icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook x goodreads bluesky threads tiktok question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

NauenThen

As good a time as any

January 24, 2018
Tags: The House
Hi, Bill! Happy birthday, Teresa!
I've been thinking a lot about a friend whose birthday is today, a wonderful woman who I've seen in person only a couple of times in 30 or 35 years, who I was out of touch with for a long stretch of those years.

Who is, nonetheless, a central person in my life.

That's because we met at The House. I've written about The House a lot, but I'm not sure I've explicitly said that those relationships are so formative that the people who were there & who felt the same will always be in my heart's inner circle. It doesn't matter if we aren't current. I maybe feel it a smidgen more for the 2 or 3 women who were there that summer, who also believed that people could live together in harmony & optimism, who also smoked a lot of pot & took a lot of acid (bonding in its own way), who love me as purely & directly as I love them.

Grateful always.  Read More 
2 Comments
Post a comment

Carlina!

January 23, 2018
Tags: Carlina Rivera
Carlina Rivera at Middle Collegiate Church on Sunday.
Middle Collegiate Church, seeing Carlina Rivera being sworn in as our District 2 City Council representative. How great to be celebrating among neighbors & activists. So much hope for her.

I met Carlina at an event for Eleanor's Legacy, a group that trains & supports pro-choice Democratic women to run for office in New York State & NYC. It was so obvious that she was a star. I came home knowing I was going to work for her. She has been in politics her whole life, knows everybody, is charismatic, smart, focused. Who knows how far she can go....  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Monday Quote

January 22, 2018
Tags: Robert Louis Stevenson
It is in virtue of his own desires and curiosities that any man continues to exist with even patience, that he is charmed by the look of things and people, and that he wakens every morning with a renewed appetite for work and pleasure. Desire and curiosity are the two eyes through which he sees the world in the most enchanted colours…and the man may squander his estate and come to beggary, but if he keeps these two amulets he is still rich in the possibilities of pleasure.” —Robert Louis Stevenson Read More 
Be the first to comment

Buster

January 21, 2018
It amazed me that this little being loves me so much & is able to let me know it, mostly by how he likes to sleep.

Taken before he woke up & gnawed on him, using his claws to pin me down.
Be the first to comment

I Heart New York

January 19, 2018
Twice this week a similar incident: A young woman is sure I'm someone else, in one case "Liza," in the other an artist from Skowhegan, Maine.

Nope & nope.

The first time it was at White Columns for Richard Hell's opening, & Elizabeth & I ended up chatting for quite a while as she nervously waited to  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Mad Full of Dreams

January 18, 2018
Tags: Kevin Baggott
Always a treat to see a new Kevin Baggott film, as usual full of interesting (& well-acted) characters, strange situations, & small mysteries. Oh, and Ireland. Somehow someone (usually Kevin) always ends up sleeping in a ditch on an Irish back road.

He does amazing work on zero budget. Not sure how it would be different if he could afford not to write, direct, star & be the cinematographer too. At least he does have a producer, his wife, Nina Kim, whose dad was featured in this latest, Mad Full of Dreams. Read More 
Be the first to comment

On the bus

January 17, 2018
There are certain rainy evenings that reminds me of when I first moved to New York. Everything was new—even that it got dark early was thrilling. I loved that every street, every block had something I'd never seen before. It was the pleasurable loneliness of being a stranger-by-choice, the scary pleasure of not knowing what my life was going to be.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

The beer refreshing

January 16, 2018
Tags: Hamm's
I grew up with Hamm's beer—after all, it's from the land of sky-blue waters, St. Paul. The tom-toms & bear of their ad are still beloved & widely remembered, even though Hamm's was long ago sold to a bigger brewer. Their jingle is in the front of my memory. If you want to watch a commercial from 1956:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yHsoW6CTjM

Bonus. A bunch of non-PC commercials from around the same time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66mQz44pPY4

Sorry, I still haven't figured out to embed links into the text itself but totally worth it to copy'n'paste. Read More 
Be the first to comment

Monday Quote

January 15, 2018
Tags: William Brodrick
There comes a time when you have to say, ‘Yes’. When life becomes a ‘Yes’, whatever the cost might be. When we have to take the word back from those who control what will and what will not happen. … We had to say ‘Yes’ to a future of our choosing, and to put words out there to wake the dead … to shatter the illusions that make oppression acceptable. —William Brodrick, The Day of the Lie (a Father Anselm thriller)

In honor of Martin Luther King

& happy 94th birthday to my mother  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Lower East Side scene

January 14, 2018
Ludlow Street.
The art instinct's in all of us. Making even garbage pretty. Lawn flamingoes. Thank goodness Manhattan doesn't have—I'm not sure what they're called but—restrictions on what colors you can paint your house, what you can name your kid (they do in Italy & France & probably lots of places). Freewheeling lower Manhattan suits me.
Be the first to comment

