A little bit of renegade crochet outside the Reading Terminal Market.

Another Dead Hero: Tuli Kupferberg (1923-2010)

 Let's hear it for a counter culture hero surviving 86 years in a cold and hard material world...while managing to stay funny, productive and wise, right up till the end.  The death of Tuli Kupferberg yesterday by stroke sure is sad (as deaths generally go) but perhaps no other rock and roll icon's passing should call for so much rejoicing.  The Fugs founder and poet lived like he wrote: large, and grinning mad in the face of darkness.  Even his legendary, supposed suicide swan dive off the Manhattan Bridge (later moved to the Brooklyn Bridge for dramatic purposes in Ginsberg's Howl) ended as a joke:

I asked Tuli Kupferberg once, "Did you really jump off of The Manhattan Bridge?" "Yeah," he said, "I really did." "How come?" I said. "I thought that I had lost the ability to love," Tuli said. "So, I figured I might as well be dead. So, I went one night to the top of The Manhattan Bridge, & after a few minutes, I jumped off." "That's amazing," I said. "Yeah," Tuli said, "but nothing happened. I landed in the water, & I wasn't dead. So I swam ashore, & went home, & took a bath, & went to bed. Nobody even noticed."  - Ted Berrigan & Anne Waldman, "Memorial Day 1971"

Of course, a couple of folks sure noticed Tuli and the work he did.  Stuff like "1001 Ways to Live Without Working" has drifted into the ether of collector's purgatory, but it looks like your local library might have your back.  Thankfully, Tuli's musical output remains perpetually in print.  The Fugs' First Album, Second Album and various collections like Don't Stop! Don't Stop! survive to inspire and remind a new generation of DIY anarchists: you're still allowed to have fun (and be funny).

Meanwhile: my favorite Fugs track.