Primal rage arising from the La Brea tar pits

Primal rage arising from the La Brea tar pits, the Alley Oopsinto “I wake up screaming”, comparable to the Oracle at Delphi’s  “Remember the Alamo. Everybody wants top billing,peoples people. “Beware the Ides of March.” Your Grecian Prince  sailing from Athens, across the seas to the island of Crete,

a Spartan yardstick, from the Island of Cypress. 

                                       II

Not a diplomatic metaphor like “The arrival of the Queen of Sheba” But a foreboding of  bestial like King Kong mayhem, downloading Fay Wray (into her Queen of Sheba  role)   never anticipated the blood  thirsty curdling  of the Minotaur, the foam from both corners of his mouth.

What did she know about Frankenstein Dracula larger than life monster fantasies, lurking in a cave off the Island of Cypress..Hadn’t her father, the King of Greece, from his palace in Athens,warn her of awakening the Minotaur, of his cannibal like propensities.

“Remember Princess. Caveat emptor. Go softly and carry a big stick may b e a cliché. But the monster may catch your scent, off the Mediterranean. You’re my only daughter.. Put yourself inmy rolebls. Who can afford losing an only daughter?  A Princess at that!.” 

                                                                              III

Meanwhile the Minotaur tossed and turned    in his lair, the Princess’s boat streaming toward the Island, the Minotaurwhipping the sweaty beads, off his face. “Grrr,” he howled, staggering to the front of the cave. “Who is the wench that dares to launch her sailboat upon my legacy.”

                                                                               IV

“Ophelia, the King’s daughter. Odysseus’s sister, my Monster,”cried his shadow off the wall.

Mister Monster bared his toothless fangs. “Your brother is ournemesis… a struggle to the very end, your Odysseus wore out our twin soul, ”his trunk sized hairy leg, scraping the sand, where the battle royal                    

raged so many thousand of years ago as Time is measured in the Delphi Oracle’s calendar of revenge.“

                                                     IV                                                 

The monster’s twin brother placed his hairy arms upon the hull of the boat. Pushing off, he assailed the Princess, the sister of Odysseus, the Greek Prince  who annihilated deleted his image, ousting his own twin soul into Eternity.

In a marathon battle for the ages, the seas parting for Odysseus,angling his sails into the wind, on his way back to the Athens of our Civilization…

                                                       V

”Remember the Alamo, People Peoples. .. their modus operandi being top billing .”    

February 25, 2015. Beyond the La Brea tar Pts.

Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid

Paul Newman as Butch  Cassidy and Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid (“the Sting” following) coming to grips with Elmer Bernstein’s Oscar winning  score in Harper Lee’s “To kill a mocking bird” Gregory Peck the taciturn legal eagle, evocating the Southern rage and ostracism  that inflames  man’s inhumanity to man.

                                                                                             II

Standing on the Academy of Motion Picture dais, his sweaty palms gripping the gold statuette: his Oscar wining musical score to barrister Peck’s justification of “An unimaginative darkie  aligning his inexcusable but provocative mayhem on a Caucasian clean cut remnant of a culture struggling to hold on to its skin colored yesterdays.

“Amen”           

                                                                                              III

A  feminine Equity minded Hilary Clinton, once of Illinois and Yale Law School during Nam , beat back Bernie Sanders (Brooklyn. Mayor of Burlington, Vermont) passionate”revolution” to win Nevada’s primary for its delegates to the Democratic convention, priming the electorate  for the 2017 occupant of the White House. 

Going for the crown, the first femme dwell in the White House, Hilary Clinton strode into the culinary kitchen of the strip’sFlamingo, she clasped hands o f Meyer Lansky ,(our first boss, a Brownsville soda warehouse)at the Golden Nugget…building the first hotel on the strip…. Shaking hands , Hilary Clinton was pumping  flesh, like a winner.

And the voters, remembering her husband’s two term occupation the White House, she identified  with her Ye Law School student colleague. Shades of Dean Lou Pollock. his roommate at Yale Law, Constitutional Law CLA Professor Aarvo van Alstyne.

                                                  IV

But for Bernie Sanders, the son of immigrants, the former Mayor of Burlington, Vermont and the Socialist Democrat of the Senate, heralding from Madison High School in Brooklyn, the arch rival of the other Bedford avenue high school, Midwood, brings to mind coach Barney Cohen’s basketball team,challenging Bernie’s Madison.

