[Corner Bar in Sea Point, Cape Town on 10/30/21] That’s the schedule anyway, but if someone gets knocked out in seconds, so be it. I promise to fight fair, so no head butts, low blows or rabbit punches, and I trust Kent will be similarly under control.
A building contractor, his one trip abroad was to Mongolia, of all places, where he had a great time hunting. On his way back, he made a brief stop in Seoul, South Korea.
When Don didn't show up at Friendly for two or three weeks, Dom the owner assumed he had died, for he was in such bad shape. Reappearing, Don looked like shit, but he was as cheerful as ever.
A government employee paid to steal other peoples shit, while acting self-righteous spewing idiot wind drivel. This is quite typical I have found, and I have no doubt he had trouble with others on the play ground while growing up. He was either a bully that got put in his place a few times or he’s of short stature, and weak titties. His revenge is ambushing the weak and the poor with the full backing of a bureaucratic beast.
Given the cast of Clizbe's thoughts about "the riff-raff," I'm surprised he bothers to read your posts. (Perhaps he's "checking on you"...) If he can't stomach "hanging around with scumbags", I guess he doesn't spend much time with his co-workers.
I won't dive back too much into the language issues you wrote about a couple of months ago, other than to observe that the pollution of other languages by English is probably more of a cultural than a linguistic artifact. Pollution, nevertheless, and I don't know how you protect a culture against it. When I saw all the effort the French went to a few decades back to "Frenchify" everything, it impressed me as being somewhat silly, since they were simply transliterating borrowed English words into their French equivalents; I had a hard time seeing how this benefited the language or enhanced the culture, since it was the same idea.
Regarding writers you mentioned, I'm grateful to you for pointing to Breece D'J Pancake, who I never would have found on my own. I took a chance and purchased his collection, and it was wonderful. However, I am less impressed with Joe Bageant, but I've only read one book of his, and perhaps it was the wrong one. "Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches From America's Class War" was not what I expected; rather than being in the form of your own "Postcards", it was way too heavy on the politics. Looking back at comments I wrote in my book notes at the time I read it: "...far too much of the book (the bulk of it, actually) is Bageant self-indulgently preaching his own liberal politics and blaming the usual suspects, almost always Republicans, Christians, and big business. Although I don't reject every one of these assertions, they are overly simple-minded statements that ignore huge complexities in the questions they raise, and most of them are presented as settled truths without any supporting arguments. Thus, it is a poor book even if Bageant's intention was to discuss public policy rather than the working people of rural Virginia." Perhaps, having talked to the man, you know of other works of his you can recommend that are more representative of what inspired you about him.
Fascinating to read what makes you tick. You are quite atypical. Of any group, but most especially Vietnamese.
There is a thesis to be written (perhaps it already exists) on how alcohol, and especially the public house culture, contributed to the evolutionary success of us European types.
it's a good post,i sent it on to some of your philly crowd...hope all is well,and the food good and cheap,and the beer cheaper....things still suck here in orwell's "i told you so".
“His disdain for low end taverns also betrays his contempt for poorer Americans. For all of his supposed patriotism, he sneers at a huge swath of America.”
Well, in this, he's no much different than most upper-class people in the US and by extension in the Anglo world. There's a long tradition of hating the lower/working class. Perhaps it happens in the Continent too, but I think it's less pronounced. Anglos really mastered the art of very stratified class societies. Even today in America, there is this false idea that "there are no classes", but that's not true. It's just that they are structured in a different way, but there's a larger distance today between a 'woke' graduate from Yale and a Rust Belt unemployed drunk Trump voter, than there is between an European Count and a peasant.
I read the linked essay about Scranton. It reminds me of Studs Terkel's work, which IMHO is high praise. That essay needs to be between hardcovers, well bound, on acid-free paper, with photos, along with a lot more of your best work. Digital existence is ephemeral -- I have seen astounding quantities of first-rate material disappeared from the Internet. My fingers remain crossed for a coffee-table collection, sir. Please consider a 'fund me' type arrangement. I'd donate up front for the honor of having a signed edition in future.
Very interesting. Bars in Sacramento can be fun if they are the kind where people talk to strangers about current affairs. Covid policies have shut many great dive bars down though.
Guess my instincts are intact, despite all the alcohol and drugs and lowlife copmpany I've unashamedly enjoyed over the decades. I can see why Kent avoids any vices though, he'd be slipping in his dribble and waking up handcuffed in the nude to lamp posts all the time. I guess he's going to have to get used to rabbit punches though, it's all I've got. It makes sense that he'd have been employed by the agencies of mediocrity. Self righteous, clueless and boring, if he hadn't been surrounded by talent selected for exactly these things he might have risen beyond lowly shit kicker. Some people aren't capable of house painting, cleaning or brickie's labourer, so I suppose they'd want to avoid the stories of those who are.
