“Iconic Clowns [2]:
Abbie Again, The Long Good-bye”
Leonard’s comments on the occasion of the 1989 “No Regrets”
memorial for Abbie Hoffman at the Paladium in NYC. Very funny and insightful
walk through the celebrities in the green room: Peter Yarrow, Norman Mailer,
Allen Ginsberg…example:
I didn’t want to talk to Allen Ginsberg because I
happened to be in the middle of reading a biography of him; and in this
biography Ginsberg was in the middle of discovering, under the influence of
ayuhuasca, in the jungles of Peru, that God was an octopus…”
Leonard describes the event as a “made-for-television overproduction
and laments about how there was no time to “…contemplate our own failures of
character, nor any silence to seek some courage.” The spectacle reinforces
Leonard’s feeling that the myth has taken over the memory, “About Berkeley and
Chicago I remember him; I’ve forgotten me.” The next day Leonard learns that
I.F. Stome died and that the Mets traded Lenny Dykstra reinforcing his feeling
of the death of, not an era, but a frame of mind. I.F. Stone is, of course the
noted investigative journalist and Zionist (and later accused Soviet contact). Not
really sure how Lenny Dykstra fit in.
New word: ayuhuasca
= organic Peruvian concoction of various plants that many users have claimed
led to a spiritual awakening. Kind of a psychedelic mate tea?
New
learning: Funny random quote in the essay from Maxine Hong Kinston’s
“very sixties book” Tripmaster Monkey, “What if Chubby Checker does not mean us well? What is Chubby Checker is up to
no good?” The authors name, the books title and the mystery of the context of
this quote will compel me to read the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment