One last Halloween party with photos

She likes to call herself the Westward 'Ho.

Doc running his video camera as well as providing entertainment! He sang "Hello, Darlin'" Conway Twitty style and pleased the ladies.

Nikita was in charge and worked hard, especially since she managed a bingo party the day before. She likes to sing "Grandpa" by the Judds. She's running for Chairman of the tenants' organization and should win.

This guy always looks like this. I call him Wild Hair.

Roger and lovely wife.



Lady in Mad Cow beret, ran the karaoke machine. Her singing? Well, so so.

Betty and Ali scared us silly along with that fellow behind them! There's always a terrible wounded soldier in the crowd.



Here is Lois as in Superman. Boo in the cleavage.

Tallest Susie.

Mr Piggy here, nice guy, he did not sing.



Daniel, my neighbor as Dick Tracy. He is about 6'4' and wore size 12 heels. He is a good karaoke entertainer.


Folks, this is all the photos I could post tonight. I got more, but this is a good representation. Let me tell you, Doc was the hit singer. I was proud of him. I will tell you that man can sing. We had a big screen for the karaoke lyrics. It was perfect.

I am a very scarey person which on Halloween is not a bad thing!

Doc and I made a horrifying video. We are preparing to go to the Halloween karaoke party in the ballroom since we are using my practically brand new karaoke machine. I have persuaded the very reclusive Mr. Emde to bring the video camera down and shoot a little film if he is not too frightened to go out of his room. Recluses get that way you know. I just saw my neighbor Daniel who is a huge extrovert just like I am. We are the karaoke party enthusiasts. He also promises to get everyone up dancing. He is going as Dick Tracy. Jackie said she and Mike were coming as mummies. Daniel gave me tips on how to dress up my burnt orange and black outfit.

I just talked to my son Raymond who hasn't made it past his sister Ronda's house. She and her husband Chad and son Ethan live 40 miles to the north just coming in to town. He said his dog Baby and her dog Bailey have bonded. They were to my grandson Ethan's football game. Ethan has been having fun getting his oostumes ready for Halloween tonight. He and his mom always have great fun on Halloween. She has been posting Halloween costume photos on Facebook. I saw a scarey looking sight when I went on there this morning, her father my ex on Facebook
The family has been posting grandkid Halloween photos on the family site. Halloween is a great photo taking time. I am taking my camera to the party, so if I see any unusual and frightening creatures there I will photograph them for you.

You are not going to believe this!

I walked over to the Circle K this morning west across the street and guess who I saw entering the store? Jack!! Yes, I went inside and spoke to him, most happily I might say, and he was clean, sober and in his right mind. He was limping some and walking with a cane. I gathered he had been in rehab as he said he was now renting a room at the Y down the street. He said it was different. And something to the effect that life was a challenge. We did not talk further. I am sure just walking to the Circle K where he was bound to see residents from the Westward Ho was enough. His smile was still dazzling.
Of course when I told Doc he let fly a few negative remarks, and I told him for God's sakes, be happy the man has fought his way back to sobriety. Course Doc has not done that yet, so that was probably why he could not be positive, but he soon dropped that attitude and recovered his civility.
I also got very cheered up day before yesterday by a visit to my son Gary's house who was also sober and not smoking. I was so pleased with his newly purchased house with many pictures Gary has painted on the walls. His collection of cranes were placed here and there. It looked like the house of an artist. In the other house, which became the scene of divorce, his pictures on the walls just looked lonely. Scott, his cousin had moved in, and my son Dan's bed was on the porch. As soon as he recovers from swine flu he plans to move in, too, just to get better acquainted with this brother 21 years older who was married and out of the home when he was born. And Gary since his heart attack a few months ago seems to be letting the family into his life a little more. We discussed our blood pressure meds which Gary is now taking faithfully along with plavix which he must take to keep the 2 stents clear leading to his heart.
After a tour of the house Gary took me to my favorite restaurant Thai Elephant which he likes, too before dropping me off home. He lives quite far to the east south of Camelback Mountain which is quite close. Dan's girlfriend where he is staying now just lives down the street, another reason he wants to live at Gary's for a while. Gary said that he almost got laid off but the company got another job. He did have to take a pay cut. Construction companies have been hard put to get work in the recession which has been deep in Arizona.
Dan called me yesterday. He sounded pretty rugged still but thought he was a tiny bit better. He says the cough is the worst. It started with a bad headache, achy limbs, and nausea.
I am expecting to hear from Raymond today who is coming through on his way to Austin Texas. He is stopping to stay with my daughter, Ronda, along with his dog Baby as she has a nice friendly little dog, too, Bailey. Ethan, my grandson, will probably have fun with the dogs. He is having fun getting his costume ready for Halloween. His mom took photos of him on crazy hair day. I believe he would win the prize. Raymond said he would call to meet for coffee this weekend.
Talking to family is a cheerer-upper.
I am a little concerned about this karaoke party coming up. Will just have to see how it goes!

The ghosts are active in the Westward Ho tonight!

