I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: TALKING HEADS-“Life During Wartime” (1979).

I ain’t got time for that now.

Talking heads were many things, a weird band, a noisy band, a new wave band with poppy hits, and underneath it all, a punk band that rocked.  If you know Talking Heads from their great later songs, it might be hard to imagine how raw this song is. Byrnes’ voice is intense, the melody is staggered and frantic and the whole enterprise just feels like it could fall apart at any moment.

It’s a great rocking song, and if you haven’t heard it for a while it’s worth checking out again.

Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?

[READ: Week of July 23, 2012] JR Week 6

This week’s read was the first time so far that I found a section tedious.  True, it could have been the time of night that I read it, but the whole section with Gibbs and Tom (which I call the “God damn” section) while providing some recap–and some very useful stuff at one point), was also rather redundant, both internally and in the story as a whole.  It was also quite a downer.  (Infinite Zombies has a post about this book being a comedy or a drama, so I won’t get into that here–I will get into it there though).  Although as with most Gaddis, it was a very accurate portrait of two men wallowing (and would probably be funny to hear out loud), I was happy when Tom finally left the scene.

When we left off last week, Gibbs was coming into Bast’s room holding a bottle.  Bast was just finishing up his videophone conversation with JR (Bast says he was just talking to himself).  Gibbs says he is meeting a man named Beamish here in a little bit. But he interrupts himself “Listen!”  Bast explains that the tub is running non-stop as well.  And Gibbs launches into a poem:

Through caverns measureless to, where the hell…   Bosom where the bright waters meet, like living in Pittsburgh Bast  –confluence of the Mongahela [sic–should be Monongahela] and the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet to form the mighty Ohio (383).

I’m not entire surely where all of this comes from although As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet comes from a Thomas Moore song.

Gibbs, drunk (big surprise), starts criticizing Bast–he’s too generous, he never finishes anything (like he should talk), then he gets on to the subject of Stella.  Bast wants to know how Gibbs could know her.  Gibbs says he worked for Thomas.  Bast wants to know if he knew Stella well, but before Gibbs answers he tries to fix Bast’s backwards clock problem by telling him he’s running on a base 10 instead of base 12 (very true).  Gibbs wanders around, sees the paper bags and the big box, which is indeed an electric letter opener.  More on that soon.

Bast lets Gibbs know that a man from the Treasury Department came by looking for Mr Grynzspan (no it is not lost on me about Alan Greenspan, a nice coincidence, surely), something about race track winnings.

Gibbs starts electrically opening letter and they fly across the room split in half.  Amidst the debris is letter from Pomerance and a letter for Grynzspan asking to donate money to Harvard, which sets Gibbs off on a rant about privilege and concludes by saying that the black meter readers gets nothing for his troubles.

Eigen shows up, gets hit by mail and asks about the tub (Gibbs says its clever of Bast to leave the tub running to distribute the entropy).  Meanwhile Bast offers Eigen rent [see comments below: this is because JR asked him to] since Grynzspan only gets mail here. (It’s $61.40/mo).  Gibbs and Eigen are meeting there because they are executors of Schramm’s will.

Gibbs sees the Reading Dynamics course and starts thinking how fast Bast might tread.  He says that he should be able to read Keats’ “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer: in “two point o two seconds.” (388)

Gibbs reveals that Tom got back from Germany to find that his wife left him and took their son (as she said to Gibbs that she would do).

Bast tries to figure out if the woman who Gibbs was with that night (through the back window) was Amy.  We never find out.

Finally Attorney Beamish comes up and the first thing Gibbs needs to know is what river forms the confluence…. (it’s the Allegheny).  Gibbs keeps saying that Beamish is the Schramm family lawyer (“fam schrammly lawyer”) 389.  Beamish says no, he’s a business lawyer for Triangle Products and most of Schramms assets are his holdings in Triangle Products.

Then Gibbs gives away some interesting details.  He says that Eigen wrote a very important novel and Schramm thought it was about himself.  Then Gibbs gives some information about Schramm in the war.  Schramm’s general (General Box) pulled back the troops and says he radioed Schramm to do the same but that was a lie, Schramm was left alone.  A Panzer division crashed on him, Schramm took shrapnel in his leg (but he hid his limp he was so ashamed of being taken prisoner).  Box recommended Schramm for a medal, but then told the history books that he himself stalled Blaufinger’s whole Panzer army.  That’s why Schramm wants to be buried in Arlington.   Schramm was working on a novel and he wrote a Western.

