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"the only way to be quiet is to be quick, so I scare you clumsily, or surprise you with a stab." — Frank O'Hara
Ennis SmithAbout

Ennis grew up in Cincinnati, the sixth of ten children. In his first life he was an actor and singer; embarking on his second, he completed his BA at Empire State College, where he was a Richard Porter Leach Fellow.

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Latest Publication

Creative Nonfiction cover 2014-10-16 at 1.19.36 PM copy

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Film, New York, Television, Theater, Vespers

The Good Die Young

They died too young.  That’s one of the ways certain deaths acquire the sheen of tragedy.  It’s never that way with long-timers who’ve earned every nail in their coffins: Lou Reed, for one, lived so many professional and personal lives, well, it’s not as if he died unfulfilled.  Most of those elderly titans can rest…

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Art, Dance, Film, Music, Television

Fool for Fall

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 Don’t’ be fooled by those guys still wearing flip-flops, or the young (and not so) women who continue to stroll our avenues in their Daisy…

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Television, video

Intrigue, Plots To Bring Disaster

The light at the end of a tunnel riddled with residency applications, re-writes and paper grading–The Good Wife returns tonight, and if you’ve yet to tune in to one of TV’s finest hours, you’re missing out. Aside from the dearly departed The Hour, this is only viewing date I’m ever sad to miss.  Great acting,…

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Film, Television, Theater

Karen Black, 1939-2013

An original. She was an actress whose best roles came in film’s last golden age (the 70s), a cross-eyed wildling embued with sex appeal and a fierce intelligence, no surprise for someone who entered college at the age of 15.  Retrospective: Five Easy Pieces (winning an Oscar nomination as well as the Golden Globe and…

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Literature, Writing

Dickinson riffs on summer

No, not Angie.  Emily, the original Goth Girl, sums up summer beautifully in this poem, courtesy of DailyLit: A something in a summer’s Day As slow her flambeaux burn away Which solemnizes me. A something in a summer’s noon— A depth—an Azure—a perfume— Transcending ecstasy. And still within a summer’s night A something so transporting bright…

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Current Affairs, Gay, History, Museums/Galleries, Theater

Blood Count

To draw comparisons between the current Broadway production of Macbeth and the New York Historical Society’s just opened exhibition AIDS in New York: The First Five Years seems a reach.  Yet after seeing both in the same week, my thoughts drift to issues of mortality, not to mention body counts.  Anyone who lived in New…

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