s.a. griffin i turned on the tv this afternoon while doing my weekly chores. the last 20 or so minutes of vegas vacation [1997] was playing. i like this movie. another adventure by the griswold clan from chicago as their bumbling, but well-meaning father, clark, played by chevy chase, leaps into the absurd. this flick is silly, fun & fodder for an autumn saturday matinee as i performed my weekly chores. i'd forgotten that the poet s.a. griffin is in this pic too. griffin plays a pit boss. he's probably in this movie at most around 2 to 4 minutes. griffin is a long working professional actor that's been in everything from tv commercials to sitcoms to hollywood movies to the stage. i watched griffin's brief turn as a pit boss who is fooled by rusty griswold, played by ethan embry, into thinking rusty is a wealthy man of the world. i like griffin. he is a good actor. he is also a great performer of his poetry. & i recall one evening when he & the rest of the carma bums, a group of poets that included john dorsey, ellyn maybe, & the late scott wannberg, who toured the u.s., bringing their neo-beat outlaw poems & songs state by state & city by city. robert hansen, publisher of POEMS-FOR-ALL tiny books & more, hosted the carma bums at his 24th st bookstore, the book collector. hansen had the most eclectic & wild & wonderful readings at the book collector. his little store was rich with books, chapbooks, broadsides, & other poetry ephemera. hansen loved the mimeo revolution era & had a deep catalogue of publications from that famed era of DIY poetics. grffin et al. are an extension of the mimeo revolution & so a perfect fit for hansen & the book collector. griffin possesses a cool charisma that i found to be what i call professorial punk rock. & he was a sweet man. we spent an hour or so shooting the shit after the reading. i found him open, generous & a good listener. he was also, i remember, as we talked, scoping the stacks of hansen's store. he must have purchased about a half dozen books. which is just what i do when i'm in a bookstore. or library. i think every writer is a book collector. after my chores i get on my phone & google s.a. griffin to see what i can find. i found, much to my amazement, video of that night when the carma bums ascended the book collector. the internet is proof of faulkner's dictum, the past is never the past. it hasn't even passed. i bought several books by the carma bums, individual collections & collaborations, & i recall griffin giving me a hug as we parted. i walked home to anna & nick [who was two at the time. he'll be sixteen next month!] & griffin & the other bums piled into their vehicles, each of us leading to the next adventure.