Reed Under the open guidance of Jeffrey Lewis November 21st, 2013 at Jalopy...almost all my favorite current songwriters were in that room last night From my notes: Random order opened with They're taking her children away. I am the Waterboy. then another song ultimately embedded into the Berlin Album: Stephanie says. It's so cold in Alaska Then the cancer cure, "Her life was saved by Rock and Roll" Black Ocean Ashes Black Angel's Death Czechoslovakians, to get to know you, invite you up for tea. When visiting leave a gift. Open House. (Songs for Drella, because that's what we called him?) Last Great American Wailing Whale. Run run run. Take a drag or two, on 5th Avenue. Jeff's cover of The original wrapper rapper (political song from the 80's). Satellite of Love. Steve sang Who Loves the Sun... I sang "You're right and I'm wrong.... " for piano please credit Allan Macmillan and Rick Wakeman. I never inquired before and found an italian site: http://www.loureed.it/ that explained it all. "Berlin" was on the first Lou Reed solo album! Eins Zwei Drei Zugabe! oh, and then later instead of "Don't forget to hire the vet," he came right out and said it... don't forget to Marry The Vet. he hasn't had that much fun yet...but if he marries you he will... fun... hey baby I like your iggy pop david bowie Fun...
A low level sarcasm rings out in his poetry and harmonically radical pop gestures... There is some great groundbreaking music, in a low budget music sort of way (especially from alternate guitar tuning), and that's what attracts me, as well as the misleading spirit of entropy and dissolution. In my performance I felt there was so much more to say at the piano... I gave suggestions and want to do more!
Jeff's brilliant structure: from his email: THE PERFORMERS! (Not listed in order… the performance order will be random, and we'll do two rounds of one song each to make sure everybody gets on at least once!)
Add: Jim Flynn!
1) Turner Cody 2) Preston Spurlock 3) Cal Folger Day 4) Phoebe Novak 5) Jeffrey Lewis 6) Lee Feldman 7) Pete Galub 8) Dawn Landes 9) Peter Dizozza 10) Kristin Andreasson 11) Peter Stampfel 12) Pizza Underground 13) Steve Salett 14) Steve Espinola 15) Cannonball Statman 16) The Purple Organ 17) Common Prayer
I'd love to hear the song most inspired by Lou Reed from each of them!
posted by peter dizozza 9:46 AM Tuesday, February 12, 2013
ALL THOSE SONS
I recently played ping pong with my agile aging father. He is not one for passing me "20's" and getting parking tickets, but I dreamed last night that I was playing ping pong with a man named Mohammed and before the game he kept passing me "20s," while pulling parking tickets off his car.
I don't know how yesterday's pope-resignation headlines affect me, but somehow in my recent real and imagined excursions through manhood I arrived at grandiose thoughts resonating from La Ricotta, a short movie by Pier Paolo Pasolini whose cruelly comic atmosphere sits like a cloud over the purity of communism.
Communism as a reaction to tyranny prolongs tyranny. (I say this because my condition is a product of my own reflexive anger.) Maybe Emma Goldman could purely express communist principles (I don't know), but something muddies the rebel causes for both Pier Paolo Pasolini and Marc Blitzstein.
Consider the voice of the great composer Marc Blitzstein; his political preaching to the choir seems sadistic because he advocated a class condition distant from his own. While condemning people of privilege, Pasolini and Blitzstein each welcomed individuals from all walks of life.
La Ricotta displays the comic death of a passion-play movie extra. He dies on the cross. The callousness and cruelty of his supper and crucifixion call to mind a father/son relationship between God and the man on the cross. Pasolini, having suffered from the childhood domain of a stringent father, became that father. In a more conjectural way I suggest that Pasolini rebelled against his nasty/sadistic father. He re-enacts the ritual against his own sons, as they appear in his movies, his other 1962 son appearing in Mama Roma. The script calls for a crucifixion of Mamma Roma's boy, too. Callous authority repeatedly, ritualistically kills its rebel sons.
Ever resonating from the"facts" of Pasolini's passing is that his own life ended in violence. Political conspiracies aside, Mr. Blitzstein met with a similar end while also embracing the world by welcoming its strangers. I then conjecture that both artists were interactive in orchestrating the chaotic scene of their own demise.
I put my general realization in the form of a lyric I added to a Bob Dylan song, "God stopped Abraham but no one stopped God from killing his son on highway sixty-one."
Whether or not it is done to save the world, my ridiculous point is that there is a pattern of fathers killing sons. As sons rebelling against our fathers we prolong the pattern.
In general, Pasolini's poetic audio visual legacy is a treasure. Existing as her own force of nature within his world (and around the same time in the world of Luchino Visconti) is Anna Magnani.
To find signs of Pasolini's personal salvation look to the dance lesson in another room, in the last minutes of his last movie, Salo. Excluded from the De Sade family assembly, these sons are unaffected, independent and free.
posted by peter dizozza 2:58 PM Sunday, January 27, 2013
If you've ever wondered whether the medium is the message, consider the following: In the Christian Bible there is another Genesis contained in the introductory lines to the Gospel of John.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... and the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
The liturgical service commemorating the events reported in this gospel places within a central tabernacle behind an altar, where once an ark held scrolls inscribed with God's words, bread that by a miracle becomes the flesh of the son of God. (Eating replaces reading ... Sensuality replaces intellect...)
While it is God's words inscribed in the scrolls, John's gospel also announces that "the Word was God."
If words define our consciousness then no truer words were ever written,
Conflict over religion in Western Civilization can end because, despite the many sects, we're all a product of only one religion.
posted by peter dizozza 9:10 PM Thursday, August 23, 2012
I find myself awake on this Friday morning realizing the needs and fears that make up the inaction of the moment... That's the way it is right now maybe forever... Sometimes I think there is a destiny and a connection with God... a universal One of some sort... and that I am an important player, a part in universal destiny that is somehow connected with my creative inspiration as it translates into music and writing... But today I'm more a drone than ever before and I felt I was one when I first started working at the Comptroller's Office... the 54 years have their moments... Sometimes I do feel happy and good about myself and the world... My alter ego has become my father, as he should be, as he always was the man I most avoided... Now I have no choice but to confront him in all his intensity and permanence. My inspiration consists of seconds, and the perspiration part required to translate inspiration into communication... well, it's an act of focusing, and every moment I feel like I must stop now... I'm feeling at every moment of action that I must stop, that something is stopping me... The simple example with this computer typing is The Heat of the Computer... I may as well admit that after sleeping for a time I turned on the television and it allowed me to start over on its broadcast of Reservoir Dogs, a simple production attaining near perfection... The impact of the Harry Nillson song at the end is now somewhat matched by the brilliant time shifted script. It's a play and a work of cinema, an opportunity for actors to display their own unique brilliance... an admirable accomplishment, inspiring me to aspire to such an accomplishment. But it leaves me in a state of low grade hysteria, the Coconut song hysteria... Would I wish this on another person? The piece leaves you in a crazy place. And it is brilliant in its engagement. I was hooked from beginning to end, watching in awe as I understood the context in which memorable events transpire. It's a strong context... It's the script. This fellow's impact on my life is somewhat considerable and exists apart from my own life. I would like a role model somewhere in the entertainment engaging me. Someone I'd actually like to be, not seeing people who remind me of the worst of me...identifying and awakening my masculine predicament. It's a pretty funny predicament... Ultimately these movies are comedies, part of the comedy being that they are movies.
posted by peter dizozza 11:36 PM
I'm taking a break from a project on preventive maintenance software to share this post on quantum physics, in which I address the question of how to make a qubite computer. It already exists through the @rnd function, the random number generator. we have ones and zeros and an unexecuted random number function with the parameter limited to between zero and one. The unexecuted random function is the third bite. The ordinary computer's random number generator arrives at its underwriting calculations by limiting high and low parameters, running the random calculation over and over, the parameter between the random numbers becoming smaller, in effect shrinking Shroedinger's box with the cat in it... I suppose there is no doubt to the answer that ultimately the cat is dead, the act of avoiding observation while trying to determine the observable answer kills it ... Peter Dizozza
posted by Peter 10:56 AM
The biggest moonshine in 18 years happens tonight. Various
earthquakes have already hit the Pacific, New Zealand and Japan, and my mother
passed away from a sudden quake of sorts within her. She went forward doing,
learning, listening and contributing until she was stopped, in this case by her
physical being. Because her mother lived to be a hundred and even then did not
die from a natural cause, my mother's health did not receive the attention my
father was giving to his own health.
Though not in cause, in effect the reason for my mother's and grandmother's
passing is the same, most recently addressed in the script for A Question of
Solitude.
Reality is barely comprehensible at a close look. I hear my mother speaking to
me. At one point she was entirely me. At this point I am my own person and she
is part of me. I miss her and love her.
posted by Peter 7:21 AM
There aren't many mysteries at present, just of time and existence, of gravity and friendships, of living. The mysteries of eight are infinite but it's just a symbol for a number. We can count and eight can look like a single symbol... are their different symbols for eight in different languages? What does the symbol look like elsewhere. For here it is infinity, a mobius strip, add the ribbon flip to the figure and you have three dimensions in two.
posted by Peter 8:12 PM
2.26.98
Carol's favorite Movies
I Know Where I'm Going
Michael Powell Ernest Pressburg
Wendy Hiller
Lawrence of Arabia
Great Expectations
David Lean
The River
Jean Renoir
(I like his Dana Andrews Film, Swamp Water)
Snow White
Disney
Gigi
Vincent Minelli
Odd Man Out
--------
Ghost Stories
The Haunting
Comedies
Take the Money and Run
Bedazzled
Sandy likes
The Maltese Falcon
John Huston
Casablanca
Michael Curtiz
Charade
Stanley Donen
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Richard Lester
The Inlaws
M
Gigi
The Thin Man
The Thing
The Sound of Music
Ghandi
Ruggles of Redgap
All of Me
Sabateur
Suspicion
Dizozza Personal Favorites
(please follow each category with the words, "of which I'm aware")
The Music Lovers
Ken Russell
The Chalk Garden
Ronald Neame
The Ruling Class
Peter Medak (also directed Negatives) -- met the director in September, 1992
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Chinatown
Roman Polanski
Sleeper
Woody Allen
Oliver!
Carol Reed
Carrie
Brian DePalma
Catagories:
Kubrick
Lolita
Dr. Strangelove
2001
Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon
The Shining
(although 20 years in the making, this is the best
string of films since Hitchcock)
also Paths of Glory
Full Metal Jacket
The Killing/Killer's Kiss
Polanski
Rosemary's Baby
(Chinatown)
Cul de Sac
The Tenant
almost Tess and Repulsion
Scorsese
Temptation
Mean Streets
Taxi Driver
maybe Portrait of an American Boy
almost New York New York
King of Comedy
DePalma
Carrie
The Fury
Scarface
Ken Russell; * = good for something other than as a musical
Song of Summer, etc., Billion Dollar Brain
Women in Love *
The Music Lovers *
The Devils *
(The Boy Friend, Savage Messiah), XValentinoX
Tommy *
Lisztomania *
Altered States
Crimes of Passion
Gothic, Salome's Last Dance, Lair of the White Worm
he was also ARIA organizer
Other Musicals I believe are worthwhile -- because at least I've seen them
Follow the Fleet
Roberta
Top Hat
The Bandwagon
Singing In the Rain
42nd Street
Dames
Gold Diggers of 1933
Cabaret (Bob Fosse)
Hair (Milos Forman)
(Oliver!)
A Hard Day's Night
Help!
Yellow Submarine
The Wizard of Oz
The Little Shop of Horrors
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
West Side Story
Gypsy
almost Bye Bye Birdie
Ken Russell
ALL HIS FILMS ARE MUSICALS
Tommy
Disney
Pinocchio
Snow White
Peter Pan
Mary Poppins
The Little (My Little) Mermaid
Maybe Pollyanna
-- also see Parent Trap for Pre-Chalk Garden Haley Mills
Great Hitchcock
almost Young and Innocent
The 39 Steps
Rebecca
Shadow of a Doubt
Strangers on a Train
Suspicion
The Man Who Knew To Much
Rear Window
Vertigo (The James Stewart Trilogy)
North by Northwest
Psycho
(The Madness Trilogy)
The Birds
also The Trouble with Harry
Great DePalma
Obsession
The Fury
(Carrie)
Scarface
Remember
Elaine May:
A New Leaf
Mike Nichols directed
The Graduate and Carnal Knowledge
Arthur Penn directed
The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde, and Little Big Man
Warrent Beatty
B & C
$ (Dir. Richard Brooks)
Heaven Can Wait
Bugsy (Music: Ennio Morricone)
Dick Tracy
William Friedken directed
The French Connection
The Exorcist
The great Boys in the Band opening
1910-20
Swedish Films
Victor Sjostrom
Mauritz Stiller
Best Swedish Film
The Silence (Bergman)
1920-30
Way Down East
The Gold Rush
The General
Greed
Sunrise
1930-40
Little Ceasar
Public Enemy
1940-50
Casablanca, of course
They Died with Their Boots On (Prequel to Little Big Man)
1950-60
Rebel Without a Cause
1960-70
The Graduate
1970-80
Midnight Cowboy
1980-1990
Brazil
Raging Bull
Best Welles
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Lady from Shanghai
The Third Man
Carol Reed
Great Acadamy Award Winners
The Deerhunter
The Godfather / The Godfather II
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (Milos Forman)
Gone With the Wind
From Here to Eternity
The Best Years of Our Lives
The French Connection
Great Marilyn Monroe
Bus Stop
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The River of No Return
The Misfits
Heat Wave, in There's No Business Like Show Business
Best Spielberg
Duel
Best Bette Davis besides Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
Now Voyager
The Petrified Forest
(Maybe: Marked Woman, Dark Victory)
Best Katherine Hepburn
Alice Adams
Morning Glory
Bringing Up Baby
Best Cary Grant
BUB
Charade
NBN
Best (funniest) Italians
Bertollucci - never saw The Conformist
Last Tango in Paris
Partners
1900
The Last Emperor
Antonioni
Blow Up
almost Red Desert
L'Aventura
Pasolini
Pig Pen
Arabian Nights
Salo
Visconti
Ludwig
(Death in Venice/The Damned)
Fellini
Il Vitelloni
La Strada
La Dolce Vita
Best German
Nosferatu
Caligari
M
Aguire
(The Marriage of Maria Braun)
Lola
The Tin Drum
Best Japanese
Ran
Throne of Blood
Night and Fog in Japan
Kwaidon
Ugestu
Ikiru
others
Best Bergman
The Silence
Detective Films
(Chinatown)
The Big Sleep
The Big Heat (Lang)
The Thin Man
Crime Films
Double Indemnity
(The Killing)
D.O.A.
Sorry Wrong Number
Horror
(Rosemary's Baby)
Halloween
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
almost Witchfinder General/Masque of the Red Death
Freaks
(I Walked with a Zombie)
The Cat People
Island of Lost Souls
Mad Max
Great Whale
Frankenstein
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
Show Boat
Ghost Stories
Beetlejuice
Blithe Spirit
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Best Carol Burnett Version of A Movie
Mildred Fierce
Best Woody Allen
ALL are of consistent quality
favorite: Sleeper
Best Marxes
Duck Soup
Horse Feathers
Go West
All the rest.
Best Comedies
Arthur
Old
City Lights
Best Danny Kaye
Up in Arms
The Saddest Comedy
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Most Misfired Comedy
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Toon Town)
Best Natalie Wood besides Gypsy and West Side Story
Miracle on 34th Street
Rebel Without a Cause
Best looking Natalie Wood besides the others
The Great Race
Good Shirley McLaine
The Trouble with Harry
Sweet Charity (Directed by Bob Fosse)
Terms of Endearment
Ingrid Thulin is in The Silence and The Damned
CARTOONS
Snow White (companion, WB: Coal Black)
Pinocchio (Cinderella?)
Peter Pan
(My) Little Mermaid
Yellow Submarine
Light Years (Korea -> France -> Assimov)
Japanese Male Holocaust Fantasy: The Wandering Kid
TOONS: Mouse/Bunny/Boop
Famous directors of the least important financially profitable films to achieve
attention, ever:
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg
Best moment or fraction thereof: Lunch, with Ms. Allen, Mr. Ford and a monkey in
Raidrs accompanied by John Williams' music.
Best Williams score: The Fury. The better orchestral inspiration -- Mahler, the
Seventh Symphony.
Music names:
Frank Zappa
We all have our favorites
-- best overall album
Burnt Weeny Sandwich (Berlin)
-- albums containing good material
Apostrophe (Yellow Snow/Pancake Breakfast, Remus)
Overnite Sensation (Zombie Woof)
Joe's Garage (Cyborg)
Roxy and Elsewhere (cheepnis)
Uncle Meat
Waka Jawaka
Andrew Lloyd Webber
(Jesus Christ Superstar)
Marc Blitzstein
(Nickel Under Foot)
Kurt Weil
(Three Penny Opera, the Road to Silverlake)
Hoagy Carmichael
Film appearances
Harold Arlen hits in general
Johnny Mercer, lyricist and singer
George Gershwin
Duke Elington, Billy Strayhorn
Patti Smith
(Four Albums)
The Rolling Stones
(Beggar's Banquet, Let It Bleed)
The Beatles
Alexander Scriabin
(Sonatas 5 & 10)
Johannes Brahms
Gustav Mahler
Peter Tchaikovsky
Serge Prokofiev
Claude Debussey
Erik Satie
Stephen Sondheim
David Bowie
(The Man Who Sold The World, Diamond Dogs)
Carly Simon
Laura Nyro
Elvis Costello
(Mighty Like a Rose, My Aim, This Year's, Armed Forces, Get Happy)
Peka Pajola
Steely Dan
Phil Oches
Pleasures of the Harbor, Letter from California
Madonna
(Recording: 12" Live Angel, song: Material Girl)
Samantha Fox
Belinda Carlyle
The Roches
Bruce Springstein
(Thunder Road, Bobby Jean)
Elis Regina
Sergio Mendez
Gong(?)
Genesis
(Nursery Crime, Selling England, Supper's Ready)
Gentle Giant
(Glass House)
Movie Music:
Collaborators with Hitchock
Bernard Herman
Ken Russell,
Peter Maxwell Davies, Rick Wakeman
Ennio Morricone
and for De Palma
(least important major talent, John Williams, shines in The Fury (Mahler's
Seventh), rehashed by someone else in The Elephant Man. Williams shining also:
Superman, Can You Read My Mind?, and in the good Raidrs scene.)
Best Bacharach (despite words, of course, although the words are essential)
One Less Bell to Answer
Hey, Little Girl
The Look of Love
Bacharach and Herb Albert: This Guy's in Love with You
Best Scores for: Casino Royale, Lost Horizon, Arthur (Bacharach also gives
credit to April Fools).
Best Bachrach recording by other than Bacharach -- The Mendez "Look of
Love."
Hamlish wrote
Theme from Ice Castles: Please Don't let this feeling end ...
The Spy Who Loved Me - Best recording
If You Remember Me (The Champ)
(On Broadway: Chorus Line/Playing our Song. Is any of it good?)
Favorite Sondheim: All, particularly A Little Night Music
1990 Peak of Powers: Sondheim and Elvis Costello
(Mighty Like a Rose)
Favorite Rupert Holmes (from Drood)
Ceylon, and almost Perfect StrangersFavorite Books
The Woman in White
Bleak House
1984
Lolita
Flowers for Algernon
And Then There Were None
The Glass Key
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Cobra
Madame Bovary
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Anne Rice? -- Lestat
Best Kosinski: Cockpit
Melville
Falkner
Chandler
Hammett
John Barth, anyone?Writers
Recent interest in: Robert Benchley
Raymond Chandler
Anne Rice (Rampling? Roquefort)
Aleister Crowley
Doonesbury
Martin Amis -- London Fields, Time's Arrow, half way through Money I had had
enough.
Daphne DuMaurier,
Short stories collection: The Turning Point
My Cousin Rachel
etc.
Isaac Asimov's Robot and Foundation trilogy.
Philip K. Dick's Valis
Some Vacchs books
The Perfume Book
The Unnatural Selection book.
Music: Marc Blitzstein
Broadway besides Sondheim:
Harnick & Bock She Loves Me, Fiddler, Fiorello
Artist Names:
Max Ernst
Salvador Dali
Hans Belmer
Francis Bacon
Max Escher
Hieronemous Bosch
Peter Breugel
Renoir
Vermeer
Monet
Gogh
Giacometti
DeKooning, exhibited at the Guggenheim over ten years ago.
Theatre events
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Stratford, Kier Dullea, Fred Gwyne, and Ms. Ashley
Mourning Becomes Elektra, Stratford
Our Town, Stratford
Three Penny Opera, not Beaumont's but Delecort's
Taming of the Shrew, Delecort, Raul Julia, and the only time Merrill Streep has
made an impression (positive).
James Earl Jones' King Lear, Delecort
The Caucasion Chalk Circle, Brecht
Lupone as Evita
Les Miserables
Dream Girls
Sweeney Todd six weeks into the Uris run
Ian McKellen's Duchess of Malfi
Pinter's Sweet Bird of Youth
can't remember...
Pacino played Hughie -- that was good. dir. Theodore Mann
My favorite Hamlet: Richard Chamberlain
Favorite Playwrites:
Shakespeare
O'Neill (Mourning)
Williams (Cat)
others (Pinter, Stoppard, Mamet, Rabe)
Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest
Wrote the Happy Prince and the Devoted Friend, recorded by Claire Luce for
Folkways Records
posted by Peter 11:26 AM
The interesting phenomenon during Last Night's visit to the V
clinic... I'm kidding, it's not the V clinic... I'm helping with a study on
brain waves, remember? The phd candidate is searching for the brain difference
between aspergers and normals... is normals a pluralable noun?
... While there, with a constantly moving head within the magnetoencephelograph
helmet, I experienced the phenonmenon of hearing lips and seeing voices...
Professor McGurk's studies in the 1970's... ?? I have to look this up but the
sound of the word changed as I looked at a video of the speaking of it run
backwards... basically from a ba sound to a cla sound...the other studies were
by Professor Tallon-Baudry and Professor Peter J. Lang...
Seeing a thing while it is making a noise changes the way we hear the noise the
thing is making... that is ONE way to put it....the experiment here consisted of
showing the video then reversing the video of the same spoken word. it sounded
like a different word...
posted by Peter 10:51 AM
I am aware today of the following:
Charles Fourier and his proposal for community cooperation ordered as a
phalanx...The Phalansteres is a Grand Hotel... Procul Harum introduced me to
that setting...
Charles Dana, editor of The New York Sun once lived in a phalanx farm.
Thanks to a grant from Mr. Dana's foundation, I've learned that the brain emits
magnetic rays at about 10 waves a second. Flashing faces may affect that. Choose
whether they are black or whte, in black and white or color, whether their
mouths, noses or eyes are blurred or focused, whether they are happy afraid
angry fearful or neutral... Early results suggest when my eyes are open the wave
patter more resembles the eyes closed pattern than when they are closed. The
average wave is constant rather than varied.
I believe my participation is beneficial to everyone.
posted by Peter 8:57 PM
We don't even get to personality until we are impeccable with our word... How can you attain the right to be a person if you constantly make mistakes? Needless to say, I am my mistakes and do not call them that. I am secure in my awareness until I am proven wrong and am just as secure in my new awareness, and appreaciate your proofs and the attention you gave me. Thank you! Now what am I doing, I'm making a motion to amend pleadings to add a cause of action. We even don't get into the courtroom unless the papers are in order.
I have kitty-cat visitors for the weekend.
The fundraiser at the neighborhood playhouse went well, thanks to the great talent involved... I'd especially like the thank THE STEPPE DOGGES!
posted by Peter 11:17 AM
How about assuming full responsibility? oh to live up to it...
When it comes to my actions, I am self-insured...
Insurance companies have been in the film business. there's transamerica for united artists, american international is aig... and now, The CVII Insurance Company.
Insurance creates a disproportion in risk assumption... I am seriously suggesting here being
self-insured.
posted by Peter 9:39 AM
The Center for Holographic Arts downstairs is closing. They gave me a hologram of mezzo-soprano Betty Allen, in case you're looking for it. Oh, she just passed away at 82... young...She's on a 1970's recording of Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts...Labels: Betty Allen
posted by Peter 11:19 AM
Ariadne's Thread: I have considered insanity as a method of decision-making... insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different result. In the alternative, there is the thread leading from where we are to the desired result. In laying that thread we establish the choices along the way as failures (not worth repeating) with the one success becoming a lengthening of the thread. We'll get to the goal, to the solution of the problem... if it's a problem we're having the other alternative in time is to ignore it and let it join the other problems that will eventually undo us... Or rather we can perceive that problem as part of the human condition. https://www.cinemavii.com/images/washdc/4.htm
posted by Peter 5:45 AM
General acknowledgement... well, there are classic films out there... I so enjoyed the James Whale film with uh... it was in vienna... great wizard of oz and Ms. Caroll... and then last night I turned on uh, hard eight? Sydney... Mr. PT Anderson's film... seamlessly scripted cinema... slept after 40 minutes with more to come the only relief being that what was coming was somehow an offshoot of bob le flambeur. The feeling that All fits into place follows now with regard to There Will Be Blood... It's looking like a very likeable film for which affection will only grow... I don't think I've fully explored my capability for flakey self-expression. The other amazing awareness and I thank you for it, is... There is a pre-life; there is an after-life; but to achieve affectuation, there is no better time to do so than during This Life.
posted by Peter 9:41 AM
Oh yes, I am grateful to have the music set tonight. I've been active with various matters over the month of April and I'm always grateful to see the end of April. No, I never set music to The Wasteland, but here's the page with my 1970's interpretation of TS Eliot's Four Preludes: https://www.cinemavii.com/projects/TSEliot.htm
The performance tonight introduces to my songs the sound of the sitar...
SideWalk Waltz (Back to the Simple Days)Two Cranes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNpvHeBdmKo
I Love the Law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZCrjy3gcOw
Love Them Both
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lP3xn2iU2cA
Question of Solitude Theme Song with SitarVision Quest 1 -- Peaceful Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSR6QbpQBFs
alternate version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1KTH-49G0U
Vision Quest 2 -- That Much Better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSO8989sXyA
Vision Quest 3 -- Give This Chant a Chance
Along the Highway in B
My Defenses are Down (Cover of a Song by Irving Berlin
Anything else? Electronica is a major timewaster... I buy something and getting it up and running takes time... That time must be factored in... how about buying something out of an open box, something that's tested and used... Good. I want something old that works. Now, I bought a toy video camera with an SD card attachment, I got a mini sd card... 4 gig... anyway, this storage system is very small and there are no moving parts... is the disappearance of the info only a magnet away? There's not that much space, or there's a limitless amount of space in the universe... what else? I was sick over the month and there was advice from Tyr Throne... we're not really carnivores, maybe we're omnivores but with the length of the digestive tract... we're absorbing over a period of time well beyond cats and dogs and other carnivores... and over that 24 hours the stuff has to be pretty stable... it can't be overly fermentible... as for anything packaged for shelf life... maybe salt is ok... other creative consultant bombshells from Tyr... revealing concealed estros... It's all part of A Question of Solitude now... thank you.
posted by Peter 8:53 AM
It's looking to me like each of Bernard Shaw's plays, preceded by its essay of coalesced elements, is a gift to the world. There's a good review of the Bible's New Testament in the 100 pages that precede his script for Androcles and the Lion. (I returned to it for a quote that I have yet to find about the audience at a roman colleseum that will appear in a nursing home in "A Question of Solitude" a new script with a reading at La Mama on March 31st.)
I thought that the silencing from martyrdom at calvary produced a worldwide backlash still felt 2000 years later, but Shaw's critique suggests that the silencing was successful. The teaching of a brilliant thinker (deluded, perhaps by a chance suggestion of one of his apostles, namely Peter) was usurped by ... well, to quote the words that seem particularly worthwhile...
"Paul succeeded in stealing the image of Christ crucified for the figure-head of his salvationist vessel, with its Adam posing as the natural man, its doctrine of original sin, and its damnation avoidable only by faith in the sacrifice of the cross. No sooner had Jesus knocked over the dragon of superstition than Paul boldly set it on its legs again in the name of Jesus."
This is of double concern for me since I applied the genesis story in a recent piece, Paradise Found. I thought I was resonating the original biblical book, when I was mouthing an interpretation of it by Paul, which I have never read.
Anyway, the simply stated conclusion of Shaw is "There has really never been a more monstrous imposition perpetrated than the imposition of the limitations of Paul's soul upon the soul of Jesus."
Saying that sounds radical, and I am drawn toward radical statements... however Shaw offers a thoughtful argument before making it.
posted by Peter 9:31 AM
While there may be a physical decline processing within us as we
travel through time, technology is advancing, supplementing, perhaps also
supplanting what we lose. Eyesight is one diminishment; general awareness is
another. Is this even worth saying? Today I'm better than I ever was, which
suggests I was deep within a rut. It was one of my own making, arising out of my
desire for AVOIDANCE. Tomorrow, again I awaken to go to a deposition in Queens
for a car accident case that requires translators for all deposed, just to get a
record in English of testimony that translates into a contingency fee of money
for the firm, which means I get my salary in this game of legal work. I can't
imagine doing anything else right now, as time indents into my hours of elyseum.
I just returned from the Mac Roger Robots play, a meditation on humans
supplanted by their improvements, still stumped by predicaments inherent in
human nature, and they, the new race, take precautions, lest they forget, by
annually conducting a religiously ritualistic history lesson. They remember how
they got there, how they arrived that place. An artist created them. The new
race is no better than the one it replaced.
My relationship with machines has not translated into humanizing them, because
it wouldn't matter if I did. I go to bed crying that the cry for help that goes
unheeded is my own.
posted by Peter 8:10 PM
If you're bothering to read your horoscope chances are you are alone. Safe bet the horoscope acknowledging that is going to the right person. No one can keep up with you so keep going and accept that. Kick up your heels in automobiles, it's Jimmy Durante, Laurel and Hardy, and Baron Munchausen back from the Congo, all in same sentence description for Hollywood Party.
posted by Peter 5:24 AM
Jury duty consisted of 3 days at 111 Centre Street. This visit as a juror was considerably less friendly than prior because everyone is wired to the ears. Even I, without the latest technology, could walk into an internet room and send email on one of the connected dell laptops. I wandered around downtown, one visit to J&R, another to the County Clerk... if you want to change something on your dba certificate it costs the same as filing a new one, 120. As for a flat screen to replace my tube challenged sony for this anemic cable service... no. I feel like I have to buy something valuable but the merchandise and what it actually is (disposable) is failing to tip the scales. Yes, the scales of justice. The first day I joined 65 others in the opportunity to sit on a case of a lifetime, requiring a 4 week commitment. I should have sat there but in good conscience could not say I was available given my employment in an office of less than 10 employees, although the opportunity to sit there and be spoken to, and to hear words spoken for the benefit of... I went to the office after dismissal at 4, then the next day made another trip to drop off papers at 100 church street, oh, that lobby design is humid, these spraying globes create a steam room atmosphere, and of course the usual detailed security approval. The colors, too, at 100 Church are veering toward genius. I visited the great chinatown so near by, our stage manager was able to find the chosen New Yeah Shanghai and we had a good lunch. at the last minute in the morning we as jurors, another 65 of us, were sent to another shorter potentially criminal trial not involving murder but rather single witness victim beyond a reasonable doubt attempted maybe armed gas station robbery and the accused wandering the hallway saying on his cel phone the da has to prove his case, in the presence of his 65 attendants. How about giving him the cost of the trial, 10 employees, 65 people... no the process is good but the number of people attending to the accusation... anyway, the detailed questions included my favorite, hobbies? Songwriting and music theatre production.
posted by Peter 6:01 AM
itch mites?
I want to document a complicated mystery where one thing leads to another, and I
begin the lyric to "vision quest one."
I had some hours alone, a taste of a peaceful day.
I saw a tree full of crows that followed a hawk of prey.
From one tree to another this hawk carried his meal.
To the next tree they'd follow.
Like stool pigeons they'd squeal
A few weeks later I found a tortoise carcas cleaned out under one of the trees.
The leaf shading it had these strange nipple growths. The other leaves were
clear.
I've had an extended contemplation of this condition and extending itching since
then because...
The mites that cleaned out the tortoise shell laid eggs in the leaf. The nipples
are called "galls."
The hawk dropped the tortoise.
posted by Peter 12:42 PM
Today is the day this blog's been waiting for. I was thinking how life in the jungle is an ongoing challenge with perhaps even less moments to relax then we have here in civilization. The cats are probably relaxing now, but they're in the apartment and when they're not relaxing they seem restless. I've been rebelling against peace within myself, as a rebellion against complacency, but maybe it's not a sell out at all.
posted by Peter 10:36 AM
Pin the Crime on the Dead Man is a game from -- Witchfinders, by Peter Dizozza
posted by Peter 10:47 AM
Oh, I get it now. I have no emotional memory because for 35 years the daily companion medication to my 324 mg quinaglute duratabs was...80 LA Inderal (the trademark word for propranalol, which is a trademark word for...). Write now before you forget. (How to erase a mental hard drive; it's like spoliation of evidence... interesting. Oh, yes, Inderal...) These blogs are helpful. Free public access means I also get unlocked access.
Labels: inderal propranalol
posted by Peter 8:23 AM
We speak or write because we want something. According to the book I'm reading if we wanted for nothing we would not speak. Perhaps we speak because we want to hear ourselves speak. Another observation of the book, which is about how to read plays, backwards and forwards by david ball, is that we have obstacles in front of us blocking or, optimistically speaking, offering us access to what we want when we overcome them, whether ewith charm or force. Why must you be so obstacle? It makes the prize that much more sweet, or so I'm told, the overcoming of the obstacle. It's not the prize, it's the attaining it... On the other hand, I do enjoy what I have and less concerned with how I got it, although the attaining is something to be proud of... I'm kidding, it's not. I think I'm becoming a bit more savy about what my own writing is about. It is something of a one note sound. I obviously want something... pd
posted by Peter 9:01 PM
Schrodinger's Cat.
Our perception of reality is an oft innaccurate assembly of our senses; reality
exists apart from our perception of it.
The person who put the cat in the box (with the radium isotope 440 or whatever)
is the murderer, not the person who opens the box.
posted by Peter 6:15 AM
What would a magic lantern be without its light source? Now, if
we're going for the best, we have a plasma screen as a light source for imagery.
The glowing light must be evenly dispersed upon a flat surface, as impulses flex
its spectrum through a process called Plasmosis... very photosynthetic.
All right, given the question I'll provide answers to anything. Answering
questions help us discover not just more questions but sometimes actual
answers.... but for now...
Moving past the medium to the message, anything can happen on that flat surface.
In another mindset, the light projects from a far off source landing flat upon a
surface to read as a movie!
Anthology film archives let me have a look in the back for a bulb to put into
the movie projector used in the La Mama stage production of TentagatneT. While I
was at Anthology one of the TentagatneT actors had a film running there in the
Barney Oldfield series, New Filmmakers. They let me watch some and I caught the
last 10 minutes. From what I saw, the 30 minute video film, Sequel, was a
montage of movies, news clips and silent film titles assembled from library
materials and given an ambient wordless sound design by Christopher Zorker (all
right, I also spoke with Chris tonight. He was simplifying the motives behind
current events).
A film by Janice Ahn called Stutter followed and that took me by surprise. It
was a sad character study in 13 minutes, remarkable in its compressed
achievement of a harrowing encounter somewhat unstuck in time.
The theme for the evening: New Filmmakers Explore the New American Unreality.
Stutter reveals the sordidity of the date that almost didn't happen. It began
well, with the man and woman enjoying the music from the beautiful turntable,
the man taking pictures of the woman, but he's loathe to let her go.... He's a
big hurt boy in his first floor lair, his grandmother listening from above.
Never again to be trusted. The cycle of abuse progresses...overpowering
immaturity, convincing on all levels, his, hers, his grandmother's... The
violation, the unpleasantness, the feeling of irrefutable wrongness, selfish
brute strength, disturbed and dangerous, feminine strength subdued, the
grandmother pulls herself down to the first floor level, apologizes to the
woman, just a girl, really, the boy, under his grandmother's supervision, on
good behaviour, spent, allowing her to leave. It didn't have to be that way
between them, but the boy's damaged mind destroyed the interaction, making it
pathetically one-sided, and, yes, angering.
My new play will consider how people can treasure and trust one another.
posted by Peter 7:52 PM
ROFL Contestant!
My incentive for writing something, I know it's all been done before, is that it
will contain what's never been done before. The idea should be radical. My
recent piece arises from a feeling, too, the feeling of polarity dividing the
oneness of the world. In 2.2.2, Hermaphroditism Through the Ages, describing
which had me booed off the stage last night at Joe's Pub -- I really should have
shown that youtube post of cute pussycats... In fact, I was up against and lost
against Pussycat Mosh Pit -- anyway, it was worth it to introduce the radical
idea, as propounded by Dr. Fricassee, that there's a conspiracy against
evolution in the medical profession, that obstetricians confronted at births
with ambiguous genitalia conspire against hermaphroditism , delivering to
parents males and females, by surgically maintaining, for the stability of our
bodies, The Two Sex System. Tyr Throne, my regular advisor in these matters (he
considers many of my projects tantric explorations.) related that man is the
mutant strain and woman is perfection. Yoga is the practice of becoming
hermaphroditic. If nothing else, this begins an interesting science fiction
story.
The college humor fellows had a funny moment -- are some of their employees
really robots? during a meeting with the new stooges that I believe was about
establishing an employee benefits program.
posted by Peter 6:39 AM
KLARA: Wait. We have the treasure from our international arms
deal but no local currency. Before we get settled in at a house of roadside
pyschotherapy, I think we'd better find gainful employment. Did you notice, on
the car chase, a help wanted sign at the local alehouse? It said "Tuesday
Psychic Needed."
JIM (Not fully on board, "You're the boss"): You're
"psychic"; why don't you go check it out?
KLARA: Wait in the car.
(Klara exits)
JIM (alone, seated in car)
Where did you go; what did you do while I was out?
(repeat those 4 bars instrumentally, maybe 1 octave higher under following
dialog)
KLARA: I got the job.
JIM: One day a week?
KLARA (gets back in car): Yes. They're covered for the other days.
JIM: Was it crowded?
KLARA (applying lipstick): For a Monday, yes.
JIM
When you were small, when I was tall we had no doubt.
KLARA: I'll get us a room (exits).
JIM
For in a summer wind as seeds took flight within
The finches long and we may long
Till nature lets us join her throng
as petals lift away, where's our wind to sail today?
(next 6 bars instrumental only under following dialog)
(Klara re-enters, mission accomplished)
JIM (confused; how did she even get the room?): We still don't have any money.
KLARA: Just hold your head up high. When they asked for a deposit, I told them
I'm a visiting psychic at the alehouse and that money will be coming in soon.
Besides, they said they'll pay us to have sex with their staff.
(Klara gets out, busily unpacks and prepares to go inside, not hearing Jim as he
sings from the car)
JIM
Where did you go; what did you do while I was out?
When you were small, when I was tall we had no doubt.
In our four car garage, when we were living large
the muskrats docked; the tree swings rocked
the geese and fowl, high they flocked
(On next line, he gets out and catches her by the arm, getting her attention to
ask...)
As box kites drift away, where's our wind to sail today?
JIM and KLARA
Reading the words can make them confusing
Listen and use the words of our choosing
When air is still, send them
(Klara, impatient, tries to extract herself. Jim doesn't let her go and calmly
pleads...)
JIM
Arms open, sails out wide
We need the wind to rise
Remember when it did?
KLARA (encouraging)
And watch it rise again!
Swirling like shrouds, the trees will be veering!
JIM (doubting)
Enter the clouds, from what I'm hearing
that old black magic has slipped away.
KLARA (getting swept away, abandoning him)
Ear to the ground, the branches are swaying!
Worshiping trees, adore my playing!
(across the stage to him before exiting)
My new white magic will save the day!
JIM (alone where she has left him)
Where did you go, what did you do while I was out?
------------
Scene/song integration by Lydia Ooghe
posted by Peter 4:57 AM
Olive Juice Message Board Posts:
Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...
Posted by peter on 6/21/2007, 1:17 pm
The big question is why it's such a pleasure to look through the list and drop
vaguely inconsequential witicisms.s.s
?
Link: could this have taken
me more than 20 minutes? ah the comfort zone...
Re: Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...
Posted by Bollo on 6/21/2007, 1:36 pm, in reply to "Drop
everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
Gone With the Wind sucks
Re: Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...
Posted by julie on 6/21/2007,
8:43 pm, in reply to "Re:
Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
why do you think it sux?
Re: Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...
Posted by Elastic No-No Band on
6/21/2007, 11:07 pm, in reply to "Drop
everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
Wait. Did they redo it? Is this because they couldn't include TITANIC the first
time? (god forbid)
Or because everyone was like NUH-UH! "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"
AIN'T NO GREAT MOVIE, STUPID AFI!
Some nice additions. Seems like there's more great comedies added.