This is an old photograph of the Westward Ho of long ago, and never have I felt that a place was more active with ghosts than here, because so many older and disabled people have lived and died here in the last 30 years. Before that, people would seldom die here since it was a big hotel and people only came to stay a few nights. I spent the afternoon visiting with an old lady who is going blind so she cannot read or watch TV. I went to take her some clothes since she had said that she no longer had any clothes that fit her she had gained so much weight the last few years. It is true she stayed about the same size for a long time. I used to see her out under the trees but did not get acquainted with her. She was from Austria originally and for a long time german and Austrian born people kept to themselves after World War II because the german people under Hitler had come to seem like such enemies. Doc being of pure german blood many ancestors back has shown me the delightful side of this race. Trudy and I spent quite a while talking about Doc and his advanced stage of alcoholism. He barely seems there. A disembodied voice, his body barely registering life. But there is still a spirit within that wrecked body that is quite active.
We also spent a long time talking about Jack, as she has been here a long time, so she knew him quite well.
When I got home, I was startled to have Jack say in my ear that he had gone with me and listened to the conversation about him. I had told Trudy that Jack was a serial flirt and he was taking exception to this. I said, but you were Jack, you talked to women all the time as though you did not know they would fall in love with you, and then your attentions would create all these dramas of jealousy and competition.
Jack was always angry at me over my relationship with Doc. He said he had also gone with me down to Doc's and noticed that even though I said that there was no physical contact between us, I took a nap on his couch and put my foot close enough to touch his leg. I said, well, I soon got up and left. I was just stretching out some. I said Doc can feel only the slightest bit of stimulation from a contact like a foot. If it bothers him at all he just fixes himself another drink!
Then Jack said, the dead are not dead, they are all around, but the living do not want to work hard enough to be able to see and talk to them. The reason of course why Jack can talk to me so easily now is because for the 6 years I knew him in here I carried on most of my conversations with him telepathically. When we would meet we would say a word or two and then we would sometimes spend hours talking telepathically, this was simply to avoid all the nasty comments we would have elicited had we been seen actually talking to one another from women, mostly, who at some point or another had fallen in love with Jack.
I found this a very aggravating reason to have to talk telepathically. I would at times point out to him how he had caused this woman or that one to fall so much in love with him. He complained that this one old lady who had been a beauty in her day it was obvious had started calling him every day and insisting he talk to her an hour I believe he said, and then she would cook for him and invite him over for dinner, and he said she was very mean so of course he would go. She was 20 years older than he was, and so frail there was no chance of a physical relationship but she acted as though she was in love with him and he was her BF. I pointed this out to him and said I did not like to receive the evil eye from her everytime she saw me talking to him. He would get mad if I said she was his GF. But she was very aggressive. I have always believed that women should wait for men to make the first move, but not this old lady. One day he complained to me that he had not called her for 3 days and she was furious. He did not know how he had gotten into this dilemma, but from my observation of him, he just did not know how to stop a very aggressive woman from calling him constantly until he was so tangled up with her that they might as well have been going steady. And she was only one among many.
But Jack did not like it one bit when I got tangled up with Doc who would call me 7 times a day if I did not come for coffee. Drunk or not, he was extremely aggressive if he became interested in somebody. Since he was 6 years younger than I was and looked good, it was extremely hard for me to figure out how to hold him at bay for Jack who could not hold even one old lady at bay.
So that is how we somehow got into a telepathic relationship that would be invisible to the naked eye. It did not have to be acknowledged or denied. It could just be whatever it could be.
I quite enjoyed experimenting around with it. I would hold big long telepathic conversations in the evening with Jack and then I would try to have a very brief conversation with him in person somewhere covering the same ground. This was how Jack seemed to 'sense' much faster than anyone else what I was thinking.
I did tell Doc about these telepathic converations with Jack. At first he was quite incensed and would ask me in the morning if Jack had 'come through the wall' as he referred to it. I would say yes but I would tell him that since he chose to drink and Jack was sober and greatly in demand by the women it was not possible for us to have a so called 'normal' relationship. Doc loved to pretend to be a normal guy which is not nearly as demanding as being one. He could still drink all he wanted and put on a good act of being my BF which infuriated Jack. I said I can't help it if Doc lies, but there is no use me giving him up because you still have all these relationships with women. You are not a free man. In fact, he remained tangled up with the old lady until she died. She stopped giving me the evil eye after she saw me with Doc. She was happy.
So Jack had the problem of too many women loving him. He seemed confused and confounded at times by his own charisma, which I thought was mostly composed of good looks and build, a beautiful smile, a kind personality, and good sexual vibes. An irresistible combination in an older man when so many have shot down some aspect of their physical appeal as Doc has and can no longer really interact with women.
I never anticpated that Jack would return to live in the Westward Ho as a spirit after he was gone, but he is very capable of it, since he became so practiced at telepathic communication and out of body flight. Because he was a pilot flying around in the spirit seemed to greatly appeal to him.
I used to have flying dreams all the time so it did not take me long to learn to enjoy flying around with him in the spirit.
Of course he could not do any of these things when he was drunk. He could barely walk. But now he seems to have sobered up and kicked any painkiller habit he may have had and is back in flying form again. I am not sure he is even dead because he could do this from somewhere else he was so good at out of body flying.
There are many strange things that go on. Spirits among us unseen. It is the season for them. So we may as well relax and have a good time with them. I find them to be very entertaining once I got the hang of picking up what they say. That is the kind of medium I am.

See Connie's great Halloween II adventure in graphics!

Here is the link: http://specialadyfinkshalloween2.blogspot.com/ and look for Halloween II on my blog list. I also put it on my Facebook links, Connie. She had to have worked very hard on this to bring us Halloween fun.


I also posted this old Halloween costume photo on Facebook of my sister Linda and me to a Westward Ho Halloween party.
I am supposed to take my karoake machine to a Halloween party Saturday afternoon here to the ballroom. Haven't tried a party lately. We will see what happens!

My reaction on reading the words 'renal mass' on the CT scan order my doctor gave me

Doc and I make videos on every subject on earth, so naturally I made a video on getting this news. Doc insisted on poking fun as usual, but he never takes tests or even goes to the doctor. He has his presecriptions faxed. He always says he will buy a gun and shoot himself if he gets any bad news so this way he will be dying and won't even know it. People have done that in here. I will not go out and buy a gun. I think women take such possibilities better than men. But women want to live for the grand kids and great grandkids. Or I think so, anyway. What do you think?

What does Jack have to say after his disappearance?

I will try to pick up Jack wherever he is and have a conversation with him:
JACK: I will do my best to reply. I feel I owe everyone an apology in the complex for how much I upset people in my last months there.
GERRY: Thank you, Jack. But where are you now?
JACK: In a better place, but don't try to come here, Gerry, before your time. Take good care of yourself and try to live as long as you can. I know you got notice from your doctor today to have a cat scan but don't be scared of that. Just get it checked out. How I wish I had heeded this advice. You are a good communicator. Have no doubts about that. I tried to be but fell short for reasons that have to do with the distant past I was not able to change enough. My pattern of horrific drinking was one thing I wish I could have changed.
GERRY: I am worried about Doc. He is getting more fragile. He is not communicating with anyone except me.
JACK: I know, and I am sure that has to do with his distant past, too. He is doing better than you think though, because he takes an interest in doing these videos and that is communication of a sort. I have been watching them. I know I was too snotty about your stuff to watch many of your videos there. Thank you for the poem you wrote about me. It made me feel that I was missed.
GERRY: How do you like my sister LaRae.
JACK: She has been very kind to me when I have seen her. I hang out in the Westward Ho still. I have a lot of friends here who have passed
GERRY: I hated to think you had died. I hoped somebody took you home and sobered you up and you are still alive somewhere.
JACK: If they did I would still be in touch with you, Gerry, via the Internet. I have decided to utilize my knowledge of the Internet a lot better now just to stay on the up and up and be doing things. I had a hell of a drug habit to break of painkillers. So I must do everything I can to distance myself from substance abuse no matter where I am.
GERRY: That's true. Things couldn't have gotten much worse for you. You were at death's door for weeks.
JACK: I know. There are rehabs wherever you go. I am in a rehab now to stay sober and straight. This time I will not turn away from any opportunity to talk to people and know them better. I knew that love of people was the key to my spiritual growth, but I made a feeble effort to do it too many times.
GERRY: What shall I tell Mercedes who was in a bad wreck the week she was supposed to bring your stuff back? She got a head injury. I hate to talk to her because she was so upset about you.
JACK: Please try to convey to her my thanks for trying to help me. I apologize for anything I said about her the last time I ever spoke to you. I was just trying to blow smoke in people's eyes because I was waiting around to see if I could catch my drug supplier.
GERRY: I know you were out of your mind. She is too fragile right now to hear anything negative. I will never tell her that. You need to send her healing thoughts because she has always loved you.
JACK: I have been a spoiled man. I would try to get people to love me and then I was not properly grateful and thankful when they did love me. You on the other hand shared your concerns about me with Mercedes. You could have been too jealous to do that since you loved me, too.
GERRY: I always thought you belonged to the world, Jack. You have the potential to be a great healer.
JACK: Heal thyself is the healer's first motto. I did not try hard enough to do that.
GERRY: Mercedes is trying to become a healer. She was telling me how much energy it took from her when people were too negative.
JACK: Negativity sucks up energy. I was negative so many months, I feel sick when I look back on my last troubled days there. I hope I will never sink that low again in my spiritual development. I have received a great blessing here, Gerry. I have been forgiven for my sins. I have been blessed by angels.
GERRY: I am sure you have, Jack.
JACK: I was lifted up by angels and healed.
GERRY: That moves me so much, Jack, I must stop. Thank you for telling me this. Good-night.

