Bukowski's home probably not safe at all, actually (1 Viewer)

No it was a dream, a vision, a Samuel L Jackson moment of clarity. I wish I could write that well. My poor dog will never be the same he didn't sleep worth a damn last night.
It must have been that spicy chicken sandwich and Dr. Pepper.
 
Thank you, Sir, we bare our souls here. I'm thinking about facing 5124 Delongpre when I say the rosary.
Thank you for bringing Bukowski to Vancouver.
 
i agree with the preservation side of things. i think there is a rationalization for why any particular landmark is meaningless, and if we accept them all, then we'll have no physical history whatsoever. i'm sure i'll draw fire for this, and i know that bukowski lives on in his words and not his physical residence, but i don't think it's ludicrous to argue that dedicating a place, a specific physical location, where his memory is inscribed and protected, has a special significance both for that author, his fans, and the city that is very much a part of his writing.

also, rubyred just made two fantastic points, and in case she doesn't post them, i'm going to paraphrase her.
1. people who don't care about preservation have the option of ignoring delongpre completely. people who do care don't have that option; for them, if it is torn down, they will have lost something special to them. but it being preserved doesn't hurt the anti-preservationists at all*. So why the drive to "bring the wrecking ball already"? just pretend it has already been knocked down, or know in your own mind that it's an inevitability, but i think it's a waste of energy to come out against it so vocally.
* the counterargument here is the whole nazi thing; that he will forever be associated with that stink. even if that were 100% true, i still think his readership would grow, and the people who would dismiss him outright as a result of it are the type of fucking morons we always make fun of on this forum to begin with. isn't there a general disdain here for dumb critics and those who flock to snap-judgements? so who really cares if those people villainize bukowski?

2. what's the difference between ascribing special importance to his residence and special importance to his signature? in reality, most of his signed books he just signed a page out of a stack and sent them to john martin. or, he scrawled something off when the book was put in front of him and never gave it another thought. what's so great about that? is it that I, the possessor of the signed book, have something that has bukowski's mark, something special that i can't really articulate, and that certainly doesn't make sense to most people. so why is it acceptable for a book, a material object, to be infused with that "whatever-it-is" and made more special as a result, but not a physical location? i hadn't thought of this previously, but i think RR makes a really interesting argument.
 
I will say that it seems odd to have a 30 yard roll off for some minor renovations on a bungalow.
I briefly owned a rubbish removal business; truck, roll-off containers etc...

Everyday you're hauling away bits of someone's life...usually one that changed abruptly or ended badly...

A tresasurer trove for a writer. All the stories in one place...saves you from crawling down the alleys.
 
Yes Thank you for that.
I for one get excited about being in a place with history or being close to a great historical creation. That being the place where he created so much has a certain spiritual power that many would derive a power or inspiration from. So that makes the place sacred to a degree and I should respect that.

I still want to go down there and take the windows, tiles, plaster and dig up some dirt , but I'm sure Hindinwood will have armed thugs there to lynch me.
;)
 
I still want to go down there and take the windows, tiles, plaster and dig up some dirt , but I'm sure Hindinwood will have armed thugs there to lynch me.
;)
Noooo, but I would meet you at the gate with a pint of Early Times...

Jordan, you summed up everything I have been trying to say for the last several months so beautifully! Nine years is a long time to live anywhere...
 
The wrecking ball is just a way of saying: "please, stop this useless discussion, we've been here before". Personally, I don't give a damn whether they tear it down tomorrow, they burn it down, they vandalize it, they refurbish it into a nice bungalow or they let it rot untouched for a million years.
 
i didn't mean to impugn you directly, cirerereita- i just kind of picked up your line as a blanket generalization of the position i was arguing against... but now i'm worried that mjp is going to make a fool of me with his scythe-like wit and piss-vinegar cocktails.

at least i was just quoting rubyred, who was telling me the other day how much she likes paintings of girls with giant heads and oversized eyes...
 
at least i was just quoting rubyred, who was telling me the other day how much she likes paintings of girls with giant heads and oversized eyes...
OMG! I luv those 2!

1. people who don't care about preservation have the option of ignoring delongpre completely.
If you go back to the beginning of all this (and only a masochist would do that) my question was always (and remains) what the motivation of the preservationists was, and if it was at all possibly financial.

For the 50th time, I am FOR preserving as much of Los Angeles as possible. If you want to drive around looking at it through the windows of a tour bus, good for you. If it's one thing our streets need, it's more tour buses!

2. what's the difference between ascribing special importance to his residence and special importance to his signature?
None. To me. Personally, a book that I did not hand to him to sign has a worthless signature in it. But the book collecting world disagrees with us, so we are stuck with this standard.

I once asked Montfort about the value of a certain Bukowski book I had (this was after a few hours of conversation and he had been pretty upbeat the whole time - you know, except when the subject of "The Widow" came up). He turned sour and looked away from me and said, "If it isn't signed by the man it isn't worth shit! You may as well throw it away!"

As for the building, since I did not know or visit him at DeLongpre, that building has no personal resonance with to me. It's just another rotting Hollywood court apartment. I can see how others who did visit there would have a much different feeling about it.
 
there's a hell of a lot of financial motivation in buying and selling signed bukowski books, regardless of how significant the signature is to the person doing the buying and selling.
 
there's a hell of a lot of financial motivation in buying and selling signed bukowski books, regardless of how significant the signature is to the person doing the buying and selling.
There is indeed, and it is only one of the many things about book collecting/selling/buying that has always mystified me.

Though I understand and appreciate "association" signatures, and understand why they are valuable. But to me, I don't get the appeal of a signed colophon or whatever. I just think of him sitting at his desk with a giant stack of paper in front of him signing away and frankly it kind of depresses me.

But then I have pretty bad cold/flu right now, so I may just be hallucinating.
 
I received an e-mail saying the Carlton Way building is in danger of being destroyed as well...I don't know if that's true or not; I haven't been by in awhile. It wouldn't surprise me, as that part of Hollywood is "coming up", in the parlance of the yuppie locals.



A TRUE fanatic would move into the apartment building on Mariposa.It still retains some of its former seedy working-class glory: last I saw there was a nice big banner advertising vacancies, and the place seemed to be fairly teeming with Salvadoran refugees, young Mexican families, and chain-smoking Russians. Jumbo's Clown Room is nearby. And I'll bet the rooms are cheap(for Hollywood).
 
A TRUE fanatic would move into the apartment building on Mariposa.It still retains some of its former seedy working-class glory: last I saw there was a nice big banner advertising vacancies, and the place seemed to be fairly teeming with Salvadoran refugees, young Mexican families, and chain-smoking Russians. Jumbo's Clown Room is nearby. And I'll bet the rooms are cheap(for Hollywood).

Those neighbors would be fun to live around. Nothing worse than pretentious people. Give me the REAL people anyday....

Bill
 
Just read this short article in the San Francisco Chronicle
Datebook Section E page E8

Backing Bukowski

LOS ANGELES- The owner of a Los Angeles bungalow court that was once home to poet Charles Bukowski has been stopped from doing unpermitted work on the historically protected buildings.
The City Council voted in February to give landmark status to the east Hollywood bungalow court, where Bukowski lived from 1963 to 1972. The designation requires the owner to get special approval to make alterations.

:):)
Wish we were all a monied lot and could pitch in and buy it from the fucker...
Now that would be cool.
 

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