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SWEET DANGO
ANOTHER SET OF WORDS FOR YOU TO READ -/THEY QUALIFY AS LEAF AND BRANCH AND SEED...
Monday, July 31, 2006
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…and: three days ago almost exactly, a Friday, quarter after four in the afternoon, up after a little nap, still feeling kinda tired. Had to get a bicycle again to get more exercise, get moving, instead of just sleeping…
And got into reading the police incident report that Odd Fellow brother P. had given me about lodge building elevator man Alex and some guy on the street. Had never before seen this particular sort of document, the kind of paperwork police have to fill out. The incident happened a year ago…the testament of three witnesses included – they all had “strong smell of alcoholic breath”. And the reporting officer couldn’t find any relevant surveillance tape since a sign had blocked the camera’s eye from capturing what had gone down on the street that day…
So: the street guy is named “John James”, and he’d filed for seven-thousand-500 dollars in small claims court for “personal injury from physical attack” – the amount had been calculated from medical bills and took into account pain and suffering…
And: Alex, says the report, had told the guy on three occasions that he was blocking the door to the building and had to move…the third time James supposedly walked up to Alex and raised his hand towards his face in a threatening manner – Alex raised his own hand to protect himself and accidentally hit James in the process, knocking him to the ground…
And: half after four, had a quick, wet bowel movement – I’m sure you needed to know that – well, constipation has rarely been one of my complaints, I’m happy to report…noted that my flash drive and key are on the same chain that I have attached to whatever pants I’m wearing…thought about something I’d read in a Bruce Sterling book about DNA – the contents of the flash drive are like cultural DNA…
And in Sterling’s ‘Zeitgeist’, he uses the phrase “dogmatic snooze”…reminded me of Immanuel Kant’s phrase about how David Hume had “awakened me from dogmatic slumber”…
And he also uses the word “zoris’ for flip-flops – hadn’t thought of that word in a while…
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And…a character is the novel has to get a new passport – reminded me of the state of my own passport – it’s expired. Gotta send away for a new one, tho’ I don’t intend to be leaving the country any time soon…
And liked Sterling’s use of the adjective “Kafkalike”…and: Ian Fleming is mentioned by a character, who says the creator of James Bond was an “imperialist warmonger”…
And that Friday afternoon, about 5pm, brought five more books back to the library – just wanted to take a little walk. Sure was missing a bicycle, so I could get serious exercise…
And there was hotel friend E. outside, sorting stuff that he intended to sell on the street, including a possibly rare and costly double LP of Miles Davis performing at the Blackhawk nightclub in San Francisco…just Googled on this – the location for this place was 200 Hyde Street, which is right around the corner from the hotel I live in. The Two-22 Club is still there…I guess what’s now a parking lot is where the club used to be…
And there were two police officers hassling guys selling on the street at “the Fence” at Turk and Hyde. If E. had intended to be setting up shop there he’d picked the wrong time to do it. He is always saying he’s gonna get a proper vendor’s license to make it legal…and: checked out that day’s ‘Chronicle’ front page at a street box – latest on bicyclist Floyd Landis with the headline: “Tour de Fraud?”
And the books I was returning: a biography of 19th century San Francisco literary light Ina Coolbrith (couldn’t get into it), one about Ambrose Bierce, a Paul Krassner, one about Charles Bukowski, and a collection of Charles McCabe newspaper columns…
And to the library, looking for a new book – intrigued by one called ‘Mel Gibson’s Bible’…and there was a collection of Liv Ullman interviews…and one about Tibetan Buddhism with the great title ‘Opening to Our Primordial Nature’…and thought of something I might do: look in each floor’s copy room for a card with money still left on it…and glanced in the graphic novel section – a new one about Conan…and into the elevator – someone had tagged a wall in red – sacrilege in the temple of learning…
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…and heading down Hyde the other day – in front of me, a fairly derelict guy with green pants askew. He was on course to run into three young women, maybe sisters – a bigger one tugged the one in the middle out of the way…
And outside the Fulton Street library entrance found a discarded pair of sandals of a good make, not the cheap plastic flip-flops I usually wear. They were a decent distance away from someone’s shopping cart, and no one was there, so I picked ‘em up…
And entered the library – guy going in next to me had the same outfit ‘I’ did, blue jeans and a denim shirt – attire for the jailhouse…
And got to my reserved computer – downloaded onto my flash drive about two dozen postings that I hadn’t saved yet onto that small but mighty storage device. Haven’t yet had the chance to transfer any of the pages onto someone’s computer, but I’ll be well prepared for that should the opportunity occur…
And looked at movie trailers for ‘The Descent’ and ‘A Scanner Darkly’. The first one doesn’t seem particularly distinguished, probably a flick that steals from several better ones. A whole lotta drama from the Winona Ryder character, who has a line of distress about the sacrificing of someone without them even knowing about it…
And then out the door, headed over to the Friday artisan market at U.N. Plaza. There was the Christian bookseller guy, nodded to him…and at another vendor, touched the button on the little robot parrot’s head to make it say one of its programmed phrases. The wings were supposed to flap also, but couldn’t get this to happen…
And then left the plaza on the way to the free lunch at St. Anthony’s – bigger guy had a little guy in a playful chokehold from behind…and I had slight eye contact with a sexy redheaded woman walking toward me, who had a little smile on her face…
And had put on the new sandals – “Gotcha” brand. A bit big, and they really
made that flip-flop sound. Liked the layer of leather on top of the rubber
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sole, and the geometric design on the strap…
And the line at St. Anthony’s was all the way around the corner of Golden Gate and halfway down to the church, so I skipped it entirely. Figured to walk over to an ATM to see if my money had been deposited yet…and walked through the “Pill Alley” of the block of Jones where the OxyContin and Vicodins are for sale. And someone had created an impressive work of art on the concrete, a colorful chalked dragon several feet in length, undulating…and was missing the Tenderloin computer center I go to whenever I get the chance – open only for seniors on Fridays…
And friend Alphelus on the street near the hotel, selling stuff – eye caught by recent issues of British music magazines ‘Mojo’ and ‘Uncut’, both with Rolling Stones covers. Geez, they’ve been pop culture fixtures for well over forty years! And a guy near him had some sort of MP3 converter for a cassette player. And Alphelus told me that the previous night he had a really beautiful bicycle for sale – he knows I’m absolutely in the market for one. And he drew my attention to a 1965 copy of ‘The Nation’ magazine, a special issue to commemorate the 100th anniversary of that publication…
And back to my hotel room – still had some mashed potato flakes (with the added sodium acid pyrophosphate) and prepared some of those. Added a whole lot of salt, more than was probably good for me, but some things just aren’t tasty without the added sodium. And lit some incense – have managed to make my supply last until the end of the month…and: don’t need to heat water for those flakes. And began cooking a sauce pan of rice…and continued reading in Bruce Sterling’s science fiction novel ‘Zeitgeist’. Liked this line of dialogue by one of the powerful tho’ crooked characters: “I love cops! A man can’t own too many of them.”
And tuned in news on the radio for a while – more about Israel, Lebanon…Israeli denials…new President in Peru…the Tour de France winner said that the high levels of testosterone in his system were naturally-occuring…and in Las Vegas, a new law prohibiting charities from feeding the large homeless population there in parks because they could bother tourists too much. And there was an Israeli woman named Mizrahi – like the American fashion designer – who quoted Carole King’s “I feel the earth move” song to describe the bombings by missiles…
Sunday, July 30, 2006
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…today, in three hours, a show by personal friends – or at least ‘acquaintances’ – the Merchants of the New Bizarre, on the same block as the hotel, at five-zero-nine Ellis. They quoted my review of them in their mass e-mailing, which was fun to see…
And back to forty-eight hours ago, Friday around noon – had another wait, a half hour until the library opened. One thing I really wanted to do: download onto my little flash drive the last two dozen or so postings – hadn’t been to a library computer in several days, the only place I can do this…
Then was heading back from the Western Addition computer center…thinking of what I had in my room to eat: rice, white – salt, tea. Walked past the former location of A Clean, Well-Lighted. Sign in front said “CLOSED FOREVER”. Sorry to see it was gone, tho’ I hadn’t gone there overmuch…
And in a rack on Van Ness, the latest ‘Papercity’, with a pampered pooch on the cover. You know the dogs of those worthies featured within that publication get treated ‘really’ well, living better lives than a lotta ‘people’ in San Francisco. Didn’t pick it up – didn’t then need to be checking out the lives of the city’s wealthy and fashionable. I’ll feel different later…
And decided to skip a trip to the library – it’d be easy enough when I got around to it to download those pages and pages of blog…headed back to the hotel – a smiling young woman loaded down with thick telephone book-looking volumes asked me to help, to open a door, which I gladly did…and then past the Culinary Academy – remembered that it was the exact 40th anniversary of a Big Brother (with Janis) show that was recorded, and issued under the name ‘Cheaper Thrills’…
And a bit later, a red little sports car turning in front of me, aggressively. I maintained my pace and didn’t give an inch. Had my voice recorder in hand like Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum – would not have minded “bustin’ a cap” into the thing…and thought soon after that to check the B of A ATM, see if money had been downloaded yet. Actually turned and started walking back, but it was two blocks away and figured it wouldn’t have happened yet…
And at the Fence, sellers on the street – a fifteen buck bicycle – am really
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wanting to be on one again. And the ‘Barfly’ video, the life of Charles Bukowski…and the video for ‘Ghost World’, one of my favorites of recent years. And a nice metal Shiva dancing image, a ring of flames around the figure. And for a quarter each, a handmade Chaka Khan cassette, and ones labeled “Tolkien” – perhaps a reading of ‘The Lord of the Rings’…
And into the Faithful Fools copy shop to see what was on the bulletin board – a poster about building global communities, listing tips, including “Think of no one as ‘them’.” and “Refuse to wear corporate logos.” And thought to myself with at least a little happiness that I still had some of that free Ezekiel raisin Bible-based bread upstairs, and some of the West L.A. Zen bran muffins, all going on to the stale spectrum side, but still edible…
And into the hotel, into the elevator. Guy in there already, with a sun visor fashionable (or not) skewed slightly from the forward, said he was having “one of those days”. Said to him that it might get better…and had in hand, from the lobby, a paperback about the Rider-Waite Tarot deck I’d gotten a few months back for about a buck at the Fields metaphysical store. Had given it to someone and that person had left it back on the lobby shelves…
…and in the room, restless to leave again. Figured to get to the library and download the many blog postings onto the flash drive – see, the library is the only one of the three places I use computers that is enabled for that technology. And picked up to mail, a letter from some jail inmate acquaintance of his that Odd Fellow brother P. had given me to mail – hadn’t done that yet, had forgotten why he’d given it to me…
And onto Eddy – smiled that it reminded me much of the Gilbert Shelton ‘Shakedown Street’ Grateful Dead cover: several jaywalkers, including myself, two Hispanic guys together on a small bicycle, a police car waiting at a red…and down Hyde, caught the focused gaze of an apparent drug dealer who said to me “What’s up, buddy?” – always ready to make eye and voice contact with a prospective client. And thought then of the title ‘Beyond Description’, the name of a multi-disc Dead boxed set – the phrase is from the song “The Music Never Stopped”: “…they’re a band beyond description…” And was kinda rushing down the street, since it was nearly noon, the time of my reserved computer, and at seven minutes after the hour the machines, if not taken, are be free for anyone to use…
Saturday, July 29, 2006
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...and in ‘Zeitgeist’, noted the paraphrasing of William Burroughs’ ‘The Last Words of Hassan Sabbah’, that bit about “boards, governments, syndicates”, and “filth deals consummated in what lavatory”...
