JOHN "ROD" LALLY R.I.P.

I've known him always as my cousin Rod who was a few years older than me and grew up next door on a street with three houses of cousins and our Irish immigrant grandparents so was known locally as Lally's Alley. We spent so much time in each others houses the cousins on my street felt more like siblings and Rod was the big brother (my actual big brothers were in their teens when I was born).

Rod was my hero when we were kids . He was so cool in the early 1950s in his black leather jacket (I saw  photos of him in it at one of our Lally clan reunions but haven't seen them since), and when he got stabbed in a fight at a drugstore soda fountain and refused to tell the cops who did it (and we had cops in the clan) and had his arm in a sling for a while,

And then he got kicked out of high school for something you wouldn't today and he and his girlfriend Paula got married and he went to work at the A&P at the bottom of our street and eventually moved further South in Jersey where they had a bunch of kids and a wonderful life until Paula passed and then he met Cathy and continued to have a wonderful life.

As has been said by those who were closest to him, like his son Richard, for Rod the glass was always 3/4 full. Thank you for being an exemplar of joy and for always making me feel loved Rod. 

[photos of Rod with his actual siblings and with his widow Cathy, deepest condolences to you all and to Rod's kids and grandkids and great grandkids.]

HAPPY HOLIDAAYS

 

ESP

Here's a link to a short documentary (WHO ARE ESP? on Youtube) a fan made about the electronic/ambient music duo ESP, which my grandchild  Donovan is one half of. It ends before they produced their latest album which they just toured for (Paris, London, Dublin, Oslo, NewYork, etc.). Proud grandpa, love the music and the mix of subtle humor and irony in their videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeHaUhynz90

THANKS

 
Some of the Lally clan that made my Thanksgiving so full of laughter and love (from viewer's left to right behind me): my grandkids Donovan Lally and Deak Hotaling, my youngest Flynn Lally, my niece Michelle Lally Doyle and her husband Mike Doyle, my oldest Caitlin Lally Hotaling and her husband Ed Hotaling. As always, I feel like the luckiest person in the world.

[my son Miles and his partner Hannah, who are my housemates and caregivers, were at Hannah's family gathering]

COOL

My eldest, Caitlin, being featured in a promotional post for the hardware store she works at. Her grandfather, James Lally, co-owned hardware stores during his lifetime, up until my boyhood, so it's in our blood. Proud of her, as I always am of my kids and grandkids. 

LOVE, JOE

 

I haven't posted much since the election, mostly because I feel like anything I say comes from such a place of privilege(s) that other voices should take precedent, but I also think all our voices should take part in shaping some solutions, so here's mine:

On the day after the election I got this in the mail, LOVE, JOE: The Selected Letters of Joe Brainard, who, for those who don't know, was a uniquely original artist/writer/poet/collaborator and also one of the loves, and lovers, of my life. It helped my mood immensely.

Ever since I was a child in the 1940s, during and after WWII, I have found my solace in the arts, where the creative endeavors of others, as well as my own, have found ways to open my heart to the infinite possibilities of life. Everything Joe Brainard created, did that for me. And still does.

I remember (the title of Joe's autobiographical masterpiece) the thrill of seeing an envelope in the mail with Joe's distinct all caps lettering (see the cover of the book). His sometimes rambling thoughts and observations and enclosed drawings or magazine photos (and in the case of me and a few others, his sexual fantasies (I know, you're shocked)) always seemed like rare treats to me.

Daniel Kane has done a fantastic job of editing, choosing to group letters by addressee chronologically, so that you get the scope of each relationship amid echoes of events and gossip, which is like a full immersion into Joe's life and work and world (and wisdom), and his triumphs and struggles with it all.

Not everyone's "cup of tea" (as Joe might put it, i.e. in quotes), but if you already love Joe's work (if unfamiliar, read I REMEMBER) I think you'll love LOVE, JOE. And for me, love is always the answer.

VETERANS DAY

 

Me and my buddy, Murph, in basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, outside San Antonio, Texas, in February or March of 1962. I was 19. To read about my adventures, get my most recent book: SAY IT  AGAIN.