Chapter 6

2009-08-18T19:24:36Z

Dfan: /* Page 81 */ Clarified "dollar-a-stone Go"

{{Inherent Vice PbP Text}}

==Page 72==
'''Wouldn't it Be Nice''' 
Beach Boys, 1966, off the album ''Pet Sounds''.

==Page 73==
'''Tommy's''' 
[http://www.originaltommys.com/ Tommy's] is a famous burger chain in the LA area. This place was a food shrine to the American Hamburger and people used to come from miles around to get them.

==Page 75==
'''Ron Karenga''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Karenga Ron Karenga] is an influential African American activist. He invented Kwanzaa. Back in the day in some quarters he was thought to be an agent provocateur in the employ of the FBI, especially after the shoot out at UCLA in January 1969 that left two Black Panthers, Alprentice Bunchy Carter and John Huggens, dead.

'''Can I be frank for a minute''' 
A bad joke since Doc starts to sing Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon."

'''Lew Erskine''' 
main character in the TV show, "F.B.I.," which ran 1965-74. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058801/ IMDB]

==Page 76==
'''Ralph's''' 
Ubiquitous grocery chain in California. Plays an important role in the Coen brothers' ''The Big Lebowski'', a film to which Inherent Vice is often compared.

==Page 77==
'''before he's slipped, as Jim Morrison might put it, "into unconsciousness"...''' 
lyrics from "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors: "Before you slip into unconsciousness / I'd like to have another kiss." The song was on the Doors' first album, The Doors, released in January 1967. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awi14wDTxNw Have a listen on YouTube...]

'''as Fats Domino always sez, "Never to be"...''' 
"Blueberry Hill" was written in 1940 and was recorded by Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey and Gene Autry, and others. In 1956, Fats Domino (b. 1928) recorded it and it was a #2 hit on the Billboard Top 40. Excerpt:

:The wind in the willow played 
:Love's sweet melody 
:But all of those vows we made 
:Were never to be

'''Hawaiian shirt''' 
One was worn by Tyrone Slothrop in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', part 2.

==Page 78==
'''Beach Boys''' 
This must follow some Beach Boys melody. Anyone?

Pynchon's Boards' lyrics bear more than passing similarity to the lyrics of the Beach Boys' 1963 song, "Shut Down."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykmekz9--t8&NR=1 A live version.] Note the scarcely-competent sax solo by Mike Love, which provides some support for Doc's and Hope Harlingen's opinion, at page 37, of the general level of surf sax playing.

The Beach Boys song was co-written with KHJ DJ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Christian_(songwriter) Roger Christian], who was likely the source of the car terminology.

==Page 79==
'''A toda madre!''' 
from Urban Dictionary:
Mexican slang that means something is totally awesome. Often abbreviated, especially in graffiti, as ATM.

"La fiesta estuvo a toda madre." translation: "The party was totally awesome."

==Page 80==
'''like Moe going, "Spread out!"''' 
Moe, of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges Three Stooges] would yell "Spread out!" to the other two, and sometimes some other people, when fighting.

[[File:VincentThomasBridge.jpg|thumb|100px|right|The Vincent Thomas Bridge by night, as it appears today.]]
'''Kai Tak''' 
Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998.

'''San Pedro, Terminal Island, Vincent Thomas Bridge''' 
All back in L.A.

==Page 81==
[[File:Cheongsam.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Model in a red cheongsam. [http://www.cheongsamboutique.com/2008/07/cheongsam-qipao.html Source]]]
'''Cheongsam''' 
a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women.

'''Fan-tan... dollar-a-stone Go''' 
Fan-Tan is a form of gambling long played in China that has similarities to roulette. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan-Tan Wikipedia]. The "stones" in "dollar-a-stone Go" most likely refers to the point differential at the end of the game, usually ten or less between evenly matched players.

==Page 82==
'''LZ''' 
Vietnam soldier slang for "landing zone."

==Page 83==
'''Dan ranking''' 
the dan ranking system is a Japanese mark of level is used in martial arts (and also traditional fine arts, including mastery of the board game, Go).

==Page 85==
[[File:PostExchange.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Post Exchange in Mogadishu, Somalia.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PostExchange.jpg Source]]]
'''PX''' 
abbreviation of Post Exchange. A service mark used for a military store on an Army or Naval base that sells goods to military personnel. Apparently, the PX often appeared in the Beetle Bailey comic strip from the 1950s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_exchange Wikipedia].

{{Inherent Vice PbP}}

Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 6