recollections of you

The tap pants you bought me
The bra with the apricot ribbon
I found in the monoprix in the 19th
and the flowers you bought for no reason
before we went foraging for dinner, returning
home rich with thick clumps of vegetable
radishes, cabbage, carrots, our rich spring onions
a garden of lettuce, tomatoes
the roots still clutching and from each would fall
handfuls of dirt, of this French soil.
I could smell it.
The earth redolent and lovely
as our days in the country
and the photograph of you
snapped at Baudelaire’s tomb;
how you rested, so casual and,
so easily comfortable, already no
stranger in this thick foreign land
but a citizen, like me, European
so easily loose-limbed and elegant
in that way that only the romantic
can afford. The look in the eye,
the present pursed pout, how we stand
hips thrust forward as if made for the fucking -
for true and real kissing on the parched
peck of America . This is why:
I love you. One reason, yes:
but it makes us kindred
woven of same fabric
our silks so easily intermingling
how we lie down together
how we pull the shutter
how we shut out the world,
& how we open ourselves.

the time is now...

After a whole blog of being Bored that I wrote while back, in which I was then bored with film, bored with life, bored bored and more and worse, damn boring myself in my black and dark mood, I have become still boring but less bored.

In fact, now it seems there is almost too much going on and in my effort to not be bored, I have taken on yet more work and more, including podcasting for www.Teleread.org of which I am glad and am highly recommend as a venue to visit and comment for anyone interested in publishing issues, but I’m also writing now for BBC h2g2 as well as BBC Collective as well as here as well as any number of poetry journals not to mention that I edit two of them and not to mention that now, now at the end of Paul Weller’s Long Hot Summer I find that I have landed the much coveted fulltime job for which I had longed for after a leave to work on my own book (which is, I am pleased to say, almost finished and looking to my and my editor’s eyes good, and you read part of it here as Fugues & Fireflies and BBC took another chapter called Waltz XO. Why then the need for a corporate job, albeit in the most creative division of the company, I admit, it does boggle mind, if only slightly.>>>>>>more, select link
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/26/141438.php

grist for the mill

image: ralph gibson

i never thought i'd find myself podcasting or into the e-book scene after so many years in print and yet oddly, here i am at www.teleread.org where i encourage you to go. That said, I remember years ago working in a friend’s barn and running the old letter press and greasing the rollers with the blackest ink and selecting the Monadnock paper from the sheets he had (and there were many) and then setting the type by hand on a block, fitting in the leading for space and using the old Perpetua face that is so rare and changed, if findable, these days.

Just the rhythm of running the press… the way one had to crank the shaft and then slip in the paper and turn, how it felt like a ballet privee once you adjusted to the movement of it. How you fell into a pattern and a rhythm all your own and could lose yourself in the printing process itself ~ I suppose much in the same way you can lose yourself in the writing of any book. So as i write now, i wonder if i will find my way into a print book or an e-book for any that i write... certainly both would be welcome but there remains something for me in the printed word, even though i plan on publishing a collection of poems at www.lulu.com another site i strongly encourage you to visit.

the point? we come full circle and we never know where we will land. Not exactly anyway, and that is always grist for the mill and keeps things interesting.

sadi ranson-polizzotti for teleread.org

Another collaboration between Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti & Mark Caywood.

http://grandmal.blogspot.com/2005/08/variations-on-theme-by-mark-caywood.html

Columbo – the complete third season
There is something that makes Columbo just so loveable.
It’s Peter Falk, no question, who as a child, I remember thinking he was this older man because he wore that great bit overcoat and appeared always stooped over and that made me think he was older than he really is. Now, as I watch the episodes again, I see that he can be hardly more than his early forties (if that) and that really, he’s quite a handsome guy, not the old geyser I had imagined, but someone I could>>>>> more http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/12/153345.php

waltz xo makes BBC The Post/UnderGuide

Read up on the latest piece on the BBC, the story Waltz XO (after the title by Elliott Smith). A brief short story.

copyright basics | not so basic afterall

In these almost Wild Wild West days of the Internet and other media as it develops at the speed of sound there seems to be much debate about copyright law, so it only makes sense that for any reasonable discussion of the issue, we first layout the copyright laws as they stand at present before moving on to a further discussion about how they have changed. It’s all to easy to whine and complain, but first, one needs a basic understanding of not only copyright law as it is today, and as it was and is worldwide, for example, but also, what this means for both the author (the copyright holder – here I use author in a general sense) as well as the person wishing to use the author’s work and seeking copyright permission or more, anyone infringing on copyright laws as they exist and what this could potentially mean in legal terms >>>more>>>
http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/sadi-ranson-polizzotti-article/2005/8/7/copyright-basics-not-so-basic-after-all.html

dirty pretty things ~ what price?

