Commissioned - in private collection
House Portrait - 11" x 17" / 28 x 43 cm
2021-05-19
2021-05-08
2021-05-01
Short story: Flat Tire
Flat Tire
In the hundred plus feet that I have to drive in
order to pull over [luck that; other parts of the road are not so generous] my
mind conjures all sorts of swear words and foul thoughts interlaced with terms
like "Yuppie Scum" and the "B" word. What you see above is how the woman "gifted" my truck.
I got out intent on
fixing the tire, hoping the rain promised doesn't start too soon. "Call
Triple A!" is the advice from home. I don't want to but when I can't get
the spare tire cable to lower [WD-40 wasn't cutting it] I decide why not.
By the time the
guy from the tow service arrives, at least I've got the front tire almost off.
A pleasant enough feller ~ a strapping, stalwart crew-cut blond, with a
workman's tan, sporting prison tattoos while wearing designer glasses ~ he had
an engaging demeanor, and set about to work at loosening the stuck cable with a
good pry bar and sinew.
He and I review
the problem here. I've had the truck over three years, never had to use the
spare, the bolt that holds the cable into place must have oxidized together ~
in short, they rusted.
Now they's stuck
together and can't come apart, like two dogs.
Two dogs?
Right. Two dogs.
Uh huh. I replied.
Old timer locals
drove by, slowing down, offering assists or good will; while those who could
have been the lady's friends rolled up their windows when they passed us.
After over half an
hour the cable still won't move. The Triple A guy says 'I'm gonna have to call
the flatbed'. I quickly calculate how much more it'll cost to bring a flatbed
up a narrow windy back dirt road plus extra tow miles I'm not covered for. I
ponder for a minute and says aloud, 'Even worst now is not being able to get to
the packy before it closes', then I grit my teeth and tell him, let's try this
one more time.
Both of us grunt
and tug at the tire beneath the truck, when suddenly ~ "clunk" the
rusted cable bolt gives way. We can change the tire at last.
After we're done, we engage in small talk and he gives me his personal cell phone number and we agree to hook up later on . . . which we eventually do.
Furthermore, I do make it to
the packy, but with minutes to spare. But I still get home too late.
Thanks lady.
2021-04-30
Portrait: Mike Sullivan: Champion Logger
Pencil on paper
7" x 8" / 18 x 20 cm
private collection
#©2021WillBrady
2021-04-29
2021-04-25
Vignette: Quick Rescue in Amsterdam
At the last moment.
I was a
neophyte visitor to Amsterdam, unknowing of the wiles of city life, much less
that of a foreign port. I came with a group of forty men on a flying road tour
but stayed aloof from the others, not wanting people to think me a tourist; so
I spurned their invites to roam about the red-light district. I was better than
that, I thought. Yet, like it or not, I was a tourist nonetheless.
I found out
how much a tourist I was after leave-taking from my acquaintances. Wandering
through the streets solo, I also wanted to try out a marijuana café, stopping
into a tobacconist for a pipe and rolling papers.
Not far down the road I spied such an establishment and ventured inside. It was poorly lit, with serving counter to one side with a couple of stools, all occupied.
The men on the stools, and the counterman, all looked like the cast of a B-grade film about dirty, violent bikers. At the bar’s end was a sign – in English – “More seating upstairs”.
I was hesitant,
realizing right then my hotel key, passport, money and all my identification
was in a bright blue pouch hanging around my neck, yet I was about to make a
step toward going upstairs.
At the last moment I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned. Before me stood a tall, impeccably attired, muscular African man, hand outstretched, saying “You dropped your cell phone on the ground” and sure enough I had.
Just as quickly, in an urgent tone, he said “What are you doing here? Get out. Get out of
here NOW!’ and motioned me to follow him. Without any hesitation, I did and
we both rushed down the street to civilization and safety.
Cinema: My Top Fifteen
I was challenged to come up with a list of 15 films that changed my intellectual DNA. At first it was tough to come up with more than 6, but it ended up being more difficult to winnow out other films I found of import in my life.
On top of it, I shared this list with my partner Bruce, who came up with a list of his own. My list is annotated for the first 15; his list follows in paragraph form; then I've added a list of other films I've found memorable.Anyway, here's my list:
1- The Shameless Old Lady - Based on a Bertolt Brecht story, when an old woman's husband finally dies, she decides to live a life of pleasant pleasure. While her children argue about who will get her belongings when she dies, she goes about disbursing her possessions, sharing her funds and free time with her grandson and his prostitute girlfriend. It was the first time I remembered going to a film with subtitles without anyone else. Saw it in a suburban Philly PA movie theatre in 1968.
2- Privilege - I saw this in a
3- West Side Story - I was in, oh, maybe 7th grade and went and watched this six times in seven days. I had no idea who Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim nor Lenny Bernstein were. Not sure if it was the gang warfare stuff, the idea of macho guys dancing in a pack or the gritty fantasy [for me] of urban ghetto life.
4- Animal Farm - [animated] I think the film I saw was released in 1954, which would make sense since I saw it as a kid. It forever etched into my brain the image of Orwellian nightmare societies, the link between corruption and power and the near futility of railing against the same. Even the pro USA agit-prop TV series Rocky and Bullwinkle that I had begun to watch religiously, couldn't over-ride the economic social class warfare components of Animal Farm for me.
5- Babette's Feast - A classic. What happens when a successful restaurateur flees and goes to live in a remote fishing village ...but he still can't get away from his artistry, and eventually fetes the villagers. Later I enjoyed a second pleasure when some dear friends had the feast staged at a nearby restaurant while we all watched the film together between courses.
6- Yellow Submarine - I drove 40 miles in a broken down 1959 orange Fiat with 5 other people to watch this in a barn like auditorium in a booze-free town in rural western New York State. We were all doing LSD and sat in the first row of the auditorium. The townspeople referred to us as "their" hippies.
7- Alone in the Wilderness - At the age of 50 Richard Proenneke went and moved to a wilderness section of Alaska to live there, alone. [well, except for occasional visits from bush plane pilots]. Once there he built his cabin, foraged and hunted for food, gathered firewood and studied the world around him. He filmed a year of his endeavors on an 8 mm camera that later got converted into video.
8- La cité des enfants perdus [The City of Lost Children] - co directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet the film has the eerie quality of the computer game Myst, with a bittersweet story line and a penchant for Victorian era sci-fi technology. And while it wasn't the first time I'd ever seen Ron Perlman on screen, his presence in this film captivated me.
9- Brazil - Terry Gilliam's classic bureaucratic dystopian nightmare, I'd watch over and over again, though not all at once. Too close to the idea of a corporatist/fascistic state for my comfort level; far better than the tedious rendition of 1984 featuring John Hurt and Richard Burton, yet the subject matter was the same.
10- Pollack - Ed Harris as Jackson Pollack. Violent, tempestuous, passionate. I had to buy a copy to keep. First time I recall seeing a film about an artist that seemed real.
11- Metropolis - Fritz Lang 's silent film opus. Worth it for the special effects alone, considering that it was filmed in 1927 long before CGI or conventional color or anything else considered ho-hum innovative nowadays.
12- K-Pax - An arrogant, [though not unlikable] thinks-he-knows-it-all psychiatrist is assigned to work with a new patient, K-Pax, who reports he is from outer space. The new guy is quickly able to help his peers suddenly do better for themselves and confront their personal demons and get ready to go back out in the world. That was something that neither the doc, nor the hospital staff evidently had been incapable of accomplishing. The psychiatrist, stymied, suddenly finds new meaning in what it actually takes to help another soul in trauma.
13- Baraka - No theme; just a rich, lush, sensual movie that kept me captivated. It reminded me of another, similar film I'd seen as a kid, Ecce Homo, which was equally exotic, tho' more ribald. But that was no comparison for Baraka's lushness.
14- The Endless Summer - A lush, color saturated film [as I remember it] about surfing filmed around the world. I think I saw it in February, trudging through snow. Never made me become a surfer, but opened my eyes to exotic places.