I don't think SUNRISE was on there before, which is a good call as far as adding
it. (What? GREED isn't good enough to include, but LORD OF THE RINGS goes on
there?)
BIRTH OF A NATION got booted. I guess old-timey racism is less acceptable now
than it was in the 90s. (Oh wait, why is GONE WITH THE WIND still there, then?)
I understand FARGO getting booted (great flick, but not so influential these
days), but why is FANTASIA less great than TOY STORY?
I love Cagney, so it's nice to see YANKEE DOODLE DANDY sticking it out at the
bottom.
DAMN YOU, DIZOZZA, FOR BRINGING OUT MY FILM NERD!
Re: Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...
Posted by Bollo on 6/22/2007, 7:28 am, in reply to "Re:
Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
Why do i think the most insufferably boring movie of all time sucks?? I dunno,
I'm just like that... I recently went on a date to see 'Rolling Like A Stone' at
the Anthology Film Archives, but its run had ended, and instead they had a WWI
newsreel and a silent Cubist film of images just being repeated over and over
and over... Started freaking out about a half hour into it. It was like a psych
torture test
Re: Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...
Posted by Woodrow Wilson on 6/22/2007, 7:59 am, in reply to "Re:
Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
Birth of a Nation? I love Birth of a Nation!! And I would be horrified it it all
weren't SO COMPLETELY TRUE. Hey I know- Let's party at my house and we'll watch
that one and Triumph of the Will
Re: Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...
Posted by Preston on 6/22/2007, 10:14 am, in reply to "Re:
Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
Toy Story!?!? Tootsie!?!? Yeah, OK, sure.
Also, I hate to be the guy who always craps on Star Wars, but... come on.
Re: Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films...oh...
Posted by peter on 6/22/2007, 12:26 pm, in reply to "Re:
Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
come on, carrie fisher was great in star wars, why, was there something else
going for that film?
oh, I forgot for the godfather, see what happens when you put Pacino in a suit
and ms. Keaton in a dress. those two! what a couple!
oh, and I'm playing sidewalk Wednesday, June 27th... 7PM Twilight Time... here
in the twilight, dear gods, isn't it past your twilight time?
Posted by Brandon on 6/25/2007, 12:55 pm, in reply to "Re:
Drop everything! Top 100 AFI films..."
I think it's awesome that Toy Story is in there.
posted by Peter 10:15 AM
I love putting in my two cents regarding cinema... all these
movies are fine.
1. ``Citizen Kane,'' 1941. saw it... I like the little models connecting with
the grand interiors.
2. ``The Godfather,'' 1972. saw it... good idea to edit the baptism with the
executions. memorable toll booth. Great patchwork filmmaking of a nasty script!
See what happens when you put Mr. Pacino in a suit.
3. ``Casablanca,'' 1942. saw it. Great ensemble under Warners contract.
4. ``Raging Bull,'' 1980. saw it. Knew nothing on the subject before seeing it.
Everything I know of the subject is in the film. I like the scene with Ms.
Moriority at the Chelsea pool.
5. ``Singin' in the Rain,'' 1952. saw it. That's what happens when one of the
MGM execs is a songwriter. inconceivably cute moments with two vaudeville guys
and a girl.
6. ``Gone With the Wind,'' 1939. saw it. I like the scene in the bedroom before
the son falls off a horse.
7. ``Lawrence of Arabia,'' 1962. saw it. I have no recollection or connection
with this film. There's a BMW motorcycle in it that is clearly a fine machine. I
have yet to appreciate translations by T.E. Lawrence.
8. ``Schindler's List,'' 1993. saw it. Schindler bookends a movie about Ralf
Feinnes.
9. ``Vertigo,'' 1958. saw it. great use of two actors. part of a great
three-style madness trilogy. Noticably great score.
10. ``The Wizard of Oz,'' 1939. saw it. by the time the monkeys were flying I
was out of my mind.
11. ``City Lights,'' 1931. saw it. We all need the redemptive power of finding
someone to love.
12. ``The Searchers,'' 1956. saw it. memorable landscapes.
13. ``Star Wars,'' 1977. saw it. Carrie Fisher makes this movie a worthy
follow-up to The Hidden Fortress.
14. ``Psycho,'' 1960. saw it. Bizarre B movie look from a man with the command
of technicolor hollywood excellence. Great transferral of protagonists.
15. ``2001: A Space Odyssey,'' 1968. saw it. Great use of music. Favorite scene
is the jog and the happy birthday dave...
16. ``Sunset Blvd.'', 1950. saw it. Something about a monkey in this one, too.
Too many "in" jokes. Great use of Hollywood.
17. ``The Graduate,'' 1967. saw it. good follow-up to the work of Billy Wilder.
surprise superstar appearance by Mr. Hoffman. transcendent Simon and Garfunkle.
I like the scene when he visits her university.
18. ``The General,'' 1927. saw it. Love locomotives and love the male/female
collaboration between the two leads.
19. ``On the Waterfront,'' 1954. saw it. minimal recollection. Is it Copeland or
Bernstein?
20. ``It's a Wonderful Life,'' 1946. saw it. Good lesson in mortgages.
21. ``Chinatown,'' 1974. saw it. love the scene with the boy on a donkey.
miraculous ensemble including writer and director. Great use of title. again she
gets dunaway... sorry...
22. ``Some Like It Hot,'' 1959. saw it. great use of old florida. increasingly
loony guy film. Ms. Monroe gets through it because Wilder is too busy with other
things.
23. ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' 1940. saw it. Spectacular presentation of problems.
24. ``E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,'' 1982. saw it. only remember feeling like a
tool.
25. ``To Kill a Mockingbird,'' 1962. read the book. Gregory Peck is vaguely
unsatisfactory... sorry.
26. ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,'' 1939. saw it. Confused which one it is.
One of them has a great ending atop a building.
27. ``High Noon,'' 1952. saw it. great countdown film.
28. ``All About Eve,'' 1950. saw it. don't remember if Kirk Douglas is in it...
he's not. That's the Bad and the Beautiful.
29. ``Double Indemnity,'' 1944. saw it. Another guy film, probably Wilder's
best. Great threesome.
30. ``Apocalypse Now,'' 1979. saw it. It was a lot of work.
31. ``The Maltese Falcon,'' 1941. saw it. This movie is the work of pure talent
of all involved.
32. ``The Godfather Part II,'' 1974. saw it. Great introduction to Vegas and to
Lee Strasbourg.
33. ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' 1975. saw it. Dynamic directing. Great
blue tinged bathroom ending.
34. ``Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,'' 1937. saw it. What is she, the four
seasons? (Yes.)
35. ``Annie Hall,'' 1977. saw it. A fluid assembly of scenes.
36. ``The Bridge on the River Kwai,'' 1957. saw it. Interesting activity and
unique alec guiness.
37. ``The Best Years of Our Lives,'' 1946. saw it. remarkable time capsule...
memorable 5 and dime...Hoagy plays Lazy River.
38. ``The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,'' 1948. Sad and beautiful. vaguely
annoying.
39. ``Dr. Strangelove,'' 1964. saw it. introduces an awareness of water
flouridation. great countdown. great improv when all else fails. I think the use
of music was both nasty and beautiful.
40. ``The Sound of Music,'' 1965. saw it. It's hard for me to get over that cut
when Ms. Andrews begins singing. Richard Rodgers at the height of his genius.
41. ``King Kong,'' 1933. saw it. great self-examination of exploitation using
stop action photography.
42. ``Bonnie and Clyde,'' 1967. saw it. I love those clouds moving over the
field. superstar ensemble acting.
43. ``Midnight Cowboy,'' 1969. saw it. Good time capsule of 60's New York.
44. ``The Philadelphia Story,'' 1940. saw it. posing for magazine editors?
45. ``Shane,'' 1953. saw it. pretty landscapes.
46. ``It Happened One Night,'' 1934. saw it. romantic...
47. ``A Streetcar Named Desire,'' 1951. saw it. confused about original script.
great sequel to gone with the wind.
48. ``Rear Window,'' 1954. highly professional filmmaking.
49. ``Intolerance,'' 1916. saw it. Good countdown at the end.
50. ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,'' 2001. saw it
somewhat. I failed again to connect with this world.
51. ``West Side Story,'' 1961. saw it. great on-site filmmaking. Already off the
chart materials given a cinematic dimension. Best wide-screen cinematic
combination of everything great going for this piece...The low-ceiling indoor
parking garage performance of "cool."
52. ``Taxi Driver,'' 1976. saw it. the best self-angrandizing I've ever seen
(raging bull is second best). Beautiful score.
53. ``The Deer Hunter,'' 1978. saw it. it all comes down to russian roulette.
The director made christopher walken magic. Why is Walkin magic? Something to do
with photography.
54. ``M-A-S-H,'' 1970. saw it. great episode assembly. it does feel like I was
there.
55. ``North by Northwest,'' 1959. Technicolor prequel to Psycho. two sides of
the same coin. more beautiful music.
56. ``Jaws,'' 1975. saw it. somehow sexually charged. did not see the entire
film.
57. ``Rocky,'' 1976. saw it. that's good simple script to film-making.
58. ``The Gold Rush,'' 1925. saw it. A very successful artist adding the
Klondike to his world. It's a great movie.
59. ``Nashville,'' 1975. saw it. Nasty. Thanks for letting them do their songs.
60. ``Duck Soup,'' 1933. saw it. a great big world.
61. ``Sullivan's Travels,'' 1941. saw it. serious fun.
62. ``American Graffiti,'' 1973. saw it. uh... good cast. good assembly of
materials.
63. ``Cabaret,'' 1972. saw it. Bob Fosse was highly dedicated and talented. The
music and cinema are seemlessly woven.
64. ``Network,'' 1976. saw it. a sequel to The Hospital, which is a great
script.
65. ``The African Queen,'' 1951. saw it. Likeable. sometimes disoriented by the
use of interior tub-sets and realism.
66. ``Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' 1981. saw it. again there's a scene with a
monkey at an outdoor cafe. I like that scene.
67. ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', 1966. saw it. They do well together.
68. ``Unforgiven,'' 1992. somewhat saw it. I don't have the pre-quel awareness
to appreciate what this does to the western.
69. ``Tootsie,'' 1982. saw it. Another great star turn.
70. ``A Clockwork Orange,'' 1971. saw it. Great Walter Carlos opportunity.
Malcolm already knew this role. Well structured book well adapted although with
disproportionate star power.
71. ``Saving Private Ryan,'' 1998. saw it. I don't know. Very helpful vision.
Another great product of an ongoingly cinematic director.
72. ``The Shawshank Redemption,'' 1994. No. Is it about Capital Punishment in
prison?
73. ``Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,'' 1969. saw it. Good chemistry.
Filmmaking is highly respectful of the stars.
74. ``The Silence of the Lambs,'' 1991. saw it. Good peripheral matters
coalescing in a weird variation on the mink stole.
75. ``In the Heat of the Night,'' 1967. I don't know. Sydney Potier is in it...?
76. ``Forrest Gump,'' 1994. saw it. Great follow-up to Zelig. I am very confused
by the watchability of this film.
77. ``All the President's Men,'' 1976. saw it. great adaptation well cast.
78. ``Modern Times,'' 1936. saw it. Ms. Goddard is in this one.
79. ``The Wild Bunch,'' 1969. saw it. vaguely followed it. The stills look
great.
80. ``The Apartment, 1960. saw it. Another Wilder commentary, helped by likeable
twosome.
81. ``Spartacus,'' 1960. saw it. what an appocalypse. stirringly annoying.
82. ``Sunrise,'' 1927. saw it. Consistently great visualizations by Murnau
applied to this country.
83. ``Titanic,'' 1997. saw it. Liked the spinning top on the ship's wood floor.
84. ``Easy Rider,'' 1969. saw it. It's a hodgepodge of star turns.
85. ``A Night at the Opera,'' 1935. saw it. A smooth balance of brothers.
86. ``Platoon,'' 1986. saw it. Something crucifying was memorable.
87. ``12 Angry Men,'' 1957. saw it. worthwhile statement-- you can change the
world.
88. ``Bringing Up Baby,'' 1938. saw it. love carries them through.
89. ``The Sixth Sense,'' 1999. saw it. Small budget, big impact... I think...
90. ``Swing Time,'' 1936. saw it. Is this a Kern score? I know Follow the Fleet
and Shall We Dance better. I love Roberta.
91. ``Sophie's Choice,'' 1982. great Brooklyn Bridge scene.
92. ``Goodfellas,'' 1990. Martin Scorsese continues to improve his filmmaking
style.
93. ``The French Connection,'' 1971. I don't think I've ever really seen this
film. I thought it was a mystical lead-in to The Exorcist. Maybe it's not.
94. ``Pulp Fiction,'' 1994. Groundbreaking assembly of episodes.
95. ``The Last Picture Show,'' 1971. He realistically adjusted his pants when he
got out of the car. I should remember more from this film.
96. ``Do the Right Thing,'' 1989. pleasantly incenidiary.
97. ``Blade Runner,'' 1982. City claustrophia.
98. ``Yankee Doodle Dandy,'' 1942. Good ensemble work. Again, all forces behind
the glory of a great songwriter.
99. ``Toy Story,'' 1995. I don't know. Is this the weird one with the Tom Hanks
voice.
100. ``Ben-Hur,'' 1959. Something about leprosy.
What is really curious is my need to engage in this exercise to get this list
out of my system, as though I can move onto other matters thereafter. Anyway, it
is great to have common ground.
posted by Peter 6:59 AM
I am considering adding a "recent acquisitions page"
to the Cinema VII website...
When I sell it will be the entire catalogue.
The Cinema VII Library includes other materials as well as my own...
For example, yes to those looking for the 35 cent 1960 Cardinal Edition
paperback with the cover that looks like it was painted by Darryl Green of
Voices in the House, with authorship reclaimed by Pearl S. Buck following her
years of publication as John Stedges. It's in the library, a foundation-worthy
creative building block.
Is the building block opaque, reflective or translucent? All types of materials
go into building the usable construct.
posted by Peter 2:01 PM
I'm taking off Monday, April Fools' Day observed, because I am ....
posted by Peter 1:23 PM
Quick notes on placing a death notice in the New York Times: This paper "outsourced" its paid death notices to a phonebank in Buffalo where people speak to you on a first name only basis. Anyone of a number of people are available. Their phone number is 866-602-6990 and they answer, "New York Times Classifieds." They charge $50.40 for 28-32 characters, including spaces. Some letters such as the big "W" take up more space. The email for placing a paid death notice is nytimes@classifiedsplus.net. We could not correspond through my Compuserve email address but rather through gmail. The price for the printed death notice does not include the New York Times on the Web. For an extra $50 the paid death notice will appear for one year on Legacy.com, which is a link on the New York Times on the Web.
posted by Peter 7:41 AM
That other blog (michaeldouglas.blogspot) offers quips on 56
minutes of Gibson's Aramaic Passion Play before degenerating into a simple
personal discovery of my feelings of vacuous cluelessness about coming or
already arrived and/or coming-again messiahs.
The issue of capital punishment returns recently since some of you may have
wanted to ask Saddam a few questins, but maybe most people didn't care what he
had to say and it was all self-serving, anyway....
Capital Punishment, like suicide, is not justice, but rather a presumptuous
acceleration of the inevitable. The more extreme an action, the more equally it
accomplishes its opposite intention.
posted by Peter 11:05 AM
I'm full of non-sequitors because I can't be bothered linking
one thought to the next, well maybe I can. You're worth it...
Recent events include a staging of The Golf Wars at La Mama, directed by Tom
Nondorf, which was in time for Election Day, when the tied election tide
decisively turned.
I suggest before writing a redundant new play, a festival of the last decade of
plays with music, such as they are, to get a fuller picture of the joyous
magical world we live in.
Our performance of the song Chimney Flu/Heigh Ho worked well with the New York
Composers Circle concert deep within the depths of the Baruch Performing Arts
Center. Piano, voice and electric guitar played by Roger Blanc, each, had
notated independent lines and accompaniments, just like in earlier songs.
I see I'll be a master of ceremonies of sorts for the Lambs Holiday party.
This world is so big, and the City keeps filling. Apparently, and additionally,
there are universes beyond it.
I wonder how terrorized I've felt and how injurious of myself I've been to
balance and take command of that feeling.
Trust in humanity and think for yourself. Put your joyous life first.
posted by Peter 9:03 PM
Now through a circuitous circuit, I am reading the short stories
of Carson McCullers, called "Seven" after her recognition of the
effectiveness of the number by her character, Miss Amelia.
Many great writing samples may already be familiar to you; the one I want to
include here (from "Sojourner") describes a Bach prelude and fugue.
"The prelude was as gaily iridescent as a prism in a morning room. The
first voice of the fugue, an announcement pure and solitary, was repeated
intermingling with a second voice and again repeated within an elaborated frame,
the multiple music, horizontal and serene, flowed with unhurried majesty. The
principal melody was woven with two other voices, embellished with countless
ingenuities - now dominant, again submerged, it had the sublimity of a single
thing that does not fear surrender to the whole."
Yes, that describes us-all in the universe!
So the free Friday Target Museum of Modern Art night included, along with the
closing of the Dada exhibit, a screening of "Reflections in a Golden
Eye," a shockingly technicolor print in one of the only two familiar rooms
left in that museum, the basement screening room atop the super submerged 5th
avenue subways. I saw the first hour of that.
And I still carry the memory of the last two reels of "The Heart is a
Lonely Hunter" in James Wong Howe's technicolor cinematography. It occurred
to me that an author is the progenitor of these unique visions. Tennessee
Williams films are their own genre; perhaps the same is true of Ms. McCullers.
Colleen McCullough, the Thorn Birds, no, I can't be so lucky as to have a book
by McCullers, oh, there it is, the 35 cent Bantam Giant with the cover of tall
woman leading the hunchback up the stairs, some figures in red behind her....the
act of my reading it destroying its brittle paper.
The Baghdad Cafe? No, the lead story is "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe."
Was she too rejecting and controlling? It looked like a delicate balance existed
for a time, and that was a good time for the town... It was all so infinitely
relatable in its strangeness...
Edward Albee wrote the play?
I read it on the bus to West Point. Was West Point the setting for
"Reflections in a Golden Eye?" This is my circuitous route to the
great writing of Carson McCullers.
posted by Peter 9:05 AM
I suppose this post has spoiler potential for those of you
eagerly about to read Willa Cather's short story, "Paul's Case," and,
yes, do so without delay.
Please consider yourself warned.
On the subway I paged through the 1936 edition of Burrell and Cerf's Bedside
Book of Famous American Stories. Willa Cather wrote "Paul's Case." It
is one of the 67 stories in the collection and I read it with great illumination
as I already had a fondness for Madame Bovary. I remember spending an
adolescence feeling as misplaced as Paul ("There's no one quite so worthy
of the way I feel."). To his credit he didn't make a fool of himself
rightfully settled into the Waldorf with his stolen loot. When money ran low he
even took the train toward home, but this I cannot condone... and I doubt she
did, although she did write the story... he saw fit to accelerate his body's
inevitable demise. End of story.
-----
There was a woman last night outside of the Theatre for the New City sitting on
the corner of East 10th and 1st as the light rain fell pleasantly upon us. She
was equipped with a bag containing a gallon of gin. According to the theatre
manager, the fellow she attended the theatre with, thanks to complimentary
tickets, may have run off after injuring her. She could not put standing
pressure on one of her legs. Was it broken? She sat back down. I called 911. She
took gulps from the bottle. One of the attendants in the Beth Israel ambulance
that arrived promptly, greeted her familiarly... Hi, Peg.
It was only 11:30 PM. I used to love sitting in on the midnight plays running at
Theatre for the New City in the 1980's when it was on 2nd Avenue and East 10th.
The most familiar memory I can share is that of Ethel Eichelberger playing
accordion.
As for the Cather story, money can cost so much emotion that, having undergone
the trauma of acquiring it, you will be truly gifted to relax and enjoy the
doubtful luxuries it can purchase.
posted by Peter 1:21 PM
Question to self:
Peter, you obsessive troll, what are you doing outside of the bubble of comical
musical visual melodrama?
Answer:
I'm reconciling subjective and objective realities.
Question 2 to self:
Do you promise to help and do no harm?
Answer:
Haven't I been?
Question 2 to self repeated:
Do you promise?
Answer:
Yes.
posted by Peter 10:48 AM
Dear everyone, If I can't write about it, everything gets me
annoyed.
