Bukowski's home probably not safe at all, actually

[mjp]

Mjp; I know this is your board, and I respect that.

Respect? Don't start out with a lie, it tends to lessen the believability of what comes next. It's not my forum anyway. There are other users here who can delete what I'm typing to you right now if they think it's out of line.

However, I wish that you would be a little less cynical, just sometimes at least.

Why?

Frankly, you were wrong about this working

I was?

...you were wrong about the Nazi thing sticking

Only time will tell if that it is the case. You can't say it "didn't stick" yet.

That's all I wanted anyway.

Why is what you wanted more important that what I wanted? Or the owner of the property wanted?

Also, I have a "working relationship"...with Richard and Kim...BUT, I have never spent time with them socially...Thus, I would appreciate it if you stop referring to us as if we were in cahoots.

You are/were "in cahoots" with them as it related to your introduction to this forum and, and that is the only way I know you, so that's what I was talking about (again and again). A cynical person might wonder why every article about DeLongpre mentions both of you.

I find it ironic that some of you want parts of the structure as momentos, but don't care if it's torn down. Odd, no??

No.



I don't give a fuck if DeLongpre stands or falls. It makes no difference to me. I do understand, however, that others disagree. Why can't you understand that?

 

[cirerita]

I'll say it again: bring that motherfucking wrecking ball. NOW!

 

[Never Try]

How long did Bukowski live there? When this all begin on his old house? I wonder what Linda thinks of it? Thanks for the pics. I wouldn't want anything as a souvenir from his old house anyway.

 

[Hindinwood]

He lived there for about 9 years - longer than anywhere else in LA besides childhood residence and San Pedro.
Linda is not into it. I see where she is coming from, but I think she's not seeing it in context. She seems to think it's some kind of a shrine, where as I see it as being a part of Los Angeles history in a larger sense.

 

[bospress.net]

As a final thought, I find it ironic that some of you want parts of the structure as momentos, but don't care if it's torn down. Placing importance on it in some ways, but not in others. Odd, no??

Not ironic at all. I have said that it is only a matter of time until it is torn down and am fine with that. Making it an upscale yuppie neighborhood or painting the thing green, gutting it and making it a chiropractors office does the same thing as levelling the building and making it a parking lot.

I want to create something (a book) with the debris that will far outlive the structure.

See, not ironic, at all!

Bill

 

[1fsh2fsh]

As a final thought, I find it ironic that some of you want parts of the structure as momentos, but don't care if it's torn down. Placing importance on it in some ways, but not in others. Odd, no??

well I for one was just (kind of) joking about all of this (kind of). and personally I think that saving things that have once "been" is kind of like saving love letters from past relationships. it may have meant something then, but now its past and gone. and to save one building while everything around it changes? just not the same as it was. I think that its not the house that was so important to Buks writing but the atmosphere of the whole scene/area and the way that Buk (was) related to it. I'm sure that it must be different now. but yeah, I would still keep a tile as a momento.

 

[Father Luke]

I plan on conducting guided tours with my cup full of earth.

 

[Gerard K H Love]

The Mission to our Shrine

So I drove past the chain link wrapped mess on DeLongpre in the wee hours of the morning. I parked up close and let the dog out to pee, he loves going for a ride. After much to do with getting over the fence and securing the corgi I found myself inside the compound. The dog was pissed being tied up in a strange place but he alerted me to the light shining inside the boarded up apartment. I approached the door cautiously and it suddenly open with a bright and radiant glare and there he was in a blaze of glory looking at me.
"what the fuck are you doing here you peon?"
I was frozen unable to move or make the slightess sound.
Then Hank took a big draw from his bottle of St Paulie Girl beer with the bottle straight up like he wanted to take in the beer in one swig.
And he glared and shined and softly said, "There's nothing of me here in this mess. Not anymore." He took another drink. "My spirit is in San Pedro with the love of my life and our cats." He slammed the door and I heard him say
"Take your funny little dog and go back to hell where you came from and stay away from San Pedro!"
I jumped the fence grabbed up the dog and sped back to the outland empire.
When I woke up I had, scratches on my forearms a bad headache, and a little bag of dirt on the nightstand. Mullinax would be proud because I remember he said San Paydro.

 

[Father Luke]

When I woke up I had, scratches on my forearms a bad headache, and a little bag of dirt on the nightstand.

Haw haw! I want a spoonful of the dirt.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

So I drove past the chain link...

ha!
excellent.

 

[bospress.net]

priceless!

 

[Bukfan]

Hilarious! You could make that into a very funny short story, Gerard! :D

 

[hank solo]

I think he just did

:D

 

[Gerard K H Love]

No it was a dream, a vision, a Samuel L Jackson moment of clarity. I wish I could write that well. My poor dog will never be the same he didn't sleep worth a damn last night.
It must have been that spicy chicken sandwich and Dr. Pepper.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Maybe BOSPress can make some paper outta that bag of dirt...

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Hahaha! Notes from a dirty old man.;)

 

[dante]

That's the best damn summation of the situation I've yet read!

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Thank you, Sir, we bare our souls here. I'm thinking about facing 5124 Delongpre when I say the rosary.
Thank you for bringing Bukowski to Vancouver.

 

[roni]

i still like the idea of preserving it.

 

[jordan]

i agree with the preservation side of things. i think there is a rationalization for why any particular landmark is meaningless, and if we accept them all, then we'll have no physical history whatsoever. i'm sure i'll draw fire for this, and i know that bukowski lives on in his words and not his physical residence, but i don't think it's ludicrous to argue that dedicating a place, a specific physical location, where his memory is inscribed and protected, has a special significance both for that author, his fans, and the city that is very much a part of his writing.

also, rubyred just made two fantastic points, and in case she doesn't post them, i'm going to paraphrase her.
1. people who don't care about preservation have the option of ignoring delongpre completely. people who do care don't have that option; for them, if it is torn down, they will have lost something special to them. but it being preserved doesn't hurt the anti-preservationists at all*. So why the drive to "bring the wrecking ball already"? just pretend it has already been knocked down, or know in your own mind that it's an inevitability, but i think it's a waste of energy to come out against it so vocally.
* the counterargument here is the whole nazi thing; that he will forever be associated with that stink. even if that were 100% true, i still think his readership would grow, and the people who would dismiss him outright as a result of it are the type of fucking morons we always make fun of on this forum to begin with. isn't there a general disdain here for dumb critics and those who flock to snap-judgements? so who really cares if those people villainize bukowski?

2. what's the difference between ascribing special importance to his residence and special importance to his signature? in reality, most of his signed books he just signed a page out of a stack and sent them to john martin. or, he scrawled something off when the book was put in front of him and never gave it another thought. what's so great about that? is it that I, the possessor of the signed book, have something that has bukowski's mark, something special that i can't really articulate, and that certainly doesn't make sense to most people. so why is it acceptable for a book, a material object, to be infused with that "whatever-it-is" and made more special as a result, but not a physical location? i hadn't thought of this previously, but i think RR makes a really interesting argument.

 

[justine]

you put it way more eloquently than i did.

 

[Bukfan]

Well said, Jordan!

 

[Snowball Fight]

I will say that it seems odd to have a 30 yard roll off for some minor renovations on a bungalow.

I briefly owned a rubbish removal business; truck, roll-off containers etc...

Everyday you're hauling away bits of someone's life...usually one that changed abruptly or ended badly...

A tresasurer trove for a writer. All the stories in one place...saves you from crawling down the alleys.

 

[roni]

thanks ruby and jordan.
You just nailed it!

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Yes Thank you for that.
I for one get excited about being in a place with history or being close to a great historical creation. That being the place where he created so much has a certain spiritual power that many would derive a power or inspiration from. So that makes the place sacred to a degree and I should respect that.

I still want to go down there and take the windows, tiles, plaster and dig up some dirt , but I'm sure Hindinwood will have armed thugs there to lynch me.
;)

 

[Hindinwood]

I still want to go down there and take the windows, tiles, plaster and dig up some dirt , but I'm sure Hindinwood will have armed thugs there to lynch me.
;)

Noooo, but I would meet you at the gate with a pint of Early Times...

Jordan, you summed up everything I have been trying to say for the last several months so beautifully! Nine years is a long time to live anywhere...

 

[cirerita]

The wrecking ball is just a way of saying: "please, stop this useless discussion, we've been here before". Personally, I don't give a damn whether they tear it down tomorrow, they burn it down, they vandalize it, they refurbish it into a nice bungalow or they let it rot untouched for a million years.

 

[jordan]

i didn't mean to impugn you directly, cirerereita- i just kind of picked up your line as a blanket generalization of the position i was arguing against... but now i'm worried that mjp is going to make a fool of me with his scythe-like wit and piss-vinegar cocktails.

at least i was just quoting rubyred, who was telling me the other day how much she likes paintings of girls with giant heads and oversized eyes...

 

[mjp]

at least i was just quoting rubyred, who was telling me the other day how much she likes paintings of girls with giant heads and oversized eyes...

OMG! I luv those 2!

1. people who don't care about preservation have the option of ignoring delongpre completely.

If you go back to the beginning of all this (and only a masochist would do that) my question was always (and remains) what the motivation of the preservationists was, and if it was at all possibly financial.

For the 50th time, I am FOR preserving as much of Los Angeles as possible. If you want to drive around looking at it through the windows of a tour bus, good for you. If it's one thing our streets need, it's more tour buses!

2. what's the difference between ascribing special importance to his residence and special importance to his signature?

None. To me. Personally, a book that I did not hand to him to sign has a worthless signature in it. But the book collecting world disagrees with us, so we are stuck with this standard.

I once asked Montfort about the value of a certain Bukowski book I had (this was after a few hours of conversation and he had been pretty upbeat the whole time - you know, except when the subject of "The Widow" came up). He turned sour and looked away from me and said, "If it isn't signed by the man it isn't worth shit! You may as well throw it away!"

As for the building, since I did not know or visit him at DeLongpre, that building has no personal resonance with to me. It's just another rotting Hollywood court apartment. I can see how others who did visit there would have a much different feeling about it.

 

[justine]

there's a hell of a lot of financial motivation in buying and selling signed bukowski books, regardless of how significant the signature is to the person doing the buying and selling.