15- "Z" - I saw Costa Garvas' dramatic depiction on the dictatorial takeover of a weak democratic government in
I'm adding one more memory not of a movie - but of a movie house, the Wayne Avenue Playhouse. It was up the street from where I lived as a young teenager. Run by a family, staunchly independent, who chose to show films they liked, the prices were still cheap enough for kids who collected bottles for movie money. Every summer they had an annual silent film festival, at some time each year an operatic film [I still remember first seeing Puccini's Tosca there] along with many films that people in the neighborhood probably would not have seen otherwise. The place surely opened my eyes to watch for original cinematography.
Bruce's most enduring films list: [the top 3] Carmen Jones; Dangerous Liaisons; All About Eve. [The rest of the list] 7 Brides for 7 Brothers; Gone with the Wind; Now, Voyager; Brazil; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Chicago; Streetcar Named Desire; La Dolce Vita; Satyricon; Niagara; Is Paris Burning?. Finally, not to be forgotten [what Bruce says is "...the best gay porno film ever made..."] The Gage Brothers' Kansas City Trucking Company.
Other films that I found memorable [in no particular order]: The Wizard of Oz; Spirited Away, a Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki; Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up; Midnight Express; Manchurian Candidate [the Angela Lansbury version]; Seven Days in May; Fargo; Disney's Fantasia; Soylent Green [thought Charlton Heston's character pretty dumb for not having figured it out sooner]; David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth; Kurosawa's Ran; The Full Monty; My Beautiful Launderette; watching Midnight Cowboy kept me from moving back to NYC; Sly Stallone's Rocky [I saw it in Lake Placid, NY, and was briefly startled not to be in Philly when leaving the theatre]; Beautiful Thing; The Fisher King; Moonstruck; A little Trip to Heaven, with Forrest Whitaker, an actor who'd I'd watch in anything; To Kill a Mockingbird; Moulin Rouge; The 5th Element; Fight Club; 12 Monkeys; Dangerous Liaisons; Is Paris Burning?; Milk; like Bruce, I, too like Tim Kinkaid's [aka "Joe Gage"] gay porn trilogy [which actually have story lines]. I am sure there are others, but...
Public Spaces: "this Museum of Everyday Life" - the Museum Ettore Gautelli [Parma, Italy]
https://www.museoguatelli.it/en/
For more details, follow the link to the webpage: Museum Ettore Gautelli [Parma, Italy] - known also as "this Museum of Everyday Life" _ the "wonderful fruit of the passion and patience of collector and elementary school teacher Ettore Gautelli (1921 - 2000). There is a link to the Museum's website above this screenshot.
Thanks to Lena Young for posting about this. Lena's description attached to this is, itself, a fresh, succinct, and clear picture of a place now on my museum visit bucket list.
Painting and Photo: At Ray of Light Farm
 |
| Acrylic on board - 8" x 16" / 20 x 30 cm |
 |
| Photo - 8" x 16" / 20 x 30 cm |
2021-04-23
POEM: Charles Simic's Stones
Charles Simic’s Stones
“…I remember lying in a ditch and
staring at some pebbles while German bombers were flying overhead. That was
long ago. I don’t remember the face of my mother nor the faces of the people
who were there with us, but I still see those perfectly ordinary pebbles.”
“It is not “how” things are in the world that is mysterious, but that it
exists,” says Wittgenstein. I left precisely that. Time had stopped. I was
watching myself watching the pebbles and trembling with fear.”
“Then
time moved on and the experience was over”
___________________________________________ ~ Charles Simic
In an age bereft of Truth
It may matter little if our
captors
are
the Koch Brothers, Lemurians
or the remnant tribe of extraterrestrials
with a name unpronounceable in any human
tongue
In an age extolling
The primacy of Ignorance over
fact
The identity of the Oppressor
Takes lesser precedence
Over the demands to scrape for
our basic needs
To keep from starving to death
Or so one would surmise
In an age when life itself
Has been placed on a precipice
And
the living are encouraged
To jump
The names of those who brought us
To that edge are important
Because they are our own
Each of us, by failing to take
action
Contribute to the march to the
edge
We
may not, individually,
Be
the proponents of the Call to Leap
But
in our unwillingness
To question the instructions
Directing us to the edge
We have colluded in our extinction
Such is the time wherein we live
The Generals calling the march
Stand
back
Await
our response
Hoping beyond hope
That we don’t look over our shoulders
and see their
Shameful
Nakedness
How do we correct this?
