The Pin-Up Poet Strikes Again

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS & FASHIONABLE ART

2008-07-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

This is one of the hottest photos I have ever seen, Tom Ford appropriating 'Valley of the Dolls' for an exhibit running in London.

Click here for the story: http://www.thefashionspot.com/finishing-touches/art-meets-fashion-453

Tom Ford is a very handsome man, and many a girl has felt a pang in the heart upon finding out that he has a boyfriend...

PRESS RELEASE: WWW.COPIOUSMAGAZINE.COM

2008-07-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

Pin-up mogul rises from the dead
Copious Magazine is back from hiatus!

New York, NY – Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Andrea Grant announced today the Copious Magazine is ready to celebrate the re-launch which is now available online at www.copiousmagazine.com.

Copious has been printed intermittently since 2001 and is proud to announce a new initiative to bring the world the finest in underground art, subculture, fashion, music events, literature, photography, film and everyone’s favorite: pin-up girls! The new quarterly edition is online as of today.

Andrea Grant, Founder of Copious Magazine, explains “Our fans simply won’t wait any longer. We were reporting on Dita Von Teese before burlesque had its resurgence. We have existing relationships at all levels of the underground and an intuition for what’s gorgeous and up-and-coming. In a world that is getting more and more dangerous and thought-controlled by the minute, art is what uplifts and inspires. This is the right time to re-launch the magazine.”

Readers can be added to the mailing list by emailing underground@copiousmagazine.com. The Copious Magazine blog is updated frequently and can be read at http://copiousmagazine.com/underground.

Copious Magazine has always been about diversity and blending elements that are not traditionally thought of as going together, art meets underground.

“We do not just engage with a finished artistic product, but also the process through which work is created,” Grant states. “Copious Magazine is ultimately a dialogue between the artists, the readers, the editors, and the work itself.”

Copious Magazine is accepting poetry, fiction, essays, and interviews with artists, photographers, and musicians. If you would like to submit your work or have a story idea, please email us at underground@copiousmagazine.com

Copious Magazine - Where Art Meets Underground!

I'VE FALLEN FOR THE CITY ALL OVER AGAIN...

2008-07-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

Riding on the back of a motorcycle to a rooftop party in Brooklyn, walking down 7th Street from East to West, up to Union Square and down to Tribeca... staying out too late at Santos, art events.

And COPIOUS MAGAZINE re-launches this week!

NOTHING SAYS DANGER LIKE A LEATHER JACKET!

2008-07-11T02:31:00.000-07:00

Another night staying awake till the sky turns dusky blue morning... for some reason I thought about the character on 'Happy Days' whose first name was LEATHER.

I thought about how there is nothing as slick as a leather jacket.

I don't know how it's lasted so long, but back in 2003 on a road trip returning from an Oregon pow-wow, my father bought me a leather jacket in a Portland thrift store for $8. It's the best jacket, too - a great cut, lining still in tact...

And I wear it almost every day in the summer months. It's irreplaceable.

MODEL FROM THE ISLAND MURDERED, ANOTHER DEAD GIRL

2008-07-08T21:26:00.000-07:00

She's from Saltspring Island, not far from where I grew up.

The story, excerpted from www.modelsblog.info:

B.C. model found dead in Shanghai

A 22-year-old B.C. woman who had planned to fly home early from China after a bad experience with an overseas modeling agency was found dead near Shanghai yesterday morning, reportedly the victim of a homicide.

Diana Gabrielle O’Brien’s body was found by Chinese police, two weeks after the budding model had arrived in Shanghai for what she thought would be a promising assignment with Jh Model Agency, but turned out to be a gig as a bar dancer.

“She kept getting jobs to go to clubs to promote whiskey that just involved dancing on podiums. She was sort of hoping for a fashion show or anything that was more model-related. She thought that was pretty ridiculous,” said Melanie Callas, Ms. O’Brien’s friend of 10 years.

Just a few days ago, Ms. O’Brien sent an e-mail to Ms. Callas, telling her she’d be flying home to Saltspring Island before her contract was done.

“She wasn’t really happy there. She didn’t like the jobs she was getting,” Ms. Callas said.

Early yesterday morning, Ms. Callas got the call that her friend, the leggy brunette, who she described as “the sweetest girl in the world,” would not be coming home.
Ms. O’Brien had grown up in the small island community and worked as a waitress after graduating high school.

Ms. O’Brien said her modest friend had always dreamed of modeling. “She was always really into fashion and into photography, too, probably since her teen years,” Ms. Callas said.

