Tennessee Williams Fest 2024

 

PoBoy Views

By

Phil LaMancusa

Ink Stains

Or

What Did Tennessee?

        “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” Tennessee Williams

        Thomas Lanier Williams (March 26, 1911- February 26, 1983) arrived in New Orleans from Saint Louis in 1938. He had been a sickly child (Diphtheria) and had, at an early age, turned inward, became a reader and eventually began writing stories. How he chose the name Tennessee is anyone’s guess but, given the options, I cannot think of another state to choose as a moniker. Be that as it may, he had his first break in 1944 with The Glass Menagerie and wrote a string of enormously mind blowing, emotionally gut wrenching and fabulously significant and hugely popular stage plays and films that starred the best of the best actors in his time.

        Writers, I believe, suffer from the insecurity of and need to have other people (possibly strangers) appreciate the written word especially as it is written by them. Writers believe that they have something to say that you should read and embrace the emotion that they have put into those words. Those words tell a story, make a point, defend an idea or are simply an attempt to make some money. Writers, journalists, poets, playwrights, and even that kid that spray paint scrawls the words “Fu*k You You lying lying SlutBitch!” on the cinder block wall outside of Rouses Super Market; they have something to say and they have the need to express it outside of themselves. Fact, fiction, fantasy or however that person on the receiving end of that SlutBitch’s lie is feeling, they want to get it out there, off their chest ( I guess that goes for columnists like myself also) and for you to know it; see it; feel it; be impressed by it or  be ignorant enough to ignore it.  

        Tennessee had a lot to say: Night of the Iguana, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, the big one, set right here, Streetcar Named Desire (and more) and although some people consider anything that he wrote after 1961 to be pure crapola, gems of his other works are being rediscovered, reevaluated, unearthed and performed with alacrity, enthusiasm and vigor continually.

        Who was Tennessee Williams? He was a five foot six gay man who worked on a chicken ranch, a shoe factory and as an usher in theaters before being able to make enough money to live on his writing abilities. He was fiercely loyal and somewhat promiscuous in his love life and enjoyed the down low lush life. He used eye drops and wrote incessantly and oft-times very well. He was a big fan (who isn’t) of Meryl Streep and often lied about his age. He smoked, he drank, caroused and sometimes crawled on his belly like a reptile (okay, I made that last one up). He was a model of persistence, stick-to-itiveness and drive, however lazy he may have appeared. He was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Go figure.

                If you are literate at all, you are aware of his major works; if you are a maven of literature, you have coal mined into his life, times and if you know nothing of him, well, shame on you; however, all is not lost. You can, as a vehicle to your ever-loving albeit limited awareness look into the 2024 Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival; it’s a genuine really March midmonth wordgeek three ringed J. K. Rowling  Potteresque style circus. March 20-24 (5 days) in the French Quarter in its 37^th year and it is a sight to behold if you’re astute enough to witness and possibly partake in it.

        Picture it, you’re on your rounds around the Quarter on a springy spring weekend day and from the peripheral vision of your awareness there are some folks hurrying past you in different directions (and indifferent of you) with programs and notepads and books tucked under their arms and possibly munching a sandwich or snack with the attitude of the White Rabbit in Alice Through The Looking Glass. They’re going to writers’ panels, author interviews, theater events, culinary and cocktail events and if you happen to be in Jackson Square on that Sunday and see a bunch of kooks shouting “Stella!!” at a Pontalba balcony you might be taken aback but possibly curious. But, before you know it it’s over and you’ve missed the whole thing as if it were the Midnight Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

        And you’re left there in the dust asking “what; where; when; who? It was? Shit! well, next year I promise!” Well, this is your heads up; your wakeup call; your ‘get a clue phone’ ringing. RING RING! It’s time to knit your brow just a little bit higher and go get you some literary couth!

        I’ve met people from around the country and around the world at these get-togethers. Well, I really haven’t met them, nobody really talks to each other, they’re mostly at this thing to absorb the vibe and learn shit, me included. Be there or literally be square.

        Oh, you know Tennessee’s eye drops? Well, he used to pull the cap off the bottle with his teeth to use them and one day while administering those drops, something surprising happened to startle him and as a result he inhaled the cap which got stuck in his throat causing him to choke and die. Let that be a lesson to you. Be careful with those things.  See you at the Fest.

