Honk if parts fall off

Almost the Green Bomb (1971 Chevy Nova)

(imagine the car is green, visualize plenty of rust and a decaying paint job)

Back in the mid-80s, when my boyfriend was a poor carpenter and I was an even poorer graduate student, we had this car.  It was a early-70s vintage forest green Chevy Nova.  By the time we got the car, it was totally clapped out.  The seats were completely dished out, the e...Read more

Cacophony at Dusk

Here in central North Carolina it is full-on spring.  The days are getting longer, we are getting a lot of rain (this is very important as we have been in a terrible drought since last summer), the trees are producing lung-clogging amounts of pollen, and the birds are nesting and generally going crazy.

Blackbird Corner The other day I took a walk at dusk through my neighborhood and was ear-witn...Read more

Drunken Master goes off the rails

I had the most bizarre experience with a Hong Kong film ever last night, and that is saying something since Hong Kong films have a logic that often defies Western Greco-Roman based concepts of logic.  I recently picked up a digitally remastered, widescreen version of that old Jackie Chan chestnut “Drunken Master”.  I popped the disc into the DVD player, set the language for Cantonese (I can’t abide dubbed films) and the subtitles for English and pressed play.  The first fight scene of the movie begins.  Then disaster:  the t...Read more

Tango in a Time of War

I wrote this poem for a friend of mine, a tango partner who served two tours of duty in Iraq as a Medic.

Tango in a time of war For Luis

he dances to forget, to stop the thoughts that lead nowherebut in on themselvesno exit

he fills his ears with music from a lost childhood, an innocence that can never be recovered but lives on in the nostalgia of a rememberingto forget

his arms embrace a succession of female forms --warm, soft, delicately perfumed-- to blot out the stench of blood and the cold rigidity ...Read more

Left Behind

My love for you is a decadent love One with all the time in the world

I am here, adrift in this material world

And you, by all rights Should be a chief among the angels now Your halo polished bright

Wings gleaming as they Harbor rainbows And encircle my mortal frame

Sometimes I hear their rustle in my sleep And see your smiling face And untroubled brow In the space between things

One bright spring morning For an instant, I think I see you standing there In your new won glory

Is it only my burden of ...Read more

Leslie Cheung, Actor--From Hong Kong to the World-Part 3

Part 3

In “A Chinese Ghost Story” and “A Chinese Ghost Story II”, Leslie defined the role of the comic and tragic bumbling young scholar who falls in love with a ghost.  The odd mix of comedy, romance and ghost story work so well because Leslie is able to contain all these contradictions within himself.  Is there anything more tender and tragic than the lo...Read more

Leslie Cheung, Actor--From Hong Kong to the World-Part 4

Part 4

Leslie also turned in fine starring roles in popular films like the romantic cop thriller “Moonlight Express”.  In Jacob Cheung’s “The Kid”, Leslie struck just the right note as the free-spirited foster father of an adorable little boy.  Careful never to have his performance veer into excessive sentimentality, Leslie gave a heartwarming portrayal of...Read more

Leslie Cheung, Actor--From Hong Kong to the World-Part 1

Part 1

--You have many different looks.

--What type do you prefer?<...Read more

Leslie Cheung, Actor--From Hong Kong to the World-Part 2

Part 2

Leslie also developed into a fine comic actor and starred in some of Hong Kong’s most beloved comedies in the 1990s:  the swishy, effeminate young man in “All’s Well That Ends Well”, the wacky young master in “The Eagle Shooting Heroes” (one of Hong Kong’s most outrageous comedies), the bohemian outsider who solves everyone’s romantic problems in “I...Read more

The thin line

In this lead up to the fifth anniversary of Leslie Cheung's suicide, I have been pondering what it is that has us want to live, or to die.  I am no stranger to suicide in my own life.  A good friend from graduate school who suffered from schizophrenia ended his life by throwing himself in front of a large truck.  He left behind a lovely wife and young daughter.  His disease was controlled by drugs and apparently he had everything to live for.  One day he stopped taking his medication and it was too much for him.  My grandfather ended his li...Read more