Bukowski Reads Bukowski | Artbound | Season 5, Episode 6 | PBS SoCal
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Artbound presents a KCET flashback episode offering a rare, intimate look at iconoclastic writer and poet Charles Bukowski, whose gritty works have become an integral part of California's literary canon.
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#Artbound #art #culture #LosAngeles #California #CharlesBukowski #Bukowski #poetry
19:55 "Its not the large things that send a man to a madhouse...its the continuing series of small tragedies"
I feel the opposite as if you develop a higher tolerance and become immune to the madness.
‘Not the death of his love, but the shoe lace that snaps with no time left’
@@AnnaLVajda It can go either way. You can develop a higher tolerance or it can break you down. Depends on your biology.
@@AnnaLVajda what doesnt kill you makes you stranger- Nietzche
@@ismaellooaros4288 'stronger'
"Im a poet."
"A what?"
Classic.
A cola?
@@joshingtonbarthsworth631
A Hefeweizen.
@@joshingtonbarthsworth631 A Classic
"I said a Pollock! Are you DEAF!?"
No, modern.
The opening interaction speaks volumes:
-I'm a poet
~You're a what?
-I'm a poet, you know what a poet is?
~A cola?
-No, I'm a poet.
~A poet? You're the poet?
-I'm the poet
~What are you?
-....'what am I'? I'm the poet...
~What kind of a poet?
-Modern. I've been in this neighborhood for about 10 years.
~I never saw you before.
This is the detachment that still exists today between people and poetry. If he had said "I'm a wizard" it would have received the same response but likely with less confusion.
we live in an increasingly commodified society. There is lot less value assigned to art, poetry and truth than there used to be.
Thought she said Polak
A Cola?
I would have just answered with "yes.....yes I'm a Cola. Have a nice day"
I've lived next to my neighbors for four years. Most didn't say a word to me until I started planting flowers in my garden. Suddenly, everyone had something to say about what I should do. I didn't mind. I liked the conversation. But it reminded me, people don't notice you until you do something interesting or they think you can do something for them
@@Stevemaloy yes. it's as if we all float along in little bubbles by ourselves and we only realize we're not alone when we happen to bump into another. it's always been really weird to me, how we're so insistent on genuinely pretending our smaller lives constitute the entire world.
1:41 "My name is Bukowski. Buy my books." You gotta love him :D
Rhyme's with puke .
Deina Mutta xxx
Gotta love the angle.
That was absolutely beautiful
IETCHX69 seeing it written out makes it so much better
In honor of Bukowski I thought up this quote "to be rebellious as a teenager...thats just natural, but to be rebellious as adult, that takes courage"
not bad, not bad at all
Bad at all
This seems to be true
Nick O you are literally everything Bukowski would hate
@@mylesprobus1253 Oh darn! Well I appreciate being informed of this!
I love this part he’s gushing over how lovely LA is and how much he loves being there, forward straight to him having a mild episode of road rage in LA traffic. 😂
Does anybody else revisit this video every couple of months?
I can’t help but come back and listen when I find myself alone. Alone with myself, and with a couple bottles of beer.
It’s nice to share a beer with Bukowski, and nicer with his poetry.
If you’re reading this you’re a true romantic, peace and love ✌️
I write a lot. When I hit a block, I come to this reading. Amazing stuff. Hope you're good, my brother.
Bukowski is a great inspiration for sure. I’m doing alright. it’s time to write and re-visit this vid haha, it usually lifts my spirits.
Hope you’re doing well as well my man 👍
Man it is strange and very nice to come across this comment at the very moment I am doing exactly what you mention... Cheers there
I can finally enjoy being alone without alcohol. Never thought it would be possible. The addict demon on my shoulder is always there.
Just to get centered
Gets a $20 dollars check
Bukowski: the gods have been good to me
😂😂😂
To be fair, 20 dollars was quite a bit of money in the 70s
Around 1970 one dollar was about equivalent to ten dollars today. So it was a decent chunk of change back then.
@UCyBxJ_8WRL63m1mipXUxN9Q to be fair, shut the fuck up
Just enough for a strong drink, and a loose woman.
$20 can make you feel like a god.
