Lawrence Ferlinghetti died last night. He had a good long run, a hundred and one years. I'm guessing he outlived almost everyone who from San Francisco's original beat scene. Uncle John turned me on to what was happening in North Beach when I was a kid. I couldn't wait to go there and to Ferlinghetti's bookstore, City Lights, and did eventually when I got old enough. The whole scene was another 'boy's club' of course but the writing and music was good, kicked some walls down. It's still there, by the way, the bookstore, and worth a visit next time you're in SF.
Paris Review obit
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Last time I was there, there was an author's reading upstairs. SRO. I had to stand on the next stair from the top and so didn't stay long.
Before that I bought a t-shirt, on which I get compliments all over the place.
There's also a great bar just across the alley, Vesuvio's, a large rambling place with plenty of tables for us writerly types. No idea how it's managing the pandemic.
There was a gathering there on the occasion of his hundredth and I meant to go but, alas, for some reason didn't. Quite naturally I remember not going but do not remember why I didn't.
How is Portugal treating you? I have a Burner friend who moved with her girlfriend out of California and down to Aljezur. Last I heard she is beyond delighted with the decision. I dunno, maybe I mentioned this before.
Vesuvio's. Yes. The mainstay hangout just across the alley. My Uncle John told me about it when I was a kid. He was the youngest poet in the beat scene, a mad and a tragic alcoholic. Of course, I couldn't wait to go there. :)
I'm not sure you mentioned her before but lots of expats from all over here. They especially go south like your friend has. It's supposed to be really beautiful there and lots of English speakers. Personally, I like being in the Lisbon area. I's a great city on the Tagus river as it enters the Atlantic so there is a variety of environments. So yeah. I'm really glad I'm here. I kind of hesitate to say it, as it sounds so pompous, but holy god... from a distance the US looks increasingly insane, even though I want to believe it maybe caught itself in time from going over the edge. I don't know though. Distance always offers a change of perspective and, wow, from here it looks like a dangerous loony bin. Stay safe.
It is a dangerous loony bin. I'm horrified at how many people have fallen in line with the trend towards fascism. I'm very glad we didn't re-elect 45 but what concerns me is that we would have if not for the one thing he did badly that a significant number of people agree on, mishandling the pandemic. My ladyfriend lived in Greece for a time with her small children and it altered her perspective radically. I haven't the option to depart and as a 5th-gen Californian I'm not likely to (ties I hate to cut) but I can envy those who are stable in a place such as Portugal.
Yeah. I hear you and agree that it was totally blowing his response to the pandemic that sunk him and it's horrifying that it took that much to get through to people. America as a country is so young and geographically so isolated and deeply delusional about its exceptionalism. I don't see how the direction it's headed will be anything less than catastrophic. Climate change will not grant America the millennia Europe had to learn from its mistakes. America is like a cancer patient. The cancer has invaded 49% of the body. That is not a comforting balance. It's not a balance at all. It's the last stage before collapse. I hate being so grim about it. Does it look like that to you?
I tend to be optimistic and think that most people who define as Republican will find their way back to hating liberals with their historic insanity rather than this. But who knows, seeds may have been planted that signal a real turn towards actual fascism. This will create a huge schism because I see growing trends towards the left too.
I've read of theories that have the U.S. undergoing seismic shifts about every 80 years and we're due. Revolution, Civil War, WWII, now.
We won't have a civil war. Instead such tensions are often addressed by getting involved in real wars elsewhere. Those trends aren't missing either. Interesting times.
I'm not that optimistic anymore. I'm afraid the landscape we created for a person like Trump to flourish is not something to be taken lightly, or easily dismissed or tossed away just because we won our election this time.
But, and it's a big but, I think if this administration does everything right, and in addition gets rid of gerrymandering and the filibuster--important just because these two things are critical in order to return majority rule to the government--then we have a chance for at least another 80 year run.
I say this because I believe the far Right and the far Left are significant in name only, and that even combined they could not comprise anything like the majority of Americans. Real, truly fair elections would never help the Republicans, as Trump came very near to out and out admitting with his comments about mail-in voting, just as an example.
I add that I feel confident of this because I live in the Midwest and I see that most people are interested in the things that a Democratic, liberal (if centrist leaning) administration could bring them. Never mind that they haven't "caught up" with the West Coast.
But realistically, very big picture, we have no reason to think that America, in the form that we know it, will last forever.
That's a very sober take, Roy. Much I might wish otherwise, I'm pretty much with you all the way. The only thing I add to the situation is the wild card, climate change.
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