I visited the Uniformed Firefighters Association building last night for a TV
spot with James Chladek, thanks to my personable trivia expert friend, John
Barbieri, and had the pleasure of 15 minutes of Mr. Chladek's company before a
well run set of studio cameras. Good work, guys! I talked about whatever is
going on lately, my collaborations with the East Village Antifolk Fest, Sharon
Fogarty's Flying Dreams at Manhattan Theatre Source, the visit to Guild Hall
with Bruce Jay Friedman, and of course my being forced to vacate or buy my
apartment of 17 years...
"We will never sell, only rent," has become, "we will never rent,
only sell."
Well, it's a buyer's market.
posted by Peter 9:27 AM
"I Hope the Day Is Soon"
I luxuriate in generalized anxiety. I'm anxious for something to happen, anxious
throughout a lifetime, for something to happen -- the anxiousness is while it
doesn't... The anxiousness happens while the happening doesn't, though a life
time. It finally happened! Anxiety fulfilled.
posted by Peter 11:04 AM
There are some things men do that women don't do and some things
women do that men don't do and there are some things that people just don't do.
"This is an empty room."
"But there's a pink elephant in this room."
"Oh, that..."
posted by Peter 1:05 PM
Daniel Keyes wrote Flowers for Algernon and Alexander Key wrote
The Forgotten Door, among other novels. Flowers for Algernon began as a short
story, available since 1959. I so looked forward to the expanded novel. It (the
short story) was in a book with a Ferris wheel on the cover, which also
contained August Heat and The Monkey's Paw, and some story about climbing a gas
tank and the title story about the disappearance of a daughter on the Ferris
wheel, she with the delicate condition that she kept pressuring her father to
worry less about. Yes, I recommend that story collection.
The idea that intelligence is what we need to appreciate art stemmed from
Flowers for Algernon. Of course I saw a portion of the Cliff Robertson film on
TV this evening.
Night in Funland And Other Stories from Literary Cavalcade ed. Jerome Brondfield
(Scholastic Book Services TK1056, 1968, 75¢, 238pp, pb)
7 • Foreword • Jerome Brondfield • fw
13 • Night in Funland • William Peden • ss The New Mexico Quarterly Win
’60
26 • Four O’Clock • Price Day • ss AHMM Apr ’58
32 • August Heat • William F. Harvey • ss Midnight House and Other Tales,
J.M. Dent, 1910
39 • The Vertical Ladder • William Sansom • ss Good Housekeeping Nov ’46
57 • The Sea Gulls • Elias Venezis • ss Atlantic Monthly Jun ’55
67 • Antaeus • Borden Deal • ss The Southwest Review Spr ’61
83 • Exchange of Men • Howard Nemerov & W. Ryerson Johnson • ss Story
Jan ’63
102 • Flowers for Algernon • Daniel Keyes • nv F&SF Apr ’59
145 • One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts • Shirley Jackson • ss F&SF Jan
’55
161 • The Most Dangerous Game • Richard Edward Connell • nv Colliers Jan
19 ’24
191 • Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket • Jack Finney • nv Colliers Oct
26 ’56
215 • As Best He Can • Geoffrey Household • ss, 1958
219 • Too Early Spring • Stephen Vincent Benét • ss The Delineator Jun
’33
posted by Peter 8:15 PM
The Exquisite Corpse.
Whatever my suspicions of a collaborative effort, including herein my
superfluous admission of the supernatural, I can't imagine her going any other
way. She was not interested in downtime, her body was not up to her ambitions,
and falling is what she talked about it doing when we spoke two days prior.
Thank you?
posted by Peter 7:51 AM
Here is an extremist statement: I've lost all joy in the world
and writing this was one of those joys.
And then I go on to write:
I thought I covered this problem.
Sleep deprivation leaves me without an iota of an idea. Just let me sleep.
Competent filmmakers don't consider this problem because they don't have it.
They know how to care for themselves and they do. The only person interested is
the one who needs to sleep.
What am I saying? When I imagine that people know how to care for themselves,
what I am saying is that I know how, and I'm just not because I'm punishing
myself, diffusing what I fear is potential punishment from another. I'm sorry.
"Just SAYING it can even make it happen."
posted by Peter 5:08 PM
I remain flabbergasted by the concept of my grandmother tripping
and dying. She only had one head impact, a single bruise in the lower left
corner of her head, not even a fracture. There were only a few steps after the
bottom landing where she fell. It is inconceivable to me that she could have let
herself fall backwards. To fall back with that hard an impact, her feet had to
slip forward, as if someone pulled a rug out from under her.
The fact remains, every day is a gift.
posted by Peter 1:30 PM
Margaret Carillo insisted my sister and I call her Nanny because
she was never old enough to be a Grandmother. Well, this is a most elegant and
formidable Nanny. She was born Domenica Giovaniello in New York City on March
15th, 1905, and for 100 years and 97 days she existed here.
I can’t begin to express our love for her. Thank you for your love and support
during these days since our loss of her.
While our manner of departure still remains a mystery, the mystery of Nanny’s
departure was solved on June 20th, 2005. Until then her presence never wavered,
she was fully present in the fragility of consciousness, with hers as powerful
as it had ever been, it being an authentic awareness of self-manifested wisdom
and experience.
In terms of her age, because she was only a hundred, shrinking size can only go
so far in consolidating the physical being, and the mind can only go so far in
compensating for weakening senses. She spoke with me on Saturday, prophetically
as it turned out. She was becoming restless and her body was not up to her
plans. No one could take charge of her being, and when they tried, she rebelled.
She remains a rebel to this day.
Energy is neither created nor destroyed, and on June 20th, hers dispersed, first
into mom, her daughter, and now, we are all its recipients.
I had my whole life to take advantage of her, although having the greater
benefit of actually getting to know her did eventually dawn on me. She could be
selflessly generous, because she had the ability, willingness and natural
organization skills to take care of her family without, and this she insisted
upon, without burdening them. Her sensitivity to being a burden is outrageous
even today.
Hers was a private presence, shared one person at a time, shared through us, and
beholden to us, her family. Yet she was first and foremost her own lady. She
took care of herself, and of us, too. We’re the echoes of her greatness.
Let’s acknowledge her presence in us, passing into others, as we will as well.
Let’s welcome the release of her presence into the universe. The mystery of
how her spirit will be released is solved, in time on Monday, June 20th, 2005,
the end of spring on a full moon solstice day. Her spirit lives in Madeleine,
Nicholas, Monica, Peter, Diana, Danny, Polar Bear. It is a responsibility and an
inspiration for us as it blends with us, even as our generations echo what they
were.
Thank you, Nanny. I love you. God, please help her adjust to her new presence in
the universe.
posted by Peter 8:38 PM
The iterations of digital music resemble the frames of moving pictures. The persistence of hearing, of all our senses, is why we allow those iterations to mimic reality.
A tremolo of a note, of a frequency, offers wider presence in the audial spectrum, so, folks, spread out in microtones.
Effective tremolo produces a frequency strong enough to vibrate a needle as it cuts into acetate.
posted by Peter Dizozza 2:02 PM
Subj:
Re: Coppelia
Date:
3/2/2005 11:32:04 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:
Dizozza600
To:
JefHilburn@aol.com Hi, Jeff. From Mapquest I see that Mukilteo must be very beautiful. What brought you there? Tell me about your class. I can offer you the script and some incidental music. The script continues beyond the ballet story to include a second withdrawal of Franz into Dr. Coppelius's world of dolls, and the further charade of Swanilda who arranges for Franz to unknowingly sire a batallion of children while in there. The children eventually march in to disassemble the Dr.'s dollshop and drag Franz out to be their father... Some of the language requires modification for high school students....Thank you for your inquiry. Best regards, Peter Dizozza917-915-7635. In a message dated 3/2/2005 11:09:06 PM Eastern Standard Time, JefHilburn@aol.com writes:
Hello, I just wanted to write and find out more about your script for Coppelia. I realize it's now been a few years ago for you, but I am considering it as a project for one of my high school classes. Not for profit, or even for public consumption, but am wondering if your script is available? Thanks for your time, Jeff Hilburn Kamiak High School Stagecraft Teacher Mukilteo, Washington
posted by Peter Dizozza 7:53 AM
Dear Professor Haine,
Thank you for your email.
As theatre director of The Williamsburg Art and Historical Center I was commissioned to create a musical theatre piece to run concurrent with its 2003 International Surrealist Exhibition, "Brave Destiny." That project is the US version of "Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel," so I placed it in front of a US monument with French influence. The symbology of this monument resulted in my play being more inspired by, then an adaptation of "Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel." In addition to the concept and script I also provided an original score consisting of three dances and three songs.
The Statue of Liberty is on Bedloe Island near Manhattan. Ferries daily carry tourists there. What the statue represents is not without controversy because our U.S. welcoming of immigrants has, sadly, become more guarded, not to mention the fact that since September 11th, 2001, the statue itself remained closed to visitors for security reasons. It was partially reopened in August of 2004.
The question of who officiates the marriage of "Bride" and "Groom" is what "The Marriage at the Statue of Liberty" is about, with Ms. Liberty herself, completing the ceremony. It is night. The last tour boat leaves. The still unmarried couple remains on Bedloe Island, but are they alone? As a seagull is about to fly into her copper frame, Ms. Liberty flexes her body to allow it to safely pass. Since she sees the gull, she must be able to see us, reasons the couple below. Where others have failed, Ms. Liberty will prevail. She comes to life to complete the ceremony. The couple is married at last! Bride and Groom are Old World supplicants of Colossus. Having found one another, they seek new world religious independence to sanctify their new bond to one another. They escape from their cloister. Vulcan, the God of Fire, shields them. He discovers they suffer from "The Mortal Tedium of Immortality" (Cocteau's line at the end of "Blood of a Poet.") Vulcan advises the couple that to marry they must regain their mortality, and to do so they must pass through the eternal flame. And where is the eternal flame? The nearest eternal flame is in the torch held by the New Colossus (as Emma Lazarus calls her), The Statue of Liberty.
Unwilling to lose supplicants, Colossus and his eternally unmarried fiancée, Colossa, masquerading as tourists, go chasing after Bride and Groom to scuttle their marriage ceremony.
A DVD of the 2003 production is available, featuring the beautiful nocturne that concludes the play. I am not sure about TV compatibility but it will be playable on your computer.
My previous effort to pay homage to Cocteau may be found in my monologue with song cycle entitled, "Doping the Blood of a Poet."
As a composer, I would love to add to the occurrences of Cocteau texts set to music, and will be honored if you would suggest a text for me to set.
Very truly yours, Peter Dizozza
Separate Attachment: The performance program including ballet descriptions.
Dear Mr Peter Dizozza, I am writing a Catalogue of Jean Cocteau’s Texts set to music. So far I have recorded some 600 occurrences. I came across your production Marriage at the Statue of Liberty which is inspired by Cocteau’s play. I would like to ask you a few questions: 1°/ Could you please tell me what parts of Cocteau’s play you kept in your production, or if your play is completely something else. As far as the characters are concerned, I could see that some of them were kept (Bride, Groom). 2°/ On which translation of the play did you base your production? 3°/ As to the music, I heard some of it on the web site (www.cinemavii.com...) but how many parts are written in your production? Do they correspond to the 3 main parts of the ballet? 4°/ Is it possible to receive a program and some press reviews? 5°/ I would appreciate any sort of information about your play that seems so interesting. Thank you in advance, Yours faithfully, Prof. Dr Malou HaineConservateur du MIM1 rue Villa Hermosa1000 Bruxelles - Tél. 00.32.(0)2.545.01.36Professeur à l'ULBDirecteur de la Collection "Musique/Musicologie", éditions Mardagawww.malouhaine.be
posted by Peter Dizozza 3:36 PM
Separating us from chaos is The Law. I love the Law.
I woke up one morning in a restless daze,
My life had hit an impasse as an office aide.
I went at night to law school, and it changed my ways to a
Player from one who is played.
Adverse litigation is the path I choose.
Contingent is my fee on if I win or lose.
It’s not to win or lose, it’s how you play the game.
The law’s a jealous mistress,
In time I came to love the
Law, I love the
Law. Professors
Asked in Law School
Do you love the
Law? I love the
Law. I love the
Law. I love it.
No one is above it.
Please approach but not too close
Let us go forth.
Some requests are useless ‘gainst fate.
Fate, defer to precedent. What’s your case worth?
Would you rather hurry and wait? Then
Close your eyes, imagine how it was before
You'll see a world in turmoil crying, "Nevermore!"
The skills of legal practice are like flags unfurled,
We’re citizens of the world.
We guide and shape the future from the courthouse steps.
The past is but the history of our records kept.
Rewritten as a footnote, there is only this
Separating us from chaos, It’s the
Law. It’s the
Law. I love the
Law. I love it.
No one is above the
Law? I love the
Law I love the
Law. Great peace have they who love the Law. Peter Dizozza 1/23/05
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:03 AM
December 30th, 2004 THE PENULTIMATE DAY OF THE YEAR
Do we go right along as we always do?
Or next year will we change the way we wanted to?
I’ve been feeling less than certain since the year began.
Did we learn? Did we try?
In a year set for change but a day is left
To unite the division of change bereft.
Opportunity demands a unity
To connect one and all.
January began with an overture.
Things went wrong. We approved them, for the end was sure.
February even gave to us an extra day.
Just a day, turns the tide.
But the gradual won over the radical.
Silent day, silent night, so incredible.
When I woke up in the morning, all was very much the same.
When you told me nothing happened I had
Nowhere else to turn; none but me to blame.
I will admit that the change has been slow, but it’s
Changing in front of our eyes, like a
Plant as it grows, like a Flower that opens, it’s
Blossoming fast as it can.
Changing according to plan!
In a day tides can turn with a seismic shift.
Though we’re safe in our homes, they’re built on some cliff.
For in stillness platelets rise most dramatically,
When they’re rubbed under tons.
Join your hands with the new transcendentalist.
As the fairies appear in the morning mist.
As we wake up in a twilight zone where we’re
Solely on our own. That is not the way to go, but I am
Running to my grave without you to save me.
I will admit that the change has been slow, but it’s
Changing in front of our eyes, like a
Plant as it grows, like a Flower that opens, the
Amaryllis is sprouting from out of its soil-covered bulb.
While the best laid plans have an outcome that yields them a different result
So if we all are the best as we are, and the best is the most we can be,
If there’s something to gain from our going insane it’s that we’re
Finally starting to see. Everything’s as it should be.
Do we go right along as we always do?
posted by Peter Dizozza 11:55 AM
Another Florida Post
Posted by PD on 12/23/2004, 2:28 pm
In a continuing effort to keep track of life, and to share, and to stimulate explorative conversation, I offer
The Resurrection of Aileen Wuornos
Your writer herein had no precognition of the woman. All I’ve seen so far is the film adaptation of the difficulties Ms. Wuornos encountered caught in the grind of “bringing home the bacon.”
Thanks to Time Warner’s cable offer of media content, we have Monster on Demand. As we near the holidays, what better celebration than the life of one who dreamed of being an icon portrayed in a movie that makes her one; and, Ms. Theron, is that a performance or a resurrection?
Aileen is here now and in us all. Although it was a chore to watch her tortured, her sadist “John” provided the transcendent moment that inflamed her gaze, turning it into a soul scorcher. The incendiary moron who chose to waste his time squashing her smoldering hustle with lighter fluid caused her to blow out.
In Toontown, Daffy Duck kicks and punches the puff-genie back into its lamp.
A second of silence precedes the laser blaze of the genie’s resurrection blast.
After the first murder, no more hustling, at first.
However, most job markets reject volatility in upstart freelancers.
Then the police officer that picked her up for loitering at a temp agency
drove her into a garage and let her off (filled her mouth)
With a license to KILL.
And don’t touch her stomach. It’s filled with ignited lighter fluid. She is in physical pain.
Something alive within her has snapped.
Her friend, Selby, had a cast on her arm.
It’s got to fall off on its own.
Though she may bask blithely in financial windfall,
Her cast is off;
She is free.
One of the later dead fellows, the one with the gun in his car, is a retired police officer.
Remember, perhaps, when Monty Python’s criminal, Dimsdale, set off an atomic bomb. Then, even the police stood up and took notice.
The death penalty achieves its opposite, which is the letter “Z,” which means, she lives on.
I think that the penultimate line in the film, preceding
“Well, you have to say something,”
is
“Where there’s life, there’s hope.”
Consider an alternate adage gleaned from the lesson of
Jesus Christ,
WHERE THERE’S DEATH,
THERE’S RESURRECTION.
And that is not even why I’m against the death penalty.
Upon the making of the motion picture film,
Monster,
Aileen Wournous rose to judge the living and the dead,
Until she was cast into the sea of fire.
I await the sequel, not The Bride of Frankenstein, but
“The Adopted Parent of Aileen Wuornos” (It is Arlene Pralle. She adopted Aileen on death row. Thank you, internet search.)
Most significant is Aileen's relation to the shell-shocked Vietnam vet portrayed by Bruce Dern. Those two knew!
Music note, what better way to distract the viewer with the antecedent to the songs by Velvet Underground than in playing Crimson and Clover over and over under dialogue?
(WRONG… Tommy James and the Shandells released Crimson and Clover in 1969. Velvet Underground’s first album was 1967.)
Quick “John” note: If someone offers sex for money,
And you reach the point where you would actually agree to the transaction,
Give the money and go, savoring the true masturbatory pleasure of getting NOTHING in return.
Further gratuity: If the person offering is engaged in a sting operation, you will be arrested.
posted by Peter Dizozza 11:35 AM
Has it been four years? It feels like decades have passed, and while humanity was embracing differences, a single lapse set us back to the dark ages. That it was a SINGLE lapse demonstrates how under our control the world has become. In an effort to take after-the-fact control of that lapse we can suggest that it occurred with our tacit approval, to make our justification for a retaliation that much greater. Let's continue to learn about and understand one another, and grow in our ability to appreciate and shape our world. It remains my firm belief that our world exists apart from our perception of it. For our own sake and for the benefit of all the manifestations of energy of which we're a part, may we bless and not curse...
posted by Peter Dizozza 10:51 AM
One of Eugene O'Neill's characters talks about the moment when the veil lifts and our awareness is lucid. Then the veil falls.
I preserve moments when the veil lifts, because, indeed, for most of my life I exist beneath the veil.
and for now
---------------
I am writing to cheer you up on this beautiful day because I need cheering up.
I am scratching your back because my back needs scratching.
I am doing for you what I need done for myself.
---------------
I am grappling with the above sentences' structure because I perceive it as a conundrum.
Are not all sentient being's needs identical? We all need love.
Pass it forward.
posted by Peter Dizozza 10:51 AM
THE ILR CHARTS
TH LW HP WI WORLD INDEPENDENT
01 - 01 01 "Don't leave me behind Prisoners of war" - Peter Dizozza
02 - 02 01 "Jungles of Dagenham" - Paola
03 - 03 02 "Maybe I'm a dreamer" - Warren Muzak
04 - 04 01 "Your Enemy" - Citizen Kane
05 - 05 01 "Its hard believing" - The Drive
06 - 06 01 "The Spider Song" - Nutronstars
07 - 07 01 "Generation" - Mahoon
08 03 03 02 "The truth" - Tim Chaplin
09 - 09 01 "Fine Looking Woman" - Jason Chesworth and the Pocket co.
10 - 08 08 "Take your own advice" - Danyluk & card
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:03 PM
Our language has the contradictions built in. Holier than thou, or is that Hole-ier? Don't use mistreatment of the people as a reason to invade them and then go in and mistreat them. The latest act of terrorism is to show citizens of the United States engaged in acts of terror. Who's holier now?
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:16 PM
I'm enjoying August Kleinzahler's modern day memories of travel.
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:47 AM
Takealookatmenow
KONG, KONG, KONG, wellit'sjustan
KONG, KONG, KONG, KONG.
I'm enjoying Mr. Merrill's weejeeboard memories of Ephraim.
Getting into the car this morning I cleared off some of the snow and plowed out, straight to the tunnel where the security guards pulled me over and one of them watched while I cleaned off every snow speck. I feel so invigorated. I knew it was nervy to enter that controlled (and troll toll patrolled) environment, and fun! Last time I was pulled over we were off to our honeymoon flight at the quiet hour of 5AM. Good thing I had my papers in order... So take a look at me now KONG.
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:39 AM
Some projects left unfinished I find myself, thanks to technological advancements, capable of completing at present, at home, to the exclusion of all present concerns. I must complete what I began, and I'm actually looking at material created twenty-five years ago, just by chance, because my friend in Maine, Ed Reichert, asked me several months ago to dig up the videos I took of his piano recital rehearsal, his music/theatre Queens College Variety show, and other things I haven't yet found featuring his fantastic involvement, so he can show them to his father.
