UPDATED
The latest installment of my ten-part L.A. noir parody, Crumbling Slowly Down to the Ocean, continues at L.A. Taco. Part Five is titled At the Philosopher’s Ball:
The tall albino jabbed his pool cue down to the floor. “I’m sick and tired of you polluting the universe with your abstract philosophy. Screw Spinoza and Nietzsche. You got a problem with me, motherfucker, you address it directly, and not in the form of abstract philosophy!”
“This kind of talk always bores me,” Evelyn whispered into my ear. Her lips were so close to me I could feel the heat from the hot maple syrup she poured over her pancakes that morning. Something hard and cold and metal tickled my ribs but not in a funny way. She nearly took my breath away.
Read the entire installment here.
UPDATE:
I wrote a new Ray story for Scot Young’s poetry blog. It’s called Bluebird and is inspired by a Bukowski poem of the same name.
And in a page from the I Wish I Was Back in L.A. file, actor-director Tim Robbins and the Actors Gang staged a brilliant reading of Orwell’s 1984 at the Redcat on Saturday night. Terrific review by Lindsay William-Ross Roger Park at LAist here.
Oneline storefront for Mr. Bukowski’s Wild Ride coming soon.
Spinoza and Nietzsche are good, top-drawer philosophers that would probably lay at antipodes on an ethics spectrum of philosophers; one’s ultraviolet, the other’s infrared. Both are invisible to most.
Buddha is closer to Spinoza. The dwarf’s comment is apt and deft. The conversation is typical of the Roost.
“…a bang, a thud, and a low roll…”–yes! A red eight? Is that another game I don’t know? Ordinarily the three is the red one, and the eleven the red stripe.
I might have had the Hollies’ Long Cool Woman on the jukebox, because I can almost hear it in the story, but Brenda Lee is far more in the spirit parody noir.
By: joseph on July 1, 2008
at 3:19 pm
Ordinarily the three is the red one, and the eleven the red stripe.
He’s an unreliable narrator, JM. Also, the Hollies is a good choice but too spot-on.
The conversation is typical of the Roost.
I knew I heard that conversation somewhere before.
By: Rodger Jacobs on July 1, 2008
at 3:31 pm
More stories should involve albinos.
I will read this soon!!!
Soon!!!
Geesh. I didn’t even take a lunch today. Thank goodness for 3 day weekends.
By: Julie Scott on July 1, 2008
at 9:18 pm
I think that review is by Roger Park, only posted by Lindsay.
By: joseph on July 2, 2008
at 10:27 am
You’re correct, Joseph. An amendment has been made above.
By: Rodger Jacobs on July 2, 2008
at 10:35 am
Roger, sorry this post is off topic, but I wanted to say I was at Vesuvio last weekend and thought of you. I hear there’s new book just out, so I’m looking forward to getting it. I hope all’s well.
By: Lee H. on July 22, 2008
at 7:29 am
Thanks for stopping by, Lee. Yes, the book is at City Lights and available at the usual outlets online: Amazon, Barnes and Noble …
By: Rodger Jacobs on July 22, 2008
at 8:47 am
excellent! congratulations on it, rodger.
By: Lee H. on July 22, 2008
at 6:23 pm
Thank you, Lee. I may be out to North Beach for a few days in October for the 60th anniversary of Vesuvio.
By: Rodger Jacobs on July 23, 2008
at 10:26 am