Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Jack--

Johnny Cochran was the guest of  honor and luncheon speaker at a
national convention of criminal defense attorneys.  No media were
allowed.  The specter of the O.J. trial still lingered.  My friend, Dr.
Eugene Schoenfeld--who under the name Dr. HIPpocrates wrote a column
syndicated to the underground press in the '60s--now testifies
occasionally as an expert witness.  He attended the event and arranged
for my wife Nancy Cain and me to go with him.  Underneath the standard,
plastic-encased ID lapel card, he had stashed a second, hand-printed
card declaring "O.J. Did It."

Chochran's speech reassured the audience: "In the Simpson matter, we 
just did what YOU do every DAY"--that is, defend their clients by any
means necessary and chalk up a bunch of billable hours  in the 
process--and he receivbed a standing ovation.  In the afterglow,
colleagues came up to him to shake his hand and banter.  Schoenfeld
joined the line of lawyers waiting to have their picture taken with
Cochran,  putting their arms around each other but looking straight
ahead and smiing at the camera.  

Thus, Cochran didn't notice how Schoenfeld subtly managed to reveal
his hidden message just before their picture was snapped by Nancy.  It
was a good, old-fashioned guerrila action.  Jerry Lefcourt was there
but he wasn't in the picture.   
  

    

You remember the picture better than I do -- and I took it.  It was a joke
Gene was playing, not on Cochran, but on me.  About a month before, I'd
taken a job as the public affairs director of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers (of which Jerry was president during my 3-year
tenure).  I was taking pix of celebs and friends for the NACDL magazine, and
at the very last possible split second, Gene whips around his registration
nametag, which was on a chain or something, and he had written "O.J. DID
IT!"

So you got it from him, did you?  Mystery solved.

A photocredit would have cost me my month-old job.

P.S. -- they'll deny it, but I have met both David Gans <tnf> and Mike
Simmons at some time or another.  I was probably drunk.  I think Jerry
Lefcourt was there, though.
  

    

Wait -- NANCY TOOK THE SAME PICTURE?

OK, now I get it.  I thought I'd been betrayed.

Well, you should have given her the photocredit.
  

    
Paul, I'm wondering about the Hustler gig. Did you show pink?
  

    

I thought that was Simmons.  And it was a closeup of one of his eyeballs.
  

    
Nancy DID get a photo credit, right there on the cover.
  

    

The piece in the book about abortion doctors was amazing, incidentally. 

Do you think we are headed back to that kind of repressive era?
  

    
     Jack evidently brought some rum back with him from Florida.  Now
share the rum with everyone on the list, Jackie.  Don't hoard.
     Counsellor King and I go back to the early '70s when were a
longhaired country music duo.  Jack, remember that gig where we used a
Hoover vacuum cleaner for a mike stand?  A photo exists somewhere. 
There we were, noses packed and mouths open singing with the HOOVER
logo prominently displayed.
     I was supposed to go to that lawyer cluster fuck where the
Cochran got pranked at the invite of both Jack and Paul, seperately. 
But I was a no show due to a vicious -- and I'm a tough guy --
hangover. 
      Note to Klein: I can find out if your film criticism was the
source of "Andy Klein" being the name of the hapless protagonist of Pat
Weathers' song.
  

    

Dammit, and I've lost the issue.

Well, thank God, because it was a joke Dr. S. was playing on me when I
stopped taking pictures and said, WHAT THE FUCK, GENE, YOU TRYING TO GET ME
FIRED?
  

    

Slippage.

Oh, God.  The HOOVER.  How was that for early 1970s symbolism?
'
I think Tex S. Goldbud set us up with that mike stand.  Or maybe Charlie B.,
the cheapskate bastard.
  

    
Jack, e-mail me at pkrassner@earthlink.net with your snail-mail
address, and I'll see if I can find that issue.  I didn't know Gene was
playing a trick on  you.  He asked us to bring a camera.  Maybe you
got a wider shot, with Lefcourt and the shrink on the sidelines.
  

