I heard last night that Fuck You Bob was dead and it made me sad.
The Record Pub website put up this obituary about Bob. The Kent Patch put up an article about his memorial service. And Nick Rock put together this video tribute to him.
Bob’s friends are making an effort to put the proper spin on his life as an artist and his contributions to the town as a philosopher and intellectual. I appreciate that. I think it’s a good thing. But the tribute-makers seem to want to avoid the one thing that most people remember best about Bob. And that is the fact that Bob Wood walked around Kent, Ohio for decades telling people to fuck off.
I first encountered Bob when I was a freshman at Kent State University. I was sitting in one of the big lecture halls one night to see a movie. It was some sort of indie artsy film. Maybe Eraserhead or something along those lines. I don’t remember the movie at all, though. What I remember is Fuck You Bob.
I was there with Mick Hurray, the drummer of Zero Defex. Bob was directly in front of us. And he kept giving us the finger. He never turned around. He never said anything. He just flipped us the bird over and over. And he was doing it in a really weird way. He kept turning his hands at different angles (he was giving it to us with both hands) so as to make certain we got his message.
We thought this was hilarious. So we gave him the finger back. I’m not sure if he saw this, though. Like I said, he never turned around. We weren’t angry or offended at all. It was much too weird for that.
Throughout my time as a student at Kent State I saw Fuck You Bob around town. He had a load of bizarre behaviors. For example, I once saw him walking down the middle of a busy street. Every time a car would come by, he’d jump up on the sidewalk and wait for it to pass. Then he’d get back into the road and continue walking.
Several years after this I moved back to Kent after living in Chicago for a while. I was walking down Franklin Avenue from downtown toward the Kent Zendo, where I lived. I saw Fuck You Bob coming my way. I wondered what he was going to do. He didn’t say anything as he passed me, didn’t even give me the finger. And I found myself being a little offended at this. He said “fuck you” to everyone else in town. He’d even said “fuck you” to me on more than one occasion. Was he snubbing me now? What did I do to him?
But a couple seconds after he passed I heard him say, “Suck my dick.” And you know what? I felt good. I’m not even joking. I still remember how nice I felt to have been told by Fuck You Bob to suck his dick. If he hadn’t said anything to me that day I’d probably still feel I’d been slighted.
I never encountered Fuck You Bob again after that day. But I remember being in Japan and hearing from friends back home that Bob had gotten better. He was getting his art exhibited around town. He was studying for his Master’s degree. And shockingly, he wasn’t saying “fuck you” quite as often anymore. Though I was relieved to hear that he still did it sometimes.
Bob had a lot of what most people think of as “mental diseases.” A lot of people said he had Tourette’s Syndrome. But I never heard of anyone having officially made that diagnosis. Still, he was an odd character.
I always wondered if his habit of telling people to fuck off ever got him in real trouble. Kent State University is not one of those schools that attract the best and the brightest this nation has to offer. Heck, I even went there! One of these days I’ll tell you about my first roommate. God that guy was as dumb as a box of putty. If Fuck You Bob was flipping the bird to guys like that, especially when they were drunk, which they always were, he was surely getting the crud beat out of him on a regular basis. I hope he was at least targeting wimps like me who weren’t likely to get very mad at him.
The concept of mental disease is an interesting one. We know enough about the proper functioning of the kidneys or the bladder or the spleen to be able to diagnose when they’re working incorrectly. But when it comes to the brain, things get a bit murkier.
Take someone like Bob. In many ways it would be easy to dismiss him as crazy. But from what I can tell and from what I’ve heard he lived pretty much the life he wanted to live. He was by all accounts a very intelligent and even kind person. He probably had no desire at all to fit in with regular society. And he didn’t. I admire him for finding a way to live his life on his own terms.
He was also, from what I’ve heard, kind of a pain in the ass to people who knew him. I don’t know the details. But I can guess. I mean, for gosh sakes he was saying “fuck you” to everybody in town all the time. That alone is hard to deal with.
One of the things Zen has helped me with is my own tendency to be a sort of Fuck You Bob type character. My difficulties in dealing with society are not as deep seated as his were. But I too have some serious problems reconciling what I know to be true with the bullshit most people seem to believe. I could have easily gone in a direction that would have ended me up in much the same shape as Bob. The Zen thing helped me be able to laugh at the collective illusions society shares and yet still play the game well enough to get by.
This is why I get so annoyed when some people try to turn Zen into what most religions these days have become, a way to placate people so they’re numb enough to function as cogs in the social machine. It’s not about that.
