We all know that Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but can you imagine calling The Crown Prince of Denmark a pretty nice boy? Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah yeah. He is.

I'm listening to songs by Serge Gainsborough (thank you, Adam Green). Randy Newman (thank you, Brian Wayne) and Ben Folds (thank you, Kenny Davidsen).

All right, I saw the Palestinian film. There was formerly a British Colony, whose contract expired in the 1940's, called Palestine.

There was also once a country called Lebanon.

Moving right along, there was also a performance last night at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of songs from Johnny Johnson by Paul Green and Kurt Weill. We caught the last four pieces. What beautiful music!

I adopt Mr. Suleiman's suggestion of a world without borders. Does that mean I let people walk into my apartment at will? Yes, and they do not. They have their own lives to lead. Better we work together. Everything I have and am are yours!

The New York Film Festival is in its fortieth year! The panel respects the right of expression. Last night we saw a comedy produced by an auteur from Palestine.

I'm taking atenolol. And tegretal, a name I just made up because I never heard it before, is actually a name for another medication. Try it sometime. Make up something believable, or even unbelievable, and, surprise, it already exists.

Yeah, I'm actually feeling quite weird regarding my heart's ability to palpitate uncontrollably in a uselessly short-circuited rhythm. What's the sequence? Oh, forget it. I'm taking tegretal. Also, I lost my keys out of the hole in my jacket. Also, I managed to have a superhoot with no one there. I had a good set. Other people were there staying after the act before or waiting for the act after and I received 20 dollars in tips for a half hour set. Your events are what you make them, and sometimes more. I disappointed Fenton Lawless who came out for the superhoot. Apparently there was no 10:30 act so there was dead space from 10:30 until 11. That's what I get for leaving during the prior act. I'm on jury duty, too. The criminal cases are fascinating, but stupid! A rich callgirl cocaine afficianado calls his DEA friends when someone tries to extort from him, the other two I know less of... One involved asking the prospective jury the question, Do you have any reservations about the gypsy people or, as they are called, Gypsies???? Then one about an eccentric memorabilia collector who may have been robbed by a long haired lanky friend.

I'm transferring notes from a piece of paper, one step from being refuse, to the electronic media! Having just jumped from the michaeldouglas.blogspot I will proceed with the Goethe/Lange Werther quotes: Stir within me sensations of love, joy, rapture and delight, which I already possess, though otherwise dormant. I must already possess them for you to be able to make me feel them, because you cannot make happy he who stands before you cold and indifferent. -- that's quite a paraphrase. Werther was leaving the company of a prince to return to his principle obsession/love interest, the married Charlotte (She gives me access to all I possess.).

Here are some of his problems with the prince:

And now, here he is, talking only of things which he has either read or heard of, and always from the point of view from which they have been represented by others, it's The Prince!

I lose patience when, glowing with imagination, I express my feelings about art and nature and he, thinking to be especially understanding, spoils everything with his cliches!

Finally, "I have heard of a noble race of horses that instinctively bite open a vein when they are hot and exhausted by a long run, in order to breathe more freely. I am often tempted to open a vein to gain everlasting liberty for myself."

(Paraphrases and quotes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), translated by Victor Lange (1949).

nothing nothing nothing monumental momentary clarity nothing nothing repeat repeat repeat repeat

Moods are off kilter tonight.

The words that reduce me to tears, sung by composer Kate Bush, are "I just know that something good is going to happen. I don't know when, but just SAYING it can even make happen."

"Comfort ye, my people."

One indictment of selfishness after the other... I'm selfish. It limits me. I go from one avoidance to another. I got a taste of something last night, of limitless possibility, and I became afraid of the serendipity. Behaviour is predictable, especially the behaviour of the unobserved.

That dip in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday during Patsy's party really unrested my inner expansiveness! Help.

Emmanuelle Seigner is married to Roman Polanski. She makes looking tired look good. Thank you for that and good night.

