Digney in Burnaby
donkeys live a long time
This no doubt has been posted elsewhere on youtube. Just the latest upload that will probably be pulled, or forgotten, shortly:
Bukowski at Bellevue, 1970
- Thread starter Digney in Burnaby
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Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
I was amazed at seeing it too. Back then, it was the only way you could get to see Bukowski "live", except for the hard to get Bukowski Tapes, and the equally hard to get Hackford documentary.
Yes, the quality was poor, but it was great to see Buk doing a reading for the first time.
Yes, the quality was poor, but it was great to see Buk doing a reading for the first time.
Digney in Burnaby
donkeys live a long time
I think Bukowski says it is his fourth reading on the film. Interesting. The timeline indicates it would have been his sixth reading. Or maybe he's collapsing a couple two day readings, including the Washington trip.
In the story "Would You Suggest Writing as a Career?", (in Erections, originally from NOLA, early 1971) he says it was his first time flying. So does the timeline.
I borrowed the tape a few years back from the local library and was disappointed in the quality. Then again I remember how crappy those old VHS tapes were back when I was in high school and a few years later in college. Amazing anything survived. Porn seemed to help the quality of tapes improve. :p
I don't really like some of the cuts the uploader makes that splits a few poems in the middle. But, like Roni, I've got the flv file now. Twenty years down the road I hope it still plays or someone puts up the newest way to watch older stuff on whatever exists. Hopefully I'll still exist.
In the story "Would You Suggest Writing as a Career?", (in Erections, originally from NOLA, early 1971) he says it was his first time flying. So does the timeline.
I borrowed the tape a few years back from the local library and was disappointed in the quality. Then again I remember how crappy those old VHS tapes were back when I was in high school and a few years later in college. Amazing anything survived. Porn seemed to help the quality of tapes improve. :p
I don't really like some of the cuts the uploader makes that splits a few poems in the middle. But, like Roni, I've got the flv file now. Twenty years down the road I hope it still plays or someone puts up the newest way to watch older stuff on whatever exists. Hopefully I'll still exist.
I always liked the tape, despite the poor quality.
He has that "where am I" look on his face.
The first moving pictures ever of Buk are probably ---> https://bukowskiforum.com/index.php?threads/the-ordinary-madness-of-charles-bukowski-bbc-doc.799/
He has that "where am I" look on his face.
The first moving pictures ever of Buk are probably ---> https://bukowskiforum.com/index.php?threads/the-ordinary-madness-of-charles-bukowski-bbc-doc.799/
He certainly felt at the wrong place there. And he seems to be even more uncomfortable than at other readings we know. It hurts to see him suffer like that. In later readings, he was at least able to make a show out of it, which was not only entertaining, but also helped him going through it.
mjp
Founding member
Or he is not counting the Bridge readings, since they were small and the others were at universities (or community colleges).
1970 that would have been open reel video - like a reel to reel audio deck. The first video cassettes didn't come out until '71, and they were targeted at broadcast users so the hardware (and the cassettes) was expensive. But the older open reel systems were pretty common in the 60s (we had one or two at my backwater junior high school, and they let us fuck around with them unsupervised, so they must have been relatively inexpensive at the time).
Bellevue has been on DVD for some time now. I assume that's where those YouTube rips came from. I have the DVD here but I don't think I've ever looked at it. The source was pretty rough, and while it's fascinating in small doses, it suffers - for me - the same way all Bukowski's readings suffer. They're just boring. Unless someone is turning over a table or throwing something at the stage, hearing him read makes me sleepy.
Johannes
Founding member
Yeah, the Bellevue reading seem to be a stiff crowd, a stiff place. But who knows, maybe afterwards all hell broke loose. Or maybe not.
That's really true. The readings always get interesting when something happens beside the reading or in between. This is probably because all readings are senseless and stupid bullshit, imho. Literature, poetry, anything, does not work this way. It only works like this, if it works at all: book, bed, and the idiot who's reading. I have spoken.
