Saturday, December 31, 2011

Twelve Best & Two Worst Books of 2011

Top Twelve Best Reads or Re-Reads of 2011


  1. Nabokov: Vol I The American Years;
      Vol II  The Russian Years - Brian Boyd


  2. Hitch-22 - Christopher Hitchens


  3. Townie - Andre Dubus III


  4. Thoughts Without Cigarettes - Oscar Hijueles


  5. The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst


  6. Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse


  7. Humiliation - Wayne Koestenbaum


  8. Interviews and Encounters with Stanley 
     Kunitz - ed. Stanley Moss


  9. How Fiction Works - James Wood


10. Lytton Strachey - Michael Holyoyd


11. A Widow's Story - Joyce Carol Oates


12. Elizabeth Bishop and The New 
     Yorker - ed. Joelle Biele




Worst Two Books Read or Re-read in 2011


The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway


Sempre Susan - Sigrid Nunez

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Gifts



Beautifully wrapped Godiva bar! Great graphics! Great bow! Thanks, Lisa!

If asked, I couldn't have thought of anything I wanted, but Morgan & Chris did ... I get the next eight books published by McSweeney's! When I unscrolled the scroll I was like ... uh ... well ... uh ...  like wow!



Xmas Archive Item

After I read the excellent John Weiner biography of John Lennon in 1984 I wrote Yoko Ono a letter asking her to open a museum in New York dedicated to Lennon so that we who loved him could see things he owned. I guess that's why she sent me a Christmas card.

Kool Xmas Decor

Photo swiped from Andrew Sullivan's blog "The Daily Dish"

Monday, December 19, 2011

Favorite Christmas Cards

My favorite Xmas card so far this year.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Outer Cape Chorale


Another fabulous concert; the Chorale does two each year; one at Christmas-time, and one in the spring.  I think Jon Arterton, the conductor, should be awarded one of those generous MacArthur genius grants.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Unexpected Thrills

In 1983, while living in Provincetown, Mark and I drove out to Truro. Our friends Dennis and Madeline had a new baby, and we were going for our introduction to Morgan.


Because of the way life goes, the baby grew up. Four years ago she -- absolutely gorgeous and with honey-colored and tightly curled hair-- and a good looking young man named Chris fell in love. 


A week ago I got an email from Madeline. Was I still officially a member of the clergy? If so, was I available to marry two people in Provincetown on the 9th? Before I could respond to the email Morgan's dad, a co-worker, walked into headquarters where I work. He asked the same questions, and wondered if I would like to officiate at the marriage of his daughter and her boyfriend Chris. I said that I would love to do that but needed first to check at home to make sure I still had my official identification as a Minister of Universal Life Church. "Okay," he said, "because Morgan's going to be coming in here in about ten minutes to ask if you'll officiate at their wedding."


Shortly, in walks the beautiful and gorgeous young woman whom I had held in my arms a week or so after her birth; a young woman who's now just a dissertation away from a doctorate.  Her title of "Doctor" will have cost considerably more than the five dollars I paid back in the sixties to become a minister -- the five bucks that afforded me a cheap right to have the title "Reverend" put on my driver license (which I've always wanted to do but never remembered to do).  


My identification was just where I thought it would be.


Thus, at the far end of a railed pier that extends out from an upscale cocktail lounge in Provincetown, a pier that reaches out into Cape Cod Bay, I stood before the bride and groom with a crowd of about fifty guests behind them, and -- beneath a nearly full moon -- had the extremely high honor of intoning the lovely words Morgan and Chris had written for the ceremony.


Life, as it did tonight, occasionally presents an unexpected thrill.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

RIP: John Lennon - Oct 9, 1940 - Dec 8, 1980






God
God is a Concept by which
we measure our pain
I'll say it again
God is a Concept by which
we measure our pain
I don't believe in magic
I don't believe in I-ching
I don't believe in Bible
I don't believe in Tarot
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Jesus
I don't believe in Kennedy
I don't believe in Buddha
I don't believe in Mantra
I don't believe in Gita
I don't believe in Yoga
I don't believe in Kings
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me...and that reality
The dream is over
What can I say?
the Dream is Over
Yesterday
I was the Dreamweaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the Walrus
But now I'm John
and so dear friends
you'll just have to carry on
The Dream is over


