Steve Ferguson R.I.P.

Steve Ferguson born December 10, 1943 in Knoxville , Iowa died in his sleep with his loyal cat Lena by his side this June 29Th at his residence on Cleveland's near west side. A solid human being of large frame and four square hard working and thick shouldered features , with ever present bifocals riding down his nose Steve was the former editor of the great swamp erie dada boom underground newspaper during the late nineteen sixties , contemporary and friend of poets d.a. levy and Tom Kryss . Mimeograph artist . Water colorist.Creative artist and writer of great gift. Fond of playing piano for the elderly , and at weekly Church services. Ferguson was last employed at the Dave's Supermarket on Bridge Avenue and West 26Th Street , where he worked in the Bakery department. The oldest of six boys who were raised in a close knit family in Cherokee , Iowa , in the 1950's . Steve often pined aloud for the home cooking and daily fresh pies created by his Grandma Elsie's at her Cherokee , Iowa Dinner Bell Cafe. Steve worked here as a young man , and once intimated to me that he never forgot the kindness and simple nature of those days which he numbered among the best times of his life. Nor did he easily forget his radio roots , and often turned to WHO Radio AM 1040 , Des Moines when reception in Cleveland was possible after dark. Steve was a regular at the Wednesday afternoon poker games at Old Erie Street Book Store for many years and was always an honest active player as regular as rain. It was ta these games that Steve bonded with my Uncle Doc Hucek , who hired Steve one summer to paint his one story home. Doc remarked that Steve was the most intelligent man that he had ever had the occasion to meet , and was impressed with his ability to work the New York Times crossword rapidly , and amazed at Steve's capacity for unfiltered camel cigarettes , and plenty of vittles. Both smokes and food being part of Steve's Tom Sawyer like bargain with Doc along with a ridiculous tiny amount of money [ thirty five dollars I believe for a week's work in the year 1990] that he asked for his time. Steve explained it to me as a desire to spend time with Doc , who being born in 1904 reminded him of those old timers that used to warm stools at The Dinner Bell Cafe back in Cherokee, Iowa. Steve served as editor on the first underground newspapers that I wrote articles for , as well as a harsh critic and often thorny muse. Many people took offense to Steve's straight forward ways. I always enjoyed his candor , and we never spent much time picking bones due to this meeting of minds. Recently I had taken to visiting Steve at his place of work on Wednesdays and talking over plans to go fishing at a farm pond or Lake Erie. He worked hard at his labor at Dave's market , and was fond of telling me his joy in having a roof over his head , a meal in his belly , and the good graces of playing piano a few times a week. Tom Ferguson and James Ferguson two of his brother's that I have had the pleasure in meeting on prior occasions showed up at the book store door today , at exactly the old appointed hours for poker playing bearing the news of Steve's demise.Ten years ago at Uncle Doc's for a New Years football afternoon , I cooked two ducks and all the trimmings. We were eating along at the roast birds and as I stood up to fetch more gravy i felt Steve's hand circle my wrist in a rather strenuous fashion. He wanted more duck gravy , and it was all I could do to wrest the gravy boat away from him long enough to make it the stove for more. Later our mutual friend Sloop John B , quipped that " gravy must be considered a beverage in Iowa". Having enjoyed a friendship for nearly forty years with Steve his passing is yet the end of another chapter of local history. We enjoyed intellectual discourse as well as fishing , golfing , and poker.Listening to his tales concerning his late cat Moses to whom he was quite attached was always a pleasure .Steve was a true character in many ways and will be missed.

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Jim Jones R.I.P.

Longtime Cleveland resident, friend , artist and photographer , and noted International musician Jim Jones is dead at the age of fifty seven, a few weeks shy of his Fifty eight birthday.

Known by many , loved by all. Jim passed away in his comfy chair at home on the evening of Monday February 18th.

Jim's health had been in severe decline these past few years... A familiar figure on the Cleveland and global musical scene. Jim was a creative force in such noted bands as Pere Ubu, and The Easter Monkeys...

I first encountered the peace loving Mister Jones in the late nineteen sixties when he was an employee of the downtown Cleveland Record Rendezvous store located at 300 Prospect Avenue. Jim was a full-time member of the Cleveland underground scene. At that time Jim wore his locks long and appeared to be the doppleganger for the Dutch Boy paint poster boy with longer flowing locks, and seemingly jumped off the paint can into life. I was employed at the time by Kay's Bookstore a few Prospect storefronts away.

We would often visit each others place of employment on lunch hour. Jim having a keenly developed appreciation for all matter of aesthetics pertaining to cinema , literature, and a consummate bibliophile.

