--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Turq, > > I'm so jealous of your Crumby Karma.
So am I. :-) And I'm moving anyway. You of all people probably understand why. > Would you tell him, for the one millionth time, from yet another of > the masses he reached, that his drawings and humor came into my life > at exactly the time I needed it. Yes, everything does, but his > arrival in my life seemed especially so. The junk in the trunk > women he drew with their stocky bodies, greasy hair, and hippy > vibes were like fine French Pastries for my hungry eyes. I sipped > his irreverence like the nectar it was. He'll be pleased to hear this. Robert is possibly the most fame-averse and attention-averse human being I've ever met, a true recluse, but he does appreciate it when people appreciate his work. > Truly this guy impacted just about everyone who was in their > twenties in the sixties or seventies. He did indeed. I remember fondly the sense of resonance I felt when I first met Mr. Natural. It was very "Mother is at home." > I saw that documentary about him and his brother, and, er, his mom > too? I was so moved that his talent could not just survive that > intense karma but actually thrive because of it. And thrive it has. He's a veritable inspiration, to have not only survived that, but to have turned the struggle *to* survive it into art. The first stop on my recent Road Trip was a museum that was staging an exhibition of Crumb Family Art. It con- tained works by Robert, by his wife Aline, by their daughter Sophie, and by his even crazier brother Maxon. Quite a show. Quite a crowd. > Despite his world-class hinky ways, he's like an attention magnet > nonetheless, but in a good way, like seeing Stephen Hawking in his > twistedness yet knowing that underneath the physical inabilities > is this huge intellect -- same deal for me with Crumb -- all I > can see is geekazoidy almost goth-icky personality on the surface, > but under it all is something precious, massive. Robert Crumb and his wife Aline and their daughter Sophie are among my couple of dozen favorite people I've ever met on planet Earth. They're just so sweet and *normal*, man. As you say, the hinky ways are just the surface. Underneath, neither Robert nor Aline drink, smoke, or do drugs, and haven't for decades. Robert, unlike bozo ex-hippies like me, has almost NO positive mem- ories of his drug experiences. He meditates daily (no, I still don't know what type of meditation), and goes for long hikes in Places Of Power. And yet when a chair falls over in the restaurant where we are having dinner, he jumps as if someone had hit him with a cattle prod, and it takes several minutes for his system to settle back down. Does he have some scars from that childhood? Well, duh. But has he risen above them, and used them to create art that has been compared to the drawings of the great masters? That's what it's all about, isn't it? We've all got Monkeys On Our Backs. Even the saints we've been talking about lately have Monkeys On Their Backs. But some of them managed the saint thang *anyway*. If that isn't enough inspiration to get you through the day, I don't know what is. > If Adoph Hitler had by chance also been a great mathematician, he > might have come up with a truth that was so fundamental that it > had to be taught in every high school around the world. Think of > the cognitive dissonance of teachers everywhere explaining this > fact. How could you teach this truth to a Jew -- what sensitivity > could any teacher draw from to handle such a lesson? In a word, compassion. That's what's attractive about the Buddhist persuasion for me, that ability to transcend judgement. > Just so, Crumb to me -- his coal enwraps the hard inner diamond > that the volcanic pressures of his life have wrought. Exactly. I think he'd appreciate the image. > And I'm here wearing my nice new white gloves. Bother! Lots of comic characters wore white gloves. Didh't Krazy Kat wear white gloves? Sounds like you're still in tune, dude. Or would that be toon? > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > From the Twilight Zone, Sauve division, here's > > a cool synchronicity/support of nature story I > > heard today. My neighbor R.Crumb is working on > > a pretty serious project, Genesis. Yup, the first > > book of the Bible, illustrated in comic form by > > Robert Crumb. I know you're thinkin', "Yeah, yeah, > > we're gonna have Mr. Natural saying, 'Let there be > > light, Dudes...'" but it's not like that. He's > > really doing what's written there in the Bible, > > word for word, and merely illustrating it himself. > > Merely. > > > > Anyway, summer's coming and with it, lots of > > visitors to Chateau Crumb. So Robert, really > > wanting to finish this project but easily dis- > > tracted, decided to find an apartment away from > > Sauve in which to work on this project non-stop. > > > > And so he and Aline are looking for such an apart- > > ment and they find one owned by someone with the > > last name of Crumb. No relation. Except that Mme. > > Crumb is English, and did her doctoral dissertation > > at Oxford on Genesis. She's fluent in Hebrew, Greek, > > and all the other Biblical languages, and left all > > of her source books on Genesis there in the apart- > > ment that she's renting out. Her response to hearing > > the project that Robert wanted to write in her apart- > > ment? "Say no more. It's a done deal. The apartment > > is yours." She's also willing to serve as a consul- > > tant should Robert have any questions. > > > > Is that cool karma or what? And on all sides -- both > > sets of Crumbs get something cool from the deal. It's > > like a textbook example of interdependent origination. > > >
