Tag Archives: Gus Mackenzie

Come See About Me

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It’s Friday and it’s considerably cooler than it’s been the past couple of days. It’s drier than it’s been but about 20 degrees lower. It’s been a busy day though. Laundry, library and some food shopping basically.

I had hoped to go see Pecong tonight. That’s the play that Bill has been stage managing for the past month. I know I told him the 26th when he offered me a ticket for last Friday, the 19th. That was when I went to see the Street Corner Mourners and opted for the following week.

Bill didn’t hear it, or forgot about it and focused on Saturday instead. It’s no big thing, I’m still seeing the show but I was also thinking about seeing Chris Repella and her band Glass Trees in Jersey City tomorrow night.

I’m not sweating it, I’m sure I can catch Chris and her band play another time. Plus Bill’s been a victim of allergies and a bit stressed so he gets a pass. Sunday is the Last Sunday of the Month Shakespeare Reading at McSwells, this month, the Scottish Play aka Macbeth.

I picked up 2 copies from the library, one of them being a Cliff Notes version. Today at the bibliothèque I also picked up Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood which for those playing at home, is his take on Macbeth. I also picked up Ian McKellan and Judi Dench in a BBC production of the Scottish Play.

The librarians were all a bit out of it due to some painting being done in the basement. They were a little loopy. It was cute though.

I told them about my writing a letter to the Hoboken Reporter with regards to Governor Christie’s plan to cut the budget and close the libraries. I wrote a letter a few years ago praising the library and it was my pleasure to write one again after going to the bibliothèque almost every day and seeing how busy it is and how helpful they are to the community.

Christie is also planning cuts in education, so much so that some schools will not have any sports programs after school. Not that I am a sports enthusiast but I do recognize the need for such activities for the young folk these days.

Of course Christie plans on tax cuts for people making over $400,000 a year. Scum bag? Bastard? Fat Fuck? All labels apply here.

I also got from the bibliothèque Tom Waits- Glitter and Doom Live, Van Morrison’s Greatest Hits, A collection of the Supremes and Spoon- Transference. Also on DVD Joni Mitchell- Painting with Words & Music and Auntie Mame.

I requested Auntie Mame after watching on YouTube, Steve Hayes ‘Tired Old Queen at the Movies’. Steve Hayes is a NY resident and old school movie queen. He posts one review a week, usually about 3 minutes long about different movies from the golden age of Hollywood.

Last week was Auntie Mame, starring Rosalind Russell and it was such a fun review I thought I’d watch it again.

I did watch it once before when in 1990 I wound up at Uncle Charlie’s in the Village with my then boyfriend Gus Mackenzie. I think it was the night before Thanksgiving and it was Gus’ idea.

He was just coming out of the closet and wanted to go to all the gay places that he had read about in the closet. I was infatuated with him enough to go along with it. As time went on to show, Gus was a frigging idiot and a liar and we broke up a month or so later.

No regrets and after seeing him once a year or so later, I have no idea where he is now. I do hope he’s alright though.

And here’s Steve Hayes, the Tired Old Queen at the Movies:

Oliver’s Army

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Well I just came back from a walk to the Post Office and I find an email telling me I won the Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna contest. I win 2 autographed posters, a playbill from the opening night in Manchester, England and a Sundance Channel tote bag!

They won’t ship these out until after the holidays so any re-gifting will have to wait until next year. Thems the breaks I suppose. It’s not the Mega Millions.

Someone won the whole $160 million. One person. Not me. But the Sundance channel tote bag is nothing to sneeze at though it might be good to wipe your nose with after the sneeze.

What? Too soon?

Last night I watched the Miracle Worker which I had never seen before. I did read the play ages ago in either Annemarie’s or Brian’s Literature book from Lodi High School. They had to read it, I read it for fun.

I enjoyed it, great performances from Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. There were some scenes where Annie Sullivan who had terrible vision squints into the distance when Helen Keller goes off in the distance with her mother.

The squinting, accompanied by the wringing of hands makes it look like Annie Sullivan is scheming. It is also ripe for satire and I wonder if SCTV ever did a sketch based on it.

It would seem to be a perfect match. There’s probably so many episodes of SCTV that it has to be in there, along with Ben Him and the story of Natalie Ringneck, the girl who was raised by geese.

Right at the buildup for the climactic finale, Harpy called. ‘What is it with Tyler Perry’ ‘What is it with hat hair?’ ‘What is it with…’ blah blah blah. Oh Harpy was in his ivory tower playing the snob. If he didn’t get it, if he was who it was aimed for, he deemed it inferior as are the people who enjoy such things.

He also had a ton of advice for me and this blog and what I should do about it. He did mention one thing and it struck a chord/ Basically this blog is like one of Harpy’s favorite books, The Andy Warhol Diaries.

And it’s true, that’s just one of the influences on this here blog. Andy was an influence on me and how I look at things, and I did get the Diaries when they first came out, and even have the Spy Magazine unofficial index yucked away inside. I just missed being included in page 689 of the hardcover, arriving after the incident happened and the books being sold out. I don’t write about it again so, I wrote about it here:

Here She Comes Now

Harpy droned on and whatever momentum I had gained while watching the movie soon petered out. I did watch some of the Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City, a DVD and CD and book of Macca’s shows at Citifield back over the past summer.

It was a wonderful gift from Annemarie, Rex and Earl. As sweet as the cookies and brownies she sent. I offered to get a copy burned for her but she already got her own. I only watched the first 10 songs and want to watch the rest with Bill sometime soon.

2 pairs of eyes will come in handy trying to find Annemarie & Earl, Julio & Stine and Bill & myself in the stands.

What? It could happen.

Apparently they handed out flip cameras to people in the audience for the recording and you never know, maybe somebody was walking by and caught the six of us doing whatever it was we were doing that night. I honestly don’t remember.

I heard from Casey Chasm, calling with holiday greetings and an update on his life. He seems to be going ahead and joining the army. For the insurance, for he and the missus and the baby. To me it seems drastic, but it’s not my life. I’d rather he didn’t need to enlist, but I support his decision. So good luck to him, Pvt. Chasm.