We often attended many of the same rock and roll events and after parties. Sitting together in the last balcony row of Cleveland's Music Hall for David Bowie's initial United States concert September 22nd, 1972.

We were both happy to be there courtesy of RCA records, and often joked afterwards for years how that with all the hype and media juice poured into the Bowie concert launch , that the event was over before it began... Indeed, rock music was over for quite sometime the following year with the release of The Stooges RAW POWER , which was recorded in London, England during that very September 1972 week while Bowie premiered Ziggy Stardust in Cleveland"s Music Hall.

Year's later, Jimmy introduced me to English music critic Jon Savage who proceeded to play for the three of us the freshly produced 1997 version in Jimmy's kitchen music nook. We were blown away by the Iggy version as opposed to the muddy 1973 Bowie produced version of RAW POWER... When Captain Beefheart played Cleveland's Club in the early 1970's we were there.

[Ry Cooder opened this Warner Brothers sponsored small venue tour.]

Ditto Jones was in the tent for many of the Musicarnival shows , including the notable theater in the round Mothers of Invention tent show in 1970.Jimmy was fond of bestowing crafty self made cd mix tapes of various musical artists as gifts , and his kindness in this chapter of his creative life the material of legends....Such diverse musical taste did JJ possess.

Richard Thompson and Marianne Faithfull from stem to stern, all forms of worldly worthy music. A clever palate of Middle Eastern ragas and guezels, served up with African and Latin flavors, musical stews from Jamaica, and Island ska for kicks.

Jim Jones was a musical scholar of no small talent. Truly an encyclopedic and intuitive genius and artist. A gracious host. Polite , well-mannered man. Story teller of retail days spent with fellow clerk and full processed soulful brother Cecil Stewart.

Carnivalesque outrageous full process hairdo Cecil baby. Leo Mintz, who is said to have first coined the phrase "rock and roll" , was the balding , cigarette in the chops , hard drinking owner that assigned the vue tasks , putting away orders , working the counters and his prowess spawned the ancient wooden 78, 45, and 33 and 1/3 listening booths.

It was still a do at the vue to spin a 78r.p.m. jump blues record from the nineteen fifties in the year nineteen eighty!

Jimmy could imitate Leo's gravely camel-throated husky blasts to a turn. The vue was located between two Greek bar and food joints: The Clock and The Columbia.

We drank copiously and ate decent sit-down fare along the lines of meats, potatoes, and salads at both restaurants. Leo Mintz drank at both Clock and Columbia, amid giant plumes of smoke and shots of strong libation being quaffed by all who could afford.

The street flower vendor trade met every working evening at the clock to settle up and hand off the leftover limpid flowery dollar and down trade ending in bars closing hours , and then the after hours. Nightlife people. Jimmy walked with understanding among the street circus characters of lower Prospect and around the Central Market for many years.

Jimmy told all kinds of great stories about many aspects of his life. His powers of memory very sucinct. We were fortunate to have Mister Jones as a member of the Old Erie Street Book Store staff in the nineteen nineties.

His great ability to organize and hand-sell books was a pleasure to witness. Working with Jimmy was a pleasant study in his calm intelligent humble presence with clients -- Many of whom still inquire concerning him to this day.

His ability to catalog and describe books for sale came natural. If I had the presence of mind to take the book business online in the late 1990's as Jimmy suggested, we would be better off today. Yes, Jimmy was that kind of human. A class act in the old school fashion.

Mister Jones always in possession of an active mind and acerbic wit tempered with gallows humor...

Our Mother's cooked from the same Betty Crocker cookbooks during our formative years in the nineteen fifties and early sixties, we discovered years later. Jimmy was often a visitor to our home for meals around the Holidays , and was a favorite of our Family ... Now those of us who knew and loved him will find a darker visage to great our days. Jimmy was not a fan of the modern changes that occurred in downtown Cleveland and was vocal in his criticism.

He preferred Otto Moser's on East Fourth Street not Playhouse Square . Felt that Captain Frank's seafood restaurant belonged on East Ninth Street, not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He pined for a breakfast again at the former Nahra's Restaurant once located at East Second and Prospect. Describing Nahras as "complete with steaming vats of corned beef and potatoes boiling away in its windows alone were enough to take the chill from a cold and windy Cleveland's day".

Jimmy's had a special love for canine's and always kept a hound or two about.

His latest pair "Sammi the meathound ' , and the confused canine " Rollo" , both survive him..... Now we face a number of cold and sad days without the staid comfort of Mister Jones friendship and place in our collective lives. I will admit to deep sadness with Jim's passing.

