Chamblee54

Thomas Eugene Robbins was working in a Seattle radio station when Charles Manson came to self promote. This is on page 241 of Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life. TER drops a quote from Henry Miller, who is talking about Arthur Rimbaud. “like a man who discovered electricity but knew absolutely nothing about insulation.” Or maybe the insulation was made of asbestos, and whose removal would cost exponentially more than installation.
TER passed on the chance to discover Mr. Manson, which may have been a good move. Before long, TER found himself in the same facility as the doors. TER says he found his writing voice that night. “Their sound is the sonic equivalent of Edgar Allen Poe going down on the Snake Woman, while Jean Genet and the Boston Strangler cut cards for leftovers.”
About this time, TER began work on Another Roadside Attraction, the novel that would make him famous. He spent the week in South Bend WA, and weekends working at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. This is perhaps the most pretentious newspaper name in history, even for the Hearst corporation. TER spent those weekends in a flophouse, the Apex hotel, whose wallpaper would have sent Oscar Wilde screaming into eternity.
Soon ARA was published, ignored in hardback, but became an underground sensation in paperback. This was the first TER book that PG read. One of those paperbacks was at a yard sale, a few days after PG saw the Rolling Stone piece. After paying the fifteen cents, PG took the book home. On page three, Amanda asks someone about the meaning of life, or something equally goofy. The man asks what she will do in return. Amanda batted her eyelashes, and said the she would suck off the man.
At that point, PG knew that he wanted to finish ARA. Many people say it is the best TER book, and PG is inclined to agree. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was made into a movie, and the ones after cowgirls all had their charms. The latter books, while tons of fun, have the air of contractual obligation. The lifestyle described in the latter part of TPP must be expensive to maintain. Still, ARA is what made the rest of them possible. Included in this is the move to La Conner WA, made April 1, 1970. TER says to make all moves on April 1. Especially when moving out of a town whose mayor supplemented his income by selling men’s suits out of an Oldsmobile. The suits were stolen off cadavers by enterprising funeral directors, who left the underwear behind.
Before long it is 1971. TER is settled into La Conner WA, except when he puts a duck mask to see a proctologist. The word legendary comes into play. This affable adjective it is misused, misunderstood, and mistaken. It is similar to the contemporary compulsion to decry racism and terrorism. What this has to do with the Chelsea Hotel is a good question. This is where TER stayed, while editors shehawed over Cowgirls. Maybe the editors were legendary racist terrorists.
So Cowgirls comes out, and is a hit. Still Life with Woodpecker, though not as much fun as the first two, is an even bigger hit. TER goes through money, women, and drugs, not always in that order. (TER says he never wrote while intoxicated. However lubricated reality was in his off hours, while on the clock he was straight and narrow.) This can be tracked in his stories. In ARA, the characters realize that alcohol is an imperfect drug. In Woodpecker, cocaine is in fashion. In the post Woodpecker days, alcohol is used more and more.
On page 330, PG is in the Kroger parking lot, waiting on a rider to finish shopping. This passage was written by hand. (TER likes to write with a pen, while PG is hopeless away from a keyboard.) A scribble pad, with a Thoreau quote on the cover, was used. … While reading TPP in Kroger PL, I saw the way the sun fell on some brick columns. I got the camera to take pics. Meanwhile TER is meeting Love of Life#4. The batteries on the camera ran out before I was finished…
The lady friend is still connected to TER. They met in 1987, on page 333 of TPP. Half the antichrist, which somehow that seems like a happy accident. The book has 362 pages, and the clever turns of phrase are fewer and fewer. This will probably be the last installment of the chamblee54 appropriation of TPP. Parts one, two, and three have already seen the light of day. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. They were taken during the War Between the States.