Stan Marcus
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Freeloader |
| Location | Upper Montclair, NJ, United States |
| Introduction | Writer, poet, ex-editor, loner, disident, ex-theaterist (M.A. in Theatre), ex-college adjunct instructor, father, New Yorker (born and raised in Brooklyn), lives now in duller-than-tofu NJ. My poems have appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Stand (U.K.—6 poems), College English (4 poems), The Literary Review, Prairie Schooner (2), The Minnesota Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Confrontation, Poetry East, The Harvard Advocate (with typo rendering poem a vegetable), Permafrost, Journal of New Jersey Poets, New Collage, Perspective, Ironwood, Grasslimb, South Florida POetry Journal, and in the anthology For a Living—The Poetry of Work (University of Illinois Press). Blogs: stanmarcus.blogspot.com (satirical microessays on everyday confusion), stanmarcus2.blogspot.com (serious poetry), and, blog on a trip I took to China in the 1976. Another blog, called Stan Marcus: Chronicles, deals with (in prose) . . . whatever is on my mind. It's at stanmarcus4.blogspot.com. |
| Interests | Reading, writing, laughing, art, cursing, eating out, daydreaming. Tolerate computers. Also, I'm a funny guy. I know that because a woman I asked out told me so. She also said she had gone fishing the day before. I responded, "I can't take you fishing because I get seasick." That's when she said, "But you're a funny guy." So there. Never called her again. |
| Favorite Movies | Anything by Jacques Tati, Gilo Pontecorvo's "Battle of Algiers"—owned a copy of as well as screen play years before CIA decided to notice it. Great movie, but find it a bit scary nowadays. Also, his film "Burn, ' with Marlon Brando. I watch almost 100% foreign films that reach U.S. Better writing (story in context of time and place), better acting, better everything. Serious films, rather than scatterbrain Hollywood. Try "Troubled Waters, " as an example (Norwegian), "Home, " (Swiss—relevant to storm Sandy, whose effect will never be reversed. Trump is the news Sandy. Dismantling US democracy and protesting against his actions (he has no policies) is exhausting, frightening. |
| Favorite Music | Like ancient rock: The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Grateful Dead, Counting Crows, Neil Young, etc.). Overdosed on classical music. Most pop and rock music bores me, as does jazz— show tunes make me grit my teeth. Saw Dylan and Willie Nelson years ago in a minor-league stadium. Dylan played a Toys-R-Us keyboard and must have had a sock in his mouth. Couldn't understand a word he sand. Hate screechy stuff sung with a contorted puss. Rap music from another culture, not mine. What would blues do without the word "baby"? |
| Favorite Books | Most important book ever written (of what I've read, which hasn't been enough): "1984." My favorite poet in English: Me. Followed by Yeats. Favorite book: whatever I'm reading and enjoying at the moment. Portuguese Nobel Prize winner José Saramago at this moment. Learned Gertrude Stein was a fascist: ("Unlikely Collaborators." Read two great books by Chilean writer Roberto Balaño—"Amulet" and "By Night in Chile." Also wonderful novels by Italian post-war writer Cesar Pavese. Yes, I'm behind the times. I like discovering what has already been discovered. Triviality is a mortal sin. |
Random question? Random answer. Quote from Henny Youngman hanging on my wall: "I enjoyed talking to you. My mind needed a rest."