Believe me folks it hurts to lose one of your own . A chill wind blows down Prospect Avenue today , The VUE is shuttered , most of the old familiar places and faces have left town. Our world is a bit sadder today. Jimmy takes his great tales with him, and though a few of us may attempt to account some of them. Jimmy told them best! A gentle pisces , whose passage occurred within his astrological season.

A service and tribute will follow. May Jimmy now rest in peace. He will not be forgotten.

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Sputnik launch and Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD

both turned fifty this year along with a slew of people all around the world. Somehow sputnik into outer space never will replace spudnut donuts down gullet in my book.

In the tradition of Jack London, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and all the writer's listed in Walter Rideout's THE RADICAL NOVEL IN THE UNITED STATES 1900 - 1954, Kerouac 's ON THE ROAD, takes its place among these literary American lights.

Jack and Neal poppin' bennies , burning high octane straight eight cylinder Detroit wheels , while doing backflips , new trips , occasional eclipse , no lulls , no dips , just zip , zip, zip , out for kicks cross country joyride. Their American highway documented prior to the interstate highway system . Romping about visiiting comrades , chicks , and beatnik pals from NYC to San Francisco. An existential journey of souls in search for their own. Happy and sad in the same sentence. Jack Kerouac a Mama's boy , failed athelete , and in many ways a very melancholy outsider , afraid of success , and unable to adapt to the cultural change of postwar American values.

Jack Kerouac

Sadly , Kerouac died a scant eleven years after the publication of this novel , a sad man with a bad liver , dead at the age of forty seven in the year 1969.

On a happier note I was fortunate to attend a birthday party for a legion of folk turning the half century mark a few days ago. A local poem was recited to honor the occasion and I believe that it went something like this

Ogden Nash would have been much quicker /
Likewise Dorthy Parker her host and his liquor /
These eccentric folks who live near the water /
Prefer self accolades as perhaps they oughter

Somehow this poem seemed to last the better part of ten minutes in its delivery? The poet reading was blocked from my view and was of an unspecific gender , and though possesing a simian face, announced self as Veeela BeAach.

A fine time was had by all the half centurians, with the host Rudy Shakes-Moore retiring early as is his custom. Stating a desire to purchase a ticket to a balloon ride to Canada the very next day. We can offer an antidote to rote poetry of suspicious nature in the form of a signed , limited copy of Dylan Thomas COLLECTED POEMS.

Hats off to all those born in the great year 1957 , My Dear Mother and two brothers, John, Kim , and their families , and of course King George Steinbrenner and his vassal of New York baseball knaves , with a mere two games remaining at best for their 2007 season.

Go Tribe!

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Game Three - A new day dawns

and all of the baseball fans who wandered here to watch their beloved NY AL team loose two to the upstart 2007 Cleveland AL team are all rested up and ready to view a spirited third game played this evening in the old Bronx ballyard up near Arthur Avenue.

Good luck fans!

A crafty future hall of famer Roger Clemens takes the mound for the hometeam against a working man middle rotation starter for the visitors in Jake Westbrook. Irrespective of Clemens or Westbrooks outings this evening, NY AL slumbering bats will awaken, and the hometeam will win this evening.

Not so much the fabled "pride" often associated with the NY AL team, as much as saving face considering their current 2007 postseason team batting average of .121. will result in a fourth game in the 2007ALDS , and more likely than not a fifth game.

Friday evening's victory for the Cleveland AL team simply stated a masterpiece complete game for starter Fausto Carmona trumping the superb scoreless seven innings tossed by Andy Pettitte. Then came the Canadian soldiers to the rescue, extra innings, and finally sweet victory.

It was a pleasure to attend this pivotal game in person, due to the good graces of a fellow terminal baseball habitue, who laughed up his sleeve and broke into a rousing version of " Oh Canada,", while the person of NY reliever Joba Chamberlain was being sprayed with bug juice, and then proceeded to toss two wild pitches and pave the way for a hometown victory.

You see folks, those 'gnats' that offended Chamberlain so much are actually a late hatch of the Lake Erie "mayfly", also known as ' Canadian Soldiers'. Their collective appearance being enough to unhinge Chamberlain, despite the fact that they do not bite or sting in any way, they are totally impervious to bug sprays, and their life span is twenty four hours in length at best. Their timing sublime, their collective outcome ' priceless'.

As lucky as I was to have attended the game in the grandstands with my pals Rudy Shakes-Moore, James McKnight and his polite and savvy thirteen year old son Will, a mutual friend who is so known as Cheeze was doomed to a hellish baseball evening while in the left field bleachers.

The cheeze reported great drunken mayhem occurring between the hometown Cleveland fans and those NY visitors who insisted in wearing their hometown team garb. The cheeze is a polite fan, whose baseball knowledge is copious and not prone to braggadocio or venomous comments.

Our poor Cheezely was seated near a beer and nachos battle between rival fan factions resulting in a total drenching of beer and nachos on his person, and many others around him.

The cheeze got cheesed up!

Not a nice way to view a ballgame. The fan culprit most at fault was a Clevelander who insisted in pelting the ears of all around him, including a few children, with invective concerning the perceived sexual orientation of the NY AL Fan. No place for this inside a major sporting event where customers have laid down hard currency to view a game.

These 'lager louts' are best tossed from the venue as early as possible , and in no way should be allowed to create havoc among the relative civility of a baseball
game.

Shame on the Cleveland AL team security for not nipping this in the bud. A heartfelt apology goes out to any NY visitor to the "Jake", aptly named, having to have suffered this hooliganism of these hometown sots. An old adage concerning social behavior in a new situation is ' act like you have been there'.

Never would this be as true as to be embraced by current Cleveland baseball fans with social diseases, behavioral problems, and low self esteems. Grow up, and turn off your lousy diseased cheerleader, Mike ' twib' Trivisano, and his half baked "mister know it all" sports mentality!

While hoofing up East Ninth Street one mile north to our parking spot near the old Cleveland stadium, Rudy and I saw a fine elderly couple, in their eighties, holding hands, with matching HAFNER 48 team jerseys on their backs. A nice omen. Hafner having supplied the game winning RBI, and 48 being the last year the Cleveland AL team won the World Series. At least we can dream, and the fat lady has yet to sing, merely the buzz of our Canadian soldier pals.

Early results in the new nickname contest for the Cleveland AL baseball team. "Gnats", who woulda thunk it?

And the perennial "Tribe", our collective multi-cultural Midwest heritage expressed at its best, and my personal fave so far. Keep your suggestions coming, and do not forget we are renaming the NY AL team nickname as well.

Time to sell a book department. We have had two requests this past week towards the purchase of a truly rare baseball volume and are proud to offer a copy for sale of Gerald Beaumont's 1921 HEARTS AND THE DIAMOND.

The words of the author in his one paragraph introduction says it all:

"To the men of the diamond, worshipped yesterday, abused today, forgotten tomorrow, - and to their sweethearts, wives, and children, - who will understand."

A tip of the old Tacoma Tigers baseball cap to all of our own long suffering spouses, my wife Deb especially, John and Kim and all the good folk downstate, Every Family directly involved with any form of war on the face of this planet. We all deserve a better collective fate. Pray for peace.

Final note. Yes, LeBron James has the right to wear his NY AL baseball cap anytime, any place he chooses to. After all he is "King James", and we all know that what is “good for the King is good for his subjects".

Consider the previous paragraphs and the "Much to do about nothing" that the team garb clothing wars account for. Not much except the materials they are printed upon, and you will never catch this party advertising any sports team in cloth in public, save the Tacoma Tigers, while in Cleveland or on the road.

Go Tribe!

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One down three to go

and the hometown Cleveland Indians have taken the first game of a best of five series with the New York American League baseball team. It is of no use to refer to the losing NY team by its nickname ' yankees' of which it seems to have little more in common with than Cleveland has with it's Indians , nickname. I dislike both team nicknames for different reasons.

Indians are either folks that come from the continent of India and enjoy the ancient sport of cricket, not baseball as a National pastime , or native folk from the North or South American continent that resent being portrayed as mascots for a midwest North American sports franchise.

In any case not many of either of the above " Indians ' exist around here in Cleveland , Ohio. What passes for ' Indians ' are mostly caucasian suburban sports fans who like to paint and dress up in red and white attire and whoop it up while vomiting around the sidewalks of downtown Cleveland after watching their beloved 'Cleveland Indians' beat up the New York American league ' Yankess' or some other baseball team. These same fans often change color with the seasons.

Not uncommon for some of them to paint themselves orange and brown while stumbling around half baked and on all fours while barking like dogs and rooting for yet another local sports team nicknamed aptly enough , ' Browns'. This current strain of "Browns' however are actually alien invaders , the original 'Browns' having fled here sometime ago to become 'Ravens'. I realize all this is quite confusing and hardly literary , stick with me and I will finish soon.

Promise.

This being the 21st century no more actual "Yankees" reside in New York City. These mythical 'Yankees' became extinct around the time of the publication of Washington Irving's Knickerbocker Tales , or the Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

These original 'Yankees' lived up the Hudson River and knocked around in canoes or horses , not the automobiles , taxicabs , or subway trains of today. Time has come to rename the above sports teams.

