The Charles Bukowski Tributes - number 1

[Rekrab]

Thank you, Stavrogin. The story would still be buried in my files if Black Swan and Ponder hadn't asked to see it. I love the look and feel of this little book. It has a handmade charm.

 

[james]

any left??? if so, i'm in!

 

[LickTheStar]

My copy is sitting in the manager's office because the post office is too incompetent to deliver things correctly... But hopefully I'll get to pick it up today.

 

[Ponder]

One match left

any left???

Thank you, James!

 

[hoochmonkey9]

got mine today.

very nice work all around. thanks to all concerned.

 

[Black Swan]

No Match Left!

Thank you all. A labour of love for sure.

Thank to BARKER for the story that inspired this fun project!

Please let us know when you have received the MB.

 

[roni]

mine arrived today.
as well as the fine Moore-bookmark.
wonderful works of art!

I fear I could damage it, when I try to read it, so I didn't dare by now.
Maybe later I'll put my gloves on and work on it.

 

[Rekrab]

roni -- just don't tear out the pages and light barbeques with them.

 

[LickTheStar]

Finally picked mine up last night, can't wait to read it tonight!

 

[Stavrogin]

Thank you, Stavrogin. The story would still be buried in my files if Black Swan and Ponder hadn't asked to see it. I love the look and feel of this little book. It has a handmade charm.

Well, I'm pleased you dug it up. Don't be stingy with those files when Purple Glow comes a-calling again in the future.

Thanks Stavrogin!
I am surprised to see that it has taken so much time. Most of them were mailed the same day.

Swan, I'm of the belief that the post office hates my guts. It may have something to do with all those art books I order online and the herniated disks suffered in their delivery.

 

[Black Swan]

stavrogin, you need to give your postman a few bottles of wine during the holidays. My postman, sometimes climbs 4 flights of stairs to deliver the books that don't fit in the mailbox. Or, he rings the bell and I meet him halfway.

 

[Rekrab]

Well, I'm pleased you dug it up. Don't be stingy with those files when Purple Glow comes a-calling again in the future. [...]

Oh, I won't be stingy. I have lots of unpublished work. I've always been a lethal combination of very busy and very lazy, so I send out almost nothing -- usually only when someone asks me directly, or if I see a promising call for submissions someplace like this. Of course, most of the unpublished stuff isn't about Bukowski. You'd have to read about people driving me nuts at work or something equally banal.

 

[LickTheStar]

I've been meaning to come back and brag about this for a bit...

Great read David! And a beautiful production over all.

 

[Rekrab]

Thanks, LickTheStar. I see you are not all that far from me geographically. If I wasn't such a homebody recluse lazy ass, I'd come up to Portland for various literary events, but I am, so it might be a while before we connect. But I'm sure we'll meet up at something or other.

 

[LickTheStar]

It would definitely be cool. But I'm the same way, moreso since my son was born. But I did go out to take a letterpressing class last weekend and it was kind of nice, so I'm hoping to get out to more artsy fartsy stuff soon.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Rekrab]

I've thought about taking a letterpress class but it would mean driving to Portland, which I do now and then, when forced. If you're looking for stuff to print, don't forget your fellow Oregonians. Just kidding. Portland is packed with writers. You don't need to look South. But if you come up short and need a poem or two...

 

[bospress.net]

Portland is only 45 minutes away from Salem! C'mon, guys. I drive 200 miles a day. I'll drive 45 miles for a good meal. My sales territory of about 120 miles in any direction from where I live.

After driving like this for a while, i don't even consider it a long drive until it is more than a couple hours away.

 

[Rekrab]

But Bill, you are a fairly normal person, aside from the printing obsession. I have to force myself to go downtown for events, a five minute drive. It's not just the drive, it's the social effort, strange circumstances, unfamilar people and places. So much easier to just hunker down in the command bunker, watching the flickering screens.

 

[Ponder]

So much easier to just hunker down in the command bunker, watching the flickering screens.

David: Do you mind to take a picture of your room and the view?

 

[Rekrab]

I meant that in a metaphorical sense. I don't have an actual command bunker, and the only thing that's literally flickering is the cable tv. But I'm a survivalist recluse in spirit.

 

[bospress.net]

since you posted it on youtube....

 

[Stavrogin]

Ha! Thanks, Bill. He's a hoarder!!:)

 

[DirtyJersey13]

Well it seems as if David has some paranormal activity issues, wasn't expecting that one.

 

[Ponder]

I meant that in a metaphorical sense. I don't have an actual command bunker, and the only thing that's literally flickering is the cable tv.

I know. I just wanted to see the room where you write and the view.

