Three paintings from the 70's and 80's recently photographed

The Metropolitan Museum Of Art.

 This place was a zoo today. I really hate looking at art in this kind of mess. I guess it had to do with the first day of the week that the Museum is open and of course the hoards and I mean hoards lining up to see the Alexander McQueen fashion show. They all couldn’t have been gay, I have never seen anything like this before. Is it the scandal of the clothes, the suicide of the designer or what that is pulling in these kinds of crowds. There was at least an hour to wait to get into the exhibit and there was no way I was going to wait on line. I don’t wait an hour on line for nothing or no one any more, and I certainly wasn’t going to stand there among the crowd to see a McQueen show. The line went the length of the entire corridor of the European galleries all the way through the Asian Wings, making it a bit difficult to maneuver around all those fucking tourists. I’m really not into fashion anyway, so I took a slow walk through some of the wonderful non fashion galleries and then checked out the very good show of large drawings by Richard Serra. That’s really the reason I made the schlep up to the Met in the first place. The show was empty of people which was a real respite from what was going on all over the place, and I loved the large scale and the textures that Serra uses in his drawings. I took some nice photographs.

Another New Notebook Page for June 2011

Some untitled paintings from the late 70's 80's and 90's recently photographed

A Handful of Dust

 The latest issue of A handful of Dust has 2 photos and a painting by me. You can view the entire issue at this Pdf link, 
 

http://hofd.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/hodissue4final.pdf

Sweet Smell of Success 1957

There are a few films from my childhood that have stayed with me throughout the years. The Little Fugitive, Night of The  Hunter, Psycho and Sweet Smell Of Success are all films I saw when I was very young. I can’t imagine why when I was ten years old I wanted to see Sweet Smell of Success, but I did and off I went with my uncle Natie to the Loew’s State to see the film. I don’t remember if I liked it or not, but I probably did. It was real (just outside the theatre the actual locations where the movie was shot were vividly there). Also the strangeness of the characters and the language that they spoke must have appealed to me. And of course the film starred two virile youngish beautiful male movie stars, and no doubt the combo of 1957 Lancaster and Curtis beckoned me. I’ve seen the film many times since then, and the new restored transfer from Criterion is stunning. The film’s dynamic plot is told in the first few minutes of the movie by Sidney Falcon acted by Tony Curtis, a good-looking but sleazy Broadway hustler who likes to think of himself as a press agent.. His nemesis is the well known gossip columnist who resides over his small kingdom, (most notably 21) with a fierce anger and hostility to one and all. J.J. Hunsecker (based on Walter Winchell) and is played by a very fine Burt Lancaster, who gives it a good try at playing down his attractiveness. In fact both Curtis and Lancaster are terrific and give memorable and lasting performances, which are among their best. The film rides on the attempts of Lancaster to manipulate Curtis into doing dirty deeds for him for a price. Lancaster usually wins but with some severe consequences. Curtis is also a big time taker and he’s willing to put up with an amazing amount of shit to get ahead. He’s derided and ridiculed and even physically hurt through the film but that doesn’t stop him. During the film Falco is called pretty, a poodle and is constantly referred to as less than a man. Lancaster who is sexless but seething and has an unhealthy relationship with his mink and meek beautiful sister played by Susan Harrison who came and went with this film. Harrison is in love with a Jazz Guitarist play by Martin Milner who gives what I think is the film’s weakest performance. This relationship is the crux of the film that moves it towards near tragedy.  As I said Curtis plays a big taker but he was also a manipulator and this can be seen in the famous “What I’m I a bowl of fruit scene between the great Barbara Nichols, Curtis and David White as Otis Ellwell another creepy columnist and arch rival of Lancaster’s. Nichols as the cigarette girl who is herself a bruised piece of fruit is superb giving a wonderful performance that only lasts  two scenes but was worthy of an Oscar. The film spills over with the great and biting words by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman whose novelette they based the screenplay on. Many of the lines are classics and in fact Barry Levinson has one of his diner guys constantly quotes lines from the movie. Quite a tribute. Needless to say the direction by Alexander Mackendrick is great. Mackendrick who made a few of those quirky and funny Ealing studio comedies in the late 40’s and 50’s which usually starred Alec Guiness. But here in this gritty American film does Mackendrick make his mark. This is his unexpected masterwork. A film that originally came and went quickly it’s now considered to be a great film by many critics, directors and people who love movies.  The city that the movie takes place in does not exist anymore, nothing stands where it once stood, and so what is probably the best film ever shot in New York City also serves as a mini documentary of what a part of New York City once was like.  You sometimes have to look fast but it’s there with the beautiful cinematography by the great James Wong Howe. The supporting cast is very good with excellent performances by Jeff Donnell (a stand out as Falco’s harried but loyal secretary) ,Sam Levene, Emile Meyer, Lawrence Dobkin, Lurene Tuttle  and Queenie Smith one of my favorite bit character actress in a tiny spot. Music is by Elmer Bernstein. The best film of 1957.

Another New Notebook Page for June 2011

Another New Notebook Page for June 2011

New Notebook page. June 2011

The backlash begins

So I’m at my neighborhood post office this afternoon, shipping a book when this old shriveled up Bay Ridge bitch a few people in front of me on the line starts ranting in a loud voice about Governor Cuomo and how awful it is that we now have gay marriage in the state. I immediately told her "to shut the fuck up" (I ...think I said fuck) and "I don’t want to hear her hate talk in a public place, keep your stupid opinion to yourself", I believe I also called her an idiot. “It’s a desecration against marriage" the old biddy said. I told her "she was a desecration against humanity." Then this fat blob in front of me, told me to have some respect. I laughed in his face, respect why should I have respect for this hateful person. “Because she’s a woman and she’s old "the dope replied. He also had a cane and said that I was lucky she wasn’t a relative of his, because he would take me outside and beat me up. We yelled back and forth a little bit more, and everyone else on the line was very quiet. No doubt they all agreed with her, after all I live in a very conservative part of Brooklyn.

June Collage 2011

Torrid Zone 1940

A fast and furious 88 minute Warner Bros. action comedy that features a great cast of WB contract actors. Set in a small Central America country with most of the action taking place on a troubled banana plantation the plot involves a not so nice Pat O'Brien who is the manager of the company and his efforts to get back his top banana foreman played by James Cagney who sports a sexy pencil thin mustache and wants no part of returning to the plantation to run things. Instead Jimmy is on his way to Chicago until O’Brien makes him an offer he can’t refuse and he gets a look at Ann Sheridan. Sheridan is her usual gorgeous self smooth and shinny with a voice to match her looks and delivers most of the good lines.  The beautiful Ann plays a nightclub singer and card sharp who is stranded in the town, and only wants to make a few bucks singing in the local club and cheating the men in cards so she can move on to greener cooler pastures. O’Brien who not only runs the company but also the town, takes a strong dislike to Ann and orders her out on the next boat. Soon they are all mixing it up on the plantation exchanging zingers which fly back and forth with the speed of bullets including many sexual barbs, and take note of all the homoerotic sexual innuendos between Cagney and O’Brien. Cagney- “Oh, Lee, (Sheridan)  if you see Case,(O’Brien)  give him a kiss for me.  Sheridan  “Not even a foreign general would kiss that guy!”  How these got by the censors I’ll never know.  Also in this Irish stew is George Tobias who plays a good hearted and somewhat lovable revolutionary who keeps escaping from prison. Andy Devine, Helen Vinson, Jerome Cowan and the always wonderful Grady Sutton round out the cast, and also look for a brief bit by George Reeves as member of Tobias’s band of bandits.  Shot by the great James Wong Howe on the Warner Bros. back lot the film looks good, in fact  better than it should with top notch art direction, (where did they get all those bananas?), and steady workman like direction by W.B in house director William Keighley

Some Recent Photographs

Convergence

Convergence the on line poetry magazine has just posted one of my summer landscape works from 1976. You can view it at this link along with the rest of the magazine.

http://www.convergence-journal.com/summer11/su11p4.html#Haber

I sold three drawings today

Just sold these three drawings that I did when I was a teenager to a nice young .man who loves my art, and has bought several other pieces in the past. Not a great big amount of money, but I'm really delighted to have sold something. We then walked over to view my window display which he also liked a lot.

Front Range. A Review Of Literature and Art

Front Range just published two of my photos in their latest print issue. They are going to stop publishing for a few years. The photos were in color but they could only print them in black and white, think they look good.

Sliding House

This is my drawing and poem that has just been posted on Broadsided Press. The drawing was done some time ago and I thought it was a good match for the project that Broadsided Press proposed. The poet Lisa L. Moore responded to the drawing.

sliding House

Broadsided Press has just posted my artwork for the response to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The poet Lisa L. Moore wrote a poem inspired by my drawing sliding house.

http://www.broadsidedpress.org/responses/2011japan/index.shtml

Broadsided: Responses: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami 2011

www.broadsidedpress.org

Special collections in which Broadsided Press responds to world events through art and literature.