“Freedom?”: Richard Brautigan’s first wife, VIRGINIA ASTE, speaks in a new interview
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Interview by Susan Kay Anderson
Less-than-revered by his Beat peers (Ginsberg gave him the ungainly nickname “Bunthorne,” Burroughs once observed him—drunk—crawling along the floor of a hotel after a reading event, Ferlinghetti said he “was all the novelist the hippies needed” because “[i]t was a nonliterate age”), Richard Brautigan became internationally famous in the late ’60s for writing simple-yet-surreal poems, short stories and novels that made readers marvel and burst out laughing.
Brautigan’s personal life, however, was no laughing matter. Severe alcoholism—drinking a bottle of brandy and two fifths of whiskey a day during binges, according to friend Don Carpenter—and depression over declining book sales led to Brautigan’s suicide in September 1984. He was 49.
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Get them out of here NOW!
Friday, December 25, 2009
This has been a nice day. A stressful one, but it's over and it's time to relax. It was all fine until my Mother reverted back to my high school days, came to my room and made a motion with her arms like an umpire calling a runner out at base.
"Get 'em outta here!" she yelled.
The dogs? I wondered, looking around to see what the hell they could have done to incur such wrath from her.
"I saw those two boys, now get them out of here NOW!"
I was stunned. "Knock yourself out", I say as she goes from room to room looking for errant visitors.
I felt steam building up inside of a now teenage version of me being scolded... and I say something about "...I'm a grownasswoman, almost 60 fucking years old and if I wanted to have "boys" over to vist, by God, "boys" would be visiting."
It's the second time she's said something like that to me in the past year.
She's 87. She has dementia. We always had a very rocky relationship I must admit but when she suddenly found herself alone in 2005 I left my husband and my daughter and moved 85 miles away to stay with her for a little while and here I remain. As much as we never got along I could not in good conscious let her stay by herself nor could I move her someplace else. Almost like a cruel joke the gods are playing on me or is it a chance for us to finally reconcile?
It's getting harder to live with my Mother and I cry tonight because she makes me mad and I cry because I'm sorry she's not well and I cry of what could have been and what never was.
"Boys" in the house. Maybe she'll apologize to me tomorrow and tell me that she's sorry for saying something so ludicrous.
Pity party is officially over. Thanks for listening. xoxo Read more...
O Christmas Tree, O You Fucking Christmas Tree
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Tomorrow I might put up my Christmas tree. Again.
Actually if I do it'd be the 3rd time in two weeks.
The first time that I put it up it was so beautiful and I took some photos and I added some packages under the tree. But it wasn't standing sturdy enough and it fell crashing down and sent all the items scattering, some shattering. Sigh...
It's 7-ft tall and is crammed full of mostly collectible ornaments.
So I put it up a second time. The big snow storm that rocked the whole east coast came through Friday night and a snow-heavy willow tree fell and hit our power pole which (among other things) blew out the tree lights so I had to remove the burned out Christmas tree lights.
You cannot take off your tree lights without knocking off most all the ornaments and the beads and pearls, etc, so I stripped that sonofabitch down again and "bare ass naked" it now sits in the living room.
Maybe tomorrow we try again? Let me consult my Eight Ball.
Testing New Comments... Again!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
After a reboot a few days ago I seemed to have lost the new comment form I was trying out. It's Intense Debate and I like what it offers so I'm trying it again...
Thanks for your patience. (Like I'm speaking to the masses or something)
Asheville Atheism Attacked Anew
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
...the election of Councilman Cecil Bothwell in Asheville, North Carolina, was being contested because he does not believe in god. No, your morning coffee is not laced with LSD; you read that correctly.
H.K. Edgerton is threatening to file a lawsuit in state court against the city to challenge Bothwell's appointment because, "My father was a Baptist minister. I'm a Christian man. I have problems with people who don't believe in God," said Edgerton, a former local NAACP president and founder of Southern Heritage 411, an organization that promotes the interests of black southerners.Am I the only one to see the problem here? Discriminating against blacks is bad, but perfectly OK when directed against people with a different world view?
link Read more...
Saturday Morning Me
Saturday, December 12, 2009
saturday morning me//
eagle's football jersey/charcoal leggings/
black knee boots/good hair day/
bowl of cheerios/still drinking hot tea/
sandalwood incense (Nepalese String)/
clothes washing/and did i mention
the freaking tree that fell down last night that took a week to put up and now i have to do it all over again? Fuck. Me.
so what about you?/
"Arise and drink your bliss, for all that lives is holy." --William Blake
Make Up Your Mind!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Last week I was rated "R" now today I'm "PG". It must go by what's on the recent days of your website.
