Showing posts with label Janis Joplin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Janis Joplin. Show all posts

Friday, February 22, 2019

100 MEN (THE DOCUMENTARY)


Hmmm. This is a quite curious question. I wrote a book back in 2009 about this very subject, and it was more than a bit difficult to track down all of my former lovers. Many had died of AIDS - most did not want to participate in the project, and the rest were nowhere to be found.

In addition, I had not actually slept with 100 men: I only used the 100 Men I have Slept With title because I was told it would attract a wide audience. This proved to be very bad advise. The book sold very few copies, and I received more ridicule and scorn than kindness and praise. I stopped blogging for a long while, and produced no new books.

Back to reality: I can say with complete confidence that I have slept with exactly 65 men in my life. All of this sexual frenzy took place in the Windy City during my wild youth. I have lived in the City of Roses for 22 years, and I have slept with only one person. Want to talk about hot and cold? I'm the expert on the subject.

Getting back to 100 Men: I am very grateful to have inspired Paul Oremland to take my humble book to the next level, and go places I never dared to venture. I suggest you take a long peek at this most insightful documentary. It is both witty and sad, wise and clueless, but remains entertaining to the very end.

My only criticism is that I did my best to focus on both the personal and the political in my book: Watching my 39 year old lover die from complications due to AIDS in the early 1990s. Clenching my teeth whenever heartless bigots like Ronnie Reagan and Anita Bryant appeared on the TV talking about family values and how AIDS only affected homosexuals, drug addicts, and people without Christian values (big goof there).



Matthew Shepard


In addition, I wrote about Matthew Shepard (1976-1998) and his horrific ordeal at the hands of  two sadistic homophobes. And even though I would have liked to, I never got to meet Matt. I only know that a beautiful soul was robbed of his young life by two very angry and violent straight men. End of story.

But music is life, and so it reflects the lifestyles we adjust ourselves to one decade to the next. Janis said it best:



I'd like to end this essay here. See the documentary - you won't be disappointed. But never forget the book: It's always a good thing to go back to the original source :-)

Dylan Mitchell

P.S. Scroll down to the bottom of my blog if you want to take a quick peek at 100 MEN I HAVE SLEPT WITH, 2009. Amazon still carries a dusty copy or two...

Brokeback Mountain: Iconic image


Thursday, January 25, 2018

Friday, June 3, 2016

PIECE OF HER HEART

 


Afraid and lonely
A wallflower from Texas
Bloomed into a rose

Haiku © 2014 by Dylan Mitchell



Sunday, November 2, 2014

SUPER STAMP SUNDAY: JANIS JOPLIN

Click on image

Okay, here we go: The first official SUPER STAMP SUNDAY post! Did you guess (thanks to my previous post) that Janis Joplin would finally go postal in late 2014? I'm gonna buy the really cool FDC (First Day Cover) for sure.

I'm thinking it might be sort of awesome to include a little haiku moment with the postal one. So here's something I wrote about Janis a year or two ago? It's not perfect (syllable count totally sucks), but it pretty much sums up how I feel about this great singer:

LITTLE GIRL BLUE

So large on the stage
Her voice like thunder and rain
Little girl blue so alone

P.S. I'm still adjusting to the time change, so I'm sleepy/lazy as hell. I need more coffee big time. See you next week - when I'm actually wide awake!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

SUPER STAMP SUNDAY (HALLOWEEN)

I know it's not Sunday, but I couldn't resist posting this really cool US postage stamp from the Classic Hollywood Monsters series (first issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 1997) just in time for Halloween.

There were five monsters to choose from: Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera, and Frankenstein's Monster.

Anybody still remember the days when the cost of a postage stamp was just 32 cents, and snail mail had not yet become a thing of the past? Oh well at least most folks still send out their Christmas cards the old fashioned way. Plus the utility bills never stop coming.

I'd best hurry up and grab a pumpkin at the grocery store before it's too late. There were only a few sad and neglected looking ones left at Safeway (last time I checked). But rumor has it that there's still plenty of fresh pumpkins on sale at Fred Meyer, so I'm gonna go for it. Hope you have a Spooktacular Halloween!

P.S. I'm officially launching my Super Stamp Sunday posts on November 2nd, so if you are a lover of U.S. postage stamps (or just curious as hell) be on the lookout. Can you figure out (no help from Google) which awesome rock star from the late 1960s is finally going postal? Here's a little haiku hint for you:

PIECE OF HER HEART

Afraid and lonely
A wallflower from Texas
Bloomed into a rose

Haiku © 2014 by Dylan Mitchell 



Tuesday, January 28, 2014

IN THE HOTTEST STATE

(November 22, 1963)

Texas rebel state
JFK was shot today
1963

Texas hateful state
Hot and quick to offend
Janis said it best:

I liked black music
It seemed less plastic and fake
Texas loves a noose

James Byrd didn't get a noose:
he was dragged from a truck
while still alive

Janis screamed the blues
And Texas laughed when she died
At least she got out

JFK did not make it
He was a slap in the face
All they know is guns

Morons and cowards
More bullets than brains
So they wasted his

And we still wonder why
Janis sang the blues? She
was busy saving her soul.

Unlike the rest of Texas.
Guns are the answer -
Not saving your soul

Not Little Girl Blue
Bullets are better:
It's so easy to kill what you hate.

In the hottest state.

Poem © 2014 by Dylan Mitchell

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

LITTLE GIRL BLUE


So large on the stage
Her voice like thunder and rain
Little girl blue so alone

Haiku © 2012 by Dylan Mitchell

Thursday, February 24, 2011

PEARL


He was just another ragged homeless man on a park bench to most of the employed (and housed) people hurrying past him. Staring at his feet. His downcast eyes giving him the appearance of a sleeper. But he was actually quite awake. I stopped in my tracks, and he suddenly lifted his white bearded face. Then he greeted me with a grin.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," he said, in a clear low voice. "A whiskey-voiced lady blues singer made those words famous. But a drunken poet had to write them down on a napkin first." Then he returned to staring at his worn and tattered shoes for a moment, until his wise blue eyes gradually closed. He had nothing more to say, and was done with me. I was being dismissed.

I just stood there. Stunned and speechless.

Essay © 2008 by Dylan Mitchell