Sunflower Sutra

The only Capote book I read, Breakfast at Tiffany's, did nothing for me. I felt he could write well, but the characters in the story missed the mark. I felt like one who is promised something, but nothing was delivered. I didn't want to be further disappointed, so didn't give him another chance.

Daresay Capote's real success was screenplays. The only book that he wrote that had any real impact was "In Cold Blood." He was filled with a morbid fascination for the killers. It sort of pushed my bible belt buttons. I think that by the time I finished it I was filled with more revulsion for Capote than I had for the killers.

Kerouac I could identify with. If he had not been so much an alcoholic . . . My favorite by him is Desolation Angels.

Ah, but the question is "had he not been a raging alcoholic would he have produced the work that he did?" The passion of the grape is not always counter-productive. Would he have been hanging out in a junkyard with Ginsberg sober?

I met one of his ex-girlsfriends, who was the model for the female protagonist for the Subterrians. She was an absolute wild woman. Not someone you would take home to meet mother.

Edgar. its Karma, all Karma.

I don't knock him for his drinking - Just bemoaning that it cut his life short, and his creative life also.

The Merry One and I just got back from PTown, we took advantage of the long weekend. I like PTown best in the winter when it becomes a normal town.

We took a walk through the sand dumes between Race Point and Herring Cove. Eugene O'Neil used to summer there. The house he stayed in was in the the sand dumes. I used to walk up and sit on a portion of the roof that was still exposed. I looked for it the other day, but it has been completely devoured by the dumes. Nothing can withstand the shifting sands.

We walked down Commercial Street past Norman Mailer's house feeling the sadness that the passion of a great literary voice had been taken from us. There was a viewing yesterday, maybe 200 people. Family and friends. There will be a memorial in NYC later.

The Merry One bought me a book in Provincetown, it was a collection of Ginsburg's poetry. I'll post some of his stuff later on.

I liked Ginsburg from about my 18th year, and have never tired of him. I was rooting for him to successfully levitate the Pentagon.

I like his sense of humor

THOSE TWO

That tree said
I don't like that white car under me,
it smells gasoline
That other tree next to it said
O you're always complaining
you're a neurotic
you can tell by the way you're bent over

Ginsberg
1981

I think Ginsburg and Walt Whitman make perfect book ends.

Ha, the Merry one agrees with you totally.

He laughed and said "They were both gay and both were innovators."

Before I knew who Ginsburg was, I read about him in Kerouac. I suppose it was On the Road. He described Ginsburg with his finger in some woman's navel. As a non precocious teen, I found the image hard to reconcile with Ginsburg's sexual orientation. Of course, now I'm jaded and surprised by nothing.

Well Edgar, it was the beat generation and bi-sexuality was the in-thing. To be hip was to swing both ways. He wrote:

Pussy Blues
(for Anne Waldman) his guru

You said you got to go home & feed your pussycat
When I ast you to stay here tonight Where's your pussy at?

Keep your pussy here Try our hot cat food
Yeah lotsa cats around here & they's all half nude
Going home alone do your pussy no good

Hey its 4th of July Say it's your U.S. birthday
Yeah stay out all night National Holiday
Tiger on your fence Don't let him get away

Pussy pussy come home I'm gonna feed you fish
Yeah pussy pussy here come your big red dish
I'll tickle your belly All the eats you wish

Hey there pussy Cantcha catch my mouse
Hey please pussy Play with my white mouse
You can stay all night You can clean my house

(Boulder, Independence Day 1976, 1 a.m.)

Muchly reminds me of Mrs Slocum's pussy, on Are You Being Served? (BBC TV show).

Dear Mrs. Slocum. Are You Being Served was my favorite sitcom. Only the English could be that outrageous and get away with it. Had it been a US sitcom, the same material would have come across like a lead balloon.

The only good US white sitcom ever produced, in my opinion, was "All in The Family. I adored Redd Foxx's"Sanford and Son", which was a take off on another English sitcom.

And I will always have a soft spot in my heart for "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."

Have a cool yule Edgar, I will be off on the big bird back to Paradise Monday if I don't get snowed in. Ciou

Okey doke. Have a wonderful holiday.

I have quite a list of favorite sitcoms. All in the Family is among the top five.

There is a photograph of Ginsburg and Bob Dylan at Kerouac's grave. I have been searching for it.

You just raked up some more old memories for me. Stuff that I had forgotten. Two of them are just absolutely the best West Village graffiti that possibly can't be topped. Check my graffiti thread.

Be interested in seeing the picture of Ginsburg and Dylan.

I can't get close to Kerouac without mentioning my favorite book by him: Desolation Angels. His experiences with the mouse, his solitary ruminations- even the poetry - very touching.

I was at the Salvation Army store in Hilo this morning and I found a copy of Desolution Angels for 25 cents.

I've never read it.

Ginsburg sings Hari Krishna on a Fugs record album. Can't remember which one - Tenderness Junction, perhaps.