Eigen keeps yelling at Gibbs to shut up already.  But he finally ends that scene by saying that Gibbs has never forgiven himself that Schramm was in the war but he wasn’t.

Then there’s a photo of Schramm’s second wife, she married him a few years ago, and was young, younger than Schramm himself.  She has papers to sign too, Eigen says he’ll take them to her.  Gibbs gets mad about how much money she’ll be getting, but Beamish says she is well off and doesn’t need Schramm’s money.

Schramm left money to Gibbs’ and Eigen’s kids, but now because they are both separated they need to get custody of the children in order to ensure that they get the money otherwise it will go to their ex-wives who can do with it what they want.  Eigen is furious (and rightly so).

Beamish says he’ll be in touch about the estate but it doesn’t look good, the asking price of Diamond is 12 million–which is substantially under book value–understandable due to declining profits and rising costs.  Gibbs is going to decode this (which he does rather well given how drunk he is).

Since this no doubt will come into play: Triangle acquired a tobacco farm (via Mrs Schramm) and Duncan and Co (who make wallpaper–this was an unwise financial decision).  Gibbs concludes:

12 million, only get about 9 after capital gains; fixed assets seven and a half million; 3 million inventory (control has been nonexistent) somebody gives you 2,100,000 you get 80% of the difference of what you ask… your asking price is four and half million and four and half back on taxes write off some accounts receivable for another half million.  This will come into play shortly.

Gibbs insists that Schramm’s burial desires be followed and that he be buried in Arlington (and suggests that his stone read: “es ruht im Feindesland” (He is stuck in enemy territory)).

They wander back to Basts’ for the manuscript  with a blue cover (Gibbs gives Bast the one shoe he found in Schramm’s apartmentt).  Gibbs returns to the issue of Stella and says that Bast should write a libretto about lost male members (and gives specific examples of such things).

Bast ignores him and asks Eigen about a Con Ed bill for $1200.00.  But it is revealed that Grynzspan tapped in illegally to lines (saves Con Ed postage and legal fees…ha).  Gibbs also has  a stack of newspapers (he’s looking for information on Raindance and Mister Fred).

Eigen and Beamish finally get Gibbs away from the mail (he goes through a whole bunch of the cut in half letters) and on their way down the stairs, the man with the vife upstairs accosts them to about the apartment.  They get outside and are abused by the Cinco Jones boys: “díce sin cojones, coño.”  They take a cab to Eigen’s house (recently emptied by Marian) and the “God damn” scene begins.

Gibbs starts off by taking Marian’s side (repeating what she said to Gibbs, but acting like it’s a good thing)–she’s leaving for your sake Tom (so he can work) and also she wants to be taken seriously–talented woman has never been allowed to do anything.  Tom says they could hold things together for David sake, Gibbs says that’s the worst God damn thing he could have said to her.  (He says that about a lot of things in this scene).

In the middle of all this the doorbell rings and a boy from upstairs is selling greetings cards.  Gibbs is belligerent to him when he opens the door (got one for when your wife walks out?) and then complains about the cost, but when Tom interrupts and says he’ll buy some, Gibbs gets mad at Tom for not letting the little entrepreneur get his whole speech out.

The scene continues with Gibbs and Tom complaining about women, and music and how empty the house is.  And that Tom hasn’t unpacked his suitcase yet.

Most of the scene is them grousing about their exes (and so many other things).  The new information comes when Eigen says he met General Box in Germany.  That he now has 4 stars.  Eigen flew to Germany to give Box a speech so that he wouldn’t rhyme Plato with tomato.  He then complains about Davidoff going over everything that he does and redoing it on him.  He hates the whole damned company.  The only good thing about the company is that they bought the painting by Schepperman [In the comments to last week’s post, Simon said this would be important and it sure comes up later].  Then we get some backstory on Schepperman.

Eigen met Schepperman coming out of a White Rose bar (where he’d been kicked out).  Gibbs says you always see him coming out of a bar and he always asks for money.  But Eigen says no, he has a wealthy patroness now–a lot more on her later.  But Schepperman is pissed because she pays for all his stuff and gives him a nice lifetsyle but she takes his paintings and locks them away so nobody can see his art, his statements.  He doesn’t care about the money, he cares about his statements.

Gibbs says that one of Schepperman’s statements is carved over the front door of the school–“God damn school board find it’s Karl Marx”  Gibbs adds this to his list of “worsts”: Worst god damn thing you can do is help out a God damned artist.