About a year ago, she joined a small agency and got a few jobs modeling for the website of a local company.
Wanting to break out of her small community, she contacted the Barbara Coultish Agency based in Victoria and was hired as a model, Ms. Callas said.

After getting a bit of local work, Ms. O’Brien got her big break: two months of work in Milan.

Ms. Callas said her friend returned from Italy, raving about how much she loved the excitement and glamour of the industry.

“She had such a great time in Milan. It was the time of her life,” she said. “She made so many great friends.”

She had wanted to return to Milan as soon as possible, but jumped at the opportunity to work in China with Jh Model Agency - a job that came up after she had only been home for two weeks. The agency had been impressed with Ms. O’Brien’s freshly made international portfolio, and booked her to work in Shanghai, Ms. Callas said. Ms. Callas said her friend had complained about the type of work, but was also sick of the smog in Shanghai and had been missing home. While she had developed a large network of fellow models in Milan, it seemed she only knew one other model from the Barbara Coultish Agency in Shanghai. She lived in an apartment in the city with the other model, Ms. Callas said.

Ms. Callas said it was not Ms. O’Brien’s first trip to Asia. The two women and another friend had travelled to Thailand the previous year on vacation.

“We assumed everything would be fine. We were all happy for her - she was living her dream. You don’t always get the opportunity to do that,” she said.

Joel Berry, the long-time boyfriend of Ms. O’Brien, was shaken up yesterday morning after Mounties travelled to Saltspring Island with the sad news.

Mr. Berry’s older brother, Ben, spoke for him. “It’s been a pretty hard day for all of us,” Ben Berry said from his brother’s Saltspring apartment where Joel Berry and Ms. O’Brien had lived together.

* * *

My father called me tonight because this upset him and reminded him of my career, which of course was always very different from a sketchy joint in Shanghai.

He said that this girl's murder is the big news on the Island, and that I should acknowledge it.

I miss my father, with his carvings and drum-skins.

SLEEPING YOUR WAY TO THE TOP

2008-07-08T01:11:00.001-07:00

Reading the UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY of Madonna, which my friend lent me. I could not resist - I like to read one trashy book per summer.

It's a really great book.

Madonna really slept around - she had at least 3 guys on the hook at one time. You have to admire that, even if you think it's tacky.

The idea of sleeping your way to the top has always confused me. Is one supposed to lay it on the line before the act takes place? Negotiate? Sign a contract?

In college, I had a professor who girls supposedly slept with to get A's. He wore shirts unbuttoned way too low (i.e. nearly to navel), and horrid 70's style tinted glasses INDOORS. He threw me some heat after I wrote an essay on Hedda Gabler, but I wasn't having it - and that was the only class I got a B+ in instead of A+... What a prick.

I guess I have always been too prideful to sleep my way up to anything, and no one has really even tried to proposition me in that way.

Christ, how the hell would it come up in conversation anyway?

The whole thing is a little depressing...

BEACH HOUSE IN RED

2008-07-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

With my friend Sharon TK yesterday at a beach house that had no water in the pool. We dressed accordingly.

PACE IS THE TRICK & FIR TREES

2008-07-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

Day 3 of visiting my various friends in the country. Time moves at a slower pace upon leaving Manhattan. There is something healing about trees and a hot tub in the back yard.

I really like the band Interpol. I don't care what anyone says.

And these lyrics touch me today...

The word 'heal' keeps going through my mind.

Above, a snapshot taken right before I left Vancouver, at the 'Emperor's New Clothes' show. With Cameron Banks of Mor Rubber, and a pretty model boy named Paul who I walked down the runway with.

"Pace Is The Trick"

You can't hold it too tight,
These matters of security
You don't have to be wound so tight
Smoking on the balcony
But it's that sleaze in a park
You women, you have no self-control,
The angels remark outside
You were known for insatiable means
I don't know a thing

I've seen love, and I followed the speeding of starlight
I've seen love, and I followed the speeding of starswept night

Yeah pace is the trick

And to all the destruction in men
Well I see you as you take your pride,
my lioness, your defenses seem wise I cannot press
And detentions are demised, my lioness
Can't you hurt it some, think I hurt it

I've seen love, and I followed the speeding of starlight
I've seen love and I followed the speeding of starswept night

And now I select you, slow down I let you
See how I stun, see how I stun

And to all the destruction in men
And to all the corruption in my hand
And now I select you, slow down I let you
See how I stun see how I stun
And now I select you, slow down I let you
I always follow the speeding of starswept night

You don't hold... a candle.

