This would be around the time of the first Gulf War, in 1991. My friend was an undergrad at the time.

It was a day of protests and demonstrations, and there was the expected group of idealistic young students, carrying signs and making speeches opposing the war, gathered around a podium where speakers would rally the crowd.

Mr. Vonnegut went up the stage and, according to my friend, stated something like:

"This demonstration will have the same effect on this war, as climbing a rickety 3-foot step ladder, and from that height dropping a cream pie."

According to my friend Mr. Vonnegut then left the stage. My friend followed him out, bemused, as he walked to the street and hailed a taxi, to apparently go on about his day.

Fast forward to 2004, when Vonnegut spoke so with such incredible wit and effortless, eloquent power about Bush and the current Gulf War:

http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/05/10_vonnegut_cold-turkey.htm

"...We're spreading democracy, are we? Same way European explorers brought Christianity to the Indians, what we now call "Native Americans."

How ungrateful they were! How ungrateful are the people of Baghdad today.

So let's give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That'll teach bin Laden a lesson he won't soon forget....

....Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.

And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we're hooked on."

How to reconcile the two statements, from 1991 and and 2004?

Vonnegut was a smart, smart man whose heart was big enough to hold the truth of the present and never, ever stop fighting for the best humanity can be, to each other. Which is the purest nobility I know.

We are blessed to have had him for as long as we've had. He was and is a national treasure. I hope he and Hunter S. are swapping tales and beers in a higher place - if heaven is good enough for them.

Its all beautiful but I want to encourage everyone to read "Sirens of Titan." Simply stunning and complete.

I first read Kurt Vonnegut when I was an adolescent enamored by science fiction. I guess that's when I read Cat's Cradle. And, of course, I read Slaughterhouse 5. But I was surprised that it wasn't written until the late '60s (when I was no longer an adolescent). And when I looked in my personal library this morning, I was surprised to find that it's the only one of his works that I still have. Having listened to the recording of him reading from it, I guess I'll have to go back and re-read it.

Thanks to Salon for all the quotations from other writers and his friends. We'll all miss him.

70,000 Dead In Iraq Augers Glad Tidings in War on Terror

Professor Adolph Von Euclid revealed today new math formulations which indicate that continuing massive deaths in the Middle East herald increasing success in the war on terror.

The newly revealed postulates show that at present for each thousand miscarnaged civilians, nine point seven terrorists are killed. An ancillary formulation to the miscarnaged postulates shows that in near simultanity seventeen new terrorists are created per such thousand miscarnagees, resulting in a dead/arisen terrorist ratio of negative fifty seven per cent, plus or minus a dead Iraqi or two either way.

Using Third Reichian formulae, adjusted for lack of Jews in the study, genocidal statistics show that the number of new terrorists arising per thousand expunged civilians will eventually peak at thirty one point eight while the the number of terrorists killed per thousand collateral accidentists will increase non linearly due to the massive influx of new terrorists and the time honored normal war time change in methods of recording so many damn dead, dead, dead people.

The so postulated formulaic conclusion is that at one hundred twelve thousand innocents slaughtered the terrorist dead to terrorists arisen ratio should geometrically swoop into the positive range heralding a pleasant advance in the war on terror:

All going well, that is.

(Authors Note: This was written some time ago when 70,000 dead in Iraq seemed a significant number.)

On a morning a few years ago, the radio announced Joseph Heller's death. I was suddenly a little shocked to realize that he had written things that became integral parts of my thought and outlook. I thought then that a really big chunk of my nervous system was shaped by Vonnegut. It was probably obvious to most but a somewhat shocking realization that these writings became as much, or perhaps more, a part of me as anything else in my personal history. It's not so bad that Kurt Vonnegut died since I'm getting pretty old. He shaped me just in time.

04-13-07

Saved by Kurt Vonnegut -- Bill Rabinovitch

Kurt was so great -- & by happenstance I had filmed him several times.

One evening in the 90's he was strangely sitting alone on a stoop on Prince Street in SOHO in NYC. We had a nice exchange & I got some intimate close in footage.

Later that evening with great style & panache Kurt successfully defended me at a nearby art gallery opening against a very upset art dealer incensed by my videoing his exclusive champagne opening for his superstar woman artist. It was a dramatic stand off in the very center of things. The huge dealer seemed actually about to assault me & continued making a scene. "What do you mean coming in here with your camera blazing?, etc., etc.,"

So Kurt who I hadn't noticed there until now just walked up between us & put his arm around me & defused it all with a few words -- telling the dealer he should be quite happy I was there to record the event for posterity. (Actually I don't use lights & it's just me with a small camera without a crew as usual) The dealer quickly came to his senses & acceded to Kurt's correctness & I continued interviewing the artist & her huge beautiful landscapes. This by the way was the only time I had ever had trouble with an art dealer at the thousands of events I've filmed from Castelli, to Gagosian to Boone, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, etc..

A year or so later I videoed the extremely classy celebrity opening of his wife Jill Krementz's excellent portrait photography & book signing in another SOHO gallery. Both she & Kurt signed & gifted me a book. Kurt & I always got on well -- quite amusing each other. I interviewed many people & celebrities that night & captured some excellent moments but spent much time focussing on Kurt & a writer friend of his Sidney Offit. Also remember running into Larry Rivers heading to the opening with a male friend who daringly performed for me.

As both painter & filmmaker will put at least a bit of that into my Pollock film. "PollockSquared"

Bill Rabinovitch

rabinart@aol.com