Ffolkes,
Yesterday is a wash; one of those days that I’d just as soon forget, in spite of the rather nice finish it had….. Pain turned most of the day into a misery, a state of affairs that prompts me to make this decision…. The subjects, of pain, and/or yesterday, are now banished from all discussion, as being unworthy of either lamentation or praise….. There, hopefully, that will do it…. I didn’t wish to start out by whining; hence, the requisite banishment to the hinterlands….
It was bad enough yesterday without adding the indignity of whining about it, as I know, in spite of how it may have seemed to me at the time, my condition is not as bad as some other folks I know, and could be worse…. So, it’s not attractive of me to whine about it, when others have it so much harder than I….. At least, it seems that way to me…. At any rate, I was able to finish the Pearl, even though it was a push; afterward, THAT was the misery… which, I see, I am talking about, post banishment…. Does that make me a criminal?…. I don’t know, but, we’ll go on to bigger and better things….
Not that I could tell you, at this point, just what that might entail…. It IS still shy of 5 AM, though not by much, so, I’m way behind my usual schedule for this… A natural result, I would imagine, of the extra time I put in bed last night, to recover from the day. In fact, I slept long enough the cat got annoyed, & woke up milady, so she would poke me to arise…. Asshole cat!…. It DID get me up, but, unfortunately, it also got milady up, way before she was done sleeping….
I suppose it’s a bit pathetic, to have our lives run so chaotically, all because a cat decides to be a butthead…. Any time she gets annoyed, she starts in on her cycle of mischief….. Attacking ankles, jumping up on places she is proscribed from, knocking over stuff on tables or dressers, hiding when called, and generally getting into whatever she can, especially those things she KNOWS are liable to garner a “bad kitty”, or a squirt from the water spray bottle we keep for those instances….
I don’t imagine we are the only household that is often taken hostage by a cat, but, nonetheless, I’m going to start the process of talking milady into letting me get a dog…. I’ll get an Aussie heeler mix, mongrel enough so it isn’t expensive, but with enough heeler instinct to be happy to spend the day herding the cat away from trouble… I’ve had heelers before; their instinct to herd compels them to herd whatever is in their vicinity to herd….. kids, cats, hamsters, whatever, if it isn’t where they think it should be, they’ll try to make it go there…. If nothing else, it will give the cat something else to bother, or worry about….. and, I imagine, will end up the best of friends, as cats and dogs living together generally do….
Which is more than can be said of most people, isn’t it? I find animals, of almost all species, to be much easier to have as roommates than any people I’ve ever met…. They always seem to be willing to make accommodation for another creature’s presence, and usually learn to live without any severe arguing or fighting, other than the ‘play’ type all young animals engage in….. I have pictures of my own animals, cats and dogs mostly, sleeping and playing together, and will always believe, firmly, that the animals I’ve known were, or are, better people than most any of the people I compare them to….
Well, lookie there…. It’s an intro section, full and complete, with some whine, some cheese, some blather, and a bit of poignancy, just for good measure…. It’s such a full one, I’m not even going to think about what it says, as that could bring on nausea, or worse, the urge to do it over, and, I’m just not going there today….. Instead, we’ll do this…
Shall we Pearl?…..
“In the worlds before monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order, but the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four lands formed again and yet again, as endless eons wheeled and passed. The wind, time and water (??) all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation, and it became magically fertile. That first egg was called ‘thought.’ Tagahatha (??) Buddha, the Father Buddha, says, ‘with our thoughts, we make the world.’ Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it came a stone monkey. The nature of monkey was IRREPRESSIBLE!” — Smart Bee
Well, sorry, I know it’s a bit early for such…. enthusiasm…. However, to my way of thinking, this makes just as much sense as the Hindu version of creation, or, for that matter, the Muslim, or Christian versions…. They’re all a bit far-fetched, don’t you agree?…. This one, bless its soul, has the advantage of the concept of ‘monkey’, a rather perfect representation of the irresistible force of nature we call entropy, or chance….