Coach  Cohen’s captain Leny Singer, Shelly fine, Honest Bill Rosenblatt,,Wally Kaplan,. Ira Schneider…off the bench Lefty Jack Dym ( his deadly hook), Lefty Norman Fisher, Lusterman, Hoie Weisglass, Gerry Ringleheim, the “Commish” Marv Glauberman, Jack Singer, Eddie (the Judge) Joachim…..Buddy Solomon……Arnold Aaronson….Captain Stan Rubin

Twelve years up the road on Bedford venue and Kings Highway, Bernie Sanders, the son of immigrants and Presidential contender, giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money as they say ,the two high schools vieng for bragging rights on Bedford Avenue, having in common they were for the most part, all children of immigrants.                                           

“Right Hillary?”

“Right!”

                                            V

In the meantime, at the post office in Oxford, Mississippi, William Faulkner, the famous Nobel laureate in L:iterature  to become, was shuffling  letters into the idiot boxes of the natives and  inhabitants of the Oxford town square.

Once a screen writer at Warner r Brothers in Burbank, he metamorphosed into a relationship with Cary Grant[ and director Howard Hawks (“Only Angels have wings,”) flying mail over the Andes , off the coast of South America. Jean Arthur the romantic  foil for (C.G) Archie Leach…, Rita Hayworth a gig,“Habla el Espanol”.

                                     VI

In those pioneer yesterdays, the thespians all wanted top billing. “Remember the Alamo”  Thus Faulkner’s quest with destiny was a accidental encounter with Eugene O’Neil,  at HoraceLiveright’s, the editor, hired at Random House as editor in chief…..previously an upstate N.Y. dentist.

Sax  Cummins   and wife moved to Princeton, New Jersey. They invited us to share a pot luck dinner with them, the timing a Presidential candidate named Adlai Stevenson, to speak at the University that night.

                                                                   VII

Faulkner trained from Oxford to Princeton, bringing his “Absalum  Absalum” manuscript, for Sax Cummins editing. Handing us the novel, we turned to the “Absalum Absalum”

inscription…

”To Herr Doctor Einstein. Just because I sign my name in your book, doesn’t mean you’re obliged to read it.”    William Faulkner

 February 22, 2016   The City that never sleeps            

Waiting for a new arrival at the Pearly Gates

Waiting for a new arrival at the Pearly Gates, the aerial skywriter, spelling out “Heaven is on the way to it”, the respondents awaiting the arrival of an original thinker into the jurisprudence of an Associate Supreme Court Justice who immersed his 30 year  modus de operamdi into the original intent of our Constitutional Framers… who appointed by President Ronald Reagan (“win one for the Gipper,”  Knute Rockne, Notre Dame football coach)

Associate Justice Antonio Scalia, born of immigrant parents from Italy ( Sicily Novella Roma?) and Elmhurst, Queens. Agraduate of Xavier High School.

“Bingo counselor,” he once said from the bench, painstakinglywaiting for a respondent lawyer to  respond to his query aboutthe petitioner, raising a farfetched argument in lower courtargument.

                                                                                       II

The reception committee constituting  the Federalist Papersapproach, the dictum from Marbury V. Madison, the strict reading of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

“
What did the Framers mean? Justice Marshall’s strictinterpretation?

                                                                                          III

The chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from “Nabooka”?     “A Mishagass” of Honest Abe’s ”Four square and seven years ago”, ricocheting  the  record through those tedious hours , reading and rereading the Federalist Papers…Justice Scalia’s “Bible”. The strict interpretation of the original thinkers of our Colonial

Contemporary geniuses.

“Benjamin Franklin I n Paris”    “Genera George Washington at his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.. Thomas Jefferson at his digs in the State.  

The thinking of  his Presidency. The Monroe Doctrine?

And the end runs of Paul Revere Patrick Henry? John Hancock, prime signer of the Declaration of Independence?

Sitting in their black robes, the Justices into their judicial interpretations, sitting  authority figures, before the practicionerscould argue the merits before these sitting judicial interpreters….our Uncle Harry  acknowledged, he was so honored to appear before the United State Supreme Court in Washington.

A prestigious role, indeed! 

                                                                                          IV                                         

The 79 y7ear old Jurist passed away in his sleep in Texas, on a hunting trip. But his passing gave cause to the turmoil in  the 3 Branches of our Government. The Executive , Legislature, and Judicial.

