Mary Alice 1936-2022

 Another marvelous actress has passed.

July Heatwave 2022. Mixed on notebook paper

 

Jennifer Bartlett 1941-2022

 

Who didn't love Tony Dow? 1945-2022?

 

the great Paul Sorvino has passed 1930-2022

 

Bob Rafelson 1933-2022

 

David Warner 1941-2022

 

Kane

 I treated myself with the 3 disc blue ray edition of citizen kane from Criterion because they are having their half sale event via barnes and noble. The film looks gorgeous I saw things that I never noticed before, like reflections of rain on a desk and that childhood scene of snow and sadness still moves me. Its a remarkable film. Its rich in images, sound and gossip. My relationship with Kane goes back to my childhood when one of my favorite programs on t.v. was "Million Dollar Movie." Each week they showed one film twice a day and that's where as maybe a ten or 11 year old I saw Kane for the first time. Chopped up of course to fit the time slot, with commercials and on our small tv. I still loved it. It caught my attention and imagination and I think I watched it every day it was on, driving my family nuts. There was also the theme music for the show from Gone With The Wind, and one week there was Kane, and the next week there was an Abbott and Costello comedy. I think I finally saw the complete movie when I was a late teen on a double bill with The Magnificent Ambersons probably at the Thalia and afterwards me and my friend Howard had Mexican food for the first time, we remember these things don't we. I think we loved Ambersons more than Kane this time. For a time Kane was always picked by Sight and Sound as the greatest film ever made, until it was kicked off the top by another childhood favorite of mine Vertigo and how many times have I seen that one. Some things about Kane bother me, like the glaring old age make up on Welles, but there are so many amazing things in it, like that strange parrot and Dorothy Commingore who is so sad as his mistress wife. And then there's Gregg Toland who Welles shared credit with at the end for his great cinematography. The package has so many extras that it will take me a while to get through all of them.

The End of July (Thank God) 2022

 

Notebook drawing July 2022

 

Claes Oldenburg 1929-2022

 A great artist as passed. 

July 2022 Notebook drawing mixed.

 

Link tree

My roommate just did this amazing thing for me. He got all my websites, blog etc on one location called linktree. Check it out you can also view my book page, my products for sale, instagram and more..

https://linktr.ee/irajoelhaber...

July 2022 notebook drawing mixed

 

The Birds 1963

 

Released on April Fools day in 1963, this was Hitchcock’s 2^nd Horror film in the short span of 3 years. It came on the heels of his shocking “Psycho” of 1960 and in hindsight “The Birds” was in a way a harbinger of the disaster that would hit our country and indeed the world in a few short months. This film and “Psycho” would become two of the most influential films in the history of cinema whose touch is still being felt today more than 60 years after their initial releases. At the time both films were played down and not taken seriously for their importance. “The Birds” came at us with a great publicity ad campaign, the headlines screaming “The Birds Is Coming” and it was soon bringing in big crowds around the country and indeed the world. This was Hitchcock’s end of the world movie that was based on a short story by the dependable Daphne du Maurier who had also given Hitchcock the novel “Rebecca to film and was his only film to win a best picture Oscar. Since I never read the original short story that “The Birds” was based on I can’t submit my feelings on it or how loyal Hitch was to her story. I do know changes were made and for those who want to read a good detailed take on the film I suggest the small but packed monograph by Camille Paglia published by the BFI in 1989 and is part of their terrific and large series of “film classics.”

This is another one of the directors mother films, which number in the many and range from deep and disturbing takes on motherhood to little humorous curtsies to moms including “To Catch A Thief” and “North by Northwest” with the mommies in both played by the regal and sophisticated Jessie Royce Landis. Both “Psycho” and “The Birds” are deep dish mommy horrors especially “Psycho”, and in this bird nightmare Hitchcock not only gives us a mother played by the wonderful Jessica Tandy who carries  all the jealousy and clinging of a threatened mom in jeopardy but he also gives us the biggest mother of them all, mother nature who takes center stage in the film.

She is another mother with a knife this time symbolic and not like Mrs. Bates in “Psycho” who wields a real one, and this time her vengeance is thrown across the screen and landscape with birds who kill. The story is simple:  a flashy rich young woman meets a handsome man, and instead of him pursuing her, she takes off after him. A little of 30’s screwball comedy begins the film but it is soon drown out by an unexplainable menace. The rich  young woman is played by the then newcomer Tippi Hendren in sharp hairdo and heels and stylish clothes by the always good Hitchcock collaborator Edith Head who as some urban legend bathroom graffiti of the time declared “Gives good costume”.

There is a meeting cute in a pet shop in San Francisco at the beginning of the film that sets up the conflicted romance of Tippi and the hunky Rod Taylor who wander among love birds in cages, that will play an important part later in the film along with our human love birds pecking and clawing at each other that we know will turn into a full blown romance. Tippi follows Rod the hunk to his home in Bodega Bay by sports car and motor boat where he lives part time with his angry mother and young sister played by Veronica Cartwright who will later on make a good career playing in other top notch horror flicks like “Alien” and the remake of “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”.

