George Jones: I'm A Long Gone Daddy

October 27 (Happy Birthday, Sylvia Plath)

Ariel (written October 27, 1962)

Stasis in darkness.

Then the substanceless blue   

Pour of tor and distances.

God’s lioness,   

How one we grow,

Pivot of heels and knees!—The furrow

Splits and passes, sister to   

The brown arc

Of the neck I cannot catch,

Nigger-eye   

Berries cast dark   

Hooks—

Black sweet blood mouthfuls,   

Shadows.

Something else

Hauls me through air—

Thighs, hair;

Flakes from my heels.

White

Godiva, I unpeel—

Dead hands, dead stringencies.

And now I

Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.   

The child’s cry

Melts in the wall.   

And I

Am the arrow,

The dew that flies

Suicidal, at one with the drive   

Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning.

 

 

 

[Editor's Note: OMG---did Plath write "Nigger"?? Better ban her, too.]

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Poppies in October (written October 27, 1962)

    Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts.
Nor the woman in the ambulance
Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly —

A gift, a love gift
Utterly unasked for
By a sky

Palely and flamily
Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes
Dulled to a halt under bowlers.

O my God, what am I
That these late mouths should cry open
In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers.

Joan Crawford (1928, shot by Irwin Bueller)

So aesthetically beautiful, so bold. Wish I had a life-size print of this on my wall.

Ain't Love a Lot Like That (George Jones, 1999)

Missing George Jones.

[Verse 1]
Well, a twister tore the roof off a grocery store
Blew an Idaho potato through the hardwood floor
Twirled granny's apron up around her head
The cat's gone missing and the dog is dead

[Chorus]
Well, ain't love a lot like that
Ain't love a lot like that
Unconditional, unpredictable
Ain't love a lot like that?

[Verse 2]
Just like Moses and the Red Sea water
A little bit of faith and the ring I bought her
I hit my knees and she took my hand
And she led my heart to the promised land

[Chorus]
Ain't love a lot like that
Ain't love a lot like that
Unconditional, unpredictable
Ain't love a lot like that?

[Verse 3]
Well, the honeymoon's over and the work begins
My baby says I'm getting on her nerves again
One false move and an angry shout
I'm sleeping all alone on the fold out couch...

Robert Jordan: Wheel of Time

According to my new boss on Friday's Teams meeting, "Wheel of Time" is upcoming on Amazon Prime. And she went to Half-Price Books to try to find the first few books ahead of time, but couldn't find them. While we were all talking on Teams, I looked up "Robert Jordan" and "Wheel of Time" on eBay, and saw that many volumes were available. But when I mentioned that, my new boss then said: "Oh, I don't want to own any books. The only book I have in my house now is The Confederacy of Dunces. I've given everything else away."

Alright, digital snob, then WHY did you say that you went to Half-Price Books looking for books from the "Wheel of Time" series? (And WHO has The Confederacy of Dunces as their ONLY book? Please.)

While still on Teams with the group, I then intentionally mentioned my moving story from a few years ago (specifically to contrast with the new boss's idiotic ONE book): "I have about ONE-THOUSAND books, which took up a whole bunch of boxes. The mover said to me: 'Ma'am, have you considered getting a Kindle?'"

I'm amazed (and a bit repelled) by anyone who would just keep ONE book in their home. Confederacy of Dunces, I happen to also own, but it wouldn't be my Desert Island Choice or anything! (Reminds me of my first girlfriend, whose only two books were Lolita and L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics---WHO just has TWO books in their entire home? And THOSE two books??)

Got the Shot

While Federal funding for my job might or might not go away in the next 3 months, I was, nonetheless, forced to get the Covid vaccine shot by my employer per Biden's Executive Order requiring the vaccine for all Federal employees. Had I not gotten the shot, I would have been fired. (I live in Texas, but Governor Abbott's order that vaccines were NOT mandated was superseded for Federal employees by the Federal order.)

My decision NOT to get the Covid shot until I was forced to was based on science. The population of Travis County, Texas (which includes Austin) is 1.3 million. Total deaths from Covid in Travis County up until now: 1,397. That's a 0.1% death rate. (And national stats show the average age of Covid-related death = 80 years old. That's an AVERAGE age. Plus most Covid deaths had a co-morbidity of morbid obesity or other severe health issues.) Given the above scientific facts, I did not need the vaccine. And stats show that there were fewer US deaths from Covid in 2020 BEFORE the vaccine than in 2021 AFTER the vaccine.

