Edgar's Birthday and his Muse, Fanny

What moves the talented people? What clicks in their soul do they hear and so begins the production of that which is art?
So very much has been written about Edgar Allan Poe.....and January 19, 1809 is the day of his birth to a mother and father in show business. They died when Poe was only around the age of 2, so a wealthy merchant, John Allan of Richmond Virginia, fostered the child and gave him the middle name of Allan.

the back of the Edgar Allan Poe action figure....a fine Xmas gift from Kelly!




This picture of Poe, perhaps his most well known is from a fine wikipedia article.


How brilliant? Invented the genre of detective fiction, and made science fiction so very popular....He was a poet, a short story writer (another of his "firsts") and edited many magazines of the time. He supported himself, his wife and his mother-in-law, and earned very little for his genius....
such is the story of most talented artists and writers.

the Poe action figure doll, a 70s collection of his stories and poems, the book Poe & Fanny, and our edition of antique Poe, dated 1882.

That Poe first published a book of poems....Poe. Poems. that has always fascinated me...Was his life so tragic, so full of genius, was of the curious combination of the Irish that he was with the long tradition of rich word play....the artistic talent that was passed to him from his parents....the knowledge of the tragedy of the slaves sold and bought by his foster father, and the slaves he grew up with in the home of the Allans....the sadness that was his due as an orphan and as a foster child.....

I have many mementos that are a tribute to one of my favorite writers...as so many people have also done for One and a half centuries since he became a celebrity when he published and performed The Raven.
His executor, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, defamed him terribly after Poe's mysterious death in Baltimore on October 7, 1849.
One theory of his tragic and strange death is that he was drugged, dressed in odd clothes and shepherded from one polling place to another in Baltimore.
(proof positive that politcians and the rich people that own them, take voting in America very seriously...Democrats want you to vote, Republicans will try to kill you and confuse you if you try it)


It wasn't until a decade after the Redfield edition of his poems and stories published in 1856 that Poe's true life story was redeemed. And then we know...what happened....
Poe has become one of America's most beloved writers.

and oh yes, this handmade necklace, made from a picture of  my #13 specimen bottle, is a tribute to Poe. The number 13 appears again and again in his life....

I just finished reading Poe and Fanny by  John May, published in 2004. Though it is a novel of historical fiction, it posits a quite interesting thread, an alternate and entirely plausible story of his fascination with Frances Sargent Osgood.
Not much was known of Fanny...until recently, although she was an influence on Emily Dickinson and Fanny was an immensely popular poet from the 1830's until her death in 1850 from tuberculosis.

biography and pic

2 of my favorite Fanny Osgood poems....

A Shipwreck
I launched a bark on fate's deep tide ---
A frail and fluttering toy,
But freighted with a thousand dreams
Of beauty and of joy.

Ah me! it found no friend in them ----
The wave -- the sky --- the gale --
Though Love enraptured took the helm --
And Hope unfurled the sail!

And you, who should its pilot be--
   To whom in fear it flies--
Forsake it, on a treacherous sea,
   To seek a prouder prize.

Alas for Love! bewildered child!
   He weeps the helm beside,
And Hope has furled her fairy sail,
   Nor longer tempts the tide.

Despair and Pride in silence fling
   Its rich freight to the wave,
And now an aimless wreck it floats,
   That none would stoop to save.

*****and....
I won't type the entire poem and I couldn't find a Google source, but I'll keep looking. This Osgood poem is published in the book, Poe and Fanny, referenced above.*****

Had We But Met 

Had we but met in life's delicious spring,
When young romance made Eden of the world;
When bird-like Hope was ever on the wing,
(In thy dear breast how soon had it been furl'd!)

Had we but met when both our hearts were beating
With the wild joy --  the guileless love of youth --
Thou a proud boy -- with frank and ardent greeting --
And I, a timid girl, all trust and truth!

to be continued.

Today

sittin' in the Chrysler
Listening to Liza
Gaying off with the hand sanitizer
You're no wiser
you're a miser
you're a Neo-con in  a diaper.

You a swiper
a coniver.
You'd rat off your brother for a fiver.

Sell out the country
soft and crunchy
funky monkey
Power junkie.

You're so lucky
you got all the money.
We're gonna get it back
sonny
come Monday.

It ain't funny
gonna do ya like
Quaddafi
It ain't gonna be pretty
Hard times in the city
ain't life shitty.



