Vancouver reading

Digney in Burnaby

donkeys live a long time
I'm hoping this one makes me like Vancouver better. I hated the place the one time I visited. But then I was being grumpy at the end of a vacation, didn't want to leave Victoria for Vancouver, etc.

What do they say about Victoria? "For the newly wed and the nearly dead?"

Vancouver is/was "terminal city". Fishing/logging/shipping town with pretensions to being "laid back". Fuck it, it's where you stick the enema tube for the world.
 

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Ah, that explains why I liked Victoria. I live in a "newly wed/nearly dead" town, and I was on vacation, and Victoria is a cozy touristy kind of place, and I was a tourist. It fit. We crammed Vancouver on the end of the vacation, it felt forced, like we were going to squeeze every last drop of fun out of that vacation, and I hated the place as soon as I saw the tall buildings on the horizon. A mood thing. In different circumstances, I might have loved Vancouver, and I may give it a second chance someday. Just seeing the building where Bukowski read is reason enough. Also, Phillip K. Dick spent some time in Vancouver, as did Malcom Cowley.

By the way, BOSP published a mini-chap of short poems from my Victoria trip, called SLEPT HERE -- another beautiful print job by our own Bill Roberts.
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
I have, I must confess, been somewhat of a heckler in my not so distant past. Yes me. After listening to the idiots in Vancouver I see just how senseless most of the crap is. I wouldn't want to be thought of like I thought of some of them while Bukowski was reading. Bukowski handled them fairly well.
The first time I watched it was on my lap top, but when I ran it on the big set with the surround sound it was excellent. The better sound quality helped seperate the riff raff from the star.
 

Domator

Founding member
It's arrived to me today. I'm still waiting for "The Last Straw".
The DVD is great. Great job. But one thing pissed me off when i watched it. That stupid laugh, guy perhaps was near the camera.
But it's ok, it's only a little thing. We watching it for the poetry and Bukowski :)
 
I like the final words I heard on the tape, after the performance was over and some people were going up to the table where B. was. I think someone said something like, 'would you like to come to a bar with us now?' Buk said, 'No, fuck off, I hate you guys'.
 

hank solo

Just practicin' steps and keepin' outta the fights
Moderator
Founding member
I like the final words I heard on the tape

Is that the old Viking audio tape? I have wondered if the sound track on that might be different and actually better than the one on the video recording used for the DVD, because...

But one thing pissed me off when i watched it. That stupid laugh, guy perhaps was near the camera.

...that guy laughing like Butthead is really annoying.
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
Laughter is great, but not from that jerk with his forced fake laughter. It sounds like he's laughing to make it sound as if he gets it or that he is soooo hip man. He is like finger nails on the chaulkboard irritating. Thank God the surround sound, on the big TV, breaks him away from the sincere wise cracks coming from the more in tune members of the audience.

"Fuck off, I hate you guys!" we should put that on the welcome to Bukowski dot net page. Honesty is always the best policy.
Did I mention Lent is over?
 
Maybe they were open reel...I can't find a 1" Sony cassette-based video tape, but a few 1" open reel that would have been around at the time. I'll ask Dennis again what the hell they were.
hmm...i might be able to add to this. i am an editor. i have been working in vancouver for 35 years cutting tape for tv. one inch sony tape in cassette, was the format for all broadcasters used 35 years ago. we all cut with this format. we went from the beta format to 3/4 which looked even bigger to my eyes. it will do no good going to the uk unless they can transfer it to the pal format easily. but people are very right about preserving this soon. sometimes this tape just dissolves after so many years. it stinks too. that is the first sign that it is falling apart. you open the tape box and you nearly faint with the chemically crazy reek that comes out. film is still the most lasting format. if it can be transferred to film and a digital format too, that is best idea. do both if you can. actually if that is a freeze frame from the tape above, it looks pretty good. sony beta was the best. that broadcast size was better than the homevideo beta mode too.
i also know who some of the folks are that organized that show here in vancouver. the ones that are still living might know more. i will put some feelers out.
 

mjp

Founding member
i also know who some of the folks are that organized that show here in vancouver. the ones that are still living might know more. i will put some feelers out.
There's nothing to feel out, really. A digital transfer of the whole tape was made. It's safe. You might note that it's been out on DVD for a while...hence the thread.
 

hank solo

Just practicin' steps and keepin' outta the fights
Moderator
Founding member
Heh I'd still like to stick the tapes on that shelf :D
 
the dvd is incredible! having worked in video for years, i am amazed with the quality of the final product. 200 lines of resolution at best in 1979.
 
I was distracted and infuriated while watching it - I now fully understand Bukowski and his dislike for public reading and his audience. The culmination, for me wasn't just those two hecklers he confronted, but the entire audience while reading the "alien" one of his most touching poems. They needed the 'blueprint 'on when to laugh. Pathetic.
My wife thinks I was too hard on them "...they were kids," she said.
 
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