Monday, December 5, 2011

RIP: Jay Moran Dec. 5, 1944 - Oct. 28, 1990

Among the best of best friends. I met Jay in Ann Arbor in 1968. He was working on getting a Doctorate degree in Theater at the University of Michigan; his dissertation was to be called "Hamlet Was A Lady" -- about the many times the character had been played by a female. Jay was a sweet -- no one could be sweeter -- and  innocent soul from Wilkes-Barre, arriving in Ann Arbor with sixteen years of Catholic schooling behind him.  He was easy to shock with a blast of blasphemy, easily appalled by the antics of some of the crowd we ran with. Having come across the jaded likes of me and a guy named Bill Haushalter, who was completing his doctoral thesis on Gertrude Stein's lecture tour of America in the thirties, and my friend, Rodney, Jay learned a lot in a short time.

He had dreams of becoming a professional actor. That did not work out, though he was always associated with theater in one way or another -- working backstage for the Seattle Opera Company for a few years, and then getting a job as a Union Rep with Actors Equity in San Francisco. He used to like to tell me of the various demands made by stars before they'd step foot on this or that stage.

I remember one winter when Rodney and I drove from Provincetown to New York City and spent a night with Jay in his Lower East Side apartment; we were enroute to Michigan. And twice Jay came from wherever he was living to visit us in Provincetown. Wonderful times. As he was leaving after an early-eighties visit he gave me a gift for putting him up -- a small pewter box containing a polished sea shell; I've treasured that beautifully made box all these years:




Jay died in San Francisco in 1990, only 45 years of age. Even when someone I love dies I still never stop hoping that there will be yet another letter or phone call from him or her in my mailbox someday.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Barney Frank Hits 'Em Out of the Park

I don't like to put much politics on my blog ... I'm a bleeding heart liberal, and not that articulate defending my positions and such ... but Barney Frank says such great things that I can't resist re-posting from the excellent blog called "Crooks & Liars". Okay, let 'em have it, Barney:

"I look at the Republican debate -- I've been casting 'The Wizard of Oz,'" Frank told ABC's Christiane Amanpour. "Obviously, Mitt Romney is the tin woodman without a heart, and Rick Perry is clearly the scarecrow."

"Let me just say about Rick Perry: He illustrates the point that what's scary about some people is not what they don't know, but what they know that isn't true. I just heard this ad which he said, some liberals say faith is a sign of weakness. That is just bizarrely delusional."

He continued: "Newt [Gingrich] is the Wizard of Oz. I just think Newt, there's nothing there."

"I think he's ginned up this whole big thing, but when people focus on him, as opposed to him being the not-Romney, this is a man who served as speaker, was a relative insider, he was twice reprimanded by House -- by the way, I was reprimanded by the House, one of the reasons I wouldn't run for president. There was a problem with the marriages. There is this incredible hypocrisy of criticizing Chris Dodd and me because we weren't doing anything about Freddie Mac when we were in the minority. We did when we were in the majority. And he was taking money from them when the Republicans were in the majority to make sure that nothing happened. I just think that he is an obvious weak candidate."
At a press conference announcing his retirement last week, Frank said he welcomed Gingrich's rise to Republican frontrunner.

"I did not think I had lived a good enough life to be rewarded by Newt Gingrich being the Republican nominee," Frank told reporters. "I look forward to debating — to take one important example — the Defense of Marriage Act with Mr. Gingrich. I think he is an ideal opponent for us when we talk about just who it is that is threatening the sanctity of marriage."

Gingrich, who supports the Defense of Marriage Act and opposes same sex marriage, has been married three times himself.

"He would be the best thing to happen to the Democratic Party since Barry Goldwater," Frank concluded.

Thanks Barney!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Great Christmas Cards #1


Fabulous early eighties Xmas card from actress Mink Stole. It's 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper. The faded green writing in lower right says, "Have a fabulous holiday! Love, Mink" This was done pre-color printers, so the green eye shadow and red lips are hand colored, and the pasted-on gold star is a large version of what a teacher might have applied to some of your homework in grade school. It's a treasure.