John Clem Clarke 1937-2021

 

Oddball Magazine. My photograph used

 https://oddballmagazine.com/three-poems-by-john-johnson/?fbclid=IwAR1EyfdVAVRm89UeRYR1mlccvzpzvO7kZqP5RtXQ8SutAjvKp2iB-iGmR2w

sold. teenage fashion drawings.

 

Libretto Magazine

 Libretto Magazine has just published one of my works on paper in their latest issue. You can download the magazine at this link.



https://librettong.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Issue-05_Temptation__1.pdf

Some recent photographs

 

The Pink Shirt. June 2021. Mixed on paper

 

The Rapture 1991 Spoiler alerts.

 

For a big part of its running time Michael Tolkin’s “The Rapture” which he wrote and directed is a compelling and fierce look at a young woman’s double face life of a boring day job of giving out phone number information to a night life of raw swinging  sexual pursuits with a male friend. Set in L.A. they go after couples they pick up in bars and one night the woman played well by Mimi Rogers has an awakening to her spiritual needs throws her bed mate out and soon joins a religious cult of born again worshipers led by a young African American boy who warns that the apocalypse is coming. This where the divide happens, both in the film and in my enjoyment of it. There is not much reason given to Roger’s characters deep change from a fast sexual road to a religious one and raises more questions than it answers. Was it the two mormon like young men who knock on her door one morning to bring her the truth? Was it her overhearing some co-workers talking about “The Boy” or was it just her disgust over her empty life. Isn’t it possible to have a rich spiritual life and also a rich sexual life both at the same time? It’s at this point that the “Rapture” becomes The Rupture and my own beliefs about this interesting but failed film come to a screeching halt. Much is left unsaid and understated, a quick flash forward and now Mimi is married with a young child to David Duchovny a once wild sex partner of hers who is now a button down fellow follower of her religious cult and a conservative office manager who meets a tragic end one afternoon when a fired employer returns for retribution. Mimi makes a big change in her and her child’s life and take off for the desert where she thinks she will be safe from the coming apocalypse and commits a terrible unspeakable crime that is gut retching. The film concludes with some very poorly done special affects that can probably be blamed because of  the low budget, but is laughable and damaging never the less. The cast is fine, especially the little seen and under used Mimi Rogers and the then unknown David Duchovny as her boy toy and future film husband. Spiritual and religious topics and themes are very rarely untaken in Hollywood movies unless they are sweet films about angels and happy priests who do good things and also sing, so this is a welcomed take on these subjects even though it is filled with flaws but I can easily say see this one.       

Moira Roth 1933-2021

More Loss. I met her when I was teaching at UCSD as visiting artist and she was the chairperson. She made me feel welcomed and was very supportive of my teaching and my art. I remember a fun day trip we made to L.A. with some of the grad students and a large thanksgiving dinner at her house in La Jolla. The photo is of me and her when she paid a visit to one of my classes.

 

Milton Moses Ginsberg 1935-2021 director of coming apart

 

Ned Beatty 1937-2021

 Saw him on Broadway in 2003 in the revival of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, when he played Big Daddy. 

Hap and Leonard 2016-2018

 

Southern Discomfort. Set in the rural deep south of east Texas in the late 80’s this vibrant thriller series concerns the misadventures of two childhood friends who are still close as grown men. One is black and gay; the other is white and straight. Having suffered a shared childhood disaster that ties the two together, think of a twisted Huck and Tom, or The Hardy Boys,,they are devoted to each other and love each other which they have no problem expressing in platonic ways.  Each season is self contained and takes the men on some hair raising experiences with a romantic pair of psycho killers, who are without a doubt two of the most violent horrendous piles I think i have ever seen in a movie, a serial killer who murders young black boys, and a racist town full of KKK members that brings the series to an end, rather abruptly I thought. Based on a series of books by Joe R. Lansdale who also contributed to the development and scripts of the show, with a marvelous cast including James Purefoy as Hap and the brilliant Michael Kenneth Williams as the take no prisoners Leonard. Williams who is best known for his role on “The Wire” is unapologetically gay in the series and his off and on relationship with Enrique Murciano who plays a male nurse is one of the best gay relationships I’ve seen in a movie. I wish this sidebar had more side and a lot more bar than it has but hell I’ll take what I can get. The series is harsh in parts and funny in other parts thanks to the very good cast of mostly unknown performers to me, but also contains some great stuff from the likes of Brian Dennehy, Corbin Bernsen, Louis Gossett Jr. & Christina Hendricks. Characters who you think you are reading correctly make U turns and ones who you think are bad turn out not to be that way, that’s the kind of show this is. The dead come back, ghosts appear and scores are settled. The time period that the series takes place is before cell phones and computers and there is plenty of southern delight and disgust in the many details documenting this time and place. Also pleasing is the music score including original music along with reliable time centered spots of songs and music. It’s violent to be sure but entertaining and compelling, that it was cancelled after only 3 seasons is a crying shame.   

