an early memory

watching coverage of the 2022 texas attorney general's race, i am reminded of an attorney general's race over sixty years ago when will wilson was running and, i think, won that office.  my parents' friend, bob maddox, a successful attorney in downtown fort worth, hired my older brother patrick and myself to hand out campaign literature for mr. wilson.  we stood near the corner of 2nd and houston streets in downtown fort worth outside an entrance to leonard's department store which occupied at least a block of prime downtown real estate.  i seem to recall that there was an older musician couple, one of them blind, selling pencils and singing gospel songs nearby.  we were often downtown back then because we frequented the downtown ymca.

we would approach strangers on the street and hand them a leaflet, saying,"i would appreciate your considering will wilson for attorney general."  we may have spent several days doing that.  i think we were paid seventy-five cents an hour which was fairly good money at that time for an eight and a ten year old.  i remember going up to bob maddox's office, which was impressive, to be paid.  this is just one memory i have of early downtown fort worth in the 1950's.  i can think of two or three others worth sharing.

covid with coffee

 what passes for news

in all fairness

 what about the hardworking men and women who have worked hard to buy a house and maybe just put enough together to buy another as an investment and rental property to supplement their social security in their old age.  now, because of the renewed eviction moratorium, they are in danger of losing their investment altogether.   is that how joe biden takes care of the little  man?

bill and abraham

bill and abraham were beautiful people.  they may have been married.  i think they flew away to new england or canada for that.  abraahm died before gay marriage became legal  in texas.  bill was a phd in french, and i'm not sure about abraham; but he was very advanced in languages.  they worked together at ut southwestern in medical record keeping.  bill was an international president of a medical record keeping association.  he had taught french literature and published on baudelaire and  picasso.  they took the train from fort worth to dallas daily.  had lived iin dallas, had a lovely home in fort worth.  they had 28 large parrots...mccaws, african greys, etc.  their living  rooms were solid cages and in their bedroom were perches.  they slept with their birds. and they used their kitchen to prepare bird food. they ate out every night, as had bill's parents before him.  they, bill's parents, were also beautiful people.  they ate in nice restaurants. bill's mother worked.  bill and abraham sometimes carried a sugar cannister in case the super sweet tea was not sweet enough for them.  they emptied free newspaper dispensers to line their cages...not thinking perhaps, but that's what they did.  i had known bill since the seventh grade.  we traveled to aviaries and bought birds together.  he graduated from tcu and his doctorate was at the university of maryland or delaware, i think.  they liked to travel to europe and france.  bill had no siblings.  abraham died with advanced diabetes.  he could not face life after his amputations.  they were roman catholics.  they were very good friends to me.  i miss them terribly..God have mercy on our souls. p.s. bill may still be alive.  we lost touch years ago.  he was in a nursing  home in dallas with advanced parkinson's.  had implants in his brain.  could no longer use a telephone or computer. i  do not have transportation.  he became completely non-responsive.  i have never seen an obituary. g.

karmapa/de kooning

as a young man, doug o. pedersen was a bartender at the wilhelm dekoonig estate outside of manhatten.  later, he founded the education department at the whitney new york in the early l960's.  decades after that, he served lunch to his holiness the karmapa in santa fe, new mexico.  doug o. pedersen was my principal mentor and teacher until he passed in 2007.  he is survived by his wife and companion, the colorado artist, kelsey hauck. lnteresting lineage.

in those days, a holiday was a  whole lid day...off a wide mouth mason jar.  personally, i am going on twenty years, clean and sober. gag.

the karmapa is second in command of tibertan buddhism, after the dalai lama, and an independent actor.

good morning

 very early.  could not sleep.  felt itchy and scratchy. very uncomfortable.  took a gabapentin, perhaps an extra, i am not sure. got some cold tea and checked my internet.  pretty interesting.  had a popcorn and more cold tea.  feeling much better.  will shower come later morning.  listening to contemporary gospel.  very healing.  came back to my senses. at peace now. remarkable. 

