by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
My continuing lack of internet service has left me searching for ways to stay connected to the great cyber freeway - as well as for ways stay entertained in the evening hours which I once spent watching "streamed" television shows via my internet-powered Roku device.
Now I spend my days sitting outside of various businesses stealing their free wifi services, and in the evenings I have been forming a relationship with my new DVD player. I have a nice collection of DVDs, some of which have never been opened, and the local library has many others that they will loan to me.
Last night I watched an old favorite - "Some Like It Hot" - a 1959 classic that was produced and directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. I remember seeing that movie with my mother at the old Ozark Theatre in Noel, Missouri, just after it came out.
The plot is simple. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are a pair of speakeasy musicians in 1929 Chicago when they accidentally witness a mob hit - the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The two escape the bloody mayhem and are desperate to get out of Chicago when they come upon a chance to dress up as women and join an "all-girl" band that is headed to a three-week gig in Miami, Florida aboard a train. On the train they meet, and each falls in love with, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), the band's boozy singer.
And things go along swimmingly until the Chicago mobsters show up for a convention at the Florida hotel where the band is playing.
The movie has lots of laughs and plenty of great music.
Two notes of interest about the movie: It was actually filmed at the famous del Coronado Hotel on Coronado "Island" in San Diego, California - and not Florida. I had the good fortune to stay at "the Del" a few years ago, and one thing I remember from that experience is that the televisions in the guest rooms had a special in-house channel that played two particular movies over and over: "Some Like Hot" which had many scenes involving the del Coronado Hotel, and "Somewhere in Time," which featured the famous Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
The second interesting note is that Marilyn Monroe, appeared to have a weight issue during the filming. Some reports say that she was pregnant while the movie was being made, but lost the baby soon afterward.
The del Coronado still stands and offers elegant service for discerning tourists. I only stayed there the one time, but every time I am in San Diego I manage to drive by and think of Marilyn and Tony and Jack romping across the sandy beach out behind that beautiful hotel. (My daughter was married on that beach.) I drove by the Del, in fact, just a few weeks ago.
So, with Marilyn on my mind, today's poetry selection is one of the many poems that she wrote during her lifetime. "Life" talks about the two directions that life pulls people (perhaps from experiencing life to dying?), and it seems to focus on the dual frailty and strength of life. The poem also seems to pay homage to her almost constant state of depression with the references to "hanging downward."
Here are some thoughts from Marilyn:
Life
by Marilyn Monroe
Life –
I am of both your directions
Existing more with the cold frost
Strong as a cobweb in the wind
Hanging downward the most
Somehow remaining
Those beaded rays have the colors
I’ve seen in paintings – ah life
they have cheated you…
thinner than a cobweb’s thread
sheerer than any
but it did attach itself
and held fast in strong winds
and singed by leaping hot fires
life – of which at singular times
I am of both your directions –
somehow I remain hanging downward
the most
as both of your directions pull me.
Poetry Appreciator
My continuing lack of internet service has left me searching for ways to stay connected to the great cyber freeway - as well as for ways stay entertained in the evening hours which I once spent watching "streamed" television shows via my internet-powered Roku device.
Now I spend my days sitting outside of various businesses stealing their free wifi services, and in the evenings I have been forming a relationship with my new DVD player. I have a nice collection of DVDs, some of which have never been opened, and the local library has many others that they will loan to me.
Last night I watched an old favorite - "Some Like It Hot" - a 1959 classic that was produced and directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. I remember seeing that movie with my mother at the old Ozark Theatre in Noel, Missouri, just after it came out.
The plot is simple. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are a pair of speakeasy musicians in 1929 Chicago when they accidentally witness a mob hit - the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The two escape the bloody mayhem and are desperate to get out of Chicago when they come upon a chance to dress up as women and join an "all-girl" band that is headed to a three-week gig in Miami, Florida aboard a train. On the train they meet, and each falls in love with, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), the band's boozy singer.
And things go along swimmingly until the Chicago mobsters show up for a convention at the Florida hotel where the band is playing.
The movie has lots of laughs and plenty of great music.
Two notes of interest about the movie: It was actually filmed at the famous del Coronado Hotel on Coronado "Island" in San Diego, California - and not Florida. I had the good fortune to stay at "the Del" a few years ago, and one thing I remember from that experience is that the televisions in the guest rooms had a special in-house channel that played two particular movies over and over: "Some Like Hot" which had many scenes involving the del Coronado Hotel, and "Somewhere in Time," which featured the famous Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
The second interesting note is that Marilyn Monroe, appeared to have a weight issue during the filming. Some reports say that she was pregnant while the movie was being made, but lost the baby soon afterward.
The del Coronado still stands and offers elegant service for discerning tourists. I only stayed there the one time, but every time I am in San Diego I manage to drive by and think of Marilyn and Tony and Jack romping across the sandy beach out behind that beautiful hotel. (My daughter was married on that beach.) I drove by the Del, in fact, just a few weeks ago.
So, with Marilyn on my mind, today's poetry selection is one of the many poems that she wrote during her lifetime. "Life" talks about the two directions that life pulls people (perhaps from experiencing life to dying?), and it seems to focus on the dual frailty and strength of life. The poem also seems to pay homage to her almost constant state of depression with the references to "hanging downward."
Here are some thoughts from Marilyn:
Life
by Marilyn Monroe
Life –
I am of both your directions
Existing more with the cold frost
Strong as a cobweb in the wind
Hanging downward the most
Somehow remaining
Those beaded rays have the colors
I’ve seen in paintings – ah life
they have cheated you…
thinner than a cobweb’s thread
sheerer than any
but it did attach itself
and held fast in strong winds
and singed by leaping hot fires
life – of which at singular times
I am of both your directions –
somehow I remain hanging downward
the most
as both of your directions pull me.
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