Mixed on paper 2025

 

Charles Strouse 1928-2025

A few years back I was riding the subway and at the front of the car was a guy, probably a street performer who started to sing "Tomorrow" from Annie. Well soon the entire car joined in singing. I didn't but a big smile was on my face. A nice New York Moment. I will always be grateful for the movie Bye Bye Birdie and this 16 year old seeing Ann-Margaret for the first time.

Joe Don Baker 1936-2025

 

Robert Benton 1932-2025

 

Etoile Prime Streaming

If you need something light beautiful and fun to take your mind off of the shit that we are wallowing in and doesn't cost 500.00 a ticket you might check out this charming and entertaining series about two fictional dance companies. The gimmick here is that the companies located in New York City and Paris are drowning in debt and lack of audience so the directors come up with a ludicrous idea to switch dancers to up their chances of lasting. So it goes and New York send their cuckoo head choreographer and young ballerina who actually is French, and the French send their great dancer who is a big pain but she is a star. That's it. The two directors butt heads and hearts and are acted with charm by Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The dancers are of course lovely to look at and when there is actual dancing it might make you swoon. From the people who gave us The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and though not as nutty, it has its charm, and as I said oh those dancers and when those bright primary colored umbrellas open up in the rain, every great MGM musical will come to mind.

Small sculptures 1983-2025

Small sculptures 1983-2025. These have gone through changes over the years, the last being a week or so ago when a bookcase collapsed and damaging a few of them. I made changes and they go on. Mixed.

Faggot 2025 Mixed on paper

 

Johnny Eager 1942

 

M.G. Empty or how Green Was My Valley Of Decision.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ah the very name conjures up images of satin and silk. Furs and Art Deco interiors, and more stars then there are in heaven. From the start they were not known for gangster films or streets running red with the blood of small time hoods and tough guy gangsters. That was Warner Bros.

And one of the big time directors of the era worked big at both. Mervyn LeRoy's career loomed large and long at both studios during the golden age of Hollywood. His career began in 1927 and ended in 1966 quite a run. His Warner Bros. Years was full of harsh sharp edge gangster movies and stories “torn from the headlines” as studio publicity liked to use in their ads. Leroy made “Little Caesar,” “I am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang “,”Five Star Final” and a big Busby Berkley musical Gold Diggers of 1933 all within a 3 year time span. He was in the money, and these films still shake and shudder me.

Then in the late 30's he moved on to M.G.M. Where he made big budget smooth women weepie movies like “Random Harvest,” “Waterloo Bridge”, “Blossoms In The Dust”,and “Madame Curie” and also found time to produce “The Wizard Of Oz”. Making big bucks and big movies was his game and he did it very well.

Which brings me to the movie I saw of his the other night 1942's war time Johnny Eager. This one has glamour,silk and satin, but it also has harshness and criminality that recall his Warner Bros. Days. Its a bowl of slick MGM mixed with Warner Bros. Grime.

This was not an easy one to pull off and LeRoy mostly does a good job telling the story of a real rotten apple, no soul, harsh and nasty to everyone including his best friend, a poetic sensitive soft young Van Helflin who is also alcoholic, depressed and wounded. More about Van later. Meanwhile let me focus on who he got to play the lead criminal and racketeer.

Robert Taylor who began life in films as a soft pretty young actor in such forgotten little nubs as “A Wicked Woman” “Buried Loot”, “Society Doctor,” “Times Sq. Lady” & “Murder In The Fleet” before making it somewhat big as Irene Dunne's co-star in the original “Magnificent Obsession” and as Garbo's young lover in “Camille” which did it.

He was coasting on his very good looks, that profile, that nose but he was treading water as rumors were running wild because of his sexuality which is still brought up in red light stories about Hollywood. Was he gay? Some say yes, some say duh we don't know, so he had to be “butched” up, regardless of who he played around with. This was a mama's boy oh boy oh boy so the studio big boss Louie B. got him married to that tough as nails gal and also rumored lesbian the great Barbara Stanwyck.