After his recital video I found a video of the colored pencil drawings on my then attic wall. They were already at least four years old when I videoed them. I and my highschool friends drew them. The curved ceiling wall was cracking, creating the outline for the mountains and valleys containing them. And after seeing them, do you still want to be my friend?
There's a recent reference to that cottage attic wall in the golf wars cd, the "make your own" chant leading into the dizozza/espinola Forests of Neurosis. Aha! I have a potential music video, glorifying frustrated immature prolonged orphan boyish adolescence. You call that FUN?? Get on with your life... no no this'll just take a few minutes. please. it's valuable. you don't want to live now. go back to your hole. why is this choice exclusionary? Yes, it's valuable. Encourage me, allow me, or condemn me. It's all about me, getting on with my life's work. This is my promo blurb.
posted by Peter Dizozza 11:09 AM
You can sing Sinatra Stuff, Can't you?
Posted by Pete Dizozza on 12/19/2003, 4:13 pm
"You keep saying you got something for me, something you call love but confess..."
Lee Hazelwood.
Both Frank and Tony Bennett began with these almost generically pleasant voices.
Tony Bennett doesn't strike me as psychotically maintaining his career. His smoking just created his now unmistakable voice, and his general pleasantness shines through.
I think the velvet fog describes the also pleasant Mel Torme voice (I like his recording of "Again").
Apparently, Frank hurt his voice singing and he needed to turn to acting, after appearing to great hilarity in MGM musical films. I saw some parts of some of them. Maybe, amazingly, he started in a classic, On the Town with songs mostly by Leonard Bernstein and Comden and Green ("New York New York a helluva wonderful town not to be confused with "Wonderful Town," by Bernstein, Comden and Green with, currently, Donna Murphy, live, which is probably very wonderful indeed.)
The mgm film of Jerome Kern songs, Til The Clouds Roll By, features his rendition of "Old Man River." So funny... "lands in jaillllll --- no breath --- I gets weary ...." that is a funny event.
stupider was anchors aweigh, the one with gene kelly dancing with one of those terrytoons.
So without a heartthrob voice, frank needed a film career without singing and the getting of the role is the robert evans godfather movie horror scene of the producer with the horse's head. (Another italian descent singer plays the frank role in the film. They say he knocked up who, Ava Gardner?)
The book, From Here to Eternity, was followed by a book about an author who had just written a big hit novel, From Here to Eternity, and was trying to write another. It's called SOME CAME RUNNING, and its film has a wild Shirley MacLane cameo, and Dean Martin as the sidekick to the author, portrayed by the actor who was formerly the skinny obnoxious victim killed by marty Borgnine in the prior acadamy award winner of the downtrodden bored militia stationed at pearl harbor.
It's like Norman Mailer following Naked and Dead with Deer Park... the film is the return of debonair Sinatra (directed by Vincent Minelli). James Jones wrote those books..
Frank pulled Manchurian Candidate after Kennedy's murder, yet he actually played the oswald role in Suddenly.
Sinatra recorded mostly great songs. In fact, that's his phenomenon.
He slowed down songs while increasing the speed of the beat beneath them.
Also, the slidy gruff vocal quality, under his obsessive control, became innovative, microtonal....
Finally, at that low point in his treasured career when Nelson Riddle's orchestra announced his new voice like a sunrise and he declaims,
"I've got the world on a string, sitting on a rainbow," the only good thing, the one reason to lift him (and us) out of the depths of despair is that song.
As for that once ubiquitous song of songs, New York New York, remember: Frank Sinatra is a singer who chose to highlight the most important of ampersands... Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnd.
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:40 PM
Do you hear the song of a music box? It sounds the hope of ice cream.
There isn't a melody I have heard as many times as this one.
It plays through once then plays again. It blurs my sense of reason.
It's up to me to concentrate but still I blame that ice cream truck.
And even the blackout could not deter the call of Mr. Softy.
The silence around it helped isolate its musical invasion.
That's why I'm glad when this ice cream truck leaves.
-- as for turning out the lights every now and again. Yes!
posted by Peter Dizozza 11:17 AM
An unfair loss.
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:53 PM
My wife was saying just the other day how expletives often pepper the speech of comics because the expletive "butches up" the joke.
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:21 PM
News flash. In keeping with the karaoke mood, Diana and I were singing, My Eyes Adored You (So Close and Yet So Far), and there, in front of us, another tragedy, the event of which was substantially over, its after-effects reverberating into mere everyday occurrence, UNLESS YOU TELL ME OTHERWISE. WHAT HAPPENED HERE?
We were experiencing the transitory stillness of 5PM Saturday becoming sunny and warmer, walking along Irving Place to the car to go to Connecticut again, this time to Greenwich to attend a piano concert of children, ages 8-10, the students of one particular piano teacher, one particular student being Diana’s nephew.
The last time, last summer, (June 6, 2002) we were going to Liam’s wedding, a similarly radical separation from our day-to-day existence. Driving along route 54 we came upon a doe, its side smashed by the front of a car zipping round the bend. At first stunned, it popped into life to run wild, frothing, bleeding, red innards escaping from it rump, bashing walls and fences, finding its way down the valley to the shade and the water, Diana ready to take in the entirety of the deer’s internal disruptions. We prolonged our experience of the agony, basically until the deer disappeared down the hill never to be seen again. The other car drivers assured us they would call the ambulance. We were late for the wedding. With much difficulty, we I extricated ourselves.
Diana entered the mind of the deer encountering the car.
Why aren’t people more careful? It’s a hot afternoon. The deer are coming from the forest, crossing the street to gain access to the lake. The poor deer become so thirsty then, pow, (This reminds me now of the fantastic moment in “my cousin vinny,” when Marisa Tomei enters the mind of the deer encountering the deer hunter.)
In the months that followed, Diana and I acquired and developed various ailments from the physical and emotional strain we assumed from the event. It looked as if we had finally recovered when…
This time, Saturday, May 17th, 2003, eleven and a half months later, as we were walking to the car, we came upon a pretty girl who had just smashed a glass menu frame, a table, some flowerpots, having bent the wrought iron fence enclosing the outdoor dining of the cursedly stupefying Sal Anthony’s. Yes, it’s 55 Irving Place and the unknown girl dropped herself off the fourth floor window ledge of a colonial historic building with floor to ceiling bay windows enclosed by more of that historic wrought iron fencing.
The New York Times reported the very next day about the Street of Irving Place and its history. It’s Samuel Ruggles Place, but he felt like naming it after Washington Irving while he was, in 1830, developing Gramercy Park into the delightful enclave that it remains to this day.
It’s as if her gesture of dropping in on siesta time, as an obscene heap, without a care for her blue underwear, was a non-issue after the fact, and before the fact she was apparently dangling her legs over the ledge, not thereby garnering the dramatic attention associated with people trying to stop her, but to some lucky recipient, perhaps a 75 year old smoker suddenly obscenely rejuvenated with his 24 year old girl heart, she was a harvest.
Bellevue can bring her back to life, and they did, pow, to keep those organs alive, awaiting transplant permission from her parents. Just her brain was dead.
The real monster falls crashing to the floor, gets up and walks away, and is he or she ever mad!
After the piano recital, we went to Cabrini, then to Bellevue in search of her (Saturday evenings at the Emergency Rooms tend to be quiet.).
That night I dreamt that rather than stopping us at the door, the nurse let us in. Ms. Unknown was brain dead, all right, smiling and chatting away, saying hello and, I am NOT a baby, as she slithered off the bed to the floor, her reddened membranes exposed as she shrunk smaller and smaller. The nurse came in, to reattach life support, reminding us again, her brain is dead.
Diana entered the mind of the girl. She was so alone sitting indecisively on the ledge, her legs dangling over, and then, after smashing the table, the plant pots and the wrought iron fence, people came from everywhere to surround her.
The police and ambulance quietly arrived within 10 minutes of our arriving there, blocking traffic and dispersed. A street-fair along Third Avenue was winding down. We rushed through the traditional traffic of I95 to get to Greenwich. The Sal Anthony maitre ‘d suggested we send condolences care of the super at 55 Irving Place, apt 1A.
posted by Peter Dizozza 3:01 PM
Nowhere to hide except together. It's about time.
posted by Peter Dizozza 2:08 PM
Is this where I assemble the silliest strings of words? I suppose so. This is called, "A Union of In-Laws" and draws from a suggestion I received from another and refers to a wall street journal on-line extra editorial by, well, here goes.
On March 24th, 2003, echoing the title of Leni Reifenstal's 1938 Olympics film, Triumph of the Will, Peggy Noonan announced, with the invasion of Iraq, that we are witnessing the triumph of activism over fatalism (Among the actions not taken, consider: Saddam's sons, George's daughters, we never saw any efforts to bring together these perfect couples, and the possibility of solving with a wedding, in the tradition of the great rulers, any conflicts of interest with a union of in-laws. Can anyone suggest other actions?) Well, don't just stand there. We must do something, but let's
do it for a purpose
'cause to later find a purpose
is a steeper uphill struggle
than the purpose set in place
at the outset.
Hey, what WAS that at the outset? Is there reason behind the action?
We have to do something.
We cannot just stand here.
Fatalaties when activism
triumphs over fatalism
escalate to numbers
we can count in yonder galaxy.
What's at stake, enlightenment?
That comes to all in time.
posted by Peter Dizozza 3:05 PM
Burl Ives appeared in a TV musical version of Bluebeard.
-------------------------
I go out for the day. See you tonight,” he told his redeemer, his beloved bride. And he added a warning, “Go in all rooms but one.” His words echo those of our most famous God, you know the one, who said (It’s just the just of it.) to his most God-like creations, “I leave you in paradise; eat from all trees but one.”What do you expect Bluebeard’s bride to do? What do you and I want and wait for you and I to do?
Remember that his beard repelled most women, but her soul was sensitive, and his eyes gained her trust. She loved him and accepted his love for her. And we know from experience, from those nights by the fire, hers was a premium brand of love, on which they rise to new heights of awareness. Her empathy, surely, matches his toward her,
But she broke trust when she googled him, or rather;
When she entered the forbidden room, she found corpses, and she knew. Her husband is a killer, who insulates himself from the feeling of his prey. He is a coward nourished by the fears of his prey. He is a man who willingly causes what in the end must come to all.There is only one ending to the story. She escapes to live another day, and Bluebeard, exposed, forthwith, is destroyed.
My variation is to say, feel free to explore all of my rooms, my papers, my website, and then watch me squirm as I try to defend what are clearly rotting corpses with my initials carved into them. I leave myself exposed, not out of honesty, but out of awareness that only truth is easy.
No one cares where no one goes, unless to consider my candidacy.
How could you allow the wolf to lead you down the garden path.
Do the wolf and the granddaughter ever save each other?
Let it be known, Bluebeard’s secret starts with an empty room, which he gradually fills with the corpses of the faithless, the independent minded fighters who refuse to obey him.
That’s his problem and he rots in it.
In our search for self-understanding, we allow ourselves to be misunderstood.
copyright 2003 Peter Dizozza ------------------
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:26 AM
Hi, Tightness!
Hi, Taughtness!
Now that you've tightened me, what can you teach me?
Naught have I taught you.
How thoughtless,
Why think so?
'Cause I'm here to hype you.
Then I'm here to haunt you.hit it.
Blow tropic wind,
Fill the air
With sound vibes, with light vibes, with solids, with liquids.Thank you, O content provider. You're bill I'll pay monthly.
Stromboli Meets Snagglepuss by Peter Dizozza
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:34 AM
All right, so the computer takes time re-establishing itself and its programs fight one other; it can process massive calculations, store them and translate them into familiar colorful sounds and images. It's my responsibility and a welcome one to catalogue and draw from the catalogue, even as I create new material.
posted by Peter Dizozza 3:01 PM
'm getting blogged down just turning the computer on and off, loading up programs and shutting them down, moving files rather than using them. I threw away many papers and letters over the weekend and now I will attempt to follow their pathway to mulshland.
I'll take one task at a time, preferrably a new one. This is my journal essay moment, typing into a foreign repository. The doors are caving in, the computer's confiscated. Watch out you with your clicking and typing and seeing what is there to be seen, for the criminial indictment surprise.
Such affirmative action as that taken with Pete Townsend is for purposes of communication only. The punishment, after all, is contained within the crime.
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:02 PM
We attended midnight mass at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills, the church I attended as a child, the altar I walked off of when, at the height my holiness, I was relievedly dismissed from being an altar boy, the pews where I shook my eyes and stared and, as all around my pinpoint focus went dark, I would launch into a trance.
During the midnight Christmas service, this church had a tungsten brightness hitherto unavailable during the 20th Century. The priests brought a porcelain child around the pews and landed it in a nest made of hay.
Caesar had called for a census that year, sending everyone back to their hometowns to be counted, during which life went on, children were born, one child even born in a manger, among the calves, there being no room at "the inn." Try counting him in your census. (Only Isaac Assimov's actuarial table would dare factor in such a mule.)
His life would run a spectrum starkly displayed in the church: To our left was a stable dotted with an angel, to the further left, a wood carving of a man hammered to a cross bookended by two kneeling women prayerfully gazing up at him. Relive this individual's human path, from the manger to the crucifix -- a lifespan of 33 years -- from Christmas, Dec. 25, 2002 until Good Friday, April 18, 2003.
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:41 AM
Everything's lovely, while we're eating and chatting when suddenly, chomp, my sharpened molar severs a piece of my own big tongue. Yum. and the dabbed blood makes the paper towel smell like hamburger meat served mmm mmm rare... Seven hours later the puncture wound's cauterized at last.
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:02 AM
This is why I watch Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The day began at 7 when Diana called me on the phone. I gradually awakened from there with the usual washing and preparing, not only to attend my Uncle’s funeral in Suffolk County, but to be in formal attire for the Annual Christmas Party thrown by The Men’s Club of Forest Hills, of which my sister’s grammar school friend and my more recent close friend, Peter Vairo, is president and of which I am one of the Vice Presidents. I piled the tuxedo into the car and picked up some coffee and drove to Diana, warning her of my immanent arrival, as the time neared, well, 8:15… The low coolant light in the car went on and stayed on. I double parked in front of her apartment and rang the bell. Then I phoned and she said I’ll be right down and I said, I’ll be right up. I need gallons of water. When I arrived up there she asked if I knew from where the coolant was leaking. Leaking? I thought it was just low. Down by the car pouring in two gallons of water I noticed the green fluid from the front. I saw dripping after I poured in the water, probably because I missed. It took my eye a while to catch the glint of the steady stream creating the green puddle on the street. Meanwhile a thousand guys, at least, were lined up along the block across the street, not for some parole program, but to take the fireman’s exam. How wonderful. I called Diana to say I was driving to the repair shop, the Three Amigos on Attorney Street. Oh, I called them first. Eduardo accepted my request for an invitation to come right over. When I then called Diana she said she was coming down and coming with me. We loaded her formal wear for later that evening along with mine hanging in the back. We were then driving to the shop, maybe twenty-five blocks away, and the low coolant light went on again and Diana noticed she had forgotten her ring. It was our engagement ring. I was wearing the wedding band her grandmother had worn. Her ring was the engagement ring my grandmother had worn. We would get it later. In fact, I said I didn’t have to take her to the repair shop but she said it was fine. Eduardo, pulling the wire of a plugged-in lantern, immediately located the leak in a hose covered with a plastic slinky wrap. I thought the slinky wrap was the hose and it sure looked terrible. I was about to open the radiator cap to release the pressure and get him started with the repair and he said no and Diana said no and he became emotional about the burn scars he still had on his arm. He went off to work on another car. I opened the radiator cap and left it on the radiator. Then we sat back in the car for coffee and a pecan ring. I called my mother’s portable phone, no answer, and then my sister called me. I just said what was happening and that I’d call them back. I stressed to Eduardo and then began conversing about the details, we are going to a funeral. Yeah, it was my father’s younger brother. He was driving a bus in June and it was lymphoma that made him appear like he had a rapid decline from Alzheimer’s. Two weeks ago I was at the residence where he kept saying “We got the wrong kid.” He must have thought he had a disabled boy who needed to be on another bus in order to get home, but it made sense to me, God, you got the wrong kid. What are you doing to this guy? What is he doing to himself? He retired from being a shoe salesman. His wife and constant companion, Diana, died 10 years ago and he wanted other work, so, until June of his seventy-fifth year, he was driving disabled children to and from school. The night before the funeral at the wake we saw his beautiful picture against the yellow background of his Bus Operator ID card. Talking to Eduardo, I only got up until the lymphoma diagnosis. The pipe was replaced (oh, you don’t wear goggles during welding – no. I close my eyes.). I gave him 60 when he asked for 45 and we were off, to the apartment to pick up the ring.
Through the Midtown Tunnel and off to Suffolk we went. Diana knew Pine Lawn but when I spoke to Monica she said St. Charles, but that’s a part of Pine Lawn. There’s even a Pine Lawn Road which runs through a military cemetery. Over the tracks we made a right. We were there before the funeral procession. They came in, after others came in, got in front of us, we followed and they stopped. My cousin Anthony was in the big white family truck/van in front of us. I walked past him to my parent’s car to say hello after tossing the coffee bag in the trash across the lawn divided roadway. I told him about my engagement to Diana and suggested I get her and he got out instead. We were talking for a minute. They shared Huntington in common. She grew up there; he was raising his family there. They knew the same places. This cemetery was actually nearby. We would put a wreath on her mother’s grave in the St. Pat’s cemetery after the burial. Again, the conversation didn’t get that far. When next we looked the procession was gone. They had just vanished. I called Monica after we followed Anthony around the chapel and she described being at a place exactly where we were. Lots 23 and 23 met as signs at an intersection. Then she said she also saw lots 110 and 43, which made no sense. There were plenty of other processions, some of which were stopped at the chapel and it was possible I could have asked a garden truck if it didn’t accelerate away from us in front of us… Oh, I had many ideas, like ask someone in the chapel when Diana kept saying, the only place to ask is administration. Yes, everyone in the chapels was preoccupied with the newness of the place and what had brought them there. Someone designed the chapels in a circle like slices in a round cake. I ran around the chapel circle. Each time I came to another chapel I thought I’d gone fully around. There must have been seven slices in that chapel cake. There was a big cross on the top. On the phone with Monica it was clear that from where she was, the chapel cross was nowhere in sight. When I got back in the car Diana was on the phone talking to the switchboard operator who was apparently on site in the cemetery. When I got on the phone she put me on hold until a man picked up who had no idea what I was talking about. I said, “Put the operator back on,” she got back on and after a moment I handed the phone back to Diana. I took the turn back to administration so that the operator could actually see us out of the switchboard operator window. We’re the ugly gray Ace Ventura-dented car. She told us by sight what to do. Turn to a completely different section where of course we came upon the lot 23/lot 23 intersection signs, and a scrawled sign hammered in the ground saying this way to lot 110. Come to think of it, the word before the numbers was always “Section,” not “lot.” The burial was done. All they did, they with the casket, after removing it from the black 1960s style Station Wagon, was leave it on wood beams over the open grave. All the flowers are laid around it including the ones Diana had sent from us. We said our Hail Mary over the casket as the rain lightly drizzled and poor cousin Anthony was still in his van, and as the funeral procession left, my parents also remained behind. Then I ran to my parent’s car, which also held Monica in the back seat. Next stop, Miller Ridge Inn. Follow us. OK. Then Anthony who was waiting for us gave us instructions how to get there and bid us “farewell” because he had to return to his wife and children. My father took us out of the cemetery and made a turn into Welbranch or some such horrible Dickensian name for the welfare district of Suffolk. Diana said it was hopeless and had me call them to follow us. She called the Miller Ridge Inn for general instructions and then used her general long Island sense developed over the years to figure out which direction was West on a sunless cloudy rainy day. Eventually we reached 110 and the Long Island Expressway but not without the passage of an inexplicable amount of time. We quickly thereafter arrived at the Inn, Long Island’s Christmas Central. The shops, the tree, the fireplace, the clean food smell -- a lovely luncheon followed during which we heard about what we’d missed. My Uncle, Tony Dizozza’s grandchild, also Diana, chose Revelations Chapter 21 and Psalm 48. Never, said the priest, had he read these at a funeral, and asked who chose the passages. Her parents must have proudly referred the congregation to their daughter, Uncle Tony’s granddaughter. She is only 15 and during her free time participates as an imaginary delegate for India in an after-school Junior UN. Then I read through her father’s, Tony’s son-in-law’s, eulogy. He recalled the barbecue where he met Cathy at their house and of the love between Tony and his wife, Diana. Clichés like All You Need is Love began to be part of larger sentences. You don’t need material things to have a family meeting place, because that’s what their home in far off Brentwood was to us growing up, we’d go there once a month and Tony would barbecue and Diana would be making food in the kitchen. The house was a mirror image to the houses around it, except for those enormous hedges, but to create a place of warmth, welcome and abundance, ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, and they had that magic formula running smoothly throughout our childhood. Then there was Diana’s bout with cancer and by then, we were no longer making those long family trips through the traffic to visit, and I never visited my Aunt Diana. All this came tumbling upon me as I realized how I hadn’t thought of this in years and perhaps never would have. I was grateful to have visited Tony before he died. The whole pointlessness of existence came tumbling down and I cried. I don’t know why, but I did have a good feeling because of the love they had, and it was hard to find other comparisons. Most hosts make for material abundance, and there’s that, too, but first, and another cliché finishes the sentence, THERE MUST BE LOVE. I don’t know where this leaves me, for I have buried love in irony and sarcasm. Diana is willing to go where I have allowed no person to go before, because I was sure the person who went there would just as quickly leave there, and that is no longer my experience.