...and amusing to me, a character in the novel with the same first name as mine – he’s a Japanese rock music star: “I want Makoto fat and happy, man, I want him in his aloha shirt puffing Maui Wowie.” And listened a bit that evening, two days ago, to KQED radio – Exxon/Mobile earned ten-point-three billion dollars profit, in some recent, I guess, four-month period...
...then the next morning, about half after eight, a Friday – getting ready to walk to the Western Addition computer lab. Tuned in radio news a bit – more about the Hezbollah, Israel – the woman announcer made a bit of a Freudian slip and began saying “Lebanon” as if it were “lesbian”. Well, she’d confused it with the beginning syllable of “Hezbollah”...
And weird phrase I kept repeating in my head just after awakening: “...Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano, Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano...” Why did they call him that? ‘cause of his aggressiveness? Or the size of his penis, maybe?
...and news on the radio about another Baghdad bombing, four killed, several others injured – victims were worshippers who had just been leaving a mosque...and in other news, there was an 80% surge in Exxon profits...
And on a more personal front, had a really urgent need to evacuate my bowels, so to speak, avoiding the Vulgate...not diarrhea. Musta been the result of the two Zen fiber cakes I’d had the previous night. There was urine on the toilet from a previous occupant, and it shows the urgency of situation that I wiped the seat with toilet paper instead of going the short distance to the other facility. Geez, really had to clench the appropriate body parts to make it just barely in time...
...then back in the room, having the absolute very last of my loose yerba mate...was counting the days until I got money downloaded into my bank account – about 60 hours til then as of this....and flashbacked to the previous night, in the lodge office, looking at photos sent via the Internet to Sister B., her kids in Malaysia. Told her her kids were nice, but she’s concerned about
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them being ‘too’ nice and quoted me a paraphrase of the Leo Durocher line about nice kids finishing last...
And then read the S.F.P.D. incident report that Brother P. had given me related to lodge building elevator man Alex and a guy on the street named John James. Type of incident: “Disturbing the Peace, Fighting”. The complaint was filed by James...
...then later, out of the building...guy I know, homeless, A., sleeping on the sidewalk like a baby...headed west on Eddy – kept my feet after nearly slipping on bird droppings...and further up the street, two more sleepers, including a woman with her mouth slightly open. And had to keep adjusting the cuffs of my too-long jeans...and at Polk and Eddy, passed a poster for an “Interactive Male” Website featuring two life-sized beefy young guys with no shirts. And didn’t care for the stink of the automobile exhaust, looked forward to getting to the other side of Van Ness where the air was cleaner - and felt threatened by cars turning north onto that big avenue – I had the green but for some reason they could just about run into any pedestrian...
...and passed the unique scone shop on Eddy – desired the discarded newspapers inside...and fretted a bit about the size of my pants cuffs, a good four inches, possibly nerdy-looking...then enacted a possible solution, rolling ‘em twice, but that didn’t help...and despite the heavy traffic heading north on Franklin, the air was already fresher. And noted the price of gasoline at the station there – premium was 3 bucks and 43 and 9/10th cents a gallon...and the cheapest was still 3 and 21 and 9/10th cents...
And there was also pretty heavy traffic going south on Gough...and particularly annoying, a guy on a really loud scooter with a woman holding on in back – gotta be a noise violation. And even when the stupid thing had gone two blocks on I could ‘still’ hear it...then got to the computer oasis, did my thing...and ‘bout 2 hours later, walking away, three more solid postings done, six pages - deja vu all over again...next: two hours until St. Anthony’s.
And during my time there online, had checked out the Website of one Leah Lubin, referred to me by my Former Lady Roommate. Leah, out of Palo Alto, had posted information about an art show devoted to Sixties counterculture icons Jerry Garcia and Ken Kesey...
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...and was walking through the Thursday artisan market at U.N. Plaza two days ago. Eye captured briefly by a small metal pipe, maybe one for opium. It was constructed like pot pipes that had the “carburetor” attachment, so that the smoke would remain contained until a little lever was pulled to release the concentrated essence. Tiny metal animals on the side, and a green oval stone. Thirty bucks. Probably some cheap knock-off of a more ancient design...
And then headed to the library. Ready for pick up, a novel by science fiction writer Bruce Sterling from just a few years ago, ‘Zeitgeist’. In the past two days have pretty much read the entire thing – he’s changed his style in this a bit; he’s sparer with the language, more like his buddy William Gibson’s. Couldn’t read Sterling’s previous novels, but this one got me hooked...
And headed over to the Odd Fellows building for the bi-weekly meeting...noted the many students hanging around outside the Art Institute of California’s San Francisco campus. Which school is not to be confused with the Art Institute there on Chestnut...a harder school to get into, and a better one, by my fairly uninformed estimate...
And into the lodge hall building, which was crowded with many young dance students – not sure why they were all there and not moving on...and then upstairs – well, there was Brother P. – he told me that there wasn’t a meeting that night – they’d scheduled a walk through supposedly haunted houses in another part of the city. I hadn’t read that month’s newsletter carefully enough...
In the lodge office, his wife B., on the new Apple computer in there, looking at pictures her three kids had sent from a trip they’d all made through Malaysia. And foremost on my mind, handed over to both P. and B. my last month’s T-Mobile cell phone bill, to show them that indeed it was not ‘I’ who had made a prankish phone call to them weeks ago. P. inspected this and seemed to be satisfied that what I’d told them was the truth...
And have to admit I ‘was’ there not only for the fellowship of my lodge brothers and sisters, but for the food and drink. P. picked up on this and gave me a plate of some sorta fish canapes left over from the Danish lodge that had met the previous night. Glad to get this...a lemon wedge was included,
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and that squeezed offset the fishy flavor. Danes are a sea-oriented people and I spoze enjoy consuming the denizens of the briny vastness...
And then the 3 of us out of the building...they were heading toward the Hayes Valley area, I think, and I peeled off from them at U.N. Plaza, heading back to the hotel. It was only a one-mile ghost-oriented walk, but it was gonna take 3 hours, including a guide’s recitation of facts, so that was too much for me. Even with P.’s offer of dinner somewhere along the way...
And in hand, two things Brother P. had given me: a silvery frame he wanted me to get back to a guy in the hotel, and a copy of a police write-up about an incident of violence involving Alex, one of the elevator fellas in the lodge building, and a guy who’d been hanging out in front of the building drinking and loitering and getting a bit aggressive...
And back up to the hotel. In the lobby, someone had left a loaf of Ezekiel raisin bread – created from Old Testament instructions – and a six-pack of vegan cupcake-like thingies from some Zen bakery in West L.A. In the lobby, a woman with her bicycle, relating how she’d had a collision with a car and had actually flipped head over heels. No serious injury, tho’...
And in my room...looking at another thing P. had given me, a little flyer about a protest against U.S. support of Israel’s attacks against Lebanon, this at Senator Feinstein’s office in San Francisco. Now, took me a few to determine P.’s position on this...he’s fully behind American policy, which backs Israel...so P.’d be against this protest, which favors Lebanon...
