#MeToo Charles Bukowski
r/bukowski had a tasteful video, Wrestling with Bukowski’s Problematic Treatment of Women. Some well meaning person really wondered if Hank’s chauvinism was a problem. If you think Hank Chinaski is a role model, then you have more problems than the Fulton County DA office.
As if that is not bad enough, about 163 seconds in, gageaa4 says that Hank is the “Walt Whitman of neat whiskey.” (I thought he said deep whiskey, but was corrected.) Now, while you are handing out virtue signifiers, you might call Hank a homophobe. In Tales of Ordinary Madness, a homo hitting on Hank gets cut up. This is marginally harsher than the way Hank treats women. In Factotum, Hank says he is turning fag when he cleans his apartment.
Uncle Walt lived in a pre-prohibition America, and probably drank his share of whiskey. This was in 19th century America, before commodified fire water, refrigeration, easy access to ice, and many other features of modern dipsomania. The Walt Whitman of neat whiskey was probably Walt Whitman. I rather doubt that Walt would enjoy being compared to Hank Chinaski.
This business of giving Hank the #metoo treatment brings to mind other instances of standards being retroactively applied. … “Fordham University hosted a symposium on (Flannery) O’Connor and race, supported with a grant from the author’s estate.” (The panel discussion included Karin Coonrod.) “The organizer, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell” … (who wrote) “Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor.” … takes up Flannery and That Issue. Proposing that O’Connor’s work is “race-haunted,” she applies techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory …” In other words, The Flannery O’Connor Trust is financing a university to examine MFO, using “techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory.” There is something deeply rotten about this.
Forget what Hank Chinaski would think about #metoo. He probably would want to slug 90% of his current admirers. This is a common problem for dead poets. Someone even wrote a poem about this.
henry charles chinaski bukowski, would hate my sonnet if he had a chance
at coffee drinking open mic poetry, dickhater georgia gothic romance
hank thinks poems that rhyme are a bore, like baseball nuns or men who cry
some people think he died in ninety four, california dirt will tell you don’t try
hank still has a racetrack episode, bets on number nine horse to kill
with a twenty fished out of the commode, after taking a dump on top of the bill
forever spitting out poems like hot turds, on the morning after beer drunk words
Egress Over Logos
This story starts with a break. When listening to a podcast, there usually comes a time to pause the show. Do you go back and finish, or do you let it slide? The show today is Negative Space: Logo Design with Michael Bierut from 99 Percent Invisible. This is a repost.
The graphic designer interviewed has a delightful way of talking. He avoids cheap obscenity, but gets the point across. An example is the first Trump-Pence logo, which many observers saw as depicting a naughty activity. “For many, the T/P ligature in particular called unsavory associations to mind, quickly resulting in animated versions (and ultimately the disuse of the logo itself).” In talking about implied sex, and in drawing logos, less is more.
It turns out there was not much of the interview after the break. The designer, Michael Bierut, used the exit sign to discuss the cosmetic nature of graphic design. “if you can read the exit sign then you can find your way out of the building, whatever typeface it happens to employ. But if the exit door is nailed shut, you may have a serious egress problem.”
Show notes for this episode linked to a related episode, Good Egress. This episode dealt with the issue of getting out of a burning building. A prominent incident, in the evolution of fire evacuation, was the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. This tragedy took place March 25, 1911.
While stumbling in the breaktime wilderness, PG found this week’s five minute writing challenge. The photo prompts this week start with a children’s party, seemingly set in Eisenhower America. The other picture has a travel bag, lying in the middle of a dirt road. Just set the five minute timer, and go.
Why did I loan the bag to Alphonse for his photo shoot? He is off somewhere, on a dirt road, taking pictures of my bag for a client. What I should have told him was that there was a birthday present in that bag. The party is going on right now, and I can only stall for so long. Maybe a costume jewelry ring is not a good idea for a little girl. It wasn’t my idea, nor was it my idea to put it in a vintage makeup kit bag. The birthday girl … why can’t I remember her name, they all sound alike anyway … is not going to appreciate how cool that bag is. Maybe it should stay in the dirt road, and let somebody run over it with a tractor. Which does not solve the problem of this birthday party. Maybe if they blow on those party favors long enough they won’t notice.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Collier took the pictures in November, 1942. “Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Montour no. 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Coal miner at end of the day’s work” This is picture #8d23666.
The Fall Of Minneapolis Part Two
The Fall Of Minneapolis is a documentary about the death of George Floyd. It makes some claims that disputed the conventional wisdom. TFOM was enthusiastically recieved by some people, including youtuber “Black Guys” Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. A few weeks later, @radleybalko wrote a three part substack series, debunking the debunkers. one two three A lot of people, myself included, are just shaking their heads about it all.
