On The Road With Al and Ivy: Blog

"Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice." - H.L. Mencken (Prejudices, Third Series, 1922) One of the decisions about "The Quitters" was how “historical” it should be. To a certain extent, it has to be, as most of the scene described in the early chapters was centered on late 70s era Broadway Street in San Francisco (part of the North Beach section), no longer exists. The strip clubs, particularly the (in)famous Condor Club, are still on the corner of Columbus and Broadway, but muted and now are rather ritzy “Gentleman’s Clubs” which are a far cry from the sleazy dives (complete with Barkers) that extended in a line further down the street. Two landmarks are gone, victims of the times, gentrification and high rents. The first was Enrico’s, a famous coffee house and restaurant, and Finnochio’s, the bar that featured cross-dressing performers, both of which are mentioned in chapters for color and as part of the story. Gone also is the pinball par...

"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen is temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" - The Bible (2 Cor. 4:18) as quoted in John Bunyan's Pilgrims's Progress I'll be debuting a serial novel called "The Quitters" in the first week of January 2022. It's a fictional account of a punk rocker who played in 1977 at the nightclub and restaurant, Mabuhay Gardens, which was located on Broadway in San Francisco, and was the center of the city's punk rock scene. The first part will cover a time period from the fall of 1977 to January 14th, 1978, the date of the Sex Pistols last performance at Winterland, which I saw and afterwards felt that the first wave in SF had begun to peak and to make way for the more successful second. After this, the story moves down to Southern California.  The chapters are tentatively set to be uploaded bi-weekly, and there are other details whic...

"For those who pass their lives afloat on boats, or face old age leading horses tight by the bridle, their journeying is life, their journeying is home." - Matsuo Basho (The Narrow Road To The Deep North, 1702) It was a dark day when Yahweh (now known as God), passed judgement on and sentenced the three culprits in the apple munching incident at the Tree Of Knowledge (Now known as The Internet), located in Mesopotamian Edin, located in what is now Iraq (now known as The Garden Of Eden). The serpent (now known as Satan) got off the easiest; he was condemned to stay slithering about for eternity, which didn't cramp his style, as snake legs had been ditched during the process of evolution. Adam was condemned to work the soil for his food, and could no longer just pluck it off trees in Paradise (know known as Man Caves). Menkind later fobbed off most of the food preparation tasks on women to ease the pain of the "thorns and thistles" (Genesis 3:18). Which is why wo...