And got busy eating one of the West L.A. vegan cakes – significant nutrition: one had 20% of the iron you need a day, and 51% of the fiber...and: thinking back about entering the hotel – there was a guy I know who sells stuff on the street – didn’t wanna be seen by him. He’s kinduv a taker, glad to share my wine but not necessarily give much in return but his company and words. But I’ve got him on the lookout for a cassette boom box and a bicycle – and he’s delivered on these before...so it might not be a fair assessment that he only takes and abuses my generosity. Then back to ‘Zeitgeist’ – as I said, shorter sentences like in William Gibson, and dialogue like Gibson’s. And a whole lotta Turkey, the country, which figured into Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’...
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…and back to a usual scene for me a coupla three days ago: leaving the free Catholic lunch at St. Anthony’s, trudging up the back door stairs onto Golden Gate, in hand a somewhat flaky apple turnover thingie – am avoiding baked goods in general, but that one kinda called out for ingestion that day. The entrée was “turkey a la king” – for a “king of the ‘road’” – kinduv a hellacious mess of various ingredients, couldn’t eat much of it. And additionally, we’d been served a halved yellow squash the size of a fist, mostly fibrous and therefore inedible, for the most part.
…and a dining companion was a woman who had apparently been through a lot in a hard life, monologuing to no one in particular with no smile on her face – her topics ranged from argyle socks to the Beatles – couldn’t help tuning in to her a bit, since she wasn’t whispering. And: a guy a few places down, I noted, had some really strong-looking forearms, tho’ he was otherwise fairly thin…
And at another table recognized two, a guy and a gal, whom I’d met when doing volunteer work for the Salvation Army a few years back. Didn’t wave to them and don’t think they saw me. Last time I’d seen ‘em, they were panhandling at a South of Market gas station/convenience store hybrid – I was down there seeking an air hose to pump up a bicycle tire…
…and then at the Tenderloin computer center – had exceeded the six-copy-a-week limit there and have begun owing ‘em a dime per page I printed – kinduv expensive, but I like to have at least one copy of each posting of this blog for myself. A young guy, Rolando, was supervising there, and he was okay with me owing, not set in his financial ways, I spoze…
And this was Thursday afternoon, two days ago…had about two hours until the Odd Fellows meeting…and finally got my T-Mobile bill – an Odd Fellows associate was thinking I’d made a prank phone call and she wanted proof that I hadn’t done it – hopefully the official bill would clear that up, tho’ I was apprehensive that somehow ‘that’ had been tampered with and my innocence ‘still’ would be unproven. And: the bill was for a hundred-and-70 and change…money coming soon, so I can pay some of that off and get my service back up and happening…
…and back in the hotel, in tenant rep J.’s room, signing documents for the
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long-standing hotel elevator lawsuit – the machine had not been working for weeks and weeks at a time earlier in the year and we might be due some money for that if the judge in small claims court sees it our way. A bit over 700 bucks being asked for…
And asked J. about a recent big incident he’d had with the former tenant rep Prince. Seems they had a dispute over use of common tenant funds for a going-away party for now-departed manager Brian, which dispute led even to Prince shoving J., J. falling down on the street, breaking his arm in two places. More going on here than I know about, I think. Well, Prince paid a price, since ten officers of the local law showed up to take him away – he spent 20 hours in jail behind this…
And was finishing up about this time the Paul Krassner book about magic mushrooms and other drugs, few of which I would ever want to take myself. These include snorted Comet – yes, the abrasive powdered kitchen commonplace – and Dramamine – ‘cause it supposedly contains belladonna – and bleach mixed with ammonia, this to inhale – it’s mustard gas, the poisonous vapor used in the trench warfare of World War I…
And there was an anecdote about nitrous oxide…well, this one I had myself during teenaged dental treatment…and: the penultimate story in the book had Krassner himself describing the late Seventies sojourn by the Dead to the Great Pyramid and Sphinx in Egypt, there to perform a concert…
And half about 30 minutes until the Odd Fellows meeting – decided to get to the library…in the lobby, front desk fella Vic gave me one the library kung fu books I’d given him, he being done with it – he still has a good ten of ‘em. Paused at the Faithful Fools copy shop on Hyde and picked up the new ‘Common Ground’ spirituality free publication…and at the Fence, street selling – good deal was four cans of the Nutrament vitamin and mineral drink plus other assorted foods, all for five bucks – for the drink alone that would be a price I’d pay…and further down, the Thursday artisan market was still happening – eye caught by a winking Jesus-on-the-cross picture – move your head slightly and Our Saviour’s eyes opened and closed. And could see buying a new, 15 buck pair of sunglasses…and stopped to check out a robot dog and robot parrot…the vendor said he was fed up with the sounds of the mechanical bird and wanted to take a .45 to it to shut it up…
Friday, July 28, 2006
…and yesterday passed by the former site of A Clean,Well-Lighted Place for Books at the Opera Plaza on Van Ness. Pretty much gutted, all the books moved somewhere else…sign in front: “WE HAVE LOVED PRESENTING BOOKS AND AUTHORS TO YOU”. Not long ago with my Former Lady Roommate saw choreographer Mark Morris there chatting up a book…And stopped and stooped a bit to check out yesterday’s ‘Chronicle’ – front page story about the recent string of hot Bay Area days, the longest on the hysterical, historical record, from the 16th to the 26th of this month, July. Didn’t seem all that hot to me…but apparently in outlying parts outside of San Francisco the heat was felt a whole lot more, into the hundreds…And crossing Van Ness, heading east – light turned red on me and had to step up my pace a bit, altho’ those damn cars have to wait for pedestrians…and passing the Culinary Academy – several students outside taking a smoke break…found a Big Gulp plastic cup with ice in it still, from 7-Eleven, there on the ground. Picked it up to have iced tea in my room…And a woman wanted directions to a free place to eat. Recommended St. Anthony’s, but she had somewhere else in mind that she couldn’t think of. Mentioned Glide, and that rang the lunch bell with her. Reiterated that I sure thought “Tony’s” was the better choice, and closer…And a bit down from there, a teen Hispanic kid exchanging unpleasantries with an older white blonde woman in heavy makeup. He was nearly brandishing a little stick towards her. She threatened him: “I could be the one to call the police!” Walked on by this sorry scene and didn’t see how it turned out…And near the hotel, said hello quickly to Wa’il, who runs the New Princess corner market – he gives me a lotta Carlo Rossi on credit. And there at the Rainbow Laundromat, the guy who runs it, outside, leaning against the wall, smoking. Two local merchants I consider my own…And in the hotel lobby, got into a page-by-page inspection of the ‘Bay Guardian’, their yearly “Best of” edition. Looked at every single listing but couldn’t get into it much – not really into the consumer lifestyle these last days of the month. Liked a picture of Al, of Al’s Comics, formerly up on
Guerrero near 16th in the Mission – but he’s moving his place to the UpperMarket – good for him. It looked like it said “WELCOME SQUID OVERLORDS” on his shirt – humorous science fiction sentiment. Have bought, like, issues of ‘The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers’ at his establishment. Have been thinking of going there, seeing what he had of the ‘Alraune’ German pornographic comic book series…when back on a bicycle, with cash in pocket will visit his new location on that little mission…And as for the rest of that ‘Guardian’, started out circling items of some interest but then was hurrying through it to get to the end, and finally just left it in the lobby – Sparky’s, the 24-hour diner on Church, got a good notice for their lively 3am scene, and I’d totally agree with that – was there not too long ago at that hour, enjoying the buzz …then upstairs to my room, exercising some measure of moment-by-moment Zen awareness – yeah, that’s it – heated up water for mashed potato flakes, read the three blog postings I’d done yesterday morning…And opened up a chicken flavor packet from a Top Ramen to add to the rehydrated potato flakes. Thought about the creation of waste, personal, when I held the little silver sliver of flavor packet I’d scissored off – these little bits of debris add up…and: this next month have to be sure to get buckwheat in bulk quantity at, like Rainbow Grocery, along with, like, hijiki seaweed – sure gotta pay more attention to my diet…not a good thing eating too many instant noodles…And at that point yesterday had 45 minutes until St. Anthony’s…coulda gone to the library to spend that time well enough…and then remembered another little mistake I’d made – had left that cup of ice I’d found, left it in the hotel lobby – a slight carelessness…and then, got out the door to head for the free lunch. At the Little Flea Market across the street there was a late Sixties Mickey Spillane paperback – he’d just died a few days ago…and intrigued a bit down the street at the poster for ‘The Descent’, a new horror movie – the posed bodies of 6 cute and curvaceous young women form a skull if you look at it a certain way…compared to ‘Alien’ this one is…and in line at St. Anthony’s, guy standing there, apart, broom in hand, talking loudly, maintaining he’d been a successful clown, a street performer. Guy passing hears this and implores “Scotty, beam me up!”
