Long Beach University newspaper article (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mjp
- Start date
Father Luke
Founding member
From the article:
He said that Bukowski would come in to hang around the
front of the store where all of his books were lined up, and
one night, one by one, Bukowski. . .
awww. He really was such a sweet man.
I loved that about him.
He said that Bukowski would come in to hang around the
front of the store where all of his books were lined up, and
one night, one by one, Bukowski. . .
awww. He really was such a sweet man.
I loved that about him.
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
Thanks, that's quite an interesting story and a plug for the tour company.
mjp
Founding member
I don't think I've ever been mesmerized by the reek of beer. I wonder what that's like?
But he did sign all the books at Williams and the now defunct Vinegar Hill stores. Usually when no one was looking. He did the same thing at the big chain bookstore in the little mall in Palos Verdes (just over the hill from San Pedro). A lot of people who bought his books in the area got autographed copies.
But he did sign all the books at Williams and the now defunct Vinegar Hill stores. Usually when no one was looking. He did the same thing at the big chain bookstore in the little mall in Palos Verdes (just over the hill from San Pedro). A lot of people who bought his books in the area got autographed copies.
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
Nice article. I can picture him signing his books when nobody was looking. I have doubts about the stories that he hung out in Long Beach bars. He came there to read a few times but I doubt he came there otherwise, and I have trouble picturing him going into Long Beach just to hang out at a bar. But I've been wrong before, and may be dead wrong about this. Just a hunch.
Father Luke
Founding member
Oh, God. I never even drank in San Pedro and I
drank with him there.
All the time.
heh.
drank with him there.
All the time.
heh.
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
As I've said before in another thread, I once met a guy who claimed he drank with Bukowski in a San Pedro bar. I don't find that as hard to believe as that he might drive into Long Beach to hang out. Maybe it's changed, but when I lived there, L.A. people generally didn't think much of Long Beach -- it wasn't a destination.
LickTheStar
Sad Flower in the Sand
I work in a Barnes and Noble here in Portland and I've been told that Chuck Palahniuk signs books at pretty much all the book stores in the area and then leaves them on the shelf. I have YET to find one in my store though.
Cool story though. I'd love to find a random signed Buk on the shelf somewhere...
Black Swan
Abord the Yorikke!
pretty nice guy for being referred to
as the rudest and the crudest
as the rudest and the crudest
LickTheStar
Sad Flower in the Sand
As a side note to Long Beach University... Apparently, their copy of Poems Written Before Jumping Out An 8 Story Window is missing from the STACKS. Well, no shit. If you put something like that in the regular stacks and not in the Rare Collections room... It may just disappear!
Brilliant!
Brilliant!
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
I worked in the CSULB library back in the 60s/early 70s and books were also stolen from the cage and even from a building on lower campus where shipments of rare books recently purchased were stored before being sent up the hill for cataloguing. But having a rare book on the open shelves just dooms it.
Like Rekrab I hardly can imagine Buk to head for Long Beach intentionally. It's not his kind of area.
I'd like to read a Bukowski-story about an author, secretly signing his books at a store, then being seen (but not recognized) by a clerck and accused of destroing the books. Would make a funny story, if HE wrote it.
I'd like to read a Bukowski-story about an author, secretly signing his books at a store, then being seen (but not recognized) by a clerck and accused of destroing the books. Would make a funny story, if HE wrote it.
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
It would have to happen at Von's if they have not closed their doors....
(this is an inside joke. Sorry for the posting, but I could not resist)
Bill
(this is an inside joke. Sorry for the posting, but I could not resist)
Bill
bill;
that's too damn funny. I can see em now: "goddamn, another one of those fucking GPP Types destroying our merch. call the cops..."
that's too damn funny. I can see em now: "goddamn, another one of those fucking GPP Types destroying our merch. call the cops..."
Father Luke
Founding member
Oh, c'mon. Do tell...
number6horse
okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
Messrs. Cunningham and bospress.net speak of a proud and defiant chain of bookstores in Indiana determined to stop the vile practice of distributing FREE POETRY. They are called Von's (but you must genuflect when speaking their name aloud). They have highly refined sensibilities that are offended when GPP Operatives dare to insert subversive broadsides into their books. They are the last bulwark against free expression, creativity and fun - emitting a stench of disapproval that rivals the industrial smokestacks of Gary.
God speed you, Von's Books. God speed you.
God speed you, Von's Books. God speed you.
Father Luke
Founding member
Yeah, I know but were there specific examples.
Anyway, yes, okay:
I stand in awe before my magnificent creator Vins,
or whoever the fuck they are.
All hail Vims
Anyway, yes, okay:
I stand in awe before my magnificent creator Vins,
or whoever the fuck they are.
All hail Vims
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
A bookstore (We'll call Vongina's, so I don't get sued) sent us a vague, threatening e-mail stating that any GPP operatives caught in their store would be arrested for vandalism. Once I taught them about the law and how inserting a card in a book is not vandalism in any state in this union (vandalism is the wilfull destruction of another's property. This was not willful nor destruction), they backed up and said that a mysterious operative cut out pages to place the broadside, which is pure bullshit and their way of not being taught by the likes of me (someone without 3 or 4 degrees). I then sent out an e-mail to all operatives in the area (a surprising many operatives are in the area) and told them that they were not welcome and that the owner does not want them there.
