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Love’s Supreme Desire Tabloid, September 1999 (enjoyable read by Agnes
or Fred in Simpletext)
Hey y’all! How’s it going? Great here. I am feeling much
much more settled and happy this month than I was in August. Of course I
was going through a readjustment phase, shifting between working at General
Bead (genbead.com) and Starbucks (Starbucks.com). My body had to learn to
handle the different work hours and pace of the day, and now that that’s
happened, I’m enjoying my new situation. Since I’m one of the few people
available to open the store at 4:30 AM, I’m scheduled to work the opening
shift (‘til 10:45-1 PM) pretty much every day of the work week. Yes, I have
to go to sleep early and get up at an obscene hour in the early morning,
but it’s so cool having my afternoons free, and I never really did much in
the evenings anyhow, except watch TV. Last Monday I had one of those
wonderful days spent wandering around the neighborhood, discovering new things,
treating myself to lunch and a matinee. I saw ‘the Sixth Sense’ with Bruce
Willis and loved it. This is one of the best big Hollywood films I have seen
in years. Beautiful story, an incredible, moving, understated performance
by child actor Haley Joel Osment (I usually don’t like children in films,
but this kid is one hell of an actor). I think this is the best performance
by Bruce Willis that I have seen, although that’s not saying much considering
he usually does such Hollywood schlock. The beautiful and talented Olivia
Williams from 'Rushmore' plays the part of Willis’ wife, and the part of
Osment’s struggling mother of is well-played by Toni Collette ('The Postman'
and 'Velvet Goldmine'). I sat there crying for parts of the movie, on the
edge of my seat during others. My body felt drained after the film, which
is how I always feel after seeing an excellent movie.
Last week I also saw ‘the spy who shagged me.’ While it
was mildly amusing in some places, it was mostly just a rehash of ‘Austin
Powers.’ As a Starbucks employee, I thought it was funny that Dr. Evil’s
headquarters were in the top of the Seattle Space Needle, which had been
transformed into a branch of Starbucks by Evil’s profit-seeking number one
henchman.
I think that having afternoons off is really good for
my frame of mind. As I’ve said before in the tabloid, my mood is really tied
into the amount of sunshine my body receives. I can go to the beloved beach
whenever the weather is good, and lately the weather in San Francisco has
been fabulously hot and sunny. There’s just a brief window of opportunity
for enjoying hot weather in San Francisco, and we’re now in the midst of
it. By changing my job to Starbucks, now I get to enjoy the sunny hours before
5 PM, unless I’m working a closing shift, and additionally I now have my
weekends free. I wandered into Walgreen’s last week and discovered that they
carry some beneficial herbs like Siberian Ginseng and Ginkgo Biloba at a
pretty good price, so I’ve started taking them on a regular basis. Last month
I mentioned that I had been suffering from a sore throat. Right after taking
the Siberian Ginseng, my sore throat disappeared! I have also started taking
St. Johnswort, which is a known mood-enhancing herb (also effective in some
ways against viruses), and this is definitely helping my outlook. I don’t
know why, but I love Walgreen’s. I remember when I was really poor back in
1992, working as a Stage Management intern at San Francisco’s American Conservatory
Theater http://www.act-sfbay.org/about/index.html and living in the Lower
Haight on Fillmore between Haight and Page. My friend Tammy and I couldn’t
afford to do anything so this one night we just decided to wander around
the Walgreen's at the corner of Fillmore and Haight looking at stuff. I know
that’s pathetic, but we did have fun. I love doing that, just wandering around
looking at stuff. In case you haven’t
noticed, in case I haven’t said it enough, I love San Francisco. Last week
several times I found myself thinking, “Goddamn, I love this city.” One of
the times was just yesterday. After work I wandered around the corner up
to Grant Street, which is the main drag of Chinatown. When my mom came out
to visit in February, we spent time checking out Chinatown as well as other
touristy areas. We discovered a little bakery on Grant street called Eastern
Bakery. It’s a mom-and-pop bakery that serves Chinese and “American” food
as well. Anyhow, after work at 10:30 AM I made a fantastic discovery there.
They serve something called a butter creme bun which is basically a sweet
roll cut in half with light, fluffy, not-too-sweet butter creme inside and
a sprinkling of coconut on top. They cost $.40 each and are served warm and
fresh from the oven. I had two of those, plus hot tea, orange juice and a
bacon omelette with toast and hash browns. What’s not to like?
