'I Read With My Spine'

2-28-06 The Shock Of Actual Art


Vladimir Nabokov The Russian American novelist (1899-1977) said 'I read with my spine.' Mr. Nabokov also says in his lectures he considered all great novels to be Fairy Tales: Dickens, Jane Austen, Flaubert, James Joyce, Proust, Kafka---the whole works. He said when he felt that tingle in his spine he knew he had hit The Real Thing---the genuine Work of Art---the truly successful fairy tale.

Emily Dickinson the American poet (1830-1886) said much the same thing. She said she KNEW she was reading a poem when she experienced that ice cold shudder going up down her spine & felt the top of her head coming off. That's pretty strong language for the little red head from Amherst, Massachusetts who preferred to wear white. And who stuck all her poems in boxes & put them in the closet where they were discovered to be distinguished after her death. She only published 8 poems in her lifetime. Talk about a Futurist! She lived her life completely for the future of Poetry.

My third poignant quotation concerning The Ultimacy of The Creative Act comes from Kafka who wrote this: Art is the axe that smashes the frozen sea within us. Now that is pretty potent stuff.

I mention these utterly remarkable utterances by Masters of The Art they practiced because I live inside The World of The Creative Act. Every Artist worth a dime is in some sense Obsessed with CREATION. Come hell or high water The Creator is going to Create. Ecstasy, Anxiety or tedium itself: Everything is the stuff of Art to the authentic Creator. You will not find this Absolute Urge in academia with the most rare exceptions which (writing schools) essentially puts the writer in bedroom slippers & gives him or her a cup of tea & some crumpets & a reading list. (Of course you could be Lucky & fall in love in graduate school---that might save you.)

Charles Dickens went to school in London in the slums where as a kid his family was put in Debtor's prison & Charles was hired out to do slavish factory work. THAT was his elementary school. Dostoevski got shipped to Siberia where he did 4 years & at one time faced the firing squad before he was sent to the penitentiary.

Am I suggesting we regress to the 19th century so our artists can taste a little bitter Reality? No. There is plenty of Reality on Planet Earth, 2006 CE. But I am saying that you do not become an artist by sitting around looking into books & regurgitating history. Undissimulating art is not usually born in the library. Especially by design. If it did happen there it would be by Divine Intervention!

The extremity of these randomly selected quotes above reveals something about The Authentic Artistic Condition. Randall Jarrell the American poet once said a good poet is someone who gets hit by lightning. Get hit two or three times & we have a great poet.

I believe it is necessary for the genuine Artist to somehow eat & drink a certain steady amount of Solitude & Silence in order to hear The Universe & to SEE it, taste it, smell it & feel it with your fingers and skin. That great American poet e.e. cummings once wrote: 'lips are for kissing/ & to sing with.' Mr. Cummings kept the bud of youth throughout his entire career because he was a True Believer!

The business of The Creator I believe is to once more shock us out of our ongoing comas with the Miracle of Love's Irresistible shape & skin & The Beauty of The World.

I hope some of you are lucky enough to find the Sources of Inspiration that invite the Irresistible Experience into your life. Inspiration is no mere happenstance. One must be prepared to receive it.


I wish you the best, Dear Reader.


RLG

Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus

2-27-06 "Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus"

Directed by Harvey Frost; starring Crystal Bernard & Steve Guttenberg


Saw two exhilarating movies this weekend (Parts 1 & 2) on of all Channels HALLMARK that treat of the delicious courtship of a young Santa Claus to be with his Wife to be. I must say there are a few esthetic blemishes. Beautiful details are brought up & then never developed, for instance. But the movies themselves offer a very lovely treatment of the Family History of The Clauses---a history that goes back 1700 years we are told. This is a lovingly told tale. In this totally cynical age that requires fast food & fast sex & insane car chases & crashes & multiple guns & bombs & murders left right & center---it is quite an amazing thing to be brought up to speed (as it were) by what looks like this lollypop of a Story. Yet, the Tale convinces with its invincible adherence to a simple Love Story that never gives up its hold on the principle aspects of love---Tenderness & Ardor and: You The Beloved Always Come First. There are of course obstacles along the way. There is the skeptical mother-in-law for instance who, on a chart of 1 of 10, as Santa notes, scores an 11! This is delicious Romantic Comedy. For all ages & I.Q.'s.