If you are not an immigrant and want to know what the immigrant experience is or wereever curious, then see Dirty Pretty Things directed by Stephen Frears and starring Audrey Tautou, the dark-haired beauty and incredibly gifted girl who starred as "Amelie,” though don’t expect to see the same light –hearted, albeit melancholic girl, because Tautou is far too talented for that. She is changeable, the sort of actress directors dream of. a dream before camera;’ you can hear the words, “The lens loves her,” and indeed it does; those eyes! that mouth! Note too that this is Tautou’s first English-speaking film and she is exceptional in her language in this way and her Turkish Mulsim accent. click here for more. or cut and paste into your browser if the link does not work: http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/sadi-ranson-polizzotti-article/2005/7/17/dirty-pretty-things-audrey-tautou-breaks-out-a-review.html

sadi ranson-polizzotti, july, 2005

monogamy, mistresses, wives and other loves...

There is just so much to say about marriage, relationships, being a wife, being a mistress, being the husband or the lover, the abandoned, the abandonee and i can tell you from all ends, no matter where you are at this moment in time, the situation is difficult for all concerned.

The wife will think the mistress has the easier course and in some ways she is right: after all, she is not "being left." Yet at the same time, she does not "have" her man in any way that society anyway, would count as meaningful. That may change of course: marriages do end, relationships come to a close and things move on and one day, despite all the heartache, you find that you are glad you lived through it (really) and just to feel the wind on your face again becomes a joy. To rediscover yourself, your indepence, the fact that yes, you can fix the toilet all by yourself and buy a ratchet set and all those things you thought you could never do, by god, you can and will do them.

At the same time, being cheated on, whether mistress or wife or husband or lover, is one of the most profoundly painful experiences i know of and having been on both sides of this issue, i can assure you both wife and mistress, that both roles are fraught and for the days of suicidal weeping that you may have (or perhaps you are more grounded, i cannot say), i can guarantee you that the other party, as much as you may loathe him or her, is going through the exact same thing.

I remember once not being able to deal with the guilt at the end of my marriage, even though as we know, it takes two to tango and in his way, he too had cheated on me. Perhaps not with a person, but by being unavailable and thus cheating me out of years of my life and while i am grateful for the happy years, i cannot and never will get back those lost years of my earlier life. I hold no bitterness or resentment and neither does he ~~ anymore. But for a time, yes, we both did. This is normal. I can also tell you that now, both my ex, my husband and his exwife all four of us are very dear friends and i call my husband's exwife among my best of girlfriends. This, a woman who formerly in her words, "detested me" has become someone whom i love and who loves me in return.

Things change. Read Advice to a young Girl from an Old Mistress ~ an invaluable book if you wish to be married and yet be a mistresss and lover to your husband at the same time (i assure you, this is possible).

But what of those "emotional affairs" in which there is supposedly, they say, "no phyical contact, oh, the occasional hug or quick kiss on the cheek for comfort, but as i've heard "it means nothing." This is simply not true. It can and does mean everything. It is as much of a red flag as a full-blown affair if not more so because it invovles a certain amount and depth of feeling, perhaps more than any physical affair. In the emotional affair, real feelings are involved. Real parties are involved and real discussions are had, the hardest and most hurtful part, discussions about you. Talk about betrayal.

I condone neither, but nor do i judge; i stand by and watch as we not only fuck as it were, but fuck it all up. It's high time we learned the hard lessons and grew up and in the words of one song i know "did some shit" which means that we stop acting like the little GenXers we are or Baby Boomers who were the "me" generation because no matter what your age, give yourself or your partner an ultimatum. Yes, that's right, i said ultimatum. An ultimatum is not a "bad" word, it means quite simply choosing between one or the other. And likewise, give yourself the same ultimatum if you re on the giving end of this and make a real choice.
Jimmy Carter said to commit lust in your heart is adultery and cheating and i quite agree. It should not be a "choice" not to screw around or cheat, but just a thought that never occurs because one is so in love, so engaged, so caught up in the other person that this is not even a thought that passes the mind if "just for a moment", as i've heard. Or the "on some level i liked her" crap that is dissembling and means absolutely nothing. Come clean, tell the truth, and get real.

