Wednesday, April 02, 2003


It's been a big couple of days over here at Daisey labs--I am a hairsbreadth from having the HBO synopsis completed, which is in turn only a step to having the pilot entered, which is a step away from having the pilot approved--yes, Virginia, life is a series of Legend of Zelda-esque quests where you take the four elemental jewels to the tops of four sacred mountains, thus gaining the sacred texts that show you the location of the secret, forgotten City of Plot Twists. It may be tiresome, but I do take some comfort in how predictable it has all become.

On the sacred text front, all the bloggers of earth are chatting about these Rumsfeld poems. I have to say that I really love them--I think they scan beautifully, and while my sense of artistic judgment in matters poetical is a couple of years rusty, I'd say that some of this verse is far better than the crap that occasionally springs up in the New Yorker. See if you can do it yourself--take a moment and discard the situational humor, and simply read the poems as poems...his repetition is hypnotic, and the spareness does evoke William Carlos Williams in a very real fashion.

War in poetry, war in life...day before yesterday there was a bomb threat at one of the Starbucks where I sometimes while away the hours typing. Given that this is NYC, i was in another Starbucks at the time, but "refugees" from the shut down Starbucks converged on my location--looking for power outlets, caffeine and solace. The workers sat downstairs, stunned by their sudden and unexpected freedom. What would they do with their day? Thy wondered out loud when laurel Canyon was playing at the local cinema, so in typical Brooklyn fashion I broke in on their conversation to tell them the movie times. They were happy for the update.

As I typed this, my friend Pat wrote in with this pearl:

"Strip away the phony tinsel in Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath." - Oscar Levant

Tonight I am seeing the Umbilical Brothers perform their show before it opens up Off-Broadway. They are great guys, and I'm really looking forward to their kinetic comedy--when Don Rumsfeld and possible bombings have been the highlights of my last few days, I know I'm ready to laugh.