Brownie (Linda King) reads "Nemo, lost and alone" Act II-4

I always loved this poem "Nemo" my sister Linda King wrote about the poet and painter Everett Reuss who disappeared in the Utah canyonland country above Escalante years ago. His bones were only found last year buried by his murderers. I relate to this because of the disappearance of my ex husband and Raymond's father, Dean Shurtz, who has never been found after 4 years. The people in Escalante, his hometown, even have an Everett Reuss day fesitval, starting before his murdered remains were found. People from California and all over who mourned his disappearance come to the festival to see copies of his paintings and poems. Now their own native, Dean Shurtz, has been lost 4 years and they don't know how to act. This is the subject of Raymond's one man show, "Bohemian Cowboy," his father's mysterious disappearance above the Valley of Fire out of Los Vegas.
Back then I urged Linda to get out her long tiger dress with a slit up the side she could sneak into her suitcase rolled up and dance the fastest blackbottom shimmy ever seen in our parts at that time. I can still see in my mind's eye, Linda dancing that shimmy, and Red (Dale) shouting and hollering his appreciation.
I thought Doc did a good job of acting these scenes. I hope the critic Bill does not hate it too bad.

P.S. Above photo of Linda as she looked about that time in one of her tiger print outfits with her long brown hair flowing.

You are haunting me tonight

I am wondering if you are dead
I fantasize that someone rescued you
persuaded you to come home with them
and try to live again
but I know the chances of another rescue
are mighty slim
more likely you died somewhere
on the cold hard ground
like I dreamed you did
I was awake but I still dreamed
they came and said you were dying
I didn't want you to die alone
so I went to where you were lying
I saw you slowly growing cold
and after a while you got up
and stepped aside
your body still lying there
you saw me and you werent pleased
I said do you feel better now
you said no not a bit
I said well you just took your own life
so you wont feel any relief from your pain
for some time
your beautiful body you just killed
that I loved so much
I just had to see you
step lively and quick
ready to take your walk
and I turned on
never stopped loving you
at the last you said
all you think about is sex
by then the drugs were easing your pain
and then the alcohol
I said and thats better
you did not answer
but tonight you are haunting me
without a body
there is no spark
go back
where you live now
I will always remember
this was the summer you died
to me

gerry

Fame has to be worth the price you might have to pay for it

That's the way I have always thought. I think most of us go through life as ordinary people even as we might have extraordinary talents here and there, but we have made choices we think are best for us and our families which might not lead to fame. Let's face it, as long as there are movies and such, some people are going to be tapped on the shoulder to be in the limelight. It is their destiny, but I think if that kind of opportunity fails to come our way we need to find a way to be happy and content in the ordinary lives we have got. I was tapped on the shoulder with partial disability while still a child which made me fragile, too fragile for the kind of drive it takes to have a big public career. I always knew that, but life seemed good to me, and I got a family of 4 kids that made me happy. Now my son Raymond who has ended up without a family does have the path made clear for him to try to take an original show on the road. I just read on Facebook that after he takes his show to Austin, Texas for a month, he plans to take it to Nashville. Well, that is exciting stuff. I am glad for him. But doing this is a big challenge, takes alot of nerve. Raymond has always been a very nervy guy and blessed with enough good health and vitality to do theater most people never think of doing.
He has gone a lot further with his plays than I have with mine. And that took health and strength I did not have. It wasn't my fault I didn't have it, but fate deals us all a diffferent set of cards and I have always thought we should make the most of the hands we have been dealt.
I have lived in places for years that house the disabled. I moved there while my two youngest kids were still in school. They knew what it was to grow up with a disabled mother and that affected their lives, but I think they handled that handicap well, and that is what counts.
Look at James Dean. He was 22 years old, had everything going for him in Hollywood, three big hit movies already under his belt, and fate in the form of a speeding car came out of nowhere and ended not only his career but his life. Somehow that tragic death brought him even more fame. He has never been forgotten, maybe because he had it all and lost it at 22, a hell of a thing to happen to a young guy. But again, that was the hand of destiny. Must have been hard for him to accept, too, such a short life.
I am thankful for a much longer life and time to have a lot of fun and laughs with people I have met a long the way. Life seems to even out. Those privileged to enjoy fame and fortune may have to pay a big price for it. Everybody pays for what they get. There is always a price. For the choices we make. For our sins. For the riches we accrue. That might not be clear for years, but eventually everything evens out.

My fantastic header is by Connie.

Attention: Bill Pasadeaux, my response to your comment on play reading of Red and Dandy

Bill Pasdeaux said...
Edit this stuff Gerry! I tried to listen but you guys drop the ball and mumble and then find your place again... just cut that stuff out.. it's easy to do! I'm not demanding sophisticated technique here... but jeepers zeitgeist!... a little snip here and a little snoop there and unless you are Harpo and Chico, you shouldn't snip a snoop too much!

October 24, 2009 2:10 PM

Bill Pasdeaux said...
then I went back and listened to the rest.... good poem reading Gerry! That's the ticket! Were you imitating Sis' delivery? Coool!"

I appreciate response to a play reading. Yes, Bill, Doc had a little too much drinkee when he stumbled in this video, but found his place finally and went on, and I do not have the equipment to snip out these annoying glitches. Besides this is probably the last play script I am going to be reading for quite a long time so it is not worth getting the equipment on there. It is too annoying to me when Doc's drinking does cause him to stumble. The soberer he is the less he stumbles.
Now these play readings are designed to let people get the idea of the kind of plays I write. Getting them done is what takes more effort than I have got in me at the moment, even though I have tried to do just that for years.

I just put darling Bill's blog on my blog list One Man's Meet if you care to read the critic in his own digs.