* * *

I am going home in 14 days.

Meetings, reconnections.

Healing.

FRANKENSTEIN PART III

2008-07-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

So I went with my friend to an antique mall today... and saw this scary Frankenstein ventriloquist puppet.

When I went to pick it up, her 11-year-old son screamed. "No - don't touch that - demons will get into you!"

Feeling that he may have a point, I threw the creature back down on the chair and photographed him instead, hands off the merchandise!

Strange childhood obsession with Frankenstein revisited in puppet form.

Found this quote, which is the commentary on the ultimate loner:

"Mary Shelley gave her monster feelings and intelligence. Fatherless and motherless, the monster struggles to find his place in human society, struggles with the most fundamental questions of identity and personal history. Alone, he learns to speak, to read, and to ponder "his accursed origins." All the while, he suffers from the loneliness of never seeing anyone resembling himself..."

DREAMING FRANKENSTEIN, HEARTBREAK POEM & PREPARATIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY MAYHEM

2008-07-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

The song No. 13 Baby by the Pixies is great because the guitar riff at the end is the sound of falling in love.

I am really busy today... this entire week in fact. But it's been a lot of fun.

Check out www.thefashionspot.com to see all the amazing Haute Couture stories. What heaven.

So, I have been thinking a lot about love & heartbreak (as usual), and what it means when someone gets under your skin even though you try so hard not to let that happen...

These lines are from a poem by the very Scottish Liz Lochhead, who I saw read back in college:

DREAMING FRANKENSTEIN

...Later, stark staring awake to everything
(the room, the dark parquet, the white high Alps beyond)
all normal in the moonlight
and him gone, save a ton-weight sensation,
the marks fading visibly where
his buttons had bit into her and
the rough serge of his suiting had chafed her sex,
she knew - oh that was not how -
but he'd entered her utterly.

This was the penetration
of seven swallowed apple pips.
Or else he'd slipped like a silver dagger
between her ribs and healed her up secretly
again. Anyway
he was inside her
and getting him out again
would be agony fit to quarter her,
unstitching everything.

Eyes on those high peaks
in the reasonable sun of the morning,
she dressed in damped muslin
and sat down to quill and ink
and icy paper.

* * *

Recently I have been concentrating on taking a seam ripper to those thick black stitches holding my heart together and tearing out the silver dagger someone hid in there. There is a certain amount of sorrow, but I really believe we have to let go of the things that do not serve us.

The above photo is Armani. I want that suit.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

2008-07-01T18:49:00.001-07:00

TIME IS ARTIFICIAL & CAN BE ALTERED, PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE THAT TAKES A WHILE TO LEARN...

2008-06-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

This photo is of Lisa Fonssagrives, one of the world's first supermodels who was the wife of photographer Irving Penn and the face of Dior's 'New Look'. The haute couture shows started today and some of the clothes are extraordinary! I am going to shoot tomorrow with Dennis Galante, and feathers suddenly seem like an excellent idea.

One of my favorite books of all time is THE 48 LAWS OF POWER, based on 'The Art of War' and very useful for business.

Page 295 states:

"Time is an artificial concept that we ourselves have created to make the limitlessness of eternity and the universe more bearable, more human.

Since we have constructed the concept of time, we are also able to mold it to some degree, to play tricks with it. The time of a child is long and slow, with vast expanses; the time of an adult whizzes by frighteningly fast.

Time, then, depends on perception, which, we know, can be willfully altered. This is the first thing to understand in mastering the art of timing. If the inner turmoil caused by our emotions tends to make time move faster, it follows that once we control our emotional responses to events, time will move much more slowly.

This altered way of dealing with things tends to lengthen our perception of future time, opens up possibilities that fear and anger close off, and allows us the patience that is the principal requirement in the art of timing.

There are three kinds of time for us to deal with; each presents problems that can be solved with skill and practice.

First, there is LONG TIME: the drawn-out, years-long kind of time that must be managed with patience and gentle guidance. Our handling of long time should be mostly defensive - this is the art of not reacting impulsively, of waiting for the opportunity.

Next there is FORCED TIME: the short-term time that we can manipulate as an offensive weapon, upsetting the timing of our opponents.

Finally there is END TIME, when a plan must be executed with speed and force. We have waited, found the moment, and must not hesitate.

