Ten minutes into cleaning up (cleaning out?) my office, I knew it would result in a blog post. Maybe there is just something in the air because it seems like THIS GUY is also jettisoning some old baggage.
First, a little bit about my office. It really is more like a workshop. But I would chop off my own hands or something with anything resembling a tool, so I've put a desk out there, a computer, a DVD player and a TV.
And junk. Lots of damn junk. When we moved in, all the boxes of crap we didn't want to bring into the house went out into the workshop/office. I could have thrown that shit away in Oklahoma, but I thought it would be really clever to haul it all to Louisiana, let it sit around a few years and THEN throw it away. Because I'm an idiot, that's why.
I found a cool picture of my signing at a small book store in Oklahoma. It was when the UglyTown edition of Gun Monkeys first came out. I had long hair and was skinny. (Okay, not "skinny" but not the fatass I am today.)
I also found a stack of Ian Flemming paperbacks. My wife's. I've never read a Bond novel. I prefer the films because in the novels you have to hum the theme music yourself. I found copies of the French edition of The Pistol Poets. I never really caught on in France. I found a stack of 45 records. (Pet Shop Boys?) I threw them away to prove I am not a hoarder. I found a bunch of grad school books which I kept so I could put them on my shelf in my campus office when I became a big shot professor at a large university. (HAHAHAHAHA!)
I also found a very old, cheap journal that printed one of my poems. I read the poem. I then ripped up the journal into six thousand pieces, assuring it could never be reassembled.
People change. I can't imagine why I kept some of the papers I tossed out. I can't quite picture the person I used to be. I have no idea when I'll be like in ten years. I don't plan to spend too much time dwelling on it.
I do plan to spend more time in my office now. Man cave. Fort Gischler.
5 comments:
Annnnd in ten years, when you are rich and famous and people go HAIL, GISCHLER to your face, you will wish you had hung on to all of that so you could ebay it and get even richer.
How it all works.
Can I have the Pet Shop Boys 45?
There is going to be an auction basket of foreign editions. Contact Jeremey Lynch if you want to donate the French PISTOL POETS
I never really caught on in France.
It's not easy to catch on in France. Unless you're Jerry Lewis. Or the Pet Shop Boys.
I just got a new office after a year of nothing and it's awesome. I call it the Fortress Of Smallitude, as it's only 8 feet square, but it's great having my own space to claim I'm working in. I've commenced filling it up with junk.
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