As I sit here waiting on Godot, the cat vomits all over my feet. With no job in sight, and no way of getting there. I reflect on women and men I will never know again. They gave everything, to make sure we could make the storms fade from our vision and become the things of myth. Why do others judge when we see their imperfect faces, casting shadows of doubt. They have not always been our lovers, that was for others. The cat now pisses in my shoes, he thinks he was my only pet! Walking into the bar, I heard someone yelling "SOLID DREAMS CAN FILL THIS SOUL GIRL!".  I turned around and there he was. There he was staggering down the lanes of a one way street; CHARLIE SHEEN! As I tried to enter the bar he grabbed my jersey.  "Why are you going in there when there's a perfectly good alley next door!    

       I turned and go with him into a dim lit alley, filled with rats and trash cans.  As I asked him why we're here, he kept yelling TIGER BLOOD, TIGER BLOOD!!  Then he pulled from a suitcase two bottles of wine:  Chardonnay and Merlot, and as we drank from them he said "They all think I'm crazy, but I'm at Radio City Music Hall tonight".  Charlie springs to his feet and rips off two lids from the trash cans.  We sit on them as 50 rats run by.  He yells "WINNING! WINNING! WINNING!  They're fools, they're fools, everything begins again"!!  As we throw the empty bottles of wine against the brick wall, Charlie pulls a foot long glass pipe out of his coat.  Stuffing it full, he holds up a lighter to it and snap, crackle, pop.  He inhales deeply and yells "THERE ARE NO ENDS ONLY BEGINNINGS!!!"  This is my Que to get up and head back to the bar...Charlie leaps up and follows me to the end of the alley, were strangers appear and they yell "Yo bro, can we have some of that".  Charlie yells "you assholes better get out of our way".  Then with one swift kick to the groin, the whole action is over as the remaining two run off into the night.  Charlie embraces me and says "have a nice drink" and walks off into the night.

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As I walked into the bar, there was only one seat. So I sat down next to some guy muttering under his breath.  "I should of had them all shot; maggots, worms!!!" As the bartender walked over to me I looked in his glazed green eyes.  He shouted above the music "what will you have!" Suddenly the guy next to me shouted "He'll have what I'm drinking - TIGERS BLOOD!"  He reached into a well worn wallet and pulled out a $100 dollar bill and began shouting "At the end of the day it's about commerce and money! Their trolls! Trolls I tell you! Retarded zombies that say they could treat me! I'am a winner damn it! A winner, winning!" 
     I looked at his face and suddenly I realized and yelled at him "your that guy on one and a half men.  Your Charlie Sheen!"
"I'm the Warlock damn it, and that's Two and a half men you idiot!" he retorted. 
     Sitting there in amazement I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.  I turned to see who it was.  There stood Jim Tressel, coach of THE Ohio State football team, decked out in one of the schools football jerseys. "Wanna dance young man?"  Without a second thought Charlie jumped to his feet and said "I'll take that proposal" as he grabbed Jim's hand and rushed him to the dance floor. 
     There I sit on my stool dumbfounded at what I had just witnessed.  "F*#k!!! What the hell is going on here?"  The next thing I know, my nose is being assulted by the heavy scent of cheap perfume.  And there she stood, raven haired and boobs the size of New York.  I had heard tales but nothing prepared me for what happened next.  Scanning her from cheek to cheek, I couldly barely speak, that ass is for real!  It was the one, the only Kim K. in the flesh.  "HAVE YOU HEARD MY NEW CD?" and with that she lets out a banshee's wail.  It shatters my glass of TIGERS BLOOD.
     Now the bartender is covering his ears as he asks me if the lady would like a drink and I another?  Finally she stops and asks me "what do you think?"  I replied "I hope you got paid up front!"  With that she yelled "you could have had me all night, but you blew it buddy!".  She turns and walks away.
     A sweaty hand again grabs my shoulder.  It's Charlie this time.  Now what, I think to myself.  Charlie begins to quote Laozi..."Dao is the softest thing in the world, but it can overcome the hardest thing in the world." The next thing I hear is Charlie screaming ....

"MORE TIGER BLOOD, MORE TIGER BLOOD!!!"

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  Peter Allen (10 February 1944 – 18 June 1992) was an Australian songwriter and entertainer. His songs THERE THE BEST THAT HE COULD DO, they were made popular by many recording artists, including Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John, Elkie Brooks, and one, Arthur's Theme, won the Academy Award. In addition to recording many albums, he enjoyed a cabaret and concert career, including appearing at Radio City Music Hall riding a what else a camel. His marriage to Liza Minnelli ended in divorce and his most significant relationship was with Gregory Connell which lasted 15 years.

