"I don't like the idea of his archive going to a university because they get stuck in these nooks and crannies where only 10 people a year see them and then go back to those places where they get dusty and forgotten about."
If she really believes that she should get the stick out of her ass about this site, because without it, all you'd have are those dusty nooks and crannies. FTW.
She can have funding and planning set up, but until someone tries to open a house on that street to the public - even if it's one day a week - they don't know if it will fly. She knows the people down there. She has to know how they would react to that. But I suppose if you got the right politician involved you could force anything down anyone's throat. I just don't think it will be easy. You guys who have been there know what I mean. It's not an ideal place for a museum. In an urban setting like New York or a big European city you can have a semi-commercial place on a residential block. But most of California is not set up that way. You couldn't park three cars in front of Bukowski's house without making the neighbors grumble.
I think I just hate the idea of a Bukowski museum. That's my problem (among other things). It's like the Rock and Roll hall of Fame - who's wrongheaded shit-for-brains idea was that? When you put a piece of "rock history" behind a wall or glass, you kill whatever made it
rock in the first place.
Rock and roll and Bukowski are dirt and discomfort and sweat and a stiff middle finger to the world, not a god damned museum with motherfuckers in cheap blue blazers telling you not to get too close to the artifacts. Museums are for mummies, dinosaur bones and dead painters.
That crap has to live somewhere - the papers and manuscripts. I get that. We'll never be able to publish the unMartinized poetry collection without places like that. ;) But the Huntington is an exclusionary joint in one the most wealthy neighborhoods in the country. It's all wrong, and their exhibition was all wrong, and this "acceptance" of Bukowski is just the world's way of cutting off his balls and making him safe for mindless douchebags who aren't supposed to understand him anyway.
Well. Okay. I guess I'll get off that soapbox now. Add this to the list of things I try to stop myself from harping about. Wish me luck.
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David, Miller lived in Pacific Palisades, which is a long way from San Pedro, both in distance and the mind set of the inhabitants. I worked up there for a few years when I was a printer, and the people are not what you'd call
welcoming. Unless you are "one of them." Meaning wealthy and stupid. It's like San Marino with an ocean view.