A whippersnapper,” chorused the former Supreme Court associate justices, awaiting at the Pearly Gates.

Justices Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, Hugh Black, William Douglas  

Dissenters like  “I won’t go quietly. I earned my legacy.” The Oliver Wendell Holmes, Junior. The younger dissecting with Justice Brandeis in their joint grasp, to thwart the conservative majority from stamping their tough love  on the populace living out their dreams in our Democracy.

“Judicial restraint, Counselor,” said the grinning Associate Justice. Scalia. 

“Bingo Counselor.”

                                                                                            V

The legalese of “Certiorari”. “Eminent domain”, “Dissent”   “Caveat Emptor”

Putting on their black robes, the nine Justices metamorphosed into arbiters of the those strict interpretative Federalist Papers, rejecting any notions or ideas that could impair the original framers of the Constitution. Property rights over and above human rights and practical thinking. The Humanity  belongs to the Constitutional framers and their Revolutionary state of mind.

”Dump those barrels of tea. Taxes without representation.Nevar!””

                                                                                               VI

Having  embraced the Brandeis Cardozo Hugo Black William Douglas Oliver Wendell Holmes dissents. Yours truly always found himself identifying with the minority, the majority  viewalways with property  rights and big money…..a frail argument that could make an impact with the status quo. 

No way, Jose!

“Politics!”  The minority view could  never get a break unless Devine Intervention” appeared out of nowhere, to change and alter the pentameters : the factual stage of manipulation, shrewd  manipulation of law library cases, justifying a liberal open minded rationale, reversing the Father Founding thinking, heralding a Magnus Corpus interpretation.

                                                                                              VII

One honored Jurist who was constantly   denied an appointment to the High Court was Circuit Court Judge Learned Hand. A man of high integrity  A larger than life Judge, he may or may not have judicial restraint , opening to an elastic  sweeping elation of equitable resolution.(Mr. Riley’s Equity, Southwestern Law)

So our grasp of Judge Learned Hand’s denial in getting Senate approval of a seat on the High Court. Sitting on the bench,wearing his black robes, Judge Learned Hand was never able to get a consensus, for his own name, to be approved for a tenured seat on the Court.

                                                                                            VIII

“Heaven is on the way to it.”

The Pearly Gates closing……..

The Big Apple, February 15, 2016

“Where have they gone”?

“Where have they gone”?  If a film editor named Alfred Hitchcock out of London’s West End, could  build an international reputatioon with “The Lady Vanishes”  then when we in the prime of life, printing presses of the Hollywood Citizen News, could we ask The Daily Bruin’s UCLA’s Ralph Jackson, the Public Relations scribe and night editor “Where is your mother Deanna Durbin hiding, Ralph?”

                                                                                                  II

In that whirlpool of alliances, marriages, divorces, adoptions, the leading lady in question is Deana Durbin. Ralph’s father, the director Felix Jackson, had split from Ralph’s mother, the MCA agent Phyllis Jackson, for the charming musical wisp……Deanna Durbin.

But how could this be? Wasn’t she the same age as Ralph?  How could contemporary currencies recognize such entanglements.The new mother being the same age of the father’s

son, from his first wedlock?      

                                                                                                 III

Talented as she was Deanna Durbin, hitting those high C’s,amidst Felix Jackson anointing her into a musical  Greta Garbo(“I vat to be alone”) how could she maintain her pitch? …an  Aussie streaming  Joan Sutherland, discovered in London’s opera venue on the South Side.

Her cosmic consciousness of lung power, attracting conductors like “Stokie” (Fantasia), Sir Thomas Beecham, Andre Kostalonza,Leonard Bernstein,  Hollywood Bowl’s Leonard Slatkin’s father, Zubin Mehta.

                                                                                                 IV

In this mist, Deanna Durbin’s step son Ralph Jackson invited yours truly, a fledgling football& tennis scrub, to his parent’s lofty penthouse in the hills, above the UCLA campus. Here in this highly aired ambiance, the celebrity of Felix Jackson, his new bride Deanna Durban, sought out their “son” Ralph’s contemporaries on the Daily Bruin: . the night printing editor at the Hollywood Citizen News.

