RIP Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' marriage.

Wishing young Suri Cruise the best in the wake of the tabloid maelstrom she'll be entering. Here's a poem by IMDB blogger Melanie McFarland: TomKat Blues (with Apologies to W.H. Auden) Shut off your cell phones and stop all the clocks, Put your sweet fashionistas in the somber’est of frocks, Silence the talk shows with their sorrowful preaching, Bring out the pre-nup, let the tabloids start screeching. Let aeroplanes circle as their engines faintly hum Scribbling on the sky the message, “Tom and Katie are Done!” Put jokes up on Twitter about contracts expiring, Let Facebook updates guess which lawyers he’s hiring. She moved him to frolic on Oprah’s plush chaise, She told W Mag, “Tom and I will always be in our honeymoon phase” “He’s my man! He’s my man!” she would go on to cheer, We thought they would last for, like, 10 or so years. The stars have no comment for  E!’s TV hosts, Roll up the red carpet. Go ‘way, New York Post. Cask the Cristal, calm the air with sandalwood, For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Blog commenter with post-mortem on Ann Curry's demotion from TODAY host to NBC correspondent.

Yielding the floor to commenter "Bird" from the HOLLYWOOD-ELSEWHERE site:
Sure, Ann never quite had the snappy easy banter with Matt that Katie or Meredith had, but ultimately she's taking the fall for the scattershot gosspy mess Today has become of late. You can't follow a report on an upcoming Supreme Court ruling with the latest on a reality "star". I mean, unless she was the victim of a terrorist attack there is no reason any [Kardashian] should be mentioned in the top half of the 7am hour.
Good luck to Ann, and my condolences to her replacement.

My list of best (and not quite so) 2012 movies from January-June.

Inspired by Jeffrey Wells' "half-time" post on HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE (http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com), here's a list in no particular order of memorable films I've seen from the first half of 2012: MOONRISE KINGDOM, THE RAID: REDEMPTION, YOUR SISTER'S SISTER, BERNIE, THE FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT, THE DICTATOR, POLISSE, THE KID WITH A BIKE, THE AVENGERS, PROMETHEUS, JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME
Underachieving: SAFE HOUSE, SALMON FISHING ON THE YEMEN, DARK SHADOWS, BRAVE, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (though the director shows visual promise and is smart enough to steal from Akira Kurosawa)
Semi-guilty pleasure: ROCK OF AGES
Films I hope to catch up with: THE PIRATES!, WANDERLUST, PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE, LOLA VERSUS, DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, MADAGASCAR 3, MISS BALA, MARGARET (uncut version to be released on DVD, counting this as a 2012 release)

Beyond Baroque, a poet who hates me--and me.

Not to go into too many details here, but there's a poet in the community who I was once at least acquaintances with back at the beginning of the last decade.  My wife and I were even invited to some parties at her then-home in West L.A.  Unfortunately, I caused that comradeship to end in 2003 when I was critical of how circle-of-friends clubby her booking of a poetry festival was.  And I didn't know how to shut up and not escalate the situation further when she became upset at me.  So I said something I regret now--and she and I became adversaries. Each of us has left the other alone for the past few years after the two of us traded noncompliments on poetry listserves--though I did try to friend her on Facebook and sent an e-mail expressing sympathy after the death of a female poet we both knew.  Other than that, I don't bother her at all.

Recently, when I was sent the Facebook thread about feedback and pushback regarding an earlier post of mine on this blog, she made an allegation that I was the one who kept her from being part of the local scene.  Untrue--she's been a feature at a few readings and even runs a series of salutes to deceased female poets (Dorothy Parker and Sylvia Plath, for example) at Beyond Baroque.

I donate to Beyond Baroque to help keep the doors open, the lights on and various readings/panels (including hers) possible.  I don't ask for/insist on anything, and appear there as a featured poet only when asked (most recently at one of Billy Burgos' Sunday readings--thanks again to Rafael FJ Alvarado for making it possible).

But I'd like to say this publicly:  I'm aware that the poet I've written about in the above paragraphs has a negative opinion of me that will never change.  She has a right to persist in her beliefs--I handled myself in a rather insensitive fashion back in 2003-04.  However, it would be much appreciated by both myself and my wife if the poet could please be kind and refrain from stating that I'm impeding her local poetry career in any way, shape or form.

A question Piers Morgan didn't ask Deborah Norville.

Since Larry King's endgame on CNN, it's no longer considered a good idea for ratings' sake to (gasp!) do an entire segment on a topic/guest.  So Piers Morgan had Deborah Norville on for about ten minutes tonight to answer questions about morning shows, Ann Curry and deal with the subtext of what it's like to follow a popular co-host and be unaccepted.

Here's a question Piers didn't ask Deborah:
You've hosted INSIDE EDITION--a tabloid show.  Used to be that shows like INSIDE EDITION, HARD COPY and A CURRENT AFFAIR had a place in early-evening access--and actual news was still covered on morning and evening news shows.  How do you feel about the TODAY show's continuing efforts to emulate and imitate INSIDE EDITION?