Old old old

January 12, 2018
I really have no problem calling myself old. I read an article that suggested "perennials" for people my age, given that we Boomers don't like being "seniors," "oldsters," "sages," or even "senior citizens." Me, I'm old & thrilled: I get to ride the subway & buses for half price, & yesterday I got a 100% free membership to the Chinatown Y, 2 blocks away, which has a sauna & pool, as well as classes & all the gym equipment I need.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Biala

January 11, 2018
Tags: Biala, Ford Madox Ford, Tibor de Nagy
The Yard in Winter, only $40,000. Oh sugar daddy, what have you done for me lately?
I first took notice of the painter Biala, first name Janice I once heard, in connection with Ford Madox Ford, but she is terrific in her own right. What a pleasure to see the well-chosen show at Tibor de Nagy yesterday. Several small paintings of bouquets, a few large landscapes, this Bonnard-esque interior-exterior. Her work is self-confident in the way of someone with nothing to prove.

Tibor de Nagy's principal, Andy Arnot, said Biala was Ford's literary executor. I wonder what happened to his daughters. Did they have any connection to his estate later in life? I wonder how I can find out more than their birth & death dates.

But that's mostly idle curiosity,  Read More 
Post a comment

Fight fight fight

January 10, 2018
Tags: karate, kumite
Every once in a while, I am struck by the joy of kumite, the fighting part of karate. I'm not particularly good at it: I'm not quick, I can't really kick, I only have a couple of moves, I don't bother with defense. My only advantage is that I'm fearless—I'll fight anyone & figure  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Art wars

January 9, 2018
“Green Coastal Landscape With Steamer," Emil Nolde
Hundreds, thousands, of artworks were stolen during the Nazi era. Most have not been returned to their rightful owners. These are works by Matisse, Kirchner, Rodin, Cézanne, Dürer, Brueghel, and others, much of it what the Nazis called "degenerate" art, which didn't stop them from stealing & enjoying it. This makes me think  Read More 
2 Comments
Post a comment

Monday Quote

January 8, 2018
Tags: Galileo, Ray Charles, The Sun
"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do." —Galileo

Which goes with the great Ray Charles song "Lucky Old Sun":
But that lucky old sun got nothin' to do
But roll around heaven all day.
 Read More 
Be the first to comment

My mother the ...

January 7, 2018
Tags: Jerry Van Dyke, Porter Motor Company
None of these is a Porter, but it's the general idea, & I liked this photo. In the clip's first minutes on the used car lot, note how physically similar Jerry VD is to his brother.
With the death of Jerry Van Dyke I'm reminded that he starred in My Mother the Car, the show that TV Guide called the second-worst of all time, after The Jerry Springer Show. I guess my family (or maybe just my dad) had a corny sense of humor, because I remember us watching it with some amusement, although it's highly possible that my memory is suspect. (Not a general admission!)

Almost the first conversation I had with Johnny Stanton was about that show's title. I was outraged at his claim that it was My Mother-in-Law the Car (on the grounds that  Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

The long slide

January 5, 2018
First a wild morning walk in Prospect Park. It made me think of how empty it can be where I come from, so unlike busy Manhattan. Later, frolicking in Tompkins Square Park with 10-year-old Sylvie, who somehow cajoled me into going down a snowy slide. That reminded me of my father—younger than I am now—going down a slide in a playground in Dell Rapids. He flew off the end, injuring his tailbone & losing his cufflinks Read More 
Be the first to comment

Bomb Cyclone

January 4, 2018
"Bomb cyclone" storm.
When I was a kid in South Dakota, the local paper, the Argus-Leader, once per winter would run a picture on the front page of someplace south of us (I remember it as always being Enid, Oklahoma, but I suppose they changed it from year to year) that was paralyzed by what to us was an absurdly small amount of snow. This photo from Charleston, SC, reminded me of that. My South Carolina friend was a little indignant when I told him I'd practically gotten a hernia in my jaw laughing at the hysterical language ("wallop" "ventured out" & "dump" on a different pic). And I do know, as he pointed out, that it's unusual for them to get snow & they don't know how to handle it. I nonetheless find it funny, because a lot of snow seems like the natural way of things—one of those things so obvious in childhood that you never quite can believe elsewise. Our school superintendent in Sioux Falls would only authorize a snow day if  Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

My neighborhood

January 3, 2018
Tags: Fillmore East
Would have been so cool to have heard any of these musicians. Alas, the first time I was ever in NYC was several years after the Fillmore closed. Johnny remembers hearing the Kinks, who opened for a bank called California. And Jimi Hendrix, who was "terrific." The site is just a block from where I work. I pass it every day.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Learning Japanese

January 2, 2018
Tags: Hiragana, japanese
After doing this for a month, I got my time down to under 2 minutes!
After studying in a Japanese martial arts school for over 10 years, it occurred to me that I might learn a little Japanese. It's hard! I got through the Hiragana alphabet, only to discover that there is katakana & a million variations. And it's not an alphabet, but syllables. Which are difficult for Westerners to pronounce. I can say "eye," "ear," good afternoon," "nice to meet you" & "so long," which is slang that makes every single Japanese speaker I've said it to laugh. Apparently it's like knowing 5 words of English: hello, eye, ear, thank you, & 23 skidoo.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

We made it!

