HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 
Photographer/poet Kevin McCollister's haunting image created on Hollywood Boulevard on Halloween 2023 

MARA WUZ ROBBED

XMAS PAST

 

Not a great photo, but a memorable holiday moment in the living room of the Santa Monica home I was renting in 1983. Me surrounded by three great musicians: jazz saxophonist Buddy Arnold in black, my son and budding bassist, Miles, and the iconic guitarist Sandy Bull with one of his kids. I'm wearing a seasonal sweater from the 1930s passed down from one of my older brothers, and Beatle boots I bought in 1962 pre-Beatles so called then Spanish boots. I still have the sweater and the boots and live again with Miles, Buddy and Sandy no longer with us.

HYSTERICAL

 I eat dark chocolate every day, and I'm not stopping. But, I found this internet meme hilarious.

TRIBUTE POEM REPLAY

The Night John Lennon Died

___________________________________

One warm night, when I was a kid,

we were all playing ringalario in

the high school field at the bottom

of my street when Mrs. Murphy, known

mostly for the time her hair turned

purple when she tried to dye it, stuck

her head out the door and yelled across

the street to us, “Go on home now and be

quiet, Babe Ruth just died.” And we all

did go home where everything was somber

and serious and adult and strange, 

worse than when one of the family died,

because then there were outbursts of

emotion as well as jokes and stories

and good drunken parties, but 

the night Babe Ruth died, everyone

felt as sad as if it was a close close

friend or a sister or a brother,

but no one was really related so

there was no call for an actual Irish

wake or funeral party. I couldn’t help

remembering that night again, the

night John Lennon died. Nobody

threw a wake or a party where we

could all get drunk and high and

have a good cry together. We all 

went home and wandered around our

rooms and heads looking for answers,

unable to sleep or forget or accept

or understand what had happened. 

It had to be a mistake and it was,

a fucking senseless, horrible, 

deadening mistake.

                        It’s hard to 

recognize even the most familiar

things. I don’t know where I am

half the time, the other half I’m

flashing on some song or line or look

or attitude so close to my own

personal history I thought it was

mine. But it ain’t, cause it’s gone

with John and I feel like I got to 

go do something now to spread a

little joy and loving and honest

fucking answers and questions about

the world I live in and the only times

we ever have, our own. I hope I’m

not alone.

(C) 1980 Michael Lally

[from my book Another Way To Play]

PERSONAL SAINTS

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?

VERY FUNNY, AND NOT SO MUCH