I am reading Bukowski's book "Women" right now. This is the first time I have viewed film footage of him reciting his poetry. Now I know why people paid to hear him. He was great. His words are very honest and moving. His pain is obvious. He makes me want to cry.
the better the writing - the greater the pain
Beatrice Maude yes he makes me cry too! Did you like women?
Beatrice Maude pulp is maligned but I adored it. Women. Ham on Rye. The Post Office. Beautiful stuff.
I hope you finally cried.
Bukowski moves in part because each line shifts in consciousness from the last. He is our Shakespeare, our Van Gogh of words. It is that visceral intimacy coupled with the Universal that makes his work so great.
"Everybody can be a genious at the age of 25. Try it at the age of 50." Bukowski
anyone can be a genius ---its all in the spelling
"I think the gods have been good to me, kept me where I belong - not too much - just right..."
Razor sharp as a true poet, humble as a true philosopher.
So long...
his voice is so satisfying
silky noodle soup Don’t get it...these days a person like this would at least get some therapy/yoga. He is obviously mentally unwell.
@@chamade166 He wouldn't be a poet, if he didn't have a traumatic childhood which causes depression.. Which you then medicate with drugs of your choice.. He probably apprected the misery he went thru. I don't know very about him.. Apart from his a poet. Alcohol and hated his dad.
@@chamade166 Listen Chamade, if you lived in the world, you would be unwell too
Yet, the woman at the beginning who said “cola” had a very dissatisfying voice
@@aarondoodles3380 Hi ! Not sûre , many people had a sad and violent childhood and don't become poet after.
I could watch that interaction in the shop all day long. That was poetry in itself.
Not a shop! But a den of demonic sleaze
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire”
-Great Bukowski.
And I am an African black man, who fell in love with his art while in LA. Despite some of its prejudice. This rare Barfly is that Universal. I love him. Bless his heart.
Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead. - Charles Bukowski
@Evan Hoback honesty, truth. Both can be denied, they're still always what they are , lots of honest people are LYING to themselves .
@Evan Hoback "abuse" lol
"I became insane, with long horrible intervals of sanity" - Edgar Allan Poe
@Jeff Sylvester l guess that's the "norm" for "some" however not for "ãll" !!
@Jeff Sylvester yeah true, however he may not have been referring to himself as "crazy"🤯 just generally speaking perhaps.!!. ✌🏽 p.s~ "Crazy" seems to be the trend nowadays LÕL 🤔🤦🏽♀️😃
He seems like he was a time traveler from our time when he interacted with people of his time. He just has the disposition of someone who knew something that they didn't know. Maybe he did?
Mike H. O loved WhatsApp you sais, Mike. Greetings from Brasil
He has a very old soul, special souls like that are rare, and they are like time travellers. They are free.
Meyers Briggs INFP
"the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill
nothing else
fills.”
Emptiness fills... a woman’s smile fills ...Bukowski fills...the ever expanding void fills. I love you Chuck
Alone with everybody?
Bukowskis style was raw & simple. Something a lot of poets struggle to replicate.
"Find What You Love And Let It Kill You" Charles Bukowski
or grow up, go through all the pain that there is when you experience life undazed and it will eventually make you free. a spiritual awakening renders drugs rather unnecessary and makes them a possible to use tool instead of the hell an addiction means. or - you know - miss that
@@Pohlolol if i could lend you 1000 likes to bring attention to your comment...
People; not everything someone that is famous for saying things, says, is true. Not for everyone and certainly not for most
bukowski never said this it's by Kinky Friedman
@@Pohlolol He's referring to the ego. He means give your all to what you love until it humbles you.
orphansparrow hm i actually like the litteral and morbid lecture
Bukowski: Shakespeare of the down and out! Hands down my favourite writer and poet.
Grant, well said!! He's my favorite also.I live my crazy life like his poems.
Rubbish.....Shakespeare indeed!
He was a multi-millionaire, not down and out.
Bukowski never wrote plays, so I dunno.
@@TheIkaika777 sources?
A poet. A what? A poet. A cola? Hahaha I can only imagine what was going on in bukowskis head right then. LOL
Jarrett L 🤣🤣
He was thinking of banging her.
“Yeah, that’s it. I’m a fucking cola”.
