Sylvia Plath's Most Powerful Reading of Her Poem "Lady Lazarus"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvBtZ3zMs6I&feature=related

Yesterday I was cleaning up and I came across a poem I wrote 14 years ago.  That got me interested in the poets and I decided to provide a link to Sylvia Plath, reading her own poem, "Lady Lazarus."

This woman was sick with depression and had attempted suicide before.  Her poem describes that attempt during her college years.

The poem I found that I had written had nothing to do with depression.  It just made me want to hear the poets of my time.  Sylvia Plath gives a great reading of her poem at the link above.  Next here is a biography of the "other woman."  Cutting to the chase, she lived with poet Ted Hughes, killed their daughter and took her own life.  Fun read. I ordered the book myself.Today (Oct 27) I received the book. I will write a review when I'm finished reading it. But the real story is it came in a hardcover with the dust jacket -- brand new! Never read! And here's the bestpart: it only cost one cent. Of course you have to pay shippig. But this is the greatest bookstore, as well as other products they carry. And I'm talking about Amazon.com.


Update: I bought the book and am reading it now.  It came right away in perfect condition; looked like it had never been read.  Brand new.  It cost $0.01.  You can't do better than that.

Put the Blame on Mame, Boys

Never did anyone look more beautiful than Rita Hayworth in the movie Gilda (1948). Near the beginning of the film, her husband, owner of a tropical night club, brings in Glenn Ford to meet his wife. Before entering her boudoir, her husband asks, "Are you decent"? "Me"? Rita replies. As she does so she straightens up and lets her long red wavy hair tumble backwards. Glenn Ford stops in his tracks. But I won't give you more of the plot. In that scene she's probably the most beautiful woman ever photographed. Her hairstyle was much copied by other actresses: Marilyn Monroe, starting out in Hollywood; and Bette Davis (All about Eve 1950) to name two. But neither of these women wore the style as lusciously as Rita did. I suspect some of the curls were fake (like today's extensions) and sprayed into place.

Later, Rita sings and sways to "Put the Blame on Mame," one of the most provocative numbers ever seen.  Even Monroe never danced like that (though she had better legs than any dancer of her time). Monroe sang, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," but it didn't equate to this. And I believe Rita's voice here is not dubbed. She sings the song with an acoustic guitar in one scene.

Gilda had a behind-the-scenes secret. Hayworth underwent a recent cesarean section. It left scar tissue on her abdomen, which they tried to cover up in the movie.  In many scenes she holds a coat or stands behind a couch. But the dress she wore during her number displayed a large bow on the side of her abdomen and the way it was styled the bow and the slit concealed Hayworth's "puff."  Jean Louis designed the dress.

When the movie comes on don't miss it. It wields a suspenseful plot and a love story.

Bob Dylan's Indignation

This is a very weirdly intellectual, though almost adolescent, discourse from Bob Dylan back in the day. He knows what he's saying only he's telling it in a new way. He gives off an angry/self-important side of himself. Where does that come from? Why is it there? And he does it like no one else I've ever seen. He seems to have contempt for most things, especially Time Magazine, who is interviewing him. Here's part of that interview. I would call it "Indignation." So here's "Indignation."

October 9

Today would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday.

When I look back on my life, I realize that I have already lived most of it. Yet in all these years nothing impacted my life more than the Beatles. And I know no happenstance in the future will equal it.

I still remember the cover photo of the first Beatle magazine I bought. McCartney was my favorite Beatle. According to the Beatle magazines, Paul McCartney had black hair, hazel eyes, was 5'11, his favorite color was blue (which then became my favorite color) and his ideal woman was Brigitte Bardot. I slept with a photo of Paul McCartney next to me in bed during the whole of Beatlemania.

So it puzzles me. What did the Beatles do to deserve what happened to them -- John Lennon shot and killed; George Harrison stabbed 10 times and developing lung cancer? They gave pleasure to the world and their celebrity attracted the weirdos and the right-wingers.

One thing I don't think people know: John Lennon loved Ringo. He said he would help Ringo, should he need it, and see that he wants for nothing. After Lennon's death, I saw Ringo on TV giving 3 different interviews. In all these newsclips he is visibly drunk. Who could blame him? (He is now a recovering alcoholic.)

John Lennon at 70. What would he be like? Would he use Botox? Would he be reed-thin, as he was when he died? Would he still be composing?

Are people aware there's a statue of John Lennon in a little park in Cuba because of the song "Imagine"? The Utopia sounds like communism and is my least favorite song of his. But I remember John as courageous and funny and sharp and good-looking; and a great song writer, dancer and poet. This next anecdote makes me laugh when I think of it. He's in an elevator with the rest of the Beatles and their wives/girlfriends and Brian Epstein. Epstein asks, "I finished writing my memoir but I don't know what to call it," and John says, "How about 'Queer Jew'"? It does sum up Brian Epstein, though in a negative way. Without batting an eyelash.

Bianca Jagger - Legendary Women

To me, Bianca Jagger is the classiest woman alive.  She has dedicated her life to Human Rights.  I recall in Texas in the '90's, she stood outside a prison where there was going to be an execution that night.  She is against the death penalty and was representing Amnesty International.  Geraldo Rivera  covered the story.  He swung from one opinion to another  -- opposite ends, depending upon whom he was talking to that hour.  He noticed Bianca Jagger.  He was facing the camera and asked her a question.  She immediately turned around and faced the camera directly and gave her opinion to the people at home, turning her back on Rivera.  I personally enjoyed that.  Soon Geraldo would announce on his CNBC show that  -- appropos of nothing  -- that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy and there was no conspiracy; shaking his head like conspiracy believers in this death were crazy and unfortunate.  Thus, Geraldo became a CIA media asset and was awarded a new role on a different station as foreign coorespondent in the Afghanistan war, which he announced a week later.  President Kennedy, he said, was shot from behind by one man only  -- Lee Harvey Oswald. 

