Buk Trivia... Answerer becomes next Questioner

[zoom man]

Was she blind, Alicia Masters ?!

 

[cirerita]

is this dead?

 

[hank solo]

I think so.

HenryChinaski hasn't told us for sure which poem, but I also thought it was the one about the artist/sculptress.
As you said, cirerita, being an early one its not likely about Linda King.

I wondered if it might be about FrancEyE Smith, the mother of his daughter Marina, as she is an artist and quite a hippy, and the line

she told me I had a good life-flow​

seems to be the sort of thing she may have said back then? Maybe we'll never know.



------------------------------------

Experience [from The Rooming House Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966]​

​

there is a lady down the hall who paints​

butterflies and insects​

and there are little statues in the room,​

she works with clay​

and I went in there​

and sat on the couch and had something to drink,​

then I noticed​

one of the statues had his back turned to us,​

he stood there brooding, poor bastard,​

and I asked the lady​

what's wrong with him?​

and she said, I messed him up,​

in the front, sort of.​

I see, I said, and finished my drink,​

you haven't had too much experience with men.​

she laughed and brought me another drink.​

we talked about Klee,​

the death of cummings,​

Art, survival and so forth.​

you ought to know more about men,​

I told her.​

I know, she said. do you like me?​

of course, I told her.​

she brought me another drink.​

we talked about Ezra Pound.​

Van Gogh.​

all those things.​

she sat down next to me.​

I remember she had a small white mustache.​

she told me I had a good life-flow​

and was manly.​

I told her she had nice legs.​

we talked about Mahler.​

I don't remember leaving.​

​

I saw her a week later​

and she asked me in.​

I fixed him, she said.​

who? I asked.​

my man in the corner, she told me.​

​

good, I said.​

want to see? she asked​

sure, I said.​

she walked to the corner and turned​

him around.​

​

he was fixed, all right​

​

my god, it was ME!​

​

then I began to laugh and she laughed​

and the work of Art stood there,​

a very beautiful thing.​

​

​

------------------------------------

Reading The Latest Posthumous Collection by FrancEye, from LUMMOX Journal Aug 2000

These aren't his best poems
I can see them on the closet floor, a paper hill
where he'd throw them when they came back
from whoever rejected them.
Then once in a while
Stanley would come over
and find a good one or two and take them for his reading,
but most of them
he'd look at a minute
then throw back:
"That's shit."

Bukowski would say later
I don't see how a man
can do that - look
at poems for seconds and say
This one's good, that's shit.

But it's such good shit. I'm so happy hearing that voice
and there's something special too about reading Bukowski
not because I'm
grabbed and held
by the lines that won't let go,
but just because I
want to. It's a fat book. I
turn the page, say "Please.
Tell me another story."
They're not his best, but
for me there's no such thing
as a bad one.

------------------------------------

So, who's got the next question?

 

[cirerita]

ok, an easy one: with whom did B famously lose his virginity to?

 

[d gray]

was it "the 300 pound whore" give or take a few pounds?

 

[cirerita]

yep, that's right.

 

[d gray]

okay. when bukowski was trying to get work at a slaughterhouse, he told the foreman he used to fight in the ring. what did he tell the foreman his fighting name was?

 

[hank solo]

Kid Stardust?

 

[d gray]

that is correct, sir

 

[hank solo]

Okay, here's one you might have to look up...
What was the name of the Philadelphia barman who became 'Eddie' in the movie Barfly?

 

[bospress.net]

Frank Stallone?

 

[hank solo]

No, I meant who was the actual bartender from Philadelphia in the 1940s?

 

[bospress.net]

shit. That is a tough one...

 

[cirerita]

the answer should be in the 1987 interviews, right?

 

[hank solo]

not sure. maybe. i have read it in print... clue? Hmmm. try highlighting the following...

>> locked in the arms... <<

Also read it online somewhere... assuming its true, as the above seems pretty well researched to me.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

Frank McGillian.
the answer was in "the golden horn thread" on this forum.

gimmie a mo to think up a new one...

 

[hoochmonkey9]

ok.
who is Buk's favourite symphonic composer.
he's stated such in several interviews, and this name shows up in many, many poems.

 

[hank solo]

Frank McGillian

close enough. Sounes has him as Frank McGilligan. Elsewhere I've seen him called Tommy McGilligan, but that might be after the night barman Tommy in Factotum.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

close enough. Sounes has him as Frank McGilligan. Tommy in .

you're right, hank. my wife's name is Gillian, maybe that's the reason for the typo?McGillian.

 

[cirerita]

I'm not into classical music, but he used to mention Mahler as his favourite composer, though I don't know if Mahler qualifies as "symphonic" as well...

 

[hoochmonkey9]

hint: he's Finnish.

 

[bospress.net]

Sibelius?

 

[hoochmonkey9]

ding, ding! we have a winner.

 

[bospress.net]

Hi,
OK. This took me a while. Hopefully it is not so easy that you will blow me out of the water.

Buk wrote the foreword to surprisingly few writers. Among those were books by Steve Richmond, John Fante, and John Corrington.

He also wrote one for a young small press poet who has since left the scene. Who is it?

I think that makes the only four poets that he wrote forewords for (not counting short praise that is still being used on the backs of books, of course)

Answer this one and put me out of my misery and let someone ask a better question.

All best,
Bill

 

[cirerita]

It could be Douglas Blazek, Al Masarik or even Jory Sherman. I'm sure Blazek has left the scene -or so he told me-, but I'm not sure about the others.

 

[bospress.net]

HI Cirerita,
Nope, it is not those three. These were three that I apparently missed. This poet wrote just one or two chapbooks and then dissappeared. Not sure if he quit writing or died....

I know that Blazek is still reading and writing poetry in California. He recently read there with Menebroker. He is not publishing anymore, though.

Bill

 

[cirerita]

Jim Lowell??, Irving Layton???

 

[hoochmonkey9]

Al Masarik - Invitation to a Dying

 

[Jason]

Are you asking about Bukowski's introduction to The Cockroach Hotel by The Willie?

 

[bospress.net]

Hi,
OK. I underestimated the number of forewords.

Hint: First name Douglas, but not Blazek....

Bill