happy birthday buk...

charles bukowski was born 86 years ago today...and the world is a much better place because of it...to remember him...and his work...i give you this...



I've mixed his reading of The Genius Of The Crowd with An American Concerto: A Burst of Energy...a fitting song composed by gwyneth walker...an excellent composer...american or otherwise...and...no surprise here...i think it's better to acknowledge and celebrate artists while they're still alive...rather than wait...

Destination: NYC...

many, many, comings and goings..

day 1...
my step brother and i went to the storycorps booth and talked about...

how i became a member of the family...


what it was like to get an instant sibling...


the man...


growing up in more reckless times...


and then he turns the tables and asks me about my childhood...


day 2...
i can't believe my no one else in the family wanted my step-father's camera equipment...

the Sears 'Ted Williams' Varizoom 8mm film camera...

man, ted put his name on just about anything...

the yashica-a...


the polaroid land camera...


and the 8mm film projector...

let's not forget the slr...


all in perfect working condition....i can't wait to play with my new toys...

day 3...
family time...

day 4...
business...

day 5...
more business...and then pleasure...

day 6...
2001 revisited...

and madness at the airport...my dad's pool cues, apparently, are weapons...someone's seen too many jackie chan movies...this is why i hate flying...everyone's too uptight...maybe this bottle of sake will make them seem more relaxed...to me...

next stop...denver...

Dispatch: Pittsburg...

what...a...night...mare...this will have to be my last bus trip...

the only way to get through it is to...eat twizzlers...listen to this song...

and think of my wife...

Dispatch: Columbus...

spoke with an army medic who is getting ready to ship out for his second tour in iraq...bagdad to be precise...i resisted asking about...over there...i'm sure every stranger he meets is all over him with questions...but then...he brings it up himself...so from his mouth...to your eyes...my third party report from an army medic who's served in iraq...

he's focused on his mission...saving lives...but...he doesn't want to be there...he doesn't think we should have gone there in the first place...he doesn't get out of the green zone often...except to provide medical aid to iraqi citizens...who don't want us there...the winning of hearts and minds...the facilities are first rate...which keeps troop morale up...and their minds off all the death and dismemberment...well...unless someone you know has been blown to bits...anyway...it's more dismemberment than death...lots of blown off limbs...amputees, he says...and now that the...insurgents...have added suicide bombing to their arsenal...the field hospital...which just got moved to one of saddam's palaces...is a lot busier...he just wants to do his time and come back home...

Dispatch: Kansas City...

by the age of 15 i had tried a variety of beers and liquors...none of them made me want to drink again...all of it tasted nasty...until Vatorade came along...we used to drink it during lunch at my...shitty minimum wage teenage job...here's the recipe...

32 oz of your favorite flavored sports drink...
your favorite mid-range vodka (don't waste top shelf on this...anything that has a goose, a painter, or frosted glass on the bottle...save those for martinis...and stay away from any vodka that comes in a plastic bottle...use that stuff for cleaning fluid...)

drink up to three fingers worth off the top of the sports drink...that's anywhere between 1-3 inches...
pour vodka in to fill...(careful here...we don't want any alcohol poisonings...)

and...enjoy...

Dispatch: Indianapolis...

Happy. Sliders...there's nothing else like em...i know i've left the west behind when i get my first taste of white castle...some facts you may not know about white castle...
White Castle was the first fast food restaurant...
the first to sell one million and one billion hamburgers
white castle created the paper cook hat...

Dispatch: St Louis...

Pissed.
Black Folk. Damn. Look, I know we don't get many opportunities...to be the man...but when you have a well paid union job...you're protected...you're doing well...being the man is no excuse to have attitude...and tell your customers...that you don't care...actually...when you're the man...that's the moment to go further...do more...act like you earned what you have...otherwise...what was all that hard work for...

served on colfax...

yes...colfax...you snobs...

oohhhhhh soooooo tempting...

i could make a go of it...if i quit working and blogged/wrote full time...mmm...don't think ms scribe would go for it...but i can think of one or two people who could do something strong with this

my life began long before i lived here...

but it was in this place...
the apartment on the top floor...

where i first began to glimpse the depths of human depravity...
like the night the girl...the girl in the blue skirt and and white sailor cap...the girl who was fucking a friend of mine...came from a party and...propped her ass on the window sill in my living room...lifted her skirt...and asked me if i wanted some...
then there was the week the european women invaded...german...and french...and showed me how the body can be a playground...
that was the beginning...

now that it's being torn down...it's not an ending...because life goes on...and because...depravity is so much more fun with a woman i love and respect...