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	Newsletter No. 30:

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Prologue to 'The Counter Clock Revolt'

by Michel Alix ('69)

"As I approach my sixtieth birthday (next year) I wonder whether there's a cancer pacman with my name on it. Gnieew, gnieew, gnieew. (Sound of Pacman feeding.) I feel that we who are about to die should not only hail Caesar, but more opportunistically start a raffle. The "Who's next?" or Doomsday raffle. Just leave your names and the date of your approximate demise. Stay tuned for the rules on how to win.

Well, during the year I made some advances in art theory -- if not with the collectors. And I did start working seriously on a memoir of the sixties that I call The Counter Clock Revolt" [below]

1.

Sing O Muse of Homeric times
Of giants and Lilliputians
Of visual splendor and verbal woe
Of an Iliad begun too soon and an Odyssey begun too late
Of an era of collective and creative lunacy
Of incarcerators and incarcerated
Of the mirrored worlds of East and West
Of the death of the old continent and stillbirth of the new
Of the war against peace and the peace in war
Of men in sequins and mannequins in men's suits
Of unisex, after-sex cigarettes, and sex without AIDS
Of reciprocity as the source of all confusion
Of knowledge and failure, spontaneity and brooding
Of time, un-time, and re-time
Of "Hey man, do you want to have a good time?"

2.

Of black and white and red all over (stale joke)
Of quixotic fervor and Stalinian pride
Of psychological syringes and shots of class warfare
Of am I having a good time under this bell jar?
Of plasma and penicillin
Of pep talks and Pop talks
Of dyads, triads, and naiads,
Of the sea-tossed daughters of Amphitrite
Of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
Of "Tell me what I am, Mr. Kinsey"
Of the days before garbage bags and flip-top caps
Of rotary phones that went whirr, whirr, whirr
Of incandescent TV tubes and the deus ex machina
Of Mister Ed, Bachelor Father, and the Donna Reed Show
Of Ozzie and Harriet and endless conclaves in the kitchen
Of "I'm going to have a talk with that boy"

3.

Of endless good times ahead
Of endless bad times, marked on the back of the cereal box
Of the thin line between truth and imagination
Of the thick line between truth and government explanation
Of the space between two hearts
Of the gulf between two souls
Of the ship-length between two dreams
Of sadness in triumph and silence in defeat
Of green grass and blue grass
Of “greensnot” (from Ulysses) and whatnot
Of "Hey girl, you'll be a woman soon"
Of "Hey dude, this is good blow"
Of "Hey there, wanna ball?"
Of dandelions and daisies, and Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Of Strawberry Fields Forever
Of "Dance beneath the crystal sky with one hand waving free"

4.

Of the future that shines its green light at the end of Daisy's wharf
Of Gatsbys and wannabees and Holden Caulfields
Of Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters
Of Life, Look, and National Geographic
Of "Tune in, Turn on, Drop Out" uncredos
Of Big Daddy Schweitzer in his jungle dispensary
Of "What do we do now that we're free?"
Of warlords and worklords and Hittites and her tights
Of "I'm saving my money to buy you a rainbow"
Of happiness and her penis
Of the trembling and rumbling of subterranean caverns
Of Xanadu and Kubla Khan, his stately pleasure dome decreed
Of "Can I have my orgasm now?"
Of "What's behind door number three?"

5.

Of Disneykins and Tinker Toys
Of pistols that glow in the dark
Of Lincoln Logs and sleeping dogs
Of things that go bump in the night
Of “walking the dog” with a yoyo
Of Shirley Temple movies on Sundays
Of the Good Ship Lollypop and Wee Willie Winkie
Of Groucho, master of the wise crack on talk shows
Of "Walk on the crack, break your mother's back"
Of Betsy Palmer and Shelley Winters of To Tell the Truth,
Of beach blubber and beach parties
Of where have all the Gidgets gone?
Of baby-sitters watching American Bandstand while sweating in halter tops
Of Brill Cream and home permanents
Of hope is probably permanent, too
Of learning to get safely pregnant

6.

Of the ice cream truck that plays its jingle after my bedtime
Of going to sleep before the sun goes down
Of Time let me walk and stray in the mercy of his means
Of "The buzzing of the bees in the cigarette trees"
Of the Pastures of Plenty
Of The Cat in the Hat
Of The Mouse That Roared
Of Up the Down Staircase
Of “Down the way, where the hills are gay”
Of the screech of skates on concrete
Of the rattle of empty subway cars on their way to the depot
Of the lazy hum of jumbo flies behind the venetian blinds
Of "Hot town, summer in the city"
Of steel frames rising like King Kong cages in the distance
Of a TV soap opera that draws the veil of night over the city
Of romantic puffery for women

7.