Gibbs is still looking for a pencil for Raindance, but Eigen (the writer) can’t find one.  He offers Gibbs a purple crayon. And a crèche.  Marian forgot to take the crèche, the one David made.  And there’ s a touching section about what Christmas is like when you are separated and a reminiscence of David asking him if Jesus was an Indian.

Gibbs takes this idea of separation and runs with it–he says it’ s a million dollar idea–a board game about divorce called Split–a chance for couples to play out their fantasies before actually splitting up.  He uses pieces from the crèche for his fake game–he is quite elaborate about it.  Then they can’t find baby Jesus (or as David used to say: Baby Jeeter and the Three Wide Men).  This is all quite amusing.

Gibbs makes it to the bathroom where he says if you thought Marian didn’t leave you a message, here’s one: a lipstick print on toilet paper.  Eventually, the men try to crash and sleep it off, and just before bed, Gibbs sees Raindance by seven lengths, then he throws up in Eigen’s suitcase.

And just like that it is morning again.  Eigen is late for work and Gibbs needs $20 for his bet.  Which Eigen leaves for him.

When Eigen gets to the office, a policeman tries to keep him out.  Seems that while Eigen was in Germany “–you back?  –Yes don’t tell anyone” (415) a whole bunch of stuff has happened.  Flesch has been hired(and Carol is buying her plant food) and they took down the giant painting!  When Schepperman heard, he came in screaming–the cops had to come.  Police and private detectives are still camped out looking for him.  And Mr Davidoff is not there (wait for that revelation).

Eigen calls his house and asks Jack to look for Schepperman, but Jack just wants his money for this race, and asks if he can remember the million dollar idea he had (neither one can remember what the other was talking about).

Then Mr Gall comes into Eigen’s office–and he actually recognizes Eigen’s name from his book!.  Gall loved the book, but offends Eigen when he says he must have known it was for a small audience.  Evidently college kids are assigned it as well, but Eigen’s royalty check for last month was $53–he desperately wants the rights back.  Gall talks about a contest he wants to enter, you have to be a novelist who is writing a play (ha).  He applied under the name Jim Blake (I suspect that will come back in some way) because he wrote a Western called Guns of God under that pseudonym.  He also explains that the grant comes from the Foundation–the one that paid him to write the book on the school about the TVs, and since the funding for that is gone, so is the book.

Eigen walks to Flesch’s office where she is holding forth:

“It’s teachers that make the problems….  PRwise it can’t hurt the company imagewise the medium and the message and all that bla bla bla” (418).

But before that scene can go anywhere, Governor Cates barges in.  He’s just back from the hospital for inner ear transplants.  Also in this conversation is Zona.  Zona is the abovementioned patroness of Schepperman.  She’s shouting that she wants someone in prison.  “What poor bastard you putting in prison now?  …the poor bastard who’s been sneaking around selling paintings to ninnies to hang in office lobbies while he lives on my money and Beaton sits here with his thumb up his ass and blubbers about a lawsuit” (419).  She also believes that Schepperman is breaking into her Saybrook house and “stealing every painting of his he can lay his hands on” (420).

Governor Cates yells at Zona that Beaton is not her “black girl” (we learn there is some crazy misunderstanding about her black maid, Deleserea) and Beaton is not paid to drop his real work to do everything to help her.  We also learn that Deleserea did not steal the diamond brooch (Zona had misplaced it), but that she was arrested for soliciting (who’d want to hump Deleserea).  Zona changes the subject that she was brought up here to do something about Boody’s shares.

Cates is worried about a proposed law that would lower the age of minors from 21 to 18–give all these hooligans the right to make contacts and the rest of it (Boody will be affected too, Zona is her guardian).  Zona has 200,000 shares of Diamond Cable, and she is holding up proceedings waiting for John to listen to her about the artist–she wants a corner of his work and is pissed that the company paid $12,000 for the painting (Cates says he’s seen monkeys do better).  They tried to get the $12,000 back from Schepperman but he bought an abandoned roller coaster.

She wants to know how the painting was even found.  And they blame Davidoff as the only person who talked to him.  And when they mention the papers talking about this to the PR department, Cates says that Davidoff was the whole department, but that he has engaged in “empire building by hiring Miss Flesch–who came with a recommendation from Duncan’s head of sales Mister Skinner.  The Duncan titles are mostly college textbooks that pay no royalties (sounds like Eigen to me), Skinner has set up his own company to buy the Duncan stock

Cates, by the way, is waiting for Blaufinger (see above) to try and get things cleared up in Gandia.   He mentions seeing in the paper that the closed circuit TV in schools bill was tabled (and he trashes community tv in an accurately hilarious way).

