ANOTHER SWEET EVENING OF POETRY

I wish I had asked someone to film the reading I was part of tonight. But then often these kinds of live events are best experienced in person. At any rate, it was delightful for me to see my friend Stella Kamakaris's poems, like urgent telegraphs from the soul, get the kind of warm response they deserve, and to see my friend Elinor Nauen share poetry and prose both entertaining and brilliant at the same time, as usual, and for me to get to share some new poems and some old with an enthusiastic and appreciative crowd of New Yorkers and Jerseyites. Totally fulfilling. Thanks universe.

Just a reminder:

 Tomorrow evening, Saturday March 7th

I'll be reading my poetry,

as will Elinor Nauen and Stella Kamakaris theirs

at Studio 26 gallery

179 East 3rd Street NYC

event to begin at 6PM

free to the public

MY RESPONSE TO BIBI'S SPEECH AND HIS SUPPORTERS (BECAUSE I WAS ASKED TO COMMENT)

Netanyahu has been giving speeches, including to our congress, for decades warning that Iran is about to acquire a nuclear weapon it will use to destroy Israel, for decades.

As for his supporters, let this guy say it for me:

FOCUS

The premise for FOCUS is preposterous, so is the plot and the penultimate scene, and yet, this film is so stylish and smooth it comes across as a not bad homage to other stylishly successful movies with preposterous premises and plots like say CHARADE or OCEAN'S ELEVEN and it's many reincarnations.

Will Smith is no Cary Grant but he's never come closer to the kinds of roles Grant played than he does in FOCUS. For the first time he doesn't seem to fall back on his boyish charm as much, if at all, but instead has a grown up manly charm that worked for the female friend who suggested we catch this flick and for me as well.

And the chemistry between him and Margot Robbie, who plays his foil, is pretty fun to watch. I loved her in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET and ABOUT TIME (the latter one of my favorite movies and talk about preposterous premises and plots) but in FOCUS she really gets to show her acting and comic and romantic and seductive chops in the biggest role I've seen her in yet.

From the soundtrack to the overheard panoramic shots of Manhattan, New Orleans and Rio (from what I assume are drones), this flick is so stylishly seductive and polished and lavish it's hard to remember that the thing I knew the duo who wrote and directed it best for before was BAD SANTA. And the acting is first rate, especially by Smith and Robbie, but matching them are Adrian Martinez (in the BAD SANTA role in some ways) and Gerald McRaney (in the best thing he's ever done).

A great flick to take your mind off the weather or whatever else may be bothering you.

AND ONE OF THE BEST EXPLANATIONS OF "RACE RELATIONS" EVER

Here.

BEST EXPLANATION OF GERRYMANDERING YET

Here.

WINTER WONDERLAND REVISTED (A LATE NIGHT PART MINI-RANT PART MINI-RHAPSODY)

People are getting pretty sick of the snow here in my part of Jersey, but I gotta say, I still dig it (in all senses of the word) cause when it comes down like it did today it covers all the slush and mess and dirty snowbanks with a new coating of pure white, it muffles the sounds of the few vehicles on the roads besides plows, and it reminds me of so many Christmas card scenes when I was a kid and winters were storybook winters, with frozen ponds to skate on all season and snow forts and snowmen and snow angels and sleigh riding and all the rest.

People around here got used to those days being something in the past until this winter and the last when climate change brought the arctic air down here and not where it's supposed to be (my nephew in Alaska only got to ski there days this season cause he had more rain and less snow than us as well as higher temperatures most of the time)...

I understand many folks are sick of it, but for me, snow falling and covering everything in one simple shade of white, looking so clean and pure and magical, still makes me smile, as it did today. And fact is, it'll be gone soon enough and by summer some of the same people complaining now will be whining about the heat. That's a whole other story (and just for the climate change deniers out there, January was the hottest January on record, despite the cold weather in Jersey and other parts of the country)...