Chamblee54 posted a commentary, The Fall Of Minneapolis. This piece was reasonably skeptical, with readers encouraged to “do their own research.” One paragraph is repeated below. Clearly, “the establishment” had details they did not want me to know. When this story was posted on reddit, there was a curious reply. u/Chamblee54 is permanently banned from r/JoeRogan.
One thing I wanted was a copy of the autopsy report. Recently, parts of it have been released. The report shows high levels of Fentanyl and Methamphetamine in GPF’s system. I googled “George Floyd Autopsy,” and found a lot of commentary. Next, I did the same search on duckduckgo. The top result was the HENNEPIN COUNTY AUTOPSY REPORT ME NO.: 20-3700. The document clearly states “No life-threatening injuries identified.”
The main takeaway I got out of the Glenn&John video was that Derek Chauvin’s knee was on George Floyd’s shoulder, rather than his neck. This changes the narrative 100%. Supposedly, the body cam videos from the officers show this. OTOH, in the documentary, only a few seconds of these videos were shown. It was not conclusive.
Glenn&John posted a video about TFOM, which piqued my interest. John said “once again, we’ve been lied to.” A couple of weeks later, Liz Collin and JC Chaix, the documentary producers, were guests of The Glenn Show. JC Chaix said “I would encourage anyone to look for the empirical evidence go back and find these body cam videos for yourself and look at several versions of them to dispel any of these myths or the idea of mythmaking here.”
Mr. Chaix did not supply links to these body-cam videos. Nor does the audience have the time to go through hours and hours of videos, to see the important portions. This is the job of the people making the documentary. At the same time, @radleybalko claims the body-cam videos have been available all along. One wonders why the inflammatory cellphone video was shown thousands of times, and the more nuanced body-cam videos are seldom seen.
To me, the key issue was: is the knee on the neck, or the shoulder? When the autopsy report said “No life-threatening injuries identified,” that threw a monkey wrench into the popular narrative. At this point, Radley Balko enters the conversation. After a few thousand words of polemic, Mr. Balko makes the point that the knee was not on the neck or the shoulder, but on the back. Mr. Floyd was in a prone position, and the knee on his back did not allow him to breathe properly. Positional asphyxia is the possible killer of George Floyd. This detail was not mentioned during the “George Floyd summer.”
I came to the conclusion that we simply do not know. The death of George Floyd is old news. The racial reckoning took place. While there may be appeals to Derek Chauvin’s conviction, the case is essentially over. The dirty dealings of police have come to light, as if anyone really had any doubt. There is also a backlash to the high octane rhetoric, and violence, of 2020. Meanwhile, Israel is trying to drive Palestine into the sea, with American assistance.
Mr. Balko was especially critical of Coleman Hughes. Mr. Hughes, a “black conservative,” is somewhat of a protege to Glenn&John. Mr. Balko makes a snide comment. “… his column promoting TFOM typifies how such self-declared heterodox thinkers have latched onto the conspiracies about Floyd’s death that true skeptics should have seen through with even the slightest bit of research.”
While all this was going on, @aaronjmate got into a tweetspat with @coldxman about Screams Without Words. This is the widely criticized NYT story about sexual violence on October 7. Mr. Hughes is an enthusiastic supporter of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign.
@coldxman “These is not an Israeli gov claim, Aaron. I knew you would dismiss it if it were. These are claims made by The NY Times—which, for all its flaws—tends not to invent photographs out of whole cloth. I’ll let you parse the difference between rape and driving nails into a woman’s groin. I see no meaningful difference in the context of 10/7. In other words: Whatever it would say about Hamas that they did the former, it would say the same about them that they did the latter. And you seem equally tempted to deny it in either case.” To paraphrase Mr. Balko, “… typifies how such self-declared heterodox thinkers have latched onto the conspiracies about _____ that true skeptics should have seen through with even the slightest bit of research.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Unfollow
This is a repost from 2019. Facebook now has three dots next to the offender’s name. You can left click there, and choose to “snooze” or “unfollow” the person who upset you. … For now, facebook is a part of my routine. It is a handy way to know about events, and keep up with people. Unfortunately, many of those people are generous with their opinions. Sometimes, if you want to keep your sanity, you need to limit exposure to these opinions.
You have several options. The one I prefer is unfollow. You go into the inner workings, and click “unfollow Whatshisname.” You will no longer see this person’s opinions. This is preferred to unfriend. The person you unfriend will know that you have kicked them out of your life.
Some people like to unfriend, and block, to punish people. You say something they don’t like, and they get even with you by unfriending you. This is pathetic.