If you want to know more about Kennedy's death, go to Simkins JFK Debate and read the Forum.  Or there's jfkresearch.com.  I thought I knew all about Kennedy's Assassination when I first came upon these forums.  I didn't, although I believed in conspiracy.

Bianca's found herself in dangerous situations.  For many years she couldn't go back to Nicaragua because of the political climate  -- an understatement.  Here is a video of a short speech she gave for the Legendary Women convention.  She began to describe her own role model.  I knew she would say   Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Bianca lives primarily in London now.

Mob-related Manzos

It seems that Caroline and Dina have married into a family with ties to the underworld.  I just found this out from the NY Daily News, April 2009.  Caroline's father-in-law, "Tiny" (he was very fat) Manzo was killed Mafia style years back and they never found the perpetrator.  His arms and legs were wrapped in plastic and he was shot.  Tiny was found stuffed in the trunk of his Lincoln Continental.  So my informer was right.  They are tied to mobsters.  The Brownstone in Paterson, NJ, was run by Tiny.  Tiny was known to be a character.  Now his 2 sons run the Brownstone.  The murder had something to do with the Gambinos, people think.

Here's an article from the Bergen Record written in 1994.  Tiny died in 1983:

BATTLE OVER VICTIM’S INSURANCE

By CHRISTOPHER KILBOURNE
Staff Writer

Diabetes didn't kill Albert "Tiny" Manzo -- four bullets did.

In fact, the cause of death was about the only aspect of the 1983 murder of the popular Paterson restaurateur that was not cloaked in mystery.

Police who discovered Manzo's naked, 350-pound body stuffed inside the trunk of his Lincoln Continental in Hillside immediately noticed two things out of the ordinary: Manzo's massive arms and legs had been wrapped in plastic, and his chest was ripped open with a quartet of gunshot wounds.

Nevertheless, Manzo's diabetes is the reason an insurance company is refusing to pay off on a $500,000 life insurance policy taken out shortly before the murder.

Although Manzo's death obviously was unrelated to that condition, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. contends that his failure to admit to his diabetes on an insurance application amounted to fraud and that the insurance contract therefore should be rescinded.

A sometimes skeptical state Supreme Court panel heard arguments in the case Tuesday and is expected to rule in the next several months.

The trial court that heard the case ruled in favor of Massachusetts Mutual. But in June 1989, the Appellate Division of Superior Court reversed that judgment. In a 2-1 decision, the Appellate Division said that Manzo's heirs should receive the full amount of the policy less a higher premium -- about $3,000 rather than $1,300 -- that he would have been charged had the company known about his diabetes.

Writing in dissent to that appellate ruling, Superior Court Judge David Landau said that Manzo had committed a form of fraud and that the missing information would "naturally and reasonably influence" Massachusetts Mutual's decision to issue a policy.

However, in his arguments Tuesday before the Supreme Court, a lawyer for the company conceded that Manzo would have been issued a policy -- at the higher premium -- even if he had disclosed his diabetes. But attorney Eugene Haring argued that it would be "insurance by hindsight" for the court to uphold life insurance policies based on false applications, requiring only that the premiums be adjusted retroactively.

A rule of law that does not require truthful answers on insurance applications will encourage people to lie about their medical histories, Haring said. That could lead to the issuance of policies -- or unrealistically low premiums -- to high-risk candidates, with the end result being higher insurance costs for everyone, he said.

But Justice Robert L. Clifford seemed skeptical. He wondered why, if Manzo's estate pays the higher premium, would it be unfair to require Massachusetts Mutual to make good on a policy that it admittedly would have issued even if it had known about Manzo's diabetes.

Relying on a misrepresentation about diabetes to get out of paying life insurance on a man who was shot to death smacks of the company saying "ah -- we finally found a way out of this lousy case," Clifford said.

Michael Chazkel, a lawyer for the Manzo family, argued that it would not be an undue burden on the insurance industry to require companies to honor policies where a misrepresentation on the application was "innocent" and where the policy would have been issued even without the false statement.

Manzo, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Paterson in 1974, applied for the policy June 8, 1983, and underwent a required physical exam three weeks later. He paid a $200 deposit toward the policy on July 24.

Manzo disappeared in mid-August of that year while traveling from one of his two Paterson restaurants toa meeting in Wayne. Police found his body Aug. 22 inside the trunk of his car, which was parked at a Hillside supermarket.

The murder was never solved. The Union County prosecutor and police investigators speculated that Manzo was killed as a result of involvement with organized crime figures. One theory is that he angered local mob figures by attempting to open an illegal gambling club in Paterson without their permission.

Ironically, the friendly and gregarious Manzo had based his mayoral campaign on a law-and-order platform, promising to hold public hangings in the yard of the Passaic County Jail.

Manzo's wife and sons still run the Brownstone Restaurant in Paterson. His son Albert said the family is doing fine, although it would be nice for his mother's sake if the high court orders the insurance company to pay the $500,000.

"We are going to be here for a long time, with or without it," he said.

Copyright 1994 Bergen Record Corp.

Jerry Lewis' dance talent

Jerry is a great dancer. Here is the dance sequence of Jerry in Cinderfella. Jerry loved Count Basie and in this dance you'll see he has a movement for every note.  When the dance ends Jerry runs up the stairs looks to his right and left and disappears.  Stella Stevens (who'd be making The Nutty Professor with him) was standing there and said Jerry just passed out in front of her.  Apparently he suffered a heart attack.  But he came back to work a few days later.