Tenk You Veddy Much!

"That's one big hat, pardna"












Right when I am supposed to be back at my graduate studies, and also some upcoming T.A. duties, I become obsessed with something based upon my previous posting. Now I think that Andy Kaufman could maybe still be alive (?). There's a fair amount of info out on the Web pointing in this direction, including a very interesting website. That site is fascinating! Now, I don't know. I even checked out a 1999 biography on Andy, as I became very interested in what exactly made (makes?) him tick. The Kaufman Lives site is being run by an "Enrique", who also calls himself KING. Not, as he says, a king, or the king, but KING ("Enrique" is a name known to have been used by Kaufman as one of his many, many characters and put-ons). KING, as in Elvis was the King?(Andy loved Elvis). KING as in Kaufman Is Not Gone?

Whatever the deal is, I loved his work. He never wanted anyone to call him a comedian, and would reprimand anyone who did. He preferred the term, "song and dance man". In one of his early appearances on his college television station, he became "distraught" over "bombing" in this early appearance. No one was laughing at the (awful) jokes, and he began to berate the studio audience, saying, "I need this job you rich bastards, I'm trying to work my way through college". Then, he pulled out a gun and fired it at his own head, just as the host of this campus talk show tackled him to prevent the suicide. They immediately cut to a station break, and when they returned, Andy is sitting up on the stage conversing with the host in the Johhny Carson-like setting, as if nothing had happened, in his very genial, polite Andy personality. The guy did stuff like this all through his network TV career, and he was absolutely fearless. The number of "fights", "arguments", and other outrageous behaviors that he pulled off on network TV was truly extraordinary.

He told several people he would fake his own death, as the ultimate "stunt". He stated he would pull it off in the exact way that he supposedly died, in 1984, before said event occurred(?) He played with reality and illusion, and he wanted to be known as the ultimate performer; to do what no one else ever would, or could, do. He wanted to be KING, like Elvis, but then again, not a king, not the king, but KING.

It seems that Andy can be reached at: andrewgeoffreykaufman@yahoo.com. I've already sent in my email. Haven't heard back yet; one rumour is that he lives amongst the Amish, and therefore does not use modern technology. He communicates back to the website and by email, through a mediator. I'll be waiting here, graduate studies piling up.

Thank Ya Very Much

"Last night I saw the ghost of Elvis". Remember that song? ("Walking In Memphis", by Marc Cohn). Well last night I saw Elvis. Or it could've been Andy Kaufman; I'm not really sure. That sometimes happens late night, after a few too many fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.Anyway, he's doing pretty well, been workin' out, playing some gigs; things are going pretty good he says. He's working over at the 7/11 by my house, so he's not dead, as so many people believe. Neither is Andy, many people think that he's just biding his time until he makes a reappearance; the ultimate Andy Kaufman joke on the world. Wouldn't that be great? (How about "Man On the Moon" by REM, with Andy, "...goofin' on Elvis"?).

Let's see...who else is really not dead. John F. Kennedy, that's one (became a vegetable after the shooting; was shipped down to live out his days somewhere in South America, according to one theory). Tupac Shakur; I've heard he's still making records wherever he's at, and a few have already come out! The 9/11 hijackers; some of the more recent conspiracy theory says many of those guys can be found walking around in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East; just livin' life, as it were. And oh yes!, the Enron guy, CEO Kenneth Lay, who "died" right about when he was set to begin doing some hard jail time for all of the Enron fraud he was involved with. Janeane Garofalo,formerly of Air America Radio (and still very much alive, last I heard), has a theory that Lay faked his death in order to avoid the jail time, and is probably living out his days on some plush island somewhere. Interesting. No, Very Interesting.

Have you ever thought that some famous person you knew about was already dead, but was in fact really still alive? That happened to me recently with country/rock/Tex-Mex singer Freddie Fender ("Wasted Days and Wasted Nights"). I thought he died about a decade ago, and then I read that, although currently very ill, he's still very much alive, and has been all this time. That was a little bit of a shock, in reverse you could say, but good to know that he is indeed, still around. And then Marc Cohn, the singer-writer of "Walking In Memphis", almost died here in Denver in 2005, after being shot in the head during a carjack attempt, shortly after he finished a concert here. So he's in the "almost died, but still alive" category, I guess you could say.

I really do wish though, that Andy Kaufman, the former Inter-Gender World Wrestling Champion, who used to wrestle girls to prove male superiority (until ducking out on a female body-builder/wrestler), and who certainly would not have been beyond faking his own death, would just one night walk on to Jay Leno, and say, "joke's on you!". Or, set up his record player once again, and eventually sing along (Andy fans know what "eventually", means here) to the theme of "Mighty Mouse" ("Here I come to save the day!...). Wouldn't it be great, to see him back once again?

I think we'd all say, "You got us, Andy, once again, you got us".

It Started With A Kiss

It started with a kiss (of death)...


...Other memories, a few tender moments with the Saudis...







I wonder whose more jealous, Crown Prince Abdullah, or Holy Joe?
"People are going to look back and say the Bush years started to end in Connecticut," said Avi Green, a volunteer from Boston. "The Republicans are going to look at tonight and realize there's blood in the water." -AP News

Well, it looks as if Joe (Holy Joe) Lieberman went down tonight in Connecticut to Ned (Nedraline) Lamont, TKO'd in the 15th round in the Connecticut primary. It's a great day for Democrats and the Left in general. It's also a bellweather of change that has come again to the country; there's no longer the flag-waving, SUV driving, yipee support for an illegal war (even electric cars are back now!), and politicians that snuggle up with Bush, especially Democrat ones, are going to pay a price. Fortunately, we don't have too many of those, of which Lieberman was the prime example, and now he's flat out on the canvas. Lieberman, in typical fashion though, will now disregard the years of support and money that he has received from the Democratic Party, and continue to run as an independent in the general election in November. It only proves that he's always been an opportunist, whose primary constituency has always been, you guessed it, Joe Lieberman. The Democratic voters of Connecticut have rejected his policies, his kissy-kissy relationship with Bush, and especially his stance as pro-war, pro-Bush cheerleader and Republican-Lite DINO (Democrat in name only), yet Holy Joe will trudge on. It won't help though; in November Republicans will vote for Republicans, Democrats for Democrats and Ned Lamont, and Lieberman will pull in only a few marginal votes. It's all over, Holy Joe.

There is blood in the water now, and to think that it all started with a kiss.

I'm Back, Baby!

Well, my laptop got zapped about a week ago, but I am back, baby! At least it seems like it, so far. A couple hundred dollars lighter in the pocket, but I got another laptop from the same Ebay listed company that I bought my first one from a year ago. Let's just say I was downloading at a site which had indicated that the site itself had been corrupted,and was a danger to download from; yet, being the man that I am, I chose to disregard the warning (you don't scare me!). Result, my operating system was zapped from my laptop, which I noticed a few hours later, when I went back to sign on again. I might try to sell that first one back to them at half price; but I've also been thinking of keeping it and installing Linux in it as the new operating system; Linux being essentially free, and with a very good reputation. Not that I know how to do that exactly, but I'm always up for learning something new, and I hear that with Linux, installation is relatively simple.

Now if I can just stop doing things that George would do, I should be ok.