The problem with unfriending is the permanence. Long after the original slight has been forgotten, the person will see that you have kicked them out. There are people I once respected, who have decided to throw me to the curb. No matter how nice they are to me, I will always know they unfriended me. Life is tough enough without this distraction.
Several of the people I unfollowed continue to be a worthwhile part of my life. The last three words I saw from one such person was “your racist family.” My peace of mind will not allow me to have such poison in my life. A couple of months later, I was a guest in his apartment. Should I let his prejudice get in the way? Or should I unfollow him, and move on?
This meme is a recent reason to unfollow. It is a cartoon, with the title “MANY WHITE AMERICANS FAIL TO ASSIMILATE.” It is a gratuitous commentary on racial values. In the top right panel, a man is driving a truck. The Confederate battle flag is flying. The radio plays “And this bird you cannot change,” helpfully labeled “TRADITIONAL FOLK MUSIC.”
I am not a big Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, but I enjoy “Free Bird.” Given the elastic definition of the slur, some people probably think “Free Bird” is racist. Rock and roll started out as “race music.” White people learned how to rock, and made numerous improvements. It is essential americana … the not always comfortable blending of black and white. If you want to see another example, check out this song. The spell check suggestion for Lynyrd Skynyrd is Lyndon Skyward.
This cartoon will not affect police brutality, or enable economic equity. What it does is make fun of lower class white americans. It is not worthy of the person who posted this meme. While I do not wish to publicly distance myself from this person, I cannot subject myself to this poison. When you make fun of Lynyrd Skynyrd, you make fun of me.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. They were taken in July 1941, by Jack Delano. “Untitled photo, possibly related to: Elevator operator in the Barr Building. Washington DC”
Letter To Harvey Cream
Our story begins at the GSV gathering last fall. I read six poems in the variety show, and got a tremendous response. one two three four five six Maybe I should focus more on performance. People seem to enjoy what I do, and I am ham enough to comply.
The next step was memorizing four pieces. one two three four Memorizing turned into a mental workout. I made changes to all four, and worked like crazy to learn them. Repeat lines when working with weights. Chant when meditating, repeating the mantra at the end of each line. After a while, they were burned into my memory, as much as memory still exists here.
Little 5 Poetry Bash was the next step. I go to the place, and get some coffee A man walks in, wearing a bright red coat, with polka dot pants. This is Rosser Shymanski, formerly trailer park diva DeAundra Peek. He is the host tonight. Eventually, Manley Pointer was called to the “stage.” Only one line was flubbed. The crowd was highly appreciative.
What not to say (To A Friend With A Mental Health Problem)
i always knew you had a problem there, need to get out more its all in your mind
you’re not pushing yourself enough to care, you don’t ever know what you’re going to find
things aren’t that bad could be so much worse, but you have nothing to worry about
your own damn fault you don’t have to curse, nothing wrong with you chill the fuck out
you just have a negative attitude, sounds like you are going crazy dude
complaining all the time just grow a pair, nobody ever said that life was fair
go snap out of it i never get bored, get over yourself do you know the lord
Xchange Open Mic was the next stop. This event was a poetry slam, rather than an open mic. The two events are very different. At a slam, a panel of judges gives you a score. There are three rounds, with low scores eliminated after the first two. Whoever has the most points after round three is the winner.
Most of what you hear at a slam is anger and pain. Rhyming iambic pentameter is not a good fit. What not to say was the last piece in round one. There was polite applause. Judges gave WNTS the lowest score of anyone in round one. There was nothing else to do but write a poem about it.
Step Out Of My Comfort Zone For A Spell, Mark Another One Off The Bucket List
Memorize Piece About Living In Hell, Get Out In The World To See What I Missed
Don’t Take A Skateboard To A Gunfight Ma’am, Don’t Hail Satan At A Catholic Mass
Don’t Read Your Sonnet At A Poetry Slam, Judges Will Totally Hand You Your Ass
Another Caucasian With Attitude, Get That Rhyming Shit Out Of Here Dude
It’s Not Gonna Work Just Grow A Pair, Nobody Ever Said That Life Was Fair
You Gotta Go Out There And Take Your Shot, Some People Like It But Others Will Not
Post Racial America
This is a repost from 2014. A current google search for Who said America is Post Racial? yielded Microaggressions and Traumatic Stress: Theory, Research, and Clinical Treatment. “Many media personalities made comments about the United States entering this alleged postracial era, including radio host Lou Dobbs, who in November 2009 said, “We are now in a 21st-century post-partisan, post-racial society” … MSNBC host Chris Matthews even claimed, “[President Obama] is post-racial by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was Black tonight for an hour.” Although Matthews’s comment was likely well-intentioned, it actually is reflective of his implicit bias and covert racism: Because the newly elected president did not fit Matthews’s schema of Black people, he was deemed to have no race—or, more likely, to seem White.”
It is a cliche among certain pundits that this is not “Post Racial America.” No one seems to know what PRA would look like. PRA might be less noisy, with fewer odors, than the current model. The opinion that we do not live in PRA seems unanimous. I heard the PRA denial, and began to wonder something. Who said America is Post Racial?
Mr. Google has 119 million answers to the question “who said america is post racial?” The short answer is nobody. The closest thing on the front Google page is an NPR commentary from January 2008. This was the early stages of the BHO run for the White House. The commenter said that the election of a dark skinned POTUS might usher in a post racial era in America.
This piece will not have any fresh opinions about race relations in America. That subject has been worn out elsewhere. If someone finds it to their advantage to denounce “racism”, there will be an audience. The truth is, very few people have ever said that America is Post Racial. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
Tea Party
This is a repost from 2010. It was a simpler time. A mixed race “liberal” was the new President, and “conservatives” were not happy about it. The Tea Party emerged, with lots of protesting, and general merriment. A good time was had by all. In 2024, the political Tea Party is obsolete. If you google Tea Party, the top result is 5 Tea Party Etiquette Tips.
In the first year of the Obama regime, America has seen the rise of the “Tea Party”. These affairs are usually right wing, sometimes racist, and have lots of clever signs. The general idea is that taxes are too high, government is too big, and that the people need to do something.
The namesake event was the Boston Tea Party. On December 16, 1773, crowds of people (some dressed as Mohawks) went on board the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver. The crowds threw overboard 342 chests, containing 90,000 pounds of tea. The crowds were unhappy because the East India Company was importing the tea into America, with a 3 pence per pound tax.
Listverse plays the contrarian. “American colonists did not protest the Tea Tax with the Boston Tea Party because it raised the price of tea. The American colonists preferred Dutch tea to English tea. The English Parliament placed an embargo on Dutch tea in the colonies, so a huge smuggling profession developed. To combat this, the English government LOWERED the tax on tea so that the English tea would be price competitive with Dutch teas. The colonists (actually some colonists led by the chief smugglers) protested by dumping the tea into Boston Harbor.”
According to Wikipedia, the Dutch tea had been smuggled into the colonies for some time. The Dutch government had given their companies a tax advantage, which allowed them to sell their product cheaper. Finally, the British government cut their taxes, but kept a tax in place. The “Townsend Tax” was to be used to pay governing colonial officials, and make them less dependent on the colonists.
In Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia, the tea boats were turned around, and returned to England with their merchandise. In Massachusetts, Governor Thomas Hutchinson insisted that the tea be unloaded. Two of the Governor’s sons were tea dealers, and stood to make a profit from the taxed tea. There are also reports that the smugglers were in the crowd dumping tea into the harbor.
The photogenic tea party movement seems to be destined to stay a while. The question remains, how much does it have to do with the namesake event? Pictures for this post are from the Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library
Rose McGowan Again
This is a repost from 2018. Rose McGowan lives in Mexico City today. … Brave is the book that Rose Arianna McGowan is promoting. Whenever there is a fresh controversy, there is usually product to sell. This blog has done it’s part, writing about RAM thrice: Rose McGowan Misogygate, A Rose By Any Other Blame, and The Rose And Bret Show.
Recently, during a promotional event, push came to shove. RAM fought back, against the trans activist who verbally assaulted her from the audience. While RAM, and her opinions, can be highly annoying, it was fun to see someone push back at a troll. RAM said a few things about labelism.
“Don’t label me, sister. ’ Don’t put your labels on me. Don’t you f—ing do that. Do not put your labels on me. I don’t come from your planet. Leave me alone. I do not subscribe to your rules. I do not subscribe to your language. You will not put labels on me or anybody. Step the f— back. What I do for the f—ing world and you should be f—ing grateful. Shut the f— up. Get off my back. What have you done? I know what I’ve done, God dammit.”
Andi Dier is the trans activist who made a scene. There are unconfirmed rumors of bad behavior on their part. @PopCrave “Andi Dier the woman who heckled Rose McGowan at her book signing is now being accused of sexual assault by multiple women.”
Some reports on the B&N episode note trans-problematic comments made on RuPaul’s “What’s the Tee?” podcast. In the last part of the show, RAM makes comments about trans women not having periods as teenagers. Is that transphobic? Certified cis-male PG is the wrong person to ask.
The rest of the show was fun to listen to. RuPaul is a smart cookie, and made sage observations about the illusionary nature of just about everything. RAM made one comment, at 51:11, that is easily refuted. “60% of gun violence deaths are in this country are women.” The FBI issues a report every year. The homicide numbers for 2016: Total 15,070 male 11,821 female 3,208.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. “Mother and child, white migrants, Harlingen, Texas.” The photographer was Russell Lee. The pictures were taken in February, 1939.