New piece June 2021

Mixed with clay. 11" x 4 1/2" x 7 1/2" As usual with my work a bitch to photograph. 

 

Clarence Williams III 1939-2021

Saw him in "Slow Dance On The Killing Ground" on Broadway in 1965 when I was 18 and theatre tickets were like $4.00.

White Christmas 1954

A silly sappy movie with great costumes and splashy color. This early 50’s floating bar of soap is about two World War II war time buddies played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye who when the film blasts open are entertaining the troops on Christmas eve singing “White Christmas” of course, in a war torn rubble of a town somewhere in make believe Europe which was really one of the stages at Paramount. The set is appealing as a painting by a naive artist and as such I was charmed by this image of war and destruction. The two friends Bing and Danny are inseparable and when Danny saves Bing from falling rubble Bing is so grateful to him that he promises to get together with him after the war and form a song and dance act. They do and and in a montage sequences we see that the guys are a huge hit on the circuit.

The film blandly written by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank is so twisted in plot knots that it takes nearly 2 hours to straighten them all out and do we really care?  Into the mix comes a sister act, played by Vera-Ellen (her singing dubbed) perky and pretty and the great Rosemary Clooney who alone makes it worthwhile to see this confection, I mean when was the last time you saw Rosie Clooney in a movie. Late in the film she gets to do one solo number, “Love You Didn’t Do Right By Me” and it is a beaut. The boys get a look at Vera-Ellen and Clooney doing their number “Sisters” in their beautiful bright blue gowns with feathers and immediately want them to join their traveling show. If the movie ended with this number I would call it a classic. Only it doesn’t of course and the film spends a lot of time and trouble trying to make us believable in romances between Bing and Rosie and Danny and Vera-Ellen.

Their romances run hot and cold especially the one between Danny and Vera-Ellen because he has absolutely no interest in anything romantic with her, it’s so obvious. The music is by Irving Berlin and is rehashed from other movies and might remind some folks of a musical from 1942 “Holiday Inn” in which the song “White Christmas” was first introduced and won Berlin an Oscar for best song of the year. One song from “Christmas” “Count Your Blessing Instead of Sheep” would also get an Oscar nomination, the films only one but would lose to “Three Coins In The Fountain” both songs became big hits with the public with many popular singers taking them both on.

An Inn also figures big in “White Christmas” because the sisters are booked into a charming but cash straddled one in snowy Vermont, except there is no snow and no guests staying there which coincidence of coincidences is owed and run by Crosby and Kaye’s former commanding general played by Dean Jagger in a bad toupee and who we first met in the opening war torn scene. Dean runs or ruins the Inn with the help of his young granddaughter, where her parents are we never find out, and his feisty housekeeper played by the always-welcomed Mary Wickes.

The numbers are lively manly because of the lavish sets, costumes (love Danny Kaye’s matching grey suede shoes with his grey suit) and chorus boys including a very young and unknown George Chakiris a few years away from an Oscar, and an unknown to me fantastic dancer named John Brascia who made the dance numbers into something special and then disappeared. There is also a semi-drag number with an uncomfortable looking Bing and a very comfortable Danny gay doing a take on the “Sisters” number, which is startling to see. There is also a minstrel number but happily without blackface, but still awkward and unnecessary. A much worse blackface minstrel number was in “Holiday Inn” so we should be grateful that a sensitive someone at Paramount woke up and did us all a great favor in 1954. Directed by the legendary Michael Curtiz who worked in all genres and made many classics including Casablanca, Mildred Pierce and The Adventures of Robin Hood and his career was winding down by the time of White Christmas which opened at Radio City Music Hall and went on to become the highest grossing movie of the year. Go figure. Another odd thing is that the film opened at the Hall in October and was not their choice for their big Christmas show, another go figure. This was the first movie to be filmed in Paramount’s new VistaVision system  which enlarged the screen and made the color cinematography scream, the transfer now streaming and screaming on Netflix does it justice. 

The Mobile Library

 The Mobile Library has just published their latest issue with 6 of my black and white landscapes from 1973. It's a PDF and here is the link. 

file:///C:/Users/ira%20joel/Downloads/Aerogramme_Dictionary_of_Colors.pdf

The Pine Cone Review

 The Pine Cone Review has just published it's second issue with 3 of my mixed drawings highlighting their poetry, flash fiction and flash creative non fiction secitions. Thank you.

https://thepineconereview.com/the-pine-cone-review-issue-2/