Without knowing anything more than his feeble self-righteous comments I picked him as a clueless wanker. I should be telling fortunes at the fair. There are way too many nuances and subtleties in your writing for Kent to handle, so it must seem like truly bland fare to him. The only encouraging thing about what small minded nitwits these organisations employ is that they're effectively deaf and blind to anything but the steam rising from dog shit on a cold day. It is good to know that such dumb fucks will have queued up early to get their death shots so we get to watch them go.
It sounds like he wrote it himself. A distinct possibility in the age of Mockingbird media.
Maybe he's just giving you the soft sell on his "Credibility Assurance Consulting Services".
He's offered very strong criticism. He appears to view the world in extremely black and white terms. To each, his own, I guess.
Looking at his content, I can't take someone seriously when they espouse the threat of Communist Russia without a single mention of the Jews of the politburo. I see a very deliberate trend in the alternative and conservative media to lay all our current problems at the feet of Socialism, Marxism, and Communism. When it comes to the Jewish banking dynasties who financed all of those ism's, nothing but crickets. No mention of Fascism. They say Big Government is the problem, not the usurpation of the people's will by Big Business. I can't believe a company man could be unaware of this.
It's hacking away, way out in the weeds. There is only one issue that matters. Treating the symptoms will do nothing to stop the disease.
Speaking of Mafia owned bars...my buddies & I used to hang out at this place called The Rack Inn back in the mid to late 70's. The place could get rowdy, especially late at night. We heard the owner, Mario Martino (if I remember) was mob connected and used to joke about it, but we weren't really sure.
Then one day we walked in, and Mario wasn't there. He had been replaced by his brother, who was packing a handgun. WTF was going on ? Mario couldn't be found was what we were told although there were also whisperings about the Mexican Mafia.
Finally, a week or so later all (well almost all) the questions were answered.
Mario Martino's body had been discovered in the trunk of a car at Sky Harbor Airport. He had two bullet holes in the back of his head.
Hi everyone,
Here's my 2016 interview with Don the hunter:
https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2016/06/obscured-american-don-retired-building.html
A building contractor, his one trip abroad was to Mongolia, of all places, where he had a great time hunting. On his way back, he made a brief stop in Seoul, South Korea.
When Don didn't show up at Friendly for two or three weeks, Dom the owner assumed he had died, for he was in such bad shape. Reappearing, Don looked like shit, but he was as cheerful as ever.
Linh
A government employee paid to steal other peoples shit, while acting self-righteous spewing idiot wind drivel. This is quite typical I have found, and I have no doubt he had trouble with others on the play ground while growing up. He was either a bully that got put in his place a few times or he’s of short stature, and weak titties. His revenge is ambushing the weak and the poor with the full backing of a bureaucratic beast.
What he can’t understand is why nobody likes him?
Linh
Just heard Jew Boy Albert Bourla contracted Covid-19, despite having 4 booster shots.
Bill
Given the cast of Clizbe's thoughts about "the riff-raff," I'm surprised he bothers to read your posts. (Perhaps he's "checking on you"...) If he can't stomach "hanging around with scumbags", I guess he doesn't spend much time with his co-workers.
I won't dive back too much into the language issues you wrote about a couple of months ago, other than to observe that the pollution of other languages by English is probably more of a cultural than a linguistic artifact. Pollution, nevertheless, and I don't know how you protect a culture against it. When I saw all the effort the French went to a few decades back to "Frenchify" everything, it impressed me as being somewhat silly, since they were simply transliterating borrowed English words into their French equivalents; I had a hard time seeing how this benefited the language or enhanced the culture, since it was the same idea.
Regarding writers you mentioned, I'm grateful to you for pointing to Breece D'J Pancake, who I never would have found on my own. I took a chance and purchased his collection, and it was wonderful. However, I am less impressed with Joe Bageant, but I've only read one book of his, and perhaps it was the wrong one. "Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches From America's Class War" was not what I expected; rather than being in the form of your own "Postcards", it was way too heavy on the politics. Looking back at comments I wrote in my book notes at the time I read it: "...far too much of the book (the bulk of it, actually) is Bageant self-indulgently preaching his own liberal politics and blaming the usual suspects, almost always Republicans, Christians, and big business. Although I don't reject every one of these assertions, they are overly simple-minded statements that ignore huge complexities in the questions they raise, and most of them are presented as settled truths without any supporting arguments. Thus, it is a poor book even if Bageant's intention was to discuss public policy rather than the working people of rural Virginia." Perhaps, having talked to the man, you know of other works of his you can recommend that are more representative of what inspired you about him.
Fascinating to read what makes you tick. You are quite atypical. Of any group, but most especially Vietnamese.