Jordan Peterson Goes To Russia
This is a repost from February 2020. A few things have happened in the last four years. … Sometimes, things go beyond the like/dislike binary. Some stories are just so weird, that the only reaction is to observe in wonder. Just how can real life could be so bizarre? The recent chapter in the Jordan Peterson story is an example. Dr. Peterson is a Toronto psychologist/professor, and youtube personality. His signature work is a book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
Mikhaila Peterson, the daughter of the professor, released a youtube video on February 7, 2020. “Dad was put on a low dose of a benzodiazepine a few years ago for anxiety following an extremely severe autoimmune reaction to food. He took the medication as prescribed. Last April when my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the dose of the medication was increased.” This went on for a while, until he went into rehab. This article, about the first rehab, is dated September 20, 2019.
“After several failed treatment attempts in North American hospitals, including attempts at tapering and micro-tapering, we had to seek an emergency medical benzodiazepine detox, which we were only able to find in Russia. … He’s had to spend 4 weeks in the ICU in terrible shape, but, with the help of some extremely competent and courageous doctors, he survived.”
“She and her husband took him to Moscow last month, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia and put into an induced coma for eight days. She said his withdrawal was “horrific,” worse than anything she had ever heard about. …Jordan Peterson has only just come out of an intensive care unit, Mikhaila said. He has neurological damage, and a long way to go to full recovery.”
This raises a few questions. Why Russia? France ranks as the number one healthcare system in many rankings. The World Health Organization, in their ranking of “Overall efficiency in all WHO member states,” puts Russian Federation at 130, out of 191. (The United States is 37.) USNews ranks Canada as number one. Jordan Peterson is famously Canadian.
Pride goeth before a fall. Jordan Peterson is not a humble person. It is bad manners to celebrate the misfortune of others. However, when the fallen person is famous for promoting 12 Rules for Life, it is tough not to speculate. This story has inspired some creative types. “deep in the Russian wilderness, an unholy experiment is underway. for years Peterson has attempted to transmute himself into the exalted lobster, king of the animals. but there’s been a malfunction—he’s stuck in the interstitial stage, forever to live as an eldritch abomination.” @MenshevikM “Jordan Peterson is incredible because most right wing hacks are very boring career hypocrites, whereas he went from nobody to living in Russia with brain damage in about 3 years by practicing what he preached”
There are hundreds of hours of Jordan Peterson talking online. These videos are a gold mine of ironic comments. Chamblee54 had a post about a Peterson appearance in June 2018. (The video is no longer available.) Apparently, this was after he started taking Benzos. Two quotes that stand out. “What stupid things am I doing that is making my life wretched?” “The next rule is to not let your children do anything that will make other people not like them.”
On November 29, 2018, Peterson was on the Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan “you have the schedule that you have and the amount of energy and enthusiasm you maintain with the schedule is very remarkable cuz you’re not stopping you’re not slowing down I mean you’ve had your foot on the gas for like two solid years now” Peterson “make hay while the Sun shines I guess is that how you feel about it well you know when you have an opportunity that’s completely preposterous you’re a fool to take it for granted … Tammy and I have been to a hundred cities since January.” Dr. Peterson was raking in the dough, and did not want to get off the merry go round. “What stupid things am I doing that is making my life wretched?”
Dr. Peterson started to make appearances after his first bout with rehab. PG saw a video, and noticed a difference in his appearance. PG has written about Dr. Peterson two times, in addition to the 06/13/18 post. There was a commentary about a video at Prager U. When you click the original link to that video, you get a message: “You just hit a route that doesn’t exist… the sadness.” Dennis Prager is another snark-worthy public figure.
The other video is about an appearance Dr. Peterson made in Aspen, hosted by Bari Weiss. John McWhorter asks a question. Dr. Peterson does not have a slick answer. Pictures, for this tabloid view of academia gone awry, are from The Library of Congress.
Junk To Smithereens
This is a repost from 2017. @JonathanLKrohn “This is quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever read. The person who wrote this should be barred from ever writing again. If you could burn emails, I would recommend burning this one with a blow-torch, and scattering the ashes deep in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean.” This pastel performance got my attention on a boring Saturday. It actually was value added comment to a re-tweet.
“The PR email for Meghan Trainor’s new album is absolutely insane” was the seminal offering. @WizzKhaleesi had a screen shot of the special text. “”hot newlywed sex Meghan and Daryl Sa-BAE-ra are having (did you see what we did there?). Which is why you’ll love the banging’ single “All The Ways.” Billboard was wet for “All The Ways,” calling it “another fun, danceable track to fall in love with.” And would Billboard lie to you, girl?