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…and then it was the next morning, Thursday, about 24 hours ago…out to use the toilet – someone had left urine on the toilet seat – some really refined folks live in the hotel, I tell you. Used the other one on my floor…
And tuned in KQED radio a bit – in Detroit, various car companies having economic problems, a lot of unsold product just sitting around…
And guy I know in the hotel, D., had recently been to a doctor, who’d told him he had a heart condition. He wanted me to go see him every morning, check up on him, but he’s still on my list a bit and I haven’t been doing this. Guess he can’t help being mean, especially when he gets drunk...well, he’s got others who can check on him…
And am in the process of going through articles and such from local publications I collected the past coupla years and more…one about a Polk Street tax plan by locals to fix neighborhood blight…and saved a photo of a cute girl in an ad for organic foods…and one about broccoli that can endure heat – some farmers are happy about that…and a few pot clubs in Oakland were facing closure – so many of ‘em there that the name “Oaksterdam” was coined. And from two years ago, Madonna getting out, after twelve years, of a deal with Warner Brothers. I was in L.A. when, in ’92-ish, that creation of the Maverick fiefdom happened, a very unique music deal at the time…
And about quarter after 8 yesterday morning – pushed back the curtains – grey day in San Francisco, the heat letting up, finally…
And had myself some of the last yerba mate loose tea on my shelf, this to irrigate my digestive system. And tried to eat the last of the free, tiny avocadoes I’d been given earlier in the week, but that was in vain, since it wasn’t at all ripe, so had to toss it. But kept the seed and put it along with several others in the soil for the plant I’d found in the hallway, currently sitting on the ledge outside my window. Am trying to revive the green thing. A mistake I sometimes make with plants is adding too much water – will see about avoiding that with this one…
And for my body, did a few push-ups on two milk carton crates. And applied a little moisturizer to the corners of my eye, and upper chest, and hands, to alleviate sun damage. Posed a bit in front of the mirror – am happy with
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weight loss I’ve been experiencing lately, ‘healthy’ weight loss, that is, due to eating less and from that recent stint when I had the bicycle, riding around the city. For sure got to get a new set of two wheels at the beginning of the month – the exercise is really great for body and mind…
And then out on the street – ran into Barbara, who used to live at the hotel – she gave me her e-mail address since she wanted me to check, for some reason I couldn’t quite determine, who was at the recent memorial in the hotel for Eugene Ferdinand, the fella who fell to his death from the fifth floor last week. He was a friend of hers, said Barbara, and she was suspicious, thinking that the death was no suicide. E-mailed her later to tell her that she should do her own looking into this matter…
And: she was talking in a friendly manner with a guy who might’ve been one of the two convicted child molesters Odd Fellow brother P. showed me at the Megan’s Law sex offender Website…and: was heading to the Western Addition computer center…and outside the scone shop on Eddy, on that other, wealthier side of Van Ness – tho’ the projects are over on that side as well – picked up the ‘Bay Guardian’ because it was the yearly “Best of” issue and I wanted to see what was picked for special recognition…
And on my mind, for some reason, “Papa Don’t Preach”, the 80s Madonna song. I guess because in the video, she’s wearing jeans, hands in front pockets, walking up stairs – I adopt that configuration myself often…
And near the computer center, enjoyed the vista to the south, despite the greyness of the day, the fog. Had on my usual footwear, cheap flip-flops, more suitable to Hawaii. But a fine place for conscious breathing, a lot more trees, their oxygen…
And it was almost exactly 24 hours as of this, leaving the computer center, having done three pages, solid work. Figured to head to St. Anthony’s for the free Catholic lunch in two hours…passed the Employment Development Department building – guard was smiling, telling a friend who was getting into a big vehicle that he should “Stop by any chance you get.” And popped in very briefly to the little market in the Opera Plaza complex, see about their sangria…well, had mashed potato flakes back at the hotel to look forward to, with its added sodium acid pyrophosphate, yummy…
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…and was checking out the Bruce Sterling author picture in the back of the book of his I’d taken from the library – kinda puffy, too much something in his diet, I’d say. Tho’ he’s a really, really smart guy, ‘way’ smarter, intellect-wise, than I am, for sure. But I have never figured myself for that much of a brain, really…
And was walking back north up Hyde, reading the book, a non-fiction vision of the future called ‘Tomorrow Now’. It’s one of those that had a page devoted to the typeface used for the text, saying it was inspired by classical, late Renaissance type faces, combining certain aesthetic and functional qualities. Well, often these seem to be such fine distinctions, such as the ones made by wine connoussiers. I do this blog in Times New Roman which typeface, I reckon, displays some classical and pleasing aesthetics…
…and speaking of the comments of wine critics, how about this one: “Insipid, yet not lacking in a perversely intrinsic vigor.”?
And coulda at the library gotten six more movies for hotel friend D., but I was still a bit hissed at him for comments he made to me last time I saw him. He’d begun drinking again and, for one thing, when I got up to leave he told me, roughly, to sit down until he’d finished his 40 ouncer. And also, he accused me of maybe taking a gold-colored fork that he’d been missing. I don’t need that kind of behavior in my life, and he’s still on my list…
And then back up to the Fence, the street sales area where Turk meets Hyde. Guy told me he had “Red Dog” shoes, some popular brand, I guess. Got a little slight rise outta him when I responded that I only wear ‘Blue’ Dogs…and the Lafayette Coffee Shop was open and kinda busy, and inviting. Would be open for over two more hours, until 10pm…
And on the same block as the hotel, folks in the soon-to-open 7x7 Market – guess that would be pronounced “seven by seven”. I spoze the name refers to the 49 square miles of San Francisco. It’ll have a delicatessen in there, so that’s a good thing – gotta patronize ‘em. Wish them all the power and luck in the world. Not an easy neighborhood for a business to survive in…
And into the hotel, up to the fifth floor…Mike and Berniece there, talking…went to my room and got an envelope for Mike I’d had for a while
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– an astrology column from, I think, ‘Vanity Fair’ – he’s very into that system of stellar forecasting himself and I thought he’d find the glamour magazine’s take on the subject amusing, if not truly accurate…
And got myself prone – or would that be “prostrate”? – not, I know, “prostate” – on my purple paisley bed, got into the Bruce Sterling futurist book. Liked it that he used the contraction for “old”, “ol’”, in the phrase “ol’ Wizard of Oz” – a form I use myself a lot in this blog…
And liked this observation: “People who read books like cats.” I think it’s true. Also: “Every human adult carries about two pounds of living bacteria.” That, he says, is about a hundred trillion non-human cells in all of us. (I am well aware of the ‘friendly’ bacteria in me…this next month for sure gotta get more rejuvelac and kombucha and yogurt – the soy kind – into my system and replenish my digestive tract…)
And more Sterling on bacteria, that they “possess the power of DNA at its rawest, fastest, cheapest, toughest, and most immediate.”
…and about this time was listening to the radio a bit. Another inadvertent line of iambic pentameter: “…American religious consciousness…” (Well, I ‘think’ that was the phrase…deleted the voice note too quickly to doublecheck…moving too fast for my short-term memory to handle…) And got into a bit of the BBC Radio news out of England – they noted a nine-dollar-an-hour minimum wage being enacted in Chicago – that is, in “the American city of Chicago”. I like the outsider perspective of their news…
And was lying in bed, someone outside playing the Doors, “Light My Fire” – recognized the long, familiar instrumental part, this about half after nine on a Wednesday evening, about 36 hours ago. And after that one, “People are Strange”…was this music from a best of, or was it an original album?
And continued listening to the BBC news – something about some “Westlothian question”. Had no idea what that meant. Knew there’s a ‘Mid’-lothian in England…was there in about ‘79, my only foray outside the U.S. since arriving in the U.S. as a child…on that trip went to Wales a bit, and northerly, saw the Roman-built Hadrian’s Wall, passed a night in Edinburgh, and tarried briefly in Scotland’s far north at Viking-founded Wick…
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…this being a Friday, got another of my thrice-weekly Shakespeare sonnets through Hotmail. There are, I believe, a hundred-and-fifty of the powerful little suckers, and at three-a-week that’ll be about a full year of those 14-line poems I’ll be receiving. Read through today’s quickly – the language is rich, and archaic, requiring a glossary for some words. Not sure exactly what it meant – something about love, that’s for sure…
And in text more absolutely current – besides this blog, I mean – brought up to my virtual desktop the electronic version of ‘The Chronicle’ – or rather, the SFGate.com site, which is put out by that paper. Part of my personal work these days is getting to, finally getting to articles I’d set aside from two and more years ago from the local papers, which are stacked in my hotel room, but maybe I’ll begin glancing through the computer version of the ‘Chron’…
…today, picture of that bicycle-riding guy who is being accused of performance drug abuse…he says he’s innocent…and Metallica has finally joined the iTunes catalog…not into them, me…AC/DC and Led Zeppelin are still holding back – now ‘those’ are two bands I ‘really’ like…and in other news at that ‘Chron’ site: Madonna signed up with some big clothing maker to outfit her entire concert tour members with their sporty outfits…geez, why? ‘This’ is the news? I’d do better studying the Shakespeare sonnet more carefully…
And now, back to our regularly-scheduled blog programming: was on the way to the library the other day, bringing back a stack of books and movies…ran into Paul, a guy I knew from a local computer center – feel sorry for him, he’s got HIV, I guess from needle drug use. He noticed all the library material I had in my hands , a good foot and half of it, and said I was carrying a lot. Told him I was bookish. He himself is a reader of Emerson…
…and down the block, checked out a pair of black jeans someone was selling on the street, at “the Fence”, an actual fence around a parking area – the name has that literal meaning, but also the word is meaningful there, I’m sure, in some cases of some of the sellers, as “a dealer in stolen property”…
And liked it that the Two-22 Club was open – perhaps my favorite local place to get a drink, tho’ Harrington’s has its older school charms. And as
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for the Brown Jug, well, I am 86’d from there currently, and perhaps forever.