Bill Stout, (skin color editorial, CBS radio correspondent,), Yosal Rogat (the Mayor), Dwain Esper (into being editor of the Van Nuys Green Sheet, Bob Lupo (Detroit Free Press, card player, deli man at Zucky’s in Santa Monica, Lazar related to Bogy’s agent, Chuck Panama,  Ann Hebert, Al Franken, Bob Segal, Eric Julber turned legal eagle, Vanessa Brown (Chicago’s “Quiz kids”) Bob Azar, Julie Becker, Ann Stern, Frank Mankewicz, Peace Corps, Senator Bobby Kennedy’s secretary….. Al Sliver, bookie Post & Paddock race horse touts and football point spread, Hollywood Park, Santa Anita racetracks, Coliseum sports enthusiasts, cartoonists ,reviving legends like track star and L.A. Mayor, Tom Bradley, Jackie Robinson, breaking the color line in baseball, Kenny Washington, Bob Waterfield, Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Laureate, Woody Strode, Tom Fears, Burr Baldwin, MooseMyers, Jerry Shipley, ROTC Colonel Skip Rowland, Coach BurtLaBruchere, (1946 Rose Bowl contender v. Illinois) Bob Waterfield, backfield coach, husband of actress Jane Russell (“The Outlaw”)

Al Kapp, cross country track snd mile relay, Johnny Patee miler,Craig Dixon, 110 220 yard hurdler on Ducky Drake’s team…Ducky as trainer, Betsy Drake’s father: Betsy, Cary Grant’s third wife.

Basketball coach  Wilber Johns, his initials trumping immortal John Wooden.

AF ROTC Colonel Bing, Bill Ackerman, graduate manager and tennis coach. Professors Charles Titus of Politics,  “Sociological Foundations of Education”, Professor Frederick Woellner,(“Heaven is on the way to it”) a Hilgard Avenue, neighbor of producer Sam Goldwyn, his abode on Sunset Boulevard, off the campus.. Doctor Franklin B. Murphy in his role as Chancellor,creating the guest house, from his office in the Administration ,opposite the Law School.                                                                                                     

Professor Sam Selden, Chairman of Theater Arts, who offered to read and produce “Mozart and Mushroom Barley” in his department…James Dean, getting the Department’s award.    …Professor of Constitutional Law  Aarvo Van Alstyne, sending us to his roommate at Yale Law School, Dean Lou Pollock.Students Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, “weapons of mass destruction” President Bush…Anna Freud, the Herr DoctorSigmund ’s daughter on a stipend,her office above Dean Pollocks’...                                                                                           

But nowhere to be found was Ralph’s  new surrogates? Where were they hiding? At Bruin Bench’s Sports Editor Herb, sitting at the basketball time keeper’s table? (Ed Pauley Pavilion).

                                                                                     V

Publications advisor Harry Morris of Riverside, guiding advising on the issues…Southern Campus yearbook, Daily Bruin bylines (Midwood High’s Argus, Stan Lomax of WOR, without the byline).                                                                                             

Here  in this scramble of greasepaint and printer’s smudge, could a freshman out of Midwood High School, scraping by onBernie Sanders sandwiches from Brooklyn, find himself?

A caravan of highly sounding  greasepaint ambition…Gloria Jean, Bobby Breen, Dennis Day…..on the make.

ABC news at Sunset & Vine, basking in optimism..”Lissen kid, could you scribble a thinking man’s estimate post WW2, in adamong the City of Angels? We’ll air it!”

                                                                                                VI

But like in Alec Guiness’s “Lavender Hill Mob”, the Daily Bruin wetting and experience was a smokescreen for the aspirations of personas, asserting their Gene Autry, Shirley Temple assent to the penthouse of Ralph’s newly parentalalliance.

Felix Jackson and his daughter wife…Deanna Durbin.

                                                                                                VII

Moving forward sixty some years into cyber space, Bernie Sanders out of Brooklyn and Brattleboro, Vermont ,as a SocialistMayor,  Senator , grasping for the Presidency of the United States, along with Hilary Clinton, herself a former Senator from the Big Apple, and erstwhile Secretary of State,  Eugene O’Niel, the playwright, and father in  law to Charlie Chaplin, his daughter Oona, Charlie’s daughter bride,  opened on Broadway…his one actor “Hughie”. 

                                                                                             VIII”.

Could this be? A topsy turvy merry go round…..a quest for the gold ring? A free ride?

Indeed! 

February 12,2016   The City that never sleeps.