To me it’s about finding your inner Fuck You Bob and making peace with that. But without killing it off or boxing it up either. That’s also important.
I’ll miss Fuck You Bob. I wish I could’ve met him just once and sat down and told him how much it meant to me when he told me to suck his dick. I really wonder what he’d have said. Maybe he’d have told me to fuck off.
Fuck you all!
We'll never know the world from Bob's perspective…
or will we?
at least he wasn't a 9/11 conspiracy freak – or was he?
FYB sounds like true artist…like "The Bush Man" at Fisherman's wharf in San Francisco who holds a fake bush in front of himself on the sidewalk and jumps out to scare you when you walk by…
Rest in Peace, sweet prince.
Sounds like a total fucking arsehole to me. Fuck him.
"This is why I get so annoyed when some people try to turn Zen into what most religions these days have become, a way to placate people so they're numb enough to function as cogs in the social machine. It's not about that."
After a couple of years of practice, which I came to later in life, I think it's also not a way to placate people to function as cogs in the Zen machine, either. Like so many women I've known who were taught to please people, I find that shedding that knee-jerk pleasing response and acting in a more truthful way, as in true nature, is choice that shows up right in my face often. I think people pleasers in active Zen centers need to learn to say "no" as much as "yes".
RIP, Bob, and fuck you, too.
I've never heard of Bob before but I still view this as a greater loss than that of Whitney Houston.
Speaking of music that's much better than Whitney Houston…
http://www.hulu.com/watch/327835/foo-fighters-back-and-forth
Anon #108, You might be right. Or maybe FU-Bob was unfortunate enough never to recover from early self administered experiments if you get my drift.. He did live in a college town throughout the 60s.
But there's no doubt the guy had a cool name.
CAPTCHA : repro : I kid you not
Crap, Fuck You Bob sounds like Flint, a fellow I met at Food Not Bombs. Flint's line was "All you punk ass bitches can eat shit and die…*ptew*" People like these have some deep wisdom. Without Flint, I don't think I could have clearly seen how I am a punk ass bitch.
this fuck you Bob is so similar to now famous Czech photographer Miroslav Tichy, who had a very similar lifestyle and philosophy and was absolutely annoyed when he got famous and people came to his house to ask him for now very special and expensive photographs he dropped around carelessly his house
chech this out> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg9rTIGtENs&feature;=related
Uncle Willie WTF?
Have a little respect brother. There was NOT a better singer than Whitney.
Fuck you, Brad.
Brad wrote: This is why I get so annoyed when some people try to turn Zen into what most religions these days have become, a way to placate people so they're numb enough to function as cogs in the social machine. It's not about that.
Nothing wrong with playing a cog in the social machine, as long as you're really playing. Doesn't require numbness if you have the right attitude. I think for the majority of religious people, religion doesn't provide numbness. If it did, it wouldn't be so popular.
Religion provides structure. It provides rules, and for many, a sense of identity and positive self-esteem as long as they're following the rules. Like, for example, Mormons wearing garments and not masturbating, or Buddhists not drinking or eating meat.
We got one of those dudes in my town as well! Except he is always giving you a mumbled and gravelly, "You fucking cunt."
Zippy, When you're right you're right, and you are right.
Jamal,
"Everyone was really sad last night at the Grammies, just one day after Whitney Houston died, because she was such a special talent and impossible to replace. So to make everyone feel better, Jennifer Hudson sang Whitney’s big hit, "I Will Always Love You".
"That of course is a song that Dolly Parton wrote in 1973, and Hudson sang it every bit as good as she did, so it turns out Whitney is not that special and can be replaced on about 24 hours notice. Whew, what a relief!"
http://www.wwtdd.com/2012/02/whitney-houston-is-easily-replaced/
"I think people pleasers in active Zen centers need to learn to say "no" as much as "yes". "
Not only in the Zen centers,but anywhere else it would help a lot if people would learn to say no, be a bit more skeptical and would not obey rules and hierarchical systems so much.
"Hudson sang it every bit as good as she did, so it turns out Whitney is not that special and can be replaced on about 24 hours notice."
Well Willie, I see what the problem is. You got a tin ear. One black girl singer seems as good or as bad as the other to you. I gots it.
And thanks for link to that trash.
Hi again. I just remembered one question. I am reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and there was something quite interesting about consciousness even while dreaming.
(I am not sure if I use the correct expressions as you might have noticed I am not a native English speaker 🙂 )
I remember that someone wrote about this in the comments couple of weeks ago, but I am not sure who it was.
