I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


Comments Welcome!

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Ollie and Stanley at the Studio


September 22, 2010  (I was 65)

                  Ollie and Stanley at the Studio

Ollie:  in disgust, Look at us; Stanley does so.  I can not get us a contract with the studio. 
Stanley:  I think you can, emphasizing the I.
Ollie: I could not even get in the door; Stanley stares blankly at Ollie’s girth.           I was speaking figuratively, emphasizing the figuratively.  I could not      get an appointment.
Stanley:  I think you could, emphasizing the you.
Ollie: I could not.  They see only agents.  We have no money for an         agent.
Stanley:  You could be our agent.
Ollie:  I am not an agent.  I do not have the experience.
Stanley: What are you?
Ollie:  pauses, I am an actor, emphasizing the actor.
Stanley:  Act like an agent.
Ollie:  How does an agent act?
Stanley:  Exactly the question an actor should ask. 
            Ollie smiles intrigued, drumming his finger tips on his chest.

Cut to a cleaned and polished Ollie as he is ushered into the office of a studio executive.  Stanley follows exhibiting quiet curiosity. 

Executive: reads Ollie’s business card, Oliver Olivier, Talent Agent. 
         Never heard of you, who do you represent?
Ollie:  Abroad, I represent a guild of noted thespians; to Hollywood, I     bring the team of Laurel and Hardy.
Executive:  Never heard of them; he indicates Stanley, And who is this?
Ollie:  The pair perform in all genres.  This is Stanley Laurel of said duo, also my partner.  I am Hardy. 
Executive:  I can see that.
Ollie:  I mean, I am Oliver Hardy.
Executive:  I thought your name was Oliver Olivier.
Ollie:  That’s my agensorial name, so to speak.
Executive:  What sort of act do you do?
Ollie:  Though we’ve played every endeavor of the theatre arts, I am      often typecast as a sophisticated gentleman of means, with     Stanley as my gentleman’s gentleman.  Stanley brushes off the        shoulders of Ollie’s jacket.  Mr. Laurel has played Watson to my      Holmes –though that seemed to create some audience        confusion.  In Chatacqua revue we did Socratic dialogues, highly     esoteric and highly regarded.
         Throughout, Stanley performs subtle expressions, bits of mime, all conveying support for Ollie.

Executive:  Why should I contract you.  Your story is the same as every   potential waiter in town.
Ollie:  We work cheap.
Stanley:  He works cheap; I work for nothing.  Ollie smacks Stanley with his          hat. 
Ollie:  I thought we agreed that you’d shut up and leave the agenting to          me.  Stanley is forlorn.
Stanley:  But Ollie, you are not telling Mr. Executive the most important thing.  to the Executive:  Ollie is seriously funny.  In any role he    plays, emphasizing the any.  Ollie turns crimson.  He is irate and    attempts to shove Stanley behind him.
Ollie:  I have never played a clown, never the buffoon, naught the joker.          I do not say funny things.
Stanley:  calmly, No, you say things funny.
Ollie:  Stanley, you irritate me in places I cannot discuss.
Executive:  I get the idea.  You’re hired.  I want twelve of those bits,       fifteen minutes each, in the next three months.  Standard        contract will be in the mail.  Miss Pool will show you out.  Next      please.
Outside the studio gate:
Stanley:  And you said you didn’t know how to be an agent. 
Ollie:  I don’t know how to be an agent.  That, was acting.

-I began a series of pieces using Laurel and Hardy as
representations of right brain and left brain perception.
Not an original idea, I got it from Colin Wilson’s study,
Frankenstein’s Castle.  More appear in other posts.

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