Passings

[BO]

Dan Folgelberg dies of prostrate cancer. 56 years old.

http://www.danfogelberg.com/news.html

I loved this guy--sappy music and all.

[pan]

James Garner  Most refer to him as Rockford but I always that that series was just updating his character from Maverick.

[pan]

Jack Bruce

[pan]

[stonefruit]

a lot of us here are educators and artists. i had hs poetry teacher that just died. i think most of you can relate. it's a kick in the gut but all you have is gratitude.

[stonefruit]

(online eulogy on "appropriate" local website)

I've been hiking in the Rockies and trying to bring kulcha to some benighted areas of the south, so I just learned of his passing after googling him after listening to Leonard Cohen.

Let's cut to the chase, as Hindley alway did.

Norman Hindley was a bad motherfucker. 

How a soul rebel like that slipped past the guardians of conformity at the gates of the Punahou faculty I'll never know but I and doubtless hundreds of other people are damn glad he did.

Punahou is basically set up to create identical replicants of the Bishop Street mafia of law and business. They don't like kids who are curious. Kids who are seekers, weirdos, and demand authority be earned.

One guy did like those kids. And if those kids had any appreciation of the power of words, or any desire to sling them, they loved that guy too, and he became one of the most influential people in lives. That was thirty years ago and I am still felling the shockwaves. 

You could tell right away he was the real deal. A poet.

Can you dig it M? How many times did we drop by his house? Out comes the wine and he fries up some portuguese sausage for pupus and the talk on the lanai is glorious. He treated us like adults and fellow poets and that fed us and made us stronger and gave us motivations that propel us still. We two, and so many else.

I still have his list of poets to read. It's a talisman as much as a bibliography.

One assignment was to turn in five pomes, I think. At the end he wrote, "I am your first fan. If you keep this up, there will be many others."

No other compliment has ever meant as much to me in my life, and I strive daily to live up to with a life in words spoken and printed.

In my junior year high school, I went to be a foreign exchange student in Yugoslavia. Dean Kurashige assured me I would be accepted right back when I returned, no problem. They didn't. I was one of those people Punahou is built to expunge. 

M, you and I went to his place sometime during that just graduated high school summer of pudding pops on the pool deck at my place on Waialae Nui, your Vanagon and our surfboards on the lanai at your mom's place in Waikiki. 

He told me about the star chamber meeting of the august personages of Punahou. "What are we going to do about Boyce?"

"Hindley, you seem to be able to control him. How do you it?"

"Because I got him scared," Hindley answered, drawing out the "scared" for five seconds in his New England which never went away. In character, as you would have to be for a faculty-admin meeting.

Then he switched back to human and said, laughing, "Can you imagine you, scared?" As if to say, "This is the laughable bullshit I have to say at meetings."

I'm a teacher now, Hindley. I've even taught poetry. I'm a writer now, Hindley. I ain't famous but you died at 70 so I got a few more years. As I a teacher, I have to be happy if I reach one or two a semester. But as a student, I only remember one or two in high school and one or two in college that really made a difference in my life.

You made that difference for hundreds, especially hard to pull off in the stultifying atmosphere of Punahou and especially welcome to all of the rare poets maudite therein.

But you know what, Hindley? I like the impact you had on my life and all that. But your poetry is even better.

[pan]

beautiful tribute.

[Cal]

   yes, very beautiful, thanks stone.

 

[waldopaper]

I guess Cricket is in Heaven now... because all dogs go to Heaven.  Cricket was a beautiful puppy... coffee German Shepherd mix... and it was love at first sight.  No other dog got along with Sid like Cricket did.  I didn't get to know her very long.  It doesn't take very long with some dogs.  She "belonged" to one of the frequent visitors here.  But she liked to stay here... and she was most welcome.  One of the kids put her outside during the night while I was asleep.  

The next morning... no Cricket.  I asked where she was.  Nobody seemed to know.  I asked if anybody had called Animal Control.  Nobody had.  So I drove to the shelter myself and got the bad news... Cricket was hit by a car... with her line still attached.  Nobody bother to check to see if the other end was secure.  Cricket was gone.  She was a happy little soul who always made me smile.  I offered to split the head of any twerp who laughed at the weeping old man.  

Yeah.  I'm an old man.  I cry easily.  But I can still split kindling... and heads.  

[pan]

Animals are the most true friends sometimes.  Condolences.

[BO]

Nice that the Pope opened up the pearly gates for animals.

RIP, Cricket.

[Cal]

I cry easily too ... had a little cry about Cricket.  My big boy got diagnosed with a bladder problem two weeks ago.  He's on meds that cost more that my medical insurance.  And I spend my day monitoring expensive pee sprinkled round the garden.  Have to adjust to him being mortal & all, but I don't think I'm going to.

[Mouse]

hmm.