Without further ado I must mention hardons, dildos, shooting heroin, goatse and *bukakke and a partridge in a pear treeee. I'll run the test again tomorrow.
*Edited to correct spelling.
Confirmed Date on 'Dark Shadows'
Johnny Depp's Dark Shadows to begin next year
Sci Fi Wire has learned that production will start on "Shadows" late next year. What, you want to know when? "We're actually going to shoot that film next September/October with Tim Burton and Johnny," he said. Which I'm guessing means that the movie will see a summer or fall 2011 release, presuming all goes as planned. Burton is still finishing post-production on Alice in Wonderland, which also stars Depp and opens March 5, 2010.
The Barnabas Collins character will be outstanding with JD doing him. I've been waiting to hear more on this and finally we get dates. Yay! Won't that be grand?
{via} link
Naoto Hattori
New Naoto Hattori prints. I learned of him pretty soon after I got online at least 10 years ago and he's simply the best at what he does.
This particular print is 15" X 16", $150.00. Sadly, too expensive for my meager budget.
link
Favorite Quotes
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flames by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
~Albert Schweitzer
Chronic Art
tokeofthetown.com — Cliff Maynard of Pittsburgh has blazed a unique trail on the stoner art scene. The 37-year-old creates amazing mosaics using the humble medium of used roach papers from smoked joints. {via: digg}
I'm all for innovative art? I suppose it is art. Thoughts? link
Must Be Santa by Bob Dylan
Saturday, December 5, 2009
A little odd to see Bobby in long straight hair singing about Santa but with this bordello-type spin on it, it's not bad. It's from his first ever Christmas album, Christmas In The Heart.
All of the artist's U.S. royalities from sales of these recordings will be donated to Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need this year's holiday season.Link | YouTube | Review Read more...
Foxfire
Friday, December 4, 2009
We have been consumed by a frenzy of green and alternate energy but Foxfire is the original green series and surival guide.
The original book was published in 1972 and my husband and I really poured over this book and Foxfire 2 which came later. There are maybe 12 of these Foxfire books now. Link
I can hardly think of Foxfire without thinking of the other good publications that came out around the same time like Mother Earth News and The Whole Earth Catalog. These were essential to us hippies and commune dwellers. But the Whole Earth was our "go-to" guide, our reference, our Google. It taught several generations how to select ecologically-sound products and make wise choices. Because of Whole Earth we had super cool accommodations near the Appalachian Trail by Watauga Lake and always had something good to eat. We all learned how to grow and cook and can almost anything. We built an outhouse and re-routed a spring. We loved it. The only problem we had was people always wanting to come over and hang out all the time.
Good News // Bad News
Good News: Your Mother is Christie Brinkley
Bad News: You look like your Father (Billy Joel)
"Bless her heart," as we say in the south. But I have sympathy for her recent suicide attempt. She's obviously having problems.
The Most Urgent Threat to World Peace Is Canada?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
"The harm this country could do in the next two weeks will outweigh all the good it has done in a century."Pretty fucking severe, wouldn't you say? But I read further because it's George Monbiot and learn that what Canada's leaders have done is reprehensible and at the root of it all is goddamn oil. Fucking oil! Why did I not see that coming?
"Until now I believed that the nation which has done most to sabotage a new climate change agreement was the United States. I was wrong. The real villain is Canada. Unless we can stop it, the harm done by Canada in December 2009 will outweigh a century of good works."
-Source Read more...
160 Grams
SOURCE
I don't know this model's name but he's featured everywhere this season. He's in the VNFOLD magazine link below, too.
Obama Ecstasy Pills Found
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
A traffic stop in South Texas yielded illegal drugs including pills in the shape of President Barack Obama.
Police in Palmview detained the driver after finding black tar heroin, cocaine, marijuana and several Ecstasy pills. Police say the Ecstasy was in brightly colored pills made to look like cartoon characters Homer Simpson, the Smurfs and even Obama.
Source
As in "OMG, I got SO wasted last night. We did a hit of Orange Barrel and two fucking Obamas."
NEW Mark Ryden
Tuesday, December 1, 2009

This set of 17 postcards showcases all eight paintings, two detail painting views and seven drawings from Mark Ryden's 2009 solo exhibition at the Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. The postcards are printed on high quality card stock and are packaged into a heavy card stock folder. This is the first time that this collection of images has been reproduced in any format.

THE SNOW YAK SHOW
SOURCE Read more...
VNFOLD
Premiere issue of VNFOLD, Argentina art, culture, and fashion magazine. OUTSTANDING photos.