Whatever you choose to do, do it openly and honestly because if you believe enough to it in the first place, then show you have a backbone and back up your actions. Be brave and do not give in to social pressure that says "monogamy is not natural" and then ask yourself why it is that even whooping cranes and certain gulls are monogamous. Is this some accident of nature? Are they more evolved than you or I? I don't know. I only know that it is possible and that is enough to give me hope for true and lasting love and passion.
Never settle. You are worth so much more than that... and you know it.


s.r.p.
July, 2005.

time out of mind ~ Dylan | really?

I admit: I am in slightly taken with “Time Out of Mind”, the Dylan album that I’ve had long arguments with people about because they like others more and sure, they’re good and we all love the old Bob, but frankly, I’m partial to the new Bob and I’m worried. Very worried...

Argue all you want, but I think it is one of the most honest Dylan albums that I’ve heard in ages, and while many have come before (that I truly love), in terms of more recent music, it is Time Out of Mind that appeals.

“I’m sick of love….that I’m in the thick of it.” he sings in “Love Sick” about a certain kind of love (“this kind of love, I’m so sick of it.”) What kind of love, I wonder. Is he talking about a true and lasting love (if so, it doesn’t sound it). Is it a sort of fight and fuck love that we’ve most of us dealt with? Is it groupie shit that god knows, we’ve heard rumors but the hell with rumors, or is it still the hurt from years ago or a more recent hurt? NO matter which way you cut it, the first cut is apt: He is, as he says “love sick” and the rest of the album bears it out. >>>> more.

bob dylan | world tour 66 through the lens of mickey jones

World Tour, 1966
The Home Movies

Through the Camera of Bob Dylan’s Drummer Mickey Jones

What is it about Dylan, then and now, that makes that voice so damn sexy, so damn workable. I mean, I can listen to “Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues.” and I practically melt every time, especially when he says Your debutante knows what you neeeeed, but I know what you waaaant…” and that “oh, Mama, or “ahhhugh, mama.” It could even be crude coming from someone else, but from Dylan it is damn sexy.

On anyone else it would sound cheap and stupid, but with Dylan… as I said: never.

http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/sadi-ranson-polizzotti-article/2005/7/2/behind-the-camera-of-mickey-jones-bob-dylans-66-behind-the-scenes-documentary.html

summer, 2005 ~ june greeting

Welcome to Sotto Voce;

"matin" by alain daussin

Why this image? We change this Splash page weekly to keep articles, new poetry and other news updated, and at that time, we sometimes change the image here as well. We have reached the long, hot, sultry days of Summer and the Eastern seaboard feels as though it had been coated with a heavy wet wool blanket. It is humid, languid, and in another context, perhaps it could even be considered sublime. But as we rush about going to and fro interviews, meeting business friends and others, and of course, just getting out to see the world and lately, visit the old haunts to be sure that neither they nor we have forgotten our roots, the weather leaves us ragged, hot, wrinkled, slumped. Still, I always feel a great sense of hope this time of year. It is the time of year when women are, i believe, at our most beautiful. We emerge in our summer dresses, our long legs slightly burnished (but not too much), our impossible but lovely strappy shoes on, our newly bobbed hair that looks as if it didnt' care, a pink glow and a flush to our cheek and the promise of hope. Yes, it can be hard to slog through such weather, but we do it and we do with a grace and an ease that were we to see ourselves, we would be, i think, most pleasantly surprised. I post a Daussin picture here, though it could easily be one of myself ~ the same pose, same aspect, same mood and tone. Perhaps next week, i'll use myself as the model. For now, enjoy the moment and know for as heavy as it may feel, there is always lightness just around the corner. Summer brings hope ~ I am a firm believer. Life is, if nothing, fleeing, and to always anticipate the next wrong thing is a mistake; it will come all by itself and your worrying or not worrying about it will not change a thing. All you can do is feel the joy in this moment.

Most exciting this month: video poetry with sound and vision so check it out. Instructions for download are there, though technically you should just be able to click and it will download on its own. I hope you enjoy this; i'm slowly adding more as i go along, and yes, i know i look doofy, but hey...

There is so much here that rather than try again to give you some introduction, it's better you explore. Whatever you are looking for, i do hope that you find it here at Tant Mieux or one of our sister sites which you can easily get to from our Links sections. More, you can Google my name and find various and sundry pieces either by me or about me. There are duplicates of course, but my goal is to provide top-level content in every area for which i write. To that end, Welcome again and enjoy browsing our sections - Poetry, Images, Articles, Book and Literary Criticism, Film Comment and Critique, Cultural Comment, Generational Articles and GenX Work, Prose and Original Fiction, Creative NonFiction, Geek Work and Audio Blogging.