Just got new owners, that establishment did, and they don’t like me for some reason…and, also at the Fence, noted a special edition issue of ‘Playboy’ for sale at a bargain price, entitled “Vixens”…
And a bit further – or should that be “farther”? – south on Hyde, ran into friend Jayson, with electric bass guitar in hand, heading to BART to get to a music gig down the Peninsula, on B Street in downtown San Mateo. We chatted a bit – we have many similar interests, including literary ones. He said he was actually reading ‘Finnegans Wake’ – incredible! He told me he had the Joseph Campbell ‘Skeleton Key’ to that weighty, pretty nearly incomprehensible book, and that was helping with comprehension…
And Jayson discussed aspects of the music business as well – he told me it was easier to book three bands at a show than it was to book one…and: he was working four hours a day, out in Walnut Creek, but at 15 bucks an hour this was worth it, that commute…and: I told him that I personally was suffering music withdrawal symptoms, since my cassette player broke and I can’t play my stack of tapes…
So we walked down Hyde and parted company as he entered BART to get down further south. I went into the library, put my stuff at the returns desk. And there were two Bruce Sterling books waiting for me to pick up. Glanced through his ‘Schimatrix’, a science fiction novel from the Eighties, but just couldn’t get into it, tho’ it was highly recommended by William Gibson…
The other book was one of the guy’s few non-fiction works, called ‘Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years’…what he figures will be happening in “culture, geopolitics, and business”. Not too all-encompassing a lens…and as I was evaluating these volumes, slightly echoing in the five-story atrium, a baby, in a stroller, being attended to by his parents – guess it was a boy child. We all four left the building at the same time and I told mother and father that their kid had a big voice…
…and thinking back to Jayson and his music-making – I still have taken no action on getting an electronic keyboard, playing songs of my own. Wouldn’t mind singing America’s “Daisy Jane”, a really haunting tune. But, in reality, might just remain an avid listener and spare the world my sound…
Thursday, July 27, 2006
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…and thought of astrologer Rob Brezsny’s book and concept, ‘Pronoia’ – it’s subtitled: ‘How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings’. Well, in an excerpt I read he lists all the many, many things that generally go ‘right’ – like when, in the morning, you turn on the faucet and all the water you want comes out. Thought of his idea when I did that very thing. Seems like he’s generally addressing well-fed middle-class Americans, but I guess I fit somewhat into that category…
…and was yesterday reading the Paul Krassner book about magic mushrooms and other very mind-affecting drugs. Ram Dass contributed a piece about a visit to Brazil in the mid-90s to take ayahuasca, a psychedelic vine that grows down there. Well, there was not enough room on a tour bus and he offered to give up his seat…this in line with the principles of his spiritual teaching – he had been taught to give up his place to others when the occasion demanded it…
…and: apparently there’s a lot of vomiting after ingestion of ayahuasca, as part of its purgative effect. And liked that those partaking of the vine were considered a “congregation”, in a real religious sense. And it’s also considered a medicine by the shamans who guide those taking it…
…and reportedly tobacco is used in the ayahuasca ceremony. But it’s of a powerful South American type, very little like what’s available commercially in the U.S. Said to have “profound medicinal qualities”, and that there are “unique neural receptors that lock on” to its molecules…
…and South American shamans say ayahuasca is very telepathy-inducing…the first Western scientists to isolate the psychoactive alkaloid in it in fact called the vine “telepathine”…
…and: it was 4pm yesterday, about 23 hours ago…the library would be open for another four hours still, an important fact for bookish ones such as yours truly. Was eating some of the free little avocadoes I’d gotten from a food pantry even tho’ they weren’t quite totally ripe yet – didn’t wanna wait - and was boiling water for mashed potato flakes…
…and thought back to something my Former Lady Roommate said years ago when we were teenaged students, about having opinions. She was urging
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me to have more to say, I think it was. Thought about this ‘cause for sure I
have a strong, negative opinion about mayonnaise. Had recently been given two little packets of the stuff, and it was on my mind…
…and Krassner himself, in the aforementioned book, described a trip to take ayahuasca in South America. He was in a very isolated place, “medialess” being the word he used to describe it. And thought that I myself could be quite described by that adjective recently: no television, no radio, no boom box to play my cassette music, no cell phone – and mail very rarely, and I hardly look at newspapers or magazines. Altho’ I’ve been pretty heavy, daily, into the Internet and e-mail…
…and through my closed door heard someone knock at another door and say it was the Sheriff’s Department. Heard slight bits of what was said…coulda been talking to my neighbor S. about G., who had planned to move into the hotel. Had overhead G. saying he had some sort of problem with the law – maybe more of a problem than I figured. But it mighta been a joke…
…and then it was half after four yesterday afternoon – figured to bring back some books to the library. Two Bruce Sterling volumes I’d requested were waiting for me to pick up…and more in the Krassner drug book – Robert Anton Wilson described his experience with belladonna. Seems like it creates pretty bizarre effects, nothing I’d ever want to try. Same reaction to the section about toad slime – squeeze one of those creatures the right way and a substance comes out, which is then smoked…
And I occupied myself then with another of the not-quite-ripe tiny avocadoes. And then opened up a can of peaches, which, happily enough, weren’t too sweet. Fresh is better, but the price was quite right…
And then out the door, heading to the library, with a stack of books and videos. Met hotel guy Dino in the hallway – he wanted to borrow 50 cents but I told him I didn’t even have a penny. And had a kung fu book for Vic at the front desk, but it was one he already owned. And the tenant rep for the hotel was in the lobby and he asked if I still wanted to sign papers for the lawsuit related to the time the elevator wasn’t working. I wasn’t really all that enthusiastic about this but he said he’d see me the next day and we could get that done. I just didn’t want to wait around too much in court…
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…and was in my hotel room yesterday, making a serviceable enough meal whose main component were the instant mashed potato flakes I’d obtained from a local free food pantry. Apparently almost ‘no’ vitamin or mineral nutrition in the government-issued stuff, apart from a modest amount of Vitamin C. But don’t you worry about your nine syllables’ Daily Value of sodium acid pyrophosphate…
…and had a can of asparagus from Michigan – the whole amount provided 75% of the daily C ration, and 25% of the A. And without noxious additives, or none noted, at least…
…and more about my precarious double A battery situation – had to replace ‘em in my digital voice recorder, that handy, trusty device, but I put those into my cassette radio player and that lit up – guess it needs less juice to operate to just get an FM signal. Got less than five days until I get money, so I can stock up on those energy sources then…
And then got into a book about Shaolin kung fu I’d gotten for Vic, a front desk fellow at the hotel. It said that Chinese emperors visited the Shaolin monastery “to pray on behalf of the people.”
And there’s a Zen connection to Shaolin somehow…thought that came up out of India, went to China…I think the Japanese refined it even further after that…
…and, Shaolin training was aimed at “the development of the noble personality…” And it is said to be not a religion, but “a quest for spiritual joy”.
…and then began reading an Odd Fellows document given me by Brother P. – he wanted me to look it over and make suggestions about how to make the words flow better for use as the narrative, spoken, for a film. Liked an anecdote from 1896 about how a Socialist labor party of the time was holding open air speaker events on the street across from the current lodge location at 7th and Market here in San Francisco. These were noisy gatherings, disturbing the lodge meetings and those reading in the building’s library. Well, police were called in and the Socialist speakers were arrested – end of problem…
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…and mention made in the document about the effects of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal”…the Social Security system was created through that legislation, and so the benevolence of the Odd Fellows was not needed as much by society in general…
…and: learned that membership in “the Order” in two-thousand-one reached a low of five-thousand-seven-hundred-and-78, a number not seen since 1862…
…and had around this time opened up the free can of salmon that I’d also gotten from that food pantry. Had a few spoons of it, but was in general put off by the smell and the bones – good for cat food. I like a nice solid salmon steak, with lemon…just couldn’t get through the rest and tossed it…and: was leaving the hotel – guy living there, John, said he had groceries for sale, but told him I wouldn’t have any money for several days…
…and on the street – there was a fella named Warlock Will across Eddy. He called my name, and I waved back – had time to talk with him a bit but skipped that. Known to be quite the amphetamine user…he’s okay enough, tho’. He says he’s a sorcerer of some kind, in the Castanedan sense. He once applied beneficial magic to my room in two ways: a stone on a ledge above my door to keep negative influences from crossing that threshold, and also a small glass of water set in a discreet location in the room to absorb the same influences. Still have that stone there – guess it couldn’t hurt…
And walked across Leavenworth – some moron in an SUV ran a red…and: concerned that the T-Mobile cell phone bill hadn’t come – my service is on the verge of being totally cancelled, and in that case I guess they don’t even send the last month’s bill. I am under suspicion from my Former Lady Roommate because she recently received a call that came up under ‘my’ number on ‘her’ phone. I told her that I had nothing to do with it, but she wanted to see the bill as proof. Geez, now what? No bill, and that will only further fuel her self-admitted soap opera mentations. Seeing her tonight at the bi-weekly meeting...and, even on the company’s Website, my account doesn’t come up. But apparently, says Brother P., her husband, on ‘their’ bill there was something peculiar happening with records of the few calls she and I had made to each other, so that’s in ‘my’ favor. I’ve already fretted too much over this, something I had ‘nothing’ at all to do with…
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…and continuing yesterday, about exactly 24 hours ago, to head to the Odd Fellows lodge…in the plaza in front of City Hall, really little kids being pushed in a six-seater stroller. Not enough room for two of ‘em so they were just toddling along, hands held by an adult…
…and on Fulton near the library, a whole lotta Asian tourists, their big bus parked there…they seemed to really like the gigantic Ashurbanipal statue next to the Asian Art Museum and pictures were being taken next to it. Just Googled on the guy: Akkadian – ruled 7 centuries Before the Christian Era…one of the few kings of antiquity, reportedly, who could himself read and write…called “Osnapper” in the Bible – see the tenth verse of the fourth chapter of Ezra for that reference…yeah, well – a whole lot more information about the dude than you wanted, I’m pretty sure. (And I just recall a joke in ‘National Lampoon’ from years ago, making fun of names like this king’s: Ahshurdosmelbed…as in “I sure do smell bad…”)
And then through the farmers’ market, which was happening yesterday – enticed by a six buck and 75 cent jar of almond butter – gotta get some a’ ‘that’ into me soon, for the calcium and protein alone…and haveable immediately, for free, samples of fresh fruit from a farm in Sanger…
And sampled mountain grown blueberries, delectable, from Camino – tho’ the lady just gave me two, geez…previously, I’d gotten a decent handful from the same vendor…and at the Sacramento olive oil stand, took up a small cube of bread and dipped it into the healthful golden fluid. (Tho’ I am reminded that in the McDougall Plan, which my Former Lady Roommate followed for a while, oil of any type whatsoever is a very strict no-no..)