I just got back from hanging out at the Metreon (http://www.metreon.com/)
with Owen and our friend Raymond. We saw ‘The Thirteenth Warrior’ with Antonio
Banderas. It was a pretty cool movie, your basic macho epic heroic action
adventure. We were quite entertained, and not only by the handsome Banderas.
After seeing the movie we wandered around the Microsoft store, where I played
“Midtown Madness.” This is one of those games where you drive around and
crash into everything, chase pedestrians off the road, smash light poles
to the ground, exceed speeds of 133 MPH, that sort of thing. It was fun,
what can I say? We also played a cool game called Hyperbowl, which is a computerized
game of bowling. A ball appears on a huge screen in front of you, and you
control the movement of the ball by rolling a bowling ball-sized track ball
on a pedestal. The screen ball rolls up and down the hills of San Francisco
in the year 2099 or something like that. You have to avoid cable cars and
other obstacles to get your ball up to the bowling pins. You can also select
from four other optional “worlds” in which to bowl. One is a weird Greek
landscape, another is a pirate ship, and the last is just your basic bowling
lane. Honey, this virtual bowling game was a workout! I was sore for three
days. We went real-life bowling yesterday at Japantown Bowl and I didn’t
broke a sweat. The Metreon is an over-priced tourist trap of a place, but
I must admit that we seem to have a good time when we go there and there
certainly is a lot to see and do. I love the interior design, which is very
futuristic. The last time we went we checked out “Where the wild things are,”
which is a maze/haunted house landscape built around the book of the same
name by Maurice Sendak. It’s fun for little kids but we had a great time,
too. You get to push buttons to activate bird-puppets which drop from the
ceiling, or talk into echo chamber devices, or dance around on a motion sensitive
floor which activates gigantic characters from the book. The Metreon also
has a PlayStation store, where you can play the games. It’s fun to be like
a little kid now and again, just playing and looking around and checking
stuff out.
Labor Day Weekend has been a blast! Saturday I went with
my friend Haia up to the Legion of Honor Museum (www.thinker.org) to see
the Treasury of St. Francis of Assisi as well as a collection of prints and
multiples by Claes Oldenburg. Haia and I used to hang out mostly on the week
night evenings when I worked at General Bead, and this was fun but we never
really had enough time to bond. Now that I’m free on the weekends, we tend
to do stuff on Saturdays. Anyway, Saturday was a delightfully foggy San Francisco
day and we had so much fun schlepping around the Richmond neighborhood, out
in the avenues on the northwest corner of the city. We discovered a little
Chinese restaurant where we had lunch. The special was “happy family.” Then
we strolled next door and found a Russian grocery store (the Avenues are
very Russian. I’d be interested to know why so many Russians decided to settle
in this part of town, and when) where I bought summer sausage, blackcurrant
juice, beet horseradish, spicy mustard. We then went to the Museum, which
was a little stodgy but lovely to look at. I was tormented by my tennis shoes,
Nike AIRs which I bought a while back at Goodwill for $10. At the time, I
thought “such a bargain!” but now I know why somebody cast them out. These
are the squeakiest damn tennis shoes ever. Owen and I have a little joke
that there are mice living in my tennis shoes and they squeal in agony with
each step I make. I think they must be radioactive, maybe escapees from a
science lab. But I’m going to keep on trying to press them flat regardless,
little bastards. They are amazingly resilient. Imagine me walking around
on the marble floors of this hush hush museum with radioactive mice shoes
squeaking away. My favorite part of the museum were the stairs leading down
to the bathrooms and the Claes Oldenburg exhibit. They are semicircular marble
staircases arched over in the same cool, smooth, off-white marble. Simple,
forties-era yellowed fixtures in the ceiling light the way. The staircase
seems to be the smoothly melted interior of a building made of ice. Haia
and I dished one part of the permanent collection. The whole room was full
of cheesy, even tacky, kitchen and dining ware from I don’t know, the Renaissance
or something. We called it the Martha Stewart discount floral collection.
After the museum, Haia and I went to a bar called the
“Tee Off,” which is across the street from the Lincoln Park golf course,
on Clement street. It was a fun little neighborhood sports bar where we had
free miniature weenie sausages and french fries. Good news for Haia, he got
a call from a friend in Southern California who wants to pay him to portray
a Venusian in a film he’s doing later on next summer. The pay will be $400
a week.
