jazzbo

Just got the message Jac, and replied. Yes, kung fu films. . . I've never really been a fan. BUT recently thanks to Shawn I have become a Jackie Chan fan. . . not necessarily the same thing!

Tomorrow I plan to see this with a few friends, a "guy thing" afternoon showing at a theater that serves drinks and food. . . . I'm expecting it to be a real style fest and quite a movie. The trailers have me very interested. I know it's going to be full of violence and gore. . . . Normally movies full of violence and gore don't get me into the theaters. . . . But after a long time between films, I'm interested to see this Tarrantino one. I really have liked Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown (not a fan of ---don't have the stomach for--- Resevoir Dogs) for the art of his filming more than anything; he does something that no one else quite does. Anyone seen it yet? Anyone plan to? Anyone vehemently opposed to seeing it?

I too like both Charisma and Caramba, liking Caramba a bit more. But both are very nice albums!

Alright! My work here is done! Yes, I really resonated with that experience as well. I never had anything like that experience with the fish "amulet" happen, BUT if something had, I would have TRIPPED OUT in a similar manner!

"We Can Remember it For you Wholesale"---fantastic story isn't it? Don't you wish that Total Recall were more like the story? I think Flow My Tears might well hold up; I was really impressed with it the last time I reread it. The more adult experience I have, the more these books talk to me!

Yeah, the cosmic trigger stuff. . . . Yes, I ultimately waffled between not believing in anything, and believing in the pure versions of things that have become corrupt, which is really not believing in anything real or shared. . . . This is strange stuff. I can't really say that my father fully supported my research, but he always allowed me to follow my own heart and mind, which actually have led me where he would not like me to go. . . . But he's accepted me still. I've tried to be as accepting of persons in my world and life as well. He sure is a great role model and a breed of person to wish to evolve into. I think that after all that study for some reason years later I got interested in reading about Krishnamurti, and reading several biographies of his life made a big difference to my psyche. I found a comfortable reason for why I always felt different, and empowered to be different, and not try to fit into a life that wasn't for me, and to fully be myself. His nihilistic viewpoint was cleansing! Here's Robert Crumb's version of PKD's religious experience! http://www.philipkdick.com/weirdo.htm

Hmmm. . . I didn't read Crowley. I read all the documents found at Nag Hammadi instead, for example, and everything I could find on the Dead Sea Scrolls and gonsticism, hermeticism, etc. It was a trip. I especially enjoyed when my dad came to visit (he was a minister for 45 years, now retired) and he surveyed all the books I had read and said "Man, you've done far more studying on the origins of Christianity than is required of seminary students!"

Yes, Robert Anton Wilson. . . read those indeed. I think rather than going crazy, my research made me saner!

Yes, something definitely happened to Phil in the middle of the seventies and he spent a large part of the rest of his life trying to decide what it was. He was a huge speculator, and this was the ultimate speculatory vehicle for him! I find it fascinating many of the possibilities he explored! His final three books, "VALIS," followed by "The Divine Invasion" and the "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer" were very different from the earlier works, and an attempt on his part to come to grips with the experience. I think they are excellent books. . . they draw on some subjects that fascinated me throughout the eighties and into the nineties such as gnosticism and mystery religions and the earliest christianity. . . . I finally wrote to Philip K. Dick about three months before he died. I told him of my finding the Zap Gun in an Ethiopian bookstore, of my search for all his books (a lot harder to find then than now) and how much they meant to me. I hesitated for a long time to send it, but eventually did. I was astonished to get a rather speedy reply back, thanking me for my letter and telling me how much letters like that meant to him, and telling me of his impending trip to France, and of the upcoming publication of his final novel. I was shocked and very happy, and I was in fact in the middle of sending him a reply on the day that I learned he had died of a stroke. . . . You're right Mark, his books can definitely be sold easily, and if I weren't working . . . well I would sell quite a few other things first because his books have been a big part of my life.

The cover image of the first PKD novel I ever bought and read, bought in 1968 in the Gianopolis Bookstore, Addis Abab. Still have it!

Leave it to the Italians. . . .

Here he's sort of the "Thelonious Monk of the Organ"

This photo seems to say to me "The Bud Powell Of the Organ"

No no no no . . . THAT's what I'm talkin' about!

That's what I'm talkin' about!

I've not given it my full attention, I've heard it several times while cleaning up at home and while working in the "office" here at work. . . . It's very South African, reminding me very much of the music I heard in clubs and on the radio in Swaziland at the close of the sixties, and a lot like the music of Miriam Makeba (which I love and need to get more of.) It's a very interesting disc!

Mark, "The Transformation of Timothy Archer" perhaps? I can see not enjoying that one. . . unless you knew that this was about Bishop Pike and knew a bit about Pike. . . !

Don't overlook "Dusk" and its' followup ("A Beautiful Day"--I think, can't remember the precise title) released in the last few years. Fantastic cds! I'm looking forward to Passing Ships; this is the highlight disc in this batch as it is "new"!

You are right, his stories have many fantastic ideas, but somehow I prefer his novels because the characters he develops and how they develop in the storylines are a huge draw for me. . . . Confessions of a Crap Artist is a wonderful book! Dark, funny, on target in many ways. . . .

I'll bet that was an interesting conversation! I love Dick's titles. He had a real sense of the consumer scieity and the advertising words and rhythms. And just how to come up with a hook for a title. "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale." "The Maze of Death." "Solar Lottery." "Clans of the Alphane Moon." "Puttering About in a Strange Land." "In Milton Lumpkin Territory." "Mary and the Giant." "The Broken Bubble of Thisbe Holt." "The Crack in Space." So many more. . . .

They are ALL worth a mention. I've read them all over the years. Some four or five times! His non science fiction books were a pure joy for me when these began to appear in the eighties. These are magnificent works, not that his science fiction titles aren't! But it's great to read what HE wished he could have made a living writing. . . .

I've never had a chance to read "Gather Yourselves Together," and who knows, that may turn out to be my favorite, and it really really really is hard to choose a favorite. Mine by a HAIR, at this time, is "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike." It's moved up past "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" in my estimation lately. . . .

Hmmm. . . hadn't thought about the anti-trust laws, good points. I just want more reissues of jazz material from their holdings!