October 2019
15th Year Edition
Oh No, Pierre Trudeau
When I read last month that Pierre Trudeau had worn blackface (and on more than one occasion), not to mention "brown-face," my first thought was: are there more facial colorations still to come? My second thought, was about a piece I had written earlier this year.
Al Jolson and Blackface (March 2019)
While he has always been the face of blackface, he's hardly alone….
“Entertainers known to have performed in blackface makeup… for whatever reason…over 300!" Including…
John Wayne, Judy Garland, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple, Bing Crosby, Sophia Loren, Bob Hope
TV stars, past and present…
Desi Arnaz, Clayton Moore, Carroll O’Conner, Ted Danson,
Johnny Carson, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Billy Crystal
A question that I have not seen addressed anywhere: Just why have so many white folk, over such a long period of time, been drawn to putting on blackface? It borders on the fetishistic.
It all strikes me not so much as sociological, but psychological. And the couch isn’t big enough to hold all the patients.
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Fifteen Years: A Retrospective
This month marks the fifteenth year since the first “Muse-Letter.” The goal of which has always been to offer an eclectic mix of subjects, in an eclectic mix of styles. That which I have found interesting and think others might as well. Along the way, perhaps discovering something new.
"Interesting," has ranged from the profound to the trivial; the serious to the silly. And at times... there is but a mind line between the two. And if there are any underlying drivers or themes at work here, it is irony. Especially when considered within the passage of time. While others have pet peeves, these are my pet obsessions. And they show up frequently, to be fed and taken out for a walk.
That said, I offer a smattering of excerpts from essays and commentary harvested from a field 15 years wide, that capture the essence and flavor of the piece. They are available in their entirety at www.domenicapress.com for all years prior to January 2019. For all of this year and going forward, they are a click away on "Archive" above.
Regarding poetry, a few of shorter length have been re-issued here. Especially, of course, the ever enigmatic haiku. Other "shorties" such as Quote of the Month, Picture a Palindrome, Word of the Month, Etc. (fitting no literary form or genre; "stand-alones"), will also be shown in their entirety.
Over time, the use of illustration has greatly increased, as is befitting the ever more visual world in which we live. It's very much in evidence here, and designed to not only work in tandem with text, but hopefully enhance it. And at times, inspire it. Such as in this October's Quote of the Month. (Put together before the whole "impeachment thing," it already seems quaint).
(November 2013)
Originally done, 1973
While he has always been the face of blackface, he's hardly alone….
“Entertainers known to have performed in blackface makeup… for whatever reason…over 300! Including…
John Wayne Judy Garland James Cagney Joan Crawford Jimmy Stewart Frank Sinatra
Elizabeth Taylor Shirley Temple Bing Crosby
Sofia Loren Bob Hope
Cuomo Quote and Quips (with my apologies)
(Feb 2015)
You come of age in poetry. You grow old in prose.
You woo in poetry. You forget anniversaries in prose.
You marry in poetry. You divorce in prose.
You give birth in poetry. You change diapers in prose.
You dream in poetry. You awaken in prose.
You get hired in poetry. You get fired in prose.
You sip in poetry. You guzzle in prose.
You transgress in poetry. You apologize in prose.
You go to heaven in poetry. You go to hell in prose.
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Sonnet
(November 2012)
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Anniversaries
I never met an anniversary I didn't like, or didn't feel the need to recall. It's that "time-passage thing." And just where did the years go? And always offering a context, in which to put present life scenarios and current events.
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And there has been this.
And now without further adieu...
Three New Inductees into the Toy Hall of Fame (December 2014)
Yes Virginia, there is a Toy Hall of Fame. And why shouldn’t there be? There are Halls of Fame for just about anything else imaginable.
Its seventeen charter members:
Word of the Month
(June 2006)
As taken from The Superior Person’s Second Book of Weird & Wondrous Words by Peter Bowler...
GYNOTIKOLOBOMASSOPHILE n. Someone who likes to nibble on a woman’s earlobe.
One for the personals?
"Gynotikolobomassophile wishes to meet a woman with large ears.”