He was born Peter Richard Woolnough in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia. Allen began his performing career with Chris Bell as one of the "Allen Brothers", who were a popular cabaret and television act in the early 1960s in Australia. Mark Herron, the husband of Judy Garland, discovered Allen while he was performing in Hong Kong. He was invited to return with them to London and the United States, where he performed with Garland.[citation needed]

Allen commenced releasing solo recordings in 1971, but throughout his career achieved greater succes through his songs being recorded by others. He wrote "Don't Cry Out Loud," recorded by Melissa Manchester, and "I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love," recorded by Rita Coolidge. One of his signature songs, "I Go to Rio," was a moderate hit in America for the group Pablo Cruise. Allen scored his biggest success with the song "I Honestly Love You," which he co-wrote with Jeff Barry and which became a major hit in 1974 for Olivia Newton-John. Her single reached number one in the United States and in Canada and won two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Newton-John.

In 1976, Allen released an album Taught By Experts, which reached number one in Australia, along with the number one singles "I Go To Rio" and "The More I See You". Although his recording career in the U.S. never progressed, he performed in Atlantic City and Carnegie Hall. He had three extended sold out engagements at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, where he became the first male dancer to dance with the Rockettes and rode a camel during "I Go to Rio." [1]. This performance was broadcast live and exclusively on subscription television service WHT The Movie Network.[2]
His most successful album was Bi-Coastal, (1980) produced by David Foster and featuring the top hit "Fly Away," which, in 1981, became his only U.S. chart single, reaching #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.  He co-wrote the song "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Christopher Cross, for Minnelli's 1981 movie Arthur. The song reached number one in the U.S., and the songwriters won an Academy Award for Best Song. He actually wrote one line for the whole song: "When you get caught between the moon and New York City" from an earlier song that he and Bayer Sager co-wrote. He and Bayer Sager also co-wrote "You and Me (We Wanted It All)" which was recorded by Frank Sinatra. A video of Sinatra singing the song at Carnegie Hall was included as part of the Sinatra: New York cd/dvd package, released in late 2009.
Allen performed on Australian Television at many important occasions: in front of Queen Elizabeth II in 1980 at the Sydney Opera House, before Prince Charles and Princess Diana, once in Melbourne and again in Sydney, at the opening of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, where he unveiled for the first time his Australia "Flag" shirt, and the 1980 Australian Rules Grand Final in Melbourne. His "Up In One Concert" of 1980 was a huge ratings success across the country. When Australia won The America's Cup, he flew to Perth to sing before an audience of 100,000. In 1988 he opened for Frank Sinatra at Sanctuary Cove, Queensland. In America he appeared at the 30th Anniversary of Disneyland. He returned to recording on Arista with an album entitled "Not the Boy Next Door" (1983). In 1990 he recorded his final album on RCA, Making Every Moment Count, which featured Melissa Manchester and Harry Connick Jr.
One of his songs, I Still Call Australia Home, became popular through its use in television commercials, initially for National Panasonic, and then since 1998 for Qantas Airlines. This has since become an unofficial anthem for Australians abroad.
He made his way to  the bright lights of Broadway debuting on January 12 1971, in SOON, a rock opera that opened at the Ritz Theatre and ran for three performances. He starred in his own one-man revue on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre, "Up in One: More Than a Concert" (1979), which ran for 46 performances.
Allen recorded a live album called "Captured Live at Carnegie Hall" where songs from his musical Legs Diamond, were previewed. Legs Diamond opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on 26 December 1988, with a book co-written by Harvey Fierstein. The musical ran for 64 performances and 72 previews. After Legs Diamond closed he returned to concert work, touring with Bernadette Peters during the summer of 1989.[5] Peter and Bernadette also performed in the early 1980's on the Academy Award broadcast in an extended musical tribute to Irving Berlin.
He appeared in a cameo role in the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978).
His live version of "Everything Old is New Again" can be heard on the soundtrack to the film All That Jazz (1979).
He appeared in the 1982 television version of The Pirates of Penzance (as the Pirate King)
He also did a pilot for a new "Name That Tune" show in 1990, and the pilot for what became CBS's short-lived primetime game show The Hollywood Game. He died the day the series, which ended up being hosted by Bob Goen due to Allen's illness, debuted. (citation: The Boy From Oz by Stephen MacLean, 1996)
Allen grew up in the small Australian country town, Tenterfield. His grandfather, George Woolnough, worked as a saddler in the town. His father Dick became a violent alcoholic upon returning from World War II. He shot and killed himself when Peter was still young. George never understood, nor got over this devastating event. This tale is told in the song, Tenterfield Saddler. On 26 November 2005 an extension of the Tenterfield library was opened and named the "George Woolnough Wing".