AN EXAMPLE OF LONG TIME:

The famous seventeenth-century Ming painter Chou Yung relates a story that altered his behavior forever. Late one winter afternoon he set out to visit a town that lay across the river from his own town. He was bringing some important books and papers with him and had commissioned a young boy to help him carry them. As the ferry neared the other side of the river, Chou Yung asked the boatman if they would have time to get to the town before its gates closed, since it was a mile away and night was approaching. The boatman glanced at the boy, and at the bundle of loosely tied papers and books - "Yes," he replied, 'if you do not walk too fast."

As they started out, however, the sun was setting. Afraid of being locked out of the town at night, prey to local bandits, Chou and the boy walked faster and faster, finally breaking into a run. Suddenly the string around the papers broke and the documents scattered on the ground. It took them many minutes to put the packet together again, and by the time they had reached the city gates, it was too late.

When you force the pace out of fear and impatience, you create a nest of problems that require fixing, and you end up taking much longer than if you had taken your time. Hurriers may occasionally get there quicker, but papers fly everywhere, new dangers arise, and they find themselves in constant crisis mode, fixing the problems that they themselves have created.

Sometimes not acting in the face of danger is your best move - you wait, you deliberately slow down. As time passes it will eventually present opportunities you had not imagined..."

I have been thinking about this a lot lately.

Natives of course use the term 'Indian Time' which means, you get there when you get there. When we rush, we fall to the ground and scrape our knees.

MODEL KILLS HERSELF BY JUMPING FROM THE 9TH FLOOR OF HER BUILDING...

2008-06-30T03:15:00.000-07:00

News in fashion - this article posted on The Fashion Spot today... and I can't stop thinking about it:

"Stunning Kazakh fashion model Ruslana Korshunova plunged to her death from the ninth floor of her lower Manhattan building yesterday (Saturday) in an apparent suicide, police sources and neighbors said.

Ruslana, 20, a long-haired lovely who once graced the cover of Russian Vogue, plummeted onto busy Water St. in the Financial District around 2:30 p.m., according to sources and building residents.

Witnesses to Korshunova’s deadly spill had no idea that the stunner - shoeless and dressed in blue jeans and a purple tank top - was a famous model but noticed her beauty right away.

“All I saw was something moving out of the corner of my eye, and then boom,” said Steve Metzger, 36. “It sounded like a bass drum when she hit the ground. “She was a pretty girl.”

Investigators said there were no signs of a struggle inside Korshunova’s apartment and believe she jumped from her balcony, which is next to a skyscraper construction site, a law enforcement source said.

Dubbed “fashion’s muse of the moment” by the Sunday Times of London in 2005, Korshunova distinguished herself with locks of hair that once draped down to her thighs.

She was often photographed with her mane cascading around her.

Long hair is a symbol of beauty in Kazakhstan, where she was born in the then-capital city of Almaty on July 2, 1987.

A doorman at her 12-story building - where Korshunova lived for months in a studio converted into a one-bedroom - said the model seemed happy when she came home about 4 a.m. Saturday..."

Oh sure, like anyone knows if anyone else 'seems happy.'

I have always had a bit of vertigo. I can't stand near the edge of a balcony or glass elevator or look over a boat railing because I picture myself FALLING.

The thing about plunging to your death is that once you jump, there is all that time for remorse.

People from the Pacific Northwest are used to a different emotional climate. I know a lot of kids who killed themselves, and while it's always sad, I really understand that some people just don't want to do it anymore.

I love her Rapunzel hair.

Been thinking about the power derived from hair quite a bit lately... maybe when she cut her thigh-length tresses it all went to hell.

CONNECTIONS THAT RUN SO DEEP THEY BECOME BLOOD

2008-06-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

This image is of my beloved roommate Stephanie and I - our friend Tim Okamura painted it... and it's all there, certainly.

Three artists collaborate.

It's for his 'Women in White' series.

When we trekked out to Brooklyn to pose, Steph told Tim that we had to wear some black at least, because that's just how we are.

He got some interesting press in the Edmonton journal.

PALE SKIN BRUISES EASILY

2008-06-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

The fashion world is interesting. But now I know all these strange details...which are sometimes really gossipy and trashy.

Supermodel Agyness Deyn broke up with her boyfriend and papers reported that 'She was out partying all night! She has unsightly bruises on her legs!'

So ridiculous.

Anyone who breaks up goes on a bender.

And now she has an AMERICAN boyfriend, one of the Strokes. The drummer.

The moral of this story is that pale skin bruises easily.

And if you're heart breaks on one street, your next love is just around the corner... hopefully not on Avenue D however, cause that's a little rough...

