JAMES M. CAIN (1933) PARADISE : EXCERPT FROM WRITING LOS ANGELES

JAMES M. CAIN (1933) PARADISE : EXCERPT FROM WRITING LOS ANGELES

page 108-109

Wash out, then, the "land of sunshine, fruit, and flowers" : all these are here, but not with the lush, verdant fragrance that you have probably imagined.  A celebrated movie comedian is credited with the remark that "the flowers don't smell and the women do," but in my observation nothing smells.  Wash out the girl with the red cheeks peeping coyly from behind a spray of orange leaves.  The girl is here, but the dry air has taken the red out of her cheeks; the orange trees are here, but they don't look that way: the whole picture has too much pep, life, and moisture in it....

Wash out the palm trees, half visible beyond the tap dancing platform.  Palm trees are here, but they are all phonies, planted by people amused with the notion of a sub-tropical climate, and they are so out of harmony with their surroundings that they hardly - notice.  Wash out the movie palazzos, so impressive in the photographs. They are here, too, at any rate in a place called Beverly Hills, not far from Hollywood; but they are like the palm trees, so implausible in their surroundings that they take on the lifelessness of movie wets.  Above all, washout the cool green that seems to be the main feature of all illustrations got out by railroads.  Wash that out and keep it out."

Page 112)  Here Cain tries to come up with the positives

First, I would list the unfailing friendliness and courtesy of the people.  It is a friendliness somewhat different from what you find elsewhere, for it does not as a rule include hospitality.  The man who will take all sorts of trouble to direct you to some place you are trying to find does not ordinarily invite you into his house; it is not that he has any reason for keeping you out, it is merely that it does not occur to him to do it.

Hospitality, I think, comes when people have sent down roots it goes with pride in a home, pride in ancestors that built the home, conscious identification with a particular soil.  These people, in one way or another, are all exiles.  They have come here recently, and their hearts are really into the places that they left.  Thus, if they do not do as much visiting with each other as you see in other parts of the country, or the gossiping that goes with visiting, they do have the quick friendliness that exiles commonly show, and I must say it is most agreeable...

With the friendliness and courtesy, I would bracket the excellent English that is spoke her.  The Easterner, when he first hears it, is likely to mistake it for the glib chatter of a habitual salesmanship....


Writing Los Angeles

A Literary Anthology
Edited by David L. Ulin
Library of America publisher
Copyright 2002

MUSES ON THE GROUND IN SANTA CRUZ

MUSES ON THE GROUND IN SANTA CRUZ

One day I just got up in the fogpit and drove to the smogpit.
One world and another linked by fast highway.
Sometimes your other world is across the street and doesn't require drastic measures like mileage or time zones, but what did I know?
Walk in closets and toilets in parks were called "alternative housing."
I had to get out of there.

From somewhere high up, the clouds, or maybe the sea cliff, I left an imprint first.
I dragged my heart through the ocean waves before I left, dangling it in a bag made of net, that also held semi precious stones, letting the salt water do its work.

I left muses on the ground in Santa Cruz.
Some made me do what I wanted.
Some made me do what I didn't.
Some just left me terribly confused.

And I heard this song coming in from somewhere, in my head, Bob Dylan's Girl From North Country, so I went out and bought the album it was on so I could hear it again and wonder
who I left behind, who loved me. That and Alanis Morrisette's Ironic.

There were muses on the shelves of the libraries.
There were muses in binders left in coffee houses.
There was a muse who came up to me and pronounced my surname properly.

I had to hide my signature.
I went from handwriting to penmanship.


C 2018-2015  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Including Internet and International Rights Reserved

FAKE NEWS IS REAL

Even with an open mind, listening and watching YouTube videos, you know that many of them are not NEWS but conspiracy inspired opinion pieces and there are a lot of people out there who have no way of knowing that.  Especially when the "NEWS" is speculation, and has been proven to be so, these videos are time wasters.

But on a more personal level, anyone who has been slayed by gossip whores knows there is such a thing as FAKE NEWS.

ENOUGH ABOUT

ME!

I DON'T UNDERSTAND

1) Roses with no scent.
2) Roses that smell like roach killer.
3) Roses that were bred not to have thorns.
4) Sinus medication that smells like roses.

PAUL MC CARTNEY's SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY and THE RINGO SHOW AT THE GRAMMY MUSEUM

Just watched the video of the recent Late Late Show with James Cordon, in which Paul McCartney makes the rounds with him singing songs.  So they were in Liverpool and what got to me - during the near half hour video - was when they returned to the house Paul grew up in, where he composed his first songs and had John Lennon over.  Such a little row house, with the sink his dad hand-washed undies in, and the bathroom as the best acoustics in the place. Clearly the house Paul grew up in is something of a local tourist spot since there are early Beatles photos on the walls and so on. Paul said he had NEVER been back there since the early days. That surprised me.  So I had to wonder if he went home and then processed it. I also found it interesting that his mother, who died of breast cancer when he was about 16, had come to him in a dream, saying "Let It Be!"