But perhaps the piece de resistance (that’s French for “Wig Snatch”) is “Marry Me,” a romantic acoustic guitar and ukulele-tinged Awww Fest which delivers all the feels (and then more feels). Meghan wrote the song thirty days after meeting Daryl, and it was so good that she walked down the aisle to it. We know, it’s a little bit #Vomworthy, but also, am I chopping onions right now or are those tears rolling down my face?”
I saw this purple prose, and felt the need to make a statement. The result was a short haiku. “But Wig Snatch all the feels We know chopping onions.” As a wise man once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Who is Meghan Trainor? Why Is This Meghan Trainor Press Release So Horny? has the text of the PR sensation. The first sentence will live forever. “Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and whether you’re planning on smashing bae’s junk to smithereens or making out with a pint of Phish Food, you need some fresh Valentine’s Day bops to get you in the mood for L♡VE.”
Help, This Meghan Trainor Press Release Is Haunting My Nightmares piles on with glee. “This happened with Thinx underwear’s deranged series of press releases, which used phrases like “Hey squirrelfran” and “astronaughty booty” in an effort to sell period underwear.”
Caroline Goldfarb claims to have written the Trainor train wreck. (Don’t let your mouse hover over the background of that page.) @hairoline A lot of people absolutely HATE the press release I wrote for Meghan Trainor and claim it seems like “a horny 12 year old with no writing experience” must have written it. Jokes on them because I’m actually a horny 28 year old with *some* writing experience @hairoline Trivia: The original draft had a line about Meghan buying sex toys with the ginger from Spy Kids but they took it out @hairoline I just had to block someone who said I deserved the electric chair for writing the horny Meghan Trainor press release, but jokes on them, cause I’m the one who got paid to say “smash bae’s junk to smithereens”
Jonathan L. Krohn had fifteen minutes of fame before he was fifteen years old. He is a journalist now, living in “Iraq and ATL, mostly.” Pictures for this post are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the pictures in April, 1941. “Singing “Trying to Make a Hundred, Ninety-Nine and a Half Won’t Do” during the collection at Negro church in Heard County, Georgia”
Happy Birthday Bill Burroughs
February 5, 1914, was the birth day of William Seward Burroughs Jr. For the rest of this piece he will be known as WSB. This is both a handy abbreviation, as well as a touch of irony for Atlanta readers. WSB radio is a 50k watt clear channell am station, owned by the same media oligarchs that own the fishwrapper and channel two. The radio tv clusterfuck has long been the symbol of Peachtree Street white column respectability. Just to be clear/queer, from here on out in this feature WSB will mean a certain junkie writer, not welcome south brother.
This is a good day for birthdays. Hank Aaron in 1934. Adlai Stevenson in 1900. Peg Entwhistle in 1908. The last one lived until 1932, when she jumped off the Hollywoodland sign.
A well thought of radio institution called “This American Life” has a show this week, Burroughs101. Actually, there is a class by that name, and there will be an exam at the end of the semester. The show is narrated by Iggy Pop. It begins with a warning. “A warning. The following program contains references to homosexuality, drug use, sex with aliens, violence, and kitty cats. What did you expect?” The show was originally cobbled together by the BBC, which might explain things a bit.
Iggy Pop did a show at the 688 club. PG was in the audience. A man named Ivan Kral was in the band. When Mr. Kral came on stage, he blew his nose, and a white powder booger came out. The performance was not so much a concert as it was an endurance test.
The show has the lazy bloggers friend, the transcript. There are some lovely quotes. This show is not going to candy coat the bastard. This is a man who shot his wife while playing William Tell, and got away with it. As one non admirer says “I don’t just take the Burroughs myth with a pinch of salt. I view it as a unpleasant slug crawling across the lawn of literature. And I like to pour salt on it.”
Or this one. “Having used heroin yourself– I think used is a bit of an understatement. I was a heroin addict on and off for pushing a quarter of a century. For myself, I find the whole Burroughs myth pretty repulsive, actually. Because I understand what happened to me. I was an addict in waiting. I got my form prize or my English prize at The Naked Lunch. And a year and a half later, I was sticking needles in my arm. … You could be lying in some pestilential piss-soaked squat in the bowels of the city listening to some moron totaled on drugs drooling on and talking about Burroughs, because Burroughs was their Leon Trotsky. He was their Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the Pope. “
One of the questions of the early eighties was whether or not WSB was shooting up. Forget the nonsense about there not being any old junkies. Supposedly Ray Charles never really quit using heroin. So, in 1981, WSB was living somewhere in Manhattan, and it was a right of passage to go to the bunker and take heroin to him. Since he was the star, he used the needle first, which was an important distinction in those days … hiv did not have a name but was running wild through the junkie veins and queer buttholes of Reaganite America. We don’t know if WSB got hiv or not. He made it until August 2, 1997, when a heart attack sent him to meet his maker. Contemporary Allen Ginsberg cashed in his chips earlier that year. In Washington, silly billy POTUS was getting knob jobs from Monica Lewinsky, who now gives TED talks by calling herself a social activist. WSB was a social activist, at a time when few would publicly admit to such a distinction.
