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Introductory
Notes The Last Straw
Charles
Bukowski didn’t
like to do live
poetry
readings.
He was
very blunt about
this; but audiences
thought he was joking. He
did readings for the money;
usually only a few hundred
dollars.
But, by
1980 his book
royalties,
advances for film
rights, and
other income
provided him
with the means
to be able to
stop doing
poetry readings.
His
performances were
legendary;
cultivating
anarchy, he’d
goad the
audience to
mutiny, and
usually
challenge somebody…
or anybody…to fight.
In editing
this video, the
first impulse
is to pick out
the poems; but
in reviewing
the piece, it
became obvious
that the entire
reading is
solid state.
What happens
between the
poems is not filler. It’s performance art.
Only a few
of his readings
were filmed.
This performance
on March 31st,
1980 at the
Sweetwater Inn in Redondo
Beach, California, turned out
to be the very
last poetry
reading Bukowski ever gave, even though he lived and
wrote for
another 14 years.
The video
of that reading
remained in
storage for over
25 years, and
is presented
here for the
first time.
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