NEW FAVORITE MEME

MID-DAY MINI-RANT

Can't find a motive? The guy was obviously addicted to gambling, possibly to alcohol and hookers, and when he was a boy his father was an evil criminal on the FBI's most wanted list. Wonder how the other kids reacted to that? What he planned and carried out was obviously the result of a resentment toward his fellow humans so deep he felt compelled to take it out on the most possible victims.

And as for gun regulation? Don't get me started...

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

BATTLE OF THE SEXES was the perfect antidote, for me, to all the bad news lately. A movie that tells the true story of the lead up to—and the personalities involved in—the tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs that captivated the world of 1973 at the dawn of the era of "second wave feminism" as expressed in what we called then "The Women's Movement."

Emma Stone as King, and Steve Carell as Riggs, give Academy Award performances, playing every nuance of their characters' personalities and struggles with accuracy and depth. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE) and co-directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) plumb the talents of an extraordinary cast, of which Elizabeth Shue stands out in the role of Riggs' wife among stellar performances by Sara Silverman, Natalie Morales, Bill Pullman, Austin Stowell, and many others.

It's especially timely at this moment of reassessment of feminism and male privilege, and a great history lesson in how one woman's tenacity and courage—with the help of other women and a few men—took on an entrenched powerful corporate sports establishment and changed the course of not just her sport, but of her, and our, world.

FACE IN THE CROWD (PART TWO)

JV football team, St. Benedict's, Newark NJ (me, third row from bottom, viewer's far right, leaning my head to my left) 1956

coaches and players at my first function at St. Benedict's, Newark NJ (me in dark coat, slanted stripe tie in middle of guys standing, eleventh one in from right or left) 1956

St. Benedict's, Newark NJ, me in back row, first on the viewer's left, not sure what year but think it's 1958

composer Rain Worthington and me taking part in an art/performance happening at the World Trade Center Twin Towers plaza, a few blocks from the illegal loft we lived in, in what would become Tribeca, NYC c. 1978?

me in dark shirt standing, next to poets Terence Winch, also standing, and Doug Lang, with mustache sitting, and others, Folio books, DC c. 1977

the late poets Ted Berrigan (in beard) and Tim Dlugos (in glasses) at my second wedding, to actress Penelope Milford (in red dress) next to me, my daughter Caitlin to my left, next to my son Miles (back of his head), and I can tell it's actor/poet Michael O'Keefe's smile peeking out from the edge of the frame on viewer's right said, NYC, Valentine's Day 1982

SOME QUOTES FOR THESE TIMES (MEANING THE LAST FEW DECADES)

TOM PETTY R.I.P.

First time I heard Tom Petty, I dismissed him as just a Dylan imitator. Then, on a visit to my friend Karen Allen's apartment in Manhattan, she insisted I listen to his newest album, DAMN THE TORPEDOES, and when I heard "Refugee" it spoke so clearly to where I was at then emotionally and mentally, it became my anthem from that moment on for the next few years. "You don't have to live like a refugee," I'd remind myself often. Thanks Tom for that and so much more in other songs and albums.

The only time I encountered Petty in person was during the time of his being a part of The Traveling Wilburys, when for one magical moment at a party at Carrie Fisher's, a friend from Jersey and I ended up in a room where Petty, Dylan, and George Harrison were passing a guitar around and singing songs, or riffing on the songs of others, with lots of messing with each other...just them in three easy chairs with a few young, beautiful women—unfortunately like the most obvious cliche—"sitting at their feet."

Still, a sweet memory musically.

JUST A FEW OF THE HUNDREDS OF MEMES I'VE HAD IN MY GUN CONTROL FOLDER FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS