Letter to a friend...

Hi Tony

I am answering both of you e-mail...

I hear of Goines but haven't read any of his books and I will look into it... I just receive today «Road to Los Angeles« and now I can start my serious reading of Fante, in chronological order! Glad to learn that you know my very good friend Marc Villard... His novels should be translated and published in the USA... I hope they do for shim one day what they did for Fred Vargas... but she sold more books than him! One of his books as illustrations just like a graphic novel... and there is a graphic story based on him and published in a very important collection... I recorded a song called NYC were I have a character called Inspector Villard... that was when Marc was starting to publish his thriller novels and we poets friends of his were on his case on the foot field (we use to play foot, soccer together in Pantin, a suburb of Paris)... That was a long time ago but it is what memories are made of! You know Tony I really scrapped a career in France to stay close to Virginie... she is turning 22 tomorrow... I can't believe it... tonight we were watching TV, and she had a big night partying with her friends, and I was massaging her little feet, well not so little now that she wears high heels shoes! But I was telling her that she was my little girls my baby still, and that 22 were so young! Shit I am 60 and fucking depressed by it! Never thought I would get that old! Anyway... That nostalgia has got a hold of me pretty tight! A good grip... H was making it easier... Las night I bought some syringes for a friend... but for a while I thought I was buying them for me... Today reading the first pages of »Seizure...» I was happy to be off the habit! You write so strongly about it that it is the best deterrent...

Yeah I could read that many pages of yours, because I enjoy reading you so much! So whatever you feel I will deal with it and enjoy it! What else, did I want to tell y our? Oh yeah, about Crumley the first book I read was «The right madness», the title caught my eye and imagination! And the book look very good published by Penguin... Man you will love that, on the thriller side of literature but as good as Hemingway or Céline or whatever...and whoever... And The Alcoholic as soon as you will read it you will see what could be done with «Down and out...»... your agent could look into that... But in a way if it is bound to happen it will... sometimes I want so much to force things in reality, either for myself or for my friends... But I know from experience that what as to happen happens... But it is fun to look into things, shoot the breeze, dream a little... and I also know from experience that it is always constructive to formulate the ideas etc... You never know what can happen, so no hesitation from my part... I was reading «Seizure...» and at the same time, in alternance, «Coward»... and that was great... with a background of jazz paying in the Strabuck's sound system...

I live know day to day... the methadone as taken most of my life force... most of my drive... or is it life itself that is playing tricks on me... I do not know... but I do not feel like doing anything these days... Just the reading, tons of books around me, and cds and ddvs of my best movies... and some TV Shows like the complete «Laugh In» series (hippies humor», «Simon and Simon», «Magnum PI», «Northern Exposure»... «Mike Hammer», «Rawhide», «Soprano», «Have gun will travel», «Route 66» etc etc... And so many fifties and sixties and seventies movies... and all the current superheroes that are worth it: Hell Raiser, Batman, Sin City, and some others... and all the Fellini’s, Bertolinos, Godard etc etc... I have a 55ïn TV analogue and a projector HD... I will buy one day an HD system... but I watch old movies and it is not worth it on a brand new HD TV... so I wait... the other day I watch a hockey game at a friend of mine, on HD... After 45 minutes I had a headache... to clean, to bright, too much of much... Like no sense watching Easy Rider on HD... It was not made for that... All I would have to do would be buying an HD DVD player and run it thru my Canon Projector on a Movie Screen... but I am used to my analogue system and everything is in place etc... I hate change... habits... Virgo is my sign... and twilight is my ascendant...

Thanks for the books you sent me... I will give you more precision on the stuff I sent you... Do not hesitate to ask me questions... some of those books I sent are part of the avant-garde literature of Quebec and France... I was the first French Canadian writer of my generation to be published in France, at Seghers (legendary poetry publisher)... and I made a huge impression at the time (1978 and on).... everybody was on my case... They went crazy on my writings... it lasted 15 years... then I stop going and lost the momentum... but I do not regret it because I was with little Virginie... the best career... loving father... that might sound... well whatever... you know what I mean because you are leaving it now with Nice and Vanessa...

so Tony take care

it is so nice here with the sun finally... those fucking winter that last 6 months are insane... and taking their toll on people... I miss California so much... like I told you I will get other stuff for you: dvds, cds, vintage books of mine... even if they are in French they look so good are so hip that you will enjoy them without reading them, just a few words here and there and you will get the drift etc...


best of Tony

always glad to read your emails...
keep on writing in the same vein, on and on, until the whole fucking world get it... if it takes all you life do it! It is worth it! Believe me... I should have done more with my time but I did more than a lot...

amitiés

Lucien