Wednesday, March 27, 2024

my domestic bohemia

grace to be born & live as variously as possible
--frank o'ohara

wake up around 7 am
make a strong cup of coffee
greet anna who is already at her work station
feed water & do a little petting for noah & leo
make lunch if i'm to go to the office
or set up my work station to work from home
find something to listen to as i walk to the office
or as i WFH 
greet nick when he rises
walk as much as i can
& boy do my dogs get tired!
read on my phone when i can
glance at the news
think of movies
think of poems
stop work 
think of dinner
settle in with anna & leo & noah
make dinner 
pick up nick from work if he needs a ride
think of other things
stare into space for a bit
fire up the laptop
read for a bit
write
watch a series a movie or live music videos
make ready for bed
hope that i can do all of these
again tomorrow
if the same or a bit different
etc etc.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

'is there poetry in the pixels?'

yes, she said, of course
she said, i write w/ my phone
like it were a 1000 notebooks
all in one place, she said
a new paradigm at hand
all in one place, she said 
the mind in thrall
& language never ceases 
creation

Sunday, March 24, 2024

every day we find a reason to swoon

it was a private event, but the docent let us in to look at the lowriders that were located right at the entrance.  a charming old chap in his mid to late 70s.  i asked him if he's been a docent for a while here.  yes, he said.  what is or was your favorite vehicle in the collection?  well, i don't have just one, he said.  since the collection turns over often.  but i love the stories about the cars.  oh yes?  yes, the docent continued.  like the car owned by rita hayworth.  but my very favorite was the vehicle [i can't remember if he mentioned the make & the model] owned by ricky nelson.  so many middle-aged women would get a thrill when i told them about nelson & his car.  then i would pull aside the ropes of the display area & invite these gals to sit in the driver's seat.  the seat where ricky nelson once sat.  & boy!  these ladies would nearly faint!  oh the pleasures of desire!  the heat of longing!  of being a witness to beauty!  it was as if nelson's driver's seat was the launching pad to get these women into low earth orbit!

Saturday, March 23, 2024

video haibun - 'avalon' by roxy music


dancing - dancing
              i will die
w/ a falcon & bouquet of flowers

Thursday, March 21, 2024

rad [1986]

a couple of weeks ago b. texted me to ask if i wanted to go see rad, the 1986 BMX movie.  absolutely, i texted in return.  this flick is now a cult movie but i have to confess i've never seen it.  i was a BMX loving kid.  one of my most prized possessions when i was in my early teens was a bike made by the factory, Mongoose; the BMX manufacturer has indeed a prominent role in this movie.  i loved that bike.  it had blue Tuff Wheels.  my bike wasn't state of the art but the damn thing was fucking cool!  i even followed, for a while, pro BMX racers.  but by the time i hit my mid-teens i discovered punk rock & skateboards.  i forgot about BMX bikes & its culture.

this is an exploitation movie to capitalize on BMX culture.  but it was made a little late.  by 1986 BMX was in descent.  & it was changing.  free-style was the dominant mode of competition, a kind of balletic performance on BMX bikes, & racing was in descent.  nevertheless, stuntman turned filmmaker hal needham gave BMX culture, both freestyle & racing, the old college try.  the result is a mess.

needham made two of my favorite drive-in movies, both starring burt reynolds, smokey & the bandit [1977] & the cannonball run [1981].  both of these films are manic delights of screwball comedy & hi-octane car racing.   needham is at home with car & car racing culture.  but BMX bikes?  not so good.  needham can't frame a shot even if he was given a diagram.  rather than going wide & filming in real-time with the freestyle techniques in ample display the director goes into slo-mo & close-ups so that we can't see what the hell kind of tricks the BMX riders are doing.  

even more so, needham has forgotten how to tell a love story.  the principal, cru jones, played by bill allen, falls for the number one female freestyler/racer christian, played by lori laughlin [yes, aunt becky from full house who recently was convicted & served time in federal prison for fraud & bibery in a college admissions scandal].  cru is a local boy in a small town that has heart, ganas & raw talent.  christian recognizes all those qualities & her heart becomes his.  christian also becomes cru's mentor by challenging cru to learn the techniques she knows of a real professional competitive BMX rider.  

only problem is that the dude who own Mongoose Bicycles, who also invested in Helltrack, the race track constructed in crue's small town just for the purpose of a high profile race, wants his own man, champion bart taylor, played by olympic gymnast bart conner, to win.  oh the shit will fly.  ray walston plays businessman burton timmer who is a partner of the owner of Mongoose, duke best, played by jack weston.  but when burton learns of the double-dealing done by best, he goes against his own financial interests & supports the local underdog, cru.

talia shire plays cru's mother who would rather her son take the SATs that are scheduled on the same day as the race.  but when she sees her son has HEART well the script then writes itself don't it.  even the race was edited by a goof.  the tension is at the lowest register.  we know, because we've seen this story before, who will win the race.  oh yeah!  this was a frustrating watch.  the editing was slapdash.  the direction was negligent.  the 1980s synth score, including a popular tune at the time 'send me an angel' by real life, & another song by the massively talented mael bros., sparks, is wasted.  even so, watching this movie in a theater with ol' skool skaters & riders - the theater was nearly at full capacity - was a delight.  many in the audience knew this film so well they were reciting the dialogue as it played onscreen.  

& as always, even in this, our wild age, of streaming movies & shows going to the theater is really fucking fun.  b. is a blast to hang with.  we've been going to the drive-ins for over 30 years.  this is the second retro screening i've been to with my oldest & dearest friend.  & i loved it.  afterwards we explored the dead mall attached to the theater.  also, attached to this mall is a discount grocery store, Winco.  we walked thru that store too.  Winco is huge.  the building for the store used to be a major department store.  a couple of them really.  the nearly empty mall, & Winco [open till midnight, a rarity post-pandemic], provided shelter for many unhoused persons.  signs of late-stage capitalism?  i'll leave that debate for another time.

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

the shade

i was at the refuse transfer station standing at the booth to pay the fee to dump a few things into the municipal facility where i was making light jokes with the attendant who asked me what part of the city i am from & what i was unloading into the city dump

i couldn't see the attendant as he was inside & i was outside in the glare of the sun darkened glass separated us & we spoke thru an intercom 

but it was at the moment i handed the attendant my credit card to pay the fee that i looked up to my left & in the mirror used to monitor incoming vehicles i saw an old man standing in my place wearing my clothes holding my credit card saying my jokes to the attendant

could that old man be me?  

have i sailed full force into decrepitude just like him?

is that me bent like a q just like him?

no way because an old man wouldn't blast 'jealous again' by black flag

would he?

bewildered by the shade i saw in the reflection i grew horrified by that old man but as i looked on with an expression of disgust he looked up at me 

smirked & then fucking winked!

Sunday, March 17, 2024

happy st. patrick's day!

another day, another celebration.  & on this holiday my name changes to richard o'lopez, of the o'lopezes from the west of ireland!  it's been pretty chill here at casa de bronson/o'lopez.  we've been enjoying the hell out of the early spring weather.  which meant anna & i getting our hands dirty by working in our garden.  got shit done!  & boy my aging body do ache!  at any rate, today we all have a touch of the blarney!  & however you spent today i hope you did it having a blast!

slainte!