At the Bath / Open Letter to the Pope

Bathing in the aluminum tub grows more graceful.

 

The kneeling to dip one's head in the fresh water.

 

The dipping of the bowl - water upon the nape.

 

Soap hair and rinse in sink.

 

Apply conditioner.

 

With only 3 containers of water I can sit in the tub.

 

Easier to rinse sitting down.

 

Imagine being drawn by an artist and see its fine appeal to the eye.

 

To be relaxed in water.

 

Focused upon the task of cleansing and purity.

 

Focused upon the idea of getting back into the body from chastity.

 

Question: must one not masturbate to be chaste?

 

I want to write to the Pope.

 

His Holiness Pope John Paul II

00120 Vatican City State

EUROPE

 

Your Holiness,

 

Were I in rags to beg on the street for forgiveness for you and yours and all of us would you join me, dear Father?

 

How many days would be appropriate for us to live thus? Until 10,000 letters from survivors - and those who love survivors - arrive at the Vatican, or 100 days - whichever comes first. Perhaps you die in the street with me. A poetic way to meet your Lord. I promise to kiss you with love.

 

But for you, the corporate church has no heart.

 

Your dear church is falling apart. How do you intend to save it? You have a rare opportunity to choose an honorable and purposeful death for your flock. Sell the assets to the highest bidders. Pay your debt to proven survivors then dedicate the rest to learning the truth about what our Lord wants of our bodies and souls - together and apart. Use the remaining fortune to endow research on pedophilia, sexuality and mystic chastity; a chastity that is conscious, voluntary and only as long as necessary to learn the lessons chastity teaches.

 

C'mon, Holiness. I'm no doorknob. I'm a former prostitute who calls to you to do what's right. Pray, man. Pray.

 

I am not Catholic but as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse I have that authority from which to address you.

 

Sincerely yours,

Ian Watson, Love Detective

 

 

 

"Mulberries in My Window" 2004 cameraphone

Still from the movie "Mommie's Coming Back"

"Pretty Girl" 2003, tempera and pigment on paper.

Sharon O'Connell of the Faux Press / real Choreographer

Kevin McCutcheon, conductor, Deutsche Oper, Berlin, conducts "The Four-Minute Ballet for Faux Press Corps, Celebrities & Disposable Cameras" at The Plaza Hotel, NY

Chaos

"Chaos" 2000

tempera on cement
Costain the Painter & Jan McLaughlin

- Watson, out

Emotion is a Cloud

mixed media "Anger" 2002

And like weather, emotion will pass.

Blogging has replaced the newsgroup is reward for a morning's or afternoon's writing well done.

Newsgroups are uncontrolled and I don't get the sense a lotta folks read what I have to say there. Probably because I'm not active or vulnerable enough to invite personal relationship. Help when I can. But I am - ultimately - selfish and prefer the illusion of control that happens here though the liklihood of conversation is damned near nil.

Had a glimpse of the $10 million film and how that works. It's not bad but rather more hierarchical than I'd prefer, still.

Today I detest the screenplay I'm working on. Sigh. Like emotion, that feeling will pass. Sigh.

- Watson, out

Tech-Head Blues

The screenplay I've been shopping around is accessed through the fauxpress.org website that is currently - argh - down.

So I put up a new link on another site, hoping for respite.

Folks are responding very positively to it.

I am more than hopeful: actually visualizing the thing. To see it realized is a fait a compli.

To turn what is evil and ugly into art is no small assignment and by God, I've done it.

Am doing it as I speak.

This here blog is somehow reward - respite - means of a bit of distance without breaking the pace.

As a long distance runner keeps moving even when not making forward progress.

This is a long distance run.

I know what it will require of me.

I'm ready.

Cool as shit it is.

- Watson, out

Four-Minute Ballet for Faux Press Corps, Celebrities & Disposable Cameras

;:; Faux Press ;:;

Stills from "Four-Minute Ballet for Faux Press Corps, Celebrities & Disposable Cameras" an art installation / music video / flash mob.

"Four-Minute Ballet for Faux Press Corps, Celebrities & Disposable Cameras" is a performance piece - created as a result of a promise I made - that went down at The Plaza Hotel, starring some oxymoronic poetry celebrities and was basically a dinner party fueled by adrenaline.

The music video also acts as one of the trailers for the movie I'm writing - "The World's Longest Open Love Letter".

Music: "I want to be You" by Ahmed El-Motassem's Legal Fiction.

music video week

The Politics of Fear

Listen to the news and commercials.

Obvious they strive to exploit fear. Even Coppertone now uses fear of skin cancer to market its products. In one sense, I'm happy that the marketing moves away from sexual insecurity. Perhaps that frees us to become more secure and embrace those physical things that bring us pleasure. In another, the marketing of fear is more primal and powerful than sex, and therefore more effective. The defenses against it more difficult.

An even more frightening marketing tool is the combination of fear and sex.

The images of our warriors being warriors frighten me, not just because the idea that humans are capable of such things repulses, but because the images are being used to market a product we don't understand or know. Sexual humiliation when twisted with pain and pleasure is an effective device with which to control. The entire population of the United States and indeed the world is subject to many seeings of these images a day.

What can we do to lessen this campaign's effects on us? One might stop watching television and reading ads. One might keep one's awareness of what advertisers hope to achieve - our fear and the idea that their product can soothe - in the forefront of our minds. That is more difficult since awareness requires our full attention. But, it can be done.

One may be aware of one's fear and embrace it as the old friend it is and not allow it to have power over decision-making.

We might demand that the media cease and desist.

I'm trying all of the above.

- Watson, out