Goodbye, blog.

This marks the end of Poetry-Arts Confidential after close to ten years of semi-regular-to-irregular opinionated posting on various subjects I wanted to write about.

I will continue with the Tumblr Quiet Man blog-- at tumblr.com/blog/ourquietman, plus my recently-established Instagram account.

Thanks for reading--and for the occasional comments (favorable and otherwise).

Why progressives will always be subordinate in the Democratic Party.

Someone in media/film writing I follow on Twitter retweeted the following statement from a person I'll not name here.  It's the perfect summary of the centrist, big donation-dependent wing of the Democratic Party (who think they've become a little more liberal because Tom Perez, who talks a good game about the party's future and unity, was elected DNC head over Keith Ellison) and the contempt they still hold for the more progressive (i.e. Bernie Sanders supporting) membership.

Democrats are your friend who'll die single, waiting for a person too perfect to exist.

Republicans are the guy who fucks whoever is there.

Revised: THE COWARDICE POEM

here’s to the people who look the other way

when someone is encouraging the crowd

to close their eyes to simple decency

and support wholesale deportation

plus persecution of children and teens

over which gender they identify as

and what bathrooms they use

>

here’s to the television news channels

on the left and the right

who look at neo-fascist “campaign rallies”

as ratings opportunities--

waiting until old-fashioned newspapers

do actual reporting

before asking questions--

but not saying “fascism” or “lies”

because it displays a lack of “balance”

>

here’s to the people on social networks

who “don’t want to get political”

when friends and family

post ugly remarks and bigoted jokes

in loud support of their favorite prejudices

>

how will you cope with

the future you helped create

by doing the same old things

in the same old ways?

New Poem: I CAN NEVER UNHARDEN YOUR HEART

bridges don’t burn

guards appear at each end

to restrict travel to those

whose friendly faces are instant visas

don’t want to ruin what’s left of life

regretting futures that don’t include me

and, perhaps, never did

New poem: 200 BAD POEMS FOR BILLY COLLINS

'Everybody is born with at least 200 bad poems in them. It's best to get rid of them
by college.' --Billy Collins

hello Billy

you don’t know me

but I read your recent comment

and bundled 200 of my poems,

leaving them at the bottom of your driveway

for potential evaluation

I’m aware of how hard it is

to be accepted by Academia--

particularly when you, Billy Collins,

write poems that are easy

for most people to understand

and, to a lot of poets,

it means you’re not trying hard enough

okay, I get it,

you made that 200 bad poems comment

to keep your credibility

with the poets eternally upset

over how you sell more books

than they ever will

also, there’s that desire for intellectual bragging rights

when you appear onstage with Paul Simon and Aimee Mann

and get super-duper-eager to claim your poems

as existing on an equal plane to their lyrics

so go on, Billy,

keep talking about how elevated you are

and how bad all the beginners are

plus all the self-educated poets

like Adam Driver’s Paterson

(in the movie of the same name )

of course, they’re bad too

because they choose not to publish

or share their art

through accepted channels

with people like you

so, here are my 200 poems

destined to enter your blue recycling can

without even a glance at my cover letter

as you regret your long-ago misstep

of criticizing MFA programs

during one of your book tours,

believing this outburst of candor

about homogenized poetry

led to amateur me

annoying distinguished you

Jim Newell on the Democratic Party leading resistance from behind

From an article on Slate.com: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/02/the_democrats_are_leading_the_resistance_from_behind.html


Millions of people marched against Donald Trump the day after he was inaugurated. Republican members of Congress can’t hold town halls without being set upon by protesters hassling them about their agenda or the blind eye they turn to Trump. Resistance groups are gathering massive support online; the ACLU will never want for money again; the courts have blocked Trump’s order restricting travel into the United States. As Republicans put the Affordable Care Act on the chopping block, regular people are mustering a moral language for defending it that Democratic politicians have been loath to employ. Constituents have a powerful ability to find the right defense for something dear to them when someone is trying to take that thing away. Maybe the job of Democrats at the top isn’t to draw up a message in a focus group. Maybe it’s to follow those people on the ground expressing it already.

New Poem: AMERICA TWO DAYS LATE

there’s a new flag

for the renamed America First:

mostly white

with clashing shades of red

and a very pale blue

the old one--

with Stars and Stripes

and the promise

of freedom from tyranny--

was stolen in daylight

by Oval Office thieves

on a Friday afternoon

which now lives in infamy

Some ruminations about yesterday.

1. I recall some in my generation who believed (and likely still believe) their Christian denomination's version of Christianity (Christ is the only Savior and non-Christians will all go to Hell).  Presumably, most of them voted for Donald Trump and believe the Muslim ban/refugee freeze (enacted Friday and throwing the US into chaos on Saturday) is a righteous casting out of Satanic terrorists or would-be terrorists from the nation--the sweet-smelling poison attracting allegedly Good Americans to the recycled Trump/Bannon phrase America First.

2.  Part of the evil genius of Trump and his followers was to throw out this explosive Executive Order on a Friday, leaving a lot of government officials plus Senators/Representatives flat-footed and unable to effectively respond to this tyranny.

3. I heard the word "transactional" used to describe one of the various GOP factions (tax breaks, deregulation, oil/gas expansion, "strict constructionist" Supreme Court appointees) willing to tolerate Donald Trump as President as long as he delivers on their wish list items.

