POEM: Robert Redford’s Banker

Posted 9 February, 2010 in Movies, My poems, Poetry

I wrote this on a plane trip to San Francisco in 2008, while sitting next to the gentleman described in the poem.

Robert Redford’s Banker

makes perfect check marks
next to the names of Maui restaurants
that he’ll visit when the plane lands.

With measured strokes,
he moves money
from one worthy cause to the next.

The handwriting in his register
shows the passage of time,
a certain revealing tremor in the fingers.

A small picture of the actor –
in his halcyon days –
rests on the tray table next to a bill

from the banker’s club, a map of Maui,
and suggestions for avoiding problems
with Medicare and the tax collector.

He nibbles a deliberate biscotti
and counts to three on his left hand,
fingers pressed, one after another, against his thumb.

Perhaps he’s not counting at all, just
reassuring himself of his own tactile reality,
one not represented by ink on watermarked paper.

The plane touches down, the banker gathers loose papers
to his chest and moves off into the terminal,
searching for his connection, dreaming of the stage.

Fifty People, One Question

Posted 15 December, 2008 in Movies, Random Musings

New Orleans

Fifty People, One Question: New Orleans from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

New York

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Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

“Don’t Let Them Take Away The Internet!”

Posted 17 November, 2007 in Labor movement, Movies, TV

Here’s a 94-year-old writer who started in the union back when he was writing for radio. (He worked on the classic Life of Riley show, among others.) This cat is hip, man!

“You Want To Take DVD Money From A Little Black Girl?”

Posted 17 November, 2007 in Labor movement, Movies, TV

Not The Daily Show on the WGA strike

Posted 15 November, 2007 in Labor movement, Movies, TV

Writers Guild of America — strike video

Posted 8 November, 2007 in Labor movement, Movies, TV

Here’s a video that was put together by the WGA to help explain why the writers are on strike. After you watch it, you’ll probably want to read this short Q&A at Mark Evanier’s site.