RLG

The Elvis Presley Blues

The Elvis Presley Blues



I've Got The Elvis Presley blues
I Have The Memphis Tennessee Born In Tupelo Mississippi blues
I Got A Real Bad Case Of The Heartbreak Hotel Blue Suede Shoes blues
I've Caught The Southern Fried Chicken Aint Got No Religion blues
I Believe This Disease Is Called The Rock & Roll Special Sexually Promiscuous blues
I Am Coming To The Conclusion These Are My One & Only True Blue Grand Ole Opry blues
Dammit, I Forgot My Raincoat & I Can't Afford An Umbrella blues
Do You Hear Me I Need A Shave & A Haircut blues
But I Wouldn't Dare Ask You For Your Telephone Number blues
Because What Would Your Mother Say If She Knew I'm The King Of The Rock & Roll Los Angeles California blues
I Believe In Taxes Raindrops Sunshine & Roses & Don't Treat Me Cruel blues
I'd Like To Buy You A Cup Of Coffee & A Cigarette But I Don't Smoke blues
So Why Don't We Instead Get On The Horn & Call The President Of The World Jazz Factory blues
I Hope She's A Lady & Can Dance Because I Want To Get Out Of These Pants & blues
Please Don't Tell Anybody I Said Any Of This (It's All Confidential) blues
I Am Beginning To Worry About Our Possibilities For Romance Since This Is The Last Dance & Our Last Chance For blues
Do You Have Any Extra Oxygen Tents Just In Case I Lose My Breath & Die blues
I Know You Think I'm Just Kidding But Believe You Me I'm Hyperventilating blues
So Let's Get This Show On The Road & Keep It Down & Dirty blues
Or We're Liable To Attract Attention From The Society Of Puritanical Prudes & Pusillanimous Blondes & blues And I Don't Want The Holy Bible On My Conscience At 4 O'clock In The Morning With A Loose Lady In My Lap Eating Potato Chips & blues
Whattayasay We Light Up The Fireplace & Make Some Strong Blueberry Punch & blues
Just To Put Us All In A Chary Mood For The Week After The Week After New Year's Eve & blues
Because We Don't Need No More Of These Empty Bedroom Lonely Lonely All Night Weekend Jazzless blues



RLG Copyright 2006

8 Parts Of Speech

2-25-06 THE PARTS OF SPEECH


In 6th grade & again in 7th & 8th it was impressed on me there are 8 Parts Of Speech. This was fundamental Gospel of my elementary education. Like the 7 Sacraments of The Roman Catholic Church. By the way, I was brought up Protestant and taught Catholics are Unbelievers because they pray to Mary who was merely mortal & The Virgin Carrier and depositor of the Divine Body of Jesus. She got knocked up by The Holy Ghost according to Calvinist doctrine---amd also of course the dogma of all Orthodox Christianity Protestant & Catholic. Like I say though the 8 parts of SPEECH became Official Doctrine for me somewhere in there. I guess when I became a writer soon after I found out I wouldn't be playing centerfield for the N.Y. Yankees. Sad for baseball fans everywhere. But of course a Blessing to Readers o'er The World. That Bobby Greenfield learned his 8 parts of speech in 6th grade. And really got em jammed down into the cranium in 7th & 8th so there was no chance for escape. O, no. They were locked in there for Life.

Now. Now. Now. We come to TODAY. 25 Feb, 2006. RLG has not pondered the depths of the 8 parts of Speech since 8th grade when they disappeared down into The Great Void. This a.m. at Starbucks however I was visited by the Arch Angel. And She said to me, Greenfield, get up off your ass and look into the Parts of Speech. Are there really 8 and if so what are you going to DO about it? Is the 21st Century ready for YOU, RLG & YOUR version of the 8 (quote-unquote) parts of speech? Hmmmmm. Am I ready? Noun,Pronoun,Adjective. Verb, Adverb. Conjunction, Preposition. Finally, Interjection. So what? Well, Mister Greenfield, why in the hell are there so many novels these days that ignore THE NOUN. Everything is running loose in the world and off its hinges. All kinds of verbs without subjects, adjectives flying like a hurricane of horse shit, and dangling adverbs. Here & there an interjection posted like a WARNING sign. ABANDON HOPE ALL YE THAT ENTER All these cocky writers bragging like hell about Hell & how they got there & liked it & are staying for the duration.

The thing is of course to wear Black. Black is The Uniform. Baudelaire the Parisian wore Black in imitation of his great hero the American Edgar Allan Poe. Let me assure you we don't have any Baudelaire's and nary one Edgar Allan Poe in America today. We do have quite a few wearers of black who would BE The Artist. In fact they have hired publicists to remind us what it is so hard for us to fathom---that THEY are Artists if we would only buy their product. Well, of course, there are people who wear black because they enjoy black & God bless them. That is a different story---one of genuine esthetics.

I want a good story. OK? A good story is full of surprises. Something that really makes me Laugh inside. This very minute I am hunting for one good story. That is why One Woman is so important in my life. One irresistible woman. She takes me away from my eternal solipsism, my Loneliness. Nothing else can do that. No mere book of words referring to other words, for sure. No. I need meat & potatoes & green vegetables: NOUNS & VERBS & a few Necessary modifiers. OK? This is merely a warning for things to come. Remember that saying from George Bernard Shaw from a few days ago: "I am not an Example-----Take me for a Warning!" Well, come on, GBS. Don't put me on. Of course you're an Example. Of Something. Whether any of it is worth a damn is up to The Viewer. The Customer is always right. Even when he or she is a fool. That's what bugged Plato about Democracy. Everything heads for The Lowest Common Denominator. The great Average. Universal Mediocrity. Horrrors! Time to get out of cyberspace. And to the Table for some meat & potatoes & spinach.

A lady recently wrote me a letter pertaining to my first 9 messages here on my BLOG. These are her words: 'Mr. Greenfield, I once knew some of your poems by heart. I wonder if you will ever get back to love & sex & romance & food & desire again as in the good old days.' I stand corrected. Thank you, Wendy!


