BEFORE I START LET ME ADD HERE :: I know it is not the weekend~!!! My brains have curdled. That is what exhaustion does to me. Remember I was talking about Brain Fog yesterday in "Part 3" ... that's what happens... cannot even remember what day it is... and no I am not stoned!
I SLEPT FOR NEARLY TWELVE HOURS last night from the sheer exhaustion of a. running to and from clinic appointments; b. scrawling out various autobiographical pieces (one for the clinic; the other being daily posted here. Part 4 is due later today) and c. probably cfs traces. I don't know. What I do know is that exhaustion knocked me out cold from midnight until midday today. And I wasn't trying to "lie in". That was my sleep. In one solid chunk. Sleep can be wonderful but it's also a waste of time that you could be doing something better with ...
Still, in my spare moments, I am reading The Godfather by Mario Puzo. The novel is far better than the film. Published in 1969, the book tells with authority the ways and wherewithalls of a great mafia family. Each scene featuring the "Don" he takes apart, explaining through their actions how the characters honour and disrespect one another in ever so subtle ways. From reading this book I now see it is surely the source of many of the mafia cliches and stereotypes that have become standard in television, movies and popular fiction. The ever so reasonable politeness with the undertone of threat. All that stuff. I remember seeing some photos of the LA mafia bosses from the era of Marilyn Monroe and the Hollywood greats. These men looked truly frightening. They had filmed many of the great female movie stars of the day in extremely compromising situations and used the bargaining power this gave them to force these poor women to do any favour they demanded from then on. That particular rumour I do believe. Though with the technology of the day, surely cameras took film, which limited the shooting time. And made a loud whirring noise? I don't know.
Anyhow I digress. I promised to post up my story and will do. As I said, part four is due later. I've had to scribble it down on paper first as typing straight into Blogger is too confusing. There are too many contrary facts to recall and fit in the right places ...
By the way I've submitted my blog to a couple of sites that will publish scathing reviews of it. So once these come out I will entertain everybody by linking to them ...
OK better go; it's 1318 hrs and I've writing to do...
L8Rs
G
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Sorry I've not been in touch with so many of you for so long, as I say I am knackered out, truly. Also I've gone through the past few days comments (procrastinating basically) saying hi to some people... of course I've left loads of other people out... I really ought to get my links properly sorted ... right I've got to run to the pharmacy now, phone the dreaded local council, wait on a freind (it is a friend as well, not a dealer) ... and pen today's fascinating instalment of my drugs hell saga!! haha!
Have a great weekend everyone ....
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What is all this thing about "great weekend" ... see that's where exhaustion gets you... I don't even know what day it is anymore
serious business!
and no i am not stoned!!
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WANNA SEE SOME FANTASTIC SATAY cooking on the Malay griddle? Come to Lone Grey Squirrel's blog ...
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OK: 2351hrs. I'm about to tap in part 4.
MATRAN POPPED THE FRONT DOOR LOCK IN this evening. Came back shouting about toilet paper (I assume that's what boomba-clot means? Boomba=bum. Clot=cloth in his hicksville argot.) Laundretta had done something terribly wrong in his eyes and two minutes later went running outside. Later on she was getting drunk on the stairs and holding her finger to her lips ("don't be heard talking to me"). How can she live with that monster?
After the Godfather, read Puzo's the Last Don. Awesome book!
ReplyDeleteI will do. He's a v good, if slightly strange, writer
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to get obsessed with Fifties/early Sixties gangsters--James Elroy has practically made a career of it.
ReplyDeleteThe Mafia is what I guess I would call a "high context culture," since the island of Sicily is in fact an island, and has been run over and persecuted since the time of Pompey. So it is not surprising that like Japan they have developed their own esoteric culture and codes.
Anytime you have somewhere that's an island, I have noticed two recurrent phenomena:
1) Everything is more expensive, and
2) They have their own dialect, at the very least, if not their own language.
Example: Jamaica. Technically they speak English, but when they are talking to each other, that ain't English!
An example closer to Sicily, though I have not been there, I would say is Ibiza.
Sleep is a good medicine - you must have needed it!
ReplyDeleteI'll wish you a good weekend - tomorrow! :)
Zen Wizard: Ah but we're an island here!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah everything's more expensive than America, so I hear...
And the people speak funny...
So I s'pose you're right...
Akelamalu: haha! Thanxx!
