Category Archives: Abstract Absurdist Otherness

Read it and weep! I’ve published and now, I be damned! There are some diamonds in this coal. Proceed with cautious carelessness.

The Lumberjack Song

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Back in the 1970’s on Sunday nights, my sister and I would watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus at 10:30 on Channel 13 on a small black & white TV in my parent’s bedroom.

My parents were watching something on the color TV in the living room so we had no other choice but to watch it in black & white. That was fine.

I remember before we started watching the show, asking Annemarie what Monty Python’s Flying Circus was, having seen it in the TV Guide listings. She didn’t have much of an idea but suggested we watch it.

So we started watching what would soon be a Sunday night ritual. I remember howling with laughter at Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Salad Days’. Who knew dismemberment and wide scale bloodletting would be so hilarious?

My parents probably thought we were insane with the peals of laughter. It was then I became a Python devotee. Not many people knew about Python then, and I’m sure it had a definite influence on my view of life.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail was when a lot of my friends caught up. Routines of yelling ‘Ni’ at each other. Mock battles between imaginary knights, killer rabbits were the rage for a time in the playground across the street from my house.

Annemarie & I did see Jabberwocky at the Bergen Mall movie theater but that went over our heads somewhat. Probably was an accurate depiction of life in the middle ages, but for the 2 of us, we just didn’t get it. It’s probably worth a look see again.

Never saw them live, but I did see the movies. I had the Live at City Center album, which was enjoyable, but nothing compared to the TV show.

Lately there is a series on the IFC about Monty Python. An authorized biography. I DVR’d it last night since I was in the midst of writing 1880 words. I looked forward to watching it when I was done writing and about an hour after, I watched it.

It seemed a bit odd, and I thought it was a surrealist gag. The sound was a few seconds behind the video and I hoped it would clear itself up. It didn’t. In fact there were some gaps in the program where the screen went dark.

Very disappointing.

I wound up reading while it was on since it was so annoying to try to watch it. It felt like a radio documentary while reading. I did eventually watch it at midnight and the IFC situation seemed to have cleared up.

I also posted on the IFC website but I don’t think anyone else had the same problem as I did. It was informative. Some footage of The Goon Show with Spike Mulligan and Peter Sellers as well as Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller.

And I just placed both Jabberwocky and Beyond the Fringe in my Netflix queue. Once I view Gran Casino by Luis Bunuel I’ll be able to see Beyond the Fringe.

Had that one for a few weeks but haven’t found the time or frame of mind to sit down and watch the surrealist master.

Funnily enough, it’s because of Monty Python that I first heard of Luis Bunuel. Back in the day when I used to read Rolling Stine and take it seriously, there was an obituary of Luis Bunuel, written by Eric Idle in the pages.

Eric Idle basically said, or from what I can remember that if it wasn’t for Luis Bunuel, Monty Python probably wouldn’t have existed.

That was high praise indeed for me and soon after that I traveled to the Public Theater, when they used to show films and watched my first Bunuel film, El Bruto with Stan Bogdansky.

I think a documentary on Luis Bunuel is way over due and I’m sure the Pythons would agree.

A very happy birthday to my brother Frank!

Wind in the Lonely Fences

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It’s 9/11 in case you didn’t know. Still a sad say, but as with time passing the sadness diminishes for some people and for others it’s compounded.

I will never forget what happened that day and I really don’t think anyone who was aware of what was going on that day will ever forget either. I wonder if there are a lot of forgetful people out there that need to be reminded.

For me, it was a beautiful day, with a deep blue sky. It was the day before my birthday so of course I was rather happy about that.

I was working for a staffing agency called Staff Mark on 40th Street in Manhattan on the 20th Floor. From the office you could see the Empire State Building and beyond that, the World Trade Center.

I was manning the front desk when the FedEx guy came by saying that he had heard of a plane hitting one of the twin towers. I was surprised and didn’t really believe him anyway.

If it was a plane I thought it was a small plane, a Cessna, a Piper Cub. I turned the corner and looked downtown where I saw smoke rising and a big chunk missing. Went back to my desk thinking ‘how fucked up is that?’

A few minutes after that, I hear screams from the office with the downtown view. The second plane hit the south tower. Everything went numb after that. I guess I was in shock.

A co-worker had his brother working in the World Trade Center. He was never seen again. Neither were a lot of people. People that had gone to work on that sunny day, perhaps ignoring the emergency intercoms advising people to stay where they were and trying to get out were murdered.

So much misinformation was around that day. Reports that planes were attacking the White House, the Washington Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial was under attack. There was no clear information and the people on TV with the news knew just as much as the guy on the street.

Though the internet was around, it wasn’t as much as it is today. Watching footage on YouTube, you see people on the street where it happened fleeing the toxic cloud of chemicals, office materials and flesh and blood.

Today I watched an hour long video about one of the people who jumped from one of the towers. Hard to watch and I thought about those people who jumped from the towers that day.

What was going through their minds? Was it the survival instinct, to get away from the heat and the smoke and the only way out was through the window? Were they thinking clearly? Was it just instinct or was it desperation?

Staff Mark had a grief counselor come in and I asked him those questions, not that he would know the answers, nor would anyone else.

The footage of the second plane hitting the South Tower is chilling. Sinister looking. I think of those people on the planes and the people that were left behind. 8 years later it still is a terrible day, and terrible is not that strong an adjective to describe that day in September.