Jennifer Stone packed an amazing breadth of content into today’s “Stone’s Throw”, her Thursday morning 10-minute spot on KPFA. Her main topic was the recently deceased Richard Pryor, beyond deep, stuff the CBS morning news couldn't imagine.
Notable quotes included:
“Honesty is the work of a lifetime”,
“...palpable vulnerability”,
“Where there is silence there is sadism”, and
“No church lasts where you can’t laugh, and my church is of course the Church of the Last Laugh”.
Found out his dad was a pimp. Jennifer noted that, in many ways Richard stood up where Lenny Bruce fell down. Lenny's status as a police informer always made me despise him despite his great works. Pryor had favorite actor status for years of my childhood, and was much funnier than Lenny anyway. I have a pre-recorded cassette tape by him called Supernigger, with the famous (to me) “hit you in the head with a brick” skit. The most personal is the most universal, and the more painful the funnier. I like it how he died right on in time accordance with the original German standard, the age by which they figured most people would have croaked, 65. That age is of course now a well known relic, the standard retirement age. The fact that he spent his last years battling MS with a mostly cheerful disposition inspires me. Not as rock and roll a departure as Hunter S., but Hunter wasn't one to be outdone. I have until 49 according to www.deathclock.com , and I even fudged a little trying to squeeze a few more years. Long live Richard Pryor.
www.mindfully.org/Reform/2002/Greedy-People-Needy-PeopleKPFA11jul02.htm
www.kpfa.org
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I first learned the N-word from Richard Pryor at age 6. My parents still have a lot of his stuff on vinyl. I didn't understand what it meant, but it had an interesting sound. They were pretty shocked to hear it out of my mouth later that week when my brother made me angry.
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