This .morning (2)

 We have rain. The plants should be happy, if that is possible. I think it is. Gerald Allen 

this morning, thinking of jeanne

we made love on the floor over an old bar 

a gay bar in oakland california

near the berkeley line,

and we could hear strains of music

coming up through the floor from the bar

singing:

"i left my cake out in the rain,

and i'll never have that recipe again...

oh, no",

it was the beginning of a season for love

summer 1969

and i was headed back to texas

and she was gong to join me later

we hitchhiked to mendocino

a hippie paradise

in northern california

it was an adventure 

i will never forget

Coney Island

 Only went to Coney Island once, after running into John Epstein at a Leonard Bernstein concert at Lincoln Center in July, 1965.  Had not seen John for two weeks since that crazy party at Jimmy Mathis's weeks earlier. He took me to a gay bar in the Village, and then we went to Coney Island. Later we went back to John's apartment at Bleeker and Macdougall, where we had some kind of an encounter. I knew I was homoerotic, but hardly knew what to make of open homosexuality...still don't. I had always hoped to marry and have a family.  I never did, but I have been at least technically celibate for sixteen years.  This has been my "Coney Island of the Mind", a nightmare of sorts, but still with "hope" up ahead.

BIDEN

 Donald Trump had a coherent, intelligent foreign policy. Biden does not, will not. Wrong headed

A good life

 Deserves a better heaven.

"presumably false"

 ...NBC. few things are absolute certain, and fewer still are "proven FACTS", Mr. President 

Saw a mouse this morning. That's a FACT.

Insa

 Insa dental lee. This is where I like to blog... geraldallengeorge1.blogspot.com. 

Unblogged

 Time to blog and unblog (unblock) early morning.  7 a.m.  bach on WRR. Sun will be up soon. May be cloudy, even fog. Claudia...Cardinale.  Good morning, Lord.

Ho! Xanadu!

 Ho! Xanadu! is my new collection, 96 pages, printed at lulu.com with a color cover, but available only through me at gageorge0245@gmail.com at $12 total, shipped, or $10 in person.  It is fully packed, and hopefully entertaining.

Luis Alaya

 Luis Alaya has passed away at age 90. I think it may have been from covid. I saw it on the news. He was in the news recently on his birthday.  He had been cutting hair in Fort Worth for seventy-five years.  He often cut mine.  Pastor Doug Estes introduced me to Luis years ago when Doug and I lived at the Grove Home. Doug is in his late 90's now. Luis' shop was on North Main.  He trained at the old barber college across the street from the courthouse. In the 1960's a judge might send you there to get your long hair cut instead of sending you to jail. Luis was a great and noble human being. I will miss seeing him.

Mr. Moates' Art

Mr. Moates' was my Aunt Dorothea's employer. He owned a small chain of department stores.  She worked in his advertising department.  Gary Moates', a local lawyer and political figure, may be his son. I am listening to W. A. Mozart's 40th Symphony, a favorite. My aunt was Dodo George Nesbitt.

I remember Betty White

 in Life with Elizabeth, a fifteen minutes show on early TV

Heinz Hall

 Listening to the Pittsburg Symphony.  Was once in Pittsburg myself with a traveling Buddhist mission.  Visited the Heinz Chapel at Pitt U. Seems like there was a statue of Stephen Foster. Remember the stained glass windows. Thought of the 57 varieties of Christianity. 

The House Mouse

 Saw the mouse this evening, a somewhat prolonged encounter.  He was out and about in the kitchen when I switched on the light.  Longer than I remembered, he scurried near the sink, ran past the refrigerator, and then disappeared behind the stove. Must have been scared half to death. I would have given him a bite of cheese.  I just finished a bowl of sour cream and honey.  No word from Russell today. Hope he's ok. GAG

Conspiracy

 While it may not have been explicit voter fraud, (and that is still a possibility), there certainly was a conspiracy of media giants, educational authorities, and entertainment moguls to undermine the Trump presidency from the beginning, solely because he represents the great American conservative tradition stretching back at least as far as Goldwater and Reagan, espousing conservative Christian values.

Russell Butler

Russell Butler will not make up his bed, or take out the trash.  Is a walking tower of trash.  Trash literally falls off of him. 

Watching Wombat

How to Attract the Wombat was a humor book by H. Allen Smith given to me by Greg Curtis from Larry McMurtry's Houston bookstore.  My first collection was called Watching Wombat.  The Smith volume resides in Maine, I believe.

73 Million

73 Million Americans voted for Donald Trump. They are not nescasarahlea going anywhere, but to the next election ...sirrah, que, sirraquill

 Anna Moffo in Traviata, VHS, 1968

Heard her sing this at Lewisohn Stedeum in 1965, thanks to John Epstein, Ivan Davis, James Mathis and John Ardoin, I think.  A great group for a novice like me.

Donald Trump

Trump was a great President.

 May we live to run another day.

Peter J. Stine

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