STILL ONE OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE

 

FECKIN' 80!

Me in my first month(s?) the first time I wore a dress (for my Baptism) 1942, and in a mid-finger-popping (which I no longer can do) portrait by the great rock'n'roll photographer (and dear friend) Lynn Goldsmith in the winter of 1981-'82 (my cold weather outfit of two button shirts under a custom leather (gift from my second wife, Penelope Milford, while she was making a movie in Italy)). Ah, life.

[PS: 2 of my favorite books]

A BIRTHDAY MOVIE LIST

woke up a week before my 80th birthday with the first decades of an eight decade list of movies that impacted my life (and not always positively) and finished it the day before:

1942 CASABLANCA

1943 GOING MY  WAY

1944 LAURA

1945 THE BELLS OF SAINT MARY'S

1946 THE BLUE DHALIA

1947 OUT OF THE PAST

1948 I REMEMBER MOMMA

1949 THE THIRD MAN

1950 CINDERELLA

1951 STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

1952 THE QUIET MAN

1953 STALAG 17

1954 ON THE WATERFRONT

1955 MARTY

1956 THE SEARCHERS

1957 SAYANORA

1958 SOUTH PACIFIC

1959 BLACK ORPHEUS and SHADOWS

1960 SPARTACUS

1961 WEST SIDE STORY

1962 DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES and DAVID AND LISA

1963 81/2

1964 DR. STRANGELOVE and AIN'T NOTHING BUT A MAN

1965 A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

1966 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS

1967 MARAT/SADE

1968 MONTEREY POP

1969 BURN

1970 THE BOYS IN THE BAND

1971 THE CONFORMIST

1972 THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT

1973 THE WAY WE WERE

1974 THE GODFATHER PART II

1975 THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR

1976 THE MISSOURI BREAKS

1977 ERASERHEAD

1978 ANIMAL HOUSE

1980 COMING HOME and LAST RITES (AKA DRACULA'S LAST RITES)

1981 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and THE NESTING

1982 BLADE RUNNER and TOOTSIE

1983 A CHRISTMAS STORY

1984 STARMAN

1985 DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN

1986 CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD

1987 PRINCESS BRIDE and FULL METAL JACKET and MOONSTRUCK

1988 BEETLEJUICE

1989 MY LEFT FOOT and LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN

1990 THE FIELD

1991 THE COMMITMENTS and WHITE FANG and RAMONA!

1992 BASIC INSTINCT and COOL WORLD

1993 IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER

1994 THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH

1995 EMPIRE RECORDS and 12 MONKEYS

1996 SWINGERS

1997 GROSSE POINTE BLANK and IN & OUT

1998 OUT OF SIGHT

1999 ELECTION

2000 REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

2001 THE OTHERS

2002 GANGS OF NEW YORK

2003 AMERICAN SPLENDOR

2004 NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

2005 BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

2006 THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

2007 ONCE

2008 IN BRUGES and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

2009 UP IN THE AIR

2010 THE FIGHTER

2011 THE GUARD

2012 SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

2013 12 YEARS A SLAVE

2014 BOYHOOD

2015 THE DANISH GIRL

2016 MOONLIGHT

2017 GET OUT

2018 BLACK 47 and BLACK PANTHER

2019 PARASITE

2020 MA RAINY'S BLACK BOTTOM

2021 CODA

2022 we'll see

BOB NEUWIRTH R.I.P.

First time I saw Bobby Neuwirth was on screen as Bob Dylan's wingman in the 1967 documentary about Dylan's last solo acoustic tour of England in 1965 just before he went electric. There was a moment in the film where both Bobs are in a lobby off a hotel lounge where a jazz combo is playing and Neuwirth starts making fun of the jazz cat image in a belittling way that made me want to smack him. In 1965 I was still in the military trying to support my wife and me on the lowest rank pay, supplementing it by playing jazz piano in places like that while watching the British invasion replace jazz with rock'n'roll in most of the venues I played in.

So when I met Neuwirth in person in New York around 1980 I was predisposed to not like him. But after I moved to LA in '82, I got to know him pretty well and found him still capable of devastating sarcasm, but also of unconditional friendship. I learned he was a unique singer/songwriter and painter, and always there when I went to him for any kind of help. I came to rely on  him when I got myself into my usual predicaments. His advice was always sound and specific. I know he will be sorely missed by many. Condolences to all who knew and dug him.

ANOTHER FAVE MEME (NOT MINE)

 

PART OF MY CULTURAL HERITAGE ("A Fry") [thanks to Terence Winch]

 

OLD MEME POPPING UP AGAIN BECAUSE STILL UNFORTUNATELY RELEVANT

 

MOMS

 

My father, his Irish immigrant mother, my oldest (of seven) sibling Tommy (in Army Air Corps uniform), my mother's mother, my mom, and me, during WWII. My mom passed when I was 23, on May 9th, 1966, fifty-six years ago tomorrow.

CARRIE WHITE R.I.P.

 
Carrie White was a Hollywood hairdresser (actually Beverly Hills mostly) known for styling the hair of the famous and celebrated (as well as the not so famous and celebrated, like me, though she just gave me a trim now and then for auditions) and lived the kind of thrill ride life that you'd want to read in a book (which you can, her bestseller memoir UPPER CUT) or watch in a movie (which we'll all be able to do when the movie based on the memoir, now in development comes out), or be a part of, which I fortunately was for almost forty years. Just one of the many lucky ones to count her as a dear and endearing and enduring and entertaining and encouraging friend. Condolences to all who knew and loved her.

ACK

 

ME WITH MORE POETS

Two of my favorite poets, Maureen Owen on the East Coast with me after a reading I did at St. Mark's in The East Village in the early 2000s, and Mello-Re Houston on the West Coast with me after a reading I did at Beyond Baroque in Venice Beach in 2018.