I really have to cut out this 120 dollar a month all in one time warner cable. "Who the hell are you to touch my niggers?" It's Mandingo, a movie about to burst with violence but for now, it's just master slave sadism. This movie was everywhere meaning along the subway walls in a monster ad campaign when I was riding that old F train to Arch Bishop Malloy High School. I'm shocked to see James Mason doing an accent job on the US South. "Marry a white girl, then no more black girls, can't have 'em." "Oh yes you can, saves her from having to submit and when she do you keep on your shirt and drawers..." "New Orleans, that's the place to go, they remove clothes there." Mason has his feet on the cute little black boy and now it's time for a horsedriven carriage ride. The slaves are a marchin' with their american flag leading the way. What am I watching here at 12:24 Thursday morn? Tomorrow, perhaps to the Guggenheim, all I have to do is find the invitation for the Moving Pictures Exhibit opening. "You got that old Mandingo buck, the best fighting niggers..." I see a Spartacus in the making... The hotel staff just dropped off the girls for the guys, little black girls pawed by the white men. You take the virgin, I don't want no hard work. Wap, slaps the no hard worker, a real surprise for her. "Yes master." This does play upon issues of inadequacy and domination. These guys need serious therapy, or serious acknowledgment. One of the guys is sickened by the others whipping tendency. The pretty skinny girl with the tightly cut hair looks compassionately back at him for being different, for caring what a white man does with his wenchy. His leg is somehow lame... Oh, it's getting romantic and except for their size the male and female could be compatible. "I like you, sir... please you..." Tears for both. Press the info button. 1975.

I liked Ghost World, an infinitely watchable film, nearly 'til the end, it's the sequel to Revenge of the Super Nerds Part One, which is better known as Crumb. (Thank you, Queens Library DVD Collection)

I saw the exact same portion, the last hour, of Polanski's The Ninth Gate, again tonight following my visit to Don Shaw's for some Latin Jazz playing, an experience that stands apart from my daily activity, as does the experience yesterday with Amachi...

Ah movies. What impressed me, and that's what the mysteries of 8 will consider here, was the Ninth Gate's ever changing landscape. It is an elegant film. Note that Lena Olin recieves suitably sadistic treatement, Polanski subtly stimulating the sadists with the details, her nudity beneath the cape, her flesh wobbling when Frank Langella kicks her away.

Do you expect me to believe The Ultra-Elegant Johnny Depp concerns himself with finding the book pieces for himself? I can't imagine, although he has a convincing response to his delightful female companion, Emmanuel. Okay, I'm posting now, I'm looking up info on her quirkiness. I rather enjoyed their interaction. In fact, I rather enjoy the film. Is that great filmmaking on a panderingly popular level? I love Polanski's film, Cul de sac. For reasons perhaps perhaps obvious to all but myself,
I feel very close to his work.

Tomorrow is my 15 year Law School Reunion and the opening of The Prepare to Meet Your Maker SIng-A-Long Song-A-Thon at the WAH Center. How to attend both... hm.

In 1949 Maurice Sandoz wrote about the Tsatsa, the Jivaro's shrunken head (The woman for whom he was obtaining it dies before he can give it to her! His head, thereafter, shrinks while the Tstasa's head expands. The fun in the story precedes these disappointing denouements.). The book containing this and other stories about conversations with the insane, with illustrations by Salvador Dali, is entitled "On The Verge."

Go forth with the intent to do something and see what you get. If you don't find love, the consolation prise will be to achieve what you set out to do.

The mixture of elation and sadness is extreme again. It is tempered with an unusual hope based upon the uniqueness of the circumstance, despite its elements of familiarity. It's something new based upon a new combination.
For those who don't know, 'cause I didn't...
1. You ask me challenging questions about myself.
2. I answer.
3. You listen.
4. I fall in love with you.

It's narcissism. I do the same with you. It's narcissism. Two people in love? Narcissism. Speaking like someone who knows about this is also narcissism.

Edward Di Maio came by the office today. I worked with him in the distant past and knew him as Eddie Dimaio. He resides with a family of Quakers in Lafayette Indiana. Major breakthroughs occurred in his life when he met his father -- he no longer needed to look for his father in other people. He teaches breathing as a meditation and is preparing for publication a book of poetry. His website is http://www.thefaceofmay.com.

I herein acknowledge the death during the month of April of three friends under 45, in order of departure, Alex Reyes, Horace White and Robert O'Connor.

Listening to Marshall Mathers I realize,
If it's not sex to have babies, it doesn't matter which sex you are.

Kim pointed out that The Piano Teacher looks interesting. To my surprise, the film credits Isabella Hupert as the lead. There is an isolated history within the vast subgroup, French Cinema. I'm trying to remember any films that do not stem from the isolated history -- Oh, Cocteau's films. That's another subgroup including Melville. One of my favorite films is Melville's film of Cocteau's Les Infants Terribles.

The other delightful stream of films connects with Depardeau and others, including Ms. Hupert above. Bertrand Blier is director.

Oh, The Piano Teacher is from Germany. Michael Haneke directed. David Denby writing for The New Yorker loved it.