TRANS RIGHTS

 
I have had trans friends since childhood, and trans lovers since my late twenties, as well as times when I felt transgender identification of my own, and I have an adult trans grandchild, so I have little to no tolerance for any judgment or criticism or discrimination against trans people or limitations on what they feel is best for their health, happiness, and well being. 

As a wise person said to me more than once: There's two kinds of business, mine and none of mine. And what a trans person feels is best for them is none of mine. The current scapegoating of trans people for political advantage used by the trolls in charge must be opposed by all freedom loving people, or just plain loving people.

FOUND ON THE INTERNET

 

AMEN

 

STILL OBVIOUS

HELLO

 

BACK WHEN

 
Favorite photo with me and my dad in it because of the tender way his left hand is touching my brother Robert, the troublemaker of the family at that time, and though out of frame his right hand seems to be touching me tenderly at a time just before I was to become the chief troublemaker. Plus I love that his long sleeve shirt is buttoned all the way up on a warm summer day down  the Jersey shore.

ANOTHER FAVORITE QUOTE

 

NEW FAVORITE QUOTE

 

2 NEW FAVORITE MEMES

 

HISTORY

 
A photo of me I've never seen before, sent to me from longtime friend Dick Patterson, taken around 1970 [May 1971 turns out] when I was teaching at Trinity College in DC before I "came out" and lost that gig.

MY MLK SONNET

When Martin Luther King is shot I feel the

sudden shift in the atmosphere, like trying to

breathe underwater. It's been three years since

Malcom X’s assassination and my new radical

friends and reading have opened my eyes to the

realities of class in the USA. Malcolm verbally

attacked white folks with impunity, but the

minute he decided it was not about race but

about the poor and the wealthy, BAM! King

spends years fighting racism and despite attempts

on his life and tons of threats seemed invulner-

able, but as soon as he organizes a poor people’s

campaign talking about the haves and have-nots,

BAM! I wonder if the Marxists have it right.

(C) 1968, 2023

STAY ON BOARD

 
STAY ON BOARD: The Leo Baker Story is the most moving, engaging, enlightening, and satisfying film  I've seen in a long time, and my new favorite. It's a documentary about a champion skateboarder's struggle with identity in the face of financial, social, and survival pressures to conform to preconceived ideas of gender expression.

Highly recommend. (Full disclosure, I have friends who were interviewed for the film.) 

THE LAST MOVIE STARS

 
Brilliantly directed and edited documentary about the lives and careers of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman made by Ethan Hawke. Two of the last movie actors to be made into stars by the old studio system before its demise, Woodward was the first to achieve stardom and was later overshadowed by  Newman, her husband.

It seems Newman and his friends and associates had been audio taped for a biography of him that he grew disenchanted with so destroyed the tapes. But later transcripts of the tapes were discovered, so Hawke got actors—like Laura Linney and George Clooney for the leads (Linney gets the essence of Woodward, as Newman, Clooney just does Clooney, but it worked for me)—to play the now deceased real people.

Using footage from their movies to match the commentary or mood of the memories, the six-part doc works perfectly for my taste. I had a tooth pulled last week and used the recovery time to binge it. Highly recommend.  

GREAT QUOTE FROM ONE OF MY FAVORITE WRITERS

 

PARKINSON'S AWARENESS

Just found out yesterday was Parkinson's Awareness Day. I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. I am quite aware I have Parkinson's, thank you. Hopefully if you have it, you're aware you do too. Okay, moving (disorderly) (it's a "movement disorder") on.

FOR THOSE OF US WHO

 

SOME OLD FAVORITE QUOTES (HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY JACK)

 from The Scripture of The Golden Eternity:

"While looking for the light, you may suddenly be devoured by the darkness and find the true light."

"...it's impossible to miss your reward."



from a letter to Don Allen, Fall 1957:

"I have been writing my heart out all my life..." 

"I would like everybody in the world to tell his full life confession and tell it HIS OWN WAY and then we'd have something to read in our old age, instead of the hesitations and cavilings of 'men of letters' with blear faces who only alter words that the Angel brought them...."



from Vanity of Dolouz:

"...all life is but a skull bone and a rack of ribs through which we keep passing food and fuel just so's we can burn so furious (tho not so beautiful)..."

"If you don't say what you want, what's the sense of writing?"

"—who's going to come out and say that the mind of nature is intrinsically insane and vicious forever?



from Visions of Cody:

"(but I've known the world, it's all happened before, why do I kid myself with these artificial newnesses)"

"—I must write down books too, story-novels, and communicate to people instead of just appeasing my lone soul with a record of it—but this record is my joy."

"All you do is head straight for the grave, a face just covers a skull awhile. Stretch that skull-cover and smile."

"Time is the purest and cheapest form of doom."



from Visions of Gerard:

"My heart is where it belongs."

ELLA: JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS and FEMINISTS: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

 
Moving documentary about an icon of "Black History" and "Women's History" and especially Black Women's history. And not just culturally, for her uniquely exquisite vocal expression and innovations, but for her social and political impact as well. And a righteous tribute to her overcoming challenges that would defeat most people. Just her teen years alone deserve a film, going from reform school and homelessness in early teens to recording star in late teens and never stopping her evolution to worldwide beloved musical genius. (Only thing that bothered me was occasional use of later decades performance photos and video over narration about earlier periods.) On Netflix, highly recommend.

Cleverly framed doc about a 1978 coffee table book of photos of second wave feminists and where some of them are today (or rather "were" when the film was shot a few years ago). Focused on NYC and LA it misses some major figures, but selects a representative group that covers a lot of the stories and perspectives of an impactful movement. I was surprised at how many people in the movie I knew personally, and was happy and moved to see dear friend the late Aloma Ichinose featured. It felt like a visit from her. It covers a lot of people so some critics felt it could have narrowed the focus to just a handful and thus been able to dig deeper. But as it is, it's a lively and well done introduction to vital history and a movement more relevant than ever. Also on Netflix and highly recommended.

STORY OF MY LIFE (OR A LOT OF IT)

 

ALWAYS WORTH REPEATING