New this week - a big focus on Bob Dylan with, for now, two articles to check out - Don't Look Back (footage of the '65 tour)and, how could we not do that without also doing Eat the Document (the '66 tour) as well as our article about the film, Masked & Anonymous starring Bob Dylan, as Jack Fate, all available at www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/

We're happy to report that all pieces have already been picked up by the best Dylan sites out there and if you would like to link, please do - just drop us a line and let us know. Dylan remains one of the most influential musicians/poets of our time, so if you are asking me Why now, my answer is Why not now?

Summer is here full on, with lazy days and the sultry humid Eastern seaboard where the air is still as a wet blanket and our shirt backs wetten with the heat and yet, the future looks bright to me. Summer brings a renewed sense of hope. The feeling that anything is possible, and though perhaps this is illustory, a feeling that we are in control of our own destiny. I pray this much is true.

Be sure to join us later this year for reportage from Paris. If you're looking for work from Paris now, visit either France Poems and Chants here or Tant Mieux Paris. New poems that we particularly like in this moment are The Beginning and another about Pressigny and love and all of the great human emotions: Three O Clock in the Afternoon Pressigny, www.tantmieux.squarespace.com in our France Poems & Chants section or at www.tantmieuxparis.blogspot.com/

Thanks again to all of you for making us a success- and welcome again to the Tant Mieux Project.

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti, June 2005

June, 2005

Bob's Fate | Bob Dylan & Masked & Anonymous

Masked & Anonymous

Starring Bob Dylan as “Jack Fate” and a whole host of other characters with so many cameos that I eventually lost count, though to note a few: Bruce Dern, Giovanni Ribisi, Luke Wilson, Val Kilmer (as an animal rights activist and farmer), Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Christian Slater, Mickey Rourke, Penelope Cruz, and on and on…

Here is the set-up: Jack Fate, played by Bob Dylan, is in jail, though why exactly is unclear. Let’s just say it has something to do with the corrupt sort of guerilla government in the country in which the film takes place, supposedly America. But no ordinary America, this is America at some point in the future, and boy, it is a mess. It is run by corrupt officials, rebels, a sort of Sandinista government and to really top it off, the leader the entire mess, as we will find out in due course, is Jack Fate’s own less than beloved father, El Presidente, and though we never meet him directly, we see his image carried throughout the film, either directly in front of us as a frame or hovering in the background as a framed poster on the wall. He is a lurking presence and a not-so-gentle reminder of Big Brother who sees all and could give a shit. (select link for more)

http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/sadi-ranson-polizzotti-article/2005/6/6/bobs-fate-bob-dylan-masked-anonymous-review-by-sadi-ranson-polizzotti.html

the devil in the front row | Oppenheimer's biography of Vogue editor, Anna Wintour

Front Row
Anna Wintour: The Cool Life & Hot Times of Vogue’s Editor in Chief
by Jerry Oppenheimer


One cannot say with any real authority or certainty whether or not the road to success has been particularly easy or particularly difficult for Anna Wintour, now Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue, a position much coveted by Wintour for, it would seem, her entire career, if not her life from when she was as young as fifteen. Wintour had set herself from the very beginning on the trajectory that would take her to where she wanted to be, carefully planning each job, rarely moving laterally, always moving up, and often moving up with the help of the current lover or boyfriend of the moment. To say this is not to say that Wintour did not or does not earn or merit her current (or really any) of the various and impressive positions she has held; she has proven her talent again and again. It is simply to state the fact, that like anyone, Wintour knew enough to use not only her stunning and coquettish good looks (which, even as a young girl, the young Anna quickly learned to manipulate), to her excellent connections in publishing already established by her father, Charles Wintour ... (link for more)
http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/sadi-ranson-polizzotti-article/2005/6/3/the-devil-in-the-front-row-a-review-of-jerry-oppenheimers-biography-of-anna-wintour-and-the-devil-wears-prada.html

gracefully insane | a history of mclean hospital ~ then & now | review

McClean hospital has long been a place for the elite. Since it’s founding and original location near Charlestown and eventual move to Watertown on the outskirts of Boston, McClean has had a certain panache that other institutions just don’t have, and we are talking here of mental institutions, or perhaps a more polite term, places where people can get some rest from life, take a breather, get the help that they need and set themselves back on track.