The stories of these two still bounce and ricochet off the walls of the internet, and fill big hefty bios. The latest one on Stanwyck weighs a ton and is soft around the edges. No smut or scandal here. Anyway getting back to Bob who as Johnny was given a butch look including a nice little mustache and a nasty persona as a racketeer gangster who will do anything to make a buck and keep his head and body out of prison where when the movie opens he is just out of and working a taxi driver.

This is of course a ruse, a nice surprise for the audience as hey we believe it when he goes to his parole office but we quickly realize he's still on the game running rackets and living the life of a crook, and he lies about everything to get away with his rackets and crimes. Women are of course all over him the sexual innuendos are quite randy for the time, but he just uses them without any remorse or feelings for them.

Toss them away and get on with your conniving and lying Johnny. That is until he falls for a soft conniving Lana Turner, all blonde fluffy and sexy who just so happens to be the step daughter of the vengeful prosecutor played by the always good Edward Arnold who first put Johnny in a cell and is out to do it again if he can.

Supposedly Bob and Lana hit it off big time off screen and filled the gossip rags with lots of sex talk for months which of course got Babs in a tiff. Personally I don't believe any of it, but never mind, they do burn up the screen which is all that mattered to movie audiences. They wanted their movie stars to be movie stars and these two filled the bill.

Meanwhile Taylor/Johnny schemes to make Lana his fall gal and uses her in a plan to make her think that she has killed a rival gangster. She really didn't. Hey Lana its only ketchup on his shirt. Doesn't matter Lana goes off the deep end and winds up on planet Debbie even though Taylor tries to convince her that the guy is still alive. Poor Lana, a decade or so later, her life will become like this movie. Taylor is surprisingly good playing bad, and this will become his winning hand in the years to come including his embracing of far right wing politics and his founding of the Motion Picture Alliance For The Preservation of American Ideals along with his giving damaging testimony before The House Committee on Un-American Activities naming Karen Morley and Howard DaSilva as communists thus ruining their film careers. To his credit he did this reluctantly and refused to appear unless subpoenaed.
He was and he did.

The End fades out as Taylor lies in the gutter cradled not by Lana but by sweet confused Van Heflin. Tears rolling down his face and hey wait a minute is this really what I'm seeing, what I thought I saw through most of the film? The minute Heflin appears my gaydar went off loud and screeching. This is an early 40's closeted gay man. Coded for sure but I got it and Van I got it. Of course the critics of the day never saw this or simply ignored it, but many contemporary reviewers of the film make a point to point this deep dark gay romance “out” in their reviews.

This is of course not the first movie of the time to use coded gay romances, there are quite a few including this one, “Captains Courgeous”, and “Test Pilot” which come to mind. It was and it is a coded gay romance between Taylor and Heflin, and of course that's why Van is a walking drunk through the entire film, mooning and sprouting romantic lines of poetry at Taylor and begging him to go off to the mountains with him and not being able to accept who he is. Heflin 34 at the time went on to win a best supporting actor Oscar for his superb and moving performance. At the time Supporting winners were given a plaque instead of the statuette but this changed in 1943. This one is well worth a look, not only Heflin's staggering performance but also for the glory of M.G.M. Film making at its height.

Ruth Buzzi 1936-2025

The marvelous Ruth Buzzi has passed. A favorite of mine when I was a late teen, and me and my roommates never missed Laugh-In.

Transparent 2014.

A five season series that is easily one of the best I've seen, and I've seen them all. A complex and complicated look at among other things Jewish life and identity lived by a privileged upper middle class family living and working in L.A. who are conflicted, torn, and confused but who are well meaning, kind, richly emotional and funny. Torn and worn.

The head of the tribe is led by Jeffrey Tambor as Mort a college professor who as we quickly learn is transitioning to a woman. He comes out to his family, his ex-wife exquisitely played by the great Judith Light, and his three grown children Gaby Hoffman, Amy Landecker and Jay Duplass all of whom have enough baggage to sink a large ship and all three are superb and complicated. Hoffman is also dealing with issues of her sexuality and her being Jewish, Landecker is bi and after leaving her husband for a woman who she marries with disastrous results, and Duplass who is a successful music producer who was sexually abused by his babysitter that went on through his teen years and finds he has a grown son from the relationship and that's only for starters.

The show is expansive and generous thanks to Joey Soloway who created, wrote and directed many of the eposodes along with her sister Faith, and they have a long personal story themselves with regards to the thick and complicated issue of transgender family members. As if the issue of transgenders wasn't enough to fill a series for a couple of years they also take on as I said Jewish life in all its complicated glory and misery including the religion, the holocaust, the politics of Israel and what it means to be a Jew for both men and women young and old.

The past of the Pfefferman's is also shown and dealt with in backward looks to the Nazi period in Germany, and the once thriving cultural life in pre Hitler Berlin and Mort/Maura's conflicted early life in dealing with her confused sexuality. The issues of sexuality and sex, both straight and gay and how these characters move in and out of these thorny themes are at times hilarious and scary, intimate and expansive, loud and low and sometimes embarrassing and sad to watch.

The supporting cast is also great with two standout performances from two trans actresses Alexandra Billings & Trace Lysette who are beautiful and commanding actresses. Some folks have complained about the role of Maura being played by a “straight actor” but I don't care. Tambor is a brilliant actor who gives a stunning performance. There is also a big elephant in the room about him which I'll go into later in this piece.

Also terrific and surprising was Bradley Whitford as Maura's straight cross dressing friend who spend a weekend in the Catskills at a cross dressing resort that is based on the real Casa Susanna a resort that existed for mostly straight and married men who would spend time there sometimes with their wives. A documentary about this remarkable moment and time in gay history can be found on PBS for those who are interested. https://casasusanna.com/

Also superb is the great Kathryn Hahn as a compassionate and caring Rabbi who has an emotional brief relationship with Josh/Jay Duplass, the also great Anjelica Huston (God how I lover her) as a straight cancer survivor who has a love affair with Maura and Cherry Jones (who ran into me on her bike some years ago as I crossed Hudson Street in the Village) as a radical lesbian poet and professor of feminism who is randy, promiscuous and has a tortured affair with Gaby Hoffman. As I said there was a controversy regarding Tambor which I quote from Wikipedia


“In November 2017, Tambor was accused of sexual harassment on the set.[On November 19, 2017, Tambor stated, "I don't see how I can return to Transparent" after a second sexual harassment allegation was made against him.He was officially fired from  Transparent a few months later, on February 15, 2018.” For those who require more material on this you can search the internet.

This situation led to season five being only one long episode that was a mostly musical one. It was handled the best it could have been I suppose and I found it somewhat disappointing in the sense that I wanted the series to go on longer. The influences in the final musical episode were visible and sharp including Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece “Magnolia” and I would also say that William Finn's great musical “Falsettos” was also a big influence on the creators. Still with everything and all the luggage this is one of the best of the best.

Priscilla Pointer 1924-2025.

A favorite character actress of mine, and the mother of Amy Irving. 

 

New York Box 2025 Mixed

This is tied in with the early new york boxes I did in 1969-1970 several of which are now in private collections. I turned back to this series recently by luck and chance. The box was and is difficult to photograph but I think it looks good. 

 

Masahiro Shinoda 1931-2025

 

New work on paper 2025. Mixed.

 

Widows 2018

Widows Peak!

A fast moving jumble of a heist film set in the windy city of Chicago. I was surprised by how good this little deep dish nugget was maybe because it was directed by the fine director Steve McQueen who is not known for following the rules or sticking to one kind of movie. This is a guy who did an epic civil war drama, a small film about an Irish rebel's hunger strike, a film about a sex addict living and working in New York City, A moving film about the London Blitz, A television series about the West Indian community living in London from 1969 to 1982 and this hearty crime film that I saw the other night without knowing what was coming.

There is nothing new under the sun or moon when it comes to crime and heist films, I've seen many of them beginning with The Great Train Robbery the famous silent film. I like this genre so I was looking forward to seeing it, but not expecting much. I was nicely surprised by how good it was. Sure its flawed but what isn't (check out the state of our country) and besides the cast was to swoon and die for. Headed by the great Viola Davis as the lead widow whose recently deceased dead criminal husband has left her in the lurch big time. This lurch as to do with stolen money that the dead husband played by a low key Liam Neesom stole from rough black criminals that don't fool around. She takes things into her own very capable hands and reaches out to the other women left in tight situations because of their hubby's poor handling of the heist that went bad.