I remember the video, I believe you uploaded it a few years ago, right?

I have something with writers and their rooms...saw the room of Buk in San Pedro in 1987? when the Belgian guy interviewed him.

fear and madness

barricaded here on the 2nd floor
chair against the door
butcher knife on table
I type my first poem here
switchblade in pocket
I type this
for my tax accountant
for the girls in Omaha
for my tax accountant
for the girls in Ohio
for my tax accountant
I am broke again
I own ¼ of this house
I have a pear tree
I have a lemon tree
I have a fig tree
everybody is worried about my soul now
I am worried about my soul now
there is a balcony outside of this room
I can step out on that balcony and see the harbor
I will get drunk tonight and step out there
maybe I can fall off that balcony
and I can write about that
if I don't break my fingers and arms.

this is good no matter what they say
I have written east Hollywood to death
now I am going to write about San Pedro
I have fallen into a new arena.

"tell Chinaski welcome to suburbia,"
some body told my girlfriend
and I said, "my suburbia tells her suburbia to
go to hell."

San Pedro I will wring you out like a wet rag
San Pedro I will break you like a wild stallion
I will write about your bridge and your ships
I will skin your people down to the bone
I will make my stand here as I have made my stand elsewhere.
I will learn these walls
I will attempt to pay the mortgage
I will feed my cat
I will love my woman
I will listen to Elgar, Stravinsky and Mozart.
I will think of Henry Miller using mouth wash.
I will use all 3 bathrooms
both bedrooms
and the electric oven.

I can fail in many more ways now
I was always good at that.

the plumbing is of copper
and the typer is of me
and there's enough ground out front to live off of,
that is, if I can get my ass out of this chair.

barricaded here on the 2nd floor
I am in a small room again.

© Charles Bukowski

 

[Rekrab]

Ha! Thanks, Bill. He's a hoarder!!:)

Well, let's just say I'm part of a family of hoarders. Most of that gear is not mine. But, yeah, we're guilty.

Well it seems as if David has some paranormal activity issues, wasn't expecting that one.

Definitely. I'm spooked. There's a reason I wrote 80 horror stories in the decade 1985 -1995. And then there are my UFO writings. The little chapbook of poems printed with rubber type that I'm now working on is called "ghost". I had a story in ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE titled "Cordial Spirits," about a literary ghost. It's a recurring theme.


Ponder, yes, that video has been up for a couple years. It's gotten far more views than anything else I have on Youtube. I've had some hostile comments on it. Jokers calling me a hippie, etc. Whatever. I kind of like that video, it's so unplanned. I just walked around the upstairs, talking about our ghost, and it is what it is. I should do a follow up on that.

 

[Stavrogin]

I should do a follow up on that.

Please do. Your house has that deeply rooted lived in look to it - comfortable and warm. Can't blame a ghost for taking a shine to it. I tend to move every 3 to 5 years and honestly desire to set the stakes permanently some time soon. No ghosts in my temp spots - perhaps they are sadly misunderstood guests.

 

[Rekrab]

If I do a follow-up video, the rooms will look different. Well, at least the one the video starts in will. We move around inside the house, which is easier than moving from house to house, and the decor and use of any one room changes fairly often. The ghost was here when we moved in. It feels like it's been here a while. The house is a century old. It is a very comfortable house except you are likely to bump into things due to the small isles between the piles of shit. But yes, comfortable.

 

[DirtyJersey13]

Well ghosts and UFO's make for interesting reads, I've had a few of my own bump ins so it's an area of interest for me. How is "Ghost" coming along, I remember seeing pics on one of the threads of the press you will be using for it.

 

[Rekrab]

"ghost" is coming along nicely, although very slowly. I just printed the second page -- one short poem. Still 6 pages to go, then I'll make the title page, covers, etc. This little project gives me a new appreciation for typesetters. How on earth did the Webbs print those huge issues of OUTSIDER magazine and various books all by letterpress? They were saints of patience. And then think about 19th Century and earlier printers, making huge thick books full of small type -- egads! How did they stay sane? Before the linotype machine, every word was hand set, one letter at a time. What I love is when you are done setting the type and you ink it up and crank out the pages -- what a rush!

 

[LickTheStar]

Yes the Webb books are definitely an amazing amount of work once you've actually done some work on a letterpress... I've typeset a couple poems just to get the feel for the setting (not to mention the clean-up of the individual letters) and man... It is a lot of work!

Though once the type is set, everything is aligned, inked, and centered... it goes pretty quickly. Though 3100 copies of something like Crucifix seems... mad. Genius, but mad just the same.