RLG

Listening To The Beatles

Listening To The Beatles In An Isla Vista, California Cafe



paul & george & john & ringo
are singing love songs
they composed to evening news
& life in The Big City

life on the farm & Life, Life
before during & after The Revolution
there's always a woman thinking something
feeling something-----behind the scenes

or right smack inside The Big Picture
a love song is on the verge
of becoming itself on the verge of being
a love song on the verge of midnight:

the gray hair of our Beatles lights up
the dark fuzzy world of war
& blurred intentions of smudged promises
the song is torch to doubt's mud

as brilliance invades the suburbs
with the shattering illumination
of Love's last light bulbs
Love's last lingering light bulbs


RLG Copyright 1985 printed in LIFE/ART (1986)

From H.A. Taine, Paris, October, 1871

2-24-06 Character



H.A. Taine, The French literary critic, writes in the Introduction to his "History Of English Literature" that there are three essential things that form a person's Character: Race, Milieu, & Climate. The first time I read this in the UCSB Library I experienced a kind of epiphany. I knew this by osmosis it seems. But I had never said it aloud to myself or anybody else. If you have time, Dear Reader, go to your library some day and read that once Famous Introduction. It is a brilliant passage. I cannot say now how dated it might have become. And I do not vouch for an author's private beliefs---his religion or his politics. I judge an author by the intelligence & generosity of his views. Later, I sometimes find out the most alarming things. He was a member of the Nazi Party. Or: he was a dyed in the wool advocate of hard-core Communism of the blood-spilling brand. That does not necessarily change my mind concerning The Worth of a true undissimulating Creator. (It may or it may not). His or her politics & religion may be diametrically opposite of my own. So what? What makes me so right about Everything? Of course I believe that non-violence is absolutely Necessary in the formation of any stable society. In all events, your curiosity will be richly rewarded if you take the trouble of reading the Introduction to Monsieur Taine's magisterial History of E.L. Many of the very best books in my life I have stumbled across accidentally-on purpose while searching for other specific books that became useless to me. And,-----this part is cricial-----they were almost always books nobody had ever assigned me to read or bothered to point out to me.

Thanks!

RLG

Mozart's 15th Symphony On My Transistor Radio

2-23-06 Early Morning Thoughts


I hopped the city bus to Starbucks as I do 7 mornings/wk to begin my day. I write every morning 365 days/yr. This a.m. I had my transistor radio hooked up to KUSC FM radio & heard Mozart's 15th Symphony which the great Wolfgang composed at age 15! And I thought to myself. Ok, high school boys & girls of America, forgit about Michael Jordan and being a super jock or Rock & Roll star. Why not imitate the master Composer?

We need to rediscover our reason for existence it seems to me. And personally I don't think we are going to find it at the University of Iowa Writing workshops or on ESPN sports or CNN. We need to get a New Face! Freud once said that after 50 everybody has the Face he or she deserves. I don't know why 50. But I say to myself: Greenfield, Get a new face! Buy a new ballpoint pen. Do something true & pure. Like this. Write one perfect sentence on The White Page. Make beauty Possible. Perfect yourself. We need help. Mere words will not do. The sun is my dwelling place.The facts are on fire. The facts freeze. The 4 F's. Facts Facts Facts Facts.

This tale is my story. I didn't steal it from The Twilight Zone. There is no irony here. How many people put a stamp on the language that is irrevocable? Here is my opinion. "Literature" is a pastime-----& the stuff of self-important college professors & pedants. The fact that professors are paid hefty salaries & ensconced in "chairs" at the university does not negate the fact that literature is pastime. Few of us have the aptitude for Divine Pleasure. It is a gift that comes straight down to us from Mount Olympus.

There are these university & Border's Books "congregations" of scholars writers talking non stop & publishing 20 million volumes on HOW TO. Yeah. HOW DO I DO IT?


Ask Dr. Phil.
He's got The Pill.
Tell Momma Oprah.
She's got The Quota.
Confess to Dave Letterman.
He'll make you a Better-man.
Pray to Jay Leno.
He'll give you a free rental.
Say plastic or paper----
Take out or eat here, Sir?
Leave room for some cream, Sir?
Would you like a bag, Sir?
Say Thank You, say Please, Sir
I didn't mean to be, Sir,
so grammatically insouciant.
Why, Sir, not buy, Sir,
this improbable tie, Sir?
Say Yes, Sir--Say No, Sir,
Which way shall I go, Sir?
Say thank you, say, Please, Sir,
I didn't mean to be, Sir,
It's just that you got in my way.