Next we left the party -- all were delighted by our engagement announcement -- and proceeded to a nursery in Huntington. Diana had an idea for a floral arrangement for my grandmother and the young lady from FIT who worked there and who had created Uncle Tony’s Flower Basket created it precisely to her specifications. She also made a lavender ribbon for the wreath we chose. We picked out a few red and green leaved plants for my mother. That and an eight-foot bead for the Christmas tree amounted to 175. I missed the calculating as I was off getting v stands for the cemetery wreath, also missing the paying of it. We visited Joan’s grave. I thanked Joan for creating such a wonderful person and for having her after already having five children. She had a beautiful lavender grave with an inscription Diana wrote, Let the heavens ring with laughter, an angel is welcomed home… oh, that’s an inaccurate paraphrase… I wondered if we’d find a fully sculpted Celtic cross amidst the old tombstones. Her mother looks out over the entire valley of graves. The darkness was falling rapidly upon us. We drove to my parents because my mother brought my grandmother there for the evening. We call my grandmother Nanny. We presented nanny with the flowers and showed her the beauty of her ring on Diana’s finger. After dressing, we went to the community house where everyone welcomed Diana and we had a lovely time, even though I forgot it was a bring your own bottle affair. Maybe I just thought the idea of drinking was completely unnecessary. They do, after all, serve a constant flow of sparkling wine. Peter Vairo poured us a smooth cabernet. Everything worked out well.
I will continue to confront dormant emotions. I went home to sleep. Dreams of people politely suggesting I not perform as I was searching the world just to get to them, arriving late, unprepared, alone… It was a big school with many locked entrances and exits. There was a tremendous audience laughing raucously at the act performing before me. I was supposed to perform Prepare to Meet Your Maker. The two impresarios took issue with my telling the story of Isis and Osiris suggesting that the conservative administration would not approve. I was a mess. Oh, I was walking around in my bed sheets.
posted by Peter Dizozza 7:41 AM
One of the controversial events Tyr Throne instigated occurred nearly three years ago at his Duane Street Dance Loft, which was, since then, lost or rather returned into the domain of the building's property owners. Tyr negotiated a 10 year 2,000 a month lease for the loft and by the end of the term other lofts there were renting for 16,000.
Last night we were deciphering the Prepare to Meet Your Maker performance history for suggestions of where it will next go. The performance that Tyr stressed was most worth screening was the one he called the Rimshot performance because that was the one in which he told everyone to improvise freely, and, we could see when we started watching the performance, following a long and shocking process of figuring out which tapes it was on, that the 11 castmembers entering the stage 'round midnight on Friday, December 10th, 1999, were clearly "in their cups," milling about with drinks in their hands like guests at a cocktail party. (The exception, I believe, was Chris West. I was delighted to see how outrageous Chris became during the performance because when he first entered the screen he was clearly holding a water bottle.)
What a window into the past was this tape. To Tyr's credit -- and it is sometimes a chore to suggest to some people that there is anything to his credit, when there is, in fact, a lot -- he directed us to perform the show within an imaginary cone. He placed the camera on the front and center aisle. We filled the flat frame picture with action. This is a rather effective idea. Only cast action is within the video frame. When we moved back (upstage)we had plenty of area but when we moved closer toward the audience we imagined we were moving into the funnel tip of a cone.
So, thanks to a VHC camera that was already 7 years old at the time, we viewed the chaotic festivity; and everyone was, in a word, rambunctious.
Remember MASH (1970)? It was on TV the night before, and I imagined the chaos of being there versus the pleasure of watching it. I'm talking about the conditions that appear to have actually existed during the filming.
Onto the personal ego element of realization. I saw myself playing Quasimodo, the lead role, in the videotape. In case you don't know, I'm a skinny fellow. I weighed 130 and looked kind of frightening and, well, like we were saying about John Candy and early Jim Carey, I'm acting almost like a whore for the comedy. Why is the implication contained in that statement encouraging to the audience? Actually, I'm miles away from my inner whore. Since when do I have dignity? Elegance is incidental. Children forgive me, your shameless, issueless father.
My last performance as Quasimodo was in December of 1999.
Tony Hightower took over at the height of the PTMYM popularity, as you may also know, but even before, the Tyr Throne backlash was clearly formenting, something that concerns me still, since it is pressure from many sides that suggests I break off involvement with him, and I once again affirm the benefits of his company. By the way, Tyr benefits from interaction with Gabrielle Roth, who must be quite an inspiring person. He called the Prepare to Meet Your Maker script "a map." He believes in shocking people into aliveness. I do, too.Actors get the benefit of learning from their participation in the organized social interaction that is their script.
Audiences get the benefit of kernals of inspiration from observing from a safe distance a disorganized mess.
posted by Peter Dizozza 2:31 PM
An expose' on the inner workings of the meme infested brain of Peter Dizozza.
posted by Peter Dizozza 2:26 PM
Ah, the words of that great songwriter, David Byrne, come back to me as I open these pistachios...
"They say animals (ana muls) are hairy. They're living on nuts and berries." mmm, good. More nuts, more berries.I love the moment, "Some people don't know... shit about the Ayyyyyyyyyyer." ( from "Air" on that live four sided talking heads album, the one where he coughs out, "mee mow mow, mama me mow mow.") I also love the song on there about "The Book I Read was in your Eyes." Is that the one with the chant, "wash that love away"? I think so. There is happiness in discovering that one's yelping can be pleasing.
It helps to have easy access to music, but there is a glut on the market, I think in all areas of US culture, disposable hundredmilliondollarmovies, more music than I can listen to in a weekend, in fact, why don't I a) listen to more music, b) see more movies, d) watch more TV shows, e) attend more live shows... I don't now and when I did, well, I was very controlling of the circustances under which I did. I enjoy my own material, it's full of illuminating surprises... I want an audience. Come on, I want to BE an audience. What if I told you I only write to fill what's lacking in what's already out there? It's true. I've gotta get more pistachios.
Art is my consolation. Trash it if you must. Our value system is askew, and I would dare to willingly profit from that.... I'm currently paying 120 a month for it, oh Time Warner Cable, would it were provided to me for free.
A friend faxed the inheritance letter from South Africa, she's the lucky recipient and if she doesn't claim it, it reverts to the South African Government, those scoundrels, of 25 Million Dollars!!! Then comes the letter from Canada requesting a transfer of 6500 in administration fees. They'll even loan her the money.
I get something intangibly helpful from entertainment, but it's helpful for me as an entertainer. We are experiencing a glut from good entertainers. In fact, when I hear inspiring music I want to and actually start to write. That's not self motivation. That's the bandwagon. But everything arises out of something else, it's just some things only affect a few of us.
posted by Peter Dizozza 2:26 PM
We all know that Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but can you imagine calling The Crown Prince of Denmark a pretty nice boy? Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah yeah. He is.
I'm listening to songs by Serge Gainsborough (thank you, Adam Green). Randy Newman (thank you, Brian Wayne) and Ben Folds (thank you, Kenny Davidsen).
posted by Peter Dizozza 2:35 PM
The New York Film Festival is in its fortieth year! The panel respects the right of expression. Last night we saw a comedy produced by an auteur from Palestine.
posted by Peter Dizozza 7:10 AM
All right, I saw the Palestinian film. There was formerly a British Colony, whose contract expired in the 1940's, called Palestine.
There was also once a country called Lebanon.
Moving right along, there was also a performance last night at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of songs from Johnny Johnson by Paul Green and Kurt Weill. We caught the last four pieces. What beautiful music!
I adopt Mr. Suleiman's suggestion of a world without borders. Does that mean I let people walk into my apartment at will? Yes, and they do not. They have their own lives to lead. Better we work together. Everything I have and am are yours!
posted by Peter Dizozza 7:59 AM
I'm taking atenolol. And tegretal, a name I just made up because I never heard it before, is actually a name for another medication. Try it sometime. Make up something believable, or even unbelievable, and, surprise, it already exists.
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:42 PM
Yeah, I'm actually feeling quite weird regarding my heart's ability to palpitate uncontrollably in a uselessly short-circuited rhythm. What's the sequence? Oh, forget it. I'm taking tegretal. Also, I lost my keys out of the hole in my jacket. Also, I managed to have a superhoot with no one there. I had a good set. Other people were there staying after the act before or waiting for the act after and I received 20 dollars in tips for a half hour set. Your events are what you make them, and sometimes more. I disappointed Fenton Lawless who came out for the superhoot. Apparently there was no 10:30 act so there was dead space from 10:30 until 11. That's what I get for leaving during the prior act. I'm on jury duty, too. The criminal cases are fascinating, but stupid! A rich callgirl cocaine afficianado calls his DEA friends when someone tries to extort from him, the other two I know less of... One involved asking the prospective jury the question, Do you have any reservations about the gypsy people or, as they are called, Gypsies???? Then one about an eccentric memorabilia collector who may have been robbed by a long haired lanky friend.
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:48 PM
I'm transferring notes from a piece of paper, one step from being refuse, to the electronic media! Having just jumped from the michaeldouglas.blogspot I will proceed with the Goethe/Lange Werther quotes: Stir within me sensations of love, joy, rapture and delight, which I already possess, though otherwise dormant. I must already possess them for you to be able to make me feel them, because you cannot make happy he who stands before you cold and indifferent. -- that's quite a paraphrase. Werther was leaving the company of a prince to return to his principle obsession/love interest, the married Charlotte (She gives me access to all I possess.).
Here are some of his problems with the prince:
And now, here he is, talking only of things which he has either read or heard of, and always from the point of view from which they have been represented by others, it's The Prince!
I lose patience when, glowing with imagination, I express my feelings about art and nature and he, thinking to be especially understanding, spoils everything with his cliches!
Finally, "I have heard of a noble race of horses that instinctively bite open a vein when they are hot and exhausted by a long run, in order to breathe more freely. I am often tempted to open a vein to gain everlasting liberty for myself."
(Paraphrases and quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), translated by Victor Lange (1949).
posted by Peter Dizozza 12:14 PM
nothing nothing nothing monumental momentary clarity nothing nothing repeat repeat repeat repeat
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:12 PM
Moods are off kilter tonight.
The words that reduce me to tears, sung by composer Kate Bush, are "I just know that something good is going to happen. I don't know when, but just SAYING it can even make happen."
"Comfort ye, my people."
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:44 PM
That dip in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday during Patsy's party really unrested my inner expansiveness! Help.
posted by Peter Dizozza 5:50 PM
One indictment of selfishness after the other... I'm selfish. It limits me. I go from one avoidance to another. I got a taste of something last night, of limitless possibility, and I became afraid of the serendipity. Behaviour is predictable, especially the behaviour of the unobserved.
posted by Peter Dizozza 7:49 PM
I really have to cut out this 120 dollar a month all in one time warner cable. "Who the hell are you to touch my niggers?" It's Mandingo, a movie about to burst with violence but for now, it's just master slave sadism. This movie was everywhere meaning along the subway walls in a monster ad campaign when I was riding that old F train to Arch Bishop Malloy High School. I'm shocked to see James Mason doing an accent job on the US South. "Marry a white girl, then no more black girls, can't have 'em." "Oh yes you can, saves her from having to submit and when she do you keep on your shirt and drawers..." "New Orleans, that's the place to go, they remove clothes there." Mason has his feet on the cute little black boy and now it's time for a horsedriven carriage ride. The slaves are a marchin' with their american flag leading the way. What am I watching here at 12:24 Thursday morn? Tomorrow, perhaps to the Guggenheim, all I have to do is find the invitation for the Moving Pictures Exhibit opening. "You got that old Mandingo buck, the best fighting niggers..." I see a Spartacus in the making... The hotel staff just dropped off the girls for the guys, little black girls pawed by the white men. You take the virgin, I don't want no hard work. Wap, slaps the no hard worker, a real surprise for her. "Yes master." This does play upon issues of inadequacy and domination. These guys need serious therapy, or serious acknowledgment. One of the guys is sickened by the others whipping tendency. The pretty skinny girl with the tightly cut hair looks compassionately back at him for being different, for caring what a white man does with his wenchy. His leg is somehow lame... Oh, it's getting romantic and except for their size the male and female could be compatible. "I like you, sir... please you..." Tears for both. Press the info button. 1975.
I liked Ghost World, an infinitely watchable film, nearly 'til the end, it's the sequel to Revenge of the Super Nerds Part One, which is better known as Crumb. (Thank you, Queens Library DVD Collection)
I saw the exact same portion, the last hour, of Polanski's The Ninth Gate, again tonight following my visit to Don Shaw's for some Latin Jazz playing, an experience that stands apart from my daily activity, as does the experience yesterday with Amachi...
Ah movies. What impressed me, and that's what the mysteries of 8 will consider here, was the Ninth Gate's ever changing landscape. It is an elegant film. Note that Lena Olin recieves suitably sadistic treatement, Polanski subtly stimulating the sadists with the details, her nudity beneath the cape, her flesh wobbling when Frank Langella kicks her away.
Do you expect me to believe The Ultra-Elegant Johnny Depp concerns himself with finding the book pieces for himself? I can't imagine, although he has a convincing response to his delightful female companion, Emmanuel. Okay, I'm posting now, I'm looking up info on her quirkiness. I rather enjoyed their interaction. In fact, I rather enjoy the film. Is that great filmmaking on a panderingly popular level? I love Polanski's film, Cul de sac. For reasons perhaps perhaps obvious to all but myself,
I feel very close to his work.
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:47 PM
Emmanuelle Seigner is married to Roman Polanski. She makes looking tired look good. Thank you for that and good night.
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:57 PM
Tomorrow is my 15 year Law School Reunion and the opening of The Prepare to Meet Your Maker SIng-A-Long Song-A-Thon at the WAH Center. How to attend both... hm.
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:16 PM
In 1949 Maurice Sandoz wrote about the Tsatsa, the Jivaro's shrunken head (The woman for whom he was obtaining it dies before he can give it to her! His head, thereafter, shrinks while the Tstasa's head expands. The fun in the story precedes these disappointing denouements.). The book containing this and other stories about conversations with the insane, with illustrations by Salvador Dali, is entitled "On The Verge."
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:50 AM
The mixture of elation and sadness is extreme again. It is tempered with an unusual hope based upon the uniqueness of the circumstance, despite its elements of familiarity. It's something new based upon a new combination.
For those who don't know, 'cause I didn't...
1. You ask me challenging questions about myself.
2. I answer.
3. You listen.
4. I fall in love with you.
It's narcissism. I do the same with you. It's narcissism. Two people in love? Narcissism. Speaking like someone who knows about this is also narcissism.
posted by Peter Dizozza 9:20 AM
Go forth with the intent to do something and see what you get. If you don't find love, the consolation prize will be to achieve what you set out to do.
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:32 PM
Edward Di Maio came by the office today. I worked with him in the distant past and knew him as Eddie Dimaio. He resides with a family of Quakers in Lafayette Indiana. Major breakthroughs occurred in his life when he met his father -- he no longer needed to look for his father in other people. He teaches breathing as a meditation and is preparing for publication a book of poetry. His website is http://www.thefaceofmay.com.
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:09 PM
I herein acknowledge the death during the month of April of three friends under 45, in order of departure, Alex Reyes, Horace White and Robert O'Connor.
posted by Peter Dizozza 12:23 PM
Listening to Marshall Mathers I realize,
If it's not sex to have babies, it doesn't matter which sex you are.
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:04 AM
Kim pointed out that The Piano Teacher looks interesting. To my surprise, the film credits Isabella Hupert as the lead. There is an isolated history within the vast subgroup, French Cinema. I'm trying to remember any films that do not stem from the isolated history -- Oh, Cocteau's films. That's another subgroup including Melville. One of my favorite films is Melville's film of Cocteau's Les Infants Terribles.
The other delightful stream of films connects with Depardeau and others, including Ms. Hupert above. Bertrand Blier is director.
Oh, The Piano Teacher is from Germany. Michael Haneke directed. David Denby writing for The New Yorker loved it.
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:24 AM
666
777
888
big dealExcuse me, I saw some scenes from Chinatown, the names Alonso, Polanski, Houston, Nicholson Dunnaway, Towne, may come to mind. Are there any shots that look like when it was made? Are there hairstyles or minor details that reveal THE NINETEEN SEVENTIES? Finally, please filmmakers, be careful with manipulating and enhancing natural lighting. If you are filming during what is supposed to be a certain time of day you may only have 10 or 15 minutes in which to do so.
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:51 AM
Who governs the land I own? Me. I am Caesar and this is my Palace. If I say you're on the 31st floor, you are, even if there are only 15 below you!
posted by Peter Dizozza 8:07 AM
A great big debt I left unpaid
I borrowed on love I’d not yet made.I have to go to love today
I’ve got to love. I love to live.
I love so hard from nine to five.More than any buccaneer is
How much love I make a year.But now I’m on vacation, dear.
Pornography is knowledge here.
And knowledge shatters paradise.
Meet me there. I’ll see you guys!Love, Peter
posted by Peter Dizozza 2:07 PM
The John Seroff Eleventh Hour played for four performances at The WAH Center. Guided by the 1999 version and inspired by the recent discovery of the 1974 version, he raised the dramatic opportunities.
In 1999 I received a La MaMa commission to write a play for their Experiments reading series and, with nothing but the Lost Horizon album with the reordered track sequence to guide me, I wrote it.
In December I found the electronics notebook with the 1974 version
John has the thirteen year-old boy create the story for the audience in real time. The six actors do all in their power to share his visions. I have enpowered John Seroff and he, unlike me, is not afraid of people not liking him. He willingly creates and braves the storm.
The Eleventh Hour history is as follows: Note that every presentation has received a good attendance. Despite and because of the danger in content and presentation, mounting a production of this play is a good investment opportunity.
March 13, 1999 at La Mama La Galleria with Cheryl and Jeff
Two more performances at La TeaDecember 30th, 2001, the Sidewalk Toby and Cockroach event.
My reading at The Dempsey's Pub of the 1974 version on February 10th, 2002
March 15, 16, 22 & 23 2002 WAH Center performances of the John Seroff version (Jennifer Stuckert and Nadja Stokes).
posted by Peter Dizozza 1:10 PM
Oh sure, I saw Pollock, the movie, thanks to Jon Berger and his efforts to obtain interesting DVDs from the library, and through it I learned how to make the work of a well know artist appear negligible: Ignore the continuous line dripping that made studying his paintings such fun for some.
posted by Peter Dizozza 10:10 PM
[2/6/2002
8:46:30 PM | Peter Dizozza] [1/11/2002 10:17:02 PM | Peter Dizozza] [12/20/2001 7:32:54 PM | Peter Dizozza]
Kim and I left New York on Friday evening, January 25th, 2002, traveling on
British Airways. It was soothing to have the liquid screens showing movies on
the back of the seats in front of us. Legally Blond, The Curse of the Jade
Scorpion...
Saturday.
We met Matt and Goldmund at 12 Bar. Ms. Harper played, then Matt. He played a
great set. I met Andy there. When I told him my River Bar gig on Wednesday was
cancelled he invited me to come by there to play. Paul from On-Line TV taped
Matt's show.
Sunday we met Matt and Goldmund (with Matt's friend, Chris) in Camden Town. We
played at the Golden Lion. They had an open stage prior to the main act (Matt)
so I played two songs there, with Matt on guitar. It's a family bar, on a Sunday
night? The place was packed with the regulars. Matt's performance there was
simply historic. A woman, Claire, from totallyradio.com interviewed Matt.
Monday Kim and I went to Phil's Up All Night Open Stage at the Spice of Life. Up
All Night? They actually close up promptly at 11. Matt came by later. I played
there, and met Amber, a black girl with braces, Egils from here, Yuka from here,
and this piano fellow who played with Yuka, Joe Quillin. They have a nice piano.