Of Barbie and Ken dolls
Of Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Of cartoon smorgasbords on Saturday mornings
Of The Week in Review and Meet the Press
Of M-I-C -- See you real soon! -- K-E-Y
Of mountains of newspaper on Sundays
Of Mickey Spillane and Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Of slipping your date a mickey
Of date rape, duck tape, and "Burn, Baby, Burn"
Of Bill Buckley spouting clever insanity
Of the trials of the lonely Calypso
Of "It ain't me, Babe. No, no, no"
Of Puff the Magic Dragon and cigarette-selling cowboys
Of As the World Turns, Doctor Kildare, and Ben Casey
Of Perry Mason's snake-oil suave
Of the Mod Squad and go-go girls in white plastic boots

8.

Of "John is the cutest; no, George; no, Paul; no, Ringo"
Of "She loves you, yeah-yeah-yeah"
Of "And I lover her"
Of the Beatles hitting puberty
Of "Isn't it good, Norwegian wood?"
Of "If I had a hammer," I'd hammer in the morning like Khrushchev at the UN
Of atoms for peace and H-bombs for war
Of the Summer of Love and The Winter of Our Discontent
Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and other social infirmities
Of "Springtime for Hitler" and The Fall of the House of Usher
Of Ramparts of the mind and dungeons of the heart
Of no-one to love because I'm so shy
Of solitude in civilization and community in savagery
Of mad dogs howling at the full moon
Of killing student nurses
Of the instinctual surge and the criminal urge
Of trigger-finger fixes of Rawhide and Bonanza

9.

Of "See the USA in your Chevrolet"
Of see the used SA and the used SS in South America
Of "Chunky, the finest chunk of chunky chocolate"
Of "Bit O' Honey goes a long-long way"
Of "Good 'N Plenty, Good 'N Plenty, Good 'N Plenty"
Of "living off the fatta' the land"
Of "She was Lo in the morning, she was Lola in tights"
Of "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up"
Of "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness"
Of "All this happened, more or less"
Of "S. Levin, formerly a drunkard"
Of "I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins"
Of Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, and Huey P. Newton
Of the return of D.H. Laurence, Lawrence Durrell, and Anais Nin
Of Women in Love and men in rut
Of my kingdom for a whore!

10.

Of the trials of identity
Of "You know something is happening here, but you don't know what it is"
Of the Eve of Destruction
Of the Dawn of Aquarius
Of "You better take care of business, Mr. Businessman"
Of the military-industrial complex
Of the daily multivitamin complex
Of “One pill makes you smaller and another makes you tall”
Of Motown and mojo; bubble-gum rock and doo-wah-ditty
Of "If you're going to San Francisco, make sure to wear some flowers in your hair"
Of the Hurdy-Gurdy Man
Of the sinking of Atlantis
Of waiting for my ship to wreck
Of waiting for my chick to get on the pill
Of sitting on the dock of the bay
Of the sound of one hand clapping

11.

Of domestic bliss as a preliminary to armed warfare
Of Lady Ngu and Dien Bien Phu
Of Khe Sanh, Hanoi, Saigon, and Quang Tri
Of military advisors posing as tourists
Of the Viet Minh, Viet Kong, and Khmer Rouge
Of self-inflammable Buddhist monks
Of waiting for the general with the key in his hand
Of don't trust anyone over thirty
Of the mystical union of the holy couple
Of a mother-in-law as a conceptual storm trooper
Of paternity as a poor excuse for handing up a family name
Of denigrating sex as a prelude to hanky-panky
Of the anti-sex league as a branch of law and order
Of In Like Flynn and huge like Hefner
Of size only matters if girls get their privates enlarged
Of the morally responsible foetus

12.

Of "Molly and me, and baby makes three"
Of "Duck and cover"
Of Daffy Duck, Donald Duck, and Lord Love a Duck
Of Mighty Mouse and Betty Boop-Boop-Pa-Doop
Of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
Of "Casey would waltz with the strawberry blonde"
Of a good night to strike an iceberg while the band plays on
Of a good day to sink the Bismarck,
Of sweet Uncle Tom and little Miss Eva
Of Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Of Nagasaki, My Pudding Pie
Of "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh" and "I'm not fonda Jane"
Of "I'm just an Oakie from Muskogee"
Of "One, two, three, what are we fighting for?"
Of "Hell no, we won't go!"
Of "Martini, stirred not shaken"

13.

