DAUGHTER DAY

Daughter Day is every day since late February of 1968 when Caitlin graced my life with hers. Here we are back then, and in early 2019.

WOMEN'S HERSTORY

Women's History Month ended yesterday so here's a list of some women heroes of mine:

Helen Keller

Eleanor Roosevelt

Dorothy Day

Martha Gelhorn

Frida Kahlo

Katherine Hepburn

Theresa Harris

Barbara Stanwyck

Billie Holiday

Ella Fitzgerald

Ingrid Bergman

Ida Lupino

Marilyn Monroe

Dorothy Dandridge

Simon Signoret

Anita O'Day

Kate Chopin

Zora Neale Hurston

Gertrude Stein

Anais Nin

Muriel Rukeyser

Diane di Prima

Mary Wells

Abbey Lincoln

Barbra Streisand

Jean Seberg

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Nevelson

Nikki Giovanni

Audre Lourde

Lee Lally

Sylvia Schuster

Angela Davis

Robin Morgan

Gloria Steinem

Shirley Chisholm

Bernadette Devlin

Bernadette Dohrn

Bernadette Mayer

Barbara Guest

Jane Freilicher

Donna Dennis

Eva Hesse

Patti Smith

Sara Rudner

Maureen Owen

Elaine Equi

Nan Goldin

Cookie Mueller

Jan Kerouac

Joanne Kyger

Bobbie Louise Hawkins

Cecilia Vicuna

Joanelle Romero

Karen Allen

Sharon Stone

Edie Baskin

Lynne Goldsmith

Susan Campbell

Annabel Lee

Eileen Myles

Elinor Nauen

Maggie Dubris

Sally Silvers

Susan Bee

Rhonda Haines

Marlee Matlin

Eve Brandstein

Anne Beatts

Wanda Coleman

Susan Dey

Laverne Cox

Janet Mock

Yvonne de la Vega

Nana-Ama Danquah

Mello-Re Houston

Susan Hayden

Patricia Spear Jones

Angela Lockhart

Nadia Owusu

Maria Serrano

Stella Keating

Mindy Thompson Fullilove

Caitlin Clark 

Caitlin Lally Hotaling

[what came to me off the top of my head going back through my life, so many more I'm forgetting in this moment]

ANOTHER LIST!

In the  mid-1970s, I was a single parent living with my first son (later his sister joined us) on the third floor of a three story federal building on Sullivan Street in what was beginning to become Soho when my second floor neighbor and friend, Denise Bratton, moved out and left me this already antique Art Deco kitchen table (and four matching chairs that long ago fell apart) and it's been with me ever since.

Almost a century old and half a century with me I felt inspired to list just some of the people who have gathered around it in my many homes then and since:

Caitlin Lally (now Hotaling)

Miles Lally

Ana Ross-Gongora

Lee Lally

Irene Lally Koch

Jimmy Lally

Cal Johnson

Sissie Johnson

Etheridge Knight

Tim Dlugos

Ray DiPalma

Elizabeth DiPalma

Jane DeLynn

Sylvia Schuster

Marty Brandel 

Bruce Andrews

Joe Brainard 

Johnn Ashbery

Kenward Elmslie

Edmund White

Terence Winch

Karen Allen

Ted Greenwald

John Godfrey

Jim Brodey

Harris Schiff

Annabel Lee

Rain Worthington

Bill Hellerman

Kiki Smith

Elaine Gill

Steve Levine

Steve Hamilton

Alfred Milanese

Kathy Acker

Jimmy Fouratt

Eileen Myles

Edie Baskin

John McCarthy

J. J. Mitchell

Beate Nielson

John Yau

Charles Bernstein

Paul Violi

Irma Towle

Susan Rothenberg

Udo Breger

Bill Sullivan

Richard Andersen

Simon Pettet

Nathan Whiting

Charles Walsh

Emil Schneeman

Elio Schneeman

Leslie Greene

Cookie Mueller

Max Blagg

Mac Wellman

Robert Slater

Fr. Campion (Tommy) Lally

Susan Wechsler

Elinor Nauen

Maggie Dubris 

Susan Seidelman

Penelope Milford

Aileen

Bobby Miller

Beverly D'Angelo

Diane Lawrence

Mary Waranov

Dennis Christopher

Don Johnson

Ralph Bakshi

Rutger Hauer

Rob Cohen

Dale Herd

Lewis MacAdams

Ed Begley Jr.

Brad Davis

Helen Shaver

Melanie Mayron

Michael O'Keefe

Mike Binder

Jamie Rose

Tom Wilson

Joan Baribeault

Blaine Lourde

Jim Keefe

Jimmy "Buddy" Lally 

Catherine Audia Lally

Nathan Stein

Albie Selznick

Winston Jones

Bill Mohr

Rhonda Talbot 

Kale Brown

Eric Trules

Zalman King

Alec Baldwin

Lycia Naff

Neith Hunter

Kim Williams

Terre Bridgham

Jerome Sala

Elaine Equi

Aram Saroyan

Eve Branstein

Susan Hayden

Bonnie Raitt

Sharon Stone

Jeff Kobar

Walter Koch

Russel Kesterton

Carl Koch

Ty Granderson Jones

Michael DesBarres

Pamela DesBarres

Patti D'Arbanville

Stephen "Rocky" Bauer 

Peter Case

Flo Lawrence

Yvonne de la Vega

Ramona Wilson

Nick Brown

Hubert Selby Jr.

Katy Sagal

Lyndall Hobbs

John Bailey

Carol Littleton

David Milch

Rita Stern Milch

Sarah Jessica Parker

Beth Grant

Paul Harryn

Michael Chieffo

Jenifer Baxandale

Crystal 

Jaina Flynn

Flynn Lally

Michael Harris

Meg Foster

Bill Lannigan

Katy Lannigan

Marshall Norstein

Elaine Durbach

Billy Lally

Robert Lally

Sis Fennesy Lally

Naomi Greene

Donovan Lally

Ed Hotaling

Deak Hotaling

Hannah Bracken

Janet Kirker

Jeff Coleman

Sue Brennan

Stephanie Hoeler

Jim Coleman

Stefan Wrembel

Jeanne Donohue

Will Robinson

Abi Teixteira

Gwyn Kruger 

Nela Hadzic

Odell

Mim Kohn

Nance Boylan

Steve Adams

Spenser Parker

Mick O'Malley

Suzanna Caperos

Lisa Dugan

Amber Daniel

Maria Serrano

Stella Keating

Josee Funes

Marilyn Mohr

Karen Hubbard

Pina Pipina

Susan Napack

Phillipa Scott

Maryann Seibert

Angela Lockhart Aranoff

Mindy Thompson Fullilove

Beth Boily

Laura Booker

Boo Trumble

Rachel Diken

Geoff Young

Perry Ostrin

Brendan O'Connell

[This is who came to mind as I went back over the places i lived in NYC, Santa Monica, Maplewood NJ, and now Hillsdale NY...I know I'm forgetting folks so please forgive my 80-year-old Parkinson's brain...I could have checked my mailing address thing or FB friend list, but I did my best without prompts...feel free to add to it if this table rings a bell for you...]

+ John Restivo, Vivian Bresnitz, Anselm Hollo, Bob Holman, Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley, Jeff Wine, John Voight, Chris Coreshi, Raven Chaney, Mike Graham, Mello-Re Houston, Michael Andre, Kenneth Koch, Willie Farrell, Mark Ebner, Patrice Lally Pniewski, Michele Lally Doyle, Jennifer Lally Fondots, Kim Collins, Kevin McCollister, Magdalen Powers, Paul Abruzzo, Dick Lourie, Ron Schriber, Simon Schuchat, Don Yorty, Norman  Scriviner,  Matt Hauser, Grace Cavalieri, David Hilton, Joanne Hilton Dahlgren, Sandy Bull, Buddy Arnold, John Getz, Ingrid Bolting, Chloe Chandler, Luloo Flynn Mann, Evan Mann, Isabella DesPosito, Doug Milford, Theresa Burns, Jim Bracken, Kathy Bracken, Ate de Jong, Julian Neal, Sophie Charlip. 

NOT SO LONG AGO

 
Almost six months since my 80th birthday party, so many sweet memories, including this one of me executing my only dance move left while being cheered on by dear friend Chris Coreshi.

DAUGHTER DAY A DAY LATE

Just heard that yesterday was Daughter's Day, though every day is daughter's day for me. I am eternally grateful for my first born, Caitlin, and all the joy and humor and creative insight she has always contributed to our lives (and talent: she's a terrific writer, artist, singer, and parent). Here we are early in her life (c. 1975) and more recently (2019).

 

NEW FAVORITE OLD QUOTE

 "I never gave away anything without wishing I had kept it; nor kept anything without wishing I had given it away." —Louise Brooks (from a NewYorker article on her by Kenneth Tynan)

HAPPY B'DAY HOUSTON

 
Me and one of my favorite poets, music makers, and humans: Mello-Re Houston, at my poetry reading at Beyond Baroque in Venice CA in December 2018. Wishing her the happiest of birthdays today, August 25th. I totally identify with her commitment to making her life into her art.

NEW FAVORITE MEME (made ME laugh)

 

ANOTHER FAVE MEME (NOT MINE)

 

TICK, TICK...BOOM! and THE EYES OF TAMY FAYE

  
I put tick, tick...BOOM! and The Eyes of Tammy Faye together because the male lead in both is Andrew Garfield, the British actor who has become Hollywood's latest attempt to find a new Tom Hanks, a versatile actor who can play non-glamorous characters and still carry a movie. For me Hanks almost always pulls it off because despite looks that the movie biz usually relegates to "character actor" status, Hanks usually still has as much or more screen charisma as any star.