Cates asks about Pecci and the construction scandal–Beaton has news about Pecci’s wife which is ignored.

Cates also wants to know about the class action against Diamond–he thinks it’s from the newspaper nonsense, but Beaton explains about Joubert (Zona calls her Emily and a ninny) and the $1800 and how Davidoff paid out of the PR budget.  It also comes out that Beaton feels that Davidoff was trying to make an impression on Joubert (Cates: “Same way that driveling Frenchman got into her pants” (425)).  Speaking of Lucien, Nobili is at 13 1/2 and Cates tells Crawley to start buying at 12.

Beaton says that Amy is very worried about Francis, but Cates explains that when Amy was in, they fixed up all her accounts and finances  “he couldn’t touch either one of them with a ten foot pole” (425).

Then there’s a call from Cutler about Endo.  Apparently Davidoff was making gifts of the inventory to schools and institutions for PR purposes.  They suspect he believed that with Monty gone, he was runing the store.  And then the bombshell:  Davidoff has quit!  He joined a PR firm (which one?  you’ll soon find out).  Zona says she wants him arrested too, for conspiracy to defraud.

Monty calls in.  Cates tries to get to the bottom of everything (and mentions Box’s groundbreaking speech–if only Eigen could hear all of this!).  Nowunda is sending in troops but all the peace groups are saying Keep Out of Gandia and Africa for Africans.  Speaking of Africans, Zona wants to know what Beaton has “done about that carload of niggers that parks right in front of my door on Beekman Place”  Beaton say that the car belongs to the United Nations Trade Commission from Malawi [a small emerging country] and… it is a DPL parking space” (428).  Zona replied “I paid good money to have it made a DPL parking space so Nick could pull in to the curb and I wouldn’t have to wade through an acre of dogshit to get to my own front door”(428).

We miss the punchline of a joke about a hillbilly and her husband Zeb (“yer astandin on a hot coal”).

And then we get on to things that have JR’s (that is Bast’s) fingerprints on them.  Cates is talking with Beaton about all of this.  It begins with some getting tissue damage from beer.  Because the brewery that puts cobalt in its beer was selling around 40 before the war but is worth nothing now.  And what about these mining claims.

There’s also some legal work at hand to get the Indian reservation declared not really a reservation–these Indians were displaced from their original reservation to this ground–it has no ancestral value to them.  And what about Alberta and Western Power Company?  Beaton explains they were victimized in a pyramid debentures scheme in preparation for a merger with Ace Development Company  They (JR and Bast) had doubled the ten-cent stock offering and were planning a merger with Alberta.  Cates wants them in jail, but so far only Mister Wall (as in Wall Street, right JR) has been sought for mail fraud.  Cates wants to know who is behind it–a couple of guys who want to takeover

an ailing textile firm called Eagle…

–Couple of blacks are they?

–No I think not sir that, I believe that’s simply the poor quality of the photocopy, the one on the left there, a Mister…

–Yes Bast damn it I can read Beaton (431).

Cates concludes: “[Bast] looks like he wouldn’t know an eight percent debenture from a pork belly damned amateurs don’t know the rules come in and ruin the whole damn game for everybody” (432)

They used the pension fund to acquire a brewery with favorable earnings and a producer of matchbooks whose future is less secure and possibly a nursing home an a company called Ray-X and they seem to be on the lookout for a large cash reservoir like a large savings and loan.  Cates believes they are buying up everything just to hold up Stamper’s acquisition of the pipeline.  Beatons says maybe they are just looking for cheap wood pulp or cellulose.

Cates wants to know if Beaton knows Bast, Beaton says that Crawley does and that he has tried to talk to their lawyer Piscator who sounded “unsavory” and then left for Jamaica.  And he has called Mister bast several times, “the secretary who answers sounds, frankly, sir she sounds lie she’d never got past fourth grade”…  then at the uptown office “a young lady who answered told me to ah, simply replied with an obscenity and hung up”  …  and the third location turned out to be “a pay phone somewhere on Long Island.

Cates tries to set thing in order–clean up these mining claims: if they’re just for timber, Monty will get them an injunction.  And get Senator Milliken on…  “according to our sources, they already appear to be in contact with him, it appears that certain sheep membranes play a part in brewery filtration processes” (433).

A phone rings.  Lucien pulled Francis out of school, Beaton is going to call Amy immediately.