Send your suggestions here , the best entries will recieve a free sports book of our choice.

Speaking of books on baseball and sports we have many in our inventory these days of need of a new home. In keeping with the season, we can offer over four hundred different baseball titles for your reading pleasure.

Please go to olderiestreetbooks.com and have a look at our baseball titles offered for sale.

Reading about baseball is a far less expensive way to follow our American pastime than attending the actual games these days , and if you turn on the radio and close your eyes while listening to a baseball game perhaps you will be fortunate like myself to awake to find that the Cleveland ' Indians' gave the New York 'Yankees' a good old fashioned arse kicking by a score of 12 -3.

Rip Van Winkle's first name seems to spell out the remainder of the New York 2007 baseball futures.

RIP NY AL 2007.

Make a nice custom automobile license plate as well. Though not to worry , the Cleveland team is cursed as well, never will the Cleveland American League baseball franchise win the World Series while nicknamed ' Indians'. Better the Cleveland bunch is revived as one of their former nicknames 'Spiders', 'Naps', or 'Forest Cities'.

Or any modern moniker that reflects the rapidly deserting population of Cleveland ,Ohio.

Send suggestions.

I prefer 'Naps' , but will accept any nickname save 'Indians'.

Break the curse!

Curl up with a baseball book this winter . A great read I can recommend is DAMN YANKEE BY Maury Allen, available from olderiestreetbooks.com.

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Welcome to old erie street book store

and please watch this space. On Turning Fifty will post soon. I promise just a few words concerning the fiftieth anniversary of Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD, a gentle hype towards the collectible 1957 first edition copy we have for sale. A few tales concerning a recent half century literary artsy soiree.

Drat' even a cheezy four line poem if the mood strikes. A short book review.

Stay tuned.

Hats off and a big hello to the queen city of the American south , home of John , Kim , and their great families, my old school pal Slim , and his hopped up roots beer. Better get sum goetta.

Goodnight to Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Bull Moose Jackson, Albert Ayler, and Tadd Dameron. All never to be forgotten immortal musical heroes of Cleveland, Ohio origin. Perhaps it would be better for all concerned to be absent from the" Best Of All Time, Greatest Clevelanders Ever Music", section in the October 3-9 issue of the 'free times', and all the other sections as well. A lack of aesthetic sense and historical perspective of the writers entrusted to select the best all time Cleveland musicians for this article seems to rule the day. Ayler, Hawkins, Jackson, and Dameron's musical talents speak to the world daily, and should not be so easily overlooked.

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

On the literary side of the 'free times best of' pathos reigns supreme with the predictable inclusion of Daniel Thompson , much to the chagrin of the smoldering poetic bones of Cleveland born Hart Crane and d.a. levy who were not selected as local Cleveland scribes of lasting artistic merit according to the free times unique selection process. Just what was the criteria used to judge any of the categories they covered?

This ' Best Of' fiasco only gets worse. Joe Siegel and Jerry Schuster , creators of the seminal American superhero comic book Superman while still students at Cleveland's Glenville High School , are absent.

Of no importance as Clevelanders of origin?

While we are on the funny book pages, I really would like to hear the explanation for the inclusion of Harvey Pekar and the exclusion of Siegel and Schuster? Contemporary Cleveland cartoonist Derf is nowhere to be found either?

Again, what conceivable reasoning for including Pekar and leaving Derf behind as Best Of candidates? I suppose the logic is that Deaf is a real talent. Continuing on the literary path notable Cleveland authors Edward Dahlberg and Herbert Gold are nowhere to be found either.

Nor is Margaret Hamilton in the performing arts section, Cleveland reform mayor Tom L. Johnson is given no nod for his 'Public Service'. Nor is Dennis Kucinich. The rest of the free times ‘Greatest Clevelanders Ever articles' proceed along similar lines. Glaring omissions the norm in every category.

Overall a weak cum journalistic effort and a true waste of printers ink.

Just like plenty of books we have for sale. I will sadly note that an eighty page book has been printed entitled DRUMSTICK SPINOLOGY and is now joining the stream of knowledge available for the modern English speaking world. This volume is not available from Old Erie Street Bookstore, and if you see a copy in someone’s hands run in the opposite direction.

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Welcome to The Old Erie Street Book Store Blog!

Welcome to The Old Erie Street Book Store!

Contact Information: Old Erie Street Bookstore 2128 East Ninth Street Cleveland, Ohio 44115 United States Phone: 216-575-0743 Email: olderiestreetbooks@sbcglobal.net

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