Farmer's Market petunias top off satisfying day

I started work over to Doc's this morning making the video you will see on my blog list in his blog Rick n Doc. It was funny, all about driving Charles Bukoweski, the famous writer, home from a party who began a fight with my sister Linda King in the backseat. It went from bad to worse. Then I edited and uploaded it to Doc's Youtube channel emdedoc and from there I embedded it into his blog Rick n Doc. I also put a new drawing on as a header on his blog of a spiffy homeless guy with his tie showing through his fly. It is a hoot.
After that I put the link on both his and my Facebook accounts, Richard Emde and Gerry Hitt. Then I tried to find him a few new friends and uploaded more photos of his drawings up to Facebook.
After I did all that I made my usual visit to the Farmer's Market and found to my delight the flower farmer's daughter had gotten her dad to put some petunias, etc, in a container I could carry home. Doc said he would buy it. It cost $8, picturerd above. I also bought 2 creme puffs. And checked out some new cute bags I might buy for Xmas presents.
I took my purchases back home and Doc insisted on buying me lunch so I went back to the Farmer's Market and bought a divine dish made by an Indian lady called something couscous. She also put salad and mushrooms on it with her own dressing. He name is Nena. I think she is from the real India since this is Indian food. It was totally delicious and would not make me a bit fatter.

Free spirit Brownie reecites her poem about her stay in the crazy house (Act II-3) Brownie is based on my famous sister, Linda King

I am posting another video of my play reading of Red and Dandy in which my famous sister Linda as the Brownie character reads some of the first poems she wrote, proving she had talent before she met her muse, Charles Bukowski. Linda is famous among Bukowski fans due to her 5 dramatic years with the poet. She wrote many poems then, inspired by him, who got up and wrote at least one poem a day. He was a real working poet. She has not been inspired to do that much lately, and I was never inspired to do it hardly at all, so I gave up the idea of calling myself a poet and went back to writing dialogue which I in turn wrote every day. I even wrote my novels in dialogue then laboriously translated the dialogue into prose. Prose did not come natural to me either. But dialogue did, pages and pages of it. I wrote all my journals in dialogue! Dialogue has always fascinated me just as the poem form fascinated Bukowski. I am a natural born playwright, which my son Raymond is also, having written 30 plays.
Linda is more apt to sculpture than she is to write I think. She was kind of torn between the two, or maybe she was more inspired to walk on her hands which she was always doing when she was young. Raymond was a hand walker, too. I wonder what that says about their origins? We called Linda a little monkey when she was small because she would climb up in the door jamb just to talk. She also climbed all the buldings in sight when just a toddler. We would be out begging her to come down for fear she would fall. She has fallen more in her old age than she did in all her childhood years I am sure she was so agile, but I tell her that is all the icecream she comforted herself after a divorce which put on the pounds. She got too overwight to walk on her hands. But anyway this is my Linda play as well as my outlaw Red play. She came from California to visit the Utah outlaws, mainly to have a good time, party a little and dance as her first husband would not take her out dancing. Oh that's right, Linda was always the dancer of the family, she could dance for hours without faltering. I got chronic fatigue early and gave out dancing after a couple of hours. I never could dance fast after that. Enjoy!

The only news I have today is that I wore the outfit in the photo this morning!

Then it got too hot so I changed into another blouse. I am too exhausted to write about the days events I spent 3 hours out in the patio talking mostly to Daniel and Trudy. Trudy is up in her eighties going blind but she is a good talker and everybody likes her. She is originally from Austria and she still has one sister living there and one in Naples, Italy. Daniel is a fast talking guy from upper New York State. Seems like all New York people talk fast. We got a lot of background of our lives covered. Daniel is 58.
But like I say I talked so long I am too tired to write but it was just what the doctor ordered. I need good talkers in my life! Today I got some So I am happy. After I get a good night's rest I will be ready to write more I am sure.

Talking to my enlightened neighbor about gay outlaws

I was talking to my neighbor out in the patio along with others, and he announced that he decided to let everyone know he was gay when he moved in here. It is so refreshing to have a gay guy not afraid to assert himself, but I felt some discombobulated, still, it is so rare to get that kind of frankness from men closer to my age. We talked about outlaws and he said he couldn't have agreed more that the old western outlaws ran in gangs and had side kicks and a lot of them were very likely gay. Gees, still prejudice out there when not even the outlaws can be shown as gay in our movie fare, a thousand killings but not guys turning on to each other. That's not a nice outlaw tale. He also said he thought some guys were born gay, he had met them but most he thought were molested into the lifestyle including him! What does that say about the public's ability to discern molesting crimes among children or teens by predators! I have long thought my dad and others like him were pulled into the culture at a very young age. He also said older relatives like uncles could be responsible, too. He thanked god his dad was not involved in his corruption as her dad was involved in his ex wife's molesting. But instead of movies of depth on such subjects we get atrocities like "Zombieland" consisting of nothing but killing people dressed to look like zombies (okay now) by shooting, stabbing, bludgeoning, etc, by young girls, underage teens, , Woody Harrelson, all zombie killers! Hooray! Something obscene about what does get into the movies now days without protest.

Let the outlaws come out of the closet, people, please!

It has always amused me how the public demands their outlaws straight, so outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had to be played by hunks like Paul Newman and Robert Redford, so straight a detective would have a tough finding anything gay about those two, atleast in the movie! I can guarantee you that nice respectable girls would not have gone near old outlaws like Butch Cassidy, and he would be riding with his gang for days and sleeping with them at night, too in a tent. Minus any women but maybe one of the night once in a while.
Men are as bad as the women to demand their outlaws straight. They can kill as many people as they want, even a lot more than they did in real life, but they can't turn on to each other, that is sissy stuff, no real red blooded outlaw ought to do that!
So Hollywood has obligingly given the public straight outlaws for years in order to make more money, so my version of outlaws in the wild west being gay and bisexual makes people uncomfortable. Not all of them, of course, some were just asexual, or got turned on by killing, or the like. But I always swore that I would tell the truth when I grew up and wrote about outlaws. I knew when I was just a little child that a lot of them tended to be gay.
Why because people think of homosexuality as something very bad, so if anyone had gay feelings in the wild west, he naturally thought he was bad, and that helped him on his way to stealing, lying, cheating, and going from bad to worse, living up to expectation.
Outlawry and homosexuality have always been tied together, with homosexuality being the worst of the two, so that it could not be talked about in connection to the outlaws America is so fond of in the movies.
In Red and Dandy, my play about outlaws, Red is the worst thief imaginable, and his heroes are outlaws like Butch and Jessie James. He did not even admit he was bisexual, his dad and brother would have been horrified. A thief, yes, a liar, a drunk, a cheat, but not gay!
He would have known if he admitted he also liked boys, he would have been run out of the country if possible. It is no wonder people with gay feelings one have such a hard time telling the truth about themselves. If they are handsome and women fall in love with them, they are the last to want to know they are gay. It would completely ruin their fantasy. And these guys do their best to comply with what the girls want and change themselves, but most of the time that just does not work. So the women who get mixed up with them are doomed to feel they have been lied to and cheated on all their lives with this guy, with who they don't quite know. And generally don't want to know.
I have always thought we need to let people tell the truth about themselves and then take it from there. Do the sensible thing. Quit trying to change who can't be changed. Maybe in some other life but not in this one! I always have known I could not compete with that way of life once the men were into it, so if I did not want to be cheated on and lied to, I had better accept reality and move on.
I learned not to let myself get too attached to the charming fellows, but sometimes you fall in love with a wild outlaw in spite of yourself and it turns into a sad country song. Heartbreak! Happens all the time even when you are old.

