Movie: Brokeback Mountain

"Brokeback Mountain" is a love story. It is as simple as that and perhaps that is what frightens the far right in this country. The story is not so much a revelation of how different homosexual love is, but how much alike we all are when it comes to love, how we all suffer, how fragmented and complex life is, and how difficult each day can sometimes be.

The story of Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) is told with subtle, grace and an elegance that rivals any love story. It is surrounded by the beautiful wilderness that is Wyoming, with that backdrop serving as a metaphor for the love Ennis and Jack share. With their sweet love comes rough terrain, elements beyond control, savage pulls, and hard work.

The story is a quiet tale done in deliberate fashion, devoid of gimmicks and caricature. Neither Jack or Ennis are fully noble or perfect. And their wives, played by Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams, are both complete with love, anger, frailty, and regret.

"Brokeback Mountain" is about love eternal and the struggles involved in finding and keeping it. The greatest obstacle to this love is often, as Jack says, "Never enough time. Never enough."

Heath Ledger will be in line for an Oscar nomination for his role in this movie and deservedly so. Any accolades that come to "Brokeback Mountain" will be merited. Even Ang Lee, as director, does a good job of staying out of the way, allowing the story and the scenario to reveal themselves as they wish.

The right wing can scream about "Brokeback Mountain" until they turn blue in the face. Perhaps it scares them for all of themselves they find in it. Perhaps it leaves them empty, longing for such passion. Regardless, "Brokeback Mountain" is a must see movie and a timeless tale of love and all that sometimes can come with it.

Poem: Angel

Angel

It is in God’s merciful benevolence
Sent forth with an energetic vibrancy
Magnanimous gifts of divine creation

By expressions of absolute joyousness
Devoting love with encompassing passion
Beautiful nurturing provides sure safety

Wrapped tightly inside fabrics of God’s design
Bestowed with unmistakable blessedness
Textures holding a warmth and tenderest charm

A gentle ray of life-force sun permeates
Washing the inner self clean of any doubt
In the midst of an other-worldly sharing

And she soothes a weathered and tired spirit
And she speaks to aspects of life once missing
And she presents herself as unyielding love

I stand here with open arms, mind, soul, and heart

Copyright SGW 2005

Poem: Nightfall

Nightfall

Wind whispers softly over darkening terrain
Moments in time are forever the same
Leaves rustle gently within valleys below
Moon in the sky gives a slightest of glow
Mountains soon mask yet another day ending
Sounds of the forest are in multitude blending
Quietly breaking as the world falls to slumber
Nightfall repeated far too frequent to number

Copyright SGW 2003

Springsteen - There is no one else

Bruce Springsteen brought his solo tour to the Meadowlands last night for a rousing two and a half hour performance that saw this generation's greatest poet rise to new heights of brilliance and inspiration. With just his guitar and harmonica, Springsteen opened with "Empty Sky," followed by a haunting, foot-stomping, echoed version of "Born in the USA" that left the audience speechless.

Throughout the show, the evening was about taking risks, going in new places with old friends and re-defining what was believed to be clearly laid out once before. What the crowd was left with was many old memories put into new lights that were equally important and rewarding.

Springsteen was on top of his game, mixing new songs from his "Devils and Dust" CD with old classics such as "Lost in the Flood," "Backstreets," "Promised Land," and the legendary "Thundercrack." The bare-boned "Johnny 99" found a new voice in an amplified and powerful rendition that gave the murderer of the story greater impact and tragedy. And Springsteen paid tribute to a Vietnam casualty from his youth who he recalled on a visit to Washington D.C. years ago in the song, "Wall."

Springsteen spoke vividly to the crowd about growing up with so many family members surrounding him (even displaying a child's drawing of a map of the area on posterboard) and also of now being a father wanting to give his own children the space to be individuals finding their own ways. He tied this message into "Jesus Was an Only Child," interrupting the song mid verse several times to further his story.

He also made reference to the current debate over evolution, and mocked the radicals in this country for their misplaced hostility toward science with a sly version of "Part Man, Part Monkey."