@@Jason-ji4sy more than likely.
I thought I heard that...
I wish I could thank this guy for the things that he wrote.
You can. Just keep it going.
Seeing him interact with the crowd was so comforting. As a kid, he felt so alone and rejected. He probably never thought that he would read “suicide kid” in fromt of a bunch of people who paid to see him. This makes me believe if he can do it, then so can i. So inspirational and relatable
well said
Bukowski was so profound in his own way. Brutally honest and darkly comic. As someone who struggles with alcoholism I really relate to this dude and as much as he writes about the depressive state of humanity I still find hope in his words.
This makes my day!
❤️🔥
“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside - remembering all the times you've felt that way.”
❤️🔥
― Charles Bukowski
"it's not how many times you go down. it's how many times you get up." - George Foreman
For me, this sentence explains the power of Bukowski. Completely human, totally relatable.
Lady -
"I dont know you"
Charles -
"I guess we have different hangover times".
Best pick up line ever.
🤣🤣🤣
I didn't realize that my life and thoughts were normal until I discovered Bukowski. 👍😊
still doesn't make them normal!
@@ryanfatal Actually it makes them very normal
Watching this after reading his books hits differently 😅
One of the most brilliantly natural geniuses of our time. Thank you
read a lot of his poetry in college.
just read Ham on Rye and Post Office. Wonderful writer.
t .byrne I just finished The Post Office man class book
I read ham on rye in Hay-On-Wye
The Welsh lilt made me realise
It is not what it seems
But nothing ever is...
he was a story teller of that time. not a try hard with lots of instrumentals. just a story and time to spend.
"I guess we have different hangovers at different times!!!",,,what a brilliant response! Lol
It's amazing to me, he really feels like a friend to me. Complete honesty. I love poetry like that. RIP Charles. Awesome post. peace and love. ty
"Liquor's like a symphony, or like a classical song or something. You don't use it as a downer; you use it to leap up into the sky when you're in pain or when you have depression. You use it to get youreslf out of the common.I'm so tired of people who are sober everyday. I can't understand people who are just walkin up and down sober, they live and they die their lives and they never get drunk, they never get sick, they never have hangovers... Just go around drinking fruit juice eating eggs, bacon, cauliflower. They never get up, they never get down. They never get sick, they never get high, they never go crazy."
I am older, I am degenerating alcohol, I am father and give, I gave already so live,
His words celebrate alcohol - it’s true but also it makes you drink!
@@appletongallery nothing makes you drink, except alcohol. What makes us NOT drink is what we should wonder. The fact life has a grasp on us harder than drug induced hysteria, suicide, and bliss.
We should stop marveling why
we stay in bed
and rather marvel
at why we ever wake up
AGAIN
Alcohol killed him so.. its best everything is moderate
Eric Hrahsel he died of leukemia. not related to alcohol at all
Life ain't easy. When things get tougher than usual i always come back to the Buk. He is literature's god.
good answer buddy，the same as yours
the moment he starts pouring his poems, the camera angle and light on his face and eyes makes it look like he giving the death stare to the entire drama of the society that has been bestowed upon him...
Frieghtning and calm
Those are his eyelids
If Jim Morrison had lived, I can see him evolving into a Charles Bukowski where he's sitting half drunk reading poetry.😆
Yeah well Charles was California certainly people think of California just as pretty beaches glamourous Hollywood etc. He's the dark side the seedy bar scene representative of which there are probably many and Jim Morrison would drink in places like that and maybe Charles even listened to the Doors too but he said he liked classical music to drink too. Both very talented but Jim was beautiful for many years worshiped adored Charles I'm not sure would even want to be adored he loved reclusion it was genuine.
Definitely....Jim could love 💕 this kind of expression of poetry
He’d have been too wealthy to be anything other than immune.
Jim couldn't carry Chuck's jockstrap. He was a spoiled pretty boy Air Force brat. He never knew distress.
LA Woman- they shared
His vibe & energy is infectious. Just like a nostalgic broken hearted love song - wicked games - Chris Isak; that'll make you feel like a bottle of wine & a packet of cigarettes - bless his tragedy
Why do I feel like drinking every time I watch this guy??
i was drinking before I discovered him. Cheers!
@Charles Jones I'll drink to that. Cheers!
Lis Skelsey lol
or reading
@Charles Jones ...... Two sides of the same coin.
That slight grin over to the camera at 1:14 when he keeps having to pronounce "poet" to that dense woman in the liquor store.
The Genius of the Crowd.
scorchydense666---Dense Woman?-----Bukowski seemed to like her--
"You want a poem,beg me!!"
I would surely and happily:')
26:15 This is absolutely incredible. The entire next paragraph is spontaneous poetry. In fact his riffs between poems, it's hard to tell where the poem stops.
Awesome stuff. Love the sound of his voice. Seems like a cool dude.
the man put fire in my belly! alcohol has not relieved him of his wit he is totally with it. A mould breaker. Big kiss .
Read his books my early 20s, i'm a totally different person now but it's nice to come back to his masterpieces..
Bukowski kind of night. Bukowski kind of life.
Denis Bolic whenever I buy a fresh bottle of Jameson whiskey I have to get drunk with my old pal Hank Chinaski
Bukowski kind of vibe💯❤️
@@ml92222 I often watch that Belgian interview from 1987 while drinking Jameson
While my continuous string of small tragedies try to take me down...i think of this man.
Of course I have a knife in my heart. I am a man. You're awesome Charles. Keep telling it like it is.
A brilliant, timeless piece of film-making, chronicling Bukowski as being just the way so many of us like to remember him. It was a real pleasure to revisit this. Many thanks!
I must’ve watched this a hundred times but it never gets old .
First time hearing his voice. I expected it to be like Tom Waits. But it's actually a nice surprise and interesting to hear how suave and soft it is. It makes the shouting stand out even more... "What are you sitting at for !? Go to Chicago!" 😁
my man Buk, a beautiful presence in an indifferent world - love and tears my man
I love this man because he is REAL and his own man. funny, effing hilarious !
So glad I looked up this admirable, honest, clever, experienced man genius
Why his voice makes me cry😍I love him
I don't know anything, but I can see everything. Fascinating.
I'll never forget the day my father brought home a book of Bukowski's poetry in 1972; I was 12 years old & taped recorded my reading of "What a Man I Was". I loved that poem; it was the first poem in the book. God Bless Charles !
Thank you for posting this, it's so respectful and beautiful at the same time.
What a wonderful soul he was.
So glad to hear the applause and the crowd giving him recognition, that warmed my heart.
@4:46 Sums up his story so well.
Buke it rhymes with puke. haha i loved that.
this guy...this guy made poetry much more realistic, his poems don't show you dreams and love but the reality that is there is in society with words that are simple yet powerful enough to describe life.
Charles Bukowski and John Prine worked for the post office. Mundane repetition gives a man time. To think. Wonder and ponder. Plan his escape. Escapism as refuge. A Bukowski devotee took me on a tour. Autographed books. Barkowski’s watering hole-filmed in Bar Fly-where he romanced the bottle. I wonder how many Barkowski’s and Prine’s deliver our mail.
I deliver your mail and I’m a god damn genius
@HEADLINEZOO I think Albert Einstein said something similar when reflecting on his time working as a clerk in a patent office.
I found a song by John Prine that I really like a little while ago. Do you have any recommendations?
@@numerum_bestia In Spite of Ourselves
"Garcia Lorca had style" -Bukowski. Thank God he's from L.A., cause being from here and being a lover a poetry. Buk is a person I can relate to so much.
I just want to soak up everything Bukowski. Truly a gem. 💚💚💚
This is the first author that ive ever resonated with. I read my first book by him in the 10th grade and it’s so refreshing to come back to this video years later and still get the same comfort i got from it before. I feel so understood when i hear him speak. And it’s so nice to see how much he’s overcome.
He makes me cry because I know what he's talking about. "Christ, I've got it."
For all the intrigue bukowski has, your comment is retarded
Sharing is caring.
@Rinske Raphael elbow deeeep.
As a struggling writer, will always remember his advice to make sure that everything you write should always have 'juice'... thank you, Charles!
Remember not to try
@@joshingtonbarthsworth631 yeah so it‘s kinda like a balance，if you think about ‘juice’ too much， it's gonna be a pretense
Drink a lot and say "fuck the world".
Wym juice
Thank you very much for the English Subs, it´s very important for who are not native English speakers. Greetings from Atacama´s desert (Chile).
When people had the attention span to listen, just listen. I just discovered him, and I'm 61 years old. Love his voice monotonously, melodic.
Late than *never 🤪
Authentic genius.
There aren't many guys like Charles Bukowski walking around anymore - and that's a goddamn shame. 😳
buk sent me a box of his books in 1986 while i was encaged at the vicious vicinity of Soledad. NO CHARGE and a letter the master wrote at 3am in the LA area. A truly decent man whom I with thousands of others paid close closer attention to. He wrote simply and hit HARD on subjects most would not wish to visit.
Happy 100th Birthday Mr. Bukowski! I have recently started reading your poetry and find myself really liking it. I wish I had met you! You were something else!!!
I just love this town, the lights, Sunset Blvd….and then yells at a car in front of him! 😂😂😂😂😂😂 AWESOME
He was the real poet,no pretense ,amazing human!
"you should buy my books" what a hustler!
the fascination with this man is over the honesty and pain and angst that is tough as nails in the hands and feet and heart.
I had first read his works when i was maybe 15yrs old and i had goose bumbs all over me. That was a life changing experience in my life because for the first time in my life i had someone who understand me, someone who knows how it is.
I was first introduced to Bukowski's writing by High Times magazine in the 70's. I forgot all about him until recently and now I have read a half dozen of his books. I'm surprised at his voice I imagined him sounding differently. He makes me feel normal, lol.
God has been so good too me. I'm really undeserving of it all. Forty five years of life and only now do I get to listen and enjoy to this man's words.
Listening to his reading felt like a retelling of my life at points. The commonality with this guy put tears in my eyes.
6:39 'I've been around, I know this town"
I wonder what he'd have to say about LA and the world today. We have been blessed with so many talented people in America and the world, if people could just slow down and let themselves immerse themselves. He is so real and so raw and so relatable. I think his realness was what still draws people into him.
Brilliant, thanks for the upload.
Pain is the substrate, the building blocks of empathy and Hank is one of the greatest interpreter's of the being human to ever walk the Earth
Amazing to hear him read his own work - so powerful,,,,
For the man who is alone and not lonely, Bukowski is like a good friend you can really relate to, but you would never hang out with each other. Mainly because if you relate to being this way and understand it, you wouldn't have a good reason to seek company.
26:08
Wow! What a great little speach 👍
during the mid 90's, bukoswki saved my soul from the madness of civility. i wouldn't be the writer i am without his influence and books. thanks hank!!
For those who don't know, this is a shortened version of Taylor Hackford's documentary, simply called "Bukowski."
Ah, thankyou! I was hoping someone had written this information.
I'm going to go locate , cheers ✌
I don’t know how to explain how much he means to me! How much he explains my life, I’m just worried he died before I met him
What's there to worry about? It already happened.
Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks a lot for Charles Bukowski 🙏
Much support from 🇿🇦 ZAR - Kwamashu Rich Future by DSK Clothing ❤️
“One more beer.. I’ll take you all, all of ya” so glad we have these interviews and readings
Great footage. I'm drinking my 2nd beer while watching and listening him.
.Buk:.. I’m a poet, see. Woman: You what, a Cola? 😂🙄
Thanks Hank. A beautiful soul. His voice is also fascinating. Thank you for sharing this piece =)
I dig this alternance between the reading and interview. Interesting. Love "The rat" poem.
This dudes just a natural. Everlasting.
"I kept writing. Not because I was good, but because they were so damn bad."
"I've been toughened up at the right time and in the right places"
“Don’t push me around baby, I’ll de..nevermind...one beer...I’ll take you all on, all ya! Hahahahaha”
Thanks for making me feel better .
Thanks for not being happy...
Thanks for being alone.
Thanks for making me notice that I'm not the only one who's alone.
Just finished 'Post Office.' Reading 'Women' now. Waiting for 'Ham on Rye' to arrive.
I've known of Mr. Bukowski for years and sadly, only in the last few years , have started reading his words....listening too. So powerful.