Bukowski-Society-Symposium and -yearbook (1 Viewer)

Two good news:


(1)
The symposium of the Charles-Bukowski-Society will be on the weekend of August 20.-22. in Andernach.

Speaking guests will be ABEL DEBRITTO and DAVID CALONNE. (and I)
On Fri evening will be a screening of a German Buk-docmentary and Barfly. Sat evening will be a concert by a jazzy ensemble who put Bukowski-lyrics into music. [insert useless rant here]

On Sat afternoon, between the addresses and the band, there will be a celebration of Bukowskis 90th birthday, together with free drinks, a press conference, Hanks cousin Heinrich Fett, etc.


(2)
With a short delay of only one half year, the yearbook of the society for 2009 is at the printer now!

Amongst our contributors are
David Calonne
Jocelyne Desforges & Jan Hallers
Abel Debritto
David Barker
a certain Mr. Phillips
Pamela Wood
 
On Fri evening will be a screening of a German Buk-docmentary and Barfly.
Übercool, Roni! I haven't watched Barfly yet! Will it be in a movie theatre?

And congrats for the yearbook!
 
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Will the non-guests have to pay for attending all the events you mentionned or will everything be free even for them?

Is there a bookshop in Andernach where one can find plenty of Buk books in English?
 
There is a library in Andernach which is supposed to have a Bukowski-corner, if I remember correctly. But I've never been there.
 
Will the non-guests have to pay for attending all the events you mentionned or will everything be free even for them?

Everything will be free, except for the evening-concert. They're five musicians travelling from Mannheim and need to get payed. So this event will cost you 10.- if you please.


Is there a bookshop in Andernach where one can find plenty of Buk books in English?

I've only been once in a bookstore in Andernach and can't remember anything that would make one guess, Bukowski could be related to the city in any way.
If you know, which titles you're interested in, I can bring them and sell 'em to you.

Johannes: The so-called Bukowski-corner in the city library contains of one single rack with mostly German translations. It's better for your health to avoid seeing this 'Bukowski-corner'. You might get very badly sick.
 
We would - if we could afford it.
At the moment we aren't able to pay flights from the US. (David is in Germany anyway, that's why we're able to have him here and he is an excellent choice as is Abel.)
Maybe in later years, we'll be able to fly in guests from the US. I hope so.
 
Thanks to both of you for your answers!

Johannes, I am not interested in leafing through Buk books in a library since I would like to buy some books so as to bring them home.

Roni, no problem for the concert.
Concerning the books, there is one I am sure to want: Shakespeare never did this. But don't bring me a rare specimen that will cost me 1000 euros :D, a very common edition will perfectly suit me! For the rest, I will tell you later, I need to look at a Buk bibliography.

Wont you guys fly-in MJP, as a special guest from Amerika?
Leave him alone; this summer, he is far too busy reading Suri Cruise's forbidden bio in three volumes and doesn't want to be disturbed during this thrilling activity.
 
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By the way @ Ambreen, I just remembered that I bought my copies of Notes of a Dirty Old Man and Erections at Shakespeare & Co. at 37 rue de la Bûcherie in 75005 Paris when I was there in 2005 or 2006.

You probably know about this much better than I, but just in case you don't, they had some quite huge shelves full of Bukowski books in English. I remember, I was surprised how many there were and I thought, Bukowski must sell quite well in Paris.
 
Yes I know Shakespeare & Company, I have been there several times and I met Black Swan for the first time in front of it. The last time I went there, there were indeed plenty of Buk books, but most of them were the ones I had already read and the remaining ones were mostly essays or bios on Buk. And I don't find this bookshop as extraordinary as it is often described... Last week-end, I visited many bookstores, and it was the same situation: they mainly have the novels and some short stories collections, which I have already read. And I have noticed that most of the Buk books currently available in the Parisian bookstores are edited by Virgin Books and have quite awful covers that make them look like porn books... yuck.

Roni, thanks for the links toward the C. B. Gesellschaft's e-bookshop! I can see there is a lot of choice! I will look at the list more precisely and will send you by e-mail the titles I want. :)
 
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Shakespeare & Co was probably very exciting about 90-50 years ago. Now it's rather touristy, of course, but still it has a lot of atmosphere, I thought. There was some big cat sleeping on a stack of books, when I was there. I liked that. It doesn't need much with me.

So you are looking for rather rare titles in English, Ambreen?
 
Not necessarily; I want to read titles I haven't read yet, whether rare or not.

I returned in S. & C. this morning! Initially, I wanted to spend some hours in the Louvre but there was a three hour long waiting line when I arrived there (only one hour after the opening...) so I gave up and began strolling aimlessly through the streets till I reached Notre Dame and suddenly thought of S. & C. which is just near it. There were one short stories collection and two poetry collections that I had not read, but they cost more than the books proposed by Roni's bookshop, ha! It's not "rather touristy", it's completely touristy! I have never heard one client speaking in French, everybody speaks in English and when you approach a person working here to ask a question, the person always says "Yes?". And no big cat sleeping on books today, but some inscriptions on papers stick on shelves that made me smile, like for instance "HOWL if you love (symbolised by a heart) City Lights books".
 
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I love bookstores and taverns that are cat-friendly. At Myopic Books here in Chicago, a grey/brown tabby named Leonard hangs out in the Gardening/Cooking section. You know, just in case any actual food-growing or cooking takes place there. Smart cat.
 
These were three great days, thank you to everybody! :):):)

(Though it was sometimes a bit oppressive to be in the middle of people speaking a language I don't understand!:eek:)

Roni, you should really include an Andernach tour in the program for the next time! Barbara showed me the Rhine and a couple of interesting historical things, she would be a wonderful guide!

