bakersfield '63

 

[i took this pic near the dumpster located behind my local Safeway among dozens of other LPs scattered about the lot.  i took a few more photos of these records but this one, Bakersfield '63, really caught my eye.  it is an obscure record for sure.  & it is a recording of exactly what you might think it is. drag strip racing.  but man!  the internet never forgets because you can hear this record on this youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKVB_Fx7rYM&t=348s.  life is a trip!]  

goofyfoot

i've loved rock&roll for as long as i've been listening to music.  i also loved writing.  i knew i couldn't carry a tune.  even for punk rock.  there was always someone who was more charismatic & rowdier who could front a band.  i taught myself a few chords on guitar but i knew i sucked at playing even so.  therefore, i wanted to become a lyricist.  like bernie taupin & robert hunter.  i wrote song lyrics as early as grammar school.  & mercifully, those early attempts are lost like tears in the rain.

so it is with little wonder i found myself attracted to poetry.  ever since, i dunno, i was 16, i've been reading/writing.  i was, & still am, a shitty formal student.  but i did dedicate my life to literature.  but i write like i stood on a skateboard.  goofyfoot.  which is not not odd for a left-handed person.  but i am right-handed.  sorta.  i've favored my left hand for certain tasks, & my right hand for others, like holding a pencil.

in a little over a week i will observe my 59th turn around the sun.  which means i've been writing poems for at least 40 years.  & i think i am just getting the hang of it!  when the great japanese artist hokusai said he was sketching from age six & at 73 he started to grasp the structures of birds, plants, beasts et al.  but he would need to achieve the tender age of 130 - 140 when 'every dot & every stroke i paint will be alive.'  me too, brother, me too!

for i am just learning my art & craft, & life in poetry. it takes a lifetime.  i don't claim any quality to my poems.  that's not my call.  i can only write the poems as they come to me.    nor do i care, seriously, this is not a humble brag, for fame or immortality.  in this day & age!  you've got to be fucking pulling my chain.  i love that quote attributed to the late poet larry fagin, who told his students, 'none of us will be famous.'  so why do it?  why read & write in our digital age?

because habits made over a lifetime are hard to break.  but also, poetry, like life, gives me pleasure.  the greatest kind of pleasure.  i hope my love, my lust, for life, is found in my work.  that alone is reason enough.  poetry, even in our present age, is more than capable of defending itself.  poetry, like my love of rock&roll, need not defend itself.  poetry is, in the phrase of singer paul rodgers of the band free, 'all right now!'

rushing out the door

halfway down the street

i forgot to tie my shoes, again

tapping my phone for a good music channel to listen to

where did i put my umbrella?!  it looks like rain!

it's late friday nite/early saturday & satisfaction is guaranteed!

'baby you can drive my car, & then park it!'

 

'caroline laughs & it's raining all day she loves to be one of the girls'

 

quote unquote

 

                                        --spencer selby

detour [1945]

 

now this is a film!  i've read about this flick for a while now.  i've been watching older movies & really getting into film noir.  i dig crime stories that feature very flawed characters.  i like my detectives & p.i.'s broken, obsessed, brilliant, kinda shady, & if they lean towards alcoholic all the better!  perhaps i like crime fiction because i am getting older.  detective fiction, i.e. hard-boiled & film noir, is a caustic investigation of our chaotic world.  the detective is like the poet.  both live in the margins of society as we both investigate & find beauty in the ugly.  i noticed too many older poets i've known became crime fiction aficionados.  you can count me in that club too.  

at any rate, this flick is one of the best american film noirs that i have seen recently.  directed by edgar g. ulmer on a meager budget it is said that this movie was shot in about six days.  if so, wow!  because ulmer doesn't waste a frame of film.  this is a lean pic of paranoia, fear, manipulation, & greed.  oh throw in a little love too.  why not.  the run time is taut at 68 minutes.  the play of light & shadows is masterful.  you can craft your phd dissertation on the strength of this movie.

the gist goes like this.  our antihero al, played by tom neal, is a pianist in a NYC nightclub.  his girlfriend, sue, played by claudia drake, is the singer.  sue goes west to find her fame & fortune in hollywood leaving poor ol' al, who wanted to marry sue, alone.  al still wants to marry sue.  so one night after his gig at the nightclub he calls sue & tells her he's on his way to her in california.  now, i don't know the renumeration of musicians in NYC nightclubs was in 1945 but poor ol' al is broke.  he's gotta hitch his way out west.  & he does.  gets as far as reno.

you see he's picked up by a bookie by the name of charles haskell, jr., played by edmund macdonald.  haskell has a wad of cash, some deep scratches on his hand & arm, & a terrible physical state that demands he take a great many pills.  but haskell is a friendly voluble dude who takes a liking to al.  even treats al to dinner at a diner when poor ol' al told haskell he'd wait outside when haskell wanted to get something to eat.  who is haskell, why does he have those scratches, & what sort of condition is his condition?  ulmer, & screenwriter martin goldsmith, author of the source novel, never lets us know.  but we do know, because we are watching a noir flick, it ain't too good.

what happens next is a sequence of very bad luck for al.  i don't want to give too much away but let me say that when he picks up vera, played meanly, icily & downright scarily by ann savage, al is in deep deep shit  vera might be the most cold, brutal, & calculating woman ever put on american celluloid.  man, she is a force of nature.  you hate her.  you admire her.  you can't believe your eyes & ears as she takes al on that very very dark detour.  & al is forever altered by it.  

this movie is in the public domain so it is easy to find & watch.  i believe there are several channels on youtube hosting this flick.  the print i watched last night was grainy, flickery & scratchy.  my favorite kind of print!  kinda reminded me of seeing this movie at the drive-in or on late-night TV.  now, as i said a little earlier, i am just beginning to explore film noir.  but this is one helluva introduction to the genre.  i can't recommend this movie enough.  

everybody was kung fu fighting

early summer breeze

getting the news from a 1980s jackie chan flick

a fistful of potato chips

& a frozen burrito

guided by the poems of tu fu & li po

one foot in this world

the other foot in the other world

my jokes sound the alarm

anybody listening?

say it one more time 

i lost the way