Tales Of Ordinary Madness

I had to think pretty hard about the answer to this. To avoid a religious argument, I decided to pick something that really reflects how I see the rest of the world. If I had to choose a book to preserve for future generations, I would have to choose Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski.

"The difference between life and art is
art is more bearable."

The so-called drunken “poet laurite” of the 20^th century, Bukowski writes about what it takes to make it and get by in the real world. But if you read his work, he often portrays himself as a downtrodden, cold and unfeeling misanthrope author who writes only to purchase more red wine. And yet, It is at the heart of his writing that we see man’s true nature, and a considerable bit of my viewpoint on life.

I believe his writing, and Tales Of Ordinary Madness being the best example of his work I’ve come across so far, displays that reality is not some grand, glorious thing, it is simply a very quiet game wherein we all play our parts. Where the hero’s are not gleaming testaments to the very best America has to offer, but instead the real hero’s are those who are reliable, who are truthful and who call it like it is.

Bukowski seems to think that most of us are simply duped into this big grand scheme of “The American Dream” and just don’t see a way out of it. We are not to blame; we just do what we are told and move on with our lives. It is those who chose to blaze their own personal path to their own personal “American Dream” who truly are the hero’s.

I guess I wouldn’t want to leave a legacy of who we were in our time, but of what we wanted to become. Bukowski is crass, dirty and gets caught up in his own ego often, but these are fallacies we all deal with. Sometimes I just wish we could all be a little bit better to each other, and to ourselves, and I would hope that the short stories and poetry of Bukowski could teach that.

"I am still here, leaning against this machine."

Must Be The Season Of The Witch

Overall, I’m pretty okay with Halloween. There are a lot of inventive costumes out there, and I really enjoy creepy stories, the thought that ghosts are real and all that freaky supernatural junk. I love carving pumpkins and am still kind of sad that I didn’t do one this year.

I guess I just don’t have a lot of respect for people who don’t try to have special costumes for the occasion. I mean, if you’re going to do it, do it to the max. The cliché costumes that are dragged out every year do nothing for me too. I want to see effort put into costumes, not just some lame rag you’ve been wearing for years,

As to trick or treating as I kid, I went out until I was around 13 or so. I enjoyed dressing up and going around, but I guess I just grew out of it.  After awhile it just seemed silly and I honestly didn’t have the effort to really do anything over the top.

Costume for Senior Dress-Up Day last year
Can't you just feel the manliness?

Wouldn’t say I have any fond memories, because I usually just went out alone, in homemade costumes, in my neighborhood, which is pretty removed from where my friends live. So I just went around, got a pillowcase full of candy, and went home to sort through my haul.

I will say that my favorite candy was probably Dots, Reese’s Cups and any sort of Dark Chocolate that anyone was fancy enough to give out. I hate gum more than anything and had no drive whatsoever to eat any of those cheap knockoff jawbreakers that some people gave out.