4. There's no doubt that Donald Trump fulfills a notion of fast impulsive Toughness for the fan base who enjoyed/participated in the violent shut-them-up rallies of his candidacy.  But President Trump is neither wise nor smart--and one hopes that his lack of these leadership necessities will (sooner than later) lead to a premature move from Washington DC back to Trump Tower.

Best ignored-by-Oscar performances of 2016.

Amy Adams--Arrival
Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani--Paterson
Andrew Garfield, Yosuke Kubozuka--Silence
Susan Sarandon, J.K. Simmons--The Meddler
Alex R. Hibbert, Janelle Monae--Moonlight
Sunny Pawar--Lion
Annette Bening, Elle Fanning--20th Century Women
Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch--The Founder
Ben Foster--Hell Or High Water
Hugh Grant--Florence Foster Jenkins
Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall--Denial

LIFE DURING TRUMPTIME Version 2.

LIFE DURING TRUMPTIME

this ain't no party

this ain't no Chili's

this ain't no fooling around

no more media elites and

celebrities with wrong opinions

we don't have time for that now

we dress like cowboys

we dress like churchgoers

we all stand up and vote

we do not worry about plagiarism and lies

it’s all the lamestream media’s fault

this ain’t no establishment party

this ain’t no gun club

this ain’t no fooling around

this ain’t no NEA or PBS

we don’t have time for that now

don't want democracy

don't want free public college

just wanna open carry our guns

don't like working more for less

it just makes us stressed

yelling at those who protest us

take us back Donald

carry us back to old America

make it okay to be bigoted again

don't wanna worry

about political correctness

sensitivity is a sin

gonna get ready

gonna get ready

gonna get ready to move in

down with progressives

up with regressives

Washington is ours once again!

Inaugural playlist compiled by myself and others.

Via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23inauguralplaylist&src=typd

Michael Moore on Democrats and why 2016 was lost.

From a recent VARIETY cover story, excerpt found on the Hollywood Elsewhere site:
Variety: “Did the Russian hack of the DNC play a decisive role in swinging the election to Trump?”
Michael Moore: We need an investigation into the hacking, but the Democrats should not be thinking that they lost because of the Russians. The Democrats lost because of the Democrats. It’s the second time now in 16 years where the Democrats won [the popular vote] but lost. That is so revolting that the old guard of the Democratic Party should all resign. They let us down, the majority, now twice. I’m done with it. I’m going to help lead the charge to take over the Democratic Party.

The George Michael Playlist: Wham and solo.

Dividing this into faster and slower halves:
1. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
2. I'm Your Man (original)
3. Anything She Wants
4. I Want Your Sex
5. Too Funky
6. Freedom 90
7. Careless Whisper
8. Father Figure
9. Somebody To Love (with Queen)
10. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (with Elton John)
11. My Baby Just Cares For Me
12. Praying For Time

Plus and minus of Meryl Streep's Golden Globes speech.

From Meryl Streep's De Mille award acceptance speech at tonight's Golden Globes ceremony:
They gave me three seconds to say this, so: An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work.
But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose. O.K., go on with it.--GOOD, because it says something that needs to be said over and over theses next four years.

So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.--NOT SO GOOD because it's just another example of punching down on Trump voters (the "I don't care! They're stupid!"argument needs to be retired by Industry/Media progressives/neoliberals)  And doing so
( instead of figuring out how to communicate the hurt Trump's policies will cause the people who voted for narrow turn-clock-back reasons) could well be the seed of those voters knee-jerk colluding with legislative attempts to censor film/TV /gaming content.  And, in the short term, more nonsense from personalities like Chuck Woolery and Mark Wahlberg about actors being apolitical (political talk in itself) and mute, except to plug product.

Best (and otherwise) of 2016: Part Two

Here's a slight update from my earlier post as to films/TV.  The third (and definitive) one will appear in early February.

Films (in no specific order):
Moonlight
A Bigger Splash
Manchester By The Sea
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
10 Cloverfield Lane
Elle
Finding Dory
Love & Friendship
Queen of Katwe
Audrie & Daisy
Into The Inferno
Fences
OJ: Made In America (ESPN, but also a limited theatrical release)
Things To Come


Honorable Mention: Allied, Arrival, The Witness, Snowden, The Light Between Oceans, Denial, Maggie's Plan, The Meddler, De Palma, Cafe Society, Free State of Jones, Louder Than Bombs, 20th Century Women, By Sidney Lumet

Misfires: Rules Don't Apply, Batman v Superman Extended, Money Monster, Captain Fantastic, Valley Of Love. Rogue One

Insanely Overrated: Hell Or High Water

Somewhat Overrated: Blood Father, Hitchcock/Truffaut

Books I've read (or am still reading) from 2016.

Where Am I Now?--Mara Wilson
Altamont--Joel Selvin
Good Vibrations--Mike Love
I Am Brian Wilson--Brian Wilson
BEATLES '66--Steve Turner
Vampire Planet (poetry)--Ron Koertge
My Feelings (poetry)--Nick Flynn
Room 1219: The Life of Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal That Changed Hollywood--Greg Merritt
Mothermorphosis (poetry)--mk chavez
Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon--Peter Ames Carlin
Frank: The Voice/Sinatra: The Chairman--James Kaplan
East Hollywood: Memorial To Reason (poetry)--Harry E. Northup