Tom Wolfe has died

He was 87 and lived a good long life. He accomplished much and I will allow others to laud his work and write his accolades. 

I first encountered his writing when I was living in Woodstock NY where I found a copy of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in my B-I-L's house. I read it. That was different. It was a story about  places I had only heard of but never been to - San Francisco, La Honda, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and so on. But I started my journey there and within a year I had actually seen Furthur in person and I had traveled a bit more. Within 15 years I was riding my bicycle up Old La Honda grade where the Hells Angels once rode their choppers to get to Kesey's place.

A few years ago his daughter graduated from a nearby university and Mr. Wolfe spoke there. I attended his talk and the first thing that struck me was his Richmond accent. Who knew? Makes perfect sense as he was born in Richmond in 1931 and he carried his roots with him throughout his life.

After the talk I got in line and got to meet him I had him autograph my copy of From Bauhaus to Our House, my favorite book on architecture, and I got to talk to him for ninety seconds. I asked him who his favorite current architect is and he said "Michael Graves". Well, what are you going to do - you can't argue with someone in a white suit so I nodded and said "Yeah, he does good work" or something to that effect. So from then on he was "My close personal friend Tom Wolfe".

Was Tom Wolfe our latest Mark Twain? Or, how did American writers go from Mark Twain to Tom Wolfe - maybe that's something that could be explored. I am currently reading Twain's autobiography and I will say this - those two dressed in a very similar way.

I am only a reader, not a scholar, but I do know this - we are an amazing country to have produced two authors of that caliber in less than 200 years.

When you live long enough...

...you start to lose those you have known for decades. Yet another brother-in-law died recently, this one was world-renowned - famous, even, with many ex-wives, plenty of children and Krugerrands piled up like cordwood. His third ex-wife's father was a famous sculptor who left an estate worth an estimated 600 million dollars. Bigly famous, indeed.

Since this is poetry corner over here, I will include a poem that was used in his eulogy:

Dis altyd jy, net altyd jy,
die een gedagte bly my by
soos skadu's onder bome bly,
net altyd jy, net altyd jy.

Langs baie weë gaan my smart,
blind is my oë en verward,
is alle dinge in my hart.

Maar dit sal een en enkeld bly,
en aards en diep sy laafnis kry,
al staan dit winter, kaal in my,
die liefde in my, die liefde in my.

That is Afrikaans, and I am not the guy to translate it.

He was a book collector, specifically poetry books, and the bulk of his poetry collection, something like 60,000 volumes, was left to Emory University. What can I say - he traveled a long, at times rocky road, from the Bronx to Capetown. He enjoyed life, was endlessly fascinating to talk to and he will be missed by those of us who knew him.

Godspeed, Raymond, I am a better person for having known you.

This really doesn't directly relate, but there you go.

KLEM TV

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Be sure to check out the cameo by Sixty Grit and Carol_Herman at the 1m 22s mark.

KLEM FM

Overheard ca. 1969-70:

Jimi Hendrix: I don’t know, man. All I did was play it. I’m American, so I played it. I used to sing it in school. They made me sing it in school, so it was a flashback. 

Dick Cavett: This man was in the 101st Airborne, so when you send your nasty letters in …

Lesser known was Hendrix's call to sing the British anthem, "God Save The Queen," the following year at the Isle of Wight Music festival:

Hendrix to the British crowd: "In fact it'd sound better if you'd stand up, for your country, and your brother...and start singin'! And if you don't, fuck ya."

Of course, this all went to hell a scant seven years later.

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KLEM FM

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Donald Trump used that song shortly before speaking at his rally in San Diego today. It's a great CCR tune. I'm pretty sure that Fogerty's lawyers will be in touch with Trump's people shortly. They also played a lot of Stones' songs.

I  got about as close to the stage as Sixty Grit must have gotten to John Fogerty back in '69 when he attended that august fest.

I was still going through the metal detectors when I heard Sarah Palin's distinct voice. Here she is:

All the speakers were in front of the flags, but there was a sideshow going on to the left of me where the media were perched on a raised platform. Darrell Issa appeared briefly on that stage/perch and held a sign "Veterans For Trump."  That was the news-breaking moment for me -- a full 30 minutes before Trump announced Issa's endorsement:

Trump took the stage:

Visually, the whole rally could have really used one of those live projection screens. You people watching YouTube really had a better seat. At least his words came through loud and clear. Most of his message resonated. The part about Iraq being wrong got a muted response. San Diego is full of veterans.