Came across an article in an Utne Reader about the early, pre-hippie days of LSD research.
Psychiatrist Oscar Janiger was funded by the Sandoz Corp. to administer the drug to a variety of personages in the Los Angeles area in the late fifties and report back their experiences. Among a fair assortment of artists, writers, and performers selected for the "sessions" was the great -attempting here to describe the ineffable-"beat monologist/comedian" Lord Buckley.
After his first "trip", Buckley reported the effect in relation to events of the following day: (some familiarity with the singular voice and countenance of Buckley is proper requisite for full impact of this vignette)
"I was opened up to the beauty in people who had never seemed beautiful before. The next morning at the Pancake House, I walked up and bowed to four nuns. I had never spoken to nuns before - i couldn't penetrate their cloak of reverence. I walked up to them, and loved them, and they were sure I owned the place, and gave me their orders for breakfast. When the waiter came and I sat down at my table, it shook them.
But i spoke to them again and told them i saw them as Sisters of Beauty. They tittered and giggled and blushed, well-pleased."
5 comments:
quintessential clohessy...a mind-pic for the rest of the day...humming along producing smiles, chuckles in the midst of hot traffic, and thought-bubbles (if only they could see...)...the nun-in-me bows to the lord-buckley-in-thee
ciao
Thanks...maybe only pious sisters would put up with some of this stuff - reading it and crossing themselves, eyes heavenward for the sake of good works, care of the feeble-minded, fowl and fauna, and simple creatures gnawing the grasses.
Buckley slaps on the much needed big-picture laugh for me too, and even hope there's a few good-hearted souls out there...
kind of surreal but here's a clip of groucho marx interviewing lord buckley on bet your life
http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/49171/
matthew
the bad jazz that a hipster blows lives long after he is cut out!
RE:Buckley on Marx....
Wow! Excuse me while i pause a moment to adjust my severely flipped wig!
thanks matt
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