The minute mommy Jessica meets Tipi the jealousy and soft hatred begins all of course on Jessica’s part. She is lonely and afraid and this will be shown more deeply and clearly once the unwanted visitors come pecking and banging at the door. Tippi also meets Rod’s once upon a time girlfriend who also lives in Bodega Bay and in a ruse Tippi claims that they went to school together or some such lie.  His ex-girlfriend played beautifully by the lovely Suzanne Pleshette gives what I consider the best supporting performance of the year. Pleshette plays the schoolmarm of the town, caring and dedicated to her pupils which will be made very clear after a devastating and memorable attack on the school by the birds. This is probably the most remembered and feared sequence among several in this very fearful film in which the birds mass ready for attack on the jungle gym outside the school as Tippi unaware of what is going on behind her sits and smokes a cigarette. This is a silent sequence except for the school children inside singing a bland childhood song which we along with Tippi hear. There is no music score in the film, a very avant garde idea for a Hollywood film, only the flapping of the birds wings and the awful sounds they make. This nerve wracking electronic score was created by remi gassmann and oskar sala with added imput from the great Bernard herrmann who composed many of Hitchcock’s films. The film was also ahead of its time in it’s use of special effects and the use of real birds along with fake ones. Another one of Hitchcock’s long time collaborator Robert Burks did the amazing cinematography and several top notch names worked on the special effects including Ub Iwerks, Robert Boyle, and Albert Whitlock.  The Blu ray transfer finally does the film and their work justice. The ending is perfect and Hitchcock leaves it open to interpretation and depression.  The best film of 1963.

interview and a video

 A few weeks ago Extreme Reach and Swag With A Purpose did an interview with me for Gay Pride. I've finally got around to post it. I really don't know much about these companies other than they are supportive of the Gay Community.

"My organization - Swagg With A Purpose - created the concept and executed on the majority of the items and the company I work for - Extreme Reach - assisted and posted everything to their internal sites reaching approx. 1100 people across 22 countries."

Operation Give Them Their Flowers

Honoring Ira Joel Haber

In celebration of Pride month, we are highlighting members of the Queer & Trans community that offers contributions to society in any capacity (culture, media, the arts, etc). It's an effort to recognize and support their contributions as well as potentially exposing them to a new audience.

Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer, photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows both in the USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 300 online and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Creative Artists Public Service Grant (CAPS) two Pollock-Krasner grants, two Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grants and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists' Fellowship Inc. in 2017 & 2018 he received the Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA artist-in-residence grant.

Please take a moment to see the world through Ira Joel's eyes:

We are huge advocates for gender expression and identity and want to be respectful of everyone’s choices to identify. How do you choose to express your identity? What are your pronouns?

I am a gay man, have been for my entire life when I was also a gay boy, a gay teen, a gay young man. My identity is who I am as an artist mainly but also as someone who has lived on this earth for 75 years. My story is complex and I was in the village walking home on that hot June night when Stonewall exploded. I watched from the corner so I was there but did not join in. I was not yet 22 years old. We had no sense of identity back then. I lived in Chelsea before it became a mecca for rich people. I lived with roommates and grew up and was opened up as an artist and a young gay man. My blog is full of my stories on being gay. I will add it to this.

What is your creative expression? What’s your passion, in your opinion, that brings joy, laughter, inspiration, motivation or any good feeling to others?

My passion is my art, no two ways about that. I have been making art it seems forever. I started to show my art in museum shows and galleries when I was very young in my early 20's and was included in two Whitney annuals as they were called back then in 1971 and I think 1974. I cannot be responsible for anyone else's good feelings. I make art, present it on the internet for the most part and hope that people like it. I have a presence on Facebook where I share my writings and my art.

I would imagine pride in yourself is a contributing factor to how you choose to express your creativity. What does gay pride or pride month mean to you?

I have to say that the whole gay pride thing doesn't have the same feelings for me now that it did in the beginning. I marched in the first gay pride march from the village up to central park and it was scary as we were a small group. I marched in many other marches after that or I watched the parade from the sidelines. Maybe it has to do with age. I am very political though and take care in supporting the pro-gay pro causes. I am appalled by the state of the country. I sign petitions and stay aware of the dangers we as gay people are facing. I am especially concerned by the terrible actions against trans people and young gays and women.

I believe mental health is an important component to the success of every queer and trans person. What are your thoughts on self-care and how does it show up in your daily routine?

I have done many gay male groups mostly when I was younger. I took part in gay art groups, and did volunteer work for the gay men's health crises in the early 90's for about 4 years. Self-care means treating myself as well and as kind as I can. I've taught art to seniors which has given me a great feeling of joy and hope both for myself and for the seniors who took my many art classes. I go to a gym when I can and I try to be as positive as I can. I don't use drugs any more or drink, not that I am trying to push that on anyone else. Being 75 of course is not like being 35. My nights of wildness are way behind me. Making my art of course is important and gives me great deal of pleasure.

Do you have anything you would like to share about yourself or what you are working on/promoting to the Extreme Reach world?

It's very hard for me to reach out to the galleries, so I put my art on the internet in literary magazines, on Facebook, on Instagram and on my blog. I also have a book business online which keeps me busy and have been doing that for many years to try to make a buck.

One of the reasons for this spotlight is so we can bring a new audience to your creativity and talent. Where can people find you or see/support your artistic expression?

As I said, people can see my art on Instagram, Facebook and my blog. They can also google me which will bring up many links to my art and many of the magazines that have published my art over the years.

Below is the link to the video they did on my art. It needs some twinking but it is really nice I think.

Thank you Brian Hamilton for your support.

James Caan 1940-2022

 

Joe Turkel 1927-2022