 

 

New Years 2024

 

Po Boy Views

By

Phil LaMancusa

Happy New Year

Or

Other People

        “Well, sometimes you have to moan, when nuthin’ seems to suit-cha; but, nevertheless you know, you’re locked toward the future” (Cat Stevens: On The Road To Find Out)

        Ask Uncle Charlie (Dickens) for the illustration from A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Scrooge sits, just like you and me, getting hipped to the fact that where he was, led him to where he is, and will determine where he will be if he maintains the trajectory of his behavior and existence. His moral compass and the consequences of his actions will reap what has been ‘sowed and growed’. The Butterfly Effect; The Chaos Theory, will remain unchanged unless a change in course is made. I believe, in our hearts, that we all want to change for the better; that’s why we make New Year’s Resolutions, eh?

        Rush hour Thursday evening; traveling Poydras Street; three lanes up and three lanes down traveling at the speed of hope-to-get-the-f*ck-home. Like frantic captives tortured by their terrorist employers, the cars, SUVs, vans and pick-ups are escaping, racing away from all the misery their occupations heaped on their souls and spirits that day and into life’s personal beating that awaits them at home: spouses, offspring, rents, mortgages and the grass that is dying in the draught; hoping Margaret Orr will predict some rain and wondering why the home team got their asses kicked again. The cool taste of that first beer that goes down so easily.

        I’m hugging the right lane going up towards Galvez Street and I spy the vehicles veering out from the center lane going left and right at forty miles an hour avoiding something. The something that they are avoiding is an old man in a wheelchair stopped in center lane like a Grateful Dead set: no way forward and no way back. And no one is stopping to aid his plight… or even slowing down.

        Except some guy (me) in a beat up ’97 Lincoln Towncar who pulls over (still in traffic) turns on his flashers and jumps into traffic for a stranger in need of help.  

        I’m still in my cook’s whites, waving my arms like a sailor at a semaphore convention and getting to him, ask ludicrously “do you need help?” Of course he does! At this point I don’t know which direction he’s heading and when I find out… here we go crossing 5 lanes of rush hour traffic! When I’m in I’m in.

        “Did you just--leave your car?” He asks “you shouldn’ta done that” “I’m goin’ right there; okay, thank you I can take it from here; ya got a couple of dollahs you can spare?” He points to the Super Dome and tells me “there used to be a grocery store, right there.” I inform him that that grocery store ain’t there no more and off he goes. End of story. How do I feel? I’m frickin’ livid!

         I’m mad as a wet hen; cursing even, not at him, but at the entire race of humans that cannot, will not, for one brief miniscule heartbeat consider another’s dilemma that may at best be temporary and at worst life threatening. And now, I consider that incident an allegory for the state of the world. Listen: with any luck at all you have three blessings.

1. You wake up in the morning.

2. You’re kinda in your right mind and health and

 3. You have options.

        You can consider, like old Ebenezer that where you were--and where you are--is leading you to a very predictable future if you but stay your course, direction and pace.  It sounds so simple. 1 and 2 are biggies and are really important to pay attention to; 3 requires consideration or not. Ignore 3 and you will get to where you’re already headed.

        Now, you can consider that the world and its challenges and problems; its destructions and die-ings; its equities and inequities did not just start today or yesterday but are a series of steps and missteps that are in essence already set in a motion and movement (centuries ago) that some say are undoubtedly leading the world to its imminent demise. Some say that it’s too late to change course; that things already are out of anyone’s control. I say that it’s a mindset and conditioning brought on by media, politics and religion that at best has to be overhauled from the ground up like an existential rebirth/epiphany and I don’t see that as happening… ever in my lifetime (or yours). The Prince of Peace is not returning; Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today, Madam.

        It’s too late to be an example to others. It’s too late to fight the greed compounded by mendacity that is ruling the planet and our lives; souls hang on by a thread with a prayer and a song. “We were talking about the love we all could share; when we find it, to try our best to hold it there. With our love, with our love, we could save the world; if they only knew” (George Harrison: Within You Without You).

        I don’t know what to say. Happy New Year? This year will be better? Our lives are predetermined; led by coincidence? Is there such thing as free will? Can we unstick the mind f*ck? Maybe and maybe not (probably not). Certainly we can only find peace in ourselves ourselves. Certainly we can only practice compassion, empathy and kindness in ourselves until it becomes our natural behavior. Certainly it is only we that can change our behavior for the better. We have to see that as where we’re going. Or not.

        There’s an old man in a wheelchair sitting in six lanes of fast traveling vehicles.    

  

 

Mardi Gras 2024

 

PO Boy Views

By

Phil LaMancusa

Party On!