Fast forward two months and we get an e-mail from the same "person" stating that we need to vet our operatives better and that any opeatives caught in the store would be arrested for trespass (since they were taught about the vandalism statute). I again had to teach them that they cannot have a member of an organization arrested for trespass by notifying a group that they belong to, using the example that they cannot send a letter to the Pope telling them to tell their Catholics out of the store and then have the Catolics arrested as they walk in the store because "the group was warned".
Agian, they are just bitter, have too much time on their hands (probably due to the lack of customers), and want to fight, and make themselves look stupid by threatening things that they cannot do.
The last e-mail (where I get very, very condescending to them finally tired of their arrogance and threats) was returned as undeliverable. I'd love to know if they finally shut their doors. They are subleasing half of their store to a comic book seller, so it may not be good for them.
I've heard rumor that they are not pleasant to people in general and with the internet taking out bookstores at a fast pace, I cannot see loyalty that is needed to keep your doors open.
So, that is the story. Moderators feel free to remove if this is too off-topic.... I'd love to post the e-mails, but that would get me sued....
Bill
Fast forward two months and we get an e-mail from the same "person" stating that we need to vet our operatives better and that any opeatives caught in the store would be arrested for trespass (since they were taught about the vandalism statute). I again had to teach them that they cannot have a member of an organization arrested for trespass by notifying a group that they belong to, using the example that they cannot send a letter to the Pope telling them to tell their Catholics out of the store and then have the Catolics arrested as they walk in the store because "the group was warned".
Agian, they are just bitter, have too much time on their hands (probably due to the lack of customers), and want to fight, and make themselves look stupid by threatening things that they cannot do.
The last e-mail (where I get very, very condescending to them finally tired of their arrogance and threats) was returned as undeliverable. I'd love to know if they finally shut their doors. They are subleasing half of their store to a comic book seller, so it may not be good for them.
I've heard rumor that they are not pleasant to people in general and with the internet taking out bookstores at a fast pace, I cannot see loyalty that is needed to keep your doors open.
So, that is the story. Moderators feel free to remove if this is too off-topic.... I'd love to post the e-mails, but that would get me sued....
Bill
Father Luke
Founding member
There is at least one that I know of who'd specifically requested it.
- -
Okay,
Father Luke
mjp
Founding member
The Vons guy was a little crazy. Had he said, "Hey, can you ask your people not to stick cards into the books on my shelves," we most certainly would have done so (or tried to - we can't realistically control where people stick the broadsides). Whatever his reason was. But he was shot out of a cannon from the first contact, so it's hard to deal with someone like that.
oh, yeah, yeah - this is soooo off-topic: I want this whole person to be removed please!
*ha!*
ain't I a Funny jerk!?
(ps:
my "oh, yeah, yeah" above has to be read as the one, Buk used in His version of 'Last Days of the Suicide Kid' - "oh, christ, he made me sick!" - you know the passage!)
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
Great story, Bill. I always wonder about the odds of getting busted placing broadsides, but a proactive attack from a bookstore is something I never would have dreamed could hapen in my most paranoid moment. Incredible. Some people are looking for a fight with anyone and everyone out there. I guess they heard somebody might attempt to put poems in their books and decided they're damned sure not going to let that happen. And yes, Vons is a supermarket in Southern California. Think I bought beer there a few times.
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
My theory is that the actually never had anyone place broadsides in their store. The e-mail came to us right after a positive story on the GPP was published in Poets & Writers magazine. I have a feeling that the owner did not like what we were doing in general and wanted to pick a fight with us just to cause trouble. Far from that, he showed us why we do this. Some people need poetry much more than even they know.
There are academics and then there are asshole academics. An asshole academic would see non academics doing something that they felt they were not qualified to do and would make an issue out of it.
To bring this back on-topic, it is much like those that HATE Bukowski and spend so much time writing about it. I hate the writing of Sidney Sheldon, but this is the first time that I have mentioned this and could not imagine writing blog after blog about why I do not like his writing. I would just not read him....
Some people have too much time on their hands and are too bitter at the world that is succeeding around them. If these bored people had a dynamic and thriving business they would not have time to pick fights with poets trying to give out poetry.
Bill
There are academics and then there are asshole academics. An asshole academic would see non academics doing something that they felt they were not qualified to do and would make an issue out of it.
To bring this back on-topic, it is much like those that HATE Bukowski and spend so much time writing about it. I hate the writing of Sidney Sheldon, but this is the first time that I have mentioned this and could not imagine writing blog after blog about why I do not like his writing. I would just not read him....
Some people have too much time on their hands and are too bitter at the world that is succeeding around them. If these bored people had a dynamic and thriving business they would not have time to pick fights with poets trying to give out poetry.
Bill
mjp
Founding member
The difference is this; you do not aspire to write in the style of Sidney Sheldon and reap the financial benefits that he did (does?).
The Bukowski haters are frustrated writers, and they cannot for the life of them, figure out why they are not heralded as geniuses when this...this lowlife with his short, simple sentences was!
That is why you see so many anti-Bukowski diatribes. Scratch the surface of any of them and you will find resentment on some level.
the only good poet
One retreat after another without peace.
Father Luke
Founding member
mjp
Founding member
Translates as "an abandoned scientific and technical library." Appears to have been left 40 years ago. Which seems odd. 1967 68? I thought things were relatively quiet in Russia at that time.