RLG

I Missed You, Paris, France

I Missed You, Paris, France




i missed you when it rained
& when it didn't rain i missed you
i missed you in philadelphia
& then i missed you in cleveland
& i went to baltimore & i missed you
i missed you in chicago riding the el
& i missed you under the culvert in venice, california
i looked for you in san francisco
i loved you-----o, i loved you in san francisco
but i missed you
i missed you in tallahassee, moonglow
& when it rained in los angeles, california
i missed you a little more than sane
i missed you in dallas
& baby, i missed my train in pittsburg
but i missed you
o, i missed you in miami
i missed you in oshkosh
& i cried i cried in st. louis
i laid on the floor in cincinatti
i missed you, o, i missed you, cher amie-----
the rains in mexico, sweet
the soft sensuous waterwind in san diego
my love, i missed you in marvellous marvellous san diego
i fell on my hip in boston, love
i missed you, o, i missed you in santa santa barbara
where the blue water cries in the eye of the wind-----i missed you
i missed you that night that night
(i guessed it was your birthday)
the night of the candles
i missed your eyes at midnight
please don't leave me, i missed you
in the hotel lobby of the-----was it waldorf hysteria
i missed you in the hospital
i missed you in the middle of the thorazine
mellaril stelazine prolixin serentil loxitaine
triavil haldol cogentin tofranil trilaphon-----
all alone blues
honey, take this you'll feel better
please swallow like a good boy
we want you to get better real fast
i missed you in paris, france
you weren't standing next to the tree
like you promised
to the left of the louvre
you weren't in the swimming pool
on the left bank
in the city of eternal light
& tonight i'm missing you again, angel
in this imitation bedroom
no water in the eye of the moon


R.L. Greenfield Copyright 1984

The Resurrection Of The Body

2-22-06 Wednesday Morning


She was a real ball-buster according to the gas station attendant who filled up my car with ethyl. And I never asked him for anything let alone his opinion on women-----any women at all. I never seek alternative views on women. I like to find out things for myself in my own way. And, yes, I may take a beating in the bedroom but I'll do it on my own terms. Besides, everybody takes a beating in the bedroom. One way or another. There is no such thing as a 100 % pain-less intercourse. O, no. Somebody's gotta pay Dr. Freud. Man & woman were born to squiggle on the mattress. So wake up, dreamers of the Lotus Land of no guilt. Heaven is short lived in the kingdom of sex. And, come monday morning that damned alarm clock I bought on sale at Sears is going to riot before the sun has showed its mug. And I'll will be face to face once more with The White Page. Others less fortunate than us will be wrapping their eyes around the b.s. of the L.A. Times the N. Y. Times or the local Crapper Sheets. In one eye-----out the brain shaft. The usual suspects. Just NOTHING worth storing in the permanent Memory Warehouse. But, you, Lady Muse & me---we have a date with the gods. We have busines to comport that may take us to the city of immortal promises & mortal temptations. And I'm not sure which is the worst. I keep changing my mind on this one. Right now the jury is out and I am leaning strongly toward "the Mysterious Unknown." Well--I am looking for surprises. That has to mean a woman. Isn't that why we roll over and hit the deck when the alarm goes bonkers at 6 a.m.? Who asked for it? We did. You & me made a bargain with Aphrodite Eros & Pallas Athene. We cut a deal. And now the Real Fun begins. I kissed her in the Beginning. The beginning is a place, not a time. Why do I have to explain all these obviousnesses? Because, obviously, a lot of you like me flunked kindergarten and had more fun the second time around the block. And, because we're all fucked up by talk radio-t.v. marathon brain-dead gas mugs like O'Reilly & Chris Mathews. So, since The Big Picture is off your wave length, here goes nuthin. Are you still under the spell of 99-cent therapy ala Dr. Phil, Oprah's little errand boy? I hope you're free of that rot t Of course you can get Oprah herself straight off the bucket M through F. But then why not just turn off t.v. and drink a gallon of ice cold coke and freeze your brain on pilot? Because you have just entered the city limits of: PLEASANTVILLE, USA, circa, February, 2006, Annus Domini. And let me be very clear here in Pleasantville nobody varies from The Main Script, which is to say, Company Policy. Ergo, no laissez-faire Opportunism is permitted hereabouts in the realm of sex, art, religion or commerce. The city-state owns your ass, Buster. And the word signifying Eff-You-See-Kay is not listed in The Company Handbook. Therefore it does not exist. No erections or palpitations between 6 a.m. and midnight Sunday through Saturday. Our business is Education. Study your Bibles. Memorize your Bibles. Regurgitate your Bibles three times/day, minimum. Say the Organization Prayer out loud when you get behind the wheel of your vehicle at all times. We are a unanimous one-religion nation. No substitute deities will be honored. Ergo, be sure to alert your children to all forms of subversion imported by "foreigners." Be on the lookout not merely for "desert tribes" but also The Mediterranean Influence designed to seduce via the subtleties of the kitchen table. Olive oil may be a pretext for something evil and subterranean especially Cold-Pressed Extra Virgin---a deadly double combination.

Watch out by all means for "Health Foods." This term is a colossal red herring. By the way, have you ever served Red Herring at your own table for a Special Occasion-----daughter's graduation party-----husband's successful completion of 6-month Plan To Quit Swearing At The Television Set? It works. Why else is a red herring Red if not to wave a red flag on your picnic? Like I say: Wake up and smell the popcorn. Is it liberated of human contaminants? Probably not. Dump in trash bin. Start over from your own garden. (This can get damned tedious if you are without a sensuous companion). Equestrian habits die hard. Don't divulge any secrets. This is a hard & fast Law. Life is almost completely an undiscovered Secret. Totally impervious to familial investigations. But then again, where has Incest ever got us in this whole shish kabab? Up one cul de sac avenue, down the other: an endless grid of dead-end roads. That should tell us something. What happens when every hair on your head is a dead end? Well, if you are working on a minimum of one cylinder you get your tail to the barber shop & you tell the barber to lop off all your dead ends and feed em to the Shredder. Get out of here! It's Spring, baby. The Valentine is history. Time for Easter Eggs. The Easter Bunny. And Resurrection of the dead. So my advice to you is push that six feet worth of dirt off your face. Kick away that damned hunk of concrete advertising your death and: Rise, Captain, Rise---be you Woman or be you Man---Rise up out of the Slough & take a mouthful of fresh air & commence breathing. It may take something Special-----a Greenfield slap in the mug for you to really experience CIRCULATION, Actual Movement of The Blood. But then again you may be better off where you are---six feet under & deliciously Unconscious to everything---Everything! Especially your own sweet death. Toast: I raise my glass to your surrender.


