Q: Wow, that was an eventful 4th
of July weekend.
You saw what you are going to write in July and August.
You realized you were having a case of nerves, about reading at zine fest in Philadelphia.
About having Bukowski Never Did This come out.
All this is on public
view. The inner life of an underground writer.
Inside Underground Writing.
It's like hearing Tonya Harding plot to whack Nancy Kerrigan in the knee.
A: Yes.
Q: And even if the zine fest isn't as historic--how could it be?--as the
reading at the Six Gallery, (1) you won't be reading to empty chairs, (2) the event
is historic for you, and (3) whether the book is ever reprinted or not, it's
historic that, for the first time, such an event is written about, as it happens,
in a book with background information on the event, and the book is published, as
it happens.
Also, by the time you end the book you will have had two weeks
to hear from people who attended the zine fest in Philly, and their reaction will
be in the book.
A: Yes. That's why I was nervous.
Q: Are you OK now?
A: Today is the 4th of July.
NPR is playing Charles Ives.
That's when they play Charles Ives in America.
4th of July.
Cale
came to spend a couple of days. Balder and Jennifer dropped him off. I bought some
fireworks to set off after dark.
I fried chicken and made baked beans and
potato salad and we took it to the old bridge that goes to Tyndall AFB. Men fish
off it.
We watched the F-15s fly over the bay, then land.
We ate
our supper.
Then we went back to the house and set off the fireworks.
* * *
When I told Brenda Owen was playing Saturday night before my Sunday show
she said she'd take Monday off and come with me. If she wasn't crowding my act.
I said no, I'd like to have her along. We could keep each other company on the drive.
It will be like a vacation for us.
The last time David Davis and the Warrior
River Boys played at Everett's Barn they came by our house in Norcross and ate fried
chicken with us.
I like Everett's Barn.
I used to go out there by
myself on Saturday nights, before Brenda moved to Atlanta, just to hear the house
band, when they didn't have any visiting bands playing.
* * *
When Ella was in New York City, they saw the Gay Pride parade.
Then
they went to the Bronx Zoo.
When Ella saw the elephant, she said, "I
don't want to ride the elephant."
She thought they were all for riding,
like Janice's horse.
* * *
I don't want to ride the elephant either, Ella.
I'm afraid of elephants.
I don't want to ride on a float in the Gay Pride parade.