EDWARD GOREY AND HIS CATS (FOR JON)

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FINALLY WATCHED LOVING VINCENT DVD...

This film is a miracle: It's like the best of Vincent's paintings come to life! If you love fine art, then I suggest you take a very long peek.

Oh, and the music is far from shabby: You cannot do much better than Don McLean's ode to Vincent:

Watch. Listen. Learn. Vincent's art and life will forever remain an enigma. His mystery continues until this day.

Paintings Copyright by Vincent Van Gogh

Music Copyright by Don McLean

ONLY MUSIC AND POETRY WILL SAVE THE WORLD...

Tom Petty - Rock Poet

PINOCCHIO IN THE WHITE HOUSE ( AND HIS NOSE IS GETTING BIGGER...)

ELIZABETH WARREN SPEAKS THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP AND WHITE HOUSE CORRUPTION: VOTE!!

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY! (MY TRIBUTE TO DONNA SUMMER)

1978? Damn - I really am getting old big time! I first experienced THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY waaaaay back in the day with my younger brother at a movie house in Chicago. A ticket was only a dollar on Tuesdays, so we decided to give it a shot. I was not disappointed.

However, my brother hated both the movie and the music big time (he wanted to be Superman when he grew up - I wanted to be a poet). I agree that disco was an appalling mistake (thank God most of us have figured this out in the end). But what about Donna Summer? Listen to THAT voice! Even disco could not diminish her great gift. And that's really saying something...

I just wish more people would focus on her exceptional voice, and stop calling her the quintessential Disco Queen: She was so much more than that, but the music industry marketed her as such. And it's a pity. A lot of money was made as a result, and Donna Summer got less than she deserved (in more ways than one).

You can tell she's not comfortable on the stage belting out this Academy Award winning tune. It all really was beneath her big time. But she made a very lonely boy want to smile and dance a wickedly wild dance in the dangerous streets of Chicago fortysomething years ago: I'll always love her for that alone. May her great voice live on. May the beautiful singer rest in peace.

1948 - 2012

Essay Copyright 2018 by Dylan Mitchell

"GRETA GARBO WAS A MAN!!"

1905 - 1990

Jesus, I just watched a documentary about the forever great Garbo - and was totally shocked by the illiterate and reactionary (what else is new?) comments left on YouTube. Do such idiotic people really exist? What does this say about this world we all must somehow figure out how to best exist in?

Social media is fast becoming a kind of cancer of the soul. Ignorant people think they can hide behind their computer screens (this is no longer possible) and say the most vile things about people without any true research to back it up. No wonder Garbo wanted to be left alone.

The bottom line is this: Garbo had a luminous quality that has rarely been seen on the big screen. Marilyn Monroe also was gifted with this quality (I guess she also was a man?). I think not.

What I don't get is this totally weird fixation on male/female labels? And that's really all they are - labels: An easy way for the majority of people to feel comfortable in their very own safe little bubbles.

It comes as no surprise that I see more and more of this ignorance since Caitlyn and Trump began making the headlines. They both belong to the same political party, yet Trump is hailed as the second coming of Christ, while Caitlyn Jenner is often viewed as a freak (read the angry and insane YouTube comments).

I don't think for a moment that Garbo was anything but a major talent and star. And she (yes, I used the correct pronoun) will be valued and remembered long after Herr Trump and Caitlyn Jenner have ceased to dominate social media. In fact, rumor has it that both Facebook and Twitter are getting old big time. What will become of Donald and Caitlyn?

Garbo survived on her own.

Essay copyright 2018 by Dylan Mitchell

GWENDOLYN BROOKS: WE REAL COOL

Poem Copyright Gwendolyn Brooks

SUNDAY WORDS OF WISDOM (ON MONDAY): QUENTIN CRISP

P.S. I met the late great Quentin Crisp twice. He was always performing (even with an audience of one), so it was not so easy to crack the infamous persona the world knows and loves to this very day.

However, I also chatted with him on the phone at least a dozen times or more (his number was listed and he always welcomed a friendly chat or two with open ears). Towards the end of his life, I was rather shocked to hear of his constant traumatic abuse in England during his youth (info not included in his autobiography).

It would seem that The Naked Civil Servant only touched the surface. Having been bashed both verbally and physically in America on a regular basis during my own youth - I related to every word Quentin wrote/said big time.

God bless, dear Mr. Quentin Crisp. God bless...

PATHS THAT CROSS (FOR MY SISTER)