RLG

THE WOODSMAN: a movie

2-22-06 Wednesday Noon Reflections


I saw "The Woodsman" last night on my VCR a movie starring Kevin Bacon & his wife in real life Kyra Sedgwick. It clocks in at 87 minutes. And you never feel like taking your eyes off the screen. The movie is about a guy who just finished doing 12 years in penitentiary for child molestation. Directed by Nicole Kassell. It is a work of art. That is to say, it sees through the foibles of the normal American bourgeoise non-vision---the deaf & dumb church-state view of things---notably, things pertaining to crime. The criminal justice system in USA today is in the hands of morons---punishment freaks who have no interest whatsoever in seeking a CURE to the vast violence that runs from one end of our land to the other. How can they ask for a cure when they themselves fail to perceive they themselves are the number one victims needing it? Here is a subject for you & me to get interested in and to become enlightened concerning. We might actually find an answer that does not rely on penitentiaries or gaschambers & the hatred of the Veangeance-mongers. We might transform hate (which is always Ignorance in hiding) into Love & Light & satisfaction for us all. Safety does not come from Getting Even. And prisons as they are presently organized do not heal the cruel & the psychotic & make them humane & productive. I believe this tragedy of absence of Restraint in our whole judicial system, not to mention U.S. foreign policy in general, is worth losing a few nights' sleep over. WE, you & i, might come up with an actual CURE for this promiscuous violence---both illegal & legal---if we just put our heads together & get rid of the egomania the politicians & talk-show blow-hards are constantly dishing out. I believe Reason is a more dependable guide for setting policy than passionate self-righteous anger every time. Not only for governments & businesses but in every personal & human relationship without exception.


RLG

GB SHAW: True Love=Freedom

2-21-06 GBS: Promulgator of LIBERTY


WB Yeats the poet tells this story. Mr. Yeats attended an opening of a Shaw play in London. GBS was in attendance & was asked to address the audience after the performance was over. As the great man approached the microphone he was greeted with a thunderous ovation---with one exception. A single Boo came trembling out of the crowd. Mr. Shaw took the mike gazed at the Boo-Bird & immediately said: "I agree with YOU, Sir---but who are we two against so many?" Yeats goes on to state how completely natural this spontaneous response was in the whole career of George Bernard Shaw.

I mention this now because GBS is in my mind as The singular Genius of his age (1856-1950). A man totally caught up in The Public Good---like no other writer on record. It is estimated that Shaw gave approximately 2,000 free lectures throughout London. He was also a truly potent music & film critic & wrote brilliant book reviews for major London papers---all of these for pay. His debating prowess was notorious throughout the great city of London. He took on all comers and never once lowered himself to the levels of the stupid, the irrational, or the fanatical. He actually believed the True & the Good & the Beautiful & the Just will triumph over ignorance & greed & barbarianism. Because he BELIEVED it he he also practiced it & held up his standards as paradigms to be imitated by his opponents. And it is recorded that GBS had the respect of every man or woman who faced him in debate or in any rational discussion. This man knew the city of London like the back of his own hand. He studied its most mundane municipal details in the London Library & the British Museum.

And in all respects GBS was a completely self-educated man. He elevated The Universal Discourse. This man who identified himself to The Shelley Society whom he addressed as: 'a socialist an atheist & a vegetarian.' He knew The Bible inside out. And he lived a more genuinely 'Christian' life than any of the stuffed shirts who went to church mainly out of fear of punishment & had memorized huge passages of scripture to prove their prejudices. GBS was on a lifetime mission to bring Intelligence & Health & Equality & Freedom into the world. He fought for Equality of Income his whole life this brilliant playwright who became himself quite wealthy. Why should a big shot banker or real estate agent make more money than a garbage collector, he reasoned. Who is doing the most for SOCIETY? GBS believed all unearned income ought to be TAXED. AMEN! And he was a one-man gang against corruption in government. Welcome, to America, G.B. Shaw, 21 Feb 2006. We need some of your pure trail-blazing SOUL in our dead greedy land of polluters & corrupers & haters of EDUCATION & of real honest freedom & fairness of Opportunity.

GBS's greatest literary work MAY have been the love letters he wrote to several beautiful talented actresses whom Shaw was wooing to play the heroine in one or another of his plays. He kept up a lifetime of Romantic interest in always at least one of these actresses even after his marriage. And his passionate feelings for each of them was returned in kind. He also fought for Equality in sexual relations simply because he noted early how women sold out to the marriage license & then were relegated to the kitchen or to the shelf & suffered though 40 or 50 years of interminable boredom often with husbands out sleeping with other women. GBS was a foe of sentimentalism. Are WE over sentimentalism? Obviously not. It is all over America. The sentimentalization of religion, politics, marriage & family, money---things things things. You name it. We have yet to come to our senses. Well, maybe we ought to try some of Shaw's ideas. They cannot possibly be any worse than the ideas that have brought us to the present state of nightmare government, schools going to rot, & the family in limbo. The Idea that true love leads to marriage which will fulfill the desires of true love obviously needs to be profoundly considered & reflected upon. Since half the marriages in California end on a dead end street named Divorce Boulevard.

