![]() First published extensively in Marvin Malone’s Wormwood Review and UK‘s Bete Noire, Bloodaxe Books (UK) published Voss’s poetry collections Goodstone (1991), Carnegie Hall with Tin Walls (1998) and Hammers and Hearts of the Gods (2009) which was selected one of Top Seven Books in 2009 by the UK‘s leading Socialist newspaper, The Morning Star. Starting as a steel rule die maker in a gasket factory and then a steel cutter at a blast furnace in a steel mill, Voss moved into the steel mill machine shop and began his 32 year career as a machinist, working 20 years in aircraft plants during Southern California’s aerospace heyday. program in English literature, Fred Voss has worked in factories for 35 years. from University of California Riverside, then in 1974 dropping out of the U.C.L.A. He’ll never be able to drive by his own windowĪnd a magnificent view of the 40-ton cranes in the largest port in the U.S.Īfter receiving his B.A. His Toyota right at the intersection and starts the drive around the block like he has Where he writes and looks out at the next door apartment building’s laundry roomĪnd someday after he’s dead he will be famous and people will cruise down 2 nd StreetĪfter the gardeners have pruned back the fig tree in front of itĪt the last moment Frank hits the brakes and jerks his arm and turns Just because Charles Bukowski has sold thousands of times more copies of his booksĪnd had several major motion pictures made of his workĭoesn’t mean Frank should drive around the block to look at his window again ![]() In one of his letters he asked her to come do a Greek dance with him in his new house ![]() “Why would I want to be Charles Bukowski’s groupie?!”įrank steps down harder on the accelerator “Why would I want to see it again?” he says “Let’s go round the block and look at it again! I want to feel Bukowki‘s spirit!” Jane says Jane has told Frank many times that Frank and Charles Bukowski are her favorite poetsĪnd Frank looks for a few moments at the window where Charles Bukowski looked outĪt the green bridge and the port’s red cranes The window of the room where Bukowski wrote!” “Look the trees have been pruned and you can see Tells Frank to drive by Charles Bukowski’s houseĭriving down the hill with the port of L.A./Long Beach red cranes in sight Frank knows To San Pedro to go to Amalfitano’s Bakery for Frank’s favorite chocolate/walnut fudgies No other novel has ever entered the mind of a character in action better than Dos does with the murderer Raskolnikov.Īfter Frank and Jane have driven over the green Vincent Thomas bridge from Long Beach Dos has taught me more about human behavior and the deepest issues of human morality and spirituality than any other author. I don’t know Russian, but I’d still teach him in translation. They did a 3 hour show late into the night past 3 am, doing long jazzy/bluesy versions of all their classics, including an hypnotic, spellbinding version of The End that had most of the audience out of their seats and rushing the stage as the music built to a climax and Morrison did his shaman dance.Ĭomplete this sentence: “If I were to teach a course on the works of one author, that author would be…”įyodor Dostoyevsky. Then The Doors, chomping at the bit to play after Morrison’s arrest in ‘69 and their virtual banning from the concert tour. Albert King gave a scorching blues show until midnight, doing 3 encores that brought the house down each time. The Doors/ Albert King at the Long Beach Arena, January 1970. ![]() What is a concert that you saw in person that you will never forget? A great study of greed and gold prospecting and human nature shot on location in Mexico, it has Walter Huston’s and Humphrey Bogart’s greatest performances, and is the greatest adventure movie of them all. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre directed by John Huston based on the novel by B. At one and the same time social realism and fable, the tale of a circus strongman and a naive golden-hearted woman, with Fellini’s poetic directing style and tremendous performances and chemistry from Anthony Quinn and Julietta Messina. La Strada directed and written by Federico Fellini. Still unequalled in its style and its artistic/poetic use of the camera, a study of the personal life behind a public person that is a profound critique of political power. What are your three favorite films of all time?Ĭitizen Kane directed and written by Orson Welles. ![]() Beethoven, Stravinsky, Mahler, Charles Ives the great American classical composer of realistic portraits of ordinary American life, Gershwin, Ellington. The mind of a dictator going gradually insane with power and paranoia in his isolation. The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. What is the last book of poetry that took your breath away? ![]()
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