'people come here to be stars but there ain't no stars in the sky.'
patti smith plays the hick who loves new york city. it's early in her career (it's 1972). she's running around meeting everybody (is that moondog?), she's done the st. mark's poetry reading (with lenny kaye and reading an early version of fire of unknown origin). her poetry and her work writing lyrics for the blue oyster cult has begun. the city is the star - old new york.
it was allegedly jim desmond the cameraman's idea to get her in the film. he persuaded director tristram powell to go and meet her. she becomes the main event - jonathan miller is trapped in his role as a somewhat intellectual comedian. his footage is good(ish) (he's being interviewed for the radio - there's an unexplained woman with a baby in there). but it is the footage of patti that is pure gold.
interestingly this film doesn't seem to have made it onto the IMDB (internet movie database). jim desmond surely rates an entry having filmed martin luther king, the monterey pop festival etc. etc.
horsemouth languishes in rural obscurity (he's walking a lot and it is good to see his folks). he has started reading titus alone by mervyn peake - titus washes up in a dark and disturbing city (kind of like old new york).
horsemouth is also reading privacy bit by bit. he is dipping into the newspapers.
today a day of rain. and (should it be possible to go for a walk in the afternoon) of mud.
horsemouth has posted his solstice 2021 poem and it seems to be getting a fair few likes. a friend talks about wanting to walk the golden valley and about having walked/ hitch-hiked from shrewsbury to kington as a youth. it is an area horsemouth does not know (it is too far to walk, it would need someone with a car to drive him up there, even the railway line above ludlow does not go that way). there was a folk festival up there one time (run by a band called haress), himself and howard were thinking of going, but in the end bottled out.
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