New poem: PRODIGAL CHILD

the minister's sermon
on the parable of the Prodigal Son
was meant to create a force field
to hold back young parishoners
from a future of long haired rebellion
>
yea, the minister preached,
the brothers and sisters
standing in hallways
shouting at parents
(who shouted back)
telling them about
wanting so much
to be in control
>
control over
eating drinking smoking
believing in God
going to college
going to war
leaving hometown
for another country
if necessary
>
they are prodigal
they are wrong
and one day they will come home
beg for forgiveness
from God and man
get a haircut
wear sensible clothes
find a good job
>
I sat through the sermon
at the age of ten
wanting the church service
to end soon
so we could go to the drugstore
>
all through the closing hymn,
I thought of buying a small Coke
from the vending machine
near the candy counter

The cruelty of anonymous website creators: from poets to Showbiz insiders.

Whatever one thinks of the outspoken columnist Nikki Finke--who had a print career and transitioned to the DEADLINE website, which launched a seismic shift of Industry trade papers VARIETY and THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER from daily newsstand editions to online--she doesn't deserve this kind of treatment: http://nikkistink.com/

Anonymity used for the purpose of shutting up voices one doesn't want to hear isn't heroic or courageous--it's more cowardly and small than the person(s) being attacked.

COMMENTARY ON 2014 EMMY AWARDS.

http://youtu.be/7h6TEHEzwx8

What I thought of one hour of Sunday's MTV VMAs.

Missed the Major Major Events (such as Miley Cyrus, then Beyoncé receiving the Video Vanguard award from Jay-Z and Blue Ivy), but here's seven minutes of commentary about what I did watch:
http://youtu.be/Cijpjt-fAn8

Henry Rollins' pathetic writings on Robin Williams and suicide.

After reading Henry Rollins' current LA WEEKLY column, I'm rather chagrined to admit I devoted a blog post to something he wrote weeks back on the state of Las Vegas in the 2010s.

I'm partially aware of Rollins' career as tough-guy actor--never bought Black Flag albums when he was the frontman, or the later Rollins Band albums and spoken-word recordings.

One good thing Henry Rollins did was to publish a book by Los Angeles poet Ellyn Maybe through his 2.13.61 small press imprint.

Ellyn's one of the nicest, kindest, most sensitive Major Poets in the Southern California community.

So, imagine my discomfort when I read articles excerpting Henry Rollins' "I'm going to take the blows for speaking out" cruelty at the expense of the late Robin Williams, his widow and three adult children.  I can also imagine the WEEKLY/VILLAGE VOICE conglomerate's glee over Rollins writing something Controversial that gives the LA WEEKLY (which went from Left to Right-leaning under the bad stewardship of Michael Lacey) some Worldwide Attention.

Let's look at one excerpt from Rollins' bilge; if you kill yourself and you're an actor/comic/writer/musician, your work is forever dead to Henry Rollins:
When someone negates their existence, they cancel themselves out in my mind. I have many records, books and films featuring people who have taken their own lives, and I regard them all with a bit of disdain. When someone commits this act, he or she is out of my analog world. I know they existed, yet they have nullified their existence because they willfully removed themselves from life. They were real but now they are not.

I no longer take this person seriously. I may be able to appreciate what he or she did artistically but it’s impossible to feel bad for them. Their life wasn’t cut short — it was purposely abandoned. It’s hard to feel bad when the person did what they wanted to. It sucks they are gone, of course, but it’s the decision they made. I have to respect it and move on.

Link to the complete column (with the charming title "Fuck Suicide") is here:
http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/08/21/henry-rollins-fuck-suicide?showFullText=true

Bidding goodbye to Henry Rollins as he takes his place on the bench alongside other folks like Gene Simmons (who also made a "suicides are weaklings looking for attention" type of comment about Robin Williams, but Simmons did back away from his toxic statement after members of the KISS Army objected) and Ted Nugent.  These are pathetic people who engage in verbal sadism/chest-thumping Superiority in order to keep outdated cartoon notions of toughness, "brutal honesty" and manhood alive for their won't-think-for-themselves fan bases.

Graphic example of this--Rollins' close to his Robin Williams/suicide column:
I have life by the neck and drag it along. Rarely does it move fast enough. Raw Power forever.

UPDATE: Henry Rollins later apologized: http://m.pitchfork.com/news/56440-henry-rollins-apologizes-for-robin-williams-criticism/

Maureen Dowd on the state of the President.

Column by Maureen Dowd of THE NEW YORK TIMES about Barack Obama, titled "Alone Again, Naturally": http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/opinion/maureen-dowd-alone-again-naturally.html?hpw&rref=opinion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

A key passage from the column:

The extraordinary candidate turns out to be the most ordinary of men, frittering away precious time on the links. Unlike L.B.J., who devoured problems as though he were being chased by demons, Obama’s main galvanizing impulse was to get himself elected.

Almost everything else — from an all-out push on gun control after the Newtown massacre to going to see firsthand the Hispanic children thronging at the border to using his special status to defuse racial tensions in Ferguson — just seems like too much trouble.

The 2004 speech that vaulted Obama into the White House soon after he breezed into town turned out to be wrong. He misdescribed the country he wanted to lead. There is a liberal America and a conservative America. And the red-blue divide has only gotten worse in the last six years.

 

The man whose singular qualification was as a uniter turns out to be singularly unequipped to operate in a polarized environment.

 

His boosters argue that we spurned his gift of healing, so healing is the one thing that must not be expected of him. We ingrates won’t let him be the redeemer he could have been.

 

 

New poem: AND I AM TELLING YOU I'M NOT GOING TO FERGUSON.

The President triangulates:
Midterms
I don't want to rock the boat
Midterms
I'm already sending the Attorney General
Midterms
My presence in Ferguson
makes white bigots more bigoted
Midterms
It's a local situation there
Midterms
I don't want to risk showing anger
Midterms
I can't risk being seen as strident
in criticizing white policemen
for treating all young black men
as potential criminals
Midterms
I imagine myself going to
Michael Brown's funeral
and having someone on Fox News
compare me to
Tom Bradley criticizing
the verdicts for the LAPD cops
at the Simi Valley trial
for the beating of Rodney King
in 1992
Midterms
Let's all support
My Brother's Keeper program
and turn the page on this episode
Midterms
Polls
Midterms

FREE ASSOCIATING ON ROBIN WILLIAMS AND DEPRESSION.

Observation on mental illness from GUARDIAN article on Robin Williams.

All illness is a great leveller, but none levels like mental illness. It remains the poor relation of medicine. Research is paltry. Therapies are halfhearted. Drugs are primitive. But addictive and depressive illness seems to probe deep into the relations between individuals and those around them. It is the crack in the window that can seem beyond mending. The sadness of the clown goes beyond irony. It is one of the great mysteries of life.

The above quote is from Simon Jenkins' GUARDIAN article on the death of Robin Williams:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/12/robin-williams-sadness-clown-addiction-mental-illness?CMP=fb_gu

Selected Robin Williams films, by category.

Surprised and saddened by the passing of Robin Williams.  For relative newcomers to his three-decade-plus filmography, here's a list of noteworthy theatrical and TV movies:
FAMILY ENTERTAINER: POPEYE (1980)--the Robert Altman musical with Harry Nilsson songs--esoteric but worth watching for Williams' rapport with co-stars Shelley Duvall and Ray Walston.
HOOK (1991)--as an adult Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg's  take on the James Barrie original.
MRS. DOUBTFIRE (1993)--a tremendous hit in its day; the divorced-dad-as-pretend-Nanny tale caused Williams' career to shift for a few years in the direction of "entertaining kids intelligently (then-wife and producing partner Marcia Garces)
COMEDY and DRAMEDY: Williams' prime period for these genres was in the 1980s:
MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON, THE SURVIVORS, THE BEST OF TIMES, GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, DEAD POETS SOCIETY
ANIMATED VOICE-OVERS: The two most representative examples are ALADDIN and HAPPY FEET.
DRAMA: GOOD WILL HUNTING, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, SEIZE THE DAY (Fielder Cook's 1986 Saul Bellow adaptation for PBS--where Williams held his own with fine supporting performances from Jerry Stiller and Joseph Wiseman), THE NIGHT LISTENER, INSOMNIA, ONE HOUR PHOTO
INDEPENDENT FILMS: Haven't seen Bobcat Goldthwait's dark farce WORLD'S GREATEST DAD, but Williams received some of his best late-career reviews as the title character.

Henry Rollins explains Las Vegas in 2014 for you.

What I don’t understand is that, when you have the chance to build a place in the middle of nowhere so you can do what you want, this is apparently what you want — to eat at the same chain restaurants, to drink the same alcohol that you can get anywhere but with the added bonus of getting fleeced by professionals.

The above passage is from Henry Rollins' current LA WEEKLY column:
http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/08/07/henry-rollins-fake-city?showFullText=true

Peter Frampton and cell-phone concert videos: a contrarian view.

Today, this bit of News Trivia went viral:
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/peter-frampton-throws-cell-phone/

I'm aware that the "fan" was obnoxious enough for Peter Frampton to put him on the Cannot Call cell phone plan.  And I'm also cognizant that Frampton and his management (and perhaps the venue) didn't want video taken at the concert.

But I think Peter Frampton shot himself in the metaphorical foot.

With the physical recording market becoming more niche and downloads giving way to pay-per-month music streaming services, artists need to make the bulk of their money on the road.

Though it may pain Frampton to look out into the audience and see cell phones instead of raised cigarette lighters (particularly in the post-FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE superstardom period of 1976-77), fan-shot concert videos are his best, cost-free-to-him, mode of advertising.

A typical YouTube user may see a snippet of a recent Frampton concert and buy a ticket for a future show.

And--who knows?  The fan may actually enjoy the show so much he/she forgets to take out his/her phone.

Playlist: TOM PETTY--THE BEST OF THE WARNER BROTHERS YEARS.

The best songs from the past two decades of Tom Petty/Heartbreakers/Mudcrutch studio albums in chronological order:
1. WILDFLOWERS
2. YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS
3. YOU WRECK ME
4. IT'S GOOD TO BE KING
5. WALLS
6. ROOM AT THE TOP
7. FREE GIRL NOW
8. THE LAST DJ
9. MONEY BECOMES KING
10. SAVING GRACE
11. SCARE EASY (Mudcrutch)
12. CRYSTAL RIVER (Mudcrutch)
13. FIRST FLASH OF FREEDOM
14. U GET ME HIGH
15. RED RIVER
16. ALL YOU CAN CARRY
17. SINS OF MY YOUTH
18. TRAILER (Mudcrutch)
19. I FORGIVE IT ALL (Mudcrutch)

1967 vs 2014: Two film critics fight against two different "radical" films.

In 1967, there was NEW YORK TIMES film critic Bosley Crowther on Arthur Penn and Warren Beatty's gangster-genre-reshaping BONNIE AND CLYDE:
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173CE361BC4C52DFB266838C679EDE

Cut to this summer.  Kenneth Turan disliked Richard Linklater's filmed-over-12-years coming-of-age-genre-reshaping BOYHOOD (which I haven't seen yet).  Unlike Crowther with BONNIE AND CLYDE, Turan recused himself from reviewing BOYHOOD upon its release--waiting a few weeks to write this think piece which is a sort of I-feel-so-alone-and-marginalized-but-I'm-Right-damnit primal scream about the film, other film critics' excellent reviews of the film. director Linklater's career and Turan's own recent career at THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:
 http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-ca-boyhood-on-film-turan-20140803-story.html

Re Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' HYPNOTIC EYE.

As of this writing, I've heard just about all of the new, hyped as return-to-form, album HYPNOTIC EYE from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.  Yes, it's an improvement over the marinated-in-blues predecessor MOJO--but it's not the artistic and musical rejuvenation Bruce Springsteen had with MAGIC and R.E.M. had with ACCELERATE.

Petty has been on the Warner Bros. family of labels for about twenty years now.  And it's one of those times when one can actually feel empathy for the corporate bean-counters instead of the truculent artist.  I'm guessing that there are many times when WB recording executives have heard Tom Petty say variations of "I have nothing left to prove and my fan base will follow me wherever I go."

Here's my evaluation of the last twenty years of Tom Petty:
Only "essential" Heartbreakers collection; the LIVE RECORDINGS boxset.
"Essential" solo album: WILDFLOWERS (receiving an expanded reissue later this year)
Worthwhile "one for me" project: the MUDCRUTCH album.