And I'm so elated to have four not yet read Buk books all at once! :D
 
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Yes yes yes, it was a great time, as always!

1000 thanks to everybody and especially to roni, who is putting so much work into this.
 
"[All of a sudden] I'm popular. Maybe I ought to run for City Council."

no, seriously:
it was a VERY good weekend, seeing you (again) and having these great speakers, having the celebration at the house of birth, etc.

I'm really happy, everything turned out to work so well.
You never know, before it happens. So, I was under electricity all the time till Saturday night, when everything had turned out to work smooth.

Will post pictures soon.
 
Mr. David S. Calonne holding his address:

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our Johannes (left of him: Heinrich Fett, the cousin of Hank, son of 'uncle Hein'):

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Ambreen has sent me her pics

- here are some


Hanks cousin Heinrich Fett & Ambreen:

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Ambreen & Johannes in front of the house-of-birth:

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The owners of the house-of-birth & Ambreen:

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David S. Calonne & Ambreen:

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more screenshots feeding my ego

.


holding my address:

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here I am with the city major Achim Hütten and Hanks cousin Heinrich Fett:

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and here I'm talking about the plans with our museum right there in his house of birth:

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Topic of my address were the similarities of Bukowski with Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.
Nothing new to you folks here, but most of the attendants didn't know much about it.


My talk in the house of birth was about the museum.
 
Johannes has changed since last year. He's got the arms of a bouncer.

That's fat.

It's a pity you and Black Swan couldn't make it this year.

The wife of the house owner even led Ambreen, Frank from the Bukowski-society and myself upstairs to the flat were Bukowski was born. That was very nice from her because she and her family are now living in there. Although probably not even the view out of the windows was the same as 90 years ago. Still, very interesting. And the wine was free there, at the birth house. Sponsored by the one and only Sparkasse Andernach! And it was good stuff too. I think you would have liked it.
 
That's fat.
That's fat that doesn't look like fat. You see I'm not the only one to have noticed them, they're really impressive super-hero looking arms.

The wife of the house owner even led Ambreen, Frank from the Bukowski-society and myself upstairs to the flat were Bukowski was born.
We saw the room. We saw the room! WE SAW THE ROOM!
We were the three Chosen Ones! ;)

The whole thing must have been pretty cool. I hope I can make it next year and be there.
Don't forget to bring Zoe, there were too few women there! I'm curious to know what a 5 year old girl thinks of Bukowski. And I'll babysit her while you'll be busy drinking pints with the other dudes.

Here are some other ones, from David's address and the ceremony in the House of birth:

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I will later post some pictures of Hank's, the band we listened to on Saturday evening.
 
I was upstairs, too. I joked a bit with the lady and told her that I could feel the Bukowski spirit in the air, and that the spirit would take good care of her... eventually. She said, "no, no way". And I said, "just be patient. It will happen." She looked at me uncomfortably, not knowing what to say. Understandably.

Then she made me learn a few words in German, which was quite useful as I can't say shit in German.
 
Maybe she was afraid that you would crack out your ouija board or however you spell that and start hunting down some truly post mortem and unpublished Bukowski stuff right there.

If somebody could do that, it would definitly be you ;)
 
I was upstairs, too. I joked a bit with the lady and told her that I could feel the Bukowski spirit in the air, and that the spirit would take good care of her... eventually. She said, "no, no way". And I said, "just be patient. It will happen." She looked at me uncomfortably, not knowing what to say. Understandably.
Johannes translated to me that they didn't know Bukowski before buying the house, they thus didn't buy it purposely. After they learnt that a famous writer was born there, they read some of his books but didn't come to dig him. The man was astounded that a young woman came in Andernach alone from France just for Bukowski, he found it unbelievable that I could love Bukowski to such an extent. His amazement was quite funny.


The band Hank's (they put some Buk poems into music, performed one in the house and then gave a gig in a bar):

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(Roni just introduced the band, he didn't perform with them! :D)

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Some pictures of the house and of a little exhibition located in the city hall, just near the meeting room where the addresses were made:

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No pictures of Abel's address because he showed us some confidential things!

That's all folks!
 
Nice pics! Thanks, Ambreen.

Nice little exhibition at the Town hall. I think they should've filled the ashtray with bidi butts and the beer mug with beer, though. ;)
 
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Johannes translated to me that they didn't know Bukowski before buying the house, they thus didn't buy it purposely. After they learnt that a famous writer was born there, they read some of his books but didn't come to dig him. The man was astounded that a young woman came in Andernach alone from France just for Bukowski, he found it unbelievable that I could love Bukowski to such an extent. His amazement was quite funny.

In his speech the house owner told a story about a group of Japanese suddenly stopping by and wanting to see the room where Bukowski was born, when he didn't even know yet who Bukowski was ;)

And the wife of the house owner told me that when Ambreen first visited the house and took some pictures outside, some local woman walked by and said something like: "Me, I can't stand this Bukowski!"

I get the impression that the feelings concerning Bukowski are kind of mixed in Andernach. Not to insult anyone, they are all very nice people, at least the ones I met, but I think some of them are not too happy about him and his books. How could you say this diplomatically, if the new German avantgarde is about to rise from its cradle, it's very unlikely that this cradle will be Andernach, I think. But you could say this about a lot of towns, of course.

So I think it is a very good thing that especially you guys, Ambreen and David and Abel, came to visit the town (and hopefully will continue to do so). Even if you are not doing anything but just standing there, it gives the people something to think about. Like "How comes this dirty old drunkard with his filthy sex stories gets people coming all the way from France and Spain and maybe even Japan to visit his house of birth??"

It helps the cause, I think.
 
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