Is there anyone here who has experienced something like this? I had only ends of dreams or nightmares when before they were ending I was "calming down" myself telling in the dream,that it is only a dream and I will wake up soon.
In this book they also write that people`s dreams and nightmares tell a lot about how the state of their mind is going to be in the bardo period after death. Does anyone know what does this mean? It is quite hard to imagine how the dreams are related to the state of the mind after death.
I know,that it is only one book and also that Tibetan Buddhism is not Zen,but I thought to post this question here in case anyone has read the book or has any comment on this issue.
That's right, Jamal. They all sound alike and they all look alike to all of us white people. You really have us all figured out. Congratulations.
(That was sarcasm for those who can't see the obvious as clearly as Jamal can.)
"Whitney The Singer" was murdered about 10 years ago by "Whitney The Drug Addict" so people who are mourning the singer now are about a decade too late.
(That part wasn't sarcasm.)
Hell yeah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34x6m-ahGIo
Willie, Don't go all angry white man on me. YOU fixated on the word black instead of girl or even singer. All I said was that you is as deaf as a statue of James Buchanan.
A turn-out of 200 is great.
When my old barber died a decade ago, 250 turned out. The kewl thing about Richie (now under new management) is that you never got a really good haircut. But Richie wasn't playing with a full deck and the haircut that you got represented his best effort. Also, the longer you sat in the chair and BSed with him, the shorter you hare became.
long hare
..
…
….
Fuck you Mysterion – Sit down and shut up!
I'm glad I can spare you people half the shit I think. 😉
This fuck you bob sounds pretty Zen, if I may say so. Which I will, because – Fuck you! (Flipping you the bird right now!!) 🙂
"Not only in the Zen centers,but anywhere else it would help a lot if people would learn to say no, be a bit more skeptical and would not obey rules and hierarchical systems so much."
Many times, people think of Zen as being simple, direct, iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian and unattached. It supposedly helps produce people who possess a fundamental insight into life; people who are not fooled by appearances or ideas. But the reality is that almost everything about Western Zen's presentation, practice, and rituals is aimed at producing people who give up their good sense with the promise of some sort of imaginary greater gain in the future. Now, bear in mind that this is obviously a general statement and it demands further qualification, but it serves to introduce some of the problems that need and ought to be addressed. This is not a new idea nor is it unique to Chan/Zen. David Hume said in his Of the First principles of Government (1758) that "Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers."
The reason for this surrender, certainly in the case of Western Zen, is structural and self-perpetuating.
If we were mates and we could sit down and have a chat I would say "Brad, I respect your honesty, candour, and your desire to seek a path, but I have issues with you". My introduction to you was through your first book "Hardcore Zen" and I thought wow, not Alan Watts! If only your subsequent books or this web site had progressed, sadly you seem to be meandering every way but forward, content to continually point out the failings of other teachers or yourself or life itself. That life isn't easy is where most of us start from, pointing towards failings in others or yourself is surely seeing the finger and not the moon?
So, if we were mates and sitting down for a chat I would say "Brad, the journey of….(old cliché)but don't just step, take a leap!
Wow, Viewfinder Visuals has just humiliated Brad Warner. I doubt that Brad will be able to compose himself enough to fashion a decent response. LOFL, damn.
Have you guys seen this?
Yeah dude, found this:
http://www.zenyoga.com/invitation/
What the fuck is going on here?
FLAFL
And this, which is even worse:
http://www.artofzenyoga.com/?page_id=268
Hey Brad this motherfucker has it all over you. You'll never make one-tenth of what this asshole makes, the fucking prick:
http://www.zenantidiet.com/?page_id=25
Anonymous, no way have I, nor did I seek to "Humiliate" Brad. I foolishly made some comments on this blog that you have shown to be unwise if this is the way you interpret them.
As I said, I spoke out of respect and MY hope is, based on MY interpretation, is that he moves on from what I would describe as a "stalemate" position to moving forward and creating rather than commenting.
Hey Viewfinder, don't feed the trolls. They're rampant here and they'll use your own good intentions and internet naivety against you.
I'm virtually certain that's what that post by that anonymous was about.
Viewfinder has a point, perhaps, but is either too new, or not observant enough to have noticed Brad's various false starts, for example, trying to move forward with a description of zen as "art" that went nowhere; one can only hope that the most recent, about zen and belief in god, will fizzle out as well. What he does best is just what he does, not some hybrid breakout bullshit. He's not stale, he's stable, he's the product of dedicated practice. That he waxes and wanes in his humanity, wearing his heart on his sleeve, showing his hand and expressing opinions on whatever the fuck he wants, is a strength, not a weakness.