…and thereafter enjoyed a sample of sweet white peaches out of Turlock. Cute enough young women behind the counter – also white, and probably also very sweet, perhaps, archetypal farmer’s daughters…
…and then up into the lodge hall…was with P. a little while – he turned me on to three double A batteries from a walkie talkie, I think it was. And a mutual friend of ours hadn’t shown up to work when he was supposed to…P. had given him 25 bucks to get supplies needed for building repairs, and he hadn’t been seen since. Tho’ this fella’d been owed, like, 70…but P. was figuring to withhold this amount when next the dude showed up…
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…and for some reason Brother P. gave me a fairly antique mailing tube, perhaps from several decades ago. He indicated George Washington stamps on it, that perhaps might be worth some money. Carried this for a while and then left it somewhere…didn’t wanna bother carrying it around, tho’ I appreciated the gift…
…and then P. wanted to show me something on a computer…he turned on the nice new Apple in the lodge office…first, news about several more weeks of attacks by Israel against Lebanon – P. said the Israelis want their two soldiers back and won’t stop the aggression until then…
And then he got to what he wanted to show me – the site for the anti-child molestation Megan’s Law…photos and information about child molesters, a particularly large “pet peeve”, to say the least, of P.’s…
So he was able to bring up information about the very hotel I live in – two blokes listed, one of whom I think I recognized. The guy had lost a bit of weight, but I think I see him all the time…convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with child under 14 years”…and the second one was a big brother, nearly six and a half feet tall, rape charge…don’t think I’d ever seen him in the hotel, and don’t want to, either…
And there was also in that sex offender database a man P.’s filing a lawsuit against, that for loitering and drinking in front of the lodge hall. The sex charge is additional information that could be brought against him. And Brother P. offered me twenty bucks to serve this guy some legal papers. Wasn’t sure if it’d be worth it…like, getting known on the street as someone who’d take that sorta action against a brother…likely not too good for my health, at any price…
So, then, departed from the lodge hall…heading back to the hotel – when passing a fella on the street he asked me: “You’re Indian, aren’t you?” I told him no – it’s the long hair...and then to the hotel – there was a friend sitting in front, on the ground – probably had just taken some downer type of drug – seemed to be “nodding’ – maybe it was a methadone effect…he was a bit confused, said he’d lost a green bag with valuables in it…and the ash of his cigarette had burned down a considerable length…a knee of his pants had a big tear – that ‘can’ be fashionable, a look I can favor frequently…
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…and there was a recent memorial service in the downstairs portion of the hotel for Eugene Ferdinand, the tenant who took a five story fall onto the unforgiving concrete of Eddy a few days ago. Missed the service and just went about my own business, tho’ I easily could’ve attended…
…and that was a Wednesday, yesterday, about 24 hours ago as of this…headed again to the Western Addition, the computer center there…
And up Eddy, across from the Phoenix Hotel, guy I was familiar with, with no place to stay, none to take him in, apparently – he’s been homeless for a year or more, as long as ‘I’ve’ known him. He used to set up his stuff for sale on Hyde near the very excellent Two-22 Club. He had some books in hand but I didn’t check them out just then – no money myself…
And then across Van Ness – this just before 9am yesterday…a Hispanic guy was knocking at the back door of the Round Table, getting ready to start his shift slinging that pepperoni…and on that side of Van Ness, at eight-one-nine Eddy, a Victorian. Can’t think of any of that type of classic house on the other side of that major north/south thoroughfare…
…and had in a back pocket of my pants a stack of index cards with handwritten notes I’d taken some long while back – these in case my batteries pooped out and I couldn’t access my digital voice recorder’s store of information. Reminded me somewhat of the ‘Oblique Strategies’ cards co-created in the Seventies by Brian Eno…useful for musicians creatively blocked in the recording studio, I’ve heard…
Just Googled on these: the fifth edition is out…never had a deck of my own, but these are for some worth looking in to, I’d say. (As far as decks of cards go, have got one of the Aleister Crowley Tarot, currently on loan to hotel neighbor S. – my Former Lady Roomate had given ‘em to me a while back. At some point I might just get a regular Rider-Waite deck from, like, Fields Books there at Polk and Pine…)
…and walked then past the Westside Crisis and Outpatient Clinic at Gough and Turk. Several individuals seated outside – probably waiting for their methadone. I know at least one guy in the hotel who’s undergoing this program – he’d been a junkie and crack user for some while, but seems like
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he’s getting over that…
And I much enjoy the cleaner air in the area I was in – the Tenderloin is a bit of a hole, atmosphere-wise, I must say…more trees in that part of the Western Addition. And it helps that there’s a totally unobstructed vista to the south, sloping towards that direction – the wind can freely flow, in terms of the geographic feng shui of that landscape. My lungs and over-all system are grateful for that relief from over-crowding…
…and when I was at the computer center exchanged some e-mails with Odd Fellow brother P., who had said I should come on over then to the lodge, probably so he could get me some batteries to tide me over until the first…
…and had used the notes from some of those index cards to a good-enough effect, blog-wise, tho’ the result was a bit disjointed, merely numbered sentences. Had the idea to perhaps use ‘em to create a fiction, some flowing fiction, the “he said/she said” type of text. It’s possible that would work…
…and before leaving, took a little dump in the restroom at the computer center. Glad that I seemed to appear okay when looking into the mirror there – a flattering one…reminds me of the line in Pink’s “Don’t Let Me Get Me”: “…every day I fight a war against the mirror…”
…and started to head to the Odd Fellows lodge…on Turk near Franklin, walked into the Opera Plaza complex through a discreet back entrance…there’s a little grocery with delicatessen in there…noted the many bottles of fine wine for sale…and there’s a sushi place with a late happy hour on most weekdays, starting at 7:30 – hand rolls for three bucks, and large hot sakes for the same price…
…and towards Van Ness, eyes pleased by a pleasant-enough circular fountain. And there was the disemboweled former location of A Clean,Well-Lighted Place for Books…and noted ‘Hidden Blade’, a recent samurai movie, playing at the cinema there in the same complex…
And checked out yesterday’s ‘Chronicle’ – front page story about “Killer Heat” – at least 41 deaths blamed on the high temperature recently – most at risk, the isolated lower-income elderly…
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…and the other day, saw hotel friend K., who gave me a smile and a thumb up since I’d corrected a problem he’d had with his television. Seems he couldn’t get the color button to stay on. I’m not too ingenious in terms of fixing mechanical devices, but that one was a bit of a no-brainer, even for me – just rolled up a little stiff piece of paper into a tube and inserted it in such a way that the button stayed put…
…and was in my room, re-reading blogs I’d just done. Was looking over at my hot plate to check on food I was cooking…seemed to be taking a long time…then realized I hadn’t even turned the burner on, geez…
And opened up a small can of Contadina pizza sauce I’d gotten free at a local Tenderloin food pantry. Says on the label it was distributed by a San Francisco organization, but that it was ‘packed’ in the U.S. – so that could be ‘anywhere’. But the name of Frisco imparts a certain cachet – that is, some superior status. Slightly false advertising, I’d say…
…and leaving the local computer center iu my neighborhood, there were several small yellow squash on a table – but is the plural “squashes”, or is this a word for which the singular and plural are the same? – that someone had left. Tested ‘em – way too soft. Tho’ K. had said earlier that that means they’re ripe. A bit ‘too’ ripe for my taste…
…and had recently been researching previous activities at what’s now the California Culinary Academy at six-25 Polk…well, 40 years ago as of precisely tomorrow – that is, July 28th of 1966 – Big Brother and the Holding Company along with Janis Joplin performed there – the show was recorded and is available currently on a disc…
…and took about this time ten of the blog postings downstairs, wanting to use the hotel front desk stapler to attach them all together into a book-looking form. Their stapler wasn’t quite big enough to get the task fully done, but I managed well enough. Nice having the pages assembled that way in a familiar form…
And hotel friend D. told me that he had sources that had told him that the renter rebate checks will start going out the 4th of August, not much more than a week from now. Sure could use that 300-plus bucks…got
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corporations to pay back – T-Mobile, Bank of America, and Comcast…
…and had begun at this time to read the Odd Fellows documentary narration text that Brother P. had given me. He wanted me to improve it somehow, but apart from a few small typographical errors and a few slight grammatical lapses, it seems totally good to go. The bi-weekly meeting of the lodge is tonight, and I’m gonna tell him this then. It’d mean money for me to make additions, but I just don’t know what changes are necessary…
…and speaking of culinary, was doing my very own bachelor-style cooking on my hot plate, flipping halved small potatoes around in the water to more fully cook ‘em. The Contadina pizza sauce would be like ketchup…and: was reading in the Paul Krassner magic mushroom (and other drugs) book. Anecdote about some woman who’d taken peyote while climbing halfway up Mount Shasta. I myself went about that far up that mountain a few years ago, but not under that sort of influence…
