I have to check Factotum. I know I’ve read this episode elsewhere and written differently, but it seems like it’s always connected to the Philly bar.
Life of a Bum mentions the guy called Monk who gets his haircut, gets pushed in front of a bus. Monk is also mentioned elsewhere.
Portions of a Wine Stained Notebook. Page 188:
Just Passing Through.
Any mention of that bar, Tommy or Jim the bartenders, Monk, laying in the park under the statue, are scenes from his early days in Philly.
Sometimes those early crazy years can be hazy in memory. I know mine are. I wonder if Buk mixed up Pershing Sq and some Philly Park intentionally or if it was simply the confusing veil of half-memory that misplaced the statue of the Bee.
Pershing Square...About 25 years ago they ripped it up and poured concrete over most of it, so now it's more of a square than a park. I never knew Beethoven was in there.
In NYC they have done the opposite. Parks that used to be paved over are now dug up and planted with wild grasses and flowers like you’d see in some meadow. It’s nice, and I’m sure theres some sort of benefit environmentally, but it lacks some of the guts and glamour of the old days. I’m thinking mostly of Washington Sq., Union Sq., and Madison Sq.
It's interesting (for me) that he mentions Beethoven in almost all of his books
One of my favorite poems is
The Bull in
The Roominghouse Madrigals.
The Bull was better than Brahms
As good as Beethoven.
Expressing the belief that Beethoven had been original and Brahms had been less so, in that Brahms was derivative of Beethoven.