ONE DAY IN 1965, a young man starting his senior year in high school began keeping a detailed record of his activities and encounters on an almost-daily basis, a practice he will continue throughout his life.
More than fifty years later, the journals of DH Parsons comprise multiple volumes filled with memorable characters, life-altering experiences, spiritual epiphanies, as well as observations and impressions of contemporary culture and societal trends. The entries describe his efforts to find his place in the world among his peers and mentors, to find his way forward in a career that will provide not just a living but personal fulfillment, and, of course, to navigate the perilous waters of love.
Life Ain’t Nothin’ but a Slow Jazz Dance reaches back to almost the beginning, the summer of 1966. With high school behind him and college on the horizon, DH uses the interlude to expand the boundaries of his world. He is soon drawn to the Beats and Beat culture as he ponders:
SOME BIG THINGS
Where do we come from?
What if some of our DNA turns out to be remnants from people who aren’t even of this world but of worlds many light years away?
Where are we going?
We’re all living books. We write about ourselves by what we do with our lives. One experience leads to another until they come together as an autobiography of a life well-lived.
Why are we here?
One day we decided that we’d like to come here to this planet and hang around for a few years, kinda like a vacation.
What am I going to be in life?
I don’t want to be mundane. I don’t even want to be eccentric. Being eccentric is just an ego trip. I want to be me—the real me—whatever that is.
SOME IMPORTANT THINGS
Art
The energy of the art … is like a drug. The more you come back to the museum, the more of the drug you ingest. It builds up in your body and your soul … it keeps you wanting more art.
Science
Man didn’t invent the Law of Gravity, he tripped over it one day.
Religion
It’s all just a big guessing game.
SOME FUN AND INTERESTING THINGS
Fashion and Culture
Faux Beats—the ones the real Beats call beatniks … They’re all working hard to look cool.
Popular Music
People our age are into rock music and hippie stuff. Not exactly what I’d call Beatnik material.
Fine Cuisine
Fruit, bread, cheese, sardines, wine, and the occasional salami—The most artistic meal ever created.
and, of course, LOVE
Looking for it
June, completely naked now, is on her hands and knees with her head just inside the shelter of the lean-to, watching the storm. I’m sitting directly behind her, watching her wiggle with excitement at the display of Nature’s power.
June: It’s beautiful out there.
DH: The view’s not so bad from here, either.
Finding it
Here I am, sitting on the beach on a stormy day in summer with this beautiful motorcycle-riding art-girl telling me she reads Beat poetry.
Losing it
Will I ever get to hear her voice again, in this life or in another? Will she really come back one day as someone else? Will I ever kiss her again? Will I go through my life constantly crying out, Where are you? … where are you?
This would make a great movie.
Join DH as he takes the first steps on the road to the rest of his life.
Livin’ life’s a crazy wild song … but we can slow down the tempo just by being who we are — poets, lovers, Beats. If you move like everybody else, life’ll wear you down, so you gotta go slow.
Go with the poetry.
Go with the jazz.