Of three days of massive mourning for JFK
Of the hero smitten like Hector on Dealey Plaza
Of Jackie's black veil and John John's toy soldier salute
Of portraits of the dead man in millions of homes
Of a day off from school to celebrate the carnage
Of Malcolm X saying: "It's a case of the chickens coming home to roost"
Of Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot, probably as a staged media event
Of George Wallace getting shot; and surviving, the bastard
Of Martin Luther King dying for the sins of the many
Of many are called, but few are required to go to Vietnam
Of grants to John Wilkes Booth College for assassins
Of My Lai as a pretty name for a massacre
Of did you get a good picture of all those dead bodies?
Of napalm and dismemberment as ungentlemanly behavior
Of the American way of mayhem and death

14.

Of pill-box hats and Lady Clairol hair
Of Chanel No.5 and Givenchy dresses
Of Penelope Tree and Twiggy
Of this dress is so tight my butt is exploding
Of sashaying gracefully down to the end of the runway
Of Revlon, Lady Remington, and Princess Grace beehives
Of chimps in tight suits posing as scrawny men
Of miniskirts and cross-your-heart bras
Of virgins you could easily mistake for Medusa
Of the Rolling Stones promoted as paragons of beauty
Of Playtex panties that make everyone horny
Of 2001, a Spastic Odyssey
Of painted toes that sparkle like Chicklets
Of women's eyes made up like vaginas
Of write me a manifesto and I'll sign it Andy Warhol
Of teenage screamers and jelly beaners

15.

Of "Mama told me there’d be days like this"
Of cruelty as fundamental caring
Of "Louie, Louie," and "Ba-ba-ber-Ann"
Of matchstick castles and playing-card palaces
Of Ralph and Alice, Norton and Trixie
Of I Love Lucy as punishment for losing Cuba
Of Cassius Clay inventing Mohammad Ali
Of Art Linkletter as punishment for school prayers
Of "Mama told me not to come here"
Of strangers in the night exchanging Glad bags
Of "Wild Thing, you make my heart sing"
Of "Stop, in the name of love!"
Of the war against poverty
Of the war against stupidity and mental torpor
Of the war against the past and the war against the future
Of intense suffering as youthful immolation

16.

Of lucid hallucinations on Mondays
Of migraine headaches on Tuesdays
Of don't tell your friends the ending of Psycho
Of don't tell your friends LBJ is a psycho
Of "Let's spend a night together"
Of "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I've got love in my tummy"
Of how am I gonna get it out?
Of fluoride in the water
Of Under the Yum-Yum Tree
Of strobes, split screens, and dithering instruments
Of To Sir With Love and From Russia With Love
Of you too can apply for a license to kill
Of "Love makes the world go round"
Of "Stop the world I want to get off"
Of "How to stop worrying and love the bomb"
Of Salvador Dali's new line of jewels

17.

Of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Of "Tommy, can you hear me?"
Of Smothers Brothers provocations
Of Laugh-In obfuscations
Of comedians Lenny Bruce and George Carlin on trial
Of California Dreaming and Adolf Reagan
Of the Diggers, Pranksters, and the Sharon Tate Murders
Of Haight-Ashbury as a honeymoon in newtopia
Of Vidal Sassoon haircuts and invisible panties
Of incense sticks and patchouli oil
Of head shops and hash pipes
Of roach clips and phosphorescent posters
Of the kids taking the Kerouac freakshow on the road
Of free clinics, crash pads, and upriver communes
Of Mr. Natural and "Keep On Trucking, Mama"

18.

Of summer's last gasp at Woodstock
Of three days of peace, music, and mud
Of revels to eclipse the Watts riots
Of a party to forget Chicago
Of peaceniks on picnic
Of musicians on sabbatical
Of the death and momentary rebirth of an era
Of peace, love, and no place to piss
Of the long way home and the eternal return
Of the mandela of death
Of the punctured tire of life
Of the beaten Buick of the past
Of the Corvette of the future
Of the bright light on the top of the cop car
Of trading sex for social acceptance

19.