We get back to financial concerns and Mrs Pecci (remember they were talking about her).  The local bank (Whiteback’s) is in trouble for extensions of credit and he made a gift of a number of bank shares to the wife of Mister Pecci but the shares have been bought by a local teachers union.  Cates says to bail the bank out, then Cates and co will own that too.

Beaton says that Stamper’s heart damage is from cobalt from a brewery–they should find this brewery to look for the mineral deposit.

And this scene winds down with Cates talking about Crawley’s film, that Stamper wants to talk to him about shooting hippies in National Parks “I believe that was a typographical error sir, I saw the film and their intention appears to be to shoot hippos”

And also Boody–arrested for throwing bombs in Greece?  No, she was charged with transporting incendiary devices in Nepal but the “objects she was carrying proved to be ah, items of feminine hygiene whose nature and use the Greek customs examiner was unfamiliar with in his, ah, in his limited experience sir, they apparently resembled incendiary cylinders fitted with fuses” (436).  Beaton shows Cates some “nude” photos of Boody and and Indian musical that appeared in a fashion magazine (Cates says he asked him to keep an eye on her but this is crazy).  And what about Freddie?  Nothing new.  Oh and Deleseara wasn’t soliciting when she was picked up by the police, she was just asking for directions.

Beaton asks his secretary to call just about everyone mentioned above and then we get a crossed connection  with Crwaley’s office (he is in the bath…  Well, actually his feet are in the bath in his office for his jungle rot).  Bast is in the office and hands Crawley an envelope with a report on Alaska “Alsaka” [see comments] (presumably from JR although the handwriting is quite good–yes it’s a copy of the lined paper). It is hilariously financial in nature.  Crawley wants information about the score that Bast brought.  He appraises it (although he can’t read music at all) and imagines the feet of the animals as the dots on the score.  Crawley asks if Bast ever read Trilby  (he mentions a scene in which a man stares at a piano imagining the notes but who can’t read music)

Beamish calls Crawley to talk about the X-L Lithography case, and while Bast is right there, he insists that Crawly to talk to Beamish.  And they start talking about the Triangle investment (using Gibbs’ figures).  He tells Crawley that JR & Bast can buy Triangle (valued at 20 million) for four and half million.  Crawley encourages them to grab Duncan too, especially if they’re interested in acquiring Her.  Who?  “Fine old women’s magazine and all the rest of it.”  Crawley keeps talking about tax losses.  And he admits that he does not like Piscator–he’s not their type at all.

Now, as to Pomerance.  Seem that JR has taken them on to do their PR (Pomerance is Pisctaor’s brother).  And Pisctaor is working on Jamaican incorporation and the acquisition of the funeral home (Bast knows nothing of this, of course).  The funeral home is a good bet, the owner’s a go-getter and business will never slow down, right?  But about this Ray-X…  tell your associate (who is damn hard to hear on the phone) Ray-X was a good toy company (that sold toy weapons) but their toys were boycotted by the peace movement so they switched to battery-powered prostheses and hearing aids and thermocouples, which could be in trouble with the situation in Gandia.

Crawley says he has someone who may be able to help him out with these investments–and Ray-X looks like a good candidate for the government’s cost-plus contracts.  Bast and JR received three million in undistributed dividends from the brewery and the money back on the pensions has allowed them to get Nobili (which Crawley “knows” is to use as a Panama tax haven to help with JR Shipping Corp).  He thinks the associate (Whom he doesn’t know is JR but whom I will now call JR) is doing well, but he needs to back off on Disney or Kraft.  He also says to dump Piscator and if Triangle goes as they plan, they should just keep Beamish on board.

But Crawley says they need to get their act together he called the midtown office and Virginia put him in touch with Mister Slomin who wanted to take his bet on the Super Bowl, and the girl uptown told him to fuck off.  Bast should really consider going to a hotel suite, like at the Waldorf.  Which Bast does, there’s even a piano in the room.  Crawley says that JR cares about Bast’s music and Bast says JR’s setting up an arts foundation to get him a grant.

But before we get there Crawley reveals that Davidoff (“a thoroughly offensive little man”) just joined Pomerance!

Then the switch to the aunts’ accounts.  They sold the telephone company and bought Nobili at 31, which sold at 16–a nice tax loss.  Bought Ampex at 20 sold at 5  and Famous Artists is a complete write off…  Bast thinks they don’t need any write off but Crawley says that it totally cleared up their capital gains situation $11,773 now they can think about profits.  And their new investments are doing well.

Now onto Crawley’s music.  He wants to hear it–how about a tape or record.  Crawley can’t believe that all Bast has is the score.  And Bast resorts to JR speak:

“No but holy shit Mister Crawley I mean what…” (446).