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Muse-Letter
Burchik’s highly detailed account of the experience, will transport you there— replete with all its life-threatening dangers, and conversely, its benign mind-draining periods of down time.
While he has no regrets about his enlisting, he soon realizes that the goal here is not one of heroic victory:
“Now that we were living with the day-to-day reality, our focus changed to survival.
We wanted to get through this experience without being wounded or killed.”
(September 2010)
(September 2015)
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Etc.
(Sept 2015)
(Sept 2017)
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October Haiku
(October 2016)
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For Joanna
(January 2016)
I will conclude with a concrete poem. A so called type in which the visual layout, matches the topic of the poem. As in "Kite," which appeared earlier.
This poem could have just as easily been entitled "In the Realm of the Tenses" (playing off the title of that steamy movie of the mid-seventies).
Cocktail Hour in a New York Minute
In a retro ritual we sit and sip, a dry gin martini at the King Cole Bar.
Joe D and Marilyn might appear at any moment. Born perhaps
at odds with the stars, this is the groove in the time contin-
uim in which we have been slotted. Outside, Central
Park leaves still cling; autumn persistence in the
onslaught of Christmas, fantastical Bergdorf
Goodman windows, seasons churn-
ing into years before our very
eyes. A chalky sky had all
but erased the Met-
Life Building,
formerly
Pan Am,
atop at
which
I once
held
court,
a career
event
decom-
posing
in memory,
I can try
to dig it
up when
I get home.
Though home is
wherever you are my love,
a place both real and imagined
of celebrations and stories; rewritten narratives on cocktail napkins that speak of encounters that might have been, with youth on our side. There we were, flirting over a drink amidst the smoke and commuter chatter before grabbing a train out of Grand Central Terminal—oh, if only I’d have known you then. Who knows where we might have gone; who knows the points we’d have passed along the way.
--- Zano
Finito
Virginia Woolf
Such quotes are usually those that I've run across and find so to-the-point. Though I may not always agree with them.
Also befitting the way we now communicate---texts and tweets and in other such brevity--- proper grammar and spelling have often given way to, like, you know, colloquialisms. And why reach for a word, when you can concoct one? Like say, "Muse-Letter."
Finally, this whole exercise is not meant to be read in one sitting. Or even, in one standing. It is at least the equivalent of a double issue. Skip, skim and scoff as you may. And have. As is obvious from the commentary I've gotten over the years. Which is always welcomed.
(September 2012)
The Gun Yet Again
Rather than engage in hypothetical rhetoric about the Second Amendment …here’s what I once experienced that brought the whole issue home for me in a tangible way.
While in a small town in Texas years ago for a wedding, I happened upon a store that sold bric-à-brac, novelties, and gifts. And a gun. As a matter of curiosity, I inquired as to whether I would be able to buy it. Yes. But it would have to be mailed to me. My background is as pure as the driven snow… this would be no problem.
I have never in my life, even so much as held a gun in my hand, let alone shoot one.
No tests required… none of those procedures that the DMV puts you through before they give you a license... one you have to keep renewing.
And you do have to drive a car at moderate speeds. Aren’t bigger engines and more power and speed better? If the speedometer goes all the way up to 120 MPH, why am I not allowed to go for it?!
Guns & Fun 'n Games
When I heard Beto last month at the debate railing “Hell yes, we’re going to take away your AR-15, your AK-47,” (and no he did not say as one headline misleadingly stated "O'Rourke's 'hell yes' vow to take away rifles"... which would include hunting rifles, shot guns, and hell yes, even BB guns)...and he finished the sentence with... "and we’re not going to allow it to be used against your fellow Americans anymore,” I thought of a piece I'd done on the matter.
(January 2016)
A “Good Guy” Considers Getting an AK-47
It’s about time that I do my part to try to level the playing field. After all, it is so easy to do.
Even those on the FBI’s terrorist “no-fly” watch list, who are not even allowed to board a plane, can still legally purchase an AK-47 with no questions asked, or any real background check required. So what’s my excuse for having put this off for so long?
Controversy over guns has always existed in our time. And in Time.
Yet, I've never seen it so bluntly and proudly laid out as gun = America, in what I will call the Tweet of the Month. And beyond. And from "low energy" Jeb! no less.
JUNE 21,1968
The gun has always held a place in our culture and in our mythologies.
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The 2014 inductees:
You could not find a more incongruous mix to jointly enter the Hall than Rubik’s Cube, Soap Bubbles and Little Green Army Men. Save of course for 2013 when both Chess and the Rubber Duck were inducted on the same ballot.
Rubik’s Cube should be in the Torture Hall of Fame. It is not a toy. It came on the scene 35 years ago. I couldn’t solve it then, and I can’t solve it now.
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(March 2016)
The Barbie® Evolution!
It was pretty big news seven years ago when Barbie had now reached a golden age (Barbie: The Big Five-O! )
And now, running throughout the year, Mattel brings us what they call an “Evolution”; a Barbie that comes in ... most importantly (drum roll), 3 new body types—“Curvy, Tall and Petite.” Though be assured, that the original blond-haired, blue-eyed and excessively lean version of her, will remain.
Oh, that original. With that body. Impossibly proportioned—a lack of hips that have launched a thousand quips— it has generated a good deal of discourse over the years regarding its possible negative impact on young girls.
As for Barbie in all these new iterations, I guess it’s much hairdo about something.
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(July 2014)
Their Cup Runneth Over
Time in a soccer game is not real, but alleged. While claiming to play for ninety minutes, those minutes include: time that the ball is knocked out of bounds and therefore out of play …time that expires as teams leisurely set up for corner kicks and penalty kicks and the like… the stoppage of play by a referee’s whistle for some infraction, which is then often contested by the perpetrator as if doing a scene from Pagliacci…the team celebrations of hugging, kissing, rending of garments, and in general, going into seizures over the sheer improbability over what has just occurred—a goal!
And all the while the clock keeps ticking…
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The Game That is Politics
(September 2015)
A Bull in a China Shop
When the bull is the top dog, you have to let him into the shop —mixed metaphors be damned. Donald Trump, the front-runner in the polls among 17 Republican candidates vying for the nomination, was given a prime position within the emporium last month. It was called a debate and it wasn’t pretty. Meaning, it was reality TV at its best!
(March 2016)
The Curious Math in Our Election Process
Primaries and Caucuses: The Weak Shall Inherit the Earth
Long before election day… 70 primaries and caucuses ooze out over a span of four and one-half months. They begin with the Iowa caucus…
…Hillary, positively beaming over her resounding victory over Sanders by .3%. Mark Rubio came in third on the Republican side … in a “victory” speech:
The Electoral College: An Institute of Higher Yearning
Our Founding Fathers, at times could be confounding… the belief was that could not be trusted to make a wise decision without some filter…the Electoral College.
The problem …a “winner-take-all” concept.
One look no further than the 2000 election and Florida, with its hanging chads, to see that this sort of consideration is not merely a hypothetical. (Not to mention 2016).
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Quote of the Month
(June 2013)
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Yes, we are hanging on to time for dear life.
A Trio of Pop Legends
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(April 2015)
Sinatra at 100 at Lincoln Center (and Patsy's)
It starts with his signature fedora. It is not only a reminder of how we used to dress, but the angle at which he wore it, will tell you more not only about his swagger, but prototypically that of America in the last mid-century. And pictures and movie clips of him with his Rat Pack—cigarette and glass of hard liquor in hand (Jack Daniels being Frank’s preferred liquor)—speak volumes of what we used to think was the personification of cool masculinity.
Norma Jean Baker never seemed to be working hard at being Marilyn Monroe. She just was. And as is the case with any great work of art, it seems so inevitable. You look and you think, “Yes. Of course.” I sensed that at sixteen. I know it now.
As a sixteen year old boy ... especially one coming of age on the streets of the Lower East Side, I should not have mourned her passing. It certainly wasn’t a macho hetero-sexual male thing to do. Besides, Sophia Loren was the preferred sex symbol in that Italian-American neighborhood of my youth.
(August 2012)
Marilyn: Fifty Summers Gone
I awakened from the couch in a Staten Island bungalow to the first words of the day, “Marilyn Monroe is dead.”
(November 2011)
Saint Anthony of Bennett
As Saint Francis of Assisi took to animals, Tony Bennett takes to singers. He loves them all. And they in turn love him. All ages, all styles, all genres.
It appears that his mission in life has become one of: to sing a duet with everyone who has ever sung. And that just might be possible. At age 85, he has been around almost as long as pop music itself.
Word of the Month
(February 2016)
parkour: noun par•kour \pär-'ku?r, 'pär-?ku?r\
the sport of traversing environmental obstacles by running, climbing, or leaping rapidly and efficiently
As in a sentence I recently read: “We’re trying to invent parkour for the mind.”
As in a sign I recently imagined:
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Nam
The Vietnam War is a realm unto itself, within which people of a certain age, those who went, and those like myself who didn't, is forever a reference point... a touchstone...remembered ... written about...
(May 2016)
A Year in Nam: Fifty Years After
Upon a recent visit to my alma mater, Manhattan College (a 50th reunion)... there he was; author of a recent book recounting his time in Vietnam: Compass and a Camera: A Year in Vietnam. (www.stevenburchik.com)
(April 2019)
... from that Broadway show... Springsteen who at one point, softly and hesitatingly, shares with his audience, that he avoided the draft and Viet Nam. “I do sometimes wonder who went in my place. Because somebody did.”
(November 2013)
Picture a Palindrome: #5
"Nam war I saw? Was I raw, man!"
(for publication December 2019)
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Etc.
A bit of shtick; visual puns. But how did I miss Signfeld?
(October 2010) (January 2011)
"Show Me a Sign" Auld Lang Sign
Mt. Tabor, Israel; photo by Ron Vazzano
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(March 2014)
Penguins and Antidepressants
How bad has this winter been? It’s been so bad, that even the penguins are depressed. At a place called the Sea Life Centre in the U.K.
Just how can you tell if a penguin is depressed? They always seem a bit lost as they wander about aimlessly in their tuxedos. All dressed up and no place to go.
And the solution to the problem? The same as it would be now for any form of human depression—medicate! So now the penguins are on antidepressants.
"They're doing the trick so far, but we are all praying for the weather to change and at least a few successive days of sunshine to give the penguins the tonic they really need," the curator went on.
More questions. How does one determine the proper dosage for a penguin ... determine if it’s working? What about side effects? Did anyone consider the use of medical marijuana?
(October 2014)
(June 2011)
Robert Allen Zimmerman Turns 70
Then at some point down the line when we weren’t looking, Dylan morphed into that classic horror film actor Vincent Price. It’s called aging, and with any luck, we all will get there.
There have been reflections on anniversaries of historical and pop-cultural events of varying degrees of significance. These have included… the 100th of Grand Central Terminal and the sinking of the Titanic… the 65th of Jackie Robinson breaking “the color barrier”… the 50th of: JFK’s assassination, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the “I Have a Dream” speech, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Marilyn Monroe’s death, Breakfast at Tiffany’s movie, the World’s Fair in New York, the Barbie doll. 40th and 50th anniversaries have included… the Lunar Landing, Kent State, Woodstock, the Sgt. Pepper album, the first ATM, the assassination of John Lennon 30 years after, the 20th anniversary of “Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day,”...
Then there was that poetry contest in which we were asked to capture... the first 10 years of the new millennium in just 10 lines. No, I didn't win. But it's only been nine years since...I'll get over it.
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But before the poetry, there were the years of prose in a prosaic mosaic.
(April 2014)
What first made me aware that this was Mad Men’s seventh and final season... reading that legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser had been hired to create ads and posters to promote it. I am a fan. His classic Bob Dylan poster still hangs on my wall.
What I am not a fan of, is the show itself. Maybe that’s because I actually did work at a major ad agency on Madison Avenue in the 60’s?
I’ll close here, having spent 654 words on a show I care nothing about. Funny how advertising works.
An Ad Man on Mad Men and a Final Season
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(March 2014)
Quote of the Month
(September 2011)
A Wave of Flags Reprise
In a tribute to 9/11, I offer a reprise of a three-minute video I put together of what we experienced in Malibu on September 11, 2009. Imagine 3,000 large flags, in perfect array across across the broad expanse of the Pepperdine campus, each in honor of a victim—who while mostly American of course— included some 300 people from 90 countries (Domenica Press on Vimeo).
NEW YORK, May 8 – The crown of the Statue of Liberty, which has remained closed to the public after the September 11 terror attacks, will reopen on July 4, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced here Friday.
Going back to the lead piece in that Muse-Letter on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, I could not help but note my passionate and gushy prose in response to shutting down the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
“But if you shut down access to those distinctly American touchstones as a tactic in defense of fear, you start to shut down the valves that pump the heart blood to our way of life.”
That’s tellin’ ‘em!
(March 2010)
Snow Globe
From the front page of The New York Times, Sunday, February 7, 2010, I offer a look at a picture worth a thousand words. Plus another forty-two I saw fit to add.
Museum Hopping
A couple of poems inspired by the museum-going experience, that I originally didn't see as companion pieces,
but do now.
The first was written over 25 years ago, and since re-titled and tweaked not long ago. The second from over 10 years ago has also been slightly altered. They speak for themselves, together and individually.
(October 2011)
MoMA 1967
for Bonnie
In my sheepskin-lined corduroy coat—collar up,
I'm fighting the elements when we meet at the door.
It was all winter and white walls and wantonly young.
Your opening as icy and bold as the season itself:
"Young man I can pay my own way," you say.
And this in the caterpillar days of the movement.
You were the smelling salts under a nose
of a street kid knocked out by what held no punches;
my head now turned upward, my eyes transfixed.
The walls of MoMA at first echoed one more church.
Yet this one gloried in the works of man—
masters burning holes in other realms with their paints.
Like the macabre quietude of Guernica shrieking.
Flesh and spirit swirling through cakes of oils
as if in defiance of the almighty God
first encountered in Catechism class —
Who is God? God is the creator
of heaven and earth and of all things.
You seek to teach of other creators.
I'm about probing beneath the brush strokes
in search of a whole from disparate parts,
all filtered through a head steeped in anticipation
of what might come later that night.
Had not the day itself been so ripe with discovery?
The rest is history. We have a history.
The chapters on distance and drifting apart
are so inevitable, they get reread and reread.
You took me to places I had never been
then left me atop a mountain from which
I had no other option, but to learn how to fly.
__
Museum Guards
Young men and women of various ethnicities
stand by protecting priceless paintings;
dead white guy painters who dripped on the floor
who cut off their ears and dealt in soup cans
and painted the flag in blasphemous colors.
Who painted pipes and claimed they weren’t.
Who drew melting clocks and two-sided faces
of three or more eyes, or who otherwise
who took to tagging the passing scene.
The guards are all that stand between:
Man With Razor or Can of Spray Paint
and a still life with sliced pears and spoiled apples.
These strokes of genius that hold us together,
things we stare at but can’t quite see.
Yet something that would cut to the bone if defiled.
Do they who stand watch ever look at it this way?
Or just at the paintings? Or neither of these?
Rather, simply keeping tabs on us to see
that we keep our curious fingers to ourselves.
__
(May 2015)
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A Gala Preview for the New Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum hosted a gala preview… to celebrate its move from the dark-stone monolithic Breuer Building at a rather stodgy 75th and Madison Avenue address, to a light infused architectural splendor in the vibrant Meatpacking District, adjacent to the High Line and Hudson River.
… the vibes of an Oscar red carpet event, as we were swept away upon entering, into a photo op area… their cameras incessantly clicking and stopping us from moving along. I wanted to say,
“guys, we are nobody.” But I was rudely interrupted by my ego.
Quote of the Month
(March 2015)
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The Empire of Light Renee Magritte, 1950 Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire "Night and Day " night photo by Ron Vazzzano
"Honey, Does This Bulb Make Me Look Orange?"
When Trump railed out last month against energy-efficient light bulbs---claiming in the process that they made him look orange--- I thought of a couple of pieces I had done on the matter. One in a Muse-Letter, one in performance.
(February 2017)
"Let There Be Light"
Buying a light bulb used to be a no brainer. One brand… GE... Incandescent. And looking like the one Edison invented, with its cute little bald head in a milky color, hiding the “brains” within. But as seemingly with all things in life, it’s gotten a little more complicated. And Now they include lots of variations on a theme within each. And one now needs to learn new light bulb translations.Too many options; too little time.
A few months earlier I had done a performance piece entitled Ten Totems of Obsolescence in Passing, that ran the gamut of emotions from pathos to joy.
As said in a review: "A highlight was his bemoaning the fact that the 100 Watt bulb had now been replaced by a new squiggly fluorescent one, that he suddenly produced from his jacket pocket with an existential bewailing:
'A light bulb that will outlive me!''"
And more or less in a similar vein...
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I had to come to grips with the fact that I'm not only a stay-inside
-the-lines kind of guy, but I'm not exactly a David Hockney either when it comes to thinking outside the box in choosing colors.
I turn yellow.
(February 2016)
Thinking Inside the Box; Coloring Inside the Lines
At three score and a decade, I am now the proud owner of a box of 96 Crayola crayons and... an “Alice in Wonderland: Vintage Coloring Book for Adults”… received as a gift.
When I was a kid, there were only eight colors in the box.
Schooled in Disney’s vision… Alice had to be blonde. Or in kindergarten terms, have YELLOW hair. But now, which yellow? Do I dare go with “Laser Lemon”? “Gold?” “Goldenrod”? “Dandelion”? “Macaroni and Cheese”? (cute).
My stress level at this point was almost palpable.
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Quote of the Month
(January 2016)
(June 2015)
When the View is More than Meets the Eye: One World Observatory on Opening Day
…an elevator ride offering the techno-wizardry of a panoramic 515 year old history of Manhattan.… floor-to-ceiling windows… a VIEW which gives you a chill. And you …along with the crowd, breaking out into spontaneous applause.
But of course that is not what we are applauding.…We are applauding triumph over tragedy, good over evil, life affirmation of the human spirit. Which on this day, we later toasted over a glass of champagne with the world—or at least the city and parts of New Jersey—beneath our feet. Corny perhaps, but as they say, you had to be there.
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Shameless Name Dropping and Self Promotion
I’ve been known to drop a name or ten, of celebrities and the celebrated. Usually in the context of some personal encounter that showed a side of them, not usually seen or reported on in the media. These have included Gloria Steinem, Gerald Ford, Maria Shriver, Helen Gurley Brown, writer/satirist Christopher Buckley (son of William F.) Frank Robinson (baseball Hall of Famer) Mort Sahl, famed photographer Richard Avedon and social activist/comedian Dick Gregory.
Two such encounters, of a very different nature, are particularly memorable. One from afar and more peripheral, the other up close and personal.
(February 2016)
A Pause To Ponder Pinter’s Passing
When Harold Pinter died, obituaries focused on his unique style, best characterized as one of bringing an undefined menace to bear on some poor characters, who unbeknownst to them are in over their heads. Invariably noted, the famous “Pinter pause” wherein nothing is said for the longest period of time, as the air hangs dead between the characters...
...as members of the advisory board at the T. Schreiber Studio, we brainstormed as how to best promote an event around reviving two of Pinter's plays—The Birthday Party and The Homecoming.
I came upon the idea of actually having Pinter at the theater on opening night. He was sent an invitation.
What we got back, was a warm and gracious reply. Presented here, is a fax that is self-explanatory, albeit now somewhat blurred.
(May 2012)
A Clark Encounter of a Life Kind
How the conversation got started, I can't recall. He was telling me about his collection of Life magazines, and when I showed a real interest, he took me to a room downstairs that housed every issue of Life ever published. It began with that first one in 1936, that was passed on to him by his grandmother.
As he slid out one of the custom made glass panels that held each magazine, here was that inaugural issue on display.
It struck me how proud he was of his collection, and how incongruous this all seemed. One would expect that if one were to be made privy to any sort of collection by a celebrity of that magnitude, it would be something along the lines of original art works... luxury cars. But here I was, alone with Dick Clark and his Life magazines. And despite all his wealth, you could sense that the value to him of what lie within those sliding panels, was as they say… Priceless!