He married Liza Minnelli in 1967; they were divorced in 1974, two divias just can't get along.

More comfortable with his homosexuality, from the 1970s to 1984 Allen had a long-time partner, Gregory Connell. He was a fashion model from Texas who designed the sound and lighting for Allen's shows and sang backup on his rendition of "I Go to Rio." Connell died from an AIDS-related illness in September 1992 at their home in California.

Shortly before his death from an AIDS-related throat cancer, he gave his last performance in Sydney on  January 26 1992. His ashes were scattered at sea.

A documentary titled "The Boy From Oz" about Allen was produced after his death, featuring clips from his performances as well as interviews with performers who worked with him.

A stage musical based on his life, also titled The Boy from Oz, opened in Australia in 1998. Using his largely autobiographical songs, the production starred Todd McKenney as Allen and Christina Amphlett of rock group Divinyls as Judy Garland. In 2003, the musical opened on Broadway, becoming the first Australian musical ever to be performed there. In this production Allen was played by Hugh Jackman, aka  the X MEN who won a Tony Award for his portrayal in 2004. Jackman performed this role again two years later when the show toured large arenas in Australia under the title "The Boy From Oz: Arena Spectacular".Due to his limited success as a singer in the U.S., his ten albums are hard to find, with only seven issued on CD.

His career has been important in helping the tourist industry in Tenterfield where visitors can still see the Tenterfield Saddler shop with an interesting collection of memorabilia about Peter Allen.He was the champion of joy and SHOWMANSHIP!! His performances on TV and stage proved, he was one of the BEST. So we cry out loud for one more trip to RIO.

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And walls come tumbling down
We'll be forever calm

I was listening to these words late this afternoon when I first heard that the New York State Senate was finally going to vote on the Marriage Equality Act, which would have legalized gay marriage finally in the great state of New York. Though I'm not a big believer in marriage as an institution, I do believe strongly that all people, including people like us, should have the same right to marry that straight people do.

The words are from a song by Erasure called 'In My Arms,' and the "walls" referred to in the song symbolize tonight the wall that's stood between gay people and the legal institution of marriage for years and years. When I saw the announcement of the vote on Twitter via my iPhone, I had a good feeling. Yes, this time it would pass. I turned up the volume and sang the words to this beautiful song at the top of my lungs, and this time with a whole new meaning...



I am a lifelong New Yorker. It's the place where I was born, the place I was raised, and the place I call my home. I've always been proud of being a New Yorker and I'm even prouder tonight.



Though I've been meaning lately to post links to some of the pieces I've written lately, I've been remiss, and I'm going to change that now for tonight's historic action by my state government moved me into action to share and to reiterate what I believe with all my heart. Here are links to what I wrote earlier tonight and some related material from the past. Check it out:

Some NY Pride as Gay Marriage Bill Finally Passes

Why Same Sex Marriage is a Civil Rights Issue

The Lovings and Today's Gay Marriage Debate

Gay Marriage Shot Down Again: When Will the Hate Stop?

Gay Marriage and the Traditional Family

As always, thanks for reading!


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I wish I were an Anthony David Weiner that is what I'd truly like to be and if I were an Anthony David Weiner everyone would be in love with me!

Why is it that men who seek high offices continue to flaunt the privileges of power.  Does the respect of the people mean nothing to them?  The list of offenders seems endless, as they take our trust for granted.  All human beings are weak, they're only saved by what they believe in.  A guy by any other name would smell as sweet!!!

Dedicated to Anthony D. Weiner formerly a U.S. Representative who served New York's 9th congressional district from January 1999 until his resignation in disgrace June 2011.

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A while back, when I was still in the habit of posting regularly (and had the time and mental energy to do so), I mentioned the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija in conjunction with another relational aesthetic project that was occurring at the Flux Factory. Aah, the old days! A friend of C's saw the post and ended up deciding to check out one of his events, and even mentioned it to see. But I'd never had an opportunity to experience his work live--to participate in it--until this past Saturday when that same friend, knowing of my interest in Tiravanija, hipped us to his show that's currently running at Gavin Brown's enterprise until mid-April, Fear Eats the Soul. I can't say I fully grasp Tiravanija's invocation of the English translation of the title of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's iconic film (one of his best, really) from 1974, Ali: Angst Essen Seele Auf, which treated the tumultuous love affair, across national, linguistic, racial, class, and cultural lines between a white working-class German woman and a brown North African immigrant laborer, especially after reading the press release for the show, but it nevertheless increased my interest in seeing what he had devised.