The answer to your question is, yes, WSB was shooting dope in 1981. Somebody saw this as being an unhealthy situation, and arranged for him to move to Lawrence KS. This was his home until WSB went to live with Jesus, who was pissed because WSB didn’t bring him any smack.
So WSB was living the beat life, shooting dope, fucking boys, and just being a general mess. In his spare time he was writing books. Naked Lunch was busted for obscenity, and became his best known work. It is the first thing by WSB that PG tried to read, making it to page twenty six before declaring the endeavor a hopeless waste of brain cells.
It is not known how much of Naked Lunch Dorothy Kilgallen read. She was called as a witness during an obscenity trial for Lenny Bruce. ” …There’s another book called The Naked Lunch which I couldn’t even finish reading, but it’s published, and I think the author should be in jail and he used– Q. Unfortunately we can’t do everything at once, Miss Kilgallen. Are you judging the non-obscene quality and the artistic quality of Bruce by the fact that The Naked Lunch is a book which, as of this date, is sold in the community? A. No, I’m not. I just mentioned it because you asked me for some books. Q. And The Naked Lunch is a book you found impossible to read, is that correct? A. Yes, I found it revolting. Q. What was revolting about it? A. Just the way it was written.”
Another expert witness to testify … to a BBC reporter, not a New York courtroom … is Marcus Ewert. A Dunwoody native, Mr. Ewert took literary groupiedom to ridiculous lengths with Allen Ginsberg and WSB. “We’re getting into bed, and I’m sticking my legs down under the covers. There’s this bump that my legs feel. And I’m like, “Oh, what’s this hard thing my legs are bumping against, William?” And he said, “Oh, that’s the gun.” I said, “Is it a loaded gun?” He said, “Of course it’s loaded.” You’d sleep with a lover with a loaded gun in your bed. That’s kind of a metaphor waiting to happen.”
Mr. Marcus is now a children’s book author. An Amazon reader says this about 10,000 Dresses. “I returned mine today and was appalled as I read the story to my son before reading it to myself. Kids need to feel safe at home, especially when dealing with gender non-conformity. I wish the author would have reconcilled the reactions of the family members. It is great to have stories out there addressing gender non-conformity in kids, but we have a huge responsibility to make sure they are sending the right message.”
The death of Joan Vollmer is discussed. This is the lady who was playing William Tell one night, with fatal consequences. Some say accident, some say intentional. The word uxoricide is used, meaning the act of killing one’s wife.
The cut up technique is discussed. The show goes on to talk about how much WSB liked cats. He died, and people said nice things about him. Pictures tonight are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost. Last year, PG found an audiobook of Junky, read by Mr. Burroughs. A two part post, Junky, and Junky Part Two, was the result.
The Portrait Of Mr. W. H.
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” The gem, blamed on Oscar Wide, turned up on a data mining site. A quick search indicates that the quote in genuine, and is found in The Portrait of Mr. W. H. (1889.) Searching for context in a Wilde story can yield more than you bargained for.
PMWH is a tacky short story, with an eyeroll-inducing ending. SPOILER ALERT: This ending will be discussed today. PMWH is the story of an unnamed correspondent (UC), who is having a conversation with Erkskine. The players are Englishmen of a certain class, who all seem to have servants. The conversation gets onto forgery in the arts. UC felt that “to censure an artist for a forgery was to confuse an ethical with an aesthetical problem.” To which Erkskine replied, ‘What would you say about a young man who had a strange theory about a certain work of art, believed in his theory, and committed a forgery in order to prove it?’
Erkskine’s friend was Cyril Graham. “He was very fascinating, and very foolish, and very heartless.” Cyril developed some theories about the identity of Mr. W.H. … “A person known only by his initials, to whom the first edition of William Shakespeare’s sonnets (1609) was dedicated”… “To the onlie begetter of, These insuing sonnets, Mr. W.H. all happinesse … ” Cyril thought that W.H. was Willie Hughes, an androgynous young man of great beauty. “He felt, as indeed I think we all must feel, that the Sonnets are addressed to an individual, – to a particular young man whose personality for some reason seems to have filled the soul of Shakespeare with terrible joy and no less terrible despair.”
