25 December 1908 – Birthday of Quentin Crisp – – “Do not fade, do not whither, do not grow old” commands Queen Elizabeth I, played here—in an amusing but appropriate gender-bending twist—by Quentin Crisp. (via Reverseshot)
At the root of Crisp’s act was a kind of radicalism: Mocked and brutalized for his flamboyant effeminacy, he nonetheless chose to live, beginning in the London of the 1930s, “not merely as a self-confessed homosexual, but a self-evident one.” He tinted his hair lilac, wore eye shadow, pert scarves and silk blouses, and transformed himself into a walking, quipping objet d’art. It was this feat of defiant self-invention that eventually brought him celebrity. He wrote several wonderful books and at least one famous one, his 1968 memoir “The Naked Civil Servant.” But Quentin Crisp’s masterpiece was, emphatically, “Quentin Crisp.”
He lived on the same block as the NYC Hell’s Angels club house. He always answered his phone with “Oh yes!”
we became friends. He lived across 2nd Ave. on 3rd St. On the west side of 2nd Ave & 3rd is where Philip Glass lived. Quentin always said when he walked past the club house he’d lower his head in reverence. – Paul Waldman (via email)
It was originally conceived as a four-part TV movie and cut in that version, spanning 312 minutes. A 188-minute version was created later for cinematic release, although this version was in fact the one to be released first. The TV version has since been released as a one-part film; both versions have been shown in theaters throughout the world.
Senator Inouye and John F. Kennedy
The Remarkable Service of Senator Daniel Inouye will be long remembered Daniel Inouye Longest-serving member of the US Senate who investigated the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals
“There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, it’s own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.” –the late Senator Daniel Inouye
In France, he was hit by a bullet which was stopped by two silver dollars he carried in his pocket. But he had lost his lucky charms just before an assault on Colle Musatello, in the Po Valley, Italy, in April 1945. Despite being wounded, he took out the first of three German machine-gun positions pinning down his platoon. He led an attack on the second, before collapsing. Then, as his unit attacked the third, he crawled into position to throw a grenade. As he stood to throw, a German rifle grenade severed his arm, leaving the grenade in the fist. Keeping his troops at a distance, he prised the grenade out, threw it, and finished the attack one-handed. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
“That’s one of the horrors of war, that you can train person, train them to hate, train them to kill.
Daniel Inouye September 7 1924 – Decmeber 17, 2012
Inouye’s Epic Civial Rights Championship Senator Inouye fought for reparations for Japanese Americans who were interned..
At the time of his death Monday at the age of 88, Inouye was third in line to the presidency.
But he never stopped confronting power on behalf of the rights of people of color, people with disabilities, women, lesbians and gays and political dissenters to equal justice and equal opportunity. A modest man who served in the Senate for more than fifty years, Inouye was not always accorded proper recognition of his historic advocacy on behalf of civil rights and civil liberties. But that is the error of those who underestimate Inouye, not of the senator. Indeed, as Vice President Joe Biden, who knew Inouye better than most in Washington, said after the senior senator’s death: “To his dying day, he fought for a new era of politics where all men and women are treated with equality.”
Song for Dead Children
By Muriel Rukeyser
We set great wreaths of brightness on the graves of the passionate
who required tribute of hot July flowers—
for you, O brittle-hearted, we bring offering
remembering how your wrists were thin and your delicate bones
not yet braced for conquering.
The sharp cries of ghost-boys are keen above the meadows,
and little girls continue graceful and wondering.
Flickering evening on the lakes recalls those young
heirs whose developing years have sunk to earth,
their strength not tested, their praise unsung.
Weave grasses for their childhood—who will never see
love or disaster or take sides against decay
balancing the choices of maturity.
Silent and coffined in silence while we pass
loud in defiance of death, the helpless lie.
Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her “exact generation”.
Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism.
The violence and injustice she saw, in the United States and abroad, led her poetry to function as a mode of social protest. She felt a deep responsibility to comment on human issues and was particularly concerned with inequalities of sex, race and class. With her poems, she frequently documented her own emotional experiences within the context of a greater political or social event. She was a powerful visionary and her work reflects her wish for a greater world community united by love.
All the voices of the wood called “Muriel!”
but it was soon solved; it was nothing, it was not for me.
The words were a little like Mortal and More and Endure
And a world like Real , a sound like Health or Hell.
Then I saw what the calling was : it was the road I traveled,
the clear
time and these colors of orchards, gold behind gold and the full
shadow begin each tree and behind each slope. Not to me
the calling, but to anyone and at last I saw : where
the road lay through sunlight and many voices and the marvel
orchards, not for me, not for me, not for me.
I cam into my clear being; uncalled, alive, and sure.
Nothing was speaking to me, but I offered and all was well.
The real Ada and Grace were instrumental in making computing technology approachable, understandable, and a source of creativity that everyone is welcome to explore. Our virtual Museum guides who share their names are dedicated to continuing this pursuit.
See Ada cartoon, play and a link to Tilda Swinton as Ada from previous post.
Ada Lovelace 2009, Ada Lovelace 2010 (Previous posts)
Margaret Rumer Godden was born in Eastbourne on December 10, 1907, but she is indelibly associated with India. Her father managed the Brahmaputra River Steam Navigation Company.
Rumer Godden wrote because she was driven by visceral promptings. In her 1946 novel, The River, she describes her heroine’s response to writing a poem she knows to be good: “It felt alive, as she did. She felt alive and curiously powerful, and full of what seemed to her a glory.” Writing was her lifeblood.
Radha’Dance from the River
Emily Dickinson – December 10 birthday (Reading by Bill Murray to construction workers – I Dwell in Possibility)