Literary Insults
Elizabeth Bishop on J. D. Salinger: "I HATED the Salinger story (The Catcher in the Rye). It took me days to go through it, gingerly, a page at a time,…
Films About Sideshow Performers
“Ladies and gentlemen, you're about to behold a sight so strange, so horrifying, so utterly monstrous, that I urge you who are easily frightened or upset, who suffer from nervous…
Celebrating Dickens: The 25 Days of A Christmas Carol Challenge
The goal was simple – honor Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 holiday tale by watching a different version of A Christmas Carol every day between December 1 and December 25, 2018.…
Fred G. Johnson: “The Picasso of Circus Art”
Today the works of legendary sideshow banner artist Fred G. Johnson (1892-1990) are considered top collectible items that auction for thousands of dollars (two of his banners even appeared on…
Word Hoard: Book Reviews [1999-2019]
"Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind." - Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote Air ŕ boire…
Hustling Roses Down the Avenues of the Dead: Classic Poems from the Bukowski Archives
The first Bukowski poem I ever came across was a classic piece called “blue collar solitude” in the Black Sparrow Press collection titled Dangling in the Tournefortia (1981). The poem follows…
Charles Bukowski: Poet Laureate of Skid Row
Birthday: August 16, 1920 Birthplace: Andernach, Germany Real Name: Henry Charles Bukowski Parents: Henry Charles and Katharina [Fett] Bukowski Description of Father: "[A] cruel shiny bastard with bad breath . . ." Education: Attended Los Angeles…
Jack Kerouac: Safe in Heaven Drunk
Date of Birth: March 12, 1922 Place of Birth: Lowell, Massachusetts Actual Name: Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac Nicknames: Ti-Jean (Little Jean), Memory Babe Family: Leo & Gabrielle Kerouac, parents; Gerard, brother (died at age of…
William S. Burroughs: Secret Agent in Hell
[1914-1997] Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri Family: Mortimer & Laura Lee Burroughs, parents; Mortimer Burroughs Jr., brother; William S. Burroughs Sr., grandfather (inventor of the adding machine) Nicknames: William Lee, El Hombre Invisible, Cosmonaut…
Weekend in Aintry! James Dickey and the Making of Deliverance
"I believe that I am in hell, therefore I am there." —Arthur Rimbaud, Une Saison en Enfer "The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels…