New poem: POEM INSPIRED BY AMBER TAMBLYN'S QUENTIN DEAN.

[Poem inspired by an Amber Tamblyn poem I liked in the anthology WIDE AWAKE.]

I remember Quentin Dean

from IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

where she placed herself

in a front window

of a small-town house

in hopes that someone 

happening to pass by

could stop the car

and come inside

for mutual breaking 

of nightly monotony

in stifling-in-many-ways

Southern United States

>

from her brief biography

on the Internet Movie Database,

Quentin Dean wanted more from life

than to be a mere object of desire

in Hollywood studio films and TV

in the days before

the counterculture briefly made

old-fashioned gloss

(that even permeated movies

with a Social Conscience)

almost obsolete

>

so she left Show Business

and lived until 2003

and likely didn't give a damn

about people who went on the Internet

to find out Where Is She Now?

>

Quentin Dean knew

who she was,

where she was

and, I'm guessing, was happy

to not have to care anymore

about all that nonsense

regarding photo shoots, publicity

and the Male Gaze

that can be a curse

more often than not

New poem: THE BRUCE JENNER POEM

first an all-American athlete,

then a star of television

both scripted and unscripted--

making efforts worthy of Hercules

to stifle inner beauty and

live up to other people's

competing versions of 

What He Should Be

Who He Must Be

>

now, he's transitioning to her

and, at the same time,

revealing the political conservatism

we guessed was always there

>

here's a forlorn regret

that the transition reality series

could have taken place

somewhere away from the Empire of Kris

and the entertainment news channel

which once tried to mock

Anna Nicole Smith to death

>

but at least he's bringing a lot of America

out of the kind of darkness

where men in women's clothing

and women in men's bodies

were greeted with revulsion

and repulsive behavior

>

into a light where they regain humanity

and their lives are worthy

of everyone's respect

New poem: ALBUQUERQUE

the whole world watches

the beatings and shootings

the protests on Central Avenue

and as a result

the police get body cameras
which are turned off
when a young officer high-on-rage
decides to pummel someone
who hasn't defied him
and the officer, with every punch,
silently curses every suspect
nonviolent or otherwise
and the people in government
who don't Understand
and make him wear a body camera
and trust him to not do the same old things
in the same old ways
>
if I lived in Albuquerque,
I'd pray that,
from the ordinary-people Valley
to the moneyed Heights,
enough fellow citizens would say "enough"
and demand the APD wear body cameras
that officers could never ever turn off
in the course of what should be
workdays free of unnecessary force

New poem: IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, LEAVE

the above words

I've heard directed at myself and/or others

on movie sets in the past

and they're still uttered today

for quick, easy shutdowns

of workplace grievances

or perceived insensitivity

>

and oftentimes

the movies and TV shows

where the words

"If you don't like it, leave"

are spoken during creation

become the mediocrities

people forget years later

New poem: MY FIRST SENRYU

three in the morning
watch film noir again
part of safe exciting life

New poem: BEN AFFLECK EXPLAINS STARDOM FOR YOU

 "I lobbied [Henry Louis Gates] the same way I lobby directors about what takes of mine I think they should use. This is the collaborative creative process."--actor/director Ben Affleck, apologizing for asking Gates to remove a certain slave-owning ancestor of Affleck from an episode of the FINDING YOUR ROOTS television series.

now we know what true Celebrity is:

it occurs when a star can agree

to appear on a television show

on the subject of genealogy

and ask for a certain relative to be erased

in much the same way the star can demand

a newspaper or magazine or website

to kill details about his/her private life

or omit any outbursts committed

in the course of the interview

>

imagining how many other omissions

might have occurred

if Ben Affleck had switched his career

from making movies

to running for national elected office

New poem: OKLAHOMA

no Southwestern nasal twang
just a friendly warble
before a multitude of sins emerge:
hard verbal open-hand smacks
righteous scowls
legislative malfeasance
racist Fraternity chants
>
plus rich men who have no business
playing volunteer deputy
then leaving the USA
for rest in the Bahamas
after the accidental taking
of a human life
>
it gets harder to know
which Oklahoma residents
who claim they're "good country people"
are truly worthy of the phrase

New poem: ONE SMALL STEP

I took a compliment today

instead of returning it

like an undersized sweater

>

resisted the temptation to say:
glad you liked my poem
but so-and-so wouldn't
>
instead, I drank the glass filled with accolade
it tasted like the purest water
>
enabling me to relax
and enjoy the rest of the day
without allowing so-and-so
to be a phantom companion
uttering hypothetical negativities,
causing me no end of worry

A HOLLYWOOD POETRY: 2001-2013 playlist companion.