The show consists of several parts: one, FEAR EATS THE SOUL, is the large, transformed open space of the Brown enterprise gallery, with "Fear eats the soul" graffitied in black on the gray walls, a mini-gravesite (a hill of soil, an iron headstone laid flat reading "Fear Eats The Soul"), and other deconstructive elements placed here and there, the emptiness and ephemeral state of the space signifying, among other things, quite playfully upon the title and the idea of the "reliquary," which he has played with before. Another reprises several of his earlier performances, including the plywood replica of his apartment, this time filled with bronzed pieces referencing his 1994 show "with" (the late) Andy Warhol, which paired the latter artist's pieces (one of the Mao portraits, a Brillo box, a TV set) with pieces from Tiravanija's life.  Unlike in 1999, on Saturday, we weren't able to install ourselves and sleep on his bed, watch his TV, ruminate, be; the door was locked, the space open for viewing. The plywood structure did invite visitors through a second door, which led to a screenprinting shop, TSHIRTNOTSHIRT.COM, whose walls Tiravanija had lined with a number of phrases he has cited in the past (some of them détourned or repurposed quotes from others), and which offered $20 t-shirts featuring these phrases to anyone who requested one. When we dropped in, one of his Columbia University graduate students, the affable Nick P., was running the press. Obsessed as I am with documenting such events, I got one (see below).

But this would not have been a Tiravanija show for me if he had not performed one of his trademark moves, which was to prepare food for visitors-participants, a hallmark of his practice from his earliest performance-events, such as 1990's Pad Thai, which also took place at an earlier inpetration of Gavin Brown's enterprise, and a legendary and almost hackneyed form of the now well-known genre of conceptual art known as "relational aesthetics."  Hackneyed except in the hands of Tiravanija himself, who as part of SOUPNOSOUP.COM, in another (the main?) part of Brown's arthouse, quietly and with radiant charm (and several assistants) prepared two different soups, one a tea-lime chicken version (which led me to break my vegetarianism for a day) and the second a milder mushroom soup. I know that tea, lime juice, and a few other things went into the pot, because my trio watched Tiravanija and his trio prepare the food, the day grow brighter and chillier, and various personages, unknown to us but likely part of New York's art scene, pop in for soup and conversation.  One person I struck up a conversation with turned out to be a very important former gallerist and font of knowledge and insight, Simon Cerigo, whose wife publishes the Website ArtLoversNewYork.  To say that he regaled us would be understating matters, so I'll put it this way: I learned more in the 45 or so minutes of conversation with him about the New York (and global) art world of the last 30 years than I had in the last 25 of my own gentle investigations of the same. Or rather, I got from his conversation what no books, polite inquiries at galleries, and chats with the artists I know have provided. I lie not! At any rate, we decided not to be carbuncles, and headed out. I could not muster the courage to chat with Tiravanija, so I took lots of pictures, and smiled at him. He probably thinks I'm a crazy person, which wouldn't be so off the mark, especially as I have been sporting a baby(fro)hawk these last few days. (It's spring break!) 

I'm still thinking about the soup, the crowd, the concept, Fassbinder, New York's art world, what it might mean to be a world-famous artist reprising your earlier interventions in an art world that has grown immeasurably richer and more global since you first began your work; to be serving soup in a city in which the homeless are numerous, and what sort of "community" really is being created or engaged if the project occurs within a (private, wealthy) gallery's (open) walls; to build a plywood version of any sort of living space, again within the confines of a privat(iz)e(d) institutional space, when New York apartments are still unaffordable for the majority of its population and people of color are still losing their homes empty to foreclosure and empty storefronts are legion; to create ephemeral artworks that on the one hand defy easy commodification but are by the same token now utterly implicated and imbricated the contemporary art and economic commodification process, and which by their very nature assume even greater value at a certain level; to be making art in a gallery on the edge of SoHo when the artworld has mostly tromped up to Chelsea, which was mostly still warehouses 21 years ago, in an increasingly deindustrialized, deterritorialized, defunded city, at a revolutionary moment or moments: what does it mean and can it be summed up even in an essay or book?  I'm still thinking, remembering, enjoying. Photos below:

Rirkrit Tiravanija, at work

At work

C & Ada H (THE)

Angst Essen Seele Auf


Nick P. at work on (my) t-shirt

The way things go

My secret motto

Simon Cerigo

Reprise of Tiravanija/Warhol (originals 1994)

Yours truly, with his soup

The tea-lime chicken soup

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