Not Just a Pretty Face
Bubble Gum Blowing Contest, Iowa State Fair, Des Moines. Photo by Lily Smith, The Register/USA TODAY NETWORK:
Headline from nypost.com: “Almost 6,000 of the IRS goons who make you pay your taxes cheat on theirs.” Anyone surprised?
Among today’s many celebrations, it’s Bad Poetry Day, the only kind I’ve ever written. It’s also Never Give Up Day. I haven’t given up the literary quest, although I stopped chasing traditional publishing opportunities years ago.
RIP matinee idol Alain Delon, 88. Born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, less than ten miles from the center of Paris, he was so much more than a pretty face. Parents divorced, he had a stormy childhood and was frequently expelled from school. In 1953-'54 he served four years with the French Marines in Indochina, spending eleven months in prison. He then worked various odd jobs, including waiter, salesman and porter. He broke into films in 1957. Also fluent in Italian, he shot to fame as the titular character in Luchino Visconti’s powerful Rocco and His Brothers (1960). He was likened to James Dean. There are 107 titles under his name at IMDb in the category of Actor, 39 Producer, ten writer, four director. His screen career spanned 1949, when he did a short, to 2019. Here are a handful of his most notable roles: Purple Noon (1960) as Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley; The Leopard (1963); Le Samourai (1967); Borsalino (1970); Red Sun (1971) opposite Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Ursula Andress and Capucine. He married once and was a father of one, Christian Päffgen, who has six credits as an actor. Delon won the César, the French equivalent of the Oscar, for Best Actor in Our History (1984). Several music artists have written songs about him, including Madonna: Beautiful Killer. Although he had numerous relationships, he considered Romy Schneider, who was taken by a heart attack at 43, the love of his life. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “I say what I think, when I want it, when I like it. You can’t stop me from saying anything.” A cinema legend. Well done, Sir. Photo from Google Images:
Last night’s weather chart indicated rain all day, so I decided to bring out only 3D art, which is plastic, and set up shop at the nearby viaduct. It wasn’t raining and, except for a few stray drops, didn’t rain in the three hours I was out near the bus shelter, grateful I wasn’t in the gloom and grime beneath the subway tracks. My thanks to the woman who bought the colorful shot of Times Square and to all the folks who stopped to chat. Even sparse business is better than staying home. The breeze blowing along Avenue Z was heavenly.
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