By paying heed to History
Watch
close for tiny details
Take time to reflect on Simic’s stones
For concentration on minutiae
Actually helps better focus
On the larger vision
And it is on that, which we must
act.
Vignette: "Second time in New York City
 |
| Night Scene NYC |
My second time in New York City was the first time I’d seen
it by myself.
On invitation of a stranger, I’d gone for a weekend of
debauch but he was a no-show. I stayed anyway.
It was the summer of 1967. I’d gone to get away from a
convulsed, confused scenario living in a house of drag princesses and a heroin
addicted male housemarm whose grandmother thought I was fourteen. Coming to NYC
was a liberation though I did not yet know this.
That first time I strode out the Port Authority Bus Terminal
doors, walked down Eighth Avenue searching for Greenwich Village, a place I’d
long ago wanted to see.
I refused to look up or stare at tall buildings, not wanting
to appear a rube. Instead I admired them from a distance, but I was in awe!
Crossing Thirty-Fourth Street, the Empire State Building,
with its needle-like spire jutting into the sky, like a syringe taking in the
atmosphere to imbue the city with life.
Going south, passing Fourteenth Street, the streets no
longer on a grid, I knew I’d reached “The Village”.
Sauntering down Greenwich Avenue I found an eatery known as
“Mama’s Chick-n-Rib” (infamous as a pick-up joint where boys and their admirers
planned illicit assignations). Smug in my ability to find it, I went in and
ordered lunch.
Inside it was impossible to discern the hunters from their
prey; those coy young lads or the older men seeking them. One thing was sure,
there were no innocents here.
I set my eyes on the cook, an elderly gent of maybe 35 years.
He invited me to the Stonewall Inn. I said, “I’m only 17.”
“No matter; it’s a
private club.”
That night turned out to be another first time – but that’s
a different story.
2021-04-21
Illuminated Text: "Powers throughout the Universe"
 |
| watercolor and ink on paper |
In Memory of
Ken Brady 1953 - 2021 / Bruce Pfau 1938 - 2017 / William Pelletier 1954 - 2013
Curtis Jarvis / Bruce Parkes / Lynn Pfau / Herb "Buddy" Smith / Robert Bagwell
Marie Jassey / Peggy [Margaret Buterbaugh] Brady / Robert "Bob" Hankal
Brian Cockarille / William "Bill" Brady 1927 - 1995 / Hubert Crowley 1991
The 10,000 Sunflowers East Haddam CT Unity Project
https://www.facebook.com/EHSunflowerpower/
Welcome to the 10k Sunflowers Project! Let's cultivate a brighter community!
A project of growing sunflowers throughout our town to symbolize our community members growing together trying to reach the goal of one sunflower grown for each member of our community.
In short, the goal is to plant and cultivate 10,000 individual sunflower plants in and around town.
Why?
According to last year's census, East Haddam has just over 9,100 residents. The goal would be to plant a sunflower for every resident, and a bunch more for residents who have yet to arrive.
This community effort will require as many of us as are able to get involved and get dirty - no ideological prerequisites desired nor required. Through this mutual community labor, I hope we are better able to appreciate one another as individuals as well as model what community effort can accomplish in a town like ours.
Need advice? You're in the right place!
Want to give advice! Ditto!
Interested in sharing pictures of your beautiful sunflowers? Do it here! 
Regardless of experience, expertise, or access to land and resources, I truly believe we can accomplish something together that is beautiful and meaningful.
Please feel free to contribute in whatever way you are willing and able to this community effort.
Thanks you!
Drew John Ladd
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