March 9 (1 Viewer)

hank solo

Just practicin' steps and keepin' outta the fights
Reaper Crew
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As most of you will know, Charles Bukowski passed away on the 9th March 1994.

As this date is about to roll around again, will anyone be doing anything to commemorate the event?

Personally, I'm sure I'll have a browse of the forum here. Maybe see if mjp has put up a special home page image, g00gle style to mark the day. Then I'll raise a glass or two and read a few poems. Perhaps listen to a reading CD and might even watch Barfly in the evening. Although I have a habit of watching it far too late and falling asleep. Nothing to do with wine consumption, obviously.

I realise this might well sound a bit too glib or even cult-of-celebrity-fied for some, but Bukowski clearly means a lot to many of the posters here, and to many more around the world, so I hope you'll reply with this in mind.
 
Not glib or cultish...
I'll mark the day in a similar way...a couple bottles of Aussie shiraz, maybe. watch the Bukowski Tapes, though i just watched them earlier this month.
I do the same on Miles Davis', Charlie Parker's, Ornette Coleman's, etc. B-days...
Just my own way of recognizing greatness...
 
funniest thing ever, when I was in L.A., G. Locklin took me there to visit B's grave, but he couldn't remember where it was. So we spent a couple of hours running up and down the hills trying to find it... to no avail. Maybe next time!
 
The first time we went, shortly after he died, we went to the office to ask where he was buried. They told us, but not until we'd sat through a sales pitch for cemetery plots. Pretty funny.

After that I made a point to remember where it was so I didn't have to go through that again.
 
It might be useful to publish a map or directions for those making the pilgrimage (if that?s appropriate).

With kind regards,

SamDusky
 
March 9th...what am I gonna do? Hmmmmmm I think I've got it.
First off I'll start the morning with a beer. Then I'll hardboil a couple eggs for breakfast, then read some if not all of "You get so alone at times that it just makes sense", browse the Bukowski forums, and then get ready for evening.
In the evening I'll get into a fight with my girlfriend, go buy a fifth of whiskey, listen to Mahler on my radio while I drink it and attempt to write, and once I'm good and drunk I'll pop in either Barfly or The Bukowski Tapes and pass out. Not to mention during all of this I'll be smoking endless ammounts of cigarettes. And I might even play with the cats.

what do you think guys? sound like paying homage to Buk?

I think I can pull it all off tooo.
 
SamDusky said:
It might be useful to publish a map or directions for those making the pilgrimage
Hmm, that may be do-able. I have a map project in the works here that uses an interactive Google map, and has all his known Los Angeles residences marked. I suppose I could add his current residence at Green Hills. ;)

The reason I started doing the map was because I thought it was interesting that for over 40 years Bukowski lived in a relatively small part of Los Angeles. You could walk between many of the places.

Anyway, that's in the works. I photographed his court apartment on DeLongpre today, it's still there. Most of the other places have been torn down to make way for progress. Ha. Actually it's his second place on DeLongpre - the first one was right next door (an apartment building is there now) and he only stayed there briefly before moving to 5124 DeLongpre where he lived for almost ten years (1964 - 1973).

Probably all very boring unless you live in Los Angeles.
 
That map sounds fascinating. And with a few photos it would be great.
 
thursday nite lets do it for him

sounes biograghy described that...'drove up bay view drive,...turn left on avalon drive and park on the side of a hillock known as ocean view where buk was buried in a grave dug next to a young tree.

but in 2001 , sept. there was no young tree next to grave

my wife and i nearly gave up looking that day and we were visiting from GA. but she stumbled over it on our way back to the car i got my picture taken next to 'don't try' with my goofy looking mustache that made me look like brad darby and our mission was accoplished.

all that to say maybe one of you california madmen could plant a tree for buks gravesite.then other folks like me that use Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life bio as a map can find henry easier.

i can not type. it sucks i can celibrate though

THURSDAY NITE LET'S DO IT FOR HIM
 
I don't think you could just plant a tree there, private property. Even if you managed to, the guys in the giant lawnmower tractors would just chop it down.

I'll see about writing some detailed directions next time I go.
 
Just checking in folks.

Hope we are all well in one way or another.
Its 11:19pm in the UK right now.

I just watched a movie on TV called Sideways, about some frustrated writer and his actor buddy, on tour in California - touring wineries no less - and low and behold Bukowski gets a name check. LMAO.

Well, get with the program. Sadly, just the one beer, but a nice Californian Cabernet 2003 to wind down the day.

To the working classes...

To all my friends !

And mjp, if you could just lean out of a window and shout out a big thank-you in the general direction of Green Hills, that'd be just be-autiful

Cheers
 
yes...for all of us mjp, or when you go see him, send him all our reguards.

i started the day out with a warm beer and two hard boiled eggs. I listened to Bukowski Uncensored all the way through and have been reading numerous tid-bits throughout the day.

I wasn't going to post this but oh what the hell.
Tonite before midnight, I'm gonna set it on fire and watch the ashes float away.

Wait until spring, Bukowski

On the anniversary of
his death,
I read his words,
and listen to him read them.

Mahler climaxes through
the speakers
and two eggs finish boiling
on the burner.

The cat is curled up
by my feet and it
gently purrs and dreams of fish
and feast.

It is March 9th,
we've never met,
but I know you.
I've known you ever since
the last days of the suicide kid.

From thence
I leave nobody with this
poem,
poetry, or any form,
for it is not your birthday
but the opposite
and I shall set fire to flames
and cast the ashes of this poem
into the night,
as Li Po did,
and so many others.