    

Jeezus, I completely forgot that I gave Krassner his press pass (I was in
charge of the press).  WTF could I have been thinking???
  

    

More slippage.

Are we certain yet about your e-mail address?
  

    
pointy--it doesn't look like my response came through, but I said that
even if Bush appointed conservative Supreme Court Justices, I doubt
they would overturn Roe vs. Wade.
  

    
Jack, now I remember, Gene introduced me to you, I think.  So in that
sense--smuggling me in--he did trick you.
  

    
<I feel uncomfortable being commercial in this context, so the details
are on paulkrassner.com>

     Paulsie, part of the idea here is for you to hawk your work. 
It's kosher.
      If Row v. Wade was overturned, women -- including white middle-
and upper-class women -- would be rioting in the streets.  Which may be
an argument for overturning it.

 
  

    <scribbled by gjk Wed 11 Dec 02 21:34>
  

    

More slippage!


Gene's a prankster.  Back in '94, I sent him one of 24 copies of Former and
Future Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry in his D.C. comeback.  They were green
with white lettering, just like his own, and his campaign posters, which
simply said in large block letters "BARRY IN 94"

Except mine had script above and below his logo:


         A Crack Mayor

          BARRY IN 94

            for D.C.
  

    

Oh shit, forgot the punchline:  Gene wore it on some S.F. TV interview on
the "crack epidemic" instead of a coat and tie.
  

    

Let me rephrase:

More slippage!


Gene's a prankster.  Back in '94, I sent him one of 24 t-shirts I made up
for Former and Future Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry in his D.C. comeback.
They were green with white lettering, just like his own, and his campaign
posters, which simply said in large block letters "BARRY IN 94"

Except mine had script above and below his logo:


         A Crack Mayor

          BARRY IN 94

            for D.C.


(Script above and below the BLOCK LETTERING.)

Gene, as is known, is a prankster.  When a TV station came to interview him
on S.F.' s crack "epidemic" he wore the t-shirt instead of a coat and tie.
  

    
What is 'slippage'?
  

    

>  My regret is that nobody has gone up to him and said,
>  "Hey, I saw your name in Krassner's book."

That's funny: people keep coming up to me and saying, "Hey, Meisler! I saw 
your name in Kantner's book!" 

> Note to Klein: I can find out if your film criticism was the
>  source of "Andy Klein" being the name of the hapless protagonist of Pat
>  Weathers' song.

I'd appreciate that, Mikey. I actually just heard a clip from it on 
barnesandnoble.com. Spooky. 

Paul, I  trying to read the book as slowly as possible and out of order, 
but sooner or later I'm sure to finish it. So...which others of your 
books, as listed in the front, are in print at the moment? 
  

    

Slippage is what just happened to me: I took so long writing that last 
brief post that you slipped in before me asking what slippage was. 

fucking slippage. 
  

    
This is great!   Thanks to all who helped bring this together!
 
Hiya Paul ... having just today found and read thru this topic, 
I have finally caught up with you after all these decades. 
Re: some earlier posts here, I want to say that your 'journalism' has
always been a source of optimism/inspiration for me, because you've
provided both clarity and courage.  "From the slime to the ridiculous."
 That play on the old saw just nails it for me.
   
Here's an example of an opposite, demoralizing influence that I came
across just last week at  http://www.trialofhenrykissinger.org/ - 
 (site of Christopher Hitchens book _The Trial of Henry Kissinger_): 
"When Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, we thought that
could never be topped.  Tom Lehrer decided he could no longer perform."
 Lehrer was alleged to have said, "It was at that moment that satire
died. There was nothing more to say after that."   
Yet here we are thirty years down the road, with Henry Kissinger
actually having since then said, "The illegal we do immediately.  
The unconstitutional takes a little longer."  ....  satire dead?!
What ever happened to Tom Lehrer?   Ronald Reagan?  
Mort Sahl I know about.

btw, here's a great little slice from 
_Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut_

http://www.maebrussell.com/Krassner%27s%20book.html
  

    <scribbled by silly Mon 9 Jul 12 16:05>