Of being nobody, looking for nothing, and leading the way
Of smoking pot as a good-neighbor policy
Of spiking your imagination with psychedelic Kool-Aid
Of trips on Golden Sunshine and Purple Owsley
Of hitching to New Orleans or California
Of Trailer For Sale or Rent
Of finding love in a VW minivan
Of Janis offering another piece of her heart
Of "Whooooo, whoooo, whole lotta love"
Of the Bugliosi mad show in LA
Of Sadie Mae Glutz and Robert Beausoleil
Of the Mothers of Invention
Of the Fathers of Disingenuity
Of Papa John popping pills in the john
Of Watermelon Man and Putney Swope
Of sleeping in the Valley of the Dolls

20.

Of "Leaving on a jet plane"
Of "Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson"
Of here's to you, Ronald Ray-gun
Of here's to you, Tricky Dicky
Of here's looking at your bummed-out kids
Of if you need a parent, put your lips together and whistle
(Of you may as well be whistling Dixie)
Of you might need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
Of the SDS, Black Panthers, and Che Guevara
Of the Hell's Angels feted at Altamont Raceway
Of Jumping Jack Flash going up in flames
Of Hunter Thompson and Charles Bukowski, still nobodies
Of corruption as the principle of progress
Of exploitation as the cornerstone of getting ahead

21.

Of "Instant Karma's gonna get you"
Of instant bullshit's gonna bloat you
Of "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"
Of they paved your whole life and put up a parking meter
Of Be a Do Bee and not a Don't Bee
Of Howdy-Doody and Buffalo Bill (that phoney)
Of cultural suicide as an alternative to poverty
Of cycles of sickness inside the Doors of Perception
Of selling out as a tale of arms and the man
Of getting naked as the peak of glory and shame
Of "Suzanne takes you down to a place by the river"
Of the Lone Ranger and Tonto are just pals
Of "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break"
Of "I've done places and been things"
Of "All Hail Freedonia!"

22.

Of Dangerous at Any Speed
Of "Come on, Baby, light my fire"
Of Come on, Baby, light my pyre
Of throwing bricks in the name of Gandhi
Of hurling sweets in the name of Candy
Of Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays
Of spending your zeal, but only on paydays
Of "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"
Of "Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name"
Of I met my lover on the Dating Game
Of 15 minutes of spectacle and 50 years of self-torture
Of Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham
Of Pearl Buck and William Saroyan
Of Richard Brautigan, beatified in paperback
Of Charlton Heston pot-bellied at forty
Of Burton and Taylor making a comeback

23.

Of Lobsang Rampa and the American pampas
Of hiding out in a kibbutz in New Mexico
Of kicking back shots to the health of Westmoreland
Of wishing long life to righteous Judge Julius
Of painting your forehead like Abbie
Of Steal This Book and Soul On Ice
Of Manchild in the Promised Land
Of hustling circulars and the underground press
Of wondering why the world's a mess
Of pitying the straights in their jackets
Of pan-handling for breakfast or dinner
Of Melanie in her sari and Peter O'Toole in Topkapi
Of Audrey Hepburn, thin as a fireman's pole
Of Cary Grant, the happy grandpappy
Of sanitary napkins you insert with a shoehorn
Of Parker pens and Papermate
Of political dinners at fifty dollars a plate

24.

Of what do you do in your sexual double life?
Of love your daughter as you love your wife?
Of do ballet steps naked in a mirror?
Of have virtual sex with Lil' Abner and his sister?
Of cross the tracks to breach the color line?
Of marry the girl who has had them all, and more?
Of eat until you're fat and drink until you're on the floor
Of call your wife a pig and your daughter worse?
Of go down to the cellar and shoot up the china?
Of hotwire your daughter's bedroom window?
Of beat down the growth of your son's budding ego?
Of work hard, play hard, and sin hard
Of make the world safe for democracy
Of make your life safe from awareness
Of protect the primeval mire in your heart

25.

Of now comes the guilt of the flower children
Of penance for the murder of Penelope's suitors
Of "I don't remember who her father is"
Of "Moon" and "God" as unsuitable names for children
Of Telemachus and his damned tele-machines
Of the death of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Jiminy Cricket
Of your son's a punk and your grandchild's a lawyer
Of so feast on the leftovers of titans
Of "out with the old and in with new" (but it's starting to look so alike)
Of fossilized feminists and vegetarian booksellers with beards
Of whole foods, carrot juice, and fizzle that passes for beer
Of people like parasites eating up the planet
Of polluting the oceans and choking up the atmosphere
Of playing the cancer roulette and having premonitions
Of will I be around for the new year?

September 2008, Rev. January 2011


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