To thine own self be true

Magician: The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles, and it’s a very good, well-edited, concise overview of his life and work by Academy Award winner Chuck Workman. Well-worth seeing and worthy of Welles’ genius. Numerous scenes from his films; many interview clips with Welles, associates, other name fans, and those closest to him. Clever choices of background music with some familiar film themes played with other material! A nice balance of bio and the film work with the latter taking precedence. Movies featured include Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Macbeth, Othello, The Trial, Touch of Evil, Falstaff, and F Is for Fake. Some of his unfinished work is commented on, though the director, ironically, doesn’t know Don Quixote and Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight) are available to fans, and The Other Side of the Wind is possibly coming out this year or next. Despite whatever failures and lack of Hollywood support, Welles lived his dreams and was a lover of life, women, the stage, film, and food. He managed to pack in a lot of significant purpose, adventures, and happiness in 70-too-short years. Highly recommended for any students of film and classic film or classic film directors.

This entertaining, informative, comprehensive film stands highly along with the excellent documentary on Roger Ebert–Life Itself also released on DVD this year. Film fans can only hope that Marlon Brando will also be eventually be treated appropriately and similarly with a documentary. It would be great if PBS’s American Masters would finally give Brando his due. A major oversight thusfar if ever there was one.

2006 dust jacketed, flatsigned and United-Order-of-the-Heart-stamped book; Cohen signing above book and a friend stamping to his right

Another great show available from Columbia-SONY, 2014

Leonard Cohen’s 3 CD-1 DVD of his entire Live in Dublin concert from 2013. 30 songs on both CD & DVD. Easily Canada’s greatest male poet, one of our top 3 poets ever, one of our top 3 songwriters. A veritable legend who strangely, but successfully and humorously, blended poetry and music. A down-to-earth guy always with a knowledge of his own and people’s limitations. Some of the best love poems and songs ever written. Highly recommended and very Real.

Personal favorites this time around: Everybody Knows, Who by Fire, Suzanne, Chelsea Hotel #2, *In My Secret Life, Recitation (Thousand Kisses Deep), So Long, Marianne, If It Be Your Will

Some of the earliest blog meditations about basic perspectives. From Nov & Dec 2012.

**To find an entry, locate a month and year on right-side menu first, then scroll to entry date

Epiphany–Nov (2) 2012

A Need for Play–Nov (5) 2012

The Importance of Daily and Existential Choices–Nov (7) 2012

Acceptance–Nov (7) 2012

Proof: On Being There for Others–Nov (10) 2012

Living Large–Nov (16) 2012

Why Literature?–Nov (18) 2012

Rare/st–Nov (25) 2012

The Newcomer–Nov (26) 2012

William Blake Speaking–Dec (2) 2012

Technology: Three Further Takes on Four Daze–Dec (4) 2012

A Meander–Dec (5) 2012

Recalling a Blithe Spirit–Dec (8) 2012

The ‘Basics’ meditations archive continued. Month 3 of the blog.

**To find an entry, locate a month and year on right-side menu first, then scroll to entry date.

Of Dreams, Dreaming, and the Realization of Dreams (and Desires)–Oct (3) 2012

Of Dreams and Relationships–Oct (3) 2012

Of Passions–Oct (8) 2012

On Being Open to Love–Oct (17) 2012

Open-Heartedness and Intimacy–Oct (23) 2012

The Best Freedoms?–Oct (23) 2012

Of Imagination and Creativity–Oct (24) 2012

Poetry in an Unpoetic Age–Oct (30) 2012

In the Knowing–Oct (31) 2012

And we will run the ridges of our green land Tennessee
And we will hide for forty years if that’s what’s meant to be
Meant to be, meant to be, meant to be….

–John Stewart, The Kingston Trio (at their best)

From the first two months of the blog. Getting one’s bearings. Very basic frameworks, perspectives, and recurring themes.

**To find an entry, locate a month and year on right-side menu first, then scroll to entry date.

Individual Process, Briefly— Aug. (24) 2012

On the Necessity of Being an Individual–Aug (24) 2012

Conferring the Meanings of One’s Own Life–Aug (24) 2012

Consciousness–Aug (26) 2012

Connected Consciousness–Aug (29) 2012

Connected and ‘Removed’ Aug (30) 2012

Presence and Non-presence–Aug (30) 2012

Process, Context, and Choice–Sept (2) 2012

Life Possibilities–Sept (6) 2012

Moments of Being–Sept (10) 2012

Life as a Play: Of Performances and Roles–Sept (16) 2012

Of ‘Missing Pieces’–Sept (16) 2012

Anne Frank 15
Joan of Arc 19
John Keats 25
Percy Shelley 29
Gericault 33
Mozart 35
Lord Byron 36
Robert Burns 37
Raphael 37
van Gogh 37
Martin Luther King, Jr. 39
Jane Austen 42
Chekhov 44
Oscar Wilde 46
Shakespeare 51
Descartes 53
Emily Dickinson 56
Beethoven 57
Charles Dickens 58
Montaigne 59
Virginia Woolf 59

Now that’s Perspective.

The poet is in the garden
He has come to hear your confession
to grant you absolute pardons
He speaks to you in earth-tones
many sounding strange to your ears

A bird sings of the evergreen
Here there is time still to bud
and bear fruit in the garden
to turn into leaves and trees or flowers
here on this ever-changing land

Growing seasons have been known
to vary, but always recur in the annals
of earth With some sun and belief
in the garden, you too might grow
here in a summer of stems

There is so little time, though
The wind calls your name
and whispers of eternity
Clouds come and go
and the fence needs repainting

A poet is in the garden now
No one else will walk with him today
But the sun is surely good to all
and blinds his failing eyes
with a white warmth of wisdom

(reprint)

Responses? Reaching me? Richard.Davies@shaw.ca

2 players chasing shadows
on a dim-lit city street
full moon in september
night jet above flashing red
hooo-fffffff
whho-fff

poor man’s tennis:
father-son
no rhyme or reason to our play
writing a poem without a net
hooo–ffff
click<ffff

dream: a bird’s eye view of life
waiting for the one that never falls
about as close to heaven
as we may get: 2 shades of night

on the fly we serve & are served
playing blind for most of the game,
live in dark, though we aim to
keep it going (the bird, I mean)
lightweight though it is,
by backhands & bouncers
doingggg–ffff
whhoo–ff

the net affect of twilight
is a kind of love between us,
stabilizing feathers,
we fly to one another
& pray for contact–
the odd bird grounding out
with the thud & racquet-scrape
of failure

& yet that empyreal possibility
(father-son)
we keep the bird alive
between us & the spirit of flight
fine gut exchanging volleys
in the welkin
beneath polaris star
counting hits & hang-time
waiting for the one
that won’t come down
the one that won’t come back
whoo–fffff
hhhooooo——

(reprint)

You ask for the dream
like a child
set on ice cream
at a Saturday circus

You yearn for old
calendars, broken clocks
& promise to keep
your corner clear of webs

You want to retell
your famous life-story
to poets & editors
recorders of time

But most of all
you ache inside
for the touch of
someone else

nestled close beside you
breath warm along your hair
whispering dark wishes
in the still nights
of your room

(reprise)