Some people are just "on."
Check this PIX
I'm no art critique but there are a couple of his works that even I would buy.
Kent State University is a public institution that was founded in 1910. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 21,178, its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 824 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Kent State University's ranking in the 2012 edition of Best Colleges in National Universities, 194. Its in-state tuition and fees are $9,346 (2011-12); out-of-state tuition and fees are $17,306 (2011-12).
on the other hand…
California State University–Chico is a public institution that was founded in 1887. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 14,758, its setting is rural, and the campus size is 119 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. California State University–Chico's ranking in the 2012 edition of Best Colleges in Regional Universities (West), 33*. Its in-state tuition and fees are $6,964 (2011-12); out-of-state tuition and fees are $18,124 (2011-12).
* ranked 33 on a different scale – regional for Chico v. national for Kent.
Brad:
Don't beat up on yourself or Kent State.
Admissions (Kent State)
88.7% accepted (ACT required)
Admissions (Chico)
66.8% accepted (ACT required)
The student base is almost identical.
top college matriculation rates HERE
Chico graduates 55.7% HERE
Kent is a just little lower @ 49.1% HERE
When you look at the entire picture, there's not a big difference – except for the weather [B v. C-]and size of the campus.
Thanks mysterion.
Thanks for swinging the talk back to Chico State
and you.
I'm starting to think you might be some kind of idiot savant.
"I just want to say: Never lose faith in real rock and roll music, you know what I mean? Never lose faith in that," Dave Grohl said. "You might have to look a little harder, but it's always going to be there."
Always Dave? Think again.
I was wondering where that post was going. Superbly written. The conclusion reminds me of a poet's wise saying:
"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
–Walt Whitman (poet)
"Song of Myself"
As as former KSU student myself in the late 80s, I too remember Fuck You Bob. He sat near me once during a classical concert I attended on campus and I finally had to move because he smelled so strongly of urine.
I'm glad he finally calmed down some and was able to exhibit his work. I had no idea he had any artistic talent but I did see him alot in the Art Building, where I worked and majored in Art History.
Maybe his telling me repeatedly to suck his dick wouldn't have offended me quite so much if he had smelled like he actually washed it once in a while. Maybe I'm just shallow 🙁
Either way, peace out to Fuck You Bob…
"It is quite hard to imagine how the dreams are related to the state of the mind after death."
The dreams are right now. When you
wake up, there is no one to die. There is just the universe
manifesting itself.
When you wake? You're still in a dream.
"There is just the universe
manifesting itself."
Who's saying this?
Brad, sincerely, your best yet in my time reading your write.
John Baker, you are correct that Dogen borrowed most of it from a Chinese manual and rewrote it 42 times or whatever- Bielefeldt's a genius for "Dogen's Meditations Manuals". Have you read "Zen Letters of Yuanwu" by Cleary, or the one on Foyan ("Waking Up in the Present")? Yes, importing a Japanese religion whole cloth is not real, in my opinion.
Someone is taking Brad to task for not striking out in a new direction, someone else is writing about dreams, I would like to submit my own Waking Up and Falling Asleep– just finished revising it, and last night added something I think is critical to Translations of Motion in the Lotus– where the extension of the hips by the obturators comes in (see "Anatomy of Movement" by Calais-Germain, for the hammocking of the hips by the obturators).
Thanks, all, & hey Bob F*@$!K you.
Looking at FY Bob's artwork, what one can see in the video -is there a link to any more? Did he have a show(s) on campus or elsewhere? it is clear that at a certain point in time in the 1980's he would've figured into the "Outsider Artist" category, and would have possibly done quite well had there been someone around to exploit this. Unless by then he had a college degree. I could've also made a small fortune this way, having been groomed by a gallery in Chicago as an "Outsider artist" until my credibility as an "innocent" was shattered when they discovered I had a bachelor's degree. I was unceremoniously dropped like the proverbial hot potato.
Yes, I kind of understand what you mean with this "you are still in a dream" thing and so.
Although as an ordinary human being I can make a clear distinction of dreaming and being awake, even if I am aware during my dream, that it is only a dream. And even if I know while being awake that many things are only illusions.
My question was more related to that that in that book the author wrote that it kind of differs individually in what state our mind is when we are dreaming as it differs also when we are "awake" based on the practice, meditation, realizations etc. And somehow he wrote that this individual state of the mind reflects also after our death. Kind of understand that it is always the same mind, but then I do not see the point why he had to make the distinction between the state of the mind while dreaming (when sleeping), being awake and after dying.
Thanks for the link Mark, I am reading your post now.