New poem: PLAY THAT BROKEN RECORD

here it is, folks
hops, skips, jumps, warps
sounds way WAY too analog
in the age of clean bright digital
files placed in clouds
makes lots of noise
speaks when it should sing
always goes against the pattern
of the rest of the vinyl
plays at the wrong speed
on every turntable
don't fling that arcane relic
onto the floor
and stomp/smash/grind it
into indigo powder
someday it might sound good
and make sense
to those who want to listen
with unplugged ears

CARS 2/BRAVE--Pixar now apparently makes movies for kids only.

I think a lot of us can guess why Disney/Pixar's CARS 2 was made; assuming Bob Iger ordered it almost totally due to the massive sales of CARS toys.  But at least CARS 2, for its faults, did improve
on John Lasseter's overly indulgent, pokily-paced original.  However, after the three-for-three artistic/commerical successes of WALL-E, UP and TOY STORY 3, CARS 2 seemed like something
genetically engineered for 11 years-and-younger boys--heavy on the Mater stuff and very simple, nail-on-the-head approach to key story points.

BRAVE--a film which now stands as Pixar's lowpoint, equivalent to Disney's disastrous sword-and-sorcery 1985 venture into PG-edginess THE BLACK CAULDRON--is a film which started with a woman as writer/director (Brenda Chapman).  Apparently, Ms. Chapman's approach to the female-centered film was found wanting--and Mark Andrews (not a woman) was brought in to "save" it.  Thereby, the film has a promising first half-hour followed by a dental-floss thin storyline to carry the last hour.  (As irony would have it, sorcery/magic does play a role in Acts Two and Three of BRAVE.)

What's even worse is that the story points/moral are painted in 80s neon colors, with songs used on the soundtrack to pound the message in that much harder.  And the female empowerment/choose your destiny message is worthy, but even DreamWorks at its broadest (take ANTZ and SHARK'S TALE as examples) has a little more subtlety in storytelling.

So what are the problems with the Pixar factory in Emeryville CA?  John Lasseter being spread too thin (since he also oversees Disney in-house animation)?  Worries that WALL-E and UP were too "smart" for family audiences?  Massive pressure to crank out one a year--plus resorting to sequels/prequels?

Or is it an edict from Disney that animation should be kid-centered and dumbed down a bit, with no worries about pleasing a broad audience because parents will accompany children to even the worst kind of treacle that youngsters are hard-sold on via Disney Store dolls, TV ads, magazine articles etc?

Some SoCal poets really don't like me--and let me know it behind my back.

Over two weeks ago, someone who won't be named here alerted me to a conversation of Facebook (one I wasn't invited to) started by G. Murray Thomas on a blog post of mine about Murray needing to disclose close connections to small presses when he reviews books by poets from those small presses on Poetix.net.  The conversation started out reasoned and intelligent (giving thanks to Murray, who I have often disagreed with), then turned to personal attacks at my expense.  In a way, I deserve being hit with metaphorical baseball bats on occasion when I've said things (on this blog and elsewhere) that go beyond professional disagreements about poetry and poets.  But some of the comments made (by people in the LA/OC communities past and present) veered into a ditch filled with barbed-wire.  I will provide excerpts below, with most names named:
"And we care about Terry McCarthy's opinion because...? Oh, yes, he's been SUCH a positive force in the community."--Richard Beban (Hyperpoets reading co-founder)
".. I do not see anyone asking for his opinion for reviews, because he has no clout to back them up...and that is the exact reason that his blog commentary is harassment at best."--Lob Instagon (ex-Orange County)
"Let's throw rotten kumquats at the guy! Murray you rock!"--Zack Nelson-Lopiccolo
 "I'm now picturing a certain someone as an unfunny Rodney Dangerfield. This amuses me."-- Ben Trigg (co-host of OC's long-running Two Idiots Peddling Poetry reading)
"And I for one would pay good money to see a grudge match between [person who made first comment]and whats-his-name [me]." (Matthew Mars, formerly known as Matthew Niblock--co-editor of deceased poetry publication BLUE SATELLITE)
 " [Name deleted], he's the reason you don't hang out with the poetry community anymore? My dislike of him has moved to hate."--Ben Trigg
And finally, from a person no longer living in LA/OC I barely knew--and thought I got along with--over a decade ago:
"Clearly in person this fellow is unpleasant. (I have been accused of the same, BTW). His blog, however, seems somewhat confused, vague, and timid. I didn't see an "attack" on you so much as a complaint that you didn't like his stuff (this was implied). How does this guy get 27,000 hits on this blog? It's not nearly as interesting as my old [poetry website] reports. Ahem"--former Orange County poet/musician Mark Corwin "MC" Bruce.


Ladies and gentlemen, these are actual poets who believe in "community."