I believe that Romance is a Necessary human Characteristic. We cannot LIVE without it. We die when we have no Romance in our lives. So the question is HOW do we negotiate this precious substance? How do we live in a world that threatens to undermine our truest purest Passion? That is the Subject that most interests me. As I have said I believe my whole task in life is to Keep Love Alive (as Author or Singer or Inspirer). To keep True Desire Alive. Or, rather, to bring it back into Life from the grave where it has been buried all these years---or is it centuries? This to me is the whole task of The Creator. I see no separation between being a Creator and being a Lover. The function of art is to discover once more the presence of Eros. And that also means rediscovering The Comic. Which seems to have escaped so many of us---it certainly is doing its damnest to elude me! What else is the sexual but a manifestation of Comedy. An occasion for Laughter. Not anxiety & jealousy & selfishness or fear. As most of us have been programmed to expect. Yes, we can all use a good dose of Intelligence & liberation from the ignorance that clings to us & holds us hostage to fairy tales and other superstitions concerning love & "happiness" & our ability to change our situations from stagnant to LIVING.

This is not a sermon but an appeal for wit & invention & an occasion for Courage!

RLG

Dollars & Cents

2-20-06 President's Day


McDonald's has screwed me out of one penny of change the last several times I've shopped there which is rare. In the morning once or twice/wk I walk over from my perch at Starbucks to buy an order of scrambled eggs extra well done & a toasted English muffin on the side. Then I put the scrambled eggs on my muffin & have a hearty protein sandwich. However, I have noted McDonald's charges me 2.24 for my order & always gives me back 2.75 instead of 2.76. This morning I called it to the checker's attention & she gave me back 3 red pennies for my previous three having-been screweds. Although it's probably more like 5 it occurs to me now. And it has also happened to me at the Mc Donald's next to my house on Fairview near Hollister. If McDonald's has this little coin return set, as they obviously do, so the customer automatically donates one penny of his change to the Corporation for every purchase---then after 1 billion customers McDonald's has turned a 10 million dollar crooked profit. Did an employee of McDonald's Corporation set that cash register return machine to turn these illegal profits to McDonald's? I always hope for a few vigilant employees. It's the little people who will set the world straight and take the business away from the Ken Lays & the Jeffrey Skillings. Millions & millions of little people. After all haven't you ever noticed----these are often also the most faithful lovers---our Romeos & Juliets.

Odd, isn't it? This is the age of crooks like Bush's former buddy Ken Lay of Enron literally bankrupting his company & pocketing a criminally lucrative salary while his customers lost their entire savings. What is going on here? GW Bush has been literally gutting the US Treasury---handing out multi billion dollar hand-outs to his rich cronies who are already superfluously & obesely rich. And there is no outrage? These contradictions rise at a steady rate. USA marches into Baghdad & begins killing people & detroying property of a country that never invaded USA or had even the vaguest intentions of doing so. Were not & are not a threat to the safety & security of USA. At least not until Bush Cheney & Rumsfeld by their cold-blooded preemptive madness pushed the Hate Button & have now aroused the legitimate rage of Arabs & Muslims (& Christians if there be any left) throughout the world. Are you awake yet? Bush & Cheney & Co. are shooting up the world red-neck Texas sheriff style. And the profits of war are going as usual to the prophets of hate & war & revenge & greed. Shoot first ask questions later: The Bush-Cheney policy in a nutshell. Just like a few days ago Cheney shot his fellow hunter in the mug. Bush-Cheney style. Shoot first, later find out what it is one was shooting at. I don't consider this Jay Leno-Jerry Seinfeld funny. Do you? Is such astounding stupidity & arrogance & knee-jerk recklessness a joke to be laughed at at the water cooler? No. It requires national attention and emergency surgery in The Operating Room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


RLG Copyright 2006

Modus Operandi

19 Feb. 06 Sunday Evening


The other night I estimated I've walked or jogged approximately 25,000 miles in the last 24 years. My favorite routes are in & about Santa Monica & Venice Boardwalk and on a diverse number of paths & streets in Santa Monica, Venice, Westwood & West L.A. I also have walked & jogged all about and within Isla Vista home of UCSB & in various back streets & main thoroughfares of Goleta. In all this pedestrianizing I have become an observer of everything that crosses my path---Nature's million secrets. But also the human world of man-made objects. Houses & cars rank first in that latter occupation in my judgment. And I have acquired the steadfast & concentrated gaze of the true esthete when it comes to cars & houses & the buildings of the city. I am a city man who loves the green of the breathing world & the blue sky.

