On a San Pedro, Calif. hillside opposite the Pacific, dirt covers the man whose once-expressive appetite for life continues to sustain his cult hero status beyond this grave where movie stars and drinkers laid him three years ago this month.The simple headstone of Henry Charles Bukowski, 1920-1994, tells those who visit him: "Don't try."Good advice rarely followed, that ambiguous message from his grave is a challenge outlasting the man whose life and art compels thousands to try, try, try to understand, analyze and even emulate the illegitimate father of poetic intemperance.In more than 60 books of poetry, short stories, novels and a screenplay ("Barfly") about a brief but remarkable period of his life, Charles "Hank" Bukowski wrote from the twisted guts of his own incredible life, fashioning those experiences into provocative shapes for our amusement.Since his death, Bukowski has become something of a worldwide industry, with copies of his work multiplying in value, new fans finding him on dozens of Bukowski-related Internet sites and old ones sporting Team Bukowski sweatshirts. His publishers plan at least one book of unpublished work a year for the next five years.Bukowski gave the finger to poetry as effete intellectualism and replaced adorned sentiment with naked, disturbing, compelling, repulsive, vicious truth.He was a drunk and a genius, and he beat life to hell and lived longer than most expected and better than most knew. These years after his death, the legend grows, sustained by a body of work so deep that books of poetry are planned through 2001.He was a Southern California god, but even before this country acknowledged him, Europeans were already treating Bukowski with the pop iconoclasm of movie stars. Now, his work is translated into at least 21 languages, with his newest fans building a Bukowski movement in Japan.An Orange County, Calif., college professor claims Bukowski as an influence. So does an Irish rock star.To his fans, the mythic man who settled with a view of the grimy harbor of San Pedro is an adorable bastard, a voice that rumbled from a blue collar to offend, challenge, stimulate the complacent, and to console the disenfranchised for whom labor was survival.To Linda Lee Bukowski, he is the man whose passing left a bottomless hole in her heart.There are women who dismiss Bukowski as chauvinistic, as misogynistic.The woman who loved him for many years and was married to him for the last nine says this:"To you," Linda Lee Bukowski says, "he is the great writer. But to me, first, he is the great man."I cry every day and night. It's horrible, horrible, horrible. Right down in the human gut level, it's terrible. I miss him like, boy, half of me is gone."There is little middle ground with Charles Bukowski.Critics dismissed his writing as abusive and indulgent, about which he wrote to a friend:"We don't write to be judged, we write to get it out of us so we don't do something worse."And those who loved him became disciples.Bono of U2 dedicated a Los Angeles show to Hank and Linda and sent a limo to bring them to the concert, along with other devotees, actors Harry Dean Stanton and Sean Penn, whom the Bukowskis referred to as their "surrogate son."He was gentle to animals, mean to those who crossed him, encouraging to younger talents and never too far from an immigrant child whose father beat him with a razor strap.At 13 Bukowski discovered alcohol; he said it saved his life.To his friend Gerald Locklin, a writer and professor at California State University, Long Beach, Bukowski (in one of a volume of letters over two decades) wrote:"I don't trust men who don't drink. There is something about drinking which opens a man to extraordinary disaster: you meet all the wrong women and you step out into alleys to duke it with all the wrong men. It's kind of a lesson in stupidity but you learn more in that kind of life than most men who live 10 lives."That life, glorified by the Mickey Rourke-Faye Dunaway characters of "Barfly," is as much a part of the Bukowski legacy as are his poems, novels, recordings and even paintings.But those who focus on his love of drink, his tolerance for abuse, and his impulse toward denigration of the cognoscenti - without considering the effect of these things on his sizable contribution to literature - miss, sadly, a greater part of Charles Bukowski.In one of his several books of poetry, Locklin writes a poem to address the single-minded Bukowski reader:those who would write like bukowskiknow that he, as a young man, lovedclassical music, wrote every day,read world literature, supported himselfwithout parental or government assistance,and drank a lot.but when it comes to modeling themselveson him as writersthey tend to forget everythingexcept the drinking.In his novel "Ham on Rye" Bukowski chronicles a childhood full of severe and capricious punishment by his father.A central element of the Bukowski house in an L.A. neighborhood was his father's razor strap, which hung above the bathroom sink area where young Charles Bukowski would be forced to disrobe and be lashed, often for minor childish indiscretions.The stress of his life caused a nervous reaction that resulted in boils over his body, leaving his skin pockmarked for life. His rough appearance contributed to his aloofness from other kids, which in later years would become a general distaste for people whose allegiance to mainstream existence Bukowski saw as a betrayal of the