Rest in peace Dick Clark (1929-2012)
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Picture a Palindrome: #3
GAGA SEES ONO! ONO SEES A GAG!
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Superman: The Twenty-Second Coming
(July 2006)
Yet, another major motion picture, Superman Returns...
...steeped in Christian allegory, what with Brando intoning (yes, Marlon has been “resurrected” for a posthumous performance— that’s how good an actor he is!) such prophetic lines as:
“They only lack the light to show the way.”
“I have sent them you, my only son.”
And there’s that descending-through-space-in-the-Crucifixion-pose scene.
Maybe it’s my traditional Catholic teaching, but Superman as a Christ figure, has always jumped out at me. Like, from Day One. Way back when I was still in short pants.
I mean, it is so obvious. You make the call.
July 2013
He has been on screen across the past eight decades, in movie serials, full length movies, multiple TV series, and even in a Broadway musical.
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To Hell and Back
(December 2015)
Their Cup Runneth Under
There might be annual assassins in our midst trying to do Christmas in (and thank God for Bill O’Reilly’s ever watchful eye in the matter), but not our beloved Starbucks. Until now. Et tu Brute? Yes, it is abundantly clear in which direction Starbucks has decided to go this year.
Their cup has some people seeing red, and has resulted in a whole brew-ho-ho. But all bad puns aside, did Starbucks really think they could slip this cup past Christians? No way.
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(August 2016)
Fantasia: Man and God in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Man has always been mesmerized by the prospects of playing God.
Mickey, the apprentice, now sees his chance to assume that role. But discovers that trying to play God is tricky. Not to mention dangerous. And maybe life is meant to be about having to tote the buckets after all? Life is not easy. Whoever said it was? But whoever hasn’t ever wished it so? What if we could have the buckets carried, simply by the power of our command?
Making magic is much more than just putting on the hat. Reminding me of a catch phrase I used to hear frequently about posturing… in this case… “All hat and no magic.”
Kite
(July 2016)
(February 2006)
Ted Kennedy Has Written a Children's Book
Entitled "My Senator and Me: A Dog’s-Eye View of Washington, D.C.," this 56 page book promises to be, in a word— B-o-o-o-o-r-r-r-r-r-ing! And this is really too bad, as the Senator is sitting on one heck of a story that can be told in just one page, and yet be every bit as adventurous as anything J. K. Rowling can turn out.
Taking a stab at this, I already believe I've come up with something a whole lot more compelling...here goes.
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It's a Long Way from Tipperary to Mars
(May 2014)
McSorley's Old Ale House on a Wet Afternoon
Outside it was New York and beautifully raining.
McSorley's is nothing if not about dates and passing through time. It is nothing if not a preserve of a gritty culture, that tells us by the pictures and artifacts that hang from its walls— a WANTED poster for John Wilkes Booth— by the sawdust on the floor, by the restrooms themselves, something about who we were and to where we've come. And that it is still standing in the same spot it always has, is remarkable in itself.
(March 2015)
Who Would Like To Go on a One-Way Trip to Mars?
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According to a story last month, those 200,000 have now been whittled down to a “Final 100.” Comprised of a 50/50 gender split. And a younger age skew. Not surprising, given the bizarre nature of what would be a taxing mission to say the least.
(“Hey mom and dad, I’m like, you know, I wanna go to Mars. And uh, I’ll never see you again because I can’t come back. But we can probably Skype, and all that”).
Etc.
Frost at the Wheel
Photo by Ron Vazzano © 2010
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My Country, 'Tis of Thee
(November 2012)
A Gig at Federal Hall
This past July 4th, I had the honor of being one of four readers of the Declaration of Independence at Federal Hall on Wall St. This was the site of Washington’s inauguration in 1789.
In getting to read the concluding paragraph of this vibrant and provocative document, exactly as written (and note that the lower case usage of “united” in the first sentence below is not a typo), I heard a cry of “Yeah!” from one man in the crowd. No mincing of words here.