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION

2008-06-24T23:43:00.000-07:00

So I have a major project in the works that is still top secret.

However, in some notes from the director were these words:

"spontaneous human combustion”
an unproven and almost laughable explanation for human bodies that have burned
for no apparent reason (reasons sighted for SHC are stress, a nuclear
implosion, strange chemical reaction, or over-use of alcohol.)

Wikipedia states that:
"Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) refers to the belief that the human body sometimes burns without an external source of ignition. There is much speculation and controversy regarding SHC, for it is not a proven natural phenomenon. Many theories and hypotheses have attempted to explain how SHC might occur, but those which rely on current scientific understanding say that instances mistaken for spontaneous combustion actually required a source of ignition. One such hypothesis is the "wick effect", in which the clothing of the victim soaks up melted human fat and acts like the wick of a candle. Another possibility is that the clothing is caused to burn by a discharge of static electricity. The likelihood that truly spontaneous human combustion actually takes place is remote, due to the presence of water and the lack of highly flammable compounds and oxygen in the human body..."

So of course I have been obsessed with the idea of spontaneous combustion all day... and found it difficult to focus on deadlines.

Imagine! What would you do if you suddenly burst into flames? The thought is terrifying... if I drink too much vodka, will my fingertips ignite?

Whenever I felt blue, I used to tell myself, "Hell, at least you have your arms and legs - get over it!"

Now you know I am going to replace amputation with spontaneous combustion...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens to the brain when one secludes in a NYC apartment for 24 hours to get their work done...

SMOKING CIGARS IN THE DUSKY NIGHT...INSOMNIA RIPE

2008-06-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Spoke to my mother today, who told me that I have been prone to these incongruent spells of terrible sadness that last a week or two, ever since childhood...but I always forget that.

I booked a ticket to go home at the end of July. My mother is getting remarried, which is cool... hell, it's time for another wedding and now there are charming little nephews who will be excited by the celebration.

I need to go home for a bit longer this time...11 days. I need that cold Pacific ocean to wash over my skin and to reconnect to my tribe.

I found a cigar hidden away in a drawer and couldn't control my desire to smoke in the dark while editing an article on menswear from the shows that ran in Milan last weekend.

This is the mood that causes poetry to be written...

I would give you something akin to this mood, but I can't find any of my newer work right now and I have to get back to menswear.

So I give you the above photo instead, shot by Shannon Brooke.

JESUS FREAKS INVADE ALPHABET CITY

2008-06-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up to the sound of someone screaming ‘Praise the Lord Jesus - Jesus Saves’ into an obnoxiously loud microphone right outside my window.

I looked outside and saw a group of local Hispanic people (probably from the projects on Avenue D) holding some sort of religious concert.

Due to overwork and last week being strenuous and emotionally draining, I had gone to bed with a fever that resulted in nightmares about my mother editing BLEACH and my trying to snatch the manuscript from her hands before she read what I’d written about her…

She was correcting my grammar with a red pen and telling me the book was too angry.

I do not need to wake up to Jesus.

EVER.

Above photo by Bettina Rheimes.

EVERYBODY KNOWS

2008-06-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

I am weary to the bones. It's not worth discussing - just a combination of heat and travel.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen:

"Everybody Knows"

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

WOMEN WITH FIGURES THAT INSPIRED RUSS MEYERS

2008-06-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

(for T.)

A gentleman caller once told me that I have a 'Russ Meyers figure'. I waited till he fell asleep and ran to my computer. Everybody knows the film 'Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!" but there is a lot more to the Russ Meyers philosophy than one might think...

Wonder Woman's Lynda Carter came up in the search.

BOREDOM BY ALBERTO MORAVIA: THE FIRST OF THE SUMMER READS

2008-06-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

So, Alberto Moravia wrote a book called CONTEMPT, which became the Goddard film (one of my favorites).

BOREDOM is the story of a failed artist from a wealthy family who becomes dangerously attached to a young model, examining the complex relations between money, sex, and imperiled masculinity.

Moravia defines his protagonist's concept of noia (boredom): "The feeling of boredom originates for me in the sense of absurdity of a reality which is insufficient, or anyhow unable, to convince me of its own effective existence... For me, therefore, boredom is not only the inability to escape from myself but is also the consciousness that theoretically I might be able to disengage myself from it, thanks to a miracle of some sort."

I already love this book to death.

Special thanks to my assistant Nika for lending it to me and saving me from re-reading Valley of the Dolls out of boredom...!

HOW LITERATURE FORMED MY CONSCIOUSNESS + OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

2008-06-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

I am often asked why I choose to write comic books - graphic novels and such.

