For some reason woke up with a list forming in my mind of my ten top favorite authors sixty years ago when I was 21 in 1963! Here they are in no particular order:
Diane di Prima
Bob Kaufman
James Baldwin
LeRoi Jones (later became Amira Baraka)
Walt Whitman
James Joyce
Fydor Dostoevsky
William Goldman
Jack Kerouac
Lilllian Smith
Woke up this morning to a text from a fiend with a photo of Father Mike Judge, the Franciscan chaplain to a NYC fire brigade who died at Ground Zero on 9/11 and who we knew. I replied with the single word SAINT. Which then led my mind to generate an alphabetical list of dead folk who are personal saints in any world, or heaven, I have a say over (i.e. in my heart):
SAINT ANNE FRANK
SAINT ANTHONY (DINOVI)
SAINT AUNT MARY (LALLY)
SAINT BASQUIAT (JEAN-MICHEL)
SAINT BERRY (BERENSON)
SAINT BILLIE (HOLIDAY)
SAINT BIRD (CHARLIE PARKER)
SAINT CAL (JOHNSON)
SAINT CANDY (DARLING)
SAINT CAMPION "TOMMY" LALLY
SAINT CLIFFORD ("CLYDE" HEARD)
SAINT COOKIE (MUELLER)
SAINT DIANE (DI PRIMA)
SAINT DOLPHY (ERIC)
SAINT DOROTHY (DAY)
SAINT DOUG (LANG)
SAINT DOUGIE (STEINDORFF)
SAINT ED (COX)
SAINT ELIO (SCHNEEMAN)
SAINT EMILY (DICKINSON)
SAINT EVA (HESSE)
SAINT FANNIE (LOU HAMER)
SAINT FRANK (O'HARA)
SAINT FRED (HAMPTON)
SAINT GRACIE (ALLEN)
SAINT HARPO (MARX)
SAINT IRENE (DEMPSEY LALLY)
SAINT JACK (KEROUAC)
SAINT JIMMI (HENDRIX)
SAINT JIMMY (SCHUYLER)
SAINT JOAN B. (BARIBEAULT)
SAINT JOAN G. (LALLY GLOSHINSKI)
SAINT JOAN R. ("BAMBI" ROBINSON)
SAINT JOE (BRAINARD)
SAINT KENNY (GRAHAM)
SAINT LEE (FISHER LALLY)
SAINT LEWIS (WARSH)
SAIINT LOUIS (ARMSTRONG)
SAINT MALCOLM (X)
SAINT MARILYN (MONROE)
SAINT MARSHA (P. JOHNSON)
SAINT MARTIN (LUTHER KING)
SAINT MCCARTHY (JOHN)
SAINT MEL (JOHNSON)
SAINT MIKE (JUDGE)
SAINT NATALIE (WOOD)
SAINT NORMAN (LEAR)
SAINT OTIS (REDDING)
SAINT "PRES" (LESTER YOUNG)
SAINT ROSE (MCBRIDE LALLY)
SAINT SELBY (HUBERT JR.)
SAINT SIMONE (SIGNORET)
SAINT SISSY (JOHNSON)
SAINT TED (BERRIGAN)
SAINT TIM (DLUGOS)
SAINT 'TRANE (JOHN COLTRANE)
SAINT UNCLE JOHN (LALLY)
SAINT VERONICA (LAKE)
SAINT WALT (WHITMAN)
SAINT WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
SAINT WILLY (FARRELL)
SAINT YVONNE (DE LA VEGA)
There are more in my head but I can't get them out. How 'bout yours?
Woke up this morning with my mind working on a new list which became my top fifteen favorite films with a single first name as the title:
AMELIE (2001)
ANNA (2019)
BELLE (2013)
GILDA (1946)
GLORIA (1980)
JUNO (2007)
LAURA (1944)
LUCY (2014)
MARTY (1955)
NINOTCHKA (1939)
PHILOMENA (2013)
ORLANDO (1992)
RAY (2004)
RUDY (1993)
SABRINA (1954)
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]
MOST SATISFYING MOVIE OF 2022:
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME
RUNNERS UP:
GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE
THE WOMAN KING
MOST IMPRESSIVE LEAD PERFORMANCE:
MICHELLE YEOH (EVERYTHING etc.)
RUNNERS UP:
EMMA THOMPSON (GOOD LUCK TO YOU etc.)
VIOLA DAVIS (WOMAN KING)
MOST IMPRESSIVE SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE:
KE HUY QUAN (EVERYTHING etc.)
RUNNERS UP:
DARYL MCCORMACK (GOOD LUCK TO YOU etc.)
THUSO MBEDU (WOMAN KING)
HONORABLE MENTION:
COLIN FARRELL (BANSHEES OF INISHERIN)
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.
[spent my life almost always being on time or ahead of time, but with Parkinson's this is me now]
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:
Off the top of my head, this list for "poetry month" of twenty poets I knew personally who are now gone but inspired me early in my life as a poet:
Diane di Prima
Bob Kaufman
Joel Oppenheimer
Allen Ginsberg
Joanne Kyger
Robert Creeley
Etheridge Knight
Audre Lorde
James Schuyler
John Ashbury
Kenneth Koch
Barbara Guest
Ted Berrigan
Anselm Hollo
Ralph Dickey
Michael S. Harper
Ed Cox
Lorenzo Thomas
Joe Brainard
Lee Lally
Saw that yesterday was siblings day (who determines these "day" designations?) so here's a photo I'm sure I've posted before of me and mine during World War Two. My oldest sibling Tommy holding me in his arms had just joined The Army Air Corps, the next oldest, "Buddy" to his right, would soon join The Navy. Next, to Tommy's left, is Robert, then Joan in front of Robert and me, then Irene, and in the gap between Irene and me was John, who passed as an infant. All gone now, only me still here, but on that day (I would guess by the clothes that it's Easter Day) entire lifetimes were still to come.
Back in the early 20th Century there was a lot of talk in the literary world about "The Great American Novel." Some thought it had already been written in the previous century (e.g. Moby Dick) or claimed newer titles (e.g. The Great Gatsby) or midcentury (e.g. Invisible Man) or later ones (e.g. Beloved). In this century it seems like the absurd game it always was and who cares anyway.
But if we were still playing, I'd throw Dale Herd's Dreamland Court into the mix along with the examples cited above and others. A series of mostly overlapping monologues by a varied crew of smalltime drug dealers and thieves and general fuckups and their partners and lovers and spouses and friends, Dreamland Court may not sound inviting, but once you've met them and been drawn into their stories by Herd's original styling and eye and ear for character, you're hooked,
Reading Dreamland Court is like watching one of those streaming series that you can't help binging on because you want to see what happens to these uniquely distinct individuals that you've come to know so intimately. Someone once wrote about Hubert Selby's achievement in his novel Last Exit To Brooklyn being that he got readers to care about the "lowlifes" he was writing about. In Dreamland Court the characters themselves seem to write themselves and their stories into existence, and so authentically they continue to live in my consciousness long after I reached the end of the book, which I was sorry to.
Here's another list off the top of my head of ten more personal "Black History Month" icons, these not as famous maybe but all have inspired me, and many others, and I'm lucky to call all of them friends (as I do two previously posted about personal "Black icons" Quincey Troupe and Etheridge Knight):
Here's a list off the top of my head of ten personal "Black History Month" icons I have met and hung out a little with (and liked) (and in one case became lifelong friends with):
Jersey Joe Walcott
Muhammad Ali
Harry Belafonte
Dexter Gordan
Miriam Makeba
Etheridge Knight
Fred Hampton
Audre Lorde
Grace Jones
Lucille Clifton
Don't remember where I copped this from but totally cool new year resolutions from woody guthrie:
Woke up this morning with another list in my head inspired probably by catching the last few scenes on TCM of the film noir JOHNNY EAGER yesterday. There were a lot of Jimmys in my clan (my father and one of my brothers e.g.) but no Johnnys (just Johns). So here's the Johnnies, real and fictional, that came to my mind:
Johnny Eager
Johnny Dollar
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Appleseed
Johnny Belinda
Johnny Angel
Johnny Guitar
Johnny One-Note
Johnny Ray
Johnny Ace
Johnny B. Goode
Johnny Mathis
Johnny Crawford
Johnny Cash
Johnny Griffen
Johnny Rivers
Johnny Nash
Johnny Carson
Johnny Unitas
Johnny Winters
Johnny Thunders
Johnny Ramone
Johnny Depp
Woke up this morning with the beginning of a list of one favorite (that came to mind) movie for each letter of the alphabet (some of them un-woke) with titles whose first word is 'THE" and ended up with this (have the feeling I've done this before)::
THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
THE COMMITMENTS
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER
THE EQUALIZER
THE FIGHTER
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
THE HUMAN COMEDY
THE INFORMER
THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
THE KID (the Chaplin silent)
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
THE MALTESE FALCON
THE NATURAL
THE OTHERS
THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE
THE QUIET MAN
THE RED SHOES
THE SEARCHERS
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
THE VAN
THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY
THE X?
THE YOUNG SAVAGES
THE Z?
[had to use google to check the full title of Marat/Sade and the spelling of Cherbourg]
Woke up with this list in my head:
ANOUK AIMEE
BRIDGET BARDOT
CYD CHARISSE
DOROTHY DANDRIDGE
ELAINE EQUI
FIONNULA FLANAGAN
GRETA GARBO
HERBIE HANCOCK
JAMES JOYCE
KATHERINE KOCH
LOTTE LENYA
MARILYN MONROE
NIKKI NASH
OLIVE OYL
PARKER POSEY
ROY ROGERS
SALLY SILVERS
TINA TURNER
VIDA VIERRA
WALT WHITMAN
TEN FAVORITE MOVIE MOTHERS
Jane Darwell in GRAPES OF WRATH
Greer Garson in MRS. MINIVER
Myrna Loy in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
Mary Astor in LITTLE WOMEN (1949)
Irene Dunne in I REMEMBER MAMA
Juanita Moore in IMITATION OF LIFE
Alfre Woodard in CROOKLYN
Fionulla Flanagan in SOME MOTHER'S SON
Viola Davis in FENCES
Keng Hua Tan in CRAZY RICH ASIANS
In these last few minutes of women's history month (which is every month to me (in a post-gender kind of way)) I thought I'd make an off the top of my head alphabetical list of the women who have been my heroes from boyhood on:
JOSEPHINE BAKER
QUEEN MAEVE OF CONNACHT
DOROTHY DAY
EMELIA EARHART
RODA FELAT
JANE GOODALL
FANNIE LOU HAMER
HELEN KELLER
MYRNA LOY
JANET MOCK
SINEAD O'CONNOR
ROSA PARKS
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
SONIA SOTOMAYOR
HARRIET TUBMAAN
MILALA YOUSAFZAI
Here's five more "Black writers" that are favorites of mine I missed in my last list:
Jean Toomer's CANE is actually one of my all-time favorite books and I have no idea why that wasn't at the top of my mind when I made the last list.
James Baldwin, of course, his first novel, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN, and his first essay collection, NOTES OF A NATIVE SON, are what first impacted me as a teenager when they first came out.
August Wilson's plays, all of them, but especially MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM.
Andrea Lee has been a favorite author since I first read her; I love everything she has written, but if you don't know her work, INTERESTING WOMEN, a collection of her stories is a good introduction.
Mindy Thompson Fullilove is a psychiatrist who studies the psychology of communities and may be best known for her book URBAN ALCHEMY, but every one of her books is worth reading, including her latest, MAIN STREET in which (full disclosure) she quotes some of my poetry.