The other widows are well cast and played by Elizabeth Debicki,and Michelle Rodriguez who agree to come in on the plan that Viola is hatching. One of the widows played by Carrie Coon ops out for reasons I will not disclose. All the widows are abused either mentally or physically by their late criminal hubbys and it falls on Davis to come up with a plan to do a heist to get millions of dollars so she can return a lot of the moola to the head black criminal who is also a shady politician played well by Brian Tyree Henry. There really isn't anything new here, we've seen it all before as I said, but McQueen brings a good new look to this aging genre that still has legs. The mixture of crooked politics and crime is also nothing and here McQueen falters a bit using the same old. The older corrupt patriarchal politician father played by Robert Duvall doing what he usually does. Hamming it up. His son who is following his corrupt path is played by Colin Farrell with a good accent and is on the wrong path to corrupt political power. Again nothing new here. Also in the packed cast is Daniel Kaluuya very evil, Jackie Weaver as a nasty mom to one of the widows, Cynthia Ervio and Lukas Haas. I can't recall what other films came out in 2018 and what I did or didn't like, but I would put this one on the list of films that I did like in 2018.

Oddball has just posted this piece of mine along with 2 poems by Hilary Sideris. Check them out at this link. 


https://oddballmagazine.com/two-poems-by-hilary-sideris/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJszIRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjOzBLnHFLe36V5u-5D7E2CDOKr0okjUWSrpakbFvoDMOO8uiypl9cUkzoZX_aem_X-QJPg2PaK1R7WyJvePaqQ

 

Mario Vargas Llosa 1936-2025

 

Max Kozloff 1933-2025

 

Jean Marsh 1934-2025

 

Killers of the flower moon 2024

I finally saw this long ambitious but flawed film the other night on a streaming service. The story is compelling and deserving of attention and by and large the movie delivers. I do wish that Scorsese would stop casting DiCaprio and DeNiro in his films, they bring to much baggage, especially DeNiro who I like but the minute he appears I can read who he is and what he will show and do and this performance is no different from so many of his performances. DiCaprio is too old for the role, and again he has been telegraphing his performances for quite a while. He's still compelling and watchable but predictable. The making nice with the FBI also rubbed me the wrong way, and those who complained about Mississippi Burning's handling of the service should be yelling about this one also. It's large and colorful with Scorsese using spaces brilliantly. The best thing in the film for me was Lilly Gladstone's brilliant and beautiful work, this is a great performance.

2025 mixed on paper

 

William Finn 1952-2025

 

Will Fisher 1966-2025

 Only knew Will from being a facebook friend. sorry to hear of his passing

2025 mixed on paper

 

Jay North 1951-2025

 

2025 mixed on paper

 

2025 Mixed on Paper

 

2025 mixed on paper

 

Val Kilmer 1959-2025

 

Richard Chamberlain 1934-2025

saw him with dorothy McGuire and Sylvia Miles in a revival of Night Of The Iguana in 1976.

 

Adolescence 2025

Now streaming on Netfilix in 4 searing episodes with each part shot in one continuous take. This technique is being used more and more of late, and I'm ok with it. The story is about in the simplest terms of a young 13 year old boy who is arrested for the murder of one of his classmates, a girl and the affect it has on him, his family, the police and his school. Accents are at times thick so you might want or need subtitles which I wish I had used myself. That said this is easily one of the best things I've seen series wise on my tv since well Baby Raindeer. The acting is to put it mildly superb especially by the great British actor Stephan Graham as the dad who also co-wrote the script with Jack Thorne. Each hour in length part focuses on one aspect involving the individuals including the family, the police officers, and the young boy Jamie. I should note here that the performance of the young Owen Cooper as Jamie will wreck you as it did me. This is one of the great performances that I have ever seen and no doubt he will be getting lots of attention and indeed awards for this performance. Graham is also superb and I have been loving his work for years, as he goes back and forth playing American and British roles with great results. I was drained by the end. Easily one of the 10 best of 2025.

Mixed on paper 2025

 

Fred Eversley 1941-2025