Tag: #secondlife
I Like Playing with Dolls
I liked to play with dolls when I was a kid.
My dolls unnerved my Father who forced me to join a football team.
The team tossed me after the first game because I stopped in the
middle of a play to pull up my socks.
I hate the feeling of droopy socks; but back to the dolls:
I had Barbie and Skipper.
I also had Ken, and GI Joe.
GI Joe was the doll for boys who played with dolls in the closet.
Joe and Ken had a one-off in a foxhole and it drove Skipper to suicide.
She had a secret crush on Joe.
I started playing with digital dolls with The Sims and eventually joined one of the online worlds of the metaverse.
I liked to play with dolls when I was a kid.
I still do.
The images in this post are part of an ongoing collaboration with Teagan Geneviene of Teagan’s Books.
(c) Rob Goldstein 2018
A Semi-Literate Boy Named Bobby
I was a project kid, pretty but hard to make.
Most of the men I let into my life started in pursuit but stayed as teachers.
I was bright and gave my full attention to any man who was willing to teach me about the world of art.
The music I knew was the music of my parents and the other kids in the projects.
From my Father I got Porter Wagoner, Buck Owens, and Skeeter Davis.
From my Mother I got Dinah Shore and Kitty Wells.
From the other kids in the projects I got Motown.
With the music of Motown I learned I could dance and for me dancing is still spiritual.
Everyone said I moved like a black kid, and it was true.
Black folks were my friends and neighbors.
As far as I was concerned I was a Black kid with pale skin.
I figured that Blackness was as much about class as it is about race.
My friend Paul knew I knew my ‘place’ in Charleston’s antiquated class system and that I wanted out.
Paul lived in the rich part of Charleston; the historic district near Battery Park.
He invited me to lunch one especially bright spring day.
He poured tea and showed me a decorative plate that was inlaid with hundreds of shimmering butterfly wings.
Paul liked exquisite objects.
We stepped onto the patio that overlooked his garden and I brought a branch of wisteria to my nose.
Paul said that he wanted me to hear a record.
He said he wanted my opinion.
Then he placed the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Minor on the turntable.
I heard the needle drop, and then a timpani followed by woodwinds.
I listened as Beethoven told me a story.
I had never heard a story more complex and profound.
It was more beautiful than anything I had ever seen or touched.
And I never stopped listening….
Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
by Yehudi Menuhin, violin Wilhelm Furtwangler, cond Philharmonia Orchestra of London Recorded: 1953
- Allegro ma non troppo
Felique Dupré in the Haunted World: Fellini Characters with Hitchcock Touches
A chill settles over Jamaica Plains as the F Train winds
its way to The Village.
“New Haven. Miss?” sang the conductor.
Persephone sits quietly with an old bag between her knees.
Surely, Hades will ignore the weather and see her; but she has
no guarantees.
Her stomach grumbles as she examines the other passengers.
They look like Fellini characters with Hitchcock touches.
To her left is the slave boy from The Satyricon, but, he also looks like
Grace Kelly: and she’s sure she’s seen that whore in La Dolce Vita
and The Birds.
The E screams to a stop.
“Penn Station. Miss?” sang the conductor.
Persephone quickly rises and says her good-byes.
(c) Rob Goldstein 2017 All Rights Reserved
Animated gif found on Giphy