That's really true. The readings always get interesting when something happens beside the reading or in between. This is probably because all readings are senseless and stupid bullshit, imho. Literature, poetry, anything, does not work this way. It only works like this, if it works at all: book, bed, and the idiot who's reading. I have spoken.
the live readings are theater, no doubt, his sense of humour and his "rejoinders" with the audience the best part.
although his home readings can be dull - especially at the beginning, before he gets progressively drunker and more animated, there are always moments where he seems to get really absorbed in the poem, almost as if he's reading someone else's work.
i thought the "70 minutes" cd and the pacific radio broadcast had some really compelling readings but needless to say - what the hell do i know?
although his home readings can be dull - especially at the beginning, before he gets progressively drunker and more animated, there are always moments where he seems to get really absorbed in the poem, almost as if he's reading someone else's work.
i thought the "70 minutes" cd and the pacific radio broadcast had some really compelling readings but needless to say - what the hell do i know?
Johannes
Founding member
One reading I really like is "For Jane" from The Bukowski Tapes.
Starting at 1.44 ... it's so unbelievable raw and intense. Maybe it's just the alcohol but it really sounds down to the last bone of sadness and loneliness and everything. As it probably came out.
[This video is unavailable.]
After I heard this for the first time, I never got his voice out of my head again while reading it.
Starting at 1.44 ... it's so unbelievable raw and intense. Maybe it's just the alcohol but it really sounds down to the last bone of sadness and loneliness and everything. As it probably came out.
[This video is unavailable.]
After I heard this for the first time, I never got his voice out of my head again while reading it.
the only good poet
One retreat after another without peace.
i've got audio of him reading "for jane" and then "quiet clean girls in gingham dresses." anyone any idea, if he read those poems consecutively, what reading they are from? it's one of the few, if only, instances where the reading took me back to the text.
I LOVE, when he reads his poems!
Talking about the Schroeder-Tapes, all his readings there are good. I especially like 'Style', where he goes on after the reading: "Style is also the way of lighting a cigarette ..."
Also some of the poems on the 'Uncensored'-CD are splendid! (Like 'Rain' or 'A radio with guts')
The live-readings, I agree, live mostly from the show, which is usually cool (except for the stupid fucks at Vancouver). But these have also some wonderful poems read in a perfect style. Like 'The Crunch' from the 'Baudelaire'-reading.
Talking about the Schroeder-Tapes, all his readings there are good. I especially like 'Style', where he goes on after the reading: "Style is also the way of lighting a cigarette ..."
Also some of the poems on the 'Uncensored'-CD are splendid! (Like 'Rain' or 'A radio with guts')
The live-readings, I agree, live mostly from the show, which is usually cool (except for the stupid fucks at Vancouver). But these have also some wonderful poems read in a perfect style. Like 'The Crunch' from the 'Baudelaire'-reading.
Have just re-read 'Would You Suggest Writing as a Career?' and definitely think he's talking about the readings at West Washington State College [5/29] and Bellevue Community College [5/30].
Everything fits except his claim it was his 4th reading. He DOES count the Bridge-readings ("It was my first college reading, but I'd had a drunken two night stand at an LA bookstore") but doesn't mention Cal State L.A. [2/17] and The Kiva, University of New Mexico [5/15] readings.
Have a look at his description of the second reading (hungover at a college at noon. The recording on "tv". The thermos. Even having "one long hair hanging straight down the center of my forehead" fits)!
Is this the T.V. show Chuck?
zobraks
Moderator
According to the King of Poets track list (where it also features), that's (yet another) My Father, apparently an uncollected poem.
BTW, someone has already asked the same question.
BTW, someone has already asked the same question.
mjp
Founding member
Database updated.
These multiple versions of the same title are the most difficult to tease out, especially if we don't have the magazine appearances.
So I made a couple of assumptions in breaking the existing "my Father" entry into four different entries. 1) That the version from Catches My Heart In Its Hands and Burning in Water Drowning in Flame is the same one from Harlequin. 2) That the version from Septuagenarian Stew and Gargoyle are the same, since they were both published in 1990.
These multiple versions of the same title are the most difficult to tease out, especially if we don't have the magazine appearances.
So I made a couple of assumptions in breaking the existing "my Father" entry into four different entries. 1) That the version from Catches My Heart In Its Hands and Burning in Water Drowning in Flame is the same one from Harlequin. 2) That the version from Septuagenarian Stew and Gargoyle are the same, since they were both published in 1990.
This is easily one of my favourite Bukowski readings. May have missed it on thread here but does anyone have a complete 'track list' of the poems in order they are read?