Vancouver reading (1 Viewer)

mjp

mjp

Founding member
Received my copies today. Just home from the desert though, so haven't looked at them yet.

I guess a repressing depends on how long it takes them to sell the first run. Having said that, who knows - maybe once these are gone they will release some double disc set with extras or something. I know that there were poems cut from these readings (to avoid poem duplication between the two discs), so there's definitely more material available for something like a bonus disc or expanded set.

Not that I would hold my breath waiting for that. These barely scraped their way out to the light of day after a long and painful process of trying to find distributors, etc., so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first - and the last - batch of each of these.

I don't really know either way if there will be more, and I doubt whether they know at this point either. Just my guess based on talking to Jon and Dennis.
 
I've seen about half of the Vancouver reading so far. There are a couple people in the audience who seriously needed to have their asses kicked that night. It's funny for a while, then it's just tedious, the constant heckling. But maybe it will develop into some good theater. Maybe someone will kick the loudmouth's ass. ;) But again, I'm only part way through it.

Reminds me of the Santa Barbara reading where a fight breaks out part way through. These were very punk rock poetry readings it would seem. Once again, Bukowski cannily reading the times and providing the entertainment the kids want. Ha.

Video quality is good, about what I expected (meaning it ain't going to look perfect on your 50" HD plasma TV, but still really good), sound quality is very good. Good production overall!
 
About the video quality of the Vancouver disc: I didn't expect the best quality, but are the lines and glitches on the actual film, or do I have a bad DVD? I think it's the former, but I'd like to be sure.

Regardless, it's great, despite the assholes in the audience that night.
 
TDjazz said:
About the video quality of the Vancouver disc:
are the lines and glitches on the actual film, or do I have a bad DVD?
Click to expand...

2261177739_1b5fc07ae3_o.jpg
 
TDjazz said:
About the video quality of the Vancouver disc: I didn't expect the best quality, but are the lines and glitches on the actual film, or do I have a bad DVD?
Click to expand...
You talking about thin white horizontal lines at the very top and bottom of the screen sometimes? I noticed that too early on, but if they are there throughout I didn't notice them.

The Vancouver show was taped on an obsolete 1" Sony videocassette that was so obscure that they had trouble finding a mastering joint that could get their hands on the hardware. Dennis had the tapes at the Huntington, and showed them to me. I had never seen the format before.

Funny, he said, "I don't know what to do with these now. You want them?" and I said no. Maybe I should have said yes! Not sure what I would have done with them either though. But they sat on a high dusty shelf at Bukowski's house for 20+ years, that's good just for the story...
 
mjp said:
Funny, he said, "I don't know what to do with these now. You want them?" and I said no. Maybe I should have said yes! Not sure what I would have done with them either though. But they sat on a high dusty shelf at Bukowski's house for 20+ years, that's good just for the story...
Click to expand...

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Next time you're in contact with him, why not ask him if he still has them?
I might know someone who'd like to put them on a high dusty shelf in the UK :cool:
 
mjp said:
an obsolete 1" Sony videocassette that was so obscure [...] Dennis had the tapes at the Huntington, and showed them to me. I had never seen the format before.

Funny, he said, "I don't know what to do with these now. You want them?" and I said no. Maybe I should have said yes!
Click to expand...

sure you should have. it's about time to find a place of good preservation for this baby! I wonder why The Huntington seems to have no use for them. They would know how to preserve these the right way, I thought.

If the tape was 1" it doesn't seem to be a U-Matic system (which I had expected). I wonder what system they used.
 
Maybe they were open reel...I can't find a 1" Sony cassette-based video tape, but a few 1" open reel that would have been around at the time. I'll ask Dennis again what the hell they were.
 
I'm watching the Vancouver reading right now... what's that fucking background music -polka?- you can hear there all the time? Crank the volume up during "We've got to communicate" -minute 54 or so- and you'll see what I mean...
 
54 minutes 39 seconds. Polka music.
I don't think it was intentionally edited in, however.

Interestingly enough I do see the lines now.

