charles bukowski, and "into the wild"

I'm enamored by the fact that occasionally in this life, you just stumble across something, that makes perfect sense.

lately i had heard of a writer named charles bukowski. i went to half price books and bought what i thought was one of his novels. upon cracking it open for the first time, i discovered that it was a book titled "charles bukowski" written by barry miles. oh well.. i read it anyway. biographies have always been my favorite books anyway. since then i've read several of his novels, and a few of his poems.

his biography tells of how he traveled around city to city in his early twenties, living in ratholes and surviving on nearly nothing. all the while writing every chance he got and selling his poems to whomever would publish them, occasionally doing some manual labor. in 1946 one of his short stories was published in a book produced by Black Sun Press, owned by a Mrs. Caresse Crosby and her husband Harry. They sent bukowski a letter stating that his story was,

"a most unusual and wonderful story,," and inquiring, "who ARE you?"

bukowski replied in letter with the best answer i think he could have given. I would have been proud to have thought of it myself,

"Dear Mrs. Caresse: I don't know who I am, Sincerely yours, Charles Bukowski



that single line is the best poem i've ever laid eyes on.



In other news, I was walking through the video store the other day, judging each movie by the artwork on it's cover. i saw a movie called "into the wild".. i picked it up and stared at it a while.. the picture was of a boy sitting on top of an old hippie bus... on top of a mountain. i stared for a while, and i felt a strong connection to the movie.. but i didn't rent it. three days later i went back to return the movie i did get (this is spinal tap) and i went back around the aisle until i found "into the wild" again.. this time i did rent it... It was awesome. i totally related.. made me want to drop everything and burn off into the world..

everyone should rent it. actually,, maybe a lot of people wouldn't like it.. but i thought it was perfect.. and two of my favorite people even had cameos in it: vince vaughn and zack galifinakis (spelling?)

anyhow,, both of which was introduced to me via accident (or was it), and proved to be worthwhile...


good night.