RUDIMENTS 903.

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 much

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.'