FROZEN BORSCHT SALON

ByGary De Mattei February 9, 2013July 12, 2015

Yesterday I heard a man say something in Russian to his children. I imagine he was referencing the storm we were walking through as compared to winters in his native cheery Siberi-a. Probably went something like, “Why, when I was young we didn’t have clothes, we had to wear the snow to keep us warm!” How do they push their strollers filled with plastic bags through a blizzard? Plastic bags and kids. Walk. Trudge. Drag. I’ve never seen anyone so pale. Dark circles on his dark circles. Oh, wait, that’s me I’m looking at in the stylist’s mirror. Pale. Drawn. Gray. Until she finishes cutting my hair and then…she must step on a button or something because all of a sudden when she’s through I look new. Tan, even. Like when the butcher switches on the pink light in his refrigerated display case so the old rotting flesh he can’t move looks fresh and new again. You know what sounds fun? Vitamin D. And a train bound for the sun.

Stories

Love in the Time of Caller ID

ByGary De Mattei November 6, 2019

Big Internet tells me love is dying everywhere, so it must be so, no? And lately social media seems to be a clearing house for hate, violence, unkindness, betrayal, murder, so it must be so, no? Your god knows we all have challenges, obstacles, villains to deal with that lead us to conclude that love…

Stories

Julian Bond

ByGary De Mattei August 20, 2015June 3, 2020

Julian Bond At the public schools I attended in Northern California we studied the Civil Rights movement at a very early age, which meant we studied Julian Bond at a very early age. Anti Vietnam War protests would occur on the campuses where I attended school. The Revolution wasn’t happening around us, it was happening…

Nuts And Chews | Writing

WILLY GROWS UP

Bygdemattei April 4, 2012July 12, 2015

If Death of a Salesman in 2012 tells us anything it tells us Willy Loman had an amazing life by today’s standards. For starters, he had a three story house in Brooklyn with a yard big enough for his two dumb sons to run around and play football. Hello? Do you know how much a…

Stories

Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered

ByGary De Mattei April 29, 2016November 6, 2019

Arthur Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as a metaphor for McCarthyism in his play, The Crucible, now in limited run here in New York featuring a cast of British, Irish and American actors in a reimagined version by Belgian director, Ivo van Hove. I saw the play Wednesday night. Today, some feel…

Stories | Writing

MIGHTY HERMAPHRODITEY

ByGary De Mattei November 6, 2012July 12, 2015

THE NEW COLOSSUS Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command…

Stories

HELL’S KITCHEN

ByGary De Mattei June 6, 2019November 23, 2019

When you grow up Catholic, it’s the religion textbook illustrators who should get all the credit for giving you the image of their God. Not Jesus, not the Holy Ghost, but “The Father” as He is called when making the sign of the cross. I’m no longer Catholic, I’m not religious. I believe in a…

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