Damn I’ve seen a lot of movies this week
This week I’ve seen about ten movies. I’ve rediscovered
the feature film video collection at the library, and I’m using my afternoons
to see the matinees, plus my friends all love to go to the movies on the
weekends. This week I borrowed ‘Faces,’ a strangely annoying film by John
Cassavettes from the library, along with Judy Garland and James Mason in
‘A Star is Born.’ What a great vehicle for Judy, but James Mason is the one
who can do understated tragedy with more authenticity. Judy is fabulous during
all the numbers, and in the slow buildup to becoming famous, but then when
she becomes a star and Mason becomes un-famous and more deeply alcoholic,
she does a bit of scene-chewery. I also borrowed ‘Martin,’ by George Romero,
about a maladjusted teenager in the early 70’s who may or may not be a vampire.
Then I borrowed ‘Auntie Mame,’ with the fabulous Rosalind Russel in the starring
role. I’ve seen this one a number of times and I’m a total ‘Auntie Mame’
queen. I also saw ‘There’s no business like show business’ with Ethel Merman,
Marilyn Monroe, and Donald O’Connor, as well as ‘For the Boys’ with James
Caan and Bette Midler, who also strains in the heavy parts. In terms of new
movies at the theaters, I finally saw ‘Eyes wide shut,’ with the beautiful
and talented Nicole Kidman and the somewhat wooden Tom Cruise. I liked the
movie, the art direction was great, but the pace was incredibly slow in some
parts. I kept feeling like, yeah, this would all be shocking if you’ve never
been to a sex party. But what’s the big deal? My favorite part was the orgy
scene at the mansion of a decadent upstate New York rich person. Everyone
wore fantastic masks. The lighting in the film was lovely too, lots of colored
Christmas bulbs. I have a feeling this is one of those films that’s going
to grow on me, that I’ll want to see again someday. What else did I see?
The end of ‘Lake Placid,’ which seemed pretty lame. It was showing at the
St. Francis Theater on Market street http://bayarea.citysearch.com/E/V/SFOCA/0003/50/24/.
Yesterday I had a great time with my friend, and manager
at Starbucks, Raymond. We went and saw the Bill Viola exhibit at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which was an amazing show. What an artist,
not only a videographer but a sculptor, painter and interior designer using
video images. Find out more about Bill Viola at the Artcyclopedia web site:
http://artcyclopedia.com/artists/viola_bill.html. After spending three-and-half
hours wandering through this surreal and mind-blowing exhibit, we went once
again to the Metreon, this time to see ‘Stigmata.’ This was an entertaining
and powerful movie. The concept sounds like pure disaster: Pittsburgh hair
stylist Patricia Arquette starts manifesting the signs of stigmata (the wounds
of the crucified Jesus Christ). They manage to turn this potentially campy
story into a compelling thriller about Vatican intrigue, the nature of faith,
and the “true” gospel of Jesus, which is “the kingdom of God is within and
around you.” After we saw ‘Stigmata,’ we got a wild hair and snuck into ‘Star
Wars, The Phantom Menace.’ I liked this movie even less the second time I
saw it, in fact I could hardly stay awake. Of course, we did go to the 10
PM showing, but I would’ve stayed awake if it were a better movie. I actually
found myself thinking, “damn this movie sucks, The next one had better be
better, or I’m going to disavow my unquestioning affiliation to the ‘Star
Wars’ franchise.” I didn’t use those words at the time.
Today, I had so much fun. It turns out that fashion designer
Matthew Battanian, who was one of my best friends during the early years
of college at the University of Cincinnati, has moved from New York City
to San Francisco to start working as the head of a division at Levi Strauss
and Company http://www.levi.com/. We hooked up today with Owen and
went to see the refurbished version of the Beattles’ fantastic and relevant
‘Yellow Submarine’ at the Castro Theater http://bayarea.citysearch.com/E/V/SFOCA/0000/16/58/.
This is such a brilliant and clever movie! The colors, the characters, the
numbers were all so satisfying and invigorating. So nice to hear “love is
all you need” in the big theater and, if only for the moment, really believe
those lyrics. Though this is clearly a movie of the 60’s, it has a timely,
timeless and welcome message. After that we drove out to the Presidio, wandered
around in the fog some, then ate at Louis’ restaurant, near the Cliff House.
