August 2015
I started my writing career in sleep-away camp. I was sick and had nothing to do, so I lay on my bunk and composed a sketch about a reporter named Milton Moncrief who was covering a volcano eruption. He interviewed people as they ran from the ash and lava. He didn't have a clue - and maybe I didn't either...that the sketch was pretty bad, or that I would some day choose this as my profession. I am now doing cultural journalism, drama, and poetry. North Park Vaudeville in San Diego presented my play, Hey, Pete, There Must be Some Mistake, in October, 2012. I was the only American reporter to cover Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche in 2009. My first full-length play about an environmental disaster in future Iowa is now taking shape, and I am marketing my one-act allegory, The Time of Our Joy. Available for hire at writerstuartk@gmail.com Blog www.stuartkurtz.blogspot.com and poems published here:
http://www.carcinogenicpoetry.com/2012/07/stuart-kurtz-five-poems.html
http://www.carcinogenicpoetry.com/2012/07/stuart-kurtz-five-poems.html
Decoupage
In memory of Dawn Reiger
Establishing shot: Dawn.
Editor, writer, actor, camera-cranker
But never a ham to hog the limelight
She stood with the rest of the ensemble
Close up on a good life
A character study resulting in love, passion, and a pool of talent
Based on a true story
No, really, talent like that can be true
And always time for her friends
She shared the billing
Behind the scenes
She had her conflict
Not always with resolution
But one leitmotif remained: perseverance
She could always deal with negatives
And leave the bad scenes on the cutting room floor
We couldn’t always get an angle on Dawn
Needed a double take sometimes: “What’s that, Dawn?”
And some of the back story - - a bit sketchy
You can’t put a frame around the avant-garde
Artistes they call ‘em
Directing her life with ingenuity, style, and grace
A career from a decoupage of clips
A little of this, a little of that
But continuity there was:
Call it dedication to her craft
To us she was an A-list Star
Give credits and let them role
But while the aperture grew smaller far too soon
In our ratio her life will live on in widescreen
Though now it’s all in the archives
The arthouse crowd will take note of…
A life that was a landmark film
In memory of Dawn Reiger
Establishing shot: Dawn.
Editor, writer, actor, camera-cranker
But never a ham to hog the limelight
She stood with the rest of the ensemble
Close up on a good life
A character study resulting in love, passion, and a pool of talent
Based on a true story
No, really, talent like that can be true
And always time for her friends
She shared the billing
Behind the scenes
She had her conflict
Not always with resolution
But one leitmotif remained: perseverance
She could always deal with negatives
And leave the bad scenes on the cutting room floor
We couldn’t always get an angle on Dawn
Needed a double take sometimes: “What’s that, Dawn?”
And some of the back story - - a bit sketchy
You can’t put a frame around the avant-garde
Artistes they call ‘em
Directing her life with ingenuity, style, and grace
A career from a decoupage of clips
A little of this, a little of that
But continuity there was:
Call it dedication to her craft
To us she was an A-list Star
Give credits and let them role
But while the aperture grew smaller far too soon
In our ratio her life will live on in widescreen
Though now it’s all in the archives
The arthouse crowd will take note of…
A life that was a landmark film
©2015 Stuart Kurtz