The playlist below is composed of songs that resonated in one way or another during the period of 1988-1997 when I was a low-level participant in the Entertainment Industry.  Look for them on YouTube and/or your favorite streaming services; they make good background listening while reading a copy of my book HOLLYWOOD POETRY: 2001-2013 available here:
http://hollywoodpoetry.com

1. HEAVEN IN MY HANDS--Level 42
2. SUPERSONIC--JJ Fad
3. PENELOPE PLEASE--Terrence Trent D'Arby
4. GOODBYE MARLON BRANDO--Elton John
5. ELVIS IS DEAD--Living Colour w/Little Richard
6. SABOTAGE--Beastie Boys
7. SURE SHOT--Beastie Boys
8. TOY SOLDIERS--Martika
9. ANGEL DRESSED IN BLACK--Warren Zevon
10. THERE IS A VOICE--Squeeze
11. LITHIUM--Nirvana
12. CANTALOOP (FLIP FANTASIA)--us3
13. MEXICAN MOON--Concrete Blonde
14. FORTUNE TELLER--The Iguanas
15. SCARED OF GUNS--John Wesley Harding
16. SPLENDID ISOLATION--Warren Zevon
17. SOME FANTASTIC PLACE--Squeeze
18. MAS Y MAS--Los Lobos

New poem: YOU GET SO ALONE, INDEED

whatever one thinks of Charles Bukowski

as poet, lover, gambler, drinker, 

he (or his publisher) devised

one of the all-time-great book titles:

YOU GET SO ALONE
which serves as a definition
for life in Los Angeles
when you arrive
knowing almost no one
and feeling overpowered
by people pushing past you,
strangers refusing to talk
out of fear you might harm them,
cars with human voices yelling
LEARN TO DRIVE!
when you haven't mastered
the split-second timing
of yielding to oncoming traffic
before the light turns red
>
YOU GET SO ALONE
as you look for available work
to pay for rent and food
and hope to meet Angelenos
someday, somewhere
who haven't yet become granite statues
with pitiless eyes

New poem: CONTENTS OF JOURNALS PAST

no-longer-blank books on the shelf above me

reminding me of the way I used to write poems

one draft after another in blue or black ink

until they improved enough

to be tried out at open mics
>
other items in those books
including poems given to me
by poets no longer part of the scene
plus post-it notes with names
and addresses of poetry venues
that I eventually attended
>
in those days
before I became aware
of how unaware I was

My Frank Sinatra Reprise Records Playlist.

1. RING-A-DING-DING
2. I'M GETTING SENTIMENTAL OVER YOU
3. IMAGINATION
4. PLEASE DON'T TALK ABOUT ME WHEN I'M GONE
5. GOODY GOODY
6. NIGHT AND DAY
7. COME RAIN OR COME SHINE
8. FLY ME TO THE MOON
9. THE BEST IS YET TO COME
10. IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
11. THAT'S LIFE
12. I CONCENTRATE ON YOU
13. STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
14. SUMMER WIND
15. APRIL IN PARIS (Live, SINATRA AND SEXTET)
16. QUIET NIGHTS OF QUIET STARS (CORCOVADO)
17. SEND IN THE CLOWNS
18. LUCK BE A LADY
19. THEME FROM NEW YORK, NEW YORK
20. MY WAY

My Frank Sinatra Capitol Records playlist.

1. YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO YOUNG
2. IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS
3. I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN
4. COME FLY WITH ME
5. MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT
6. AUTUMN IN NEW YORK
7. I'M A FOOL TO WANT YOU
8. A COTTAGE FOR SALE
9. ANGEL EYES
10. EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME
11. NICE AND EASY
12. AMERICAN BEAUTY ROSE
13.  EMBRACEABLE YOU (DUETS II version w/Lena Horne)
14. ONE FOR MY BABY (AND ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD)
(DUETS version w/Kenny G soloing)

When ROLLING STONE grades/re-grades rock artists on a curve.

Links to various album reviews that have appeared in ROLLING STONE demonstrating the magazine's determination to "come through" for artists delivering albums that aren't universally acclaimed on original release.

First, founder Jann Wenner pre-emptively strikes critics of Bob Dylan's 1979 gospel album SLOW TRAIN COMING: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/slow-train-coming-19790920

Last year, David Fricke overrates Bruce Springsteen's grab-bag HIGH HOPES:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/high-hopes-20140106

Paul Nelson's lukewarm review of The Rolling Stones' SOME GIRLS:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/some-girls-19780810

The above is later reversed by Rob Sheffield's gooey, gushy five-star review of its reissued version:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/some-girls-deluxe-edition-20111121

Greil Marcus dismissing Bob Dylan's 1978 STREET-LEGAL:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/street-legal-19780824

Jann Wenner throwing Nelson and Marcus under the bus for not bowing to Greatness:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/love-in-vain-dylan-and-the-stones-in-the-seventies-19780921

Finishing with the all-time-classic miscue of Parke Puterbaugh giving The Who's IT'S HARD five stars in 1982: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/its-hard-19820930

New poem: OUTRAGE CULTURE

it's so easy

to be angry at Famous People

(justified or not)

for perceived sins of the past

and display purifying scorn
in public forums
via viral articles/blog posts
with no need
for nuance or perspective
or historical context
>
pre-empting opposite viewpoints
and making absolutely sure
actual or imagined crimes
and dubious, outdated, chauvinistic remarks
will cause every second of their art
and/or entertainment
created in the imperfect past
to be avoided like Video Plague
by future generations
and imprisoned in studio vaults
with no likelihood of escape
(except perhaps for YouTube)