Tuesday Kim and I saw a Sondheim revue, There's Always a Woman, performed on a
stage filled with sand -- is it the Bahamas or the Sahara?
Wednesday I played at 12 Bar. Rick Siegel was there, updating me on OnLineTV.
Magoo and Kaito were playing acoustic sets. I was the opening act. Kaito was
exceptional. Phil's office is 5 doors down so I went up there and wrote
something about our activities for his Up All Night fanzine.
Thursday to Glasgow to play with Matt at the State Bar there. I met Francis
Macdonald and his assistant, Heather MacDonald, no relation, in fact she's from
North Carolina... Flying back and forth was great.
Friday, we played at The Spice of Life. Matt took the train back and there were
delays because of weather and striking so he arrived in time to play a half hour
from 10:30-11.
Saturday, I played at the acoustic front stage by the bar of the Cockpit
Theatre, it was like Manhattan Theatre Source with the "two stages."
Sunday, Kim and I headed to New York. It was soothing to have the liquid screens
showing movies on the backs of the seats in front of us.
You know, the ever expanding universe is not the greatest thing because it means
that the distance between us is increasing. Nor is love necessarily the answer,
especially for intellectuals who are more susceptible to passionate obsession as
a result of allowing it into their lives. Ask Sherlock Holmes. You know, this is
a little post.
A day passes and a project is that much closer to completion in a race against
time. There are so many projects in various stages of development, and what of
the necessities of life? Take care of the barest of them and proceed with
project development. We'll get it done, then others can take it and grow with
it. Everything is in process. I can go back in time to recover works imperfectly
preserved, newly preserved in this digital age. I found a cassette recording of
songs from The Augusteia, an opera I worked on in the 70's. I made a wave file
out of a performance of "Out of The Grave." The first verse is
Feels like I've just woke up out of the grave,
And every evening I'm expecting the same,
The same sleepy spoof of what I have done
Throughout the makings of a typical day. I'd hate to
Look back on all this as being some kind of highpoint cause I'm
Just feeling strangely in the usual way.
There. It's regenerated.
What's the point of being prolific if the work's not great? Is the material
worthwhile? It's not a question, it simply is. Enough of that. I have my own
life to live, I life I barely care to live in an effort to transfer life into
work, and myself into my own audience. Sharing and developing go hand in hand.
Beware of recidivism... Now back to my old ways...
[11/24/2001
10:41:17 PM | Peter Dizozza]
The mystery of the November 12th post below is my reaction to the apparent
malfunction crash of the Dominican Republic bound American Airlines jet. Since
then I have learned that Chris and Laura Evangeliste would have been on that
flight had it not been for a fundraiser at the West Side Tennis Club. Anyway,
the fundraiser was not for the WTC disaster so I still have no direct awareness
of or contact with any order or sense in the universe.
[11/12/2001 8:55:10 PM | Peter Dizozza]
Talk about coincidence, these morning surprises two months apart, and one year
after the car vandalism, well, the car vandalism was highly personal. It was a
year ago that we returned from Art OMI for my friend, Jeff's birthday, and, Oh
My. I'm calling now to wish Jeff a happy birthday.
I'm on the phone with him .
[11/9/2001 7:47:15 PM | Peter Dizozza]
and the accidents occurred at either the point of departure or destination...
[11/9/2001 7:46:39 PM | Peter Dizozza]
On September 26th I posted here that "Dr. Evil did this to pit East against
West! This is the classic James Bond story. Thank heavens we haven't taken
the bait and have shown such restraint." On October 7th, the US attacked
Afghanastan. A friend suggested that we had and have to do something; the
anonymous aggressive act against us serving to focus our efforts, which had
frankly grown dissipated.
This week I came across many motor vehicle cases that reminded me of the world
trade center tragedy, in that drivers of stolen cars kept smashing into
passenger filled gypsy cabs. hmm...
[10/21/2001 8:28:31 PM | Peter Dizozza]
Here's a mystery. My sister, Monica, was a member of the choir in the soundtrack
to the movie, Fame. You remember that insanely melodramatic early Alan Parker
production that became his and MGM's gift to the student bodies of the NYC High
Schools of Music and Art and Art and Design.
Well, Joie DBG understandably mispelled my surname in the upcoming East Village
Outdoor Antifolk Revue at the Central Park Bandshell (The Revue is this Sunday,
October 28th.) so I ran a search under the name as mispelled, with the reversed
zs.. dizzoza.. during my search for listings...
Monica came up with the mispelled last name in the Barnes and Nobles credit
listing for Fame, with a link to Naytionz
Capital. So the question is, Why does Barnes and Nobles list my sister as one of
the producers of Fig Naytionz new album,
Naytionz Capital? Here it is:
Album Credits
Fig Naytion
Primary Artist
Phonk Beta
Producer
Monica Dizzoza
Producer
Arthur Griffith
Executive Producer
Brotha Lynch Hung
Producer
Digital Pablo
Producer
Perhaps it's a good album. To order go to
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=3DAXREPTED&ean=806907200129
In addition to Fame, Alan Parker made a hideous Diane Keaton/Albert Finney film
and the much more hideous, and thus, I
think he hit his mark that time, film called Angel Heart. Midnight Express, The
Pink Floyd Wall... these, too... I love the Angel
Heart Coney Island scene...
Say, I am preparing a presentation of my new entertainment, The Golf Wars,
scheduled for Lou Rodgers November 6th
Square One.
-- Heroism, pretending to be something you're not, and explaining to people that
you're "on" to who they REALLY are --
these are among its elements... Now to assemble them.
Naytionz -- couldn't it be Nayshunz?
[9/26/2001 8:14:58 PM | Peter Dizozza]
Dr. Evil did this to pit East against West! This is the classic James Bond
story. Thank heavens we haven't taken the bait and have shown such
restraint.
[9/19/2001
1:20:48 PM | Peter Dizozza]
The New Yorker raises the issue of trust and how trust keeps us functioning as
an organic unit as we follow individual paths.
Let this horrible exposure of "their" feelings pave a path toward
mutual peace and understanding between all human beings,
and leave the acts of destruction to nature and life forms from outer space.
[9/16/2001 3:36:46 PM | Peter Dizozza]
Gypsies from Egypt roam from Egypt to Rome
Trapped in a state of Bohemia.
Bohemian girl bring your sunshine to me
To my home in Beirut by the sea.
Living in Freedom again.
Freely my mind gets to wandering
Free to roll over the caps on the water
Free to dig holes in the sand.
[9/11/2001 3:51:39 PM | Peter Dizozza]
They used knives and box cutters. They directed enormous gasoline tanks. This
could have been a very low budget disaster, still, requiring great flying skill.
[9/11/2001 9:19:56 AM | Peter Dizozza]
They killed the Twin Towers. It was a slow execution. It was a display. We were
the audience, completely passive to reversing its death, we watched. The act of
observing changed nothing. There was nothing anybody could do, but evacuate! We
are getting rid of those towers. No more talk. They are down. First the
greenpoint gas tanks of "KEYSPAN," good practice for the bigger
project.
[9/11/2001 9:03:11 AM | Peter Dizozza]
The poor old world trade center, let's see, those artist offices that people
applied for, the entire Landmark Forum, relocating from the old Yeshiva owned
building on 39th and 5th. My friend, Lawrence Schindelheim, working for a court
of claims judge there. Surely he evacuated. Mary Robinson worked for a trademark
attorney there. I remember him firing her and me asking him to explain. He was
pretty open with me, boy did he feel betrayed. Well, his office is gone. They
compared marks from a book with marks picked up in South America, these marks
were TRADE MARKS. She was ill fit for office work.
[9/11/2001 8:57:41 AM | Peter Dizozza]
They didn't like those buildings. I wonder why.
[9/11/2001 7:27:18 AM | Peter Dizozza]
The end of the tall buildings. Difficulty is apparent in attempting to deal with
the activity up there, and of course, Kamikaze flights into the building make
for a great challenge. A plane struck one world trade center. While we're
watching another plane struck two word trade center, lower, never would have
expected that, then something crashed into the pentagon after Bush spoke of god
blessing America, he's in Florida on his way to Washington. Next, two world
trade center collapsed. That's it for now. Hey, who turned on the television
this morning to catch it all, Tony. The smoke here, oh dear. There is an odor in
the air...
[9/6/2001 9:44:17 PM | Peter Dizozza]
The mousy-moved cursor darts jerkily across the screen. I wonder if it has
anything to do with the infestation of corrupting data I download through
aimster. The machine's synapses are spastically epileptic. We'll work through
it.
[9/6/2001 9:38:56 PM | Peter Dizozza]
Lauren Barrett Porter went from Ocipita to Helena in an impressive way. She
played in the guerilla theatre production of Midsummer Night's Dream at
Washington Square Park, a well directed production that used the relocating of
the stage and audience scene changes to build momentum in an already energized
performance. I spotted Tom O'Horgan in the audience looking amused and involved.
He's the man who did such a number on the original Broadway production of Jesus
Christ Superstar, and did a finer job, I suppose, with Hair, and definitely a
fine job with Futz. He is a source for all instruments musical
MTV hosted their awards at the MET Opera House, a resonant building and a career
destination if there ever was one for Peter Dizozza, the theatrical composer.
They were over their head, but that's what happens when you insist upon
competence only slightly beyond what your audience has, otherwise your audience
won't be suckered into thinking that it could be them up there, and the bottom
falls out of their incentive for watching you. Oh dear. It does make for an
embarrassing display. All the best to them, of course.
Even as earlier projects call for work and training to arrive at stages of
completion, new ones are calling. I see Bottom and his troupe putting on the
play, and the sense of superiority they bestow upon their audience. These
amateurs who rely upon other trades for their livelihood advance theatre that
diffuses its content, lest it distress. Pyramis and Thisbe. How doubly gruesome!
This portion of the play was beautifully acted and enacted, and is the substance
of the Midsummer Night's Dream.
[9/5/2001 8:11:22 AM | Peter Dizozza]
After the Porters Union concluded their PTMYM Electric Ladyland Recording
session, Kessel and Kenny Davidsen were talking about a song I had obsessed
about as a child. Gilbert O'Sullivan said his parents were alive and well, yet
he pulled our heart strings, and it sounded great. You know that song... John
Kessel intends to sing it. I liked singing it, with a bounce, singing a final
lyric about how I made up the whole thing on the advice of my manager, but hey,
it's simply a fine song. And looking back over the years, and whatever else that
appears... Congratulations, Mr. O'Sullivan.
Tony showed me Aimster a few months ago and, after losing my hard drive and
toying with it as a slave drive, I was Aimster-up-and-running in a matter of
seconds. Kim was watching Wiseman's High School. The Simple Simon Song was on
the screen and playing off the computer almost concurrently.
The computer plays the great pop song, Alone Again Naturally, good heavens, such
a pretty song. Good acoustic guitar solo!
[8/25/2001 10:40:36 AM | Peter Dizozza]
Last night at Arlene Grocery The Stones Beggars Banquet album received a
brilliant performance by noted musicologist Tammy Faye Starlight and other
members of the Mike Hunt band, including Steve Espinola performing the piano
parts of Nicky Hopkins. Ms. Starlight played Mick Jagger, who himself played The
Devil in the 1968 recording. The percussion in Sympathy for the Devil developed
over time under the supervision of Goddard documented in the film of the same
title.
[8/19/2001 1:33:38 PM | Peter Dizozza]
The Phenomenon of Leonard Lehrman -- a composer on the fringes of greatness who
draws upside-down response from his peers.
His immediate peers fit into two groups that may be defined by niche terms, such
an oversimplification being easily objectionable but here are the terms
ingrained in my mind and they help to familiarize us, as in volumes of
information delivered through shorthand.
People get characterized as Jews, Gays, Episcopals, Catholics, Blacks, Italians,
Irish, Midwesterners, et cetera. The first two are highly triggerable, yet here
goes because they have a niche element. People characterized thus may actually
characterize themselves.
Jewish culture is solid; it may provide the most solid organized lifestyle. It
continues to stand the test of time. Christianity, Islam, Rabbi Schnierson
Lubivitchers, these are fads arising like weeds in a stone...
And, of course, same sex intercourse has yet to produce offspring... Help me.
I'm writing out of ignorance to learn. There are many subjective impressions and
by expressing them I hope to arrive at the illusive elusive objective reality.
Some people make a point of being gay. Must I define it? Would that sexuality
were so simple. (I ask the same question to those attempting to fit into and
live their lives by way of a religious definition.)
I'm currently so far removed from this musical world that I'm ready to conclude
this essay.
There is the Eric Gordon biography of Marc Blitzstein. There is Leonard
Bernstein's extramarital activities. There is the essay posted at
Michaeldouglas.blogspot.com... Do certain lifestyles lend themselves to
achieving greatness, and is that greatness of necessity controversial?
Leonard's muse, for the past 12 years, is the talented singer/actress Helene
Williams. She is to him what Lotte Lenya was to Kurt Weil. Leonard graduated
from Harvard. He has a childish laugh, almost like he's afraid to laugh out loud
for being found to be naughty. There is a willingness to be silly about him, as
he deals with powerful subject matter, perhaps to diffuse it and make it
palatable. He does communicate fascinating ideas. Is it because of his music
that he does so or is the music incidental to the ideas? I relate to him, and
feel that my work is a product of being exposed and involved with his work.
There is iron within him. As he documents injustice through his work, he directs
its participants with an iron fist. The terms a kinder, gentler Leonard sound
encouraging, and he has become that, mellowing with time. He writes beautiful
music and draws attention to other work, particularly the work of Marc
Blitzstein. He devotes his life to music and through it to other causes to which
he's given his respect and which deserve our attention -- naturalisme, anarchy,
the dangers of bras, Emma Goldman, the innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti and
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Professor Irwin Corey, The Long Island Music Scene
including Joel Mandelbaum, the performing genius of Tom Lehrer. I acknowledge
him now for completing the opera begun in 1960 by Marc Blitzstein and left
incomplete at his death in 1964, entitled Sacco and Vanzetti, which premiered
this weekend at Lucille Lortel's White Barn Theatre.
[8/14/2001 3:08:48 PM | Peter Dizozza]
I'm noticing Little Oscar's postings include people's favorite albums AND THEIR
REASONS for inclusion.
Jeff Lewis’s “Indie Fortune Cookie” because of its wide variety of pop
folk styles. It is purely performance, since it originated on cassette tape, and
that's the format in which I heard it. The only thing done to produce it was to
play it. It includes Jackson's hilarious "Man With the Golden Arm," it
has Second Avenue, the Chelsea Hotel, The song about the little reptiles, this
is just off the top of my head. It's incredibly engaging. By the way, another
miracle album of this simple pure performance recording caliber is Major Matt
Mason's Me Me Me.
By the way, these are favorite albums. There are tracks or moments on albums
that far surpass, however, the entire albums listed are favorites. For example,
Jeff Lewis' album can be listened to in its entirety.
Espinola/Wolf’s “Lifeaphobia” This has quite a bit more work done to
create the sonic experience. Every song is great and the spoken word elements
are great. It's entirely musical and shows how good Beck's albums could be (The
only "Beck" album I know, and love, is Mellow Gold, and it reminds me
of this one). Lifeaphobia contains an interesting balance between the two
writers. Steve Espinola has a talent one might find out of control. He does a
big bopper performance that shows how entertaining such a style of singing can
be. All his songs are unbelievably good, and they are tempered by the
introspective Mr. Wolf, whose memorable line is, I'm an old man now in this
town.
Zappa’s Mother’s “Only in it for the Money” See, this is an example of
an entertaining album from beginning to end. Zappa's moments on other albums are
unsurpassable musical breakthroughs. Waka Jawaka, Uncle Meat, 200 Motels, even
the hilarious Live at the Fillmore.
"Only in It" has Billy the Mountain and Magdalena and other stuff I
can't remember. The packaging was very appealing. Billy the Mountain is a
compendium of pop music of the moment.
Bowie’s “Man Who Sold the World” Again, many moments in Bowie's albums far
surpass this one, but in its entirety it is quite outrageous and direct. The
spoken word opening to the Diamond Dogs album, with the Rogers and Hart riff, is
an incredible favorite. In fact, that album has beautiful sounds through and
through.
Man Who Sold the World has Shook Me Cold and Width of a Circle and the one
that's becoming a standard cover. By the way, the album cover went through
phases, with Bowie lounging ala Hunky Dory, the one that remains, but I like the
cartoon one of the Texan that tried to take a shot at him.
Stones’ “Beggar’s Banquet” also has a great substitute cover to the
silly toilet scrawls.
Chubby Checker’s “Let’s Limbo Some More” (the album with “Birdland”)
Gina Bacchauer’s “Scriabin Prelude’s/Brahms Waltzes”
Mostel’s “Fiddler on the Roof” (first soundtrack of Bock/Harnick Score)
Genesis’ “Selling England by the Pound”
Dylan’s “Desire”
[8/9/2001 4:27:02 PM | Peter Dizozza]
We're going to Michigan, land of the lakes, where people know their state like
the back of their hand because that's what it resembles, the left hand.
Actually, you need to use the right hand, palm up, in order to illustrate (with
the left two fingers) the Northern peninsula. So what's going on over there? How
crowded can it be? Kim grew up there. Her family lived there for generations.
It's so US American and yet so independent from New York. Even California
consists of transplants from New York, plus it has a familiar coast mentality
even if that's where the sun sets, so to speak
We learned a lot more about a state we visited during our last trip, Louisiana,
in a film that was almost the equivalent of a satire on the gulf oil subject,
Robert Flaherty's last film, Louisiana Story. Naturally beautiful, even when the
oil riggers set up their Christmas tree. They hit a steam hole, some 12 thousand
feet underground, and manage to bypass it after spilling up gaseous fumes. The
peace of the bayou, returns, after the riggers leave but a contortion of pipes,
creating a natural fuel station for ships that pass... no meters to measure the
removal of the "natural resource." Virgil Thompson provided the score
for the film. Flaherty's final direction was for the naturalistic Nanook-like
cast to KEEP SMILING, whatever you do, because that rig is nasty. Well, we've
been down there and now, well, that's all their is on the Mississippi Delta. You
won't be meeting any Acadian swamp dwellers he met in 1948, only their children,
working on the oil rigs... Oh Evangeline! What a gulf coast. What a hotbed of
Western Civilization!
Kim is always up to something interesting, and the other film she pulled out of
the library, which I know for Negulusco, the director, Astaire, the entertainer,
and for Caron, the truly talented stand-in for the under aged ingénue, Kim
pulled out for its status as a literary adaptation of a book, an epistolary
book, told in letters by a young lady to her, yes that's right, Daddy Long
Legs.... And to all you Spiders from Mars, remember, The Female of the Species
is More Deadly Than the Male.
[8/3/2001 11:53:42 AM | Peter Dizozza]
Pursuant to Little Oscar’s pleasantly brain-stimulating request, my favorite
albums are
Jeff Lewis’s “Indie Fortune Cookie”
Espinola/Wolf’s “Lifeaphobia”
Zappa’s Mother’s “Only in it for the Money”
Bowie’s “Man Who Sold the World”
Stones’ “Beggar’s Banquet”
Chubby Checker’s “Let’s Limbo Some More” (the album with “Birdland”)
Gina Bacchauer’s “Scriabin Prelude’s/Brahms Waltzes”
Mostel’s “Fiddler on the Roof” (first soundtrack of Bock/Harnick Score)
Genesis’ “Selling England by the Pound”
Dylan’s “Desire”
Other favorites from the twentieth century’s Eighth decade:
Yes’s “Close to the Edge”
Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “Tarkus”
Jethro Tull’s “War Child”
King Crimson’s “Red”
The first recording of Sondheim’s “Follies”
William Finn’s “March of the Falsettos”
I saw the tape of Sunday's Pro-Choice on MH set. As a band we
were out of control. We had a strong audience response to the first song which
was quite a charge, and after that we were banging away pretty persistently. As
for the park event piano dropping glitch -- Pete the Piano Killer, said Joie --
I returned the piano to Drew Blood today. It works. Drew resuscitated his
keyboard, as he has so many times before. That's a great keyboard, even if, or
is it because, it weighs 90 pounds.
After catching the end of Lenny Malatov's set, I went to Jordan Pfister's
apartment to watch the tapes of our recent shows, which is a good rule of thumb
more honored in the breach.
The piano fell during the park event only when I concluded the second song. It
fell at the last chord. Honestly, I bow and when I first saw the tape I thought
my head or my elbow hit it. It was falling after I lifted my hands, before I
began leaning. It could have just as easily fallen two chords before the end.
Amen.