As you may know if you've read this blog from the beginning, Paul McCartney makes occasional appearances in my dreams, and usually he is cheerfully on the move.  When he shows up in my dreams I take him to be the spirit of creativity.

But last year - wish I'd written down the date - I had an entirely different Paul McCartney dream.  He was sitting on a chair, not in movement.  Yes he had his left handed guitar in his lap but he wasn't playing it. I sat down across from him. And when I briefly touched the top of his left his hand with my right, he allowed this. Our eyes also fully met.  And Paul looked like the aging man he is.  So maybe this had something to do with continuing to create even as one ages.

Watching the video this morning, I was thinking about the Grammy Museum, one of my favorite spots, and the Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) Show.  Sadly, I missed the previous George show and John show.  On display was a black and white TV set that looked like it was from the very early 1960's and through some video magic, Beatles performances were being played on it continuously.  I found myself smiling, but then everyone standing around me, and all through the exhibit was smiling.  The vibe was just tremendously positive and happy.  I must know the lyrics to most of the Beatles's songs, and listened to all of them hundreds of times, yet I have no attraction to a local Beatles Songs radio show or going to see the reenactment groups that tour.

I didn't grow up with the Beatles, but then I did, simply because I had older female cousins who were into them who lead the way. And then in high school I had a friend who got an allowance and did some extreme "baby-sitting" (child-care) who had almost the entire Beatles collection, plus a hot robin's egg blue bedroom that was full of Beatle's posters.  So we'd sit and listen to these albums together.  Yet, all these songs were already Oldies.

She moved away and one day when she came back to visit, she handed me ALL her Beatles Albums and I still have them, though I have not had a stereo system to play them on in as many years. Sometimes I think I'm going to sell them.  Sometimes I think I'm going to surprise her and ship them back to her.

In a sense I was too young or too old for the Beatles.  In the question about who I idolize, I said I had stopped having idols after my teenage years, so no one.  And this is true.  Though Paul McCartney has been showing up in my dreams since I was maybe 10 or 12 years old, and in the fifth grade I made the claim that he was my boyfriend (!), my friend and I used to sit up in her tree house and go through magazines she bought, such as Creem, and try to decide who was the cutest of any number of Beatlesque mop tops.  I'm now savvy enough to know how well I was marketed to!

C 2018 Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

IN BOUQUETS I LOVE

Peonies, Hyacinths,Tulips - but not in the same bouquet.

I hate Bird of Paradise, any kind of Lily.

JERUSALEM : DAN BERN

I was reading some commentary on this song.  Basically, I think people are assuming that this is a love song and that Dan, the singer, is first singing to a woman who wants more of him than he is willing to give.
My interpretation is that, it is the Messiah (be that God or Dan as God) who is singing to YOU.  Don't test my love because maybe I don't love you all that much.

FAVORITE BACKGROUND MUSIC

Jazz from the early 1960's and back.  Louis Armstrong.  Mickey Hart's Planet Drum.  Played low - just a hint - no lyrics.

GROUCHO MARKS on BOOKS

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside a dog it's too dark to read."  ---Groucho Marx

THE MOST PERFECT MEAL IN A RESTAURANT I EVER ATE

A Chesapeake Bay lunch of crab cakes.  So good that both I and my dining partner closed our eyes after the first bite and then had our next bite with our eyes closed too.

JUST OUT FOR A LIGHT MEAL I'D LIKE

Middle Eastern or Mediterranean.


Sometimes I crave Thai Food.  Such as lemon grass coconut soup or fat noodles with lots of peanut sauce, but some hummus, pita bread, and olives is just enough.

Overall, I like to order food in restaurants that I'm not going to make at home.

A CHILDHOOD SPENT IN NATURE - BEST MEMORY

One summer day I woke up from a nap and had the desire to walk in the woods. I spotted a huge patch of violets and just then a visible shaft of sunlight made it through the trees and right onto that patch.  It felt to me like God wanted me to see those violets.

STOP NEWS PRINT TARIFFS ORG - CALL TO POLITICAL ACTION

STOP NEWS PRINT TARIFFS ORG - call to action

FRAN LEBOWITZ QUOTE

"Here's the problem with being ahead of your time . . . by the time everyone gets around to it, you're bored.


Fran Lebowitz in Martin Scorses's documentary about her, Public Speaking 2010
Secondary source, "Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore" by Terry Newman