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“How do you explain Wayne Newton’s POWER over millions? It’s th’ MOUSTACHE… Have you ever noticed th’ way it radiates SINCERITY, HONESTY & WARMTH? It’s a MOUSTACHE you want to take HOME and introduce to NANCY SINATRA!” — Zippy the Pinhead
http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/television/article/Efrem-Zimbalist-Jr-star-of-The-FBI-dead-at-95-5450261.php#page-1
First impressions are NOT always the most accurate, which, I’m sure, is a statement not all will be willing to accept without some discussion…. But, I can attest to its veracity, at least, partially, under the evidence of my own experiences…. Now, many of y’all may wonder just how an obituary column about a deceased TV actor connects to such a grandiose notion…. have no fear. You’re here in MY blog, and I’m gonna tell ya….
As a freshman in high school, in the fall of 1964, I was a member of a campus organization, the California Scholastic Federation, whose membership was limited to those students whose G.P.A. was above 3.25… i.e., the eggheads…. In my small school, there were only about 15 or 16 student members, who, once per year, were allowed to take a Friday off school for a weekend long school sponsored trip, to some location where there existed some kind of educational facility for us to explore, thus giving us a weekend holiday, as the educational facilities always seemed to be located near some attraction for teenagers, such as Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Fisherman’s Wharf, or other fun places to waste time….
As a sort of reward for being A students, once a year, we were given two days to play, with supervision by chaperons, who generally were the most popular teachers and advisers…. In my freshman year, my first as a member, we went to L.A., ostensibly to tour a movie studio, to observe how movies were made…. a fine prospect, to us, since it also gave us a whole day to attend the other fun activity of our choice, since the area has so many places that specialize in taking the money of millions of teens and their parents….
We chose Disneyland, for our activity AFTER seeing Warner Brothers Studios, the home of the TV studio where “The FBI”, a long-running series in the 60’s, was filmed…. The show’s leading star, of course, was Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., as noted in the above article…
See where this is headed? Yep, while touring Warner Bros., we got to watch as that show was shot, during which, Mr. Zimbalist, Jr. came over, near where we were standing, intending to use a telephone on a stand, right next to where I stood….
For about two or three minutes, I was treated/subjected to listening to his phone conversation with whomever was on the other end…. I decided, as I stood there, trapped in a spot where I couldn’t politely walk away, and couldn’t make it obvious I was listening, to do my best to try to not listen, but, it wasn’t possible to ignore it, as he didn’t seem to notice anyone was there, & spoke at the top of his actor’s voice….
The impression that conversation had on me was an epiphany; it gave me an entirely new perspective on TV, on actors, and on the entire culture we live in…. a lot, I know, for one short eavesdrop, but, remember, I was a smart kid…. and got even smarter after hearing that conversation, believe me….
For the next five minutes, all of my illusions, of modern culture, of society, of what we perceived vs. what we could believe, were shattered beyond all hope of reconstruction….. As I stood there, trapped and bemused, I listened to this man, who, according to the roles he played on TV, was a stud, a man’s man, a huge person who dominated the room he was in by force of personality… I listened as he stood next to me, blithely destroying ALL of my illusions….
First, he’s tiny… At 15 or 16, I was about 5’6″ tall, & weighed about 140 or so; he could not have been taller than 5’2″, & seemed shorter. Standing next to me, he came up to my shoulder, and couldn’t have weighed in at more than 110-115 lbs. Since we were at a filming of the FBI, he was in the standard cop suit, this one with heavily padded shoulders, to make him look bigger….
He was wearing nice shoes, though, since they never got on camera…. You see, The stage upon which they filmed was staggered with steps…. Efrem was the only actor on the top level, all the other parts played steps lower, and the cameras filmed the scenes from below the steps…. This gave the visual impression on screen that Efrem was taller, or as tall as everyone else, though he only stood as high as most of their chins……
He was not only tiny, compared to a high school freshman, but, his mannerisms and speech patterns were NOT exactly those one associates with someone like the Marlboro Man…. When he spoke, his speech was what I would term, “Hollywood smarm”, with lots of air kisses, laughter, sprinkled with ‘darling’ and ‘my sweet bubaloo’, or other such endearing phrases, all delivered in a high-pitched, distressingly GAY voice…
Yep, to my 15-year old mind, full of prior misconceptions/illusions, the way he was acting on the phone convinced me, without any doubt, that he was as gay as the day is long…. That opinion, which, naturally was a revelation, compared to what I had seen on TV, stayed with me for the rest of my life, and colored a lot of what I thought about the Hollywood culture, and movies & TV at large….
But, what I now realize, after reading more about him in the retrospective article above, is that my impression was influenced a great deal by the cloud of misconceptions and prejudices I yet retained in my persona at that tender age, of fourteen, or fifteen, depending on the time of the year it actually took place in reality, outside my obviously colored memory…. What I thought I knew, at that age, was seriously challenged by the tenor, content, and delivery of the interaction I heard that day, and not all of what I perceived was fully understood by my adolescent self…. all of which is what I see NOW, but didn’t understand then….
In essence, I’ve been laboring for many years under a staggeringly WRONG impression, created by a moment’s observation of an actor, who, come to think of it, may have been playing another role, for the obviously provincial teenager eavesdropping on his phone call, to give the kid a raspberry, so to speak, without ever talking to me….
Regardless, even now, at my current age of 63, it seems that I have lessons to learn, about making snap judgments of people, based on possible misperceptions, and holding on to those as if they are written in stone, rather than being merely a passing impression that should never be used to judge another’s real persona….
I AM a Bozo, of the first degree, ffolkes, and, apparently, have been so for a very long time….. Ain’t LIFE Grand?….
“There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.” — Oscar Levant (1906-1972)
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It’s one of those days, ffolkes…. so much one of those days I’d best use a poem of my own, to keep from getting anyone else in trouble…. Ah… nice…. This one seems appropriate…. Enjoy, please….
A Dubiously Soft Morning
Idiosyncratic images, clamoring for regard,
fill up the white, white screen on which I view
my life, never seeing, nor invited to sup
ambrosial remnants of anything new.
Still, but almost in motion, allegory sails away
bobbing gently, quick and easy to find,
signs of one happy child, seriously at play,
blissfully immersed, focused joy in mind.
Formidable cries of outraged simple justice
echo plaintive relevance, in half the time.
Maladaptive infants, destined for hospice
salvage an only child, daring to sing in rhyme.
Creativity equals unquestioning farce,
often reaching for absurdity, brazenly afire.
Instead, a blow is felt that no joy will soften,
accepting the price, added to the cost of desire.
~~ gigoid ~~
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The piece in section one has been developed over the last five days, since the article appeared; I was fortunate it was nearly complete, as my late start today had me behind schedule…. But, since all I had to do was finish the last four or five paragraphs today, we are back to being fairly on time, and can put here a normally constructed old-school pearl, just as if it were meant to be that way…..
You gotta love serendipity… Well, I do…. it saves me a lot of time and energy…. Too bad, being what it is, we can’t DEPEND on it always being there for us, but, hey, it always feels good when it IS around, so, that will do…. Enjoy, if you please….
“God always has another custard pie up his sleeve.” — Smart Bee
“He who dies for virtue, does not perish.” — Plautus (B.C. 254-184)
“The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
“Every word that we utter rouses its contrary.” — Goethe, _Maxims and Reflections_
“Ignorance of one’s misfortunes is clear gain.’ — Euripides
“The head thinks, the hands labor, but it’s the heart that laughs.” — Liz Curtis Higgs
” — Bother!” said Pooh “Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock phasers on the Heffalump; Piglet, meet me in transporter room three.”
By the way, this pearl is a classic…. Surrounded, by bookends from Smart Bee and Pooh’s evil twin, the five pieces of LIFE knowledge in between assume a greater degree, or darker, more noticeable shade, if you will, of their inherent meaning from the contrast implied by their positions…. Or, that could be just another of my own little personal delusions, but, we’ll never know now, will we, because, hey, I’m outta here….
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(For the next line, you must imagine the voice speaking these lines with an accent…. Little Rock, Arkansas, or perhaps, Birmingham, Alabama will be about right…..) Well, shoot, Orville, tha’s jest a whole lot better ‘en I thought it maght be….Ah thank we cane let it go on out thar ‘thout any more tweakin’…. (Okay, accent off…. if you’re having trouble doing that in your head, just use the toggle switch on the underside of the left hand arm rest of your seat….)
Having thus completed my self-imposed duty, I will now take my leave of you, post-haste, to try to beat the also self-imposed deadline for posting…. Well, that, and the obviously forthcoming legal challenges…. In any case, it’s done, I’m happy, and I’m gone….. See ya, ffolkes….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid the dubious
gigoid 