Despite his obvious commitment and talent, for me Garfield doesn't. What saves him in these two flicks, both flawed but watchable, is the other actors in each cast. Jessica Chaistain as Tammy Faye gives the kind of performance that wins Oscars. Her physical transformation alone will garner academy votes, but her acting goes way beyond the extraordinary embodiment of Tammy's conflicted character to stunningly precise evocations of multiple emotions at once through only her eyes! (I still will vote for Jennifer Hudson for the SAG Awards, but am guessing Chastain will win.)

Both movies contain music without exactly being musicals, but if you're a fan of musicals, which I am and have always been, then you'll probably like tick, tick...BOOM! It's setting is a musical try-out about a failed-to-be-realized on stage other musical leading up to the redemption of another musical that will be the great Broadway success RENT. Garfield gives his all and it's a lot. but again, for me, it lacked the kind of magnetism that makes me stop and watch many movie stars even in bad movies when I'm channel surfing (still).

But there are so many wonderful "supporting actors" in both flicks, even in the smallest almost cameo roles (shout out to the initially unrecognizable playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman, who I knew when he was starting out) (e.g. Bradley Whitford capturing Stephen Sondheim's physical tics), The women in both films in particular, for me, were all terrific and many revelatory, especially those who sang in tick, tick...BOOM! Let me know what you think.

NEW FAVORITE MEME

 

NATIONAL DAUGHTER DAY

My daughter Caitlin and me rockin' shortly after she was born in February 1968 in Iowa City.

My daughter Caitlin and me rockin' at a party in 2019 in Maplewood NJ.

 

THE BIRD! (GOTTA STICK AROUND FOR THE SLIDE)

 Click here.

ONCE UPON A NOT SO LONG AGO

 
Me dancing at my 75th birthday party a little over four years ago. I had cataract surgery so didn't wear far sighted glasses for the first time in decades and could still finger pop (snap my fingers in both hands rapidly three times and end with a pop sound in the palm of one) as I had since teen years, but am back to full-time glasses again with right eye vision permanently diminished, and can't even snap the fingers of my right hand any more, but can still dance...

IN THE HEIGHTS

I cried, I laughed, I moved to the music, I couldn't stop smiling as stars were born, a new favorite musical made a future list, I already want to watch it again (this time with the captions on so I don't miss a syllable of its delightful theatrical genius), oh and make sure you stick around for the coda after the end credits!

WE THOUGHT THEY'D NEVER END

 
One of my longtime closest friends, Karen Allen, and me taking a break from dancing at The Ritz on E. 11th in NYC c. 1979, shot by the longtime friend who introduced us in DC in 1972, Bobby Miller.

FRIENDS

 
longtime fried, novelist and short storyist, Jane DeLynn (gesturing) with my (then only) son Miles, who I was single parenting, me (am I holding Jane's DON JUAN IN THE VILLAGE?), and loft mate and one of the loves of my life, composer (and ex-sculptor and artist) Rain Worthington c. 1979, Duane Street NYC

actor/poet/martial arts contender, Ty Granderson Jones, dancer/singer/actor Vida Vierra, me with skinny tie and skinny soul patch, actor/poet Dennis Christopher, and actor/performer/chanteuse/poet Lisa Thayer, all old friends (and castmates from the 1983 LA stage premiere of BALM IN GILEAD) at Beyond Baroque in Venice CA 2018 

LOOKIN' UP

Lotta stuff lookin' up recently...like Uncle Joe's Covid relief package getting some challenges met that Dems have been trying to accomplish for decades, and Spring in the air around here, and one of the least boring Grammy Awards ceremony (to me) in years with a lot of fine performances (the tribute to some who passed in 2020 was powerful) and the power in young activists influencing social and political changes...lots to be grateful for... 

Here's a photo of me and my daughter Caitlin shortly after her birth, and a Lally sonnet I wrote about it, and a photo of her and me dancing a few years ago. 

FEBRUARY 28TH, 1968

I hold Lee’s hand for hours as she labors

quietly, only a string of curses under her

breath at the recurring pain. We can hear

a woman singing arias that get louder and

louder til her singing becomes screaming.

It scares Lee but also makes her laugh be-

tween contractions. Eventually they make

me wait in the room where fathers pace, as

in all the cartoons and movies, till Caitlin

is shown to me behind glass, in an incubator

cause she’s so small. I always found new-

borns with their pinched little faces alike and

wondered how people could line up and stare

at the little monkeys for hours. Now I know.

FOR EARLYBIRDS

The Saint Mark's Poetry Project New Year's Day Marathon (a twenty-five hour event) will be virtual this year. A video of me reading a new poem is scheduled to appear in the 7 to 8AM(!) hour (which will also include videos from old friends Elinor Nauen, Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers, and Charles Bernstein, whoops looks like Charles's reading has been moved).

Here's the link to the schedule.