Home again, home again; jiggedy-jig
Yes, I'm home again. Heavy sigh. What an amazing trip, gang. It was so great seeing the old crowd. I toyed with the idea of taking the camcorder with me on my various outings, but it would have seriously changed the vibe, so I didn't. You will have to resort to your vivid imaginations on that score.
I did take the camera with me to St. Malachy's church, though -- the church where they held Rudolph Valentino's New York funeral. What an incredible church, gang. Small but gorgeous. Breathtaking, really. I had passed by it how many hundreds of times when I lived there? And yet I had never stepped foot in it until this trip. It was so hard to imagine 500 indescribably famous Hollywood types crammed into that relatively small church -- not to mention 3000 mourners gathered outside in the narrow street -- in the heat of August, no less. I'm guessing that Valentino's coffin must have seemed really tiny by the time he was in it and it was placed up there near the altar. There were a few people in there praying while I was there, so I didn't want to be rude. I got a tiny bit of footage of the inside of the church, but mostly for reference only. I might upload it so you can kind of see it, but it is only 11 seconds.
It was SO GREAT seeing Valerie again! We got an early start on St. Paddy's Day, since she and I always spent it together in my years living in NYC. We went to Connolly's Irish Pub and I had my official St. Paddy's Day Guinness one month early. (Me thinks I might break down and have another one on the actual holiday, though, gang. We shall see!) Valerie's family is friends with Jim Carroll's family and her mom said that Jim is buried up there in Haverstraw (where Val's mom lives). So the next time Val goes to visit her folks, she's going to get some video of Jim's gravesite for me to post here to the lofty blog.
Boy did that make us feel old, though; both Willy Deville and Jim Carroll dead now. Yikes.
Anyway. Went to MoMA with Joe Queenan and really just had an incredible day with him. Another one of those outings with him that will remain in my memory forever. At the end of the day, while we were having a cup of coffee back at the Warwick, he said, "Do you realize we've been friends now for 27 years? That's over half your life." It was a very odd feeling indeed. Where did the time go?
Speaking of the Warwick, after we had our coffee, I dashed up to the second floor to use the Ladies room and what did I learn? That James Dean had been a regular guest at the Warwick from 1950 - 1955. I was flabbergasted! I wanted to start my trip all over from the beginning and try to channel him or something! Alas. (Up to the restrooms, they have photos lining the walls of the stairway of famous people who have either been residents and/or regular guests there over the years; i.e., Elvis, the Beatles, etc. See some post below somewhere.) (And in addition to Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn was also a resident and a regular -- how cool is that?)
re: The Tim Burton exhibit, well, I'm not going to say much. I liked it -- I'll at least say that. The rest of it felt kind of personal. Weird, I know. Go see it, though, before it closes in April.
And now I am home again. With much work to do. So I won't tarry. I will leave you with this, however. My good friend Rob Stephenson (aka TruDeviant and one of my very favorite writers) has a new novel out. You can order it here at Amazon. It is called Passes Through. I won't say he's an acquired taste, but his fiction is not for casual readers. It is intense and brilliant and complex and bold. I love him.
On that happy note, I gotta get back to work around here. Thanks for visiting. Hope life has been looking out for all your best interests while I was away. See ya, gang. (PS: I missed you.)
I did take the camera with me to St. Malachy's church, though -- the church where they held Rudolph Valentino's New York funeral. What an incredible church, gang. Small but gorgeous. Breathtaking, really. I had passed by it how many hundreds of times when I lived there? And yet I had never stepped foot in it until this trip. It was so hard to imagine 500 indescribably famous Hollywood types crammed into that relatively small church -- not to mention 3000 mourners gathered outside in the narrow street -- in the heat of August, no less. I'm guessing that Valentino's coffin must have seemed really tiny by the time he was in it and it was placed up there near the altar. There were a few people in there praying while I was there, so I didn't want to be rude. I got a tiny bit of footage of the inside of the church, but mostly for reference only. I might upload it so you can kind of see it, but it is only 11 seconds.
It was SO GREAT seeing Valerie again! We got an early start on St. Paddy's Day, since she and I always spent it together in my years living in NYC. We went to Connolly's Irish Pub and I had my official St. Paddy's Day Guinness one month early. (Me thinks I might break down and have another one on the actual holiday, though, gang. We shall see!) Valerie's family is friends with Jim Carroll's family and her mom said that Jim is buried up there in Haverstraw (where Val's mom lives). So the next time Val goes to visit her folks, she's going to get some video of Jim's gravesite for me to post here to the lofty blog.
Boy did that make us feel old, though; both Willy Deville and Jim Carroll dead now. Yikes.
Anyway. Went to MoMA with Joe Queenan and really just had an incredible day with him. Another one of those outings with him that will remain in my memory forever. At the end of the day, while we were having a cup of coffee back at the Warwick, he said, "Do you realize we've been friends now for 27 years? That's over half your life." It was a very odd feeling indeed. Where did the time go?
Speaking of the Warwick, after we had our coffee, I dashed up to the second floor to use the Ladies room and what did I learn? That James Dean had been a regular guest at the Warwick from 1950 - 1955. I was flabbergasted! I wanted to start my trip all over from the beginning and try to channel him or something! Alas. (Up to the restrooms, they have photos lining the walls of the stairway of famous people who have either been residents and/or regular guests there over the years; i.e., Elvis, the Beatles, etc. See some post below somewhere.) (And in addition to Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn was also a resident and a regular -- how cool is that?)
re: The Tim Burton exhibit, well, I'm not going to say much. I liked it -- I'll at least say that. The rest of it felt kind of personal. Weird, I know. Go see it, though, before it closes in April.
And now I am home again. With much work to do. So I won't tarry. I will leave you with this, however. My good friend Rob Stephenson (aka TruDeviant and one of my very favorite writers) has a new novel out. You can order it here at Amazon. It is called Passes Through. I won't say he's an acquired taste, but his fiction is not for casual readers. It is intense and brilliant and complex and bold. I love him.
On that happy note, I gotta get back to work around here. Thanks for visiting. Hope life has been looking out for all your best interests while I was away. See ya, gang. (PS: I missed you.)
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