 (c) 2011Mark Schindele

It was a sunny day....and a thing of beauty....

it's a fairy tale...living here...
and here's the castle...On a bike ride thru the kingdom...and the queendom......
Stadium High...

what a great idea ! a view for when the action on the field gets boring...and if we're talking sports...and I am...it's always boring.
 Wow...look at the blue water...the line of low hills...the ships on the bay....
hey look...the lily of the valley is in bloom.....
and so is the ...version by Queen...

a pretty glade of English bluebells (Endymion non-scriptus ).....
 Endymion was a handsome shepherd boy of Asia Minor, the mortal lover of the moon goddess  Selene. Each night he was kissed to sleep by her.

and a poem by Keats.....

Endymion

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

and on the way home, biking down 6th Ave.... the dude abides...and he's enjoying his coffee.....

my bikes strapped on the car ...which seems odd. Just ride there, OK !

beat

Socrates, Eve, Scott and Helen Nearing, Amelia Earhart, Joan of Arc, Jesus....
If someone has come before me and was a non-conformist, I'm on it!
So... I love The Beats. I am so Thrilled and can't wait to see....HOWL

The movie of the obsenity trial of Lawrence Ferlinghetti...over the publication of Allen Ginsberg's poetry.

Scott Nearing........what a face.

I hope you watch the glasses, the clothes and the typewriter in this trailer....this is the stuff of how I make my living......
I watch movies and I pick out the anachronisms...it's something that Mark and I are very very good at doing......it is a bit annoying. For everyone!
50s rhinestone cat eye glasses....

Isn't he great that James Franco....so funny that he played the HighSchool dumbell...but deep down, a real softie.....in Freaks and Geeks? And now he's in Columbia’s MFA program for fiction writing, and he should just become a doctoral candidate at Columbia university....which is the same university as ...Allen Ginsberg attended. And Jon Hamm is in it.(what school did he attend, must Google that)...what a ready-made line-up. It better be good! Queers, the 50s, and lawyers....I'm sure it will....

 A pretty dress..not a 50s style, but in mood....very poetry-reading.....classic simple folkloric style....or a real late 50s early 60s modern art pattern...

 a 50s jacket for the fellas....

Late in May, earlier this year, Peter Orlovsky, died. He was the long time love of Allen Ginsberg.
Just after meeting Peter in late 1954, Allen and he moved in together in an apartment in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, which, as you know is the Center of the universe.
And then Allen Ginsberg published Howl and more and more and more.

So, in the July 2010 issue of Interview magazine, Andy Warhol's Interview magazine....The Andy Warhol That Tacoma Hates......
Dennis Hopper (more non-conformism) was also in the July issue, and Dennis also died in late May, so May 2010 sucks.
In the Interview interview, we are reminded that ..."Dennis Hopper bought an early Warhol soup can painting for $75, instigating a lifelong relationship with the artist and a passion for collecting."

Gus Van Sant  (Drugstore Cowboy)is on my top 5 of Directors I love, and it is he whom I  want to direct the movies I write.......so Dennis Hopper's son Henry and Sissy Spacek's daughter Schuyler, are gonna be in a Gus Van Sant movie.....The Restless, which should be out in early 2011. Jesus fucking Christ, it must be hard to get a career in Hollywood, in show business, if your fucking parents are you know, Dennis Hopper and Sissy Spacek. ...tough times. I am hoping VanSant kicked their lily white butts.
James Franco was in another film where he portrayed a real live person, Scott Smith, in Gus Van Sant’s movie Milk.
...and of course, GVS is a producer of ....HOWL.

I think that pure talent cannot be Hollywoodized. As people watch Mad Men on cable TV I hope they realize that Ginsberg and the Beats were the exact opposite of everything that Mad Men represents, (that Jon Hamm!), that standardized prepackaged manipulated lifestyles on sale at WalMart, and the Home Shopping Network, and all that Ronald Reagan and Geo Bush were/stand for.......so, Here's to pure genius, and not relying on mom and dad to make your life for you. As Ginsberg says ......."who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on their heads every day for the next decade, ... ..."

Howl

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, 

starving
  hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn 

looking for an angry
  fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly 

connection to the 
  starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high 

sat up smoking in the
  supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating 

across the tops of
  cities contemplating jazz,

I didn't know Brian....

but I'd seen him many times, because this is a tiny town. But many people I love and do know...did know Brian Redman and are grieving and so so sad...
Thinking of how hard death can be for the young to know....
and how music releases....
that art always soothes...and excites...and forgives....

This poem came to mind...I find it comforting....composed by a transplant who graced the Northwest as a poet...
Theodore Roethke...himself an iconoclast...supremely talented.....
wrote

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Tacoma Here There Everywhere.....

Again up to Antique Sandwich for Tuesday night Open Mike......I'm a poet and you know it...... The enigmatic David Fewster and Heidi Fosner, Folksingers in Hell, showed up because Mark asked them to go and sing....please..... and they did.

