Here's another photo courtesy of Anne Dick. I'm pretty sure PKD's in the same corner as the one seen in this photo. Anne doesn't remember very much about his cigar smoking so I'm guessing he wasn't a particularly heavy smoker. I do remember reading that PKD enjoyed smoking cigars with Tim Powers and Kevin Jeter. According to Linda Levy, Tim worked in a tobacco store when he and PKD were hanging out. PKD was a snuff man (according to Sutin he preffered Dean Swift); it was something he got into when married to Anne, and according to Sutin, it became 'a dominant passion' in his life. He had cans of it everywhere; the stuff was perpetually swirling in a particulate cloud around him, shaking forth from his clothes. I don't know what else to say; sometimes a picture of a guy smoking a cigar is just a picture of a guy smoking a cigar.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Rare PKD Photo of the Day
Here's another photo courtesy of Anne Dick. I'm pretty sure PKD's in the same corner as the one seen in this photo. Anne doesn't remember very much about his cigar smoking so I'm guessing he wasn't a particularly heavy smoker. I do remember reading that PKD enjoyed smoking cigars with Tim Powers and Kevin Jeter. According to Linda Levy, Tim worked in a tobacco store when he and PKD were hanging out. PKD was a snuff man (according to Sutin he preffered Dean Swift); it was something he got into when married to Anne, and according to Sutin, it became 'a dominant passion' in his life. He had cans of it everywhere; the stuff was perpetually swirling in a particulate cloud around him, shaking forth from his clothes. I don't know what else to say; sometimes a picture of a guy smoking a cigar is just a picture of a guy smoking a cigar.
From the picture I am not sure whether he is fully enjoying the cigar or whether he is enjoying the buzz from the drink that he had prior to smoking the cigar. It is clearly a pensative moment.
ReplyDeletePKD seemed to have the ability to not get addicted to anything, outside of writing and women, of course.
ReplyDeleteThe best example of that would be his cigarette smoking. He smoked fairly consistently when he was with Anne, and then stopped. He'd smoke occasionally at parties and the rare SF conference in the 1960s and early 1970s, but it never became a habit. Or if it did, he could quickly shake it off. The same with all the speed. He wasn't going through withdrawals when he checked into the rehab clinic in Canada, he just needed somewhere to stay, and lay low. He needed good security, not rehabilitation.
He may have imagined himself to be a hopeless loser drug addict who needed scraping off the floor, but those around him didn't often see him, if at all, in that kind of condition.
But was this ability to not get addicted a physical or psychological gift? Still not sure.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh, I landed in a place in "Second Life" and there was "Blade Runner umbrella" which I had to try. I read online they recovered the originals for the film and if you look around there are some new, actually manufactured and for sale! About $25, the shaft lights up, one has a clear umbrella top. Interesting crossover of PKD film prop into the modern use of the day.
ReplyDelete