Bruce Springsteen came to the Meadowlands and reminded New Jersey and anyone who was listening why he is a musical and lyrical genius. As time passes, what Springsteen provides his audiences never diminishes, but instead grows within the collective bond of preacher and his congregation.

Poem: Girl With A Pearl Earring

From the movie, I wrote this after first seeing the picture. After re-watching it last weekend, this poem seemed like a good choice for Poetic Leanings.

Girl With A Pearl Earring

Gentle contours of a cheek;
As shadows break lines crossing;
Curving neck gracefully bent.
A look over shouldered glance.
And here lies a work of art;
And all it can hold within;
Passions expounded in form;
Hides pleasures beyond canvas.
A thousand sheltered meanings,
Musings, thoughts, and emotions.
A work of art takes design;
With lock of hair slipping free;
Masking an all-knowing stare;
Unrevealed dreams and blessings;
Invoked by lustful sweeping;
The brush strokes with tender touch;
A girl with a pearl earring.

Copyright SGW 2004

I am looking at my cat, Boo, differently today

I just read that there are people that are studying the marking habits of cats and exploring whether they are actually creating artistically. The cats are given canvasses and paint and, at times, do seem to be working with pattern and focus.

One cat painting sold for $19,000!! I swear to God!!

I keep offering Boo a brush and have pleaded with him to feel the inspiration, but he just looks at me funny and walks away.

Coming home to my beloved New Jersey

I have to say it - I can't wait to be back in New Jersey. I miss home. I miss Boo.

I miss real people. I miss substance. I miss normal hours of eating. I miss ... ok, no I don't miss that it rained for ten days up to my flight out and seems to be raining in NJ again! Shit, what's up with that!?

I miss my own bed. I miss the quiet. I miss my Angel.

I'm coming home soon; Saturday. I can't wait to be back where I belong. L.A. just ain't me.

Technology run amok!

I am not technologically illiterate by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I am pretty good with the stuff. However, staying in my brother's condo here in L.A. has led me to believe that we have gone waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy over board on gadgetry.

His living room TV has four remotes and I can't get the set to go on. I hear sound, but no picture. The bedroom TV was working until the dog stepped on the remote. It took me ten minutes to get the channels to change again. I wanted to print something on his computer, so I turned the printer on. There's paper in the printer and the printer says all is well. Nothing is printing.

Oh, did I mention that in his downstairs lobby, you can't open the doors between the front desk and the elevator? They have to open it for you! I was pushing and pulling yesterday with no luck until the woman came back to the desk and freed me!

HELP!!!!!

Movie: The Squid and the Whale

"The Squid and the Whale" is a smart independent film directed by Noah Baumbach, and starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney. It is the story of a troubled and breaking apart family. Daniels plays the struggling and superior father and once-respected writer who can barely make ends meet now. Linney is his suddenly successful novelist wife, who has long been left unsatisfied by her husband. As the family breaks apart, their two sons, played by Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline, must find their own way in dealing with their parents and their individual lives.

Both Daniels and Linney, who is brilliantly understated, put in excellent performances, but it is Kline, and his foul-mouth, beer drinking and sexual escapades that steals the movie at times.

"The Squid and the Whale" is smart and funny; sweet and frustrating. It probes the duality of loving, but also being self-absorbed, the caring about family, yet wanting nothing to do with the members at times and the coming to realize the imperfections of those around us and ourselves. It is true to a dysfunctional existence, and is willing to expose the human frailties and failings of the lead characters.

The ending is unexpected, but speaks the perfect message of realization and desire.

"The Squid and the Whale" is a movie worth seeing. After, it is a picture worthy of thought.

Thinking about the weather

Katrina did not devastate New Orleans because of the culture of that city. Wilma is not beating down a path on Florida, as the handful of storms did last year, because that state made a mess of the 2000 election. Storms don't care about blue states or red states.

