Amurrica (the Blog)

In the previous post (approximately ten minutes ago), I alluded to the fact that I read a lot of great books— Well, I just finished reading one of them today when I was supposed to be grading final exams.  I graded about half of the tests, and read the last ten pages of Factotum. I’m a Bukowski fan. Some people love him and some people hate him… I’ve never met anybody who just “liked him”.

He has the ability to polarize people. Lucky bastard.

I’ve been on a bit of a Bukowski kick lately… Factotum was good, but it wasn’t as good as Hollywood. I’ll explain Factotum first: Henry Chinaski, Charles Bukowski’s alter-ego, is working odd jobs around Miami, New Orleans, New York City, and Los Angeles.. He sleeps with several women, gets drunk often, and gets fired often too. I don’t know what draws me to Buk, but I’ve been a fan of his since 2001. Somebody called his “genre” Dirty Realism… I like that particular label because he wrote about reality and he wrote about all of the grime that followed him throughout his life. Give me a rotten son of a bitch with a problem, and I”ll probably read it. Hell, give me any son of a bitch with a problem and I”ll probably read it.  (I just found a fork in my pocket).

Needless to say, I liked Factotum.. But if you are a Bukowski fan, you should probably read Hollywood. When Bukowski was in his mid-sixties somebody paid him to write a movie script (Barfly), and Hollywood describes the movie and his “process”.

I like Bukowski’s process: he drinks, listens to music, and writes.

My dog has to take  leak—