…and from the same book, an anecdote from Stephen Gaskin, under the influence of DMT, with this line: “As I looked at her, I fell telepathically into her and saw that we matched up to many decimal places…” I like that mathematics analogy. I’m pretty good with numbers, even up to the calculus level – took that in high school, even, and got As…
…and about this time used up more of my dwindling double A battery power to tune in KQED radio on my little cassette player. Heard about how water is brought into the Bay Area from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Liked it that no power is needed for this, that a gravity-based system is used…
…and picked up on a line of inadvertent iambic pentameter on the radio: “…dilapidated school facilities…” And there was other, less poetic news about the on-going terrible situation in the Middle East involving Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, refugees escaping from the area of the war…
…and the next morning, shaved, used an old toothbrush to clean scum from around the faucet in my room’s sink…and was a bit regretting my generosity vis-à-vis loose yerba mate tea I’d recently bought up in the Mission – I’m down to nearly none – had given the Adobe Bookstore up there on 16th a full box, and half a box to E. in the hotel…oh well, there I went again…
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
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…and back to yesterday’s brown bag lunch at U.N. Plaza – after the chips, went for the turkey sandwiches. But removed the meat slices from the white bread, which I tossed into the trash…broke open one of the mustard packs to add to the turkey…left the mayonnaise – it’s a condiment I have absolutely ‘no’ use for…
…and I kicked back at the foot of the Simon Bolivar statue – good place to people watch…and the time was really passing quickly – checked my wristwatch and was pleased to see that it was nearly two, time to go to the Odd Fellows lodge to meet with Brother P. So finished up the food…put the two Famous Amos cookie packs in my pocket as a gift for P. And headed down U.N. Plaza, two bagged peanut butter sandwiches in hand to give to someone…
…well, a rasta-looking guy, who appeared pretty health conscious, upon me asking him if he wanted the sandwiches first asked where I’d gotten them. And then he turned ‘em down. But a guy a few feet down was only too glad to take ‘em – in fact, “Gimme dat!” was his succinct phrase of tacit acceptance…
…and up to see P. He had a document for me to examine and perhaps add to, the text of a filmed narrative about Odd Fellow history in San Francisco. Told him I’d read it and see how I could possibly improve its flow, since it had to be read as a background to pictures. He told me phrases like “In an era when…” and concepts like synchronicity were the type of material he’d want me to include, if possible…
And he also informed me about a lawsuit pending against a guy who was among those who constantly were standing in front of the lodge building on 7th and drinking, loitering. These people, well, P., towards them, has feelings bordering on and passing into the homicidal. He showed me the legal documents, as well as a digital photograph he’d taken of the individual in question – P. is serious about bringing the full weight of the law and justice and truth against this person…
And…P. gave me a Guinness on the way out, this in payment for an envelope he wanted me to put into the mail box across the street…and on the way out, chatted a bit with elevator operator Koichi…he’s ill, not doing well – seemed to be looking less healthy than even a few days before. He said his teeth were really bad and he couldn’t eat as well as he wanted…I could relate to having less-than-optimum teeth, for sure…gave him the cookies, since P. didn’t care for them…
…and across 7th to the box to mail the envelope – there was shaven-headed B., stepping out of the barber shop where he cuts hair. He’d for a time given me some verbal grief, physical threats, even, for a reason I wasn’t too sure of. But now it seems I’m okay enough to him – he even nodded his head slightly in my direction, recognizing me at the very least. As long as he simply ignores me, well, that’s just
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quite, quite fine with me…
…and popped the Guinness cap on a piece of metal on the street – not the twist-off kind of bottle, it’s a ‘quality’ beverage…and headed up to the Tenderloin computer center…hotel friend K. informed me that there was the weekly grocery giveaway at the hotel next door – generally I am not putting food first in my life, but after he returned and showed me the goods he’d gotten, I changed my tune and headed over there myself, eating into my blogging time…
…well, it was a fairly sorry assembly of humans there waiting for the groceries. The dude in front of me closely resembled the Hispanic version of Tor Johnson from ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’ – that gives you an idea of who I was standing with…
…but I stood there in line and waited, and was happy with the take…behind me, a guy I knew from the hotel who I hadn’t talked to much before but frequently saw on the street and nodded to. We were needing bags to take the items away, and he went back to the hotel and got a few, including two for me, which was kind of him. And we chatted a bit about the architecture of the hotel, the Cadillac – he averred that certain details most likely were from a specific time many decades ago…
…and soon enough got my share bagged…went back to the computer lab for the remaining time…then returned to the hotel, enjoying the sweetness of the delectable red flesh of a nectarine I’d been given…and into the hotel – it was 5pm, exact time for a tenant meeting. I usually don’t take part in these, but I was seen entering and for a few minutes felt bad about skipping it…
And up to my room to inspect the booty: a bag of “enriched” white rice, a bag of mashed potato flakes, five small unripe avocadoes, eight potatoes, four small red onions, two ears of corn, two cans of Contadina pizza sauce, a can of peaches, one of asparagus, one of pink salmon, and a can of an energy drink from Novartis called Nutrament, which had 35% of the Daily Value of several vitamins and minerals…
…and once and for all then, in the solitude of my room, decided to ‘not’ attend the meeting, ‘not’ do my hotel civic duty, and put aside any residual guilt about that…and got myself busy with a little hot plate cooking, adding to water in my sauce pan cut-up small potatoes, the corn, and the onions…
And…flashed back to a comment made by Odd Fellow P. when I’d seen him earlier that day, yesterday – that I’d certainly gotten leaner, even since I’d last seen him – true enough, true to my plan to drop some weight…
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…and then, done with the blog yesterday morning, had a choice: drop off the DVD for ‘The Magnificent Seven’ at the library first, or go to St. Anthony’s? It was already one in the afternoon, and the free Catholic lunch ended at half past that hour…
Well, walked past Max’s Opera Café – seems like it’s always busy…my Former Lady Roommate liked that place a bit, I remember…heard the employees sometimes approach a table and begin singing, maybe for birthdays…
And there was Chevy’s, the Mexican restaurant – aforementioned FLR and I had eaten at that one a few times, as well as at the other location near the Metreon South of Market. Yeah, back then wasn’t eating at no St. Anthony’s, no – she was always great about paying for restaurant meals for the both of us…
…and next to City Hall, a statue of one Hall McAllister, one of the Founding Fathers of San Francisco, or at least one of the big men in its past, one of the greats for whom a street is named…but a sorta funny first name – if a hall were named after him, it’d be Hall McAllister Hall. And engraved on a sign beneath, words of tribute, including: “LEARNED ABLE ELOQUENT”, and also “A COURTEOUS FOE”…and “A REAL BASTARD” – no, just kidding on that last one…
…and kept moving east – decided I had plenty of time to get the DVD back to the library before heading to “Tony’s”…and to my right, venerable City Hall – guess Gavin Newsom was in there attending to mayoral business, good man…
…and at the northeastern corner of Civic Center Plaza, vendor for Annie’s Hot Dogs. Reminded of the Ignatius J. Reilly character in the very, very funny novel ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’, who worked once at a similar New Orleans cart and ate up all the merchandise…
…and along and in the lawn of the plaza, several women sunning themselves in the lunchtime warmth…and an S.F.P.D. beat cop came walking along and near him, a mommy holding a little baby up to a tree, having the baby pat the trunk…
And into the library – when passing the Project Read office for adult literacy I went in and asked for one of their nifty triangular purple pens, and got one. Am always a bit apprehensive about doing this since one time I was turned down by the clerk there…
…and returned the DVD – gotta get, at some time, to the “Special Features”, including a documentary about the making of the great Western that I’d not seen before, plus interviews with the stars…
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…and leaving, me, scanning for the noteworthy…several coming in as I departed…recalled something I’d heard on the radio about how some national security people are plugging their brains directly into computers so that they can more quickly and precisely scan tapes of people who might pose a terrorist threat. None of those approaching seemed to fit that category…
…and heading toward the free lunch – woman hobbling with one crutch, and one knee tightly wrapped. Now, I had recently hurt my left knee and calf, but this lady was ‘really’ injured…
And got to St. Anthony’s – orzo with beef on the menu – that first thing being a form of pasta in a distinctive shape…guy in line in front of me with serious tattoos, gang-related, I reckoned – not one to mess with, not a mellow sort of fellow…and for some reason thought back to a word I’d heard Elle MacPherson use about herself during an infomercial for a home Pilates machine: “intrinsically”. She’d used that adverb in terms of being lazy…