... and yeah Jamaican English can be pretty difficult to follow... tho I remember once several years ago picking up someone's courdless phone conversation on the downstairs tv set... they were speaking Jamaican next door and bc they weren't drug dealers trying to confound their white clients... actually we understood every word.. and this was 2 jamaicans speaking between London and Kingston!
ReplyDeleteGledwood,
ReplyDeleteThat's a great book. Many colorful characters. Hollywood has a tendency to bastardize books just to hear the cha-ching at the box office -- it never works because actors often rewrite their dialogue which has nothing to do with the story.
Enjoy reading and take care.
What do you mean you've submitted your blog for review? I am very curious.
ReplyDeleteBut scathing reviews I think not. Yours is a real blog, old school, the good school. its about you, the real you, and doesn't waste time with namby pamby lists like "what I'm grateful for"! Now don't get me wrong, I too am grateful for many things, its just that these types of blogs don't make for the most interesting of reading.
Stay real Gledwood and remember, recovery beckons.
Alexys: Bastardizing ... yeah... also films are so ridiculously short compared with novels... I think that is partly why good series like Lost are becoming more popular. Though I don't like lost. I used to like Desperate Housewives but haven't seen it for ages. Yeah, The Godfather rocks!
ReplyDeleteDiscovering: yeah there are sites that will slag it off for you. I will give the urls later. Did u get the msg I left at yours? It never seemed to take at all then when I replied to one I think it got sent back to the person who had commented, not you. ho humnmmm... nn?!!?!?!?!
o!
Recovery beckons... probably in rehab though. Not outside. I am sad to say. BC I really thought I could make it on my own before. I really did. Pretty much proved that is not possible .....
ReplyDeleteI very often have the same problem with remembering what day it is Gledwood and have been known to sleep a good solid 12 hours around the clock,your body must have needed it.
ReplyDeleteWriting about the Mafia brought back memories of a trip to Italy and visiting Pomppei (excuse spelling just off a long shift) At the entrance sat all the ' old godfathers all dressed in black,sitting chatting, soaking up the sun, bit scary as I immediately made the association with the film...Im a bit of a wooos at the best of times..
Thanks for stopping in.
ReplyDeleteWas thinking about you the other day when I posted a video. The post is called, That's the one I love.
You are surely in the fight of your life. Praying for you.
Great Book and just stopped by to say hey....so hey!!!
ReplyDeletePeace
well I just finished getting up to date with your blog. Last time I read was part 1 of your addiction. Alot has been written since then. I am awaiting pt 4 impatiently. Your writing never ceases to amaze and interest me. It is so compelling and full of emotion and honesty. Never get it up it more than likely helps keep you sane. take care!
ReplyDeleteActually Valachi papers appeared first which exposed the mafia before 'Godfather' did. i am not too sure.
ReplyDeletejust hang on there Gled and please keep your appointments.
http://adultchitchat.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteMy weekend should be great.
ReplyDeleteSpending Friday out with my mate, and yes, we will party hard.
Sunday will be at the Blogpower Awards in Second Life, collecting my second prizes!
Okay, England is an island...
ReplyDelete1) Where was the world's first $185 hamburger?
2) Where does an elected representative ask an old lady for "permission" to be Prime Minister, and then walk backwards out of the room?
So, you have "expensive" and "high context symbology" because it's an island.
In other words, in my theory, England is the Occidental Japan.
(Is Shakespeare that much less bizarre and incomprehensible than kabuki?)
Another book to try is Mafia Princess. Antoinette Giancana tells of her life inside a mafia family - her father was Sam Giancana, the Chicago successor to Al Capone. Gives insight into his connections with Frank Sinatra and the Kennedy family.
ReplyDeleteHope you are getting some sleep or relaxation at the very least
Portuguese/Brazilian bloke said:
ReplyDeleteThe Marriage of the Sun They say that in certain time it desired the Sun of if marrying, and all the gentes, aggravated of this, if had been to complain Jupiter, saying: - That in the Estio laboriously they suffered a Sun, that with its rays abrasava them, donde inferred and proved, that if the Sun married and came to have children, would burn the world all; because a Sun would make calmoso Summer in India, another one in Greece, another one in the Norway and northern lands; for that being all the three torrid zones, would not have the gentes where to live. Visa this for Jupiter, ordered that it did not marry. (Esopo, Fábulas, shed of the Greek for Manuel Mendes)
I got your message. And for the record, I could not make it on the outside until I had some quiet time on the inside. Rehab will not cure you, but it sure makes it easier to think straight as an escape from the hell of the real world - while your body and mind adjust.
ReplyDelete