IVIV (11) 165-166

[Clément Lévy]

- "Howdy dopers" etc. Something interesting here (163). Sortilège's  
comment  ("Did you hear" etc.) is an ironic interpretation of the  
message probably recorded that Doc hears when he calls the number  
suggested through the Ouija board. Irony because what it says could  
be the contrary of what it means.
It's quite the same with Shasta's message, as Joseph Tracy said:
> My sense is that it was deliberate, If she is in captivity and  
> being watched the message would have to seem innocuous.
In a similar way, on the voice mail, the message said by the girl is  
very friendly ("cooed a female voice") whereas this could lead to  
something sinister (murder and kidnapping).

- Rosecrans Blvd. is not a street name in LA, it could be Rosecrans  
Ave., that goes from the sea through Compton and to La Mirada. It is  
parallel to Manhattan Beach Blvd. But there's a song called Rosecrans  
Blvd. by The 5th Dimension, a soul-music band. This song is on the  
Up, Up, and Away (1967) LP. On the cover of this LP, there is a  
picture of the four members of the band in a air-balloon basket, and  
a motto is written too: Go Where You Wanna Go (because this album  
features a cover of this song by The Mamas and The Papas).
http://music.aol.com/song/rosecrans-blvd/215665
Rosecrans Blvd. is a love song, every strophe begins with "Rosecrans  
Boulevard" but the lyrics sound funny at some point. The singer must  
be Billy Davis, Jr., he has a low, warm and mellow voice, violins,  
piano, guitars, and a soft riff of a trumpet after every line or so.

I passed a lot of exit signs in my town driving along freeways
To San Diego and Point South (?)
But there was a time last summer
When I came down from Manhattan
And though I knew I shouldn't, it was just too hard
And I made my move at Rosecrans Boulevard

Rosecrans Boulevard
Stop your calling me
You know I never loved her anyway
I just used her over and over

[faster, same voice, only more high-pitched, a swirl of violins]
But there were times when she'd left and I'd think I loved her
One night on Manhattan Beach I said things that moved (?) too fast to  
suit her

[ralentendo, nearly a pause and then ]
Then I held her close and dried her tears

Rosecrans Boulevard
Who cares what you think
The girl was half-crazy
The way she drove her little car
Down Sunset Boulevard
At 3 in the morning doing 90 miles
And higher (?) in a 30 miles zone
And blame me when she got a ticket
But in there was a smile
It was really what made all the airlines go
She was a spiritist you know
Shot (?) down on an uncombatting mission
And though I pity
Every time I drove my car past Rosecrans Boulevard
I wonder why I did it [trumpet again, a couple arpeggios on the piano  
and a few random notes on a glockenspiel at the very end]

  I could listen to the song on Spotify. Nothing on youtube. To use  
spotify one needs to register some time before. Here is a link if you  
are already using it:
The Fifth Dimension – Rosecrans Blvd.

Is the girl a west-coast Rachel Owlglass? is she a stewardess? or am  
I making all a much fuss about a random song?

- Tommy James and the Shondells: the only one music band named in  
this chapter: they did bubblegum music, and from 1968, psychedelic  
rock. Toured with Hubert Humphrey on his campaign in 1968. A few hits  
in 1969: "Crystal Blue Persuasion", "Sweet Cherry Wine", and "Ball of  
Fire," but in 1970 the group split after Tommy James collapsed during  
a concert (a reaction to drugs, according to wikipedia) and was even  
pronounced dead. But he recovered. He plays the guitar (not a tenor  
sax like Coy), and here's Crimson and Clover (1968) where he uses a  
vocoder to give his voice a very strange sound, near the end of the  
song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=old3vg4vq2U&feature=fvw (love is the  
answer)

- "what could be more auspicious": TJ and the Shondells could be a  
good music for Doc. If you listen to Sweet Cherry Wine (only recent  
lives on youtube), you'll hear: sweet cherry wine/ open your mind/  
sweet cherry wine/ so very fine.

- notice the changing weather: "weird", "unnatural," "hitherto-- 
unreported-circle-of-Hell-black" clouds. "Everybody had turned their  
lights on though it was midday": it looks pretty catastrophic. People  
who consider Pynchon as an American Dante will like the allusion to  
the Commedia.

- their trip: from Gordita Beach to La Brea means going North by  
Inglewood, so they don't take Rosecrans Blvd. for a very long time.  
After La Brea, they are "someplace over Pasadena" when the flood begins.

- Orange Julius is a fruit juice chain store. Not related to Orange  
county. http://www.orangejulius.com/

- "a gigantic excavation". Is this a tomb?

- "Here's your dope, you fucking idiot" Disappointment for Shasta and  
Doc. This is how they explain Sortilège's remark.

- "a doorway, a great wet temple entrance, into someplace else"  
Perception of space has gotten weird (without weed). It sounds  
strange that Doc and Shasta don't try to go through this door… but  
they prefer to have sex instead.

- "the old namesake river" Los Angeles River's bed lies West from  
Pasadena and goes to the South near downtown and further on. They  
could be anyway near the river between Los Angeles Downtown and  
Compton, for example. Check the Wired.com Unofficial Thomas Pynchon  
Guide to Los Angeles*
http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/pl_print_1708

- note this dream of the river filled up to "a sizable inland sea  
that would presently become an extension of the Pacific". It would  
make the Californian coast an island, as the first Europeans to see  
this country imagined it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California

- The present state of Doc and Shasta's relationship is described  
without any psychological description. "She was already halfway out  
the door" (not the temple entrance!), "Doc saw it happening",  
"Forgetting for a few minutes etc." It reminds me of Slothrop in  
London under the flying bombs. The danger here is the flood, but the  
two lovers ignore it, and we should also note that their desire  
skipped from dope to sexual pleasure.

- "Back at the beach:" end of the trip. The rain continues for days:  
"every day up in the hills", which has bad consequences for land- 
owners: landslides (see p. 165) attack the real-estate. Note the  
metonymy, the economical entity "came sliding down", not only the land.

- hair spray: it could remind us Œdipa's flying hair spray bomb, p. 24.

- "termitic house of Gordita Beach": termits were already noted in  
Vineland, see the Pynchon Wiki:
http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php? 
title=Chapter_1#Page_6

- "Goodyear Blimp". See the official page: http:// 
www.goodyearblimp.com/fleet/spirit_america.html
The first Spirit of America was launched in 1968 over Los Angeles

_ Aspen, Colorado: cf. "freak power" p. 9: Hunter S. Thompson became  
lead a "freak power" mayoral campaign with Joe Edwards. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Aspen


Best,
Clement
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