This restaurant was recommended to me long ago by cartoonist Robert Triptow
http://www.skyhouse.org/robert/index.html, (thanks, Robert) but today was
my first visit. What an excellent place! It overlooks the ruins of the
Sutro Baths at the oceanfront in the upper northwest part of the city. This
site was used as a location in the filming of ‘Harold and Maude’ (remember
the scene where Harold and Maude play-act as though they were feuding political
activists, and Harold pretends to go gung-ho military kill-happy in order
to avoid being sent to military school? The site where they had that altercation
are the ruins of the Sutro Baths, a popular San Francisco spa during the
early years of this century). Anyway, Louis’ is such a good little
diner, as if location weren’t enough to ensure success. Nice, attentive waitress,
good, reasonably-priced food, a rich piece of chocolate cake for desert as
well as apple pie a la mode. After lunch we walked down among the ruins,
by the water. Life is good!
Peace, Blue
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Tabloid Tarot
I am using the Aleister Crowley Thoth deck of tarot cards,
and refer to a text entitled “The tarot handbook: practical applications
of ancient visual symbols,” by Angeles Arrien, Arcus Publishing Company,
1987. I will do a three-card spread representing past, present, and future.
The reading is as follows:
Past: Major Arcana, The Tower. Readjustment, healing,
restoration, renovation, This makes sense to me in this position because
I have just come through a readjustment phase, and things are feeling much
more positive than they have in a long time.
Present: Ace of Disks, success that is experienced
both internally and externally. This is good news because tomorrow night
I'm going to a production meeting for ‘show show,’ the comedy stuff I do
with Jim Jeske and Lars Micha. I’ve been itching to do some acting lately;
as you read above I’ve been following my passions which seem to be leading
towards showbiz. A few issues back I wrote “I want to be famous so then I’ll
feel I have value.” Sometimes you just have to write these things out before
you realize how stupid they are. Now I feel Like, “god, I love my ordinary
life.” I hope something does come out of the showbiz. But I want to have
FUN, primarily. That’s where success really comes from; simple enjoyment
of everyday life.
Future: Major Arcana, The Moon: This seems to deal with
letting go of the old in order to experience the new. This is relevant because
lately I’ve had dreams of “Elroy,” my ex. I think it’s because it’s been
almost exactly a year since we broke up, since Owen and I started dating
(our anniversary is Sept. 20). I think Elroy and I are both subconsciously
looking back and making peace with the fact that that was all a year ago,
a long time ago now, and are happily moving on and settling into our present
and future lives. This card is about reclaiming authentic parts of myself,
which will give me greater levels of happiness enjoyment of life.
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Upcoming events, internet links and contacts:
Past issues of The Love’s Supreme Desire Tabloid as well
as other Radical Faerie publications can be found at http://www.eskimo.com/~davidk/faeries/pubs.htm/
(9/99): Saw this web page called TV Party referred to
on the television program Wild Web. It’s devoted entirely to programs on
TV from the past and present, including a page of “TV’s most notorious flops:”
http://www.tvparty.com/
(9/99): Corporate Predators by Mokhiber and Weissman.
“The incisive and sharply focused snapshots presented here give a telling
portrait of some of the most dangerous forces undermining what is decent
and hopeful in American and global society. A warning that should be taken
very seriously.” --Noam Chomsky http://www.corporatepredators.org/
(9/99): REFLECTING IMAGES is a networking, resource and
social group whose charter and goal is to bring together nude models and
actors and those who like to photograph, film or cast them. Our membership
is open to anyone, of any experience level and our organized events are designed
to provide all of our members with an opportunity to meet each other, exchange
ideas and concepts and to work with each other on mutually beneficial projects.
Membership is offered to all without prejudice or discrimination to any on
account of gender, sexual orientation, age, race, etc. Ken Craig (510) 222-0551,
NudeActor @Aol.Com
(9/99): The web page of Japanese design team Cherepakha.
One of the team members is my friend John Tymkiw, with whom I went to graphic
design school at the University of Cincinnati. http://www.cherepakha.com/
(9/99): The Atlantic Monthly online at http://www.theatlantic.com/
Suggest a link: What do you think would be of interest to the other readers
of Love’s Supreme Desire Tabloid? Drop me a line with a brief description
including URL, of course.
If you’d like to submit information about an upcoming
event, please email plain text, upper and lower case, with as few artificial
paragraphs as possible. Make sure to carefully edit your text, as I am too
lazy and shiftless to do it myself.