There is a thesis to be written (perhaps it already exists) on how alcohol, and especially the public house culture, contributed to the evolutionary success of us European types.
it's a good post,i sent it on to some of your philly crowd...hope all is well,and the food good and cheap,and the beer cheaper....things still suck here in orwell's "i told you so".
one of your better contests...miss my drinking partner,but i make do..the friendly could use you now.
“His disdain for low end taverns also betrays his contempt for poorer Americans. For all of his supposed patriotism, he sneers at a huge swath of America.”
Well, in this, he's no much different than most upper-class people in the US and by extension in the Anglo world. There's a long tradition of hating the lower/working class. Perhaps it happens in the Continent too, but I think it's less pronounced. Anglos really mastered the art of very stratified class societies. Even today in America, there is this false idea that "there are no classes", but that's not true. It's just that they are structured in a different way, but there's a larger distance today between a 'woke' graduate from Yale and a Rust Belt unemployed drunk Trump voter, than there is between an European Count and a peasant.
I read the linked essay about Scranton. It reminds me of Studs Terkel's work, which IMHO is high praise. That essay needs to be between hardcovers, well bound, on acid-free paper, with photos, along with a lot more of your best work. Digital existence is ephemeral -- I have seen astounding quantities of first-rate material disappeared from the Internet. My fingers remain crossed for a coffee-table collection, sir. Please consider a 'fund me' type arrangement. I'd donate up front for the honor of having a signed edition in future.
Very interesting. Bars in Sacramento can be fun if they are the kind where people talk to strangers about current affairs. Covid policies have shut many great dive bars down though.
As with Hemingway of " a well lite place " we human seek diversion from the reality of our invincible defeat .
enjoy Your take on American Pie .
"CIA crab and Linh Craw Daddy had a big fight ,CIA Crab pushed Craw Daddy Linh clear out of sight. Craw Daddy Linh say
THATS ALRIGHT I WILL CATCH UP WITH CIA CRAB
IN THE GUMBO SOME SATURDAY NITE"
Guess my instincts are intact, despite all the alcohol and drugs and lowlife copmpany I've unashamedly enjoyed over the decades. I can see why Kent avoids any vices though, he'd be slipping in his dribble and waking up handcuffed in the nude to lamp posts all the time. I guess he's going to have to get used to rabbit punches though, it's all I've got. It makes sense that he'd have been employed by the agencies of mediocrity. Self righteous, clueless and boring, if he hadn't been surrounded by talent selected for exactly these things he might have risen beyond lowly shit kicker. Some people aren't capable of house painting, cleaning or brickie's labourer, so I suppose they'd want to avoid the stories of those who are.
Without knowing anything more than his feeble self-righteous comments I picked him as a clueless wanker. I should be telling fortunes at the fair. There are way too many nuances and subtleties in your writing for Kent to handle, so it must seem like truly bland fare to him. The only encouraging thing about what small minded nitwits these organisations employ is that they're effectively deaf and blind to anything but the steam rising from dog shit on a cold day. It is good to know that such dumb fucks will have queued up early to get their death shots so we get to watch them go.
I suppose you've seen this article- https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/magazine/the-plot-to-take-down-a-fox-news-analyst.html
It sounds like he wrote it himself. A distinct possibility in the age of Mockingbird media.
Maybe he's just giving you the soft sell on his "Credibility Assurance Consulting Services".
He's offered very strong criticism. He appears to view the world in extremely black and white terms. To each, his own, I guess.
Looking at his content, I can't take someone seriously when they espouse the threat of Communist Russia without a single mention of the Jews of the politburo. I see a very deliberate trend in the alternative and conservative media to lay all our current problems at the feet of Socialism, Marxism, and Communism. When it comes to the Jewish banking dynasties who financed all of those ism's, nothing but crickets. No mention of Fascism. They say Big Government is the problem, not the usurpation of the people's will by Big Business. I can't believe a company man could be unaware of this.
It's hacking away, way out in the weeds. There is only one issue that matters. Treating the symptoms will do nothing to stop the disease.
Linh
Great writing, as always.
Speaking of Mafia owned bars...my buddies & I used to hang out at this place called The Rack Inn back in the mid to late 70's. The place could get rowdy, especially late at night. We heard the owner, Mario Martino (if I remember) was mob connected and used to joke about it, but we weren't really sure.
Then one day we walked in, and Mario wasn't there. He had been replaced by his brother, who was packing a handgun. WTF was going on ? Mario couldn't be found was what we were told although there were also whisperings about the Mexican Mafia.
Finally, a week or so later all (well almost all) the questions were answered.
Mario Martino's body had been discovered in the trunk of a car at Sky Harbor Airport. He had two bullet holes in the back of his head.
Bill
Always a fantastic read.