Thoughts of the evening

I love this bright fall header, courtesy of Connie. My two sisters, nieces and kids, and others have been to a Writer's Workshop in Boulder, my hometown over the weekend. My son Raymond was one of the featured writers. Another, Dave Lee, they said read poetry for an hour and a half, his and others, and a woman who has done a writer's workshop for the festival was also featured. So far my sisters, Ann and Margie, have reported on it, as well as niece Cheryl who was the organizer and they said served some wonderful lunches and bake oven dinners with the help of her husband Steve. Boulder this time of year is incredibly beautiful thus this header.
Raymond's birthday is coming up the 30th of this month, so I sent him a card and package. If he doesn't need it he can give it to his dog Baby! Sorry, I can't give away the surprise.
By now you may have read the criticism below of my plays, but I think I recognize my troll, a woman who hates me, and is always changing her screen name so she can criticize me. She says the content of my plays are boring, but she never explains why, she just puts them down. But she could be the kind of person who would keep my plays from ever being done. I would not call this person an "Artist's Friend."
Actually it takes a lot of effort to memorize a script and do a play on a stage, so you really need the support of a theater company which is hard to get. I may never get that experience again, but I will keep trying.
In the meantime I had a lot of fun this afternoon out under the trees in the patio. I found out my neighbor Daniel loves karaoke parties and to dance, so he and I and Nikita, another activities oriented person in here, planned future karoake parties as I have practically a brand new machine! I got so inspired I decided to go to a karoake store next month to get a Christmas karaoke CD I want. You have to run the machine with a TV so you can see the words on the screen. I have tons of karaoke CDs I bought when Pierre and I were singing. So many have tried to teach me to sing, but in vain, but I still have a good time. Doc may have to stay home, well, because he can't be nice, but that won't stop the rest of us. I have warned him I am not sitting at home with him anymore and being aggravated by his isolation! Not good for people!
I did get a kick out of that video which he named "Living and breathing playwrights can be a pain." I have always maintained one of the reason theater companies don't want to do a play with a playwright around because the playwright can be hard to handle. My critic Artist's Friend does not have much of a sense of humor. She does not get the subtleties of either my plays or my relationship with Doc. He has made fun of me as the therapist to the dead and all kinds of stuff, but that is what I like about him is his sense of humor, which is often quite deft and not mean like this person.
I know my plays might be hard to listen to and watch at times, but this play is based on my relationship with my Dad in his last two years of life and my sister Linda when she was just starting to write poetry. She had cracked up and was making fun of her nervous breakdown in a poem. Linda at that time was slim, sexy, and gorgeous, and she loved to dance. She had a long animal print dress with a slit up the side and she was a sight to see doing the blackbottom shimmy as fast as anybody I ever saw do it in her tiger dress. It was no wonder Dale, Red, the outlaw, was so taken with her he was ready to make her a star. So you have to kind of use your imagination to picture the scene.


I thought Doc gets these characters about as well as anyone, but he is not capable of memorizing a script or cannot be depended upon enough to put in a play.
We do what we can. I am quite decrepit, too, and would probably get major fatigue symptoms if I attempted to do much in theater with the accompanying stress.
I put these plays out there for theater producers. Ha. I also helped Doc do a blog so some of his best paintings and drawings could be featured through his own blog. Did you read on the Internet where this ex-marine had looked for his Vietmanese girlfriend and child for years and finally after 38 years the son found him on Facebook! So maybe Doc's kids might might him someday. He has only seen them once since they were tiny, but his ex said neither were his! How cruel can you get? No DNA in those days.
Nikita out in the patio told me she had lost over 100 pounds drinking 2 gals of water a day along with her meals. So I am here to drink water, water. I am going to tell sister Linda about this, as she is prone not to drink enough either. I am starting to get over Jack finally and his meltdown to go live in the street. I hope he is still alive and can get rescued, but if he is dead, God rest.
Since it is Halloween month I must tell you this story. Doc and I watched the last episode of Dexter, but I got up and went to packng my stuff after Dexter killed somebody and did not watch the end. Doc insisted I come back and watch it. It scared me to death. Well, I won't spoil it for you guys who might not have seen it, but the trinity serial killer struck again! I told Doc I am getting scared you and I will be killed for watching this thing!

Criticism of my plays in comment in Doc's blog, Rick n Doc

ARTISTFRIEND said...
The problem is, the content of the plays are BORING! Very poor writing and content! Arizona has great playwrights who showcase their work throughout the valley, this writer is not one of them. Time to accept just because one WANTS to be a writer doesn't make them one. You bring life to the otherwise hum drum of the writing. The write has alot to learn. We are innodated with plays that self serve as these. Now you have an INCREDIBLE talent. You are a superb artist! Why not sell your pics at the local Farmers Market? I have shared some pics with other artist and we all agree, you have talent!!! You are the artist of your "duo." The playwright seems jealous, that is why critisizm isn't accepted."

Red appreciates sister Brownie, his old school chum, when it's party time! Act II-2

My header made by Connie represents what me and my sister Linda were trying to do back in the days of this play. She wanted to feel more free than she did in her marriage and I had gotten divorced so I could be me! I thought this header fit us perfectly at that time. It made me laugh. Thanks, Connie, you are the best.

Dante in his G.I. haircut for ROTC and Zombieland, one of the most decadent movies I have seen in recent times

Thought you would like to see this new photo of Dante. Doesn't a haircut change the look of a teen? But the movie we went to see "Zombieland" was my idea of decadent times. Hundreds of zombies were killed by Woody Harrelson, the zombie killer. I was hardly able to enjoy this movie and tried not to worry about what the world is coming to when such a movie can be made and actually shown in our movie theaters as though it were not decadent at all It is hopefully not making money. I have to ask, don't Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray have anything better to do with their time and what was little Abigail Breslin's mother thinking of? My son
Dan said it was just an excuse to kill people, only you call them zombies and then it is okay? Okay???
I am going to forget this movie as soon as I can. Dan and Dante went over to hang out with Scott for a while.

