cultural commentary from the desk of Don Shewey
WRITING
Write every day, the muse insists. Don’t skip a day no matter how you’re feeling, no matter how many wars your country is fighting, no matter how many tornados are heading your way. Crawl into your storm cellar and pick up a pen. If you can’t think of anything to say, write the word God again and again. If you don’t believe in God, write the word dog. Everyone believes in dogs.
— Sy Safransky
A mailing from Short Mountain Sanctuary, the Radical Faerie enclave back in the hills of Tennessee, informs me of the passing of Charles Emerson Hall, aka Crazy Owl, whom I met briefly at the first Gay Spirit Visions conference in North Carolina in 1990 (see below) and perhaps one or two other occasions when I was communing regularly with the faeries.
left to right: Steve Greer, Franklin Abbott, Andrew Ramer, Ron Lambe, John Burnside, Harry Hay, Crazy Owl
This unsigned remembrance from the Short Mountain Goatzette offers a peek into a realm that I treasure, even if I encounter it seldom in my life these days:
“Crazy Owl, boyish beauty and land lover, passed away on April the 4th of this year. His body was laid to rest in the green hillside of the Barefoot Farmer in whom he found companionship and kin.
“Crazy Owl began his healing work in psychotherapy in Massachusetts, yet his work in statistics caused him to radically shift his priorities to the land. Crazy Owl returned to his childhood love of the land, entymology, botany, and bare bottomed hiking among his many passions, taking on a bold quest of learning traditional Chinese medical approach and integrating that wisdom into the world growing around him. Fostering communities near Atlanta and carrying this tradition on wild Missionary Delight tours, the wisdom of this walker of the wild brought hope and healing with mischief while finding welcome in many communities. His pilgrimages to Serpent Mound evoked the spirit of community and tribe while demonstrating that he had found a sustainable path in reconciliation with his whiteness and privilege.
“Many stewards receiving this letter come to Short Mountain for the herbal wisdom walks that the barred Owl facilitated at gatherings. Perhaps the statistician kept a record of the many lives he touched yet surely the number is great. The stories that live on in remembrance of Crazy Owl continue to inspire all those seeking a radical way of life.
“The body loving, sex positive liberation movement generated by Crazy Owl is remembered in his written legacy, including an illustrated book. Coming Out by Chuck Hall is a piece on the subject of coming out, expanding its definition to include body love, sharing love, self love and self acceptance.
“Those with access to the net interested to find out more about this fascinating man can visit his website: http://crazyowlsperch.com.”
The day off: Andy at the pier
in the golden hour
at the dermatologist's office
take one look at this scary object and guess what comes next...
alchemists come in unusual shapes and forms
farmer's market booty, or Still Life with Callaloo
My review of the first program of this year’s SUMMER SHORTS festival of one-act plays at 59E59 Theaters has just been posted on CultureVulture.net. Check it out and let me know what you think. For me, the high point of the evening is Alexander Dinelaris’s “In This, Our Time,” especially the performance of Ted Koch (below, with Erin Darke) as a homicide detective who’s formed a strong emotional bond with the daughter of the rather crazy woman he’s been dating and about to dump. The low point is definitely another loathsome play by Neil LaBute called “The New Testament.” You can read my review in full here.
After the New York Times’ paywall went up, I decided the most economical way to feed my NYT habit was the Weekender subscription (Fri-Sat-Sun). So now I’m spending way more time reading the newspaper of record than I have in years, and more time than I’d prefer. But, you know, there’s some good stuff in those pages!
Even the dullest blurb about Michael Holroyd’s new biographical volume, “A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers,” would make it sound irresistible to any self-respecting literato. Dwight Garner’s review on Friday did a great job and fanned the forest fire that Holyroyd has started to revive interest in the novels of Violet Trefusis, whose passionate-to-the-point-of-deranged love affair with Vita Sackville-West is apparently the centerpiece of the story Holyroyd tells. But Toni Bentley’s front-page rave in the Sunday Times Book Review is a whole other experience — not only makes you want to run out and buy the book pronto but makes you want to read the review aloud to whomever will listen.
another eye opens 