The invention of the automobile was the crowning event of the twentieth century from my point of view. A car is a cool form of heat. It has a hot motor inside a cool frame. And the brilliance of scientific engineering now gives us almost unbelievable elegance in these latest smoothest incarnations of the gods. This thought is not new to me. It has inhabited me for the last 21 years I have been car-conscious here near the true blue sea where so many owners of automobiles happen to be female students at the university. They give me great confidence these women behind the wheels of these shining gods. I am a confirmed Walker. Yet, I love cars. Even as I am aware of the damage fossil fuel is wreaking on the earth. Cars are not to blame. The shallowness of human being is here at fault. We must purify our engines.

I have witnessed these shining Eminences from my eternal pedestrian posture, as I say. When I walk I own the earth & the architecture I behold. And often I find it the architecture beholding me. It is so. I read the book & the book is reading me. I walk the earth & I find the earth & its man-made objects giving me back their gaze. Every house is also a Face, a Body. A Personality. It has a history. And so does every car on the road. Or in the drive way or garage. And I find these two prevalent structures---the House & The Automobile the most fascinating art objects in my one & only Life. I am amazed by those apartment houses along the Venice Boardwalk as one heads south from Windward all the way to Venice Pier and then beyond to the little stone pier. That whole stretch of buildings is mine. I own them lock stock & barrel. And I am their sole owner as far as I know.

O yes, there are landlords with official papers "proving" property rights. But when I walk my eyes and ears command the elements that surround me. I have never in all these years & the hundreds of times I have taken that sacred walk witnessed any competition. Everybody else seems concerned for the dog or is on a bicycle or in a hurry to get to work or is talking. The human race is a completely distracted species. Mainly of course money & the possessions it can load up for us. But the absolute Beauty of those buildings & of the sky above them & The Sea off to the side belongs to me. And even now as I sit in this room 125 miles away from that lovely God-kissed walkway& the majestic sky above it & the great flat-bellied Pacific off to the side-----I carry it with me. It is deep inside me. It has become me. To Love is to take complete possession of a thing & to own it in the only authentic Robert L. Greenfield sense of actual Ownership. This is not a matter for lawyers or theologians or art professors. Beauty belongs as it has belonged since the beginning of time to the eyes & ears & noses & tongues to: The Lovers. And this seems to me worth saying to you---you Readers in cyberspace who still have time to listen & to see & taste & to assimilate-----to Wonder!


RLG Copyright 2006

The Mirada Fuerte & Feng Shui

18 Feb. 06

Sometimes I honestly believe the only thing I need to know is Feng Shui. Clean out the clutter, Greenfield, & be free! I mean it. Clean out every iota of useless matter from my life. Not just household junk. But dead ideas that hang around inside my head. What is stopping me? For one thing old girl friends from the long ago & far away. They like to hang around inside my psyche teasing me with promises of unfulfilled past love that is just waiting now to be renewed. I mean all the women who loved me as much as I did them.We have yet to get to the first kiss. How can I throw that in the waste basket? Too much promise there to delete forever.

Which reminds me of the phrase: the mirada fuerte. It means: strong gazing. And I first came across it in a biography of Picasso by John Richardson. Mr. Richardson claims the mirada fuerte was a tradition in Catalonia. It was a fundamental characteristic of falling in love. Once you have experienced it you can never be the same. I know.

P.S. I did not create these itallics on my Blog. And I can't seem to get rid of them. So don't be distracted. Back to my original premise. If I can apply feng shui diligently & consistently to my life then I am on my way to Renaissance. Feng Shui dictates: If you do not use it lose it. Clothes, books, furniture, friendships, love affairs,-----everything. Furthermore, if you do not love it do not buy it. Never buy a thing merely because it's on sale. Never buy a garment whose color or texture is a little off. Because you are then living in a world dictated by pseudo wishes & desires.

Love is weird. In Old English the word 'weird' was originally spelled Wyrd. And it signified having to do with Fate. Weird then refers to our Destiny. Love is our destiny. So we might as well love that which we truly admire & experience the total wonder of. Why do we so often settle for clothes or cars or books or movies or Christmas presents or love affairs or marriages that are not dictated by love but habit?

I want to get rid of my clutter---including my stupid habit of accommodating people out of some phoney loyalty to politeness---one of the great destructive demons of everyday reality. It has been my experience that silence is almost always preferable to mere politeness. You understand. I am not suggesting rudeness or vulgar egotism as a viable substitute for rote polite behavior. I am suggesting that we ought to be looking inward to find better ways to perfect our mediocre lives that are so loaded with second and third choices in almost everything we do.

Why did I include the mirada fuerte in this discussion? Because for me mirada fuerte encounters are pure & irresistible experiences. And they are by definition reciprocal. They last. Still, one must decide which old love affairs are worth keeping alive in the mind. And here each one of us is infallible. Surely, we need consult no shrink or hired therapist to offer us their recipes for success. Each one of us is sovereign in the realm of love. But are we efficient? Is it working? If not we need a change of life. A good place to begin is with the cleansing of the inner body with the best of all possible foods.

Before anything else: Water. Lots & lots of water all day. Raw avocadoes & tomatoes & fresh greens & vegetables & fruits. That is the direction of health.