Next, Jordan pulled out a Cafe Bustello fundraiser tape from 1988. He had a
friend who played there with, oh, what's her name. Heather? She is a wonderful
performer and she doesn't need me to plug her here, she's doing very well and
has much compassionate enlightenment to offer us. It's Heather Woodbury. Amazing
writer performer.
The fundraiser event was at Cuando, which I now know is not spelled Quando, a
place I know because I was victim to a most successful vandalization in front of
it and I suspected the squatters there of providing the hiding place for all the
equipment taken from my car.
Cuando is across from La MaMa La Galleria and the tape makes it look like a
major auditorium.
One of the featured performers introduced by Jennifer Blowdryer was Lach. This
is Lach in 1988. Long haired, slender, very attractive, handsome, intelligent,
unbelievably magnetic and defiant. A cross between Bowie and Nicholson, but
unique as well. It's unquestionably him, the same person who performs and hosts
the weekly antihoots today. He sang two songs, including his version of Femme
Fatale. That tape was a blast of light on the darkeningly disappearing past. We
have continuity!
posted by Peter 9:56 PM
Comments: Post a Comment
I'm still suffering from pro-choice on mental health interruptus.
We only played four songs from the performance on Sunday! It has created a
strong incentive to book another show. Joe Bendik played with us and he's
already called Hens and Jordan to play with him. Maybe we can book one big night
to officially release the PConMH CD. One of the audience members who bought the
CD on Sunday told me to get it into Kim's Video in case he reviews it.
Kim's Video was originally a Dry Cleaner that began renting VHS tapes.
Meanwhile, the North West Corner of 2nd Avenue and St Marks (E.8th St) was a
movie theatre. There I saw Evil Dead. Suddenly Kim's was an underground video
store on the second floor by what was once this movie theatre, and foreign
obscure films became available there. What a gallery that second floor was! Now
it's moved up nearer Third Avenue. That's the big store with three flights at
least, and it also carries underground music. There are other locations, one
conveniently across from Sidewalk. There is also a Kim's Dry Cleaner (These are
on Avenue A). Remember when all the corner deli's suddenly became operated by a
Miss Kim?
posted by Peter 9:31 AM
Comments: Post a Comment
There are no mosquitoes around, and again I have a cold. Aha!
There's spraying going on in these parts.
Other contributing factors to a feeling of illness which is going away as I type
-- the full body swedish massage I had at The Penninsula Spa yesterday.
The membership coordinator, a pleasantly handsome fellow named Dennis,
recommends the Champagne facial.
One of the fellows there took my shoes and returned them with a beautiful shine.
These are super shoes by "Havana Joe" and before he restored them,
they looked dry and beaten. Now they leave a black mark upon whatever they
touch.
One of the guys in the steam room, referring to it, said to another guy,
"You put one of these in your place?"
I sarcastically thought, yeah, sure.
He said, Yeah, sure, but not as big as this.
"How big?"
"Actually about as big is this. We had to drop the ceilings."
"You can't have the ceilings too high."
"No, the steam rises."
One of them was spraying.
I thought, give me that, and said, "What makes the menthol?" No
ingredients listed, just a warning: Flammable. "What is this stuff?"
He shrugged.
My skin was soft from the oils.
"My corpse is ready for its close-up Mr. Demille!"
posted by Peter 1:01 PM
Comments: Post a Comment
The Sidewalk Cafe faces the Pyramid Club. Anti-hootenany faces Drums and Bass. Spencer said he played the Pyramid and picked up strange vibrations. When else did he feel them? I went in there, having run into my old friend and former roommate, Kenny Nowell, who was going there following a look into sidewalk. He was researching music for a play. He and Justine Lambert run the Looking Glass Theatre. The guy at the pyramid gate stopped me, asking for ID. I said, after providing him with it, "I was here back when William Burroughs was dancing with Beat Rodeo!" The 8 dollar admission really stopped me. Anyway, the lyricless music sounded ok. Beats and Bass, Bass and Drum, Drums and Bass! And some high industrial construction clanking, clanging in independent counterpoint.
posted by Peter 10:15 PM
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Hi, We saw the Yankees Tuesday, Kim, Linda, Kenny and I, and
here's why they won. One of the Detroit Tigers caught the fly, yer out, and
tossed it to someone closer to the plates and oops, that guy fumbled, dropped
it, and hey, bases loaded, might as well bring in some homers. Two runs for the
yankees and they only won by one, 'cause one of the tigers hit a homer to the
far right field (change pitchers,) then one of the tigers just hits a home run
down the center about as far as it has ever been hit, nearly 475 feet. (CHANGE
PITCHERS!)
I was excited that I would maybe say hello to my old friend Eddie Layton but I
had no idea from where his organ emanates. In fact, crowd control is the major
issue and once the game is over, no one lingers.
Eddie Layton was friends with one of my friends, Eddie Dimaio, immortalized in
that early Cinema VII film, The Ruins, circa 1969. It was ten years later that
the two Eddies became friends. I visited him in his climate controlled apartment
three times. I wonder if he still has that amazing miniature train set?
I was self-abused as a child and I've decided to sue the city for not sending me
a social worker, even though it happened long ago because infancy tolls the
statute of limitations and my infancy extends into my forties. I actually did
file a claim against NYC today but that's because 90 days ago the thin front
wheel of my childhood racing bike slipped into a grating of parallel bars,
sending me face first into the metal faster than I could put out my hands,
smashing my teeth and splitting my lip. Yes, I was riding on the sidewalk and
once again I really should commence a lawsuit against myself.
posted by Peter 10:14 PM
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Twelfth Night directed by Chad Stutz required tremendous
cooperation of thirty people, 15 in the cast and 15 behind the scenes, plus the
live band of 2-5 people... One can't blame the cast for hamming a bit.
Malvolio suffers the delusions of any successful masturbator, he believes
himself! He makes reference to the practice in his line about playing with some
rare jewel.
See what happens when you see something twice. What else did I write... I like
the line that THE SEA CAN DIGEST AS MUCH. That's for sure. The Pacific, a big
stomach. The great assimilator. But what hour is this? Time for CAKES AND ALE.
posted by Peter 9:45 PM
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Hey, what's going on here? For one thing VH1 is running a Stevie
Nicks Piano Recital version of Rhiannon, the Gaelic Goddess, but more
specifically, as this little entry makes its way down the page, where did those
little links up there come from??? "Archive," "Email," Tony
Hightower's been working here. He told me to get up (he's a control freak) and
what a pleasure to see him take the controls. Therefore, I can only imagine what
he did (you can actually edit your blogger's html!), and thanks are in order.
He's off to his performance at The Rising Cafe, where the sun also rises, in
Brooklyn!
Now that we have cable and have given ourselves over to the Warner Brothers...
Check out public access. Four stations in Manhattan, 53 67 63 67 are those them,
wait, I have the guide page which they slipped in with the $120 bill. 34, 56, 57
and 67. Damn, I missed Dave's Place which is on every other Friday at 7:30. Oh
well, next time, next time, August 3rd, tune in for when Peter Dizozza talks
about Prepare to Meet Your Maker.
So I get up, he takes the controls, he experiments and discovers the way. I
become the slave; he the master. Great idea, hire a facilitator!
And for the results, thanks, Tony!
posted by Peter 6:46 PM
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With some much going on, what am I looking forward to, aside
from secession? Work... I look forward to the opportunity and to having the
tools. What do I do when the catalogue is done?
I'm realizing, after seeing the Jonathan Larson show on turning thirty, that the
90's have a lost element to them. I have material created then that requires
being retrieved. That also means it reincarnates. The other problem -- I suppose
it is one -- is that I honestly don't have those heightened states of being
today, and when I do, I'm in no position to say so. So I go back and retrieve
the heightened awareness of the past.
Bring on something new, to which I, the objective observer, say yes.
posted by Peter 10:15 AM
The real mysteries of eight occur in musical repetition, trance inducing figures with fluctuations and additions or subtractions in the pattern to gather momentum, like the vamps in Jonathan Larson's new musical, tick tick boom, he who learned to keep continuum under the conversational voices from his mentor, Sondheim, (who learned it from Babbit, no, from Glass, who gradually mutates the vamp), its origins found in rock and roll's boogie woogie bass line. What am I talking about, right? And another thing, if you want to write for theatre you've got to write lists, because your audience is comprised of materialists. A list of questions, a list of attainments. of miscommunications, of acquirements, and keep a vamp going underneath to conceal the sameness of the chord progression. Get to work. And congratulations to Stephen Oremus and, always anonymously in the background, Steve Skinner. Tick tick boom boom at the Jane Street Theatre.
posted by Peter 10:20 PM
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The gas tank demolition proceeded on schedule. We saw it from
the roof of 14 Meadow Street.
Brooklyn Union Gas, following the lead of New York Telephone/Nynex/Verizon, has
renamed itself something completely innocuous in an attempt to transform itself
beyond its purpose and origins (acronyms also do nicely), and improve the
language with a new word like Kleenex, or Xerox, all rights reserved. THE NEW
WORD IS KEYSPAN. Please explain how our children will understand that. It opens
the utility market to free trade. BUG was the only gas source for Brooklyn
stoves, now we have a choice between KeySpan, or some other fly-by-night
company. Anyway, this one, really the one and only one whatever we call it,
dynamited its gas tanks, and did so very well; within 10 seconds the two of
them, 42 stories high, GONE. Oh, the Breslin article reminds me that BUG
dismantled by hand the tanks in Elmhurst, Queens, implication: Who cares about
Greenpoint? (and my father grew up there.)
Bob Mahoney is Keyspan's Spokesperson. 23 acres have opened in Brooklyn.
We were there thanks to Jackson, Jack Lewis, brother of Jeff Lightning Lewis and
member of the excellent band, DP stole my Tea.
Coincidentally, Fred Spadafora and I scheduled shooting Pro-Choice on Mental
Health Promo photos for this morning.
It's also the day of the summer 2001 anti-folk fest brunch, July 15th.
Yesterday, to master the Pro-Choice on Mental Health CD, Alex Abrash and David
Baker analogued the tracks, running them through a 24 track mixing board onto 2
inch 3M tape, then back to CD. We went from digital to analogue to digital. The
operative CD initials are DAD. One of the machines which they thought very
important goes by the name, Nieves.
The Wise Sophia run at Manhattan Theatre Source concluded yesterday.
Here's an article about David Baker: http://www.acousticsounds.com/affiliates/news/baker.html
posted by Peter 7:09 PM
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A RESPONSE TO LITTLE OSCAR'S FAVORITE CONCERTS REQUEST FROM
JUNE, 2001
Yes, thanks to Blogger I've become unstuck at the keyboard. Here's what I sent
him:
I saw Phil Oches drunk on the Alice Tully stage.
I saw Genesis after Peter Gabriel Left.
The Talking Heads Forest Hills Concerts were good. I saw them at Wollman's Skate
Rink with B52s opening. The big suit was somehow the closest thing I saw to a
rock performer's fred astaire homage.
Elvis Costello was usually good. I saw him at Jones Beach and got to meet him
back stage thanks to my sister.
Peter Allen, Bette Midler, it was always easy to walk in on their shows.
Hendricks opened for Monkees at Forest Hills, I was there...
S&G at Forest Hills after Bridge Over release, almost as big as
Beatles at Forest Hills.
Hey, we were outside listening to the ambient yells and fragments of music.
A lady took me to The Ritz, was that Studio 54 at some point? We saw, good
heavens, the girl I loved from a wonderama saturday daytime gig, Edie Brikell.
Then I went to Jones Beach to see her open for the talented guy from the eagles.
She's my favorite.
My other favorite show was Debbie Harry's solo gig at The World....
Uh, we saw David Bowie at the Garden doing his "Stage/Station to
Station" show surrounded by the models, was it a highschool gymnasium, we
splurged on 30dollar tickets which put us in the 14th row. What were all those
people doing up there behind us?
Roy took me to see Prince from the second row. Talented. Radio City used to host
concerts of interesting performers. Susan took me to see Dylan there with the
Saturday Night LIve Band from across the street. Stevie Wonder there was
beatific, truly adored by the women on stage with him, deservedly so, he's a
god.
I love performances by The Voyces, Steve Espinola, Kenny Davidsen, Drew Blood,
John Kessel, Tony Hightower, Lach and The Secrets, Paleface, Lenny Malatov, Dina
Dean, The Heller Project/Syndrome/Boys Wonders, Pine Box, Bendik, Lunchin,
more...
Oh, those Zappa Palladium Halloween shows. The thin crawling cloud of weed smoke
wafting into our nostrils. Rare moments, same as on the albums, but those are my
favorite musical moments to be reexperienced ad infinitum.
posted by Peter 12:11 PM
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Opening night, Wise Sophia opened well with Patsy in the lead.
She went out an author but came back A STAR! It's always a special occasion when
she takes to the stage. Throat illness prevented Regina Spektor from accepting a
gift of greatness from posterity. Afterwards I dropped off my stuff at home and
walked over to a friend's apartment to relax and watch barbarella (I'm being
uncharacteristically discrete here, and will readily stop given the green light)
The Barbarella film lightly stimulated without quite opening a minefield of
obsession from my childhood.
My dear friend has a beautiful pre-war apartment on a tree lined block, and on
the way I saw that it had been speckled with stapled cardboard poster paper that
mounts on street signs, quite prominently announcing a new snoop big doody dog
seedeee (It read "P. Diddly, the Bad Boy Family, the Saga Continues."
I prefer The Beatnuts) so publicists clearly respect the block enough to make
announcements worthy of Irving Place where the concert venues for these things
usually is.
There was also a man sitting on the sidewalk against the building wall head
hunched over into his knees, a plastic bag of kodacolor jigsaw puzzles by his
side.
That block has tendencies that the police of the Guilianni administration do not
tolerate and have not for nearly eight years.
posted by Peter 10:20 PM
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The behind the scene drama continues as the perfectly cast lead,
Regina Spector, suffers from a throat infection. At first I thought it was
unbelievable flakiness but Lach said she cancelled her Sidewalk shows and asked
him for a good throat doctor. Apparently she is suffering from a serious, oh
it's there. Then my song for Ben, the flatulant farmer, turns out to be in the
show, bringing its minutes up to forty, furthermore, a slide projector I
acquired when Mary Robinson moved to Georgia, oh, I've mentioned her in another
context, she has a memorable appearance most readily characterized by mixing
carly simon with a young shirley maclane... Well, I actually bought it from her
after she left it, hell that was in 1982..., well, it's almost time to replace
the bulb.. we're using the projector in the show to show the slides of the
marionettes... they were beautiful, well, to add to the oddity of this lead's
sickness is the loss of the puppets, left in a taxi a week before they were
realized to be missing, now that's a priority issue because these beautiful
creations of such craft and talent are nothing compared to the thing that any
male and female of similar gene pool and minimal or even minus minimal
intelligence can produce. Lose the dolls, because the important thing is the
real thing, the baby. Don't lose the organic creation (...out the baby with the
bathwater), let go of the craft. I didn't leave the baby in the taxi, I left
the, well, everything in proportion, and me, no children, well, my friends and
family have my love. My creations, what are they against the organic forms. Art.
Making the dolls, making the babies, it's all there in Coppelia, should you wish
to further meditate on the subject. Anyway, the future awaits us, It's OPENING
NIGHT!
posted by Peter 11:08 PM
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I am still trying to find this blogger... It's supposed to be,
yes, on the Cinema VII website, the place I go to find out about the projects
and to find great pictures of beautiful people....
Just back from the Grace Revell Fogarty musical, Wise Sophia, rehearsal. It was
at the Musical Theatre Works space by the Public Theatre, a very nice
atmosphere. I hadn't slept much so I feel rather alert, being active all day on
the Pro-Choice on Mental Health Project. Artists Spadafora and Hillis created
splendid renderings for stimulating eyes during the audial contemplation of the
recordings... Fred Spadafora and I ate at the Cheese Sandwich Shop on Ludlow,
then Joe Bendik added his outrageous electric guitar leads to Wall Flowers (I've
been calling it Wall Flour to distinguish from the other great wall flower songs
of Gabriel and Dylan... are there others?). Thereafter I met Kim who felt better
after a nice risotto soup and off we went to rehearsal. Kim has an amazing
performance to offer Wise Sophia audiences and I may even have a number as Ben,
her bitter and unredeemable husband. The lead, Regina Spektor, did not attend so
first we heard Sharon Fogarty sing better than I'd ever heard her, and she's
already amazing, then Patsy herself showed up, what a riot because her foghorn
voice is utterly commanding. By the way, Regina has another amazing voice.
They'll presumably all be in one room soon, that's Manhattan Theatre Source, 177
MacDougal Street, from Tuesday thru Saturday. Then there's Grey Revell, three
great CDs, songwriter performer, portraying our narrator, and married to Patsy,
that's quite a doubling of creative talent (coalescing in children, such as
their first, Julian). Grey has a beautiful voice and it's always exciting to
work with him (He plays Tomas in The Last Dodo film). Brad Thomas as the King,
Linus Gelber as Sophie's Father, Kimberly Mossel as Ben's wife, and of course
most important in the Rashamon version of how the world revolves around the
observations of each of us, Ben, by ME.
I'm printing the new CD, Pro-Choice on Mental Health, to sell at the Wise Sophia
concession stand. Kim made Patsy labels to put on her own CD indicating parental
warnings, in contrast with the child accessible entertainment provided in her
Wise Sophia. So visit the concession stand, we may even have copies of The Last
Dodo soundtrack...
The Pro-Choice CD is sounding very good, thank you Joe Bendik, and I hear that
The Wise Sophia CD is a must, but the show itself will make that CD a must-have.
posted by Peter 9:49 PM
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Peter Dizozza, I Am Curious, Yellow.
Liberate! I hope you're not eating -- rather that you already ate -- as I add
urinate to the mysteries of eight in my continuing search to be compensated for
what I like to do, as I so like the eights.
Blogger has already enlivened the life of my roommate, the phenomenally talented
Tony Hightower (visit the Evil Twin Theory, one of his frightening monikers),
and it has provided a stimulating forum for Jon Berger, our kind spoken word
poet friend, to document himself while in the trenches of a fantastic
professional transition (visit Jon Berger and Berger in Brazil). I'm grateful
for the chance to share in their lives. Jon's writing has alerted me to my own
professional abilities and how I could conceivably be proud of a job I did well.
I'm a jack-of-all-trades when my strengths may simply be in musical composition.
However, because of an aberrant thinking process, I have something to offer in
all disciplines. Each computer program is a new instrument to be played with my
interpretation (for example, photoshop).
Consider losing the identity stamp in an activity where a job simply needs to be
done. It does not need to be a defining accomplishment, just done. What kind of
attitude is that? Anyway, my craft as a composer is more unique, providing a
greater benefit, yet the aberrant thought pattern applies to all disciplines,
and the computer capabilities continue to expand with my desires.
I am interested in defining myself (as a celebrity) through my work, and I want
to be the one to do (and to have done) the work. I put upon myself the
requirement that I must fulfill on expectations. In other words, Project One,
for completion by the end of July, in time for the Summer 2001 Anti-Folk Fest,
is the "Pro-Choice on Mental Health" CD, a seven song cycle with
monologues and mini-play, produced by Joe Bendik. Expectations include packaging
and that means experimenting with new computer programs, and also commissioning
the creative work of Fred Spadafora and Aaron Hillis. But why does Project One,
The CD, exist? Because Joe called me with a question about his position at BMI,
recently terminated most unjustly from the sound of it. Beware how you treat
people beneath you for they may one day appear above you to unseat you in the
workplace.
(At present, Joe is happily repositioned at New York Press, the paper with
mugger editorials.)
After I offered what suggestions I could, he added that the free time from
unemployment gave him the chance to set up a home recording studio. I booked
time there as an experiment and discovered compatibility in his drum
programming, guitar and bass playing. The recording is done. I meet with Fred to
discuss packaging with illustrations Aaron provided this evening.
posted by Peter 11:09 PM
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At Sixes and Sevens? Try the infinite Eights, and be compensated
for what you like to do.
I like to create, negotiate, facilitate, infuriate, irritate, masturbate,
reciprocate & mate, concentrate, infiltrate, exculpate, incubate, frustrate,
berate, rate, regulate, relate, evaluate, dissipate, state, expiate, castrate,
substantiate, intimate, imitate, fluctuate, innovate, activate, emancipate,
illuminate, hate, write 888, the infinite, to compensate and be compensated in
return; and better than to eat, I like to say I ate.
Do I like to govern? No. It's not one of the eights.
I like to list.
I like to imagine.
Being profligate, I don't like to serve, preserve, reserve, deserve or conserve,
but choose the reverse, which is to converse.
posted by Peter 11:06 AM
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From the Blogger, 888.blogspot.com.
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