"I did not like heaven for a long time because I expected to get famouser and famouser and that did not happen!" Noel Coward

GERRY: Noel, I hope I can quote you. Folks, Noel is saying such delightfully witty and insightful things to me I had to get up and start writing them down even though it is only 2:30 am. I was afraid I would not remember them in the morning. I do need to get this blog written, too, because my son Dan called and asked me if I wanted to go to the matinee movies today before noon, if he could get my grandson Dante over here. His back has been bothering him, but it is much better now I am glad to say.
NOEL: Oh, don't let me interrupt any family thing. You see, that is why heaven seemed so dull to me for so long, because everyone was busy doing family things and were not trying to get into the spotlight at all. I finally realized I had been such a publicity hound for so many yaars I didn't think I could be happy unless my name was in the paper every five minutes. I did not know what to do with myself.
GERRY: What finally happened?
NOEL: People are more disciplined over here, and that is what you eventually must be, more disciplined in order to like what is good for you. They realized of course that mankind does not develop unless everyone gets attention, so it must be spread out in order to create a healthier society. I see that you are quite comfortably unfamous but now at the end of your life you are wondering if you might do with a little fame for your writing, atleast in this big city where you reside.
GERRY: Is that selfish of me? I even wonder if I don't blog too often. I am better than I used to be, when I would get so excited I would write three entries a day. A friend of mine told me not long ago that if she read everything I wrote she would not get anything else done.
NOEL: Exactly. I thought people should make a life time occupation of going to see the latest play by Noel Coward, starring him preferably. Of course there are people who are your peers who are getting far more attention than you are. I do think if a person writes all the plays you have written, one should at least be seen once in a while. That is what we theater people aim for. Because people don't cooperate at all. It is very hard to divest them of the idea that only a handful of people can write plays. That is what I wanted to think when I was the most famous playwright in the world. Naturally. I would contantly tell myself how incredibly good I was. The only thing I couldn't explain was when so many of my plays, especially in the later part of my career, came out half cooked I was in such a hurry to write them, so I could stay perpetually on the stage. Trying to stay so famous actually led to a lot of strain and an earlier death.
GERRY: So you do think I deserve a little fame.
NOEL: Of course, why would anyone strive to become a good playwright without the hope of the plays being seen at one point. But I can see why the problem is severe in your case. You are a woman for one thing. As you know there are few famous women playwrights, theater not being kind to mothers who have children at home. The world of children does not run that way. They have to get up and go to school, and mummy must be on hand to get the little darlings up and eating their breakfast. That is a ittle hard to do after you have spent the night acting in some theater or you are otherwise engaged there with a play running.
GERRY: Raising my four children took years, especially since I spread them out for health purposes. The oldest is 21 years older than the youngest. But that was better for me, not necessarily for being in the theater. I saw my children as my most important productions in those years.
NOEL: As indeed you should have done. I have known some actresses who badly neglected their children once they got star struck. Their children were lucky they ever saw them. I strongly disapproved of such mothers and even fathers could become distracted with their aim for fame and be very neglectful of their families. But you should not be penalized for being an attentive mother. Even though reporters will use almost anything as an excuse to keep some ambitious unknown in oblivion, because it is much easier to write about someone perpetually in the limelight. A reporter does not have to work at all in comparison. So if you do the right thing in this world, you are apt to be punished for it. But not in heaven I might add where things are a little more fair or it could not rightfully be called heaven. I would for example sponsor your plays in heaven. There would be no problem. But I would not necessarily have done it when on earth. I would have found some excuse not to.
GERRY: I just don't know if I can do it here at all, but I have worked so hard to bring new theater to this town. I have lobbied for it for years. I have tried to convince whoever I could that doing local playwrights would eventually revitalize the theater once the public realized what was about. But there is so much inertia, so much difficulty in getting things going.
NOEL: I can see that. I am certainly interested in helping because that is what I would like to stand for now. I know that local playwrights would be just like home grown farm produce, better for you. People have gotten used to having their plays shipped in from far away places. They never even see the playwright. That's no fun. I much prefer the idea of everyone being a star, slowly getting recognition for the work they do somewhere besides New York and London. They only have room for a few playwrights, so they like to perpetuate the myth that only London and New York can produce good playwrights. They are trying to keep the tourist trade coming as much as possible and don't care a fig what a wasteland that leaves in the outlying cities, where it is thought no real playwright can ever flourish. Because everyone has talent and needs to be recognized, things must change, but people are afraid to bank on locals. It will be so tough to sell them at first to an unwilling public. Somebody has to lose money. Somebody's job could be lost, but that is what change requires, those very risks. This is what I came to understand in 'heaven.' You must act on principle to make a better world, so the self centered Noel Cowards must give way to the development of the many. I learned to be content with a good deal less attention I will tell you. And a lot more work helping others to shine. I must thank you for reading the book about me. I like that book since it is as much about the letter writers as it is about me. Some lovely letters in it.
GERRY: The letters attracted me to it, since my life in letters has been extensive. Well, thank you, Noel, I must go back to bed now and get a little sleep before I am off to the farmer's market to buy some local produce!

Time for spooks is here!

I thought it would be a good time to talk about my latest preoccupation with meditation developing into doing some therapy for the dead or dying. My sister LaRae paid me a startling visit the other night. I was sitting ready to go into my meditation in the evening when I felt her presence in the room as strong as I have ever felt it since she passed. Later she said that meditation had cleared out my mind and given me more energy to pick up the presence of the spirits. She said that she came to engage me in doing some of the work she has been doing for years (she has been gone 20 years to the other side). She helps people when they pass over to get used to the idea of being gone. She has even told me in a dream that she took one young woman who was burned to death in a fire along with her little child to live with her a while. The young woman was still in her thirties so her death was a great shock to her. We had known her family all our lives. My sister stayed with me all night working to show how this could be done by using telepathic powers to interact with these people.
So last night I felt my sister had gone back to Utah for an important conference that was taking place up there under the jurisdiction of her daughter. So I was left to my own devices. I started going over every person I knew who had gone from here, and eventually I came to a woman who had passed over a year ago after a lot of terrible suffering in a hospital for months with an infection that could not be cleared up. So I found myself with her helper who said that she still had not recovered and had to have what she thught was heavy medication to get through her days. I told the helper I had not been able to bring myself to go see her in the hospital as this was a rule I usually kept regarding residents here. If they were too sick to be here I would wait until they returned. But I had had a history of clashing with this woman that kept me from talking to her for fear she would begin to talk very negatively again. I thought she was going to die and was upset about how it all came about through an operation to reduce weight.
I feel that this was a harbinger of a meeting I had at the elevator today with another woman still here who apparently has the same horrible infection E had. Tammy said she almost lost her legs due to this infection and she still has it in her intestines. She can barely walk. A scooter has been ordered. This is one of the bravest little women I have ever met who seems to take the worst news stoically and without resentment. I think due to my talk to E's helper on the other side I was able to be very tender with Tammy, trying to comfort her for the six days of hospitalization she had just endured. I saw her break down it must have been just before she went in the hospital when she was sobbing at the elevator, but now she is so courageously resigned, not only to losing the use of her legs but I thought to whatever lies ahead which will surely be a shortened life. She isn't very old either. She has long golden brown hair and a face made even more beautiful by her response to her trials. I could almost see the soon to be angel in her eyes. She has been transforming into this hauntingly beautiful being as some people do when tried with terrible illnesses.
It will probably not be long until she joins the legions of ghosts who have lived in the Westward Ho.
I can hardly wait to see what work I will be doing tonight. I asked if I could not visit some theater people so I could talk about theater there as opposed to the problem of getting original plays done here. I have just been reading a book called the Noel Coward Letters, so tonight he is going to be one of the people I asked to talk to over there to see if he has any ideas about how to get thngs going here in theaters besides Youtube. He will surely understand the obstacles. He is a famous playwright just as Bukowski was a famous poetry and novel writer which were really memoirs thinly disguised as fiction.
I am going to have fun with the spooks! Hee Hee Hee! Scarey huh?