RLG Copyright 2006

Romance & Marriage & Family

17 Feb. 06

America is still at this late date dominated by a very damaging & possessive puritanism---the whole notion of ownership sucks the vitality out of so many promising ventures. I mean the idea whereby we believe we can own people by virtue or vice of our large bank accounts or our powerful position in society. The institution of marriage must have been formed to satisfy the needs of society as a whole. The creation of the legal family was intended to eliminate the chaos wrought by promiscuous sexual behavior, for instance, among other things. Thus adultery is a capital crime in many nations yet today--usually applied only to women. (I.e., marriage is tantamount to incarceration in many countries & also I surmise in many "homes" in the USA). The institution of marriage does seem to have degenerated in our country. Albert Camus wrote that "bourgeoise marriage has put our country into slippers and will soon lead it to the gates of death." I am not against marriage. In fact I wish I was in a good marriage myself at this very moment. But I am raising the question concerning the actual state of adult romantic relationships both inside and outside of the institution. To me the important thing is keeping love alive. And in a way that is my lifetime occupation. What else is the true business of creation, of art, of writing? It is in my estimation to create a world of desire that stands in place of the mundane world you & i too easily accept in its decadent state. I mean this literally. I am writing a handbook for love. It may take me a lifetime to complete.

The only true marriage I recognize is one of consenting equals. And it looks to me what we now have for the most part is an institution of slavery: Owners & victims. Well, we asked for it. We start out with the assumption a good marriage is based on true love between a man and a woman of equal parts. These two individual persons decided without coercion from the outside world to enter into a secular and sacred union and to become one person (a mystical union) sacramentalized in the marriage ceremony. In fact marriage is one of the 7 sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Is this the actual marriage situation that exists in America today: A union of equals whose freedom is extended by this formal bond which liberates the two persons from the distractions of a wildly sexual & Pleasure-loaded society of promiscuous objects of Desire that surround them on all sides? This is not what I am given to feel. What I feel & have felt for a long time is that marriage today among my contemporaries is merely a facade that conceals a totally unequal series of relationships between the "designated" partners who entered into a "marriage contract."

RLG copyright 2006

Eros: Day After Valentine's Day, 2006

15 Feb. 06

Yesterday went by without my assistance. I neither gave nor received a big juicy red Valentine stating those immortal & piercing words: Will you be my Valentine? Do not mistake me for one of those cold-blooded Nordic types who denigrate commercial holidays set up to ritualize love ceremonies. On the other hand, I scorn the tactics of Wall Street in its parasitical & predatory devouring of all originality & turning it into motifs for profit.

Yesterday belonged rightfully to Eros. According to the legend Eros had neither father nor mother but was hatched from the Cosmic Egg. And He was responsible for all the gods as well as the entire Creation itself. Other versions have him being the son of Aphrodite & Ares or of Aphrodite & Zeus. There are still other rumors. In any event, Eros was depicted to be a somewhat flippant & mischievous god. He was conspicuous for shooting his arrows out there at random sticking them into the hides & hearts of women men & children with reckless abandon and thus causing their victims to be smitten with the mad passion of love. Sexual desire: this was the great domain said to be owned by Eros. As a boy it is written he was somewhat puny & undersized.

"Although nursed with tender solicitude, this second-born child of Aphrodite & Ares, did not grow as other children do, but remained a small, rosy, chubby child, with gauzy wings and roguish, dimpled face. Alarmed for his health, Aphrodite consulted Themis, who oracularly replied, 'Love cannot grow without Passion.'"
(quoted by Rollo May in LOVE and WILL).

I believe there is no art worth preserving that has not been induced by Eros. Hesiod was one of the first of the ancients to suggest that Eros is merely an abstraction standing for "sexual passion." And I note among my contemporaries a totally cynical eye cast upon the existence of Eros or of any of the nine sacred muses. And that is what we have got largely from the art of the last 50 years. A dead art posturing in the absence of The Sacred Muse. Nietzsche famously wrote "God is dead." He could not help but note the absence. And of course fools have "answered him" without understanding. Heidegger asked why the gods stopped coming to earth about 6,000 years ago. Why? What made them turn their backs on humankind?

I am writing this today wondering where Eros is in our present world. Where is Aphrodite the Queen of Beauty & Desire? And have we seen hide or hair of the great Pallas Athene lately? And if not what's the matter with us? Are we following the blind deaf dumb course taught in the colleges & universities and on radio & television? Perhaps there is a wiser course. Reader, I wish you well in your pursuits. And I assume you are listening & watching & waiting in those kinds of places Eros & Aphrodite & Athene & their amazing cohorts might show themselves to us. I remind you The Goddess revealed herself to Odysseus in the shape of a white bird.

I hope you had a happy & an original & a comic, an epiphanic Valentine's Day! And I also hope you have many more such days & nights in the rest of your lives. And I wish the same for myself.

RLG Copyright 2006

The Greenfield Code

6 Feb 06


My name is Robert Greenfield, signature RLG. My business is Beauty. This has been my entire reason for existence on earth. Since 1975 I have been a 24/hr/day 365/yr writer & nothing else. NEA Fellowship in Literature for 1995-1996, for a manuscript of poems. Of which I have published more than 100 in at least 35 different reviews & quarterlies. Though my main labor in last 10 years is in prose. I still nail a poem regularly. And I consider myself to be a major American poet. Called 'The Best Poet in L.A'. by art critic Peter Schjeldahl.


RLG Copyright 2006