RUDIMENTS, pt. 903
('you must change your life')
I never used to get angry, but
now stupid makes me angry.
Mostly it's the idiotic, material
things. I have found that the
majority of that stems from
the misplaced values and the
poor perceptions of others,
so, to solve my dilemma, I
just walked away from it all.
Last time I was up by Grand
Central Station, I was walking
around the side, off Vanderbilt
Ave.; they've taken down pretty
much the entire old city block
there and a huge new tower
is going up. In one of those
facing storefronts, this hair
and barber guy, preppy looking,
fussy and fey, was out there
smoking. I guess on break,
He makes eye contact with
me and does one of those
femme-boy shudders and
says 'Oooh! Gnarly beard!'
With a face of displeasure,
not joy. I just smiled back
at him and kept on my way.
He probably saw me as a
hundred and fifty buck clean
up job he'll never get. It's
like, as I remember, back
in the 1960's late, there
was a movie called 'What Do
You Say To a Naked Lady?'
I never knew what it was
about, but a fun title. Don't
get me wrong, I could think
of fifty things at least, but
I wouldn't have said any
of them. Only this goofy
hair-dude piped up.
-
Style and flim-flam; they
come together sometimes
and maybe last for a year.
More than him, I used to hear
things like about some hillbilly
show, or some junk dealer
show. People always somehow
made the connection between
that and me. Visually anyway.
I suppose I'd be able to take
a book or two and stuff it
down any hillbilly's throat,
or junk dealer's too, and
murder them with words;
so much for hairball
resemblances. I don't hear
about those two shows
anymore, so I guess they're
over; but it just goes to show
how stupid and 'impressionable'
dumb people are. But, anyway,
people are stupid; which is
what I started out saying.
The trouble with stupid
people is that they're always
breeding. Maybe, in the case
of this hairdresser guy, that
won't happen - which is
good enough for me. I ought
to go back there some day
and tell him I made a deal
with CBS for filming and
broadcasting my clean-up
and haircut for an episode
of 'Hair Today / Gone
Tomorrow' for 10,000
bucks, and I want him
to do it, for 3,000 bucks
I'll pay him. And then
walk out. Putz.
-
My best days in NYCity
included a lot of time at a
small, curious, interesting
place just below 14th Street.
It was called Weiser's Books.
Occult, spiritualism, esoteric,
all the sorts of junk that later
became, in places like Barnes
& Noble, the stuff they packed
in aisles labelled 'New Age.'
There weren't nothing new age
about it. It was old. Which is
why it was good, and stood.
As old as the pyramids and
before. Way before. There
was a quiet spell about the
place, but a lot of good talking
got done too. All connected.
The entryway was small, and
cluttered - with notices and
pamphlets and flyers about
all sorts of subjects, and the
actual opening into the store
was cramped - a counter, the
registers, displays, and a clerk
or two. But if you made your
way back through it all, towards
the rear it opened out very nicely
with a place for some seating,
books, rows, incense and such
for sale, gentle and meditative;
music, aura, people, and the
general feel got less worldly.
Rows of that Rudolph Steiner
stuff, Madame Blavatsky, and
more. It was before the days
of Scientology too and all the
public rot that went with it.
That all started a bit later, as
people began swooning over
their 'mystical' movie stars and
all. Theosophy. Anthrosophy,
and, even, Rosicrucian stuff;
and that was just the Western
element. The whole universe
was there, present, in one
large, thriving bucket. I used
to love it, and the people. Just
after all that, yes, there seemed
a turn for the worse, about all.
Now the equivalent would be
on-line people playing their
online mystical marshmallow
dominoes, over and over, into
what they considered their
unending days of ever-time.
-
Sam Weiser's gone now, and
the bookstore as well. And
his son Daniel too. And the
world is poorer for it. I don't
think it would work there
now anyway. They'd want
vegetarian falafel, or something
that silly, instead. That's just
part of the way the world has
changed - all you get around
there now are tattoo'd, wise-ass
kids pretending to be students;
a bit overweight, usually, or
flabby in that baby-fat too
corn-fed fat and snack food
kind of way. Same old tired
redundancies over and over.
I also hate redundancies, and
I hate repeat behavior - that's
the people who do the same
stupid moves over and over,
and never learn. Have you ever
seen a really poor driver, in
a car, doing something really
stupid, right in front of you
or at you. And you realize
that if YOU continue, you'll
hit them - in exactly the same
crumpled up, dented spot in
which the car's already dented
and torn up. Yep. Same crap,
they never learn, but just keep
doing it over and again. That's
only the car aspect - it runs
through all parts of a life, in the
same manner. As Rilke said
(a poet long enough ago) :
'You must change your life.'
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