The first music I remember hearing would be the sounds of the Brill Building. The Shirelles. The Drifters. The Ronnettes. “Be My Baby” is a song I remember hearing in my crib. It remains one of my favorites. Something about that drum beat and the vocal harmony reaches deep within me. Once I was driving my mother somewhere and I popped in a mix-tape…
For some reason, I am cleaning the swimming pool at one of the houses David Lynch owns in the Hollywood Hills. I’ve seen pictures of the houses but I have no idea if any of them actually have a swimming pool. Possibly it is the swimming pool from Mulholland Dr. Which I suppose might make me Gene (played by Billy Ray Cyrus) owner and…
Winter Kills (1979) resides somewhere in a narrow spectrum of genre space between comedy and conspiracy thriller. For this reason, it often gets called a “dark comedy” or “political satire.” Written & directed by William Richert (from a 1974 novel by Richard Condon), the film is a hyper-paranoiac romp through a maddening maze of political conspiracy, organized crime, and family betrayal. The cast is…
There are three material things I love greatly in life, three hedonistic focuses if you will. Coffee, Books, and Movies. I wouldn’t choose a life absent of any one of those things. Not that I’d give up my whiskey, tobacco, marijuana, cherry pie, or chocolate without a violent struggle. Those are just not really the hills I’d choose to die on, all things considered.…
Whenever it takes three flicks of the Zippo to light a joint, I think, “I just got my head blown off in the trenches.” Out walking, I see a penny on the sidewalk. Someone is going to come along and pick that up, I think. But not me. I don’t want to ruin their day. Almost every Tuesday: a hamburger. If there was really…
Danny Solis died in his sleep last Thursday. He was in New York to once again perform his poetry, as he had done in pretty much every state in the US and some other countries as well. Danny was that rarest of poets, a working poet, a troubadour. In addition to reading his poetry widely, he led numerous workshops and seminars. Probably a thousand…
When Harry met Morrie it was 1969. They were two young men, both in their early twenties, both recently released from military service. Morrie was a Navy man while Harry had been in the Marines. Harry had been to Vietnam and was discharged with a Purple Heart he never talked about. In later years whenever Morrie would drive Harry would remind him their relationship…
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services issued new (?) policy guidance regarding inadmissibility based on membership in a totalitarian party. It specifically designates “the Communist Party,” as if there is only one, as “inconsistent and incompatible with the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America. “Any intending immigrant who is a member or affiliate of the Communist Party (or subdivision…
Daylight Savings Time has been controversial since its inception. People do not like it when you mess with time. The clock in the head must match the clock of the day or else one risks madness. There is no time like the present, and daylight savings moves the present backward (or is it forward?) in time. We become dislocated from the hours. Sunrise is…
It is always the end of the world these days. Everyone is apoplectic. No one is apologetic. It used to be that the end of the world would come and go like the tide but it’s everywhere these days like a flood. You pick up the newspaper and the headlines scream it at you. You ride the train to work and all the eyes…
It was Tuesday and I was walking along Hollywood Boulevard when this woman approached me. Her skin was pale and her face so caked with cosmetics she could be the walking dead and no one would notice. She was wearing an overcoat the color of pea soup and a strange hat that looked as if it were made from an old cigar box. After…
Material days were long and hot, but that is summer. Farmers and others who work by sunlight praise the season. It is a vacation from school for children all over America, and so their numbers in public spaces tends to increase during these sordid months. Because of the heat, the tawdry fashion sense that dominates America plunges to an all-time low. People would go…
Art school was often about hanging out with other art students, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer, and usually talking or arguing about art, philosophy. or music. Most artists listen to a lot of music. Nobody paints in a quiet studio. In art school the painting studio was the location of many music arguments, as there was only one cassette deck and a limited supply…
1) Never trust a cop in a raincoat. 2) Beware of enthusiasm and of love, both are temporary and quick to sway. 3) If asked if you care about the world’s problems, look deep into the eyes of he who asks, he will never ask you again. 4) Never give your real name. 5) If ever asked to look at yourself, don’t look.…
It was the day after somebody shot Cindy Ryder’s dog with a crossbow and most of the people in town had heard about it. The dog wasn’t a particularly well-loved animal, but the shooting of any pet tends to heighten anxieties in such a small community. A group of animal lovers had gathered early in the morning before business hours outside the Landsburg General…
There were two bits of advice Bob Ranger gave his brother Kevin before the latter shipped off to college in California. “Never borrow more than you can repay,” Bob advised. “and stay away from women with dogs.” The first piece of wisdom was commonplace and straight out of Shakespeare. You had to be familiar with Bob Ranger’s history to understand the relevance and significance…