And then I'll retreat
to the bottle
and the dirty yellow notebook,
as you once did,
so long,
so very long ago.

and to all you ppl out there who say, "blah blah blah you're just trying to write like Bukowski", well you guys can go to hell. because this poem is for him. not that he would want it or anything...
 
hank solo said:
And mjp, if you could just lean out of a window and shout out a big thank-you in the general direction of Green Hills, that'd be just be-autiful
Consider it done!

I would stop by on the way home from work, but I don't want to step on any toes. Could be family around.
 
well. things are going as they should. remembering buk properly. I'm good and drunk, nothing to be proud of, any fool can get drunk, just ask my wife. and in the morning she'll be the first to tell me that. and make me get up with the kid, not quite 2 years old, the voice of reason, he'll stand stock still and stare and point, not realizing that bukowski has been dead 12 years, he'll stand stock still and stare and point and say uh ooh. well, he's right, that not quite 2 year old,he's right, uh ooh, let the world acknowledge its mistakes.
 
Yeah just got of work, unzipped, cracked one open, put on dongs 5th. stared up at the roaches, sang carolinas wifes butt. Ate american. shat Quebec! Slammed a couple of momos. someone learned.
 
painted. ate. drank. will go to bed angsty and slightly angry yet hopeful, per the norm. i keep two little pics of buk over my bed, and maybe i'll wink at them.
 
Who goes to bed at 1030? And what do the pics look like? Thats scarry. Your tough, i dont know anyone tough enough to go to bed with that kind of shit hanging over their head!
 
Hey, I go to bed at 10:30! But then I have to get up at 5, so it only makes sense.

The wind is blowing incredibly hard here in San Pedro, and all the neighborhood dogs are barking. Now what?
 
sean said:
Who goes to bed at 1030? And what do the pics look like? Thats scarry. Your tough, i dont know anyone tough enough to go to bed with that kind of shit hanging over their head!

Well, darling, if you must know i stay up for mr colbert on the tv, and then read until 12ish. so i'm still up, because colbert is still babbling.
one pic is the one of him laughing on the porch (edit: this one: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://bukowski.net/photos/bukowski029.php, one of my favs.) , and the other is a plain old portrait.

second edit: i also keep a pic of him at my office over my desk. oddly, next to a pic of chuck close.

mjp said:
The wind is blowing incredibly hard here in San Pedro, and all the neighborhood dogs are barking. Now what?

Now we sleep.
or, go out and bark with the dogs.
personally i'd be torn between the two.
 
no one ever called me darling before, espcially some one who has an office. Thats nice thanks
 
hoochmonkey9 said:
well. things are going as they should. remembering buk properly. I'm good and drunk, nothing to be proud of, any fool can get drunk, just ask my wife. and in the morning she'll be the first to tell me that. and make me get up with the kid, not quite 2 years old, the voice of reason, he'll stand stock still and stare and point, not realizing that bukowski has been dead 12 years, he'll stand stock still and stare and point and say uh ooh. well, he's right, that not quite 2 year old,he's right, uh ooh, let the world acknowledge its mistakes.
well, shows what a jerk I am, my wife let me sleep in and when I got up the not quite 2 year old gave me a big hug. christ, won't anyone let me wallow in drunken self pity?
ah well, at least my hangover is mild...
 
Well the wind has calmed down somewhat, but when I left this morning there were about twenty tumbleweeds jammed up against the house. Which isn't all that unusual, but two of them were gigantic. When I say gigantic, I mean these things are bigger than I thought tumbleweeds could be. Freakishly large. If you put them in a movie everyone would point and laugh and say, "tumbleweeds can't get that big! Ha ha ha."

Each one was about six feet tall, and very heavy as I dragged them away from the house and out toward the street. Three people could circle these fucking things and not be able to touch each other's hands...what the hell? This is not the wide open spaces of the wild west, it's San Pedro! What planet did these things come from?

Okay, carry on.
 
March 9 here once again.

Okay, it's here again. And I know some of you don't like to commemorate Bukowski's death, preferring to celebrate his life, and more power to you, but I feel it's a date worth marking, and within this little (growing) community especially.

So cheers all!

<raise_glass>

To All My Friends!!

</raise_glass>
 
Of course it's a date worth marking!

Here's a toast to Buk and to all the members of the congregation here: CHEERS!
 
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I promise not to write drunken self centered posts like I did 2 years ago (thanks for reviving those, hank solo:rolleyes:).
and I'll remember Buk in the fashion that's most fitting; rereading a few of his books.
 
I will think about yesterday, when for one brief, magical, moment
Henry Charles Bukowski rose from the dead to make
me laugh at myself again.

bukowski026.jpg
 
one of several visits i made earlier this decade. definitely worth the trip.

"i raise a glass and toast love." i just bought two bottles of wine and i will salute hank and all of you at midnight.......

2003-20061889.jpg
 
i pour a drink and toast love... that's what i was getting at. thanks ponder!

wine and laziness kept me from looking it up beforehand...
 
Hello dear friends of Mr. Bukowski
I want commemorate the passing of my personal God Charles Bukowski today at March the 9th. Dear Hank, I love you, you are the guidance and voice of sanity in this world of turbulence. You are the best medicine against abstract shitstorms and irrational people. I will drink to you today honoring you. And as the sun sets I will continue reciting your poems in my solitude, listening to Mozard and feeling the tender cigarette puffs and the joy of indulging myself many ice cold beers. I wish a good Sunday for everyone in the forum.
 

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