Woulda-coulda-shoulda... but never did. (1 Viewer)

My wife hates me telling these woulda-coulda-shoulda stories.

Hey that could make for an interesting new thread-best woulda coulda shoulda but never did.

Heres the first woulda-coulda-shoulda story :

I'm in NYC watching Lonnie Mack an old blues guy and in walks Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards to watch the show too - they're sitting about 5 tables over and I had bought Oh La LA that day so it was a pretty cool night.

At the end of the night the announcer says 'and if you want to see some real entertainment come back tomorrow'.

I left thinking what could top sitting in a bar with Woody and Keef so I did something else.

The next night, Woody, Keef and Bob Dylan played the stage to prepare for their Live Aid performance
 
maybe 6 or 7 years ago there was a signed copy of Story Magazine on ebay for maybe $500, which i couldn't really afford at the time. now i totally regret not swooping down on it and being broke for a month or two. woulda-coulda-shoulda indeed!!!

ps--anyone on here the lucky bastard that owns/won it?
 
I've mentioned this before. I once passed up the opportunity to buy, for $15.00, John Thomas' wine-stained copy of Flower Fist and Bestial Wail with a long inscription to Thomas from Bukowski on the inside front cover.

A week later it was gone.

I am a fool.
 
A few month ago Amber O`Neil`s " Blowing my hero " was available on this forum for a few bucks and i did`nt made the deal.

Now i read some excerpts in another book and it blow me away!

I am a fool.
 
I woulda tried harder to make things work out with my ex-fiancee, if I had known the years of heartache and regret that were headed my way. Over it now, but damn I wasted a lot of energy back then.
 
It was back in, oh, probably around 1983 or so, when I lived in Pittsburgh, near the university in the section of town called Oakland. Near the attic apartment where I lived was a rock 'n' roll bar called The Decade, and I used to stop in sometimes and catch some good music and a few drinks. At the time, I was making my living selling articles and tending bar, but most of the $$ was from bartending. One night on my way home from work, I heard music coming from The Decade and was really tempted to stop in and hear some tunes. But I wanted to get home and work on my writing, so after pausing a minute to think about it, I walked on past.

The next day I read in the paper how Bruce Springsteen, who was in town for a concert the next day, had dropped by The Decade to play a few songs with the band that was playing that night. I don't remember what writing I was doing that was so pressing, and I don't remember the name of the other band that was playing that night, but I do remember and regret missing The Boss playing at that little bar.

Oh well. :(
 
concerning Buk or collecting I don't have too Many of these things.

But concerning girls (relationships/wouldbe-relationships/too-long-lasting-relationships) I have so MANY things I better handled other ways, that No 'wouldbe'-thread on earth could ever cover that ...

Anyway, in the long run, we're all dead and nothing matters anymore.
so what...
 
i've always regretted how long it's taken me to get my degree. i dicked around for so long, and the whole time i was hating on myself for being so unmotivated and useless. and a couple of weeks ago i was talking to someone about the US work visa process i'm embarking on, and what the eligibility requirements are: the major one is that participants must be fulltime students or graduated in the last 12 months. it suddenly occurred to me that if i hadn't dicked around i would not be eligible for this visa, and getting to the US would be damn near impossible (at the very least, extremely difficult). as it is, i've only just finished last month, so i'm in.

and when i think about all the other stuff i regret in my life (and there's a lot of it), i realise that it's all led me to the point i'm at now, and things are pretty awesome for me right now. so i guess what i'm saying is that if i had to go through it all again, i wouldn't change any of it, not if it meant missing out on what i have now.
 
Society Should Realise

and when i think about all the other stuff i regret in my life (and there's a lot of it), i realise that it's all led me to the point i'm at now, and things are pretty awesome for me right now.

Once you get to the US, you will need to put down that "s" and pick up a "z". It is odd. I have never understood why the rest of the English speaking world would spell is "realise" and we Americans spell it "Realize". There are a lot of words like this in the English language. I can only assume that we Americans changed it at some point. Anyone have any insight on this?

Bill
 
i've already told jordan that all when we start printing/publishing, we're going to use 's' and also 'u' (eg. favoUR, vapoUR, coloUR, etc...). he's not so keen on this idea.
 
It is funny, when I read submissions, I can always tell hen someone is not from the US by this. I have even been sucessful in getting British poets to change this for publication in the US.