2263406377_418254b178_o.jpg


What a great time.
What a great video.
 
Okay, I heard from Dennis. It was a 3/4 tape, so I was off there. Knowing that, I have to assume it was U-Matic, which shouldn't have been a problem to master, but Jon had the hardware anyway, so, no problems there.

He commented on some other stuff in the thread too, and rather than give you my interpretation, I'll just cut and paste and hope he doesn't mind...

------

The "polka music" heard faintly in the background is just that. There was a band somewhere out the back and down the lane that night and unfortunately it squeezed through the wall or came in the back door and was loud enough to find its way onto the recording. Nothing can be done about it.

And nothing can be done to alter some of the "assholes hecklers" who were there that night either. At one point, we had a serious incident when someone flung an empty wine bottle at the stage and it hit the curtain behind Hank and that's where you see the scramble to grab the individual and Hank utters the title, "There's gonna be a god damn riot in here."

My friend George also talks about it in the 25th anniversary segment, about grabbing the guy and "boom" sitting on him and saying, "you can't be throwing things at the man, he's trying to give a poetry reading up there."

By the way the woman interviewed in the 25th who talks about not seeing any beer come through the door is my ex. The same woman who yells that opening line in Born Into This, "Dennis, for Christ Sake Dennis, get him another bottle!"​
 
mjp said:
The "polka music" heard faintly in the background is just that. There was a band somewhere out the back and down the lane that night and unfortunately it squeezed through the wall or came in the back door and was loud enough to find its way onto the recording. Nothing can be done about it.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that might explain it, but if you listen carefully, there's some other music when the polka piece is finished and then you can hear someone talking. It sounds as if a radio was playing while the transfer was done or as if the original tape was recorded on top of a pre-existing recording or...
 
"Dennis, for Christ Sake Dennis, get him another bottle!"

And it then looks like Dennis brings him half a bottle!

Great video - who knew Canucks could be so rowdy :-)
 
I think I've said this before, but it reminds me of an old Stooges bootleg. People are screaming insults and pelting the stage with bottles and garbage, and Iggy says, "You paid five bucks, but I'm making ten thousand baby...so screw ya!"
 
Okay, I bought the one -- There's Going To Be A Riot. Better wait until next month to get the other. Grocery budget is tight. This is safer than it seems. I probably won't space out and let it go o.p. without buying because the sense of incompleteness will nag away at me.

Can't match Bukowski shot for shot -- red wine gives me headaches. Would a swallow of beer for every glass he fills count?
 
Oops, got the title wrong. It's "There's Gonna Be A God Damn Riot In Here." There; I feel better.

I'm hoping this one makes me like Vancouver better. I hated the place the one time I visited. But then I was being grumpy at the end of a vacation, didn't want to leave Victoria for Vancouver, etc.
 
yeah right, those people are so goddamn ungreatful that he came, he should've quit halfway through and just took their money. they talk more shit than he does. that one guy really pisses me off, shouting throughout the whole reading. why didn't Buk just say, "okay, somebody get this asshole out here!"

at one point he even shouts "I'll walk out! You wouldn't want that, or would you?"

its a good reading to have but that guy needs to have the shit beat out of him.

apparently, that reading was on the night of the world series, and an argument arrises about the greatest game ever played...to which Buk replies, "You know what you can do with the great game of baseball..."

It even seems to me that the drunker he gets, the better the reading gets.

thanks dennis.
 
Now I'm worrying that I might have bought some peice of crap burn instead of the genuine article. Anyone know the name of the legitimate eBay seller of these DVDs? I've bought a few "rare factory original" films in VHS and DVD that were bad pirated copies. Always pisses me off. Please tell me I bought good ones. The seller I used was "mondaymedia." Let that be right...
 
HenryChinaski said:
at one point he even shouts "I'll walk out! You wouldn't want that, or would you?"
Click to expand...
Oh, that was funny...I think he's saying it as a fussy poet might say it..."I'll walk out! I will! You'll see!" Ha ha - I laughed out loud at that one.