Thanks, Connie, for this fantastic header showing me at my spookiest.

My interview of Charles Bukowski from the other world

Bukowski just tapped me on the shoulder and said do you want an interview with the great writer himself? I hear you are pretty good at picking up thoughts from the spirits gone to the other world? I jumped at the chance so hear it is:
BUKOWSKI: Yes, post a photo of your sister's famous bust of me. That's how I looked at fifty. I have read Scott's interview of you talkng about me and Linda. You are right about one thing. I would not have kicked Linda King off the couch. She was a genuinely insane person when I knew her, and you never knew what she might do at any given time.
GERRY: Yes, well, we can't talk about Linda in this interview, because she might get mad at me, and we don't want that.
BUKOWSKI: Oh, that's right. Well, let's talk about you, then. Still haven't made it as a famous writer, have you?
GERRY: No, do you think I will?
BUKOWSKI: The chances are not good. You have never smoked or drank or took dope, so you have led according to a lot of people a very boring life. It looks like your main purpose in life has been to scold the men and try to get them to straighten up. Scolds tend not to make it to the heights of fame and fortune.
GERRY: That's my guess, so I am not going to spend too much time lamenting my failure to rise. I am busy now working on the last phase of my life. I will be mixing and mingling more freely with the spirits, which is why I was able to attract you here. My sister LaRae paid me a visit a couple of nights ago that was startling. She came into the room and I don't know how I knew this, but I did. I knew she was there and I kept asking her why. It worried me at first, but she came to talk to me about working with the dead. She stayed all night and showed me how it could work. I have very strong telepathic powers so it will be easy for me to pick up their spirits.
BUKOWSKI: Why would you want to do that?
GERRY: Because I am going to come over there and kick all you famous writers' asses for not helping me get famous too, while I was still alive.
BUKOWSKI: I encouraged you to submit poetry to Wormwood. Without me, you would never have made it into the best little poetry magazine going at the time.
GERRY: Yes, but you had Notes of a Dirty Old Man published and other memoirs. The memoirs made you just as famous as your poetry books. Look at Post Office and Factotum, two of your best.
BUKOWSKI: You are always writing about bisexuals and you aren't even one. Women or men don't like that. I quit writing about being a bisexual when I found that out.
GERRY: I admired you the most for writing about that in the first place. I thought you had guts.
BUKOWSKI: No, you have to be either straight or gay. None of this in between stuff. So I made up my mind to be heterosexual and that was that. Your sister Linda is right. I just loved guys because I thought I was so damned ugly and deeply scarred I would never be able to get any women, but as soon as I got fame and discovered my sexy poetry reading voice I could get all the women I wanted. I made myelf content with them. Oh there were a few flurries but nothing to match the women.
GERRY: You were an advanced spirit then, deciding to give up men for women.
BUKOWSKI: Women are our match even though we men don't like to think so. Who knows maybe your kids will be able to sell your memoirs and you will be famous after you are dead. Better late than never. Some get too much fame, and some not enough. It is the women who usually get shorted, I admit.
GERRY: My sister Linda cannot even get her book about you published because she is a woman. She is the only person in the world who has written a book about you and been unable to get it published who knows a lot about you. That is how much against women writers publishers are.
BUKOWSKI: And you have not even got one famous person in your memoirs. So it's no wonder you are having an even rougher time getting famous. Linda has atleast got me so is semi-famous. I guess we men just don't like lookng at life from a woman's viewpoint. We feel smaller, somehow, through her eyes. We have grandiose ideas about ourselves. I glanced at this horrible scene you wrote of your dad as "Snarl" berating his poor daughters. Think how he must feel when he sees that. I am afraid in all these videos of me kicking women on the Internet my snarl is just as big as your dad's. Calling the women cunts and whores!
It's a wonder I am still famous after people look at them. Thousands of people have seen me kicking a woman like a damned dog.
GERRY: I have read some of the comments and there are a lot of men in favor of a good woman kicking. They say she was unfaithful and thought she should be able to get away it.
BUKOWSKI: Well, I was drunk and went into overkill.
GERRY: And still your fame survives, while I who took a vow in my youth never to drink because of alcoholic dad must be punished on and on for being a prude!
BUKOWSKI: That's how the world works. Maybe you will fare better in another life!

Snarl drives daughters to boobing and bawling and going crazy Act II-1

I don't know if you guys can stand watching this play but it's like catharsis for me. I have to show what it was like to live with an outlaw dad, too, who turned mean in his old age to the point hardly anyone wanted to be around him. He tried my soul, I know that. I dreamed when I was looking after him in his old age that I was walking beside the road and he came along in his gold cadillac and swerved and tried to hit me. I jumped aside and his car went over a cliff. I thought better him than me.
I still feel his spirit raging some. Why was he so mean? Hard to tell, but isn't it funny how all mean grouchy men sound alike? Doc is not like this, but acts this part to perfection. He knows hnow they sound. But he is very soft spoken and civilized. It is no wonder I have been able to tolerate his drinking as well as I have. It is a matter of degree.
I get to act the part of my sister Brownie, too. As we argue with our dad. I can't say hope you enjoy, but it was real life. To my mind, a writer has to be willing to write how bad it was, too, or otherwise we can never get a handle on what went wrong. It is a matter of facing reality and not sugar coating the past. And then finding a way to improve our own characters so we don't hurt people needlessly with out of control behaviors.

My sister Linda King's son, Scott Hall, interviews me about Linda's strength in dealing with Bukowski

Scott came over with a camera man who owns a fabulous looking movie camera and interviewed me about his mom's relationship with Bukowski. This is an excerpt from about a 33 minute interview which he plans to edit and include in a documentary on all the poets and other people who interacted with Bukowski back in those days. He has heard about Bukowski all his life even though he was not yet born when his mother was with him. But he has helped her sell a number of bronze busts of Bukowski and he has also helped her publish some of her poem books, notably one including all her poems about Bukowski with drawings by Matt Sesow who Scott recruited. In fact Scott is doing a cheaper version than the bronze of the bust to sell to Bukowski lovers. So I was happy to add to the proceedings. He let me set up our camera and film the interview, too, so you get to see an advance peek at the documentary to come.

Fiery Linda in this photo, 20 years younger, a few years before she met Bukowski. You can see why he was quite taken with her, and Linda loved the wild poet, a wordsmith as well as as unpredictable as anyone she had ever known.