And got my tray, found a seat…added a portion of the beefy orzo from a discarded tray to my own…and the guy sitting in front of me musta noticed my appetite and so gave me two bags with sandwiches, small bags of Lay’s chips, and other goodies…mighty kind of him…and next to me, a very fat woman who wasn’t, it truly seemed, one to skip meals. I mean, this lady was about as obese an individual as ever I’d seen – to the extent that even Federico Fellini, casting for a movie, might’ve felt that she was just too monstrous even for his, uh, Fellini-eque vision of humanity…and the guy she was conversing with was over-the-top in his own way, talking really loud, a true triumph of style over substance…
…and then, that meal done, had a twenty minute wait until seeing Odd Fellow brother P., who’d said in an e-mail that I should stop by the lodge hall…so to U.N. Plaza – no market there that day, yesterday, Tuesday…and I sought my place among the gathered low-lifes seated there, a United Nations of the down-and-out…
…and decided on a place to sit my butt, not many people around…checked out the goods in the brown paper bags: two peanut butter sandwiches, two turkey ones, two small bags of Lay’s Classic chips, two portions each of mayonnaise and mustard, two Famous Amos cookie packs, and a tropical punch drink…
…and changed seats – more comfortable on the steps beneath the Simon Bolivar statue, and had it all to myself as well – and didn’t have to squat like I did at the previous place – my left knee still complains at too much bending…and further, it was out of the wind more. There was even a penny there. And first down my throat, the chips. Been lovin’ those plain potato chips since I was a child…
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…requested some Bruce Sterling science fiction through the library’s electronic catalog, but don’t think I’ll be getting into him much, this after reading the beginning of his recent novel ‘The Zenith Angle’. Thought I’d like him due to my great love for the work of his colleague William Gibson, but I don’t think it’s gonna be that way. Too much science in his fiction, and didn’t like his characters too much. Gonna give ‘Schismatrix’ a try, tho’, since Gibson has recommended it so highly, but I’m not holding forth a whole lotta hope for it, frankly, my dear…
…and also there at the library two days ago, Monday the 24th of July of two-thousand-6, another kung fu book I’d requested for Vic, one of the hotel front desk guys. Over the last few weeks have obtained for him from the library over a dozen texts on the subject. He seems to be and mostly likely is a serious student of the martial arts, so I was glad to bring these to him, give him material to occupy him well during his shift at the desk…
…and coming back north up Hyde from the library, there’s an unusual-looking fellow in a white top hat and related hippie-ish garb, fists on hips, looking over to the other side of the street at something in a spirit of amusement. Peculiar character, like outta the Love Parade, but that day it was a parade of one…
…and a bit later, a standard Tenderloin scene – there was a little box out there that a guy was checking out. Earlier, on the way ‘to’ the library, had seen someone else checking it out as well. And I myself had a passing thought to look and see what was in it, but desisted from that impulse…
…and near the hotel, guy who lives there, D., asking if I could “help him out”. Didn’t have money…he wanted food – told him I had none, just some oatmeal that had been sitting out for a while in my room. He was asking the wrong person, at the wrong time. Held up the books I’d just gotten from the library, told him I ‘did’ have some food for thought, but that quip was lost on him…
…and outside, there was P., who’d previously been homeless for many months but is still, I gathered, residing in a hotel room he’d managed to secure elsewhere in the Tenderloin. Hadn’t seen him for a coupla weeks…asked him to look out for a bicycle and a cassette boom box for me – would take those when I had money in about a week. Previously he’d secured both of those for me…
…and he asked me if I knew about the Ventures, the musical group…told him I figured they were some sort of Beach Boys clone from the Sixties, perhaps – he’d had a cassette by them and was curious…and: he also related something about problems he’d been having with some landlord around the corner – that man didn’t want him hanging around outside his building, I think it was. Apparently P. had
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threatened to kill the man and his family, so frustrated was he by this infringement
on his supposed territorial rights. And apparently P. had violated a stay away order and had come with fifty yards of the man…
…and was in D.’s room for a while, then E. comes around, saying he had some chicken for me…took a while for him to get back…D. had given me two bucks and change for wine – he’d recently sold prescribed painkillers for several bucks – so E. and I went to a corner market to get a Boone’s Farm Sangria, then up to my room to hang out a while, chatting about religion, movies, the usual, splitting that bottle in half. Didn’t take any voice notes during this time, so the conversation is, perhaps thankfully, lost to history…
…well, one thing he mentioned – he nearly got arrested for shoplifting at an Embarcadero Center perfume store – something told him to refrain from the act, just after which an undercover officer stopped and sweated him. E. said the same officer had busted him previously for petty theft. Well, says E., the officer looked through a personal calendar he had taken from him and saw a receipt for a donation E.’d made to a church, as well as a picture of Jesus – he figured this showed the officer that E. wasn’t totally without morals and then let him go…
…and then it was the next day, yesterday…heading to the Western Addition computer center I like…had to spit repeatedly after brushing my teeth with some chemical-laden toothpaste…sure gotta get some natural stuff from, like, Rainbow, when money gets here in six days…
…and passed the drive-in entrance to the Burger King on the west side of Van Ness. Flashed back to a noteworthy fellow I used to work with, one Seamus, a Texas skinhead, tho’ of the non-racist variety, he averred – that is, that he “affirmed with confidence”…I’d been in his pick-up truck one day a few years ago and we pulled into that very drive-in and he bought me something to eat…
…and as I walked had in my mind a part of a song, Joni Mitchell’s “Sweet Bird”…and crossing Eddy at Franklin, the green go-light on the intersection sign had one little portion missing so it resembled a gobbling Pac Man – couldn’t tell if that was someone’s deliberate prank or not…
…and was in the computer center from nearly 10:30 to 1 in the afternoon and got three postings done, six pages, focused work, mostly relating details about the Tim Leary autobiography I’d just read. And looked up to the sun and enjoyed the warmth on my eyelids, despite the anti-solar admonitions of my friend Cathead…and at the small of my back, the DVD for ‘The Magnificent Seven’ – had to get it back to the library – last day before buck-a-day late fines began…
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…and more from handwritten notes on cards from some while back:
…recommended to myself William Hope Hodgson’s ‘The House on the Borderland’, from 19-oh-8…available at the Borderlands bookstore on Valencia, last time I checked…
And a line of iambic pentameter related to the Grateful Dead: “…theatrical, entrained, Hart’s rhythm sticks…”
And: a note about ‘More Than Human’, the Theodore Sturgeon science fiction novel, and ‘Baby is Three’, the name of a collection of the guy’s short stories…
And more poetry: “…biography, sweet, controversial…”
And: noted “the oldest dim sum place in San Francisco” – so says the result of a Google search…it’s the Hang Ah, at Pagoda Place, in Chinatown…Sacramento and Stockton are the cross streets…think I went there once with my Former Lady Roommate…
And a line of poetry about the author of the ‘Delta of Venus’ and ‘Little Birds’ erotica collections, as well as the voluminous diary: “…between the songs, embedded, Anais…”
And then something I noticed at some socialist bookstore, probably in the Mission – a sign announcing “Free Literature!” – and there were Martin Luther King, Che, and Malcolm X photos in the window…
And more poetry: “…detective talent, local media…”
And a sentence from somewhere I didn’t specify: “…useful suggestions improve the stylistic consistency…”
And: Ralph Gleason, the San Francisco music critic…his comments on the Jefferson Airplane…his book ‘The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound’ is held in reserve at the main branch of the library, last time I checked. One that would surely be ripped right off were it not so protected..
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And another Grateful Dead-related line of iambic pentameter: “…Nicasio,
for Jerry, not for George…” Not sure which “George” this refers to…
…and thanks to Google for helping me with a name on a note – it was basically about Dylan, but wrote also “Collis” – didn’t remember what this meant – Googled – it refers to John Collis, I’m pretty sure, the author of a book about Van Morrison, ‘Inarticulate Speech of the Heart’, wherein Dylan’s mentioned…
And more poetry: “…Moroccan tangerines for Bill and Paul…” The two names refer, I think, to William Burroughs and Paul Bowles…
And noted a favorite Seventies song of mine, used in Tom Laughlin’s ‘Billy Jack’, Coven’s “One Tin Soldier”…
And more poetry: “…modernity’s not what it used to be…”
And from that Morrison (Van, that is) biography: said to be “rude, uncooperative, graceless” on some appearance on Irish television…
More poetry: “…McLuhan’s comprehensive influence…”
And: “…invited, crowding Berkeley radicals…”
And: “…good place for these, like Franklin’s axioms…”
And: “…fine music, pop, precise, no opiates…”
And: “…eleven windows speak of symmetry…”
And names listed of some topics to study: Paul Bowles, Arthur C. Clarke, Richard Brautigan, Dick Cavett, Dick Gregory…
…and noted a place at the Mission branch of the library where I used to type stuff out at, called “the Tutor Room”…and other names listed: Paul Krassner, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Hunter – a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, the main one…and a book’s name: ‘Special Illumination: the Sufi Use of Humor’…
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