The congressional subcommittee needs to hear this, they don’t want hentracks or plunking out a piano.  He says that Bast is a slacker–too busy on his companies and not on his music.

And if I may go even a bit further to say it appears that the more others make an effort to help you, the less effort you seem to make to help yourself. That may sound harsh but perhaps I failed to make myself clear when we were discussing Trilby earlier, Mister Bast. Not all of us have been given your unique gifts, and when I feel you are using them to satisfy what has struck me on more than one occasion as an almost unhealthy preoccupation with money, I am bound to tell you so sir. When you turn these gifts to accomplishing ends any of us are capable of we are all the losers for it Mister Bast, be content to leave these details of leaseback and writeoffs to us who toil in the vineyards and look to you to life our eyes up to the stars while standing in the damn trouserleg sliding down again there can you just get it back up for me?  (448).

Bast says he still needs money to pay his associate so Crawly ups his price to $400: “I’ve made up my mind to prove them wrong, those doubters who tell us of the unreliability, the indolence, the ingratitude of the artist” (448).

The crossed phone lines end the scene again and we switch back to Beaton. who is calling for Mrs Joubert, which leads us back to the school and the phone in Whiteback’s office.  Mrs Joubert hears about Francis and gets mad at Whiteback Beaton [see comments for explanation of this error] for letting Lucien take him out, but before she can do anything, the rest of the men come in and she runs off feeling sick again–someone jokes perhaps she’s pregnant (there was a sudden rash of pregnancies in the school) and we learn that Coach Vogel is being harassed for assault from the mother who is dressing like her daughter and attending the school.  But how was he to know she was a mother?  As if showing an eighth grade girl where the horse bit him would have been okay.

Turns out the pregnancy stories are a mix up of urine from the drug tests.  There’s some mention of a man named Cibo and there’s a chance for Hyde to buy Glancy’s car (which Glancy was found dead in–while wearing one of Dan’s suits):

There’s also the matter of a retarded boy who was killed by police because he was wielding a pop gun.  His family is suing the school for $800,000 because Dan’s tests said he was a prodigy (Dan’s test are causing all kinds of trouble).

The board presents an austerity budget for the school–first thing to go is books, but the thirty thousand dollar blacktopping is still on as scheduled.  Parentucelli made an impassioned speech about scraped knees (after he already paved the place).  We also learn that he finished paving Burgoyne Street which is now called Summer St).

And they are replacing the Greek lintel at the front of the building once the Citizens United group found out it was Gibberish and they want to get of Gibbs for making them think it was from Kerkahm.  Indeed, they just added curlicues to the letters in that motto his friend Schepperman gave us which sounded, ahm, sounded all right at the time of course until we found out it was communist” (456)

Leroy (whose exact role is a mystery evidently just stole a car (a La Salle), and Mister Bast’s TV check came in in the right amount: $1.52).

They talk about the Ring (which seems to be off now) and the newly constructed cultural center, then someone says they found an existing cultural center in the back there behind Burgoyne Street: “books, music, artistic pictures on the walls, might hold your little festival there (457).  Obviously they refer to Edward’s place, James’ old studio where “teenagers had apparently taken over for a dope and ahm, and sex club where the police found a number of these glassine bags among the books and music torn up all over the floor and ahm, obscenities spraypainted on the walls ” (457).

The flat is also littered with explicit porn pictures.  Someone suggests that Major Hyde’s son would enjoy that.  The joke is that Hyde’s son broadcasted a porn movie on the school’s TV network  (Hyde says his son sent a way for a film about karate, and got the porn instead).  Of course everyone thought it was just sex ed curriculum and the seniors said it was “handled with refreshing candor” (458).  It also went to the parochial school.  Which Vern says serves them right for stealing their school’s material.  It is revealed that the porn had an interracial scene and someone suggests  it the “biggest black organ I’ve ever seen, maybe your boy’s passing it around to give the other youngsters a really meaningful learning experience in race relations “(459).

This weeks read ends just before the unveiling of the pictures from Joubert’s class trip to but the stock (that reveal will be next week) And it sounds pretty darn amusing.

$$$$$

So aside from that one little exhausting section, I’m still on board with the book.  I’m daunted that there is so much left, but for the most part I find it all really enjoyable, and the little revelations are great.

By the way, do read Simon’s comments below, he’s really helpful at piecing things together.

For ease of searching, I include: dice sin cojones, cono, creche.