Andrei Codrescu's lecture at the Union Theater last night was the perfect 50th birthday present to myself. His NPR commentaries are brilliant feuilletons of the absurd. He talked about being inspired by Dadaist madman Tristan Tzara & meeting scholar Mircea Eliade in Chicago in 1967.
A dark wry poet-editor-adventurer who immigrated from Transylvania to the USA via Rome in 1966. He lived in New Orleans, where I first heard him speak circa 1988, for decades & retired from LSU recently.
Hilariously enough, his new (vacation) home is in the Ozarks wilderness. Redneck country. See the documentary Road Scholar, about Prof. Codrescu belatedly obtaining his driver's license & exploring America by automobile.
Imagine H.L. Mencken crossing America by car with Groucho Marx (Codrescu's a Jew whose native tongues are German & Hungarian) & they pick up Jack Kerouac & John Lennon hitchhiking. Gotta love this crazy world!
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