Or

Not

        “Hello, my name is Phil and I’m and alcoholic and a binge drinker.” And I should add “Carnival, and especially Mardi Gras Day, is my time to shine; I’m in my element; it’s my jam and I’m right at home with all the drunks, amateur or professional; newbie or seasoned. I’m there. I drink and I love to drink”. Unfortunately, I’m not really good at it.

        I’ve been to Carnival and Mardi Gras for decades and although I have refined my behavior, the result is overwhelmingly constant, I get drunk, plastered, inebriated, snockered, intoxicated and tipsier than tipsy; so much so, that I frighten the neighbors, traffic, pedestrians and wind up pissing off those close to me. I’m not a gentleman drunk. I used to vomit but not in recent years, sometimes I used to pass out and wet myself, but not in recent years. I am neither proud nor ashamed.

        Two conditions that contribute to the perpetuation of my affliction: I enjoy the feeling and I don’t have hangovers; sometimes I run into things, trip and maybe fall. Those times are rarer and rarer because I hope to control my drinking so that I may continue into my older years bent but not broken.

        I come from a family of drinkers; it was common among my elders to consider a night at a bar drinking as family entertainment and in my days it was not uncommon for adults to spend four or five hours at a local tavern drinking, gossiping, communing and even singing (en masse) favorite songs. True. And I grew up with that as role models of behavior. The only tenets were that, in public, it was bad form to converse (especially in pubs) about sex, politics or religion. Behavior that I hold sacrosanct to this day.

        New Orleans, and the French Quarter in particular, felt immediately like home when I first arrived many years ago. Drinking in public; twenty-four hours a day, at more than reasonable prices for strong libations suited me fine; my first Carnivals had me toting a gallon jug of heady concoctions as I joined the fray on Bourbon Street. Nightly. And still making it back to work the next day like all the rest of the slow burning trash I caroused with.

        Mardi Gras the day, has always been extra special to me. I don’t enjoy parades but that doesn’t stop me from becoming one, much to the chagrin of those around me. Me, in costume, weaving my way on the streets cluttered with the detritus of bodies, boobs and beads is a sight to behold, and I don’t recommend anyone following in my footsteps. Not only am I a hard act to follow but you really don’t want to live the lush life that I have; there’s no future in it.

        Three things happen to me under the influence: I get happily quiet, I get philosophical, and at extremes I get maudlin. I am not loud, aggressive or mean unless provoked. I generally just want to be left alone in a semi-comatose revelry. I feel the quiet of finally being able to shut the world out and not have the awareness of daily life and responsibilities; the world’s problems drop away and I am at peace in my cocoon of alcoholic miasma. Comfortably numb.

        I’ve gotten better in recent years and I am now allowed the freedom of venturing out unsupervised and the expectations of moderate behavior are met and appreciated. I find it better to be appreciated for my sense of control than to be subjected to the ire, anger and sometimes pity by losing it. I’ve learned that because of my weak personality, in drinking, once I begin, be it seven in the morning or seven at night, I don’t want to stop and usually don’t until bedtime. Overcoming temptation has never been a strong suit of mine. Two drinks and I’m off and running, and, there is no such thing as one drink.

        I generally go out without credit cards and a limited amount of cash, say twenty dollars. I go out on foot and that makes me aware that any trip out will have to be followed by that same amount covered back, upright and ambulatory. I like to believe that I can get a contact high being out and in recent years have come to be more reflective of Carnivals past and these days the high spirits of those around me make me smile in their simple and naïve interpretation of celebrations that include childlike behavior and puppy-like antics. I reflect that in my day, there were big dogs on the loose and now, out there, it seems so civilized that my self control has become a reward rather than an affliction. 

        I save myself for home to toast the day and know that on Wednesday I will start a period of complete sobriety; Debbie says that it’s to give our livers a break and that’s good enough for me.

        Growing up in the projects with five children from four fathers (that we know of) and a strapping one hundred and eighty pound nearly six foot tall redheaded mother that drank a case of beer a day and adults that ruled by violent eruptions rather than abstemious reasoning is a reflection sobering enough and gives me pause when I wake up in the morning with the realization that I probably didn’t need that last drink.

        My other challenges are that my damn doctors consistently reassure me of my great health conditions although they would like me to cut down on my juicing. My great inspiration is my partner who keeps reminding me that if, in fact, I believe in my immortality that I shouldn’t mess with the fate of all drinkers: stupid behavior, bad liver and broken hearts. Fun fact: you alienate more good people with drinking than you attract.