soul.His legend as a barroom fighter, as a drinker, a womanizer and a proud maverick who rejected self-restraint was well earned.But even when he was flopping in dirtbag hotels and working day labor for liquor, Bukowski was no bum.His life was a notebook in which he documented experiences few could survive but millions found meaningful."People like to ask me, 'Did that really happen to you?' " he wrote to Locklin. "And I used to tell them. Now, I don't. I think it's good for them to wonder. OK. Then most did and what didn't should have."Although he drew on experiences beginning with the earliest moments of his life, Bukowski, who at times had been a shipping clerk and a postal employee, was middle-aged before he was "discovered."Some of Bukowski's earliest published work was for Open City and LA Weekly in the late '60s, which later became his book, "Notes of a Dirty Old Man."In the comfortable home where Linda Lee Bukowski's life is a vigil to her artist husband, the walls, the bookshelves, the picture frames, the swimming pool, the spa, the photo albums and the numerous sketches from the Great Man's hand, tell a fuller story than most are privileged to know. He loved cats and would sit for hours enticing a stray.We know from his work, of course, that horseracing was part of his daily routine. But who would have known that he enjoyed relaxing, alcohol-free, in the whirlpool upon returning from Hollywood Park or Santa Anita?He is easily pictured, almost boxer-like, pounding the keys of an Underwood manual "typer." But his work tripled, say both Linda and his Black Sparrow editor, John Martin, when he got a computer.Near the end of his life, he meditated: twice a day, 20 minutes at a time.And for all his reputation as a devotee of cheap liquor and easy women, the older Bukowski enjoyed good wine and imported beer, and was loyal to the woman he loved. There are, in the Bukowski household, relics to mark his presence everywhere:....."What he taught me is that you can make poetry out of your daily life," Locklin says. "You don't have to wait for the great moments; it doesn't have to be love, death, war."......."People are always pointing out things about me," Bukowski wrote to Gerald Locklin. "I'm a drunk or I'm rich or I'm something else. How about the writing? Does it work or doesn't it?"
This beer needs to be treated with respect, weighing in at 10.5% ABV; its no lightweight and should be shared with good company.Pours a striking black colour with a faint garnet hue, and a tan head settling to a fine veil.The aroma is intricate with roasted malt, toffee and smoky notes upon a deep, treacle like background.The flavour is even more complex with dried fruit, prunes, whisky smokiness, sherry/port, treacle, roasted grain, a peaty note and a warm spiciness imparted by the alcohol. It is light and smooth on the palate, finishing with a fleeting sweetness and very long after-flavours of raisins, oak and whisky.The whisky and oak barrels have imparted their characters to the porter and are quite obvious (you dont have to search for them) but at the same time, there is good balance.A good marriage has been formed between the porter and whisky they have melded together in this heavenly drop.Serve at room temperature in small stemmed goblets, to be sipped around the fire on cold Winters nights.Style Description: PorterBlack or chocolate malt gives the porter its dark brown color. Porters are well hopped and heavily malted. This is a medium-bodied beer. Porters can be sweet. Hoppiness can range from bitter to mild. Porters are often confused with stouts.
Quote from: Blob_ZPS;1261617Having one of these tonight:Enough trouble getting this lid open but definitely worth it, massive flavour for such a light coloured beer!http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/st-sylvestre-3-monts/7321/I thought it was a ripoff, has an awesome lid though. At $18/bottle I expect a pretty good beer, if you want a golden ale that doesn't fuck around then try this one for about the same money: La Fin Du Monde
Having one of these tonight:Enough trouble getting this lid open but definitely worth it, massive flavour for such a light coloured beer!http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/st-sylvestre-3-monts/7321/
Taste: Hoppy with a pleasurable aftertaste. Coffee and Glue (Pritt Stick) in a real good way! Amaretto, or is that a subtle fruit undertone? Ale Art.Would you buy 2? Yeah Yeah! Definitely.Would you buy 4? With a deathwish. But a delicious deathwish.Appearance: Beautiful. Dark. Brown.
i had kinda hope speakman had died, what a pity
Curious to know what are in your top 5.I was close to trying iStout but the name/brand totally put me off.I couldn't take it seriously considering it was sharing shelf space with Three Boys and Emersons.
Fullers' Vintage Ale indeed...that is something special....Epic, for me, make fantastic beers. I must admit I'm a bit of a hophead...and Moa St Josephs.Choufe (sp) and James Boag, but I haven't really experienced many North American or European microbreweries and I'm sure they have some gold.......but hell, you can't go passed the PBC Marmite Stout. That shit rocks!!!Good luck getting hold of it though
Quite a fan of the Twisted hops beers, their IPA's are damn tasty.
Give some trappist/belgian craft beers a try for quality eupropean stuff, nothing quite like their big fruity yeasts.
did you try the Twisted Hop's Twisted Ankle? im a big fan of that one