Erkskine thought that these ideas were foolish, and said so to Cyril. Soon after, Cyril produced a painting, that he found under strange circumstances. Allegedly, it was a portrait of Willie Hughes. Erkskine thought this a bit odd, but played along … until he stumbled onto evidence that the painting was a forgery. “I went off at once to Cyril’s chambers, waited there for three hours before he came in, with that horrid lie staring me in the face, and told him I had discovered his forgery. He grew very pale and said – “I did it purely for your sake. You would not be convinced in any other way. It does not affect the truth of the theory.
“The truth of the theory!” I exclaimed; “the less we talk about that the better. You never even believed in it yourself. If you had, you would not have committed a forgery to prove it.” High words passed between us; we had a fearful quarrel. I daresay I was unjust. The next morning he was dead.'”
“… he shot himself with a revolver. … By the time I arrived – his servant lad sent for me at once – the police were already there. He had left a letter for me, evidently written in the greatest agitation and distress of mind. … he believed absolutely in Willie Hughes; that the forgery of the picture had been done simply as a concession to me, and did not in the slightest degree invalidate the truth of the theory; and that in order to show me how firm and flawless his faith in the whole thing was, he was going to offer his life as a sacrifice to the secret of the Sonnets. It was a foolish, mad letter. I remember he ended by saying that he entrusted to me the Willie Hughes theory, and that it was for me to present it to the world, and to unlock the secret of Shakespeare’s heart.’ “
UC is convinced that the Willie Hughes story is real. “Erskine looked at me in amazement. ‘You are carried away by the sentiment of the whole story,’ he said. ‘You forget that a thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ” UC leaves, and tries to prove the Willie Hughes hypothesis to be true. This goes on for a while, until UC talks himself out of it. By this time, however, Erkskine has changed his mind, and is a Willie Hughes true believer. If this is getting complicated and confusing, you can read the story. Oscar’s prose is entertaining, if a bit archaic to the modern reader.
Erkskine is dismayed by UC’s lack of belief. He sent UC a letter. “The concluding words of the letter were these: ‘I still believe in Willie Hughes; and by the time you receive this, I shall have died by my own hand for Willie Hughes’s sake: for his sake, and for the sake of Cyril Graham, whom I drove to his death by my shallow skepticism and ignorant lack of faith. The truth was once revealed to you, and you rejected it. It comes to you now stained with the blood of two lives, – do not turn away from it.'”
“It was a horrible moment. I felt sick with misery. … To die for one’s theological beliefs is the worst use a man can make of his life, but to die for a literary theory! It seemed impossible.”
SPOILER ALERT: Fret not, gentle reader. When UC caught up with the Erkskine’s family, he heard a different story. “I turned to the doctor and said, ‘What a dreadful shock it must have been to Lady Erskine! I wonder that she bears it as well as she does.’ ‘Oh, she knew for months past that it was coming,’ … if a mother knows that her son is going to commit suicide’ … ‘Suicide! Poor Erskine did not commit suicide. He died of consumption. He came here to die. The moment I saw him I knew that there was no hope. … At that moment Lady Erskine entered the room with the fatal picture of Willie Hughes in her hand. ‘When George was dying he begged me to give you this,’ she said. As I took it from her, her tears fell on my hand.”
“It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.” The Portrait of Mr. W. H., by Oscar Wilde, has many zesty quotes not included above. The one about advice stands out. It is similar to well known Oscarism. “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. ” The line about sincerity is found in The Critic as Artist. In this episode, Gilbert and Ernest are exchanging clever thoughts.
Gilbert: Ernest, you are quite delightful, but your views are terribly unsound. I am afraid that you have been listening to the conversation of some one older than yourself. That is always a dangerous thing to do, and if you allow it to degenerate into a habit you will find it absolutely fatal to any intellectual development. As for modern journalism, it is not my business to defend it. It justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest. …
Ernest: But what is the difference between literature and journalism?
Gilbert: Oh! journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read. … How appalling is that ignorance which is the inevitable result of the fatal habit of imparting opinions! …
Ernest: The true critic will be rational, at any rate, will he not?
Gilbert: There are two ways of disliking art. One is to dislike it. The other, to like it rationally. …
Ernest: Well, at least, the critic will be sincere.
Gilbert: A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Gilbert also says “Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” This is a rather sexist counterpoint to that bumper sticker classic, “Well behaved women rarely make history.” The latter was penned by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, in a scholarly article. “1976 Spring, American Quarterly, Volume 28, Number 1, “Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Johns Hopkins University Press” The seminal quote said seldom, rather than rarely. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Chamblee54 
leave a comment