Love Snippets and Escapism

At our wedding, so many years past, The Amazing Bob read this snippet from  Gregory Corso’s poem Marriage (full poem plus more at this link) :

But I should get married I should be good 

How nice it'd be to come home to her 

and sit by the fireplace and she in the kitchen 

aproned young and lovely wanting by baby 

and so happy about me she burns the roast beef 

and comes crying to me and I get up from my big papa chair 

saying Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple deaf! 

God what a husband I'd make! Yes, I should get married! 

So much to do! like sneaking into Mr Jones' house late at night 

and cover his golf clubs with 1920 Norwegian books 

Like hanging a picture of Rimbaud on the lawnmower 

like pasting Tannu Tuva postage stamps all over the picket fence 

like when Mrs Kindhead comes to collect for the Community Chest 

grab her and tell her There are unfavorable omens in the sky!
 
And when the mayor comes to get my vote tell him 

When are you going to stop people killing whales! 

And when the milkman comes leave him a note in the bottle 

Penguin dust, bring me penguin dust, I want penguin dust--

So, you can see why I’m madly in love with the man? Of course you can!
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Woody Allen has long been out of favor, ever since his affair (then marriage and kids) with Mia Farrow’s young daughter came out. For me -- eh, it’s been more about his movies. As the alien in  Stardust Memories said ‘We like your movies - especially the early, funny ones.’ OK, not completely true -- Crimes and Misdemeanors was incredible. I remember it as wrenching though and haven’t seen it since it came out in ’89. The last Woody Allen movie I saw was Bullets Over Broadway in ’94.
Maybe it’s time to revisit his work?

From a brief Esquire interview:

What people who don't write don't understand is that they think you make up the line consciously — but you don't. It proceeds from your unconscious. So it's the same surprise to you when it emerges as it is to the audience when the comic says it. I don't think of the joke and then say it. I say it and then realize what I've said. And I laugh at it, because I'm hearing it for the first time myself.

Maybe the director’s work that I should really jump into for my fit of escapism is Wim Wenders. Maybe just Wings of Desire.

The sky over Wenders' war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel (Bruno Ganz), wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marion (Solveig Dommartin). Peter Falk, as himself, assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of a human experience, such as the sublime combination of coffee and cigarettes.

Maybe I should plug my copy of The Red Balloon into the player and get lost in the lyricism for a bit, huh? Or how about Fellini’s 8 1/2 or Ginger and Fred or La Dolce Vita?

“People talk about escapism as if it's a bad thing... Once you've escaped, once you come back, the world is not the same as when you left it. You come back to it with skills, weapons, knowledge you didn't have before. Then you are better equipped to deal with your current reality.”
-Neil Gaiman