We have more major hurricanes, horrific tsunamis, much more severe weather patterns, increased snow and rain accumulation, and a warming of the planet that is far beyond safety levels because of mankind. We have abused this planet, mistreated it, shown it no respect or love, ignored its needs, looked at it as our own personal possession, and put ourselves above all the other life-forms of this world. For that Mother Nature has struck back with a vengeance and will continue to do so with increasing wrath.

Everything is connected. Like the story says, a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil and it causes rain in New York. If we continue to screw up this planet, we insure our own destruction.

Remember that next time you litter, throw a cigarette out a car window, mindlessly kill animals, over-develop, drive an SUV, favor laws that allow for polluters to flourish, don't force alternative energy sources upon our society, and dump waste into a river. You are committing suicide.

L.A. - Lost Souls

After a few days in San Diego, I have returned to my brother's home in L.A. Maybe it is my perception of what the people are like here, as opposed to the reality, but I don't think so. It seems as if this is a city of lost souls who wish to be someone else. Everyone is an illusion or attempting to wear a mask here. It's all a show and all appears shallow and empty to me. I miss my east coast.

Poem: Silence

Silence, stillness, it is all the same. If you allow yourself to be an observer or a watcher, you see so much more at times then if you shove your own ideas or thoughts into the world. An expansion of self can take place by simply listening in the silence.

Silence

Silence
Filled with sounds
Channeling the world
Of energetic flow
And quiet awareness

Silence
Listening as birds chatter
Over a soothing ocean's beat
As gentle winds blow

Silence
Allowing life to breathe
With knowing lessons
Contained by subtlety

Silence
Silence
So much to hear

Copyright SGW 2005

Gay in L.A.

Here I am now, in California; first in L.A. with my brother and now in San Diego with him and his gay cadre of merry men in tights (Ok, that part is not so far-fetched.), and so far, I am able to report to the fundamentalists the world over, that I feel no symptoms of gayness overtaking me. It's amazing! I thought for sure that the gay mind control techniques they employ would break me down. Ha! I was worried about sharing a bar of soap in the shower with my brother. Nothing! To my girlfriend, I am safe - to this point - and remain firmly hetero.

Maybe the wingnuts in this country, who provide us all with an endless chatter on homosexuality, are simply of a small-mind, fearing what they do not understand, and what God has created. Hmm. Just a thought.

Ambition is not chasing dollars

Yes, I am an accountant. I live a somewhat comfortable life. However, I have also maintained my artist's persona as a poet and have turned down countless opportunities to advance my accounting career. Why pass up the bigger bucks? Don't I want to be a Vice President or some other trifling title?

No, I do not, and for that some call be lacking in ambition. I believe I am loaded with ambition. I wish to save the world. I volunteer many hours to various causes. I create poetry that seems to touch many people. I seek out the energies of the world. I explore God, spirituality and nature. I am highly ambitious; just not in the sense of some others. I find their way to be missing out on life.

While reading Cynthia Yoder's, "Crazy Quilt: Pieces of a Mennonite Life," one paragraph caught my attention. I find it re-affirming of my view on ambition.

"In my work ethic book, the arts do not appear anywhere. My plan appeared under the 'selfish' heading and was cross-referenced under 'leech.' But I decided to close that book and put it on a shelf, where hopefully it would be eaten by worms and pooped out as psychic compost."

Newark Airport

In a word, NEWARK AIRPORT IS HELL!!!!! Ok, four words.

I live 45 minutes from the airport, so it is convenient. Of course, I could have driven to LA yesterday and gotten here sooner!

Continental pretty much runs the show in Newark, and they run it right into the ground! No one has a clue, customer service is as foreign to the airline as much as intelligence and compassion are foreign to George Bush.

After a 2 1/2 hour flight delay because of varying stories - weather, air traffic control, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire - we took off. I made it into LA at 1 AM Pacific Time. By the time I got to sleep, I had been up for 25 hours, but here I am now, the next morning, and I feel rested and am enjoying the sunny skies.

Still, a word to the wise - DON"T FLY OUT OF NEWARK OR ON CONTINENTAL. This is my third experience from hell in a row. Next time, maybe Philly.