Thursday, January 31, 2019

Ratatouille...

ok, so I've been slacking off on the blogposts...and the poetry...officially, a writer's slump...except kvetching to newspaper and magazine editors...that garners response...some published...but it's not where I want to be, from a writing standpoint...bleh...we are deep in winter...spring, not so close...and we are sliding towards the Oscars...yawn...after 9 billion awards shows, it's hard to muster enthusiasm...but going to the movies...nestling in as the lights dim...that is still my sweet spot...and so, I generally catch up with movies at the AMC that's literally within walking distance...especially with the weekday morning special of $6 and change...but the theater is rundown...there have been rumors for years that it will close...that if AMC moves forward into the yet to be approved and started entertainment complex at Nassau Coliseum...it will certainly shutter the dumpy multiplex by me...and there we were two weeks ago...on the weekend in theater 10, "On the Basis of Sex"...an earnest, yet strangely forgettable movie that should have been a September release so it wouldn't get trampled in the Oscar stampede...I digress...I was seated on the aisle...the theater smelled...not pleasant...more like eau de penn station mixed with stale popcorn...about 30 minutes before the movie ended, I thought I saw a shadow move in the aisle, towards the screen...nah...and then again...wait, was it Ratso Rizzo...Willard...Ben...omg...my pulse raced...with 5 minutes to go, I whispered to Mike...I think there are rats here...the credits rolled and we ran...ew...ew...ew...I called the AMC the next day and spoke to the 12 year old manager who was stunned...or high...I called the Nassau County Board of Health the next business day...they took all the information...and called me back a week later to inform me there was an abundance of evidence from their little stop at the theater...gross...how this resolves, who knows...but I am sad...I drive by and the movies call me...but not enough to squat in a ripped chair waiting for the carpet to move below...but really, what I want to know...are those little guys running underfoot AMC stubs members?...just asking for a friend!

Thursday, January 3, 2019

a day in the life...

I read the news today, oh boy...and had to share it with those I knew from way back when...NYU days...School of the Arts days..before there was Tisch...when classes and studios were in an old shitty building called "South Building"...where we joked that the tv studio equipment looked like it was dropped out of a plane...when film students bowed at the Scorsese shrine...way back before the Village and Soho became high-end shopping grounds...when you knew exactly where the back entrance to Chumley's was...when the bathroom was unisex at McSorley's...and when we were impossibly young...blessed with many talented professors, some not that much older than us...and so when I saw that obituary...Mark Chernichaw...there was a catch in my throat...my advisor...my teacher...my friend...I remember his laugh...his caring...I remember him barely holding back the tears as we sat around the morning after John Lennon was murdered...yes, way back when...before we became numb to murder and loss...and how in that morning I saw him as a peer...and it was awesome...such is the grace of creativity...with the torch passing forward again and again...I think of his family and I am truly sad for their loss...but I cannot picture as he was now only then...and when I think of him...that time in my life...I remember with joy how I was then...art pooling at my feet and the world opening wide and bright...and for that I thank you, Mark, quite deeply...rest in peace...