IVIV (15) 269/274—7000 Romaine revisited

[Robin Landseadel]

On Nov 22, 2009, at 12:44 PM, Joseph Tracy wrote:

Here's a little history lesson for you, and some reminders from the  
text. IF RFK had not been killed the FFF 's ( fascists for freedom- 
Nixon Reagan Bush) candidate Dick Nixon would probably have been  
beaten. Howard Hughes was a major Nixon supporter.  Nixon is at the  
centre of the Golden Fang organization( that's why they had those  
crateloads of Nixon Bucks. The CIA , the military industries and  
Howard Hughes are also tied to the Fang( dentistry as extractive  
industry, the mob behind the mob, Vegas, Mickeys Vegas real real  
estate deal that was really HH's historic deal) .  The central story  
is about killers for hire working in coordination with police FBI  
Fang , nixon supporters( vigilant ) and high levels of state office  
who killed someone who might have prevented Ron Reagan from getting  
elected.  So the question prevents itself to this reader- who was  
killed that might have prevented Dick Nixon from getting elected? Is  
that explicit enough for you?

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The hallmark of the style of "Inherent Vice" is "stooopid" with three  
"O"'s. It is a style in large part derived from "Nick Danger, Third  
Eye" one of the touchstones of the counterculture in Los Angeles,  
1970. The ancedent of Nick Danger is Philip Marlowe,  "Nick Danger" is  
a low-rent mauling of Philip Marlowe with plenty of reefer jokes and  
Beatles references—when the FS did "Dope Humor Of The Seventies" on  
"Not Insane or Anything You Want To" they were pointing to Nick Danger  
at the high-watermark of their career, for better or for worse.  
Stooopid is a central element of that particular comic mode of  
expression and articulation. Pynchon got so specific about that  
particular comic mode of expression and articulation that he narrated  
a short film as to re-familiarize some readers with that particular  
patois.

Or Whatever.

Nick Danger is to "Inherent Vice" as Glenn Gould is to "The Goldbug  
Variations," an explicit point of reference that is never stated  
explicitly.

Raymond Chandler was writing trash with plenty of literary flourishes  
to make it all gaudier than Liberace's necktie on Carrot Top's neck  
stuck in one of Captain Beefheart's fruit fights. Raymond Chandler is  
more fun to read than just about anybody else doing "Mystery Novels"— 
and there's a lot of really good Mystery Novels out there. These kinds  
of books of course offer up clues, Nick Danger, in "Cut 'em Off At the  
Past"—a whodunnit that includes time travel, bad puns and a cameo from  
F.D.R.—has Nick Danger in his final scene reading hexagram 7 from the  
Richard Wilhelm & Cary F. Baynes translation of the I Ching: Shih—"The  
Army." Figuring on the whole MGM clearance sale patchouli-scented vibe  
of the time and place, chances to play out stoned fantasies in Vintage  
costumes turned into a semi-profitable gig for four or five crazy guys  
[and I always wondered who that fifth guy might be ][organ stab!.] In  
any case, "The Army" fit into the "other sided's" [actually "this  
side's"] tubal fantasy of war and redemption—"We're Bringing the War  
Back Home!"— equipped with a very high frequency of jokes that were  
designed to go flat.

In any case, a conflation of Nick Danger and Tommy Chong, "Doc" is a  
veteran of many cop-related crimes—he's only lowering his expectations  
just like everybody else does. So here we have Bigfoot, the competent  
and thoroughly corrupt cop playing Bernie Ohls/Lieutenant Bradshaw to  
Doc's intersection of Eliot Gould and Tommy Chong—and the whole tone  
of the book let's us know that at least one of the clues in the book  
is going to be THAT obvious, like the obvious stuff in Nick Danger.

The clues we're given are on page 269 through 274. It's West  
Hollywood. We know that Bigfoot and Doc are taking a stroll here. The  
streets are specifically named. Look at the map:

http://tinyurl.com/ygq7ca4

Things are specific as regards street names here, assuming that  
Bigfoot and Doc are always on foot, Bigfoot might still have his car  
parked at "Waste-a-Perp" or even otherwise: zooming out on the Google  
map from the corner of Le Brea and Santa Monica, with your view  
extended outward to show both Sweetzer and South LaBrea and the two  
streets make an arrow that points to 7000 Romaine Street, Los Angeles.  
Stooopid? Sure! But survey the map anyway.

Doc is asking who's behind all these cokehead doctors and massive  
shipments of smack and skinhead thugs and professional hit men and  
Bigfoot is pointing to 7000 Romaine Street, Los Angeles 90038.