<>Unlike twelve-step programs and the like, McClean is by contrast almost a country club. Yes, certain wards are locked wards, and true enough, when the famous Olmstead designed it, he created myriad underground tunnels so that residents did not travel above ground from building to building, thereby lessening the odds of escape. The tunnels connect almost every building, save for a few, which had remained largely independent. (select link to read more...)

http://www.blogger.com/http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/sadi-ranson-polizzotti-article/2005/6/1/a-graceful-insantiy-book-review-about-mclean-hospital-belmont-massachusetts.html

http://gracefulinsanity.blogspot.com/

down came the rain | brooke shields on postpartum depression, a review

On the glossy, slick surface of things, it seems that actress and model Brooke Shields has led a life of privilege and success with few problems. Considered one of the great beauties and sex symbols of our time, Shields has consistently courted the image of herself as the girl with the “right” morality (remember how publicly Shields spoke out about virginity and cigarette smoking?) and the all-American girl next door.

As an actress, Shields managed to portray a highly sexualized young girl in the film Pretty Baby without tarnishing her lily white, so-pure-it-floats image and more, Shields possesses that rare beauty that seems effortless; that comes of good-breeding and chance. And while anyone else with those bushy dark eyebrows may look simply under-groomed or inelegant, on Shields they became part of her signature look, even lending a sexiness that simply didn’t work on most others. And more, whatever she did, whether it was modeling or acting or being interviewed, Shields always seemed to have it all figured out: she was always poised and whatever role she happened to be playing, she played it convincingly, even in The Blue Lagoon, which would have been rather insipid in most ways were it not for Shield’s performance which made it seem almost conceivable that this beautiful, lithe long-haired girl lived a life of bliss and fist love, her long lithe (and nude) body slipping through the depths of the aqua water. (link to read more...)

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/25/134913.php

recent poetry publications | april - may, 05

Recent poetry publications include new work appearing in the esteemed Adagio Verse Quarterly and we're proud to be in such good company, so here are two recent poems (select link or click here.)

http://www.geocities.com/adagioversequarterly/p12.html

&

We're also proud to add that yet more work has found its way to Underground Window, an excellent publication with two terrific senior editors and founders. Click here to see this work or select the link below.

http://www.undergroundwindow.com/sadiapril05.html

mood of the moment | may, 2005

May rains and rains and I find myself focusing more and more on writing and becoming absolutely absorbed in obscure material and old texts, filling my head with all sorts of fascinating information that, on the surface, would appear to have no practical use, yet if you look deeper, such things - philosophy, math, chaos theory, Taoism, programming, and certain sciences - are at the very core of our lives. Without these things, we have no ability to analyze, to think logically or in any sort of linear fashion (let us bow down to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle), and our self-discipline that keeps us going everyday no matter what (Marcus Aurelius), and how things work (Newton), and how to be revolutionary in everything that we do and take on -

These days, I turn to Guy Kawasaki, an amazing entrepreneur and former Apple Fellow who went on to form the VC firm Garage.com - highly successful - and then penned several books, one of which is Rules for Revolutionaries - a must read for anyone wishing to do anything and intending to make a difference.

I've taken up kick-boxing and tae bo, and see a marked change not only in my body (strengthening, lengthening), but in my mind as well: focus, will-power, determination.)

As you likely know by now, there are those that would gladly tear you down. And yes, even those whom you have trusted can turn in a heartbeat, and though it may not make sense at the time, my advice is to move forward, to not look back and try to understand because there is no understanding the purely irrational behavior of others. The best you can do is understand yourself - take yourself to task - know thyself - be firm, courageous, willing to take a chance when it feels right, and never afraid to jump from the high-board when the situation calls for it.

As Nelson Mandela said, "It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us..." and he ends by saying, "ask yourself, Who am i not to be? And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same." (inagural speech).

Thanks for listening,

s.r.p.
may, 2005
www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/

bob dylan | don't look back documentary '65

It always comes back to Bob Dylan. Or it does for me anyway. So why should it be a surprise that again, I wanted to watch the two tour films, Don’t Look Back (1965 tour) and Eat the Document (footage of the 1966 tour). There is something about Dylan in these early recordings that captures and holds me the way it captured and held so many. (select link for more...)
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/16/175908.php

bob dylan | eat the document footage of '66 tour

Watching Eat the Document, the footage of the Bob Dylan 1966 tour and the documentary that followed Don’t Look Back (the 1965 tour footage) is a perfect illustration of just how relative time can be. For Dylan, the differences between his 1965 young, acoustic, and fresh-scrubbed self and his louder, electric 1966 self show a markedly different man – and one who was not always accepted by even the most true and loyal fans who had shown up expecting a nice, quiet, acoustic show and were met instead with a screaming electric band and a Bob Dylan they did not recognize. (select link for more...)
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/18/160638.php