Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Richard Feynman: Rules of Chess

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Birth of the Ramones

"One day I got a phone call and Johnny and Dee Dee asked me if I wanted to join their band. I said, 'Yeah.'"
—Joey Ramone, quoted in Please Kill Me, The Uncensored Oral History of Punk [1996]

Monday, April 20, 2009

J. G. Ballard [1930-2009]

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Role Model

"In the old days, believe it or not, a junkie used to be a role model of a sort. He'd be on the corner draped down with his Italian silk suit, his handmade shoes, his Stetson or his specially made hat that had to be handled just so and tilted just right; and with his new car, and his old lady by his side wearing just this side of Bergdorf Goodman. She didn't have quite that much taste, but she was glamorous in some way. This man's there to collect from one of the local dealers in the area and when he steps out of that car the kids stop and stare. 'Wow, man, that cat's made it. Look at him, look at his old lady—man, wouldn't you like some of that.' That whole bullshit trip.

Now, of course, that kind of attraction is gone. No one like that comes around anymore. No more of the glamorous chick or the shiny new car. Even if they wanted it, they couldn't have it. No more of the best for that man . . ."
—Herbert Huncke, Guilty of Everything, 1990

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Rapper Samples Bukowski

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Shadows

"Nobody's perfect. There was never a perfect person around. You just got half-devil and half-angel in you. She promised herself she'd lead a good life from now on. She blamed it all on herself. She didn't care if she was happy or not. She just wanted to make up for what she did wrong. The sun looks ghostly when there's a mist on the river and everything's quiet. I never knowed it before. You could see people on the shore but it was far off and you couldn't see what they were doing. They were probably calling for help or something or they were trying to bury somebody or something. We seen trees that the leaves are shaking and it looks like shadows of guys coming at you and stuff. We heard owls squawking away, hooting away. We didn't know where we were going, what we were going to do. I've never been on a boat before. That was the first time. Some sights that I saw was really spooky that it gave me goose pimples. I felt like cold hands touching the back of my neck and, and it could be the dead coming for me or something. I remember this guy, his name was Black Jack. He died. He only had one leg and he died. And I think that was Black Jack making those noises."
Days of Heaven [1978]

Friday, April 03, 2009

Trivial Pursuits

“There is no upside to aging, save for that you stop giving a fuck about the trivial pursuits. The ding in the car door, the stain on your shirt. Who gives a bleeding shit—I have real problems. And the real problems I will see in ten years as pointless . . . They call it settling down when it's usually settling for less . . . I don't want to be young again. I have a hard time accepting that I'm as stupid as I am now, much less what an idiot I was back then. I don't want to be young, I just want people my age to stop being so fucking old. I want to see a room full of people my age full to their throat on Ecstasy and wine, not aware or caring that it's a weeknight. I want you to come out of retirement and be alive again.

You are a professional now, you can't behave like that anymore. You are a cop, a stockholder, a leader, a captain of industry. Even people in my own field who became 'successful' and immediately panicked and started walking the straight 'n narrow out of fear of losing status. You could be using that status to find new and inventive ways of fucking around. You know we're dead at the end of this, right?

If you are reading this and your age begins with a 4—chances are you are in a position of medium authority. So do me a favor . . . Fuck something up a little. Tell your kids the truth about at least one thing you've lied about. Steal something. Fuck someone ugly. Skip work and get drunk at noon at a tittie bar. Prank call your higher-ups in the middle of the night and tape it. Remember what a shithead the young you would think you are and change it a little."
Doug Stanhope

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Cold Busted



"I missed you so much I followed you today
That's right now close your mouth
'Cause you cold busted
Now just sit down here, sit down here
I'm so upset with you I don't know what to do
You know my first impulse was to run up on you
And do a Rambo
I was about to jam you and flat blast both of you
But I didn't wanna mess up
this thirty-seven hundred dollar lynx coat
So instead I chilled . . . That's right chilled"
—Oran "Juice" Jones, "The Rain"

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Television

"I can't watch TV longer than five minutes without praying for nuclear holocaust. Really. On my hands and knees, wishing it upon every one of you. That's how much I love TV. Think it's great. I watched 'The Love Connection.' That's gotta be the most depressing show I've ever seen in my life. Adult human beings on national television, groveling for dates. Have some self-respect: stay home and jerk off, man. Guys, buy a Hustler, toss off a load, go about your fucking day, all right? Have some dignity."
Bill Hicks