Hola websurfers. What follows is a reproduction of actual email correspondence between Neal Pollack, nationally known author, and Greg Gillam, a poet living in Chicago.
- - - - GG:
To continue that conversation we started while trapped in that porn store during the snow storm...

Something has occurred to me from our previous discussion. I agree that Alyssa Milano's nearly continuous presence in the media since the last of her prepubescent years is striking. Yet I find more interesting how she quite frequently displays multiple personas that create dialogues. Not that one role intentionally comments on the other, but even a simple juxtaposition yields a deeper meaning.

For example, her Teen Steam video was an open acknowledgment of what was obvious to all watching her grow up on Who's The Boss. The steam of adolescence was literally inflating Milano into a babe of remarkable proportions.

Now Milano appears on those 1-800 commercials, playing a woman who gives nearly magical properties to a discount collect call service while at the same time playing a witch on Charmed. In both she is in the service of some secret enforcement agency with an absurd presence. In both, she echoes another entertainment, Charlie's Angels and Emma Peel in the ads, Bewitched and Chekov on the series. In both her power is actually weak - flashes of precognition on Charmed, a minimal discount for collect calls in the ads - but compensated for by her babetude (or is that babeitude?). It's almost a constant play on the question of what is more important about Milano - her minor (yet possibly essential) acting talent or her looks. More importantly, are we seduced by her current beauty, or our long term relation with it?

NP:
Greg, I find it interesting that you mention Alyssa Milano. Her last name, you know, means "of Milan" or "from Milan," a city that I have always to found to be among the world's most modish and welcoming. Even more interesting is the fact that, right now, I am reheating a plate of Chicken Milano, which I prepared for dinner last night. While ordinarily a dish for summer, this grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast is topped with sliced garden tomatoes, fresh herbs, and melted cheeses then napped with Basil Pesto sauce is a delight year-round.

When I eat my Chicken Milano, I will search my digital cable system for reruns of Who's the Boss and attempt to suss out the essential qualities of the Milanese: A world-weary airiness, an ease with the human form, a love of good wine. It strikes me that such things are missing in the culture, even as they are directly in our grasp.

Thoughts?

GG:
I'd say that through "Who's The Boss" Alyssa does fulfill ease with the human form, and Tony Danza does supply a certain airiness though from being apart from the world rather than weary of it. As of wine, there is a distinct absence on "Boss" (no liquor on a family show) or even on Alyssa's current network, at least since Turning Leaf stopped running those ads.

I find it interesting that such a presence as Alyssa Milano should bring forth thoughts of what is missing in life. It belies what started our conversation, the claim by nay sayers that Alyssa is overexposed because she appears both in ads and tv shows. To repeat myself - You can't ever have enough Alyssa.

I'm dismayed at those who would tear down talent with accusations of excess. As if excess is even a valid notion in the vast realm of media. You can avoid Alyssa merely by turning off the TV, slipping the copy of Maxim under the bed. But would you want to? She creates longings for food and culture, plus the baser ones left unsaid.

In fact, I would argue that since Bikini ceased publication and those pics were blocked from internet distribution, there is not enough Alyssa. (Here we see another dichotomy, appearing without clothes in a magazine named after clothing).

This argument can be expanded to include your own career, Neal. You and Alyssa both had relationships with cutting edge magazines resulting in a mutually beneficial publicity. You both used partial nudity to steer the media. You both have complex relationships with Aaron Spelling, and had your celebrity first welcomed then pilloried as excessive. Why can America not appreciate these gifts instead of being threatened by their plentitude?

NP:
I think you understand what I'm getting at, here, Greg. Why are Americans so afraid of fame, of reaching for that golden bough? Once one achieves it, one finds oneself an object of scorn. Like Alyssa Milano, I am not changed by my success; I find it rather emboldening, actually. Would one rather be overexposed than not exposed at all? When I see my peers and my elders, their faces drawn into imperturbable sneers, soury, lemony, invalid expressions, it makes me sad. I mean, really, would I rather be you, scraping by at a series of low-level jobs and hosting ill-attended readings at unpopular coffeehouses, or me, living in a glamorous rowhouse in Philadelphia, and serving as mentor to the thousands of high-school students who worship me?

Which would you choose, Greg, given the chance?

I am now listening to an album by my ex-girlfriend, Shelby Lynne, and I am stunned by the subtlety of her art.

GG:
How synchronous, I was just engaging in some self-reflection over pictures of Shelby downloaded from hotstarzz.com.

I do treasure the brief glories you brought to my otherwise squalid life. I recall your final reading in Chicago. What a hoot. You were a bit late, still drunk from partying with Puff Daddy, but gave a charged, honest talk. I was impressed when you said that before you started writing you never read. "Books were something to set on fire when I tormented eggheads." you admitted, swinging a big plastic jug of Osco tequila. And I noticed this guy flinching and ducking every time the jug came near his head. I compared this old guy, with his saggy man-titties beneath a stained button down oxford, to you, with your rock hard abs visible beneath that NewCity half-tee, able to pass for 18, or even an especially sexually active 15.

I thought of saying to flinchy, "Show some respect when faced with talent exposed! He's the author, you're the audience - suck it up and take it or get out!" Actually I did say that (I was pretty drunk myself).

That's the deeper issue, avoiding the flinch. Great art takes up space, gets in yo' face and you should not wince. When I worked in a bookstore, I saw so many sad folks browse and not buy. I'd ask why they aren't taking home five, six books, they recoil, saying the couldn't afford it. As if they could afford to chicken out when literature threw it down.

It isn't that way in my home town of Orlando, where they welcome the cultural assault and Disney has it's own government. There's no talk of overexposure or self-indulgence. When Dr. Suess became part of the Universal Theme park they welcomed his emergence as a global brand right down to the thneeds (tm), instead of whining about "trivialization" or "original meaning"

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Greg Gillam is a poet living in Chicago. He has written other things for Fengi.

All material copyright the authors, printed with permission.