Rekrab said:
Now I'm worrying that I might have bought some peice of crap burn instead of the genuine article.
Click to expand...
A bit soon for knockoffs, but I wouldn't put it past the bootleggers.

If you want to be sure, you can always order at full price from http://bukowskilive.com

These are real, genuine manufactured DVDs, not cheapo burned copies.



And no, I don't get any money from their sale. Ha ha. Someone emailed me this morning, "What's with the ADVERTISEMENT on the buk site?? I though you said you'd never sell out and sell advertising on the site! Fucking hypocrit!!!" (sic)
 
Rekrab said:
I'm hoping this one makes me like Vancouver better. I hated the place the one time I visited. But then I was being grumpy at the end of a vacation, didn't want to leave Victoria for Vancouver, etc.
Click to expand...

What do they say about Victoria? "For the newly wed and the nearly dead?"

Vancouver is/was "terminal city". Fishing/logging/shipping town with pretensions to being "laid back". Fuck it, it's where you stick the enema tube for the world.
 
Ah, that explains why I liked Victoria. I live in a "newly wed/nearly dead" town, and I was on vacation, and Victoria is a cozy touristy kind of place, and I was a tourist. It fit. We crammed Vancouver on the end of the vacation, it felt forced, like we were going to squeeze every last drop of fun out of that vacation, and I hated the place as soon as I saw the tall buildings on the horizon. A mood thing. In different circumstances, I might have loved Vancouver, and I may give it a second chance someday. Just seeing the building where Bukowski read is reason enough. Also, Phillip K. Dick spent some time in Vancouver, as did Malcom Cowley.

By the way, BOSP published a mini-chap of short poems from my Victoria trip, called SLEPT HERE -- another beautiful print job by our own Bill Roberts.
 
I have, I must confess, been somewhat of a heckler in my not so distant past. Yes me. After listening to the idiots in Vancouver I see just how senseless most of the crap is. I wouldn't want to be thought of like I thought of some of them while Bukowski was reading. Bukowski handled them fairly well.
The first time I watched it was on my lap top, but when I ran it on the big set with the surround sound it was excellent. The better sound quality helped seperate the riff raff from the star.
 
It's arrived to me today. I'm still waiting for "The Last Straw".
The DVD is great. Great job. But one thing pissed me off when i watched it. That stupid laugh, guy perhaps was near the camera.
But it's ok, it's only a little thing. We watching it for the poetry and Bukowski :)
 
I like the final words I heard on the tape, after the performance was over and some people were going up to the table where B. was. I think someone said something like, 'would you like to come to a bar with us now?' Buk said, 'No, fuck off, I hate you guys'.
 
westcoast said:
I like the final words I heard on the tape
Click to expand...

Is that the old Viking audio tape? I have wondered if the sound track on that might be different and actually better than the one on the video recording used for the DVD, because...

Domator said:
But one thing pissed me off when i watched it. That stupid laugh, guy perhaps was near the camera.
Click to expand...

...that guy laughing like Butthead is really annoying.
 
Laughter is great, but not from that jerk with his forced fake laughter. It sounds like he's laughing to make it sound as if he gets it or that he is soooo hip man. He is like finger nails on the chaulkboard irritating. Thank God the surround sound, on the big TV, breaks him away from the sincere wise cracks coming from the more in tune members of the audience.

"Fuck off, I hate you guys!" we should put that on the welcome to Bukowski dot net page. Honesty is always the best policy.
Did I mention Lent is over?
 

Similar threads

Digney in Burnaby
Vancouver, 1979
Replies
1
Views
2K
Skygazer
Skygazer
Rekrab
1962 reading
2
Replies
46
Views
9K
stalwars
stalwars
mjp
New Bukowski reading DVDs
2
Replies
60
Views
13K
Domator
Domator
G
Law reading, added some music.
Replies
3
Views
1K
skiroomalum
skiroomalum
2+2=5
Bukowski reading 'the Laughing Heart'?
Replies
2
Views
2K
2+2=5
2+2=5

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top