I Mean, Look At Schubert

Damn straight, Dame Judi. We all do our best, and bully for us for trying. Gonzo would understand.



Some movies sure are good.

Du Must Bressen um zu Strahlen

This one is maybe a little dull, but that's kinda the point.

Kudos to this buddy for trying his best.

"Don't Sound Like Tony Bennett To Me"

I find this both touching and funny.



Like my friend Anne Sexton, I'm proud of Gonzo for his attempt for greatness. His sensible daddy can walk straight into town, but our little purple friend sure tried to touch the sun.

Spring! Break! Down!

So last night at Awesome Club, after watching an excellent Murder, She Wrote, Amber and Nick and I watched Spring Breakdown.

It's a straight-to-DVD release starring Rachel Dratch (who also co-wrote!), Amy Poehler, and Parker Posey. There's a plot that you kinda have to pay attention to every now and again, about three loser girlfriends who have to go to Spring Break on a mission, but whatever.

It was no Sorority Boys, another movie about three ugly ducklings making their way in the world today, but it wasn't so bad.

My favorite part came during the opening credits, when our three heroines dressed as their idols Lisa Loeb, Stevie Nicks, and Chynna Phillips to do (yet another) Cyndi Lauper cover. I mean, how often do you see someone dressed as Chynna Phillips anymore?*

The crowd boos them, but just like Anne Sexton, I choose to celebrate friends whose work has come to triumph. A for Effort, ladies!

*Besides Elaine Stritch, who apparently wears short shorts and sweater vests ALL the time...

Anne, Frank.

I have long been a fan of Anne Sexton.

Plath, Hughes - I like them OK, but I never felt a connection, perhaps because I have no Daddy Issues nor am I a cranky old British man. But Sexton, she's great.

I like that she comes from Boston, that she came to poetry through therapy when she was already an adult, and that her confessional tales of love, lust, motherhood, marriage, divorce, all have tight rhyme schemes that reward reading aloud.

I also very much like that she fronted a band at one point, who backed her up as she read from and other poems - how very 70s of her!


So anyway, here's my favorite poem of hers. I love the way she interprets the story of Icarus, how she celebrates his triumph and spirit of creativity, how the only thing important is trying and doing something new and exciting, even while his sensible daddy walked straight into town.

To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph

Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on,
testing that strange little tug at his shoulder blade,
and think of that first flawless moment over the lawn
of the labyrinth. Think of the difference it made!
There below are the trees, as awkward as camels;
and here are the shocked starlings pumping past
and think of innocent Icarus who is doing quite well:
larger than a sail, over the fog and the blast
of the plushy ocean, he goes. Admire his wings!
Feel the fire at his neck and see how casually
he glances up and is caught, wondrously tunneling
into that hot eye. Who cares that he fell back to the sea?
See him acclaiming the sun and come plunging down
while his sensible daddy goes straight into town.

And here's Anne herself, reading from "Her Kind."