The Luna Park Gazette

So, there was this day last week when it seemed like all my bad memories were storming the castle. I was working on a tight deadline, I was under a lot of pressure, and my subconscious saboteur responded by mercilessly cranking out all kinds of revolting recollections. “Playing all the hits tonight,” I muttered. I’ve been doing this to myself for the longest time , but I’ve only recently decided to meet this issue head-on. If I’m feeling good, some part of me wants to make me feel bad. And when I’m feeling bad, that evil spirit wants to make me feel worse. This latest incident remined me of an old David Bowie song called “DJ.” Released on Bowie’s 1979 album Lodger , the song was intended as a cynical comment on the cult of the DJ. I was never much of a club goer, so I have little to say in this area, but I did find the opening lyrics eerily prophetic. “ I am home ,” the song begins, “ lost my job and incurably ill… ” This sounds like what a good portion of the worl...

When screen legend Joan Crawford died in 1977, her arch rival, Bette Davis reportedly declared, “you should never say bad things about the dead, only good.” “Joan Crawford is dead,” Ms. Davis continued. “Good.” Can you feel the love? Neither can I. I remember being appalled when I first this heard this story. Obviously these two women had a history and I don’t think anyone expected Bette Davis to crank out some kind words about someone she clearly hated. No, what I found upsetting was the way that Bette David declared her hatred so publicly. Shame on her , I thought. Didn’t she realize how badly her comments made her look? Trashing the recently departed doesn’t do them any damage. It just makes you look like bitter and angry. Well, last week I got the chance to practice what I had been peddling. I learned through a Facebook post that a guy I used to work with in the 1980s and whom I hated with an absolute passion had died at 67 years old. Oh, how I loathed this gu...

Are we tired of the New Year talk yet? I hope not. After last week’s tirade, I thought I would focus this week on some of the things I’d like to work on in 2021. I’ve been looking for a theme for this new year and I think I found it in a YouTube video. Every January I watch several self-help speakers to put me in a positive frame of mind, and this one guy in particular—Les Brown—came up with a line that really spoke to me. Find a way to win. Isn’t that great? Simple, brief, and direct. Five words that tell me to quit complaining, stop making excuses, and get out there and live. Getting out there is going to be a challenge in the Age of Covid and we’ll likely have a long, slow walk back to normal as people get vaccinated. But at least I can get out of my head if I can’t get out of my apartment. This is an on-going process, of course, not bound by the calendar, but I like using this time of the year to breathe life back into my dreams. I’ve been slacking off on t...

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Walt Kelly’s Pogo. Maybe U2 was right: Nothing changes on New Year’s Day. I still can’t believe what happened on Wednesday in our nation’s capital, less than one week into 2021. A mob of Donald Trump supporters, spurred on by the president’s baseless allegations of election fraud, stormed the Capitol Building, something that hasn’t happened since the British set fire to the place in 1814. The traitors murdered a Capitol police officer during their rampage as they waved Confederate flags and looted offices of senators and congressmen in support of a morally bankrupt scumbag who’d kill his own mother if he thought he’d get more press coverage. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Orange Adolph tweeted last month. “Be there, will be wild!” Well, for once in his miserable existence, Donald Trump told the truth. I’m just getting over a nasty cold and now my country is making me sick. This wasn’t the post I planned to write. I was ...

This will be brief by necessity. I have started the New Year as sick as a whole kennel full of dogs. It feels like a nasty sinus infection but during these plague days there are no guarantees. so obviously, I'm a little nervous. I have been checking my symptoms to see if they resemble anything like Covid-19 and so far, they don’t. In particular I haven’t lost my sense of smell or taste, which are two of the big ones. But, Christ, I sure feel lousy. Some of my family members are urging me to get a Covid-19 test and I intend to, but right now I can barely move around the house. I have been living on soup, crackers, and some really bad TV. This is a hell of a way to start a new year, but then I felt fabulous on the first day of 2020 and look how well that worked out. The SyFy Channel ran its annual “Twilight Zone” marathon this year and I made sure to record one of my favorites, “Nick of Time,” which stars William Shatner and Patricia Breslin as young newlyweds whose ca...