What Tacoma lacks is respect for "The Other Side Of Life".
The vitality isn't really from Russell....yawn. The vitality is from people who LIVE LIFE !
(oh boy am I in trouble now...)
People such as Steve....and not Bing Crosby.....
Reluctantly, Dale.....only because , as Fewster said:

Today I took my daughter to the Bridge of Glass!
Boy, was she disappointed. She thought the actual
bridge would be made of glass/So we could see traffic going by
our shoes.

David sang, on Tuesday night, The Ballad of the Blogger and he reminded us once again, that the archives of Exit 133 will live foreverrrrrrrrr........witness this:

ensie, there are several different layers of professional artist. there is the ‘fluff’ artist which is a favorite of Tacoma arts commission funding or who make pretty glass fruit bowls… and then there is the category of artists whom bring the inanimate into the realm of the living and or forge their will upon the world.

I am not trying to undermine the importance of the fluff artist since they provide a valuable service distracting/pacifying the civilian populations THEN provide a nice contrast when the serious artist reveals him or herself to the world.

Also, if you ever encounter a person claiming to be an artist and willing to ‘donate to the community’ beware, you are in the presence of a fifth columnist.

13 | Posted by RR Anderson | Apr 5, 02:32 PM

And then Claudia replied:

Re: RR:“there is the ‘fluff’ artist…” David Fewster is as fluffy as it gets. A real Easter bunny….... “Real” and “non-real” – what an elitist idea. Let the artist speak for her or himself. Categories such as real and non real or good and evil should vanish for good (or for real). Celebrate complexity. 14 | Posted by Claudia | Apr 5, 02:52 PM

That was not an attack against David at all, that was a response to RR calling Tacoma Art Grant Recipients FLUFF. My point was that David was NOT fluff – obviously stated clumsily. I do hope we all know David is NOT the Easter Bunny. Aapologies to all who took my comment in a fluffy way… 19 | Posted by Claudia | Apr 5, 04:33 PM

David Fewster and Heidi Fosner recently produced a concert at Barefoot Studios. I was really pleased by the quality of the work and proud to be able to have them perform in our space. Tacoma benefits from having diverse and unique artists like David and Heidi active in the community. P.S. 10X10 this Friday at 7:30 20 | Posted by paul | Apr 5, 04:38 PM

And that is what the Exit 133 archives will yield Up!




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So the Beat goes on. I am suspicious of applying for Art Grants....How can I truly explain what it is I do? I almost can't even conceptualize it in my own mind..I just DO!

People used to ask me what kind of place is Rampart.....With its Irreverent Attitude...Its loud GAY Disco Music......What the hell does a 50s Pink & Gray Sewing Machine have to do with a 70s vintage Schwinn, vintage restaurant dishes and 60s hanging lamps, and a hand-embroidered Kitten Playing with Pink Yarn picture (damn you Steve)...... All I can say, Then and Now, is it is Stuff For Living. It is not Sunset Magazine or Better Homes and Gardens.
So, I got my ass soundly taken to task this week....on my Blog and from my neighbors. My crappy neighbor, not my nice neighbors.
Since the day I got here, I've been cleaning the sidewalks and sweeping the parking lot and trying to weed and plant my Dirt Spot.... It's not my job....but it is my responsibility. I've picked up buckets full of garbage left here by the folks who come to Dome Events....the city DOES NOT clean up after our "guests". The Streetsweeper comes by, 2 times in the last 8 months (I think)
I'm OK with the City not picking up the garbage, but one of the reasons that Tacoma has languished, A JEWEL in a Broken Setting.....is because The City almost always does a half-ass job of everything. For instance..... They build a dome, sponsor events and don't clean up, don't enforce parking laws, and don't fix the streets.....But they do provide Police to do Traffic Guidance to channel "vistors" to the Pay For City Parking Lots.



If it will, rawly, make Money, the City will likely do it. If it doesn't put money in their pockets immediately, Fuggedabout it.....But what Tacoma's Arts Commission does do, is to TRY to get Art around town.....and they did give Fewster a Grant to write a book of Poetry.....and Art in Your Face, makes you a better person. It's like a WorM in Your BraiN. It goes to your happy thinking place in Your Head, and that makes you a better person. And tries to undo the damage done to you by that University you attended....and the Arts Commission does some other things like those goofy metal Palm Trees in my n'hood. Why palm trees? Why? I do love me some palm trees....but I wouldn't have chosen that. But it did get chosen, and that's the point I suppose. We get and need......Fewster and Metal Palm Trees.