January 1, 2018
The usual great start to the year at the Poetry Project's annual Marathon—140 poets & performers in 10 nonstop hours. I caught about half...

2018 here we are!

‎*”˜˜”*°•.¸☆ ★ ☆¸.•°*”˜˜”*°•.¸☆
╔╗╔╦══╦═╦═╦╗╔╗ ★ ★ ★
║╚╝║══║═║═║╚╝║ ☆¸.•°*”˜˜”*°•.¸☆
║╔╗║╔╗║╔╣╔╩╗╔╝ ★ NEW YEAR ☆ 2018!!
╚╝╚╩╝╚╩╝╚╝═╚╝ ♥￥☆★☆★☆￥♥ ★☆
Be the first to comment

Wake up & fight

December 31, 2017
How about that, I already have my motto for 2018.

I usually figure it out in the course of the New Year's Eve festivities, which consists of me & Maggie having a giant hours-long conversation: how was your year? what does the year ahead look like? how are we going to accomplish our goals?

The best innovation in 2017 was identifying 3 top goals & focusing on them. I had a some additional ones but kept the heat on my top 3. So I will do that again this year, I expect. Last year it was easy: finish a manuscript, prepare for my karate promotion, improve my Norwegian. I'm not sure I'll come up with 3 as timely as these but I'll find out tonight.

Wake up! & Fight!  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Kenneth? Kenneth?

December 29, 2017
I don't mix up Bob Holman with Bob Rosenthal, or Charles North with Charles Bukowski, so why can't I remember the difference between Kenneth Patchen and Kenneth Rexroth?
Be the first to comment

Raccoons

December 28, 2017
Pound for pound there are only around twice as many rats as raccoons in NYC. A raccoon can weigh up to 20 pounds, & a rat weighs half a pound. If there are 2 million rats (not the old estimate of 1 per person), that's a million pounds of rats. Divided by 15, the average weight of a raccoon,  Read More 
2 Comments
Post a comment

A street story

December 27, 2017
"Can I ask you a question?" a tall young man asked in front of the Rite-Aid on my corner. "I'm not asking for money, I just have a question."

"Yeah, what's up," I said impatiently, in a hurry, in the cold.

"Can you buy me a $4 box of cereal?" he said. "I just asked everyone in the Rite-Aid & no one would." This was said a little indignantly.

"How is that not asking for money?" I said.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

A subway tale

December 26, 2017
A woman in her 40s (?) with very bleached hair pushed through a crowded train. "Marriage is slavery," she said out loud to herself. "They beat you when they want, make you have a baby for them, beat you. Marriage is slavery."

The woman standing next to me caught my eye. "He beats you twice, why you hanging round?" she said.

"You know that old song?" I said & and sang softly:  Read More 
Be the first to comment

Not as expected

December 25, 2017
I'm dreaming of a white December... January... February... Rain is NOT the next-best thing.
Be the first to comment

El Greco

December 24, 2017
Tags: El Greco
The main reasons we went to Toledo:
* Mercè had never been there, despite having lived in Spain her whole life. I liked the idea of being on somewhat equal grounds in both of us experiencing it for the first time.
* El Greco. The best museum show I ever went to was El Greco in D.C., maybe 25 years ago, with Janet. It was different to see him everywhere in Spain—in a church, in his house, in a museum, in the cathedral, in the sky & landscape he knew so well.

Still my favorite painter & I still can't really say what he does that no one else can. The humanity of his people, I guess. His apostles (this is Peter) are full of both grace & flaws. His Jesus is perfect yet human.

El Greco has only art on his mind. He paints what he has to.

Bonus reasons for going to Toledo: marzipan ("bread dough"), softer & less sweet than what I'm used to, & manchego cheese–it's from sheep & has been made there (La Mancha) for 2,000 years.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

26

December 22, 2017
Tags: Johnny Stanton
This was the Johnny I didn't fall in love with. That beard! He's so much more handsome now (the day before our 26th wedding anniversary).

And the youngster I have so little connection with, the kid I've only seen a couple of pictures of. He graduated high school at 16, before he'd gotten his growth spurt. My main image of high-school Johnny is seeing him with his first wife, who was his high-school girlfriend. With Johanna, he's playful in a 1950s way, & I love watching them together.
 Read More 
Be the first to comment

First day of winter...

December 21, 2017
Tags: Snowbound
... and I just picked up copies of my (our) new chapbook! It's a dos-à-dos book, with my long poem called Snowbound back to back (or upside-down) with 3 essays by Steve Willis, also called Snowbound. I can never figure out how come it works but both books start on page 1 & collide correctly in the middle.

At one point I thought it was going to be a book but it melted into this chapbook. Happy winter!  Read More 
Be the first to comment
Loading…}