Strangers are shocked by this for some reason, and even more so when I say my background is in poetry.

By age 10 I had a grade 12 reading level, but I repeatedly failed mathematics, much to the chagrin of my father.

Now he declares my early years in grade school were part of an experiment, teaching kids to count with sticks and on their fingers.

Math - beat it, you hurt my head.

Here is a list of books and writers who who have been the most influential (from age 8, mind you, so some of this stuff is sort of for kids):

- The Oz books by L. Frank Baum. There were several in the series - I had all of them except for 'Ozma of Oz' which upset me because I was sure I had missed some serious events in the Oz universe.

- She-Hulk

- Archie Comics (probably why I have a fondness for men who speak like they are from the 1950's 'Say, let's grab a milkshake...')

- The Anne of Green Gables series (in Asia it's titled as 'Anne of Red Hair')

- The Mary Poppins books (yes, there were several!)

- The Thornbirds. A hot Priest who controlled his libido, and his obsession with a young girl who blossomed into a woman and eventually seduced him. My mother loved the mini-series which ran in the 80's, but my father flipped when he found the book in my collection so he burned it (get behind me, Satan). But I bought another copy.

- The Judy Blume books... and I swear that 'Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing' convinced me early on that New York was the city of my destiny.

- Beverly Clearly's books, especially the Ramona series.

- Macbeth, especially the scene with the witches foretelling doom, and Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking 'out damned spot' freak-out scene.

- The Bronte sisters, especially Emily's Wuthering Heights. Yes, I was very depressed in high school.

- Jane Austen, especially 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'

- Tennessee Williams - my favorite playwright of all time... especially 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' with 'A Streetcar Named Desire' a close second.

- Thomas Hardy 'Tess of the D'Ubervilles' - wow. Beautiful, trapped women are his specialty...

- Edith Wharton 'The House of Mirth'

- Kate Chopin 'The Awakening'

- Ibsen: 'Hedda Gabler' and 'A Doll's House'

See where this is going? Doomed women, women as dolls, women who kill themselves, women who break free of societal rules....

- Susan Musgrave's poetry

- Leonard Cohen - here I go again, stating the obvious

- Pablo Neruda

- JT Leroy's 'The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things'... who cares if the author was a fake? That was a damned good book and a brilliant trickster move - stop punishing Laura, already.

- Neil Gaiman's Sandman series

- Sherman Alexie's short stories, in particular 'The Sin Eaters' - he's a Native writer

- 'Girls' by my dear friend Nic Kelman

These days, I read a lot of non-fiction. But I still love a damned good fiction book and plan to do some serious reading this summer.

-

HALCYON DAYS OF MUSIC

2008-06-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

It's so damned hot that staying in and watching rock 'n' roll documentaries for inspiration are de rigeur.

I just signed with a manager.

May he be to me what Albert Grossman was to Bob Dylan.

WEEKEND HEARTBREAK, BECAUSE LEONARD PLAYED A SHOW IN TORONTO, AND I DIDN' T GO...

2008-06-08T23:54:00.001-07:00

I am pleased that Leonard is touring again with a voice that's a little raspier, eyes that are a bit more knowing.

However, I have been traveling around with no room for Toronto - if I go to Canada it has to be home to the West Coast. Especially since a couple of days ago my 6-year-old nephew whispered into the telephone receiver conspiratorially and asked whether I knew about Area 51...

Here is another poem by Leonard, which means this weekend's posts form a trilogy.

I Wonder How Many People in This City
from "The Spice-Box of Earth"

I wonder how many people in this city
live in furnished rooms.
Late at night when I look out at the buildings
I swear I see a face in every window
looking back at me
and when I turn away
I wonder how many go back to their desks
and write this down.

This seems to be a poem about New York.

The weather hit almost a hundred degrees Sat/Sun, while Leonard was singing.

My friends were concerned I was burning hot in black clothes.

I know nothing else, therefore I have no answer. But I cannot imagine white would make much of a difference. To deal with this kind of heat, one must only remember the chilly horror of winter.

THESE HEROICS

2008-06-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

A poem by Leonard... for your Friday enjoyment. Titled as above.

If I had a shining head
and people turn to stare at me
in the streetcars;
and I could stretch my body
through the bright water
and keep abreast of fish and water snakes;
if I could ruin my feathers
in flight before the sun;
do you think that I would remain in this room,
reciting poems to you,
and making outrageous dreams
with the smallest movements of your mouth?