But I did need the high income from my Federal Government job, so I caved.

The shot was easy and free, and I have no side effects. None of those things were ever a concern for me.

What IS a concern is why Biden and the Federal Government are insisting on shots for everyone (including kids), despite the science showing that most people do NOT need the vaccine. Is it a psychological or political "control thing"? It's certainly not based on actual science.

A horribly depressing (but interesting) movie idea...

Characters:

50-something daughter at loose ends

80-something long-divorced parents now, at the end of their lives, both separately bemoaning the infant death of their first daughter in 1962 (father wants to be buried next to her in the family graveyard; mother constantly fantasizes about the infant living, but with a brain defect; the living daughter sometimes wonders what it would have been like to have a big sister to talk to)

(Unseen except via stylized pictures, no actual videos) Transsexual Internet love interest of the living daughter who, as it turns out, shares the same birthday as the dead infant.

(Seen in various fantasy scenarios, sometimes grown up) Dead Baby Theresa

I really don't quite make this shit up! Ah, but I can SHAPE it!

Williams, Bergman, Polanski, Aronofsky, Lanthimos!

Magic Number: $15,000

My current job pays well, but it's not particularly stable. My goal has always been to have $15,000 in my bank account in case I get let go from this job. "$15,000" based on the fact that I can live on $2500 a month for 6 months, and so if I get laid off I'll be OK.

On Friday, hit the $15,000 mark in my bank account! 

And I wonder why I'm lonely...

Was just cleaning out my closet today and found two 2008 packets from a former good friend of mine that I once co-edited a literary magazine with in Austin in the '90s. We'd first met in 1986 while attending the same poetry class at the University of Texas, then re-connected in 1988 when we were living in the same apartment complex. Re-connected again in the early '90s and started co-editing/publishing a local literary magazine (3 issues).

I moved to San Francisco for grad school in '94, and when I came back a couple of years later, he'd moved to Baltimore to attend grad school at Johns Hopkins.

In 2007, I moved to NYC, and he sent me a couple of his Johns Hopkins publications in 2008 (he'd become editor at this point). The first one, I'd opened and read the friendly note. The second one, I had not even opened until tonight. I know why---because I was too befuddled by Sandra to think clearly about anything else. Today, I'm embarrassed at not acknowledging my good friend's efforts.

“LET’S GO, BRANDON!”

Congrats to Brandon Brown for winning his NASCAR race. But, unfortunately, the NBC reporter lied to him when she said the crowd behind him was chanting "Let's Go, Brandon!" In fact, the crowd was chanting the same thing they'd been chanting at various football games all across America for the past few weeks: "F*** Joe Biden!"

I'll be ordering my "Let's Go, Brandon" T-shirt soon.

A Good Day

After a shitty haircut on my birthday in August, I'd run out of ideas of where to get my hair cut. The salon I'd gone to for years near my old workplace closed after Covid in 2020. The stylist at the next place I went to for about a year was hit or miss. The last guy (in his stupid "hair truck") was good for two haircuts, then a complete mess on his third try.

So after the crappy haircut in August, I just temporarily quit having my hair cut. I work from home, so does it matter?, I thought. Well, yeah, it does matter---I hate looking like shit!

Back in the late '80s, I had discovered old movies, and was enamored of Greta Garbo... And lo and behold, there was a new salon called "Garbo" that had just opened... At the time, I lived around campus, and this location was a far drive to a "strange" part of town for me. And the haircut I got then seemed expensive at the time. So I never went back...until just today. (Now, it's just 10 minutes from my current apartment.) Got my hair cleaned up after the bad August haircut. The young stylist was nice. I was amazed that ANY salon had been open for the past 35 years. And, as it turns out, the owner, who cut my hair back in the '80s, still comes in two days a week...

My hair appointment at Garbo was for 2:30pm. I'd thought the big UT/OU football game would be over by then, but no... When I left my home, the score was UT 41 and OU 30 at the beginning of the fourth quarter... I'd thought the underdogs UT would surely hang on to win...

After the haircut, returned some shelves to Walmart that I couldn't put together the night before. 

Once home, found out UT lost (how??). Took a nap; watched the last quarter of the Alabama/Texas A&M game---A&M beat the #1 team in the country!

Watched the Trump rally in Iowa on C-SPAN and wished the warrior well, looking forward to '22 and '24.

Went through the shelves in my bathroom and tossed out old towels and rearranged all the shampoos/creams in my cabinet.

Unpacked the stack of Amazon/eBay purchases sitting on my fireplace; put away John Donne and Goethe and Schiller on their appropriate bookshelves...

Listening to the "Johnny Guitar" soundtrack now...

This was a good day for me.

Work Meeting or Dog Acupuncture?

I started my current job in April 2020. Have never been in-house because of Covid. And I'm making about $10K more per year than I was at my last job (2014 to 2019). 

But we have a final meeting tomorrow about a product that's about to go out to the customer. The new boss (as of August 1) said she can't participate in the meeting because her dog has an acupuncture appointment.

I like this job; the money is good. But I'm psychologically repelled by the fact that the new boss declines to view a final product because of her dog's acupuncture appointment.

Acupuncture for a human isn't a reason to miss an important meeting. Acupuncture for a dog is many times less serious, bordering on stupid. Failure to review a work product because of dog acupuncture is downright negligent.

Is this really OK? Surely such idiocy can't be OK.

The Munsters theme song (Season 1)

At first I thought this opening was not as good as the opening from the next year (this year's music kind of heavy on the tuba, although this opening is the one I remember watching as a kid). But then I read a couple of interviews: This opening was intentionally trying to mimic the opening of "The Donna Reed Show," in which the mother character dispensed goodbye-kisses and lunches to her family as they departed for the day! Given THAT background info, I like this visual intro a lot better! (Though I still like the '66 music better.)

I'm pretty sure that Fred Gwynne, "serious" actor that he thought he was and official star of the show, protested the fact that Yvonne DeCarlo was featured in the opening theme (despite the fact that DeCarlo's acting pedigree was far more illustrious than Gwynne's).

The Munsters: Opening and Closing Theme (1966)

Today, I can't remember what happened in a single episode of "The Munsters," but I do know that I loved watching the show in after-school re-runs in the early '70s. (Yes, I liked Lily Munster at age 7, and, no, I never liked the "Marilyn" character! In fact, I remember disliking her in the same way that I disliked "Robin" in the Batman show---those two always seemed to be wet blankets.)

When I first saw "The Munsters," my family had just, in 1972, moved to College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University. The first time we'd ever lived in a college town. One day a school friend came over to play, and around 4pm or so, my mom turned on the TV so we could watch "The Munsters." BUT... As it turned out, my school friend, Sarah, was NOT allowed to watch television! Whaaaaaat??? I'd never heard of such a crazy thing! My first introduction to "PC."

(This opening of the show is so GREAT! Both the song and the character introduction. But what I remember more about the intro is a staircase opening up and Herman walking out of it... Not seen here...)

Edie: An American Drug Story

 

Just finished reading Edie: An American Girl for the 3rd or 4th time. GREAT oral history by Jean Stein and, after reading Please Kill Me, another oral history (about US punk rock), it's interesting to see the difference between a well-done and a poorly done "oral history." The former offers a historical background and some spiritual insights into the subject from the interviewees; the latter does not.

 

Unfortunately, I think the well-written Stein bio about Edie Sedgwick (1982) contributed to a non-deserved "cult of Edie." In real life, socialite Edie Sedgwick hung around Andy Warhol and his louche Factory for a year or so, and the two garnered much media attention by appearing in public together. Warhol was attracted to her social status and her willingness to do anything for his cameras, and she was slumming and looking for attention. I think they both got what they were looking for. (I don't think Warhol abused her. She was already a party girl in Cambridge, Mass., before she moved to NYC to seek a bigger audience, more attention.) Post-Warhol, Edie went back to California, hung out with bikers, continued to sleep with every man available, and continued to do massive quantities of drugs, before overdosing in 1971.

Personally: I dislike Edie's mushy face and her skeletal bulimic body. I dislike her sloppiness and drugginess. I dislike her "help-me-I'm-a-waif" persona. I dislike her utter lack of talent. I dislike the fact that she thought she was intrinsically important, when in fact she was only important to the media (and Andy Warhol) because she was a socialite making a cheap spectacle of herself.