Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1007140155230.319@panix1.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>, Cyberculture <cyberculture@zacha.org>
Subject: Re: seems done to me at end i will add stanzas from wandering jew
since it's for a jewish rag What the Hell was that? (fwd)
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:56:52 -0400 (EDT)
Hi - resending this with Steve's revisions - it's worth it and it's sad - Alan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:14:35 From: steve dalachinsky <skyplums@juno.com> To: skyplums@juno.com, sondheim@PANIX.COM, blitzknitz@mindspring.com Subject: Re: seems done to me at end i will add stanzas from wandering jew since it's for a jewish rag What the Hell was that? WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" "could life turn out to be a dirty trick?" - T.K. Tuli Kupferberg, Poet, Songwriter, Anarchist, Agnostic Jew - Dies at 86 Born Norman or in Hebrew, Naphtali on Sept 28, 1923 (one day and 22 years before me), poet, singer-songwriter, revolutionary, publisher, street vendor, historian, mentor, sage, wise man and wise guy, forward-thinking artist, activist, intellectual, pacifist,anarchist, teacher, dreamer with a desire to contribute his ideas for the construction of a better world, boho and dear friend Tuli Kupferberg has gone on to wherever one goes on Monday at N.Y. Downtown Hospital in Manhattan at the age of 86 after a prolonged battle with Life and all its joys and griefs, after suffering two debilitating strokes. Though never really considering himself Beat he was anthologized as early as 1959 in Fred Mcdarrah's The Beat Scene. In the 1964 at age 40 he went on to become, in own his words, ?the world?s oldest rock star? after co-founding the Fugs with poet Ed Sanders, and then-member Ken Weaver. They were, in my opinion the first poetry/folk-rock band and a definite precursor of punk, bawdy and politically outspoken. Their first lp was produced by the equally legendary Harry Smith on Broadside and later re-issued on ESP along with their other lps. His first solo record, No Deposit, No Return was also issued by ESP. At the height of their career during the psychedelic era the group was signed by the then co-owned Frank Sinatra label Reprise who also signed Hendrix among others. When very young he worked as a medical librarian. Tuli lived 2 blocks from my apt. We first officially met while both of us were hawking our wares on the street though I had known him through the music scene having first seen the Fugs play way back in the '60s in various venues such as a loft space on Great Jones street, the Provincetown Theatre, The Astor Place Theater, and once at a free concert in Tompkins Square Park, where, standing behind me to my amazement was none other than Charles Mingus. When Tuli and I first conversed some time in the mid-70's he was hawking these pamphlets which were I think, like $1.29 for one and 99 cents for two, the catch being the more you bought the cheaper they became. Though I could be wrong , memory being what it is ( Hey Tuli help me out here.) Yiddish was his mother tongue and he had an interest in Yiddish theater which he shared with fellow poet and street vendor Harry Nudel and though he loved being a Yid was an avid supporter of Palestine. Tuli always told me he hated poetry and the scene in general thogh je tolerated me and a few others. He was never hierarchical and didn't choose his friends on their status in the art world but on his ability to share with them his knowledge, sharp wit and love. There were the many times we sat together in the park sharing a pint of Haagen Daz or a Good Humor bar. He loved ice cream. Particularly chocolate. Tuli's great songs included Morning, Morning, Kill For Peace and Nothing. On their last CD he wrote the poignantly beautiful " Where is My Wandering Jew Tonight" never forgetting his roots. Another song in that vein was chameleon which included the lines " In winter i'm a buddhist / In summer I'm a nuddist/ In Jeruselem...Talmudist." He also wrote a mocking protest tilted "Backward Jewish Soldiers" a para-song based on "Onward Christian Soldiers." Tuli became something of celebrity when he was mentioned in Allen Ginsberg?s ?Howl? as being the one who ?jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge" then walking away "unknown and forgotten.? It was actually the Manhattan Bridge but the Brooklyn Bridge seemed more romantic and he didn't walk away but was brought to Gouveneur Hospital with a spinal fracture. He created and published in such zines as Birth and Yeah and was the first to publish the African - American Beat poet Ted Joans as well as over 50 of his own books. He loved to take familiar tunes and write his own lyrics to them, calling them the afore-mentioned para-songs . He did this more and more in later years. While bedridden he wrote a series of short pieces he called "perverbs" twisting well-known aphorisms and posting them on YouTube. He's had a long running MNN public access TV show called Revolting News which currently is filmed and edited by his partner Thelma Blitz . She also videorecords and produces his YouTube and DailyMotion channels, ?tulifuli? and posts Tuli on Vimeo in her own channel ?Thelma Blitz.? Tuli?s cartoon prints were sold on the streets of Soho for many years at the vending stand of his partner Thelma Blitz , where Tuli would occasionally hang out to shoot the breeze with other locals such as me. I was directly across the street selling lps and books. He inspired many of us to not give up despite the adversities of government, war and $$$$. He embraced his "Bohemian" lifestyle, as a friend once told me I should. He never shrank from his commitment to protest injustice. Never gave into the "MAN". Never took the straight and narrow path. Always fought against war, corporate interests and a greedy, demonic capitalistic value system. Long time drummer for the Fugs Coby Batty told me this story on the phone the day Tuli passed that one day while walking in Brooklyn Tuli turned and said that he wanted his epitaph to read "What the hell was that?" - and as he mentioned in one of his perverbs - "Life is funny, you can die." How Jewish can ya get?? His is survived by his wife, Sylvia Topp, three children, and one grand child. from: Where Is My Wandering Jew Did Hitler survive in the heart of the beast? Is happiness there when we seek it least? Does the Baal Shem dance at the President's feast? O where is my wandering Jew? Is loneliness cast at the center of life? Is peace our reward at the end of this strife? Is our time's music the Gun and the Fife? O where is my wandering Jew tonight? Where is my wandering Jew? And O where is my wandering God tonight? Where are my children, where is my wife? Where is the song I once called my life... Where is my wandering Jew, tonight? O where is our wondering life, tonight... Where is our wonderful life? ____________________________________________________________ Penny Stock Jumping 2000% Sign up to the #1 voted penny stock newsletter for free today! AwesomePennyStocks.co