QUOTE FOR US ALL

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."  —Jesus (according to the Gospel of Thomas, one of the Gnostic Gospels)

MAUREEN DOWD STRIKES AGAIN

Thanks to my friend Doc Byrnes for hipping me to this past Sunday's column of Maureen Dowd's in the NY Times.

ZALMAN KING R.I.P.

I just heard that Zalman King passed Friday. My condolences to his wife and daughters and all his family and friends and fans.  Zalman was mostly known for writing (with his wife Pat and others) and producing the film 9 1/2 WEEKS. And for the cable series RED SHOE DIARIES.

So he's generally characterized as a maker of erotic films and shows. Understandably. But as someone who has often been mischaracterized for something that seems obvious while the rest of the picture gets lost, it's important to remember that most of us have a lot more angles and corners and stories (in both senses of the word since I'm obviously caught up in some kind of architectural metaphor) and rooms and the rest than we may be recognized or noticed for.

Zalman King was a friend. He's in a lot of my stories, some of them in print but without my using his name. Like in the piece "Venice CA (1980s)" in IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE. I met him after I moved to L.A. (or actually Santa Monica where he lived). I went in to see him about a movie he had written and wanted to direct which at the time was being called BAKERSFIELD BLUES.

When I sat down and we started to get to know each other he unexpectedly asked me about a poem in ROCKY DIES YELLOW (a book I was surprised and gratified to discover several people in L.A. knew and liked). The poem is called "You Remember Belmar NJ 1956" (and reprinted in IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE).

The poem refers to a few things from my early teens down the Jersey shore including once mistakenly being dragged along in a car with some local thugs who drove to what was considered in those days a "Jewish" beach town (richer than the Jewish families in Belmar who were our friends, or at least mine) to jump out (not me, I refused but that's not in the poem as it wasn't the point of it) and whack with baseball bats a few teenage boys hanging out in front of a hotel. When I expressed surprise he would know the poem, he said he was one of the boys who got whacked.

We were friends from then on, though his being a directors and producer made for some uncomfortable professional encounters. He wanted me and my then wife, a movie actress, and a woman it seemed all Hollywood knew I was having an affair with, to star in this movie of his BAKERSFIELD BLUES. My character was a rough working-class carnie. But when he showed me his script for 9 1/2 WEEKS I told him i preferred playing the lead male role in that, which at that point was a suave wealthy well groomed gentleman. They obviously changed it when they got Micky Rourke to play it.

The film I was supposed to be in came close but ended up not being made. Then about ten years later, it did, with the characters made ten or more years younger than originally intended because the whole "brat pack" young Hollywood actors thing was happening. The title was changed to TWO MOON JUNCTION.

Anyway, this is to say that in all my encounters with Zalman, and his incredibly talented artist wife and bright and lovely daughters, was always a treat. he was a great host, I loved his and Pat's parties, and he was a discreet and thoughtful friend. But the thing that impressed me most and no one will probably write about in the regular media, was his wonderful combination of self confidence and humility.

To me he was a star. My stars are people whose art or craft I've experienced who I remember for the impact their work had on me (like the people I mostly write about on this blog). Zalman had acted in several TV shows back when I was still in the service and we were both in our early twenties. And then when I was a starving poet he acted and even starred in movies (THE PASSOVER PLOT is the most outrageous and shows his unique screen presence whether the movie worked or not, and he certainly looks more authentic as Jesus than any other movie actor ever has).

When I told him how impressed I was by all that, he took it humbly. He was very modest, or maybe realistic, about how important that part of his history was in Hollywood. But when he showed me a script he'd written or told me an idea he had for one (we worked on trying to get one of my ideas, a story set when we were Jersey teens made but it wasn't to be) he would always introduce it by telling me how great it was. And it usually was in one way or another.

Later on he also made documentaries and music videos and helped a lot of people get their gifts out to a wider audience. He always appreciated anyone's talent or unique contribution to the party or movie or conversation.

He was an extraordinary man, literally. His physical presence was always distinctive and not just because of his unique looks and compelling eyes that seemed at once startled at how amazing what he was looking at was, even if it was just you, and at the same time world weary. He was generous with his time, his successes, his experience, his family, his friends, his home, his help.

The man was a great pleasure to experience in person, always. And I will not only miss him, but regret that after I moved back to Jersey I wasn't better at staying in touch. But he joins the pantheon in my heart.

A GREAT ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICS BEHIND THE WAR AGAINST IRAN FEVER

Here.

HMMMMMM...

So when Obama took office, unemployment was beginning to skyrocket, it's now going in the right direction, down.

When Obama took office, the stock market was crashing worse than ever, going straight down, it's been mostly going up ever since, with drops, some big ones, but the general trajectory has been up.

When Obama took office we were losing millions of jobs a year. Now we're gaining over a million a year and rising.

When Obama took office Bin Laden was thumbing his nose at Bush's failed attempts to capture or kill him. Not any more.

When Obama took office we relied on other countries for over sixty per cent of our energy needs. Now we rely on foreign energy sources like oil especially for forty percent and still heading down.

When Obama took office if my child had a preexisting condition health insurance companies could turn him down, now they can't, and back then when my son turned twenty-one my health plan would no longer cover him, now it will, until he's twenty-six.

When Obama took office, the American car industry, once the pride of the country and the envy of the world, had been failing for years and the right, which created a lot of the conditions leading to that failure, were saying let it fail and disappear and all the jobs that went with it.

Now the American car industry is back on track and an American car company is now the number one car maker in the world, GM, over Toyota which was number one. And they paid back the stimulus money Obama used to bring them back, with interest.

When Obama took office, gay members of the military had to hide their sexuality under the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, now they can serve openly, and instead of the right's prediction that the recruiting and morale and capability would diminish, the reverse has been the case.

When Obama took office we were fighting two wars and spending enormous human and financial resources to do it. Now one is ended and the other is being shut down.

I could go on, because there's plenty more. And he accomplished all this in the face of rightwing Republican resistance to all of it. And though I have my criticisms of some of Obama's decisions or what he has allowed to occur under his watch, and agree actually with some Republican nominees for the presidency policy suggestions, like a lot of Ron Paul's on drug laws and on military commitments overseas, or on Buddy Rhomer's ideas about getting corporate and special interest money out of elections and politicians (interesting that the only Republican pushing for that was not included in any debates even though he was a governor and successful business man yet Herman Cain was included in the debates and Donald Trump was considered a serious contender).

But in the end, our president has done a great job with the challenges he faced on taking office, and deserves to have four more years to hopefully correct some of the things he got wrong and finish many of those he got correctly. And any Republican would still take us back to rightwing policies that would return us to the problems Obama has begun to resolve and just make things worse again. This should be obvious to anyone who is intelligent enough to consider the facts employ reason and logic in their thinking about them.

Speaking of which, did you read about the study that showed that those with lower intelligence scores as children grow up to hold more conservative ideas and more prejudices. Other studies have already shown that conservatives also have many more fears than the rest of us. Sometimes that is called for, but not when it's based on prejudice, lies, misinformation, misguided information, misdirection and blind faith in ideology rather than facts.

THE DESCENDANTS

It's all a matter of taste, but for mine, this is the best movie of the year and George Clooney should win the Oscar for Best Actor and Alexander Payne for Best Director.

And the whole cast should have won the SAG award for best ensemble. THE HELP won that, but for me there were a few weaker performances in that film that didn't match the standout ones. But in THE DESCENDANTS everyone is so good I couldn't believe how real their characters were, the unexpected personality traits (and not just the typical indie quirkiness and pushed "character"-ness). I was surprised at almost every turn.

The movie hit home to me in ways I didn't expect as well, even though I was forewarned. I went through a lot of Kleenex. But that's my personal history intersecting with aspects of the story. In the end, there is plenty for cynical critics to criticize, but I'm not cynical despite all I've been through and seen others go through. I always believe in some kind of personal redemption and have experienced it many times, so dig it when a work of art gets it right, and THE DESCENDANTS does.

And Clooney. He's not just this era's Cary Grant, all charm and handsome charisma, he's got the acting chops of any great movie actor ever and has proven it over and over again. the guy's fearless as an actor, lets his characters look and do in ways most "movie stars" would never allow. It works for me.

Everyone else in the film is excellent too, especially Shailene Woodley who should definitely be nominated for Best Supporting Actress and should win some kind of award for her performance, it's unforgettable.

DON CORNELIUS R.I.P.

From recent trouble with the law over domestic abuse, he doesn't sound like he ended up being as cool as we all thought he was. But nonetheless, he did change the face of television in some basic ways that were over due. So Peace, Love and Soul brother.