9 years of marriage without penetration causes Dandy to take up with a kind outlaw Act I-4

Today is Doc's birthday, so in his honor I have posted his portrayal of a 28 year old outlaw. He always tries to get me to post his acting as soon as possible. He added his own special touches to this video which I think you might recognize. In spite of Doc's intractable ways, he is a funny talented guy. We are both too old and decrepit and unable to take the discipline and the stress of live theater. So we have to do what we can.
We have kind of slipped back into seeing each other again since Jack is gone. I could not do anything much to help save him. I got over being mad at Doc. I had a touchy stomach this morning so could not go out to eat as he wanted to do for his birthday. He felt kind of sorry for himself, but ever since I had that painful stomach virus my digestive system is easily irritated. I ate too much tabouli yesterday! Raw greens and lemon juice dressing! I told Doc not to blame me for being a little depressed. He has made himself a prisoner of his drinking. It must get boring at times.
Jack is gone because of his drinking, and last night Dale, the outlaw who inspired this play, was haunting me. He has been dead 10 years because of his drinking. He died still in the prime of his life at 60, working and drinking. I can't help it if he would not stop when he was told he had an aneurysm. He drank anyway. The dead are just in a different world. I don't talk to them long because I am not there yet. Even if the living are barely putting along. Like Doc. Drinking aint good for you!

Sunflowers to Doc and a new purse to me on Farmer's Market day!

Be sure to click on this photo so you can see these sunflowers in all their glory. I picked them out for Doc to brighten up his apartment even though he paid for them. Beside the sunflowers note the glass of yes, it is fall apple cider! The best I have ever tasted, even though I had to pay $7 for a half gallon. It was worth every dollar. I can only drink a couple of glasses a day as it is sweet. They also had a sale on hummus, 3 for $15 plus a box of their pita chips. I decided that was good enough to last me a week. I bought artichoke, roasted red pepper, and tabouli. I love tabouli. Ever try it? It is made of chopped parsley with a lemon olive oil dressing and a little sprinkling of I think it is parmesean cheese throughout. I feel I am part cow when I am eating it.
And I am helping Missie out this week who had a blogger object to her showing photos of her purchases. Is this a real woman? I also bought this denim purse at the Farmer's Market today, of course to help out the ladies who drag all their stuff there every week, but because I have been looking for a cute denim purse forever and today I found it. It cost $18. So I won't be able to go to the thrift store any this month, but I think it is adorable. And what is more it made me happy! I hope all of you will take more photos of your latest cute purchase. What is the use of buying if you don't enjoy the heck out of it? And I like it when some woman says "I think that is cute, too!" To me that is one of the joys of blogging. Sharing the things that bring spice to life.


Doc is going to enjoy his bouquet of sunflowers all week, too. He sent me for yellow mums, but the pot was too heavy and I could not carry it. Doc is an artist. He is a messy dude (his apartment) but he loves color. Hooray for him.

Dandy thinks Red's stealing might be a cover-up for bisexuality

Flowers to Joyce Gittoes for her performance in 'Steal Away"

Mercedes and I and a friend of hers went to the lovely theater, Playhouse in the Park, in the Viad building and saw Joyce act in a comedy for the Black Theater Troupe. The acting was lively and good. We laughed. We had a good time. What more could you ask of the theater?
Joyce's acting gave authority and depth to "Mama" as I would have expected. She had a good time with the show. And so did we! Congratulations Joyce, for a job well done. Acting in a comedy is all about timing and pace, and this comedy clipped along in fine fashion. Mercedes wanted to come for a cheerer-upper after her wreck a couple of weeks ago, and I think this play did the job! Right, Mercedes?

Red's outlaw buddy Henry just loves to kill Act 1-2 and my salad troubles

The second video of Red and Dandy: Outlaw Love Story features Doc at his acting best. I just sent him to the store for some chives that I threw away so now I can't make my salad until he comes back with chives. Without chives corn off the cob potato green bean salad is just not the same. Good thing I did not go. I was so mad about throwing out my chives I bought to the Farmer's Market before I even used them I went off and left the stove on. If he had not said he would go and pick them up I might have burned up my best pot to say nothing of my apartment. Goes to show you should not get that out of sorts about minor concerns.

Hope you enjoy Doc acting the part of a Mud Springs outlaw, well two of them in fact. Those were the days!

P.S. The header was sent to me by Connie and I thought it apropos for my days of running with outlaws after my divorce. The pickings were slim. Hardly anybody single in Mud Springs but outlaws who were so bad they got rejected. I love Connie's headers. If she quits blogging I will miss her. I wish she would keep at least one blog. She could do that with one hand tied behind her. Anyway I wish her well and hope she has a lot of fun whatever she does.

Red and Dandy: Outlaw Love Story (Act 1-1)

I was talking to a friend from Utah last night reminiscing about old times and today I was inspired to go down to Doc's and read my play "Red and Dandy: Outlaw Love Story" written in the late 1960's. Doc plays all the male parts and me the female. We stick to the script. This is one of the last long plays I wrote before I started writing novels again. I also wrote a novel about Red. I had to rewrite that thing 5 times before I thought I got it right. I think it is funny. Red was a character. Red (Dale) used to write me letters all the time. He wrote me letters for years. I sent him the novel. He died when he was only 61 of an alcohol related death, but he was still working when an aneurysm took him in a few minutes.
Doc burned a copy for my girlfriend. I am sending it to her tomorrow. I thought I would introduce her to Doc this way since I doubt he ever makes it to Utah.

Doc makes new video for my blog because he thinks I am one depressed therapist

It will now be uploaded and I will embed it here as well as in his blog. He controls this video, made up the title and the description. Ihe subject was his idea based on the depression of his therapist over the continued substance abuse of those she is trying to help. I also posted one of his pictures titled The Westward Ho Vortex, which I thought appropriate for this entry in his blog
I just went around this morning trying to find what happened to one of the women I talk to regularly out on the patio. She is an alcoholic, but talking to her goes along with my idea that elcoholics have to be built up, their egoes and self esteem, before they can think of gathering the strength to fight their substance abuse problems. I was reminded that it is pay day and a trip to the store to buy a supply of liquor has probably been made by her and her equally addicted husband. They have been my neighbors a number of years so I have knowledge of some fierce battles between them, resulting in black eyes, knocked out teeth, and so on. Last year she spent 3 months in a women's shelter where I know she would not have been allowed to drink, but she gets so little money a month as his wife, and cannot work, so came back to him as a last resort. She is here with us, so I talk to her because she is willing and is also fun to talk to because she is so starved for conversation, since many will not talk to her once they discover she is an alcoholic. But alcohol and drug addicts as well as smokers and foodaholics costs the system millions in health costs, lost productive workers, disability, subsidized housing, etc., so doesn't it make sense to work harder on fixing substance abuse problems?
But I can get feeling overwhelmed once in a while which is what Doc is talking about in this video. Take a look and say what you think.