I have to agree with Jordan. When in Rome... You need to drop the "U" and add the "Z". The worst thing that could happen is that you insist on using the "S" and "U" and then run one "U" short in your typecase and are not able to finish typesetting.

Also, the lonely "Z"s will never run out in a typecase, so it is nice to use them as needed. I have never heard of anyone running short of a "Z". Now, I have run short of "o", "e", "s" & "t" and even "i". Never Zed, though....


Bill
 
note to self....if I ever submit to Bill, spell harbour h-a-r-b-o-r.
us Canucks like our 'u's.
 
Once you get to the US, you will need to put down that "s" and pick up a "z". It is odd. I have never understood why the rest of the English speaking world would spell is "realise" and we Americans spell it "Realize". There are a lot of words like this in the English language. I can only assume that we Americans changed it at some point. Anyone have any insight on this?
you no doubt made the changes to the language after you won your independence. talk about kick a nation when it's down...

rubyred. just to help you along:
http://www.englishclub.com/writing/spelling_american-english.htm
 
Once you get to the US, you will need to put down that "s" and pick up a "z". It is odd. I have never understood why the rest of the English speaking world would spell is "realise" and we Americans spell it "Realize". There are a lot of words like this in the English language. I can only assume that we Americans changed it at some point. Anyone have any insight on this?

My English (!) dictionary spells "realize" with a "z" not an "s". The "s" option is not listed at all.
I've never heard of anyone spelling "realize" with an "s"!
 
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It's a UK, NZ and OZ thang. Apparently, the US Revolutionary War was sufficient to establish our freedom from tyrrany, but not from silly grammar.;)
 
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First of all, Ruby, I assume you are not talking about editing poems that use those rules of grammar. You mean instead the web-site info, forewards, editor's notes, etc....

Is it so tough to use one spelling here and another overseas ? Just devote a ceratin percentage of copies to the European/Uk/Oz style and the rest to the U.S. That would also create a "collector's market" for each audience. The grass is always greener on the other side of the Atlantic, you know.

$$$ cha-ching $$$
 
Ruby....
Is it so tough to use one spelling here and another overseas?

devote a ceratin percentage of copies to the European/Uk/Oz style and the rest to the U.S.

That would ... create a "collector's market" for each audience.

$$$ cha-ching $$$


See there? Smart. (taps head with finger)
 
Shoulda married that bird I met in the early 80's who kept pouring her dough into some Micro-light company...

At least I think it was Micro-light....

Micro... something...

Anyway, she did alright.
 
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Once you get to the US, you will need to put down that "s" and pick up a "z". It is odd. I have never understood why the rest of the English speaking world would spell is "realise" and we Americans spell it "Realize". There are a lot of words like this in the English language. I can only assume that we Americans changed it at some point. Anyone have any insight on this?

Bill, it's down to them darn lexicographers. English was long established in America when a bunch of British lexicographers decided to change "z"s to "s"s. Reason: because there is no "z" in Latin and they wanted English to be more like Latin. Pretty dumb considering English is a Germanic language. So, the US uses the old English spelling "realize" and "recognize" whereas the dictionary writers had there way in Britain and the other colonies (Australia, NZ and SA weren't even colonies yet, so they got the later standard English direct from Britain). In many ways, US English is closer to older ENglish forms, though "gotten" is an abomination.

That's also why there is snobbery concerning split infinitives. In Latin the infinitive cannot be "split" by another word because it is a single word. ENglish doesn't follow LAtin rules because it is a Germanic language. Professors wanting to change history. Bad move.

There you go, Bill. Learn something new everyday, don't you?

Joseph K.
 
That is very interesting. I had always assumed that the American English changed it from the Queen's English, not the other way around.

Odd.

Bill
 
Well, Webster did reform spelling but some changes were British in origin. By and large, most diversions come from colonies or influence of other languages. However, note how different the nouns are re cars - a case of parallel development.

Joseph K
 
that is very interesting; i'd always assumed the 'z' was a US invention.

but bill, i'm still not going to use it...


;)
 
Shoulda bought that Fante signed copy of Wait Until Spring, Bandini that Powell's had on sale for $250. Good price... GREAT price.

There's probably more in my life, but nothing else I feel really bad about missing out on at the moment.
 

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