the choice of Zen Bohemians
“White teas such as Chinese Silver Needle, Chinese Mutan White or Ceylon Silver Tips (the tea is actually pale pink) are the choice of Zen Bohemians before morning meditation or Wu Ming qigong. A grassy cup of Sencha is also a Zen favorite. Bohemians also appreciate black tea from France—especially from Mariage Fr’res—and they cannot resist tea from Fortnum & Mason, by appointment to her Royal Majesty. Later they will use the tin for paintbrushes, chopsticks or kitchen utensils.”
—Laren Stover, from Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge, 2004.
green tea
“Gypsy and Zen Bohemians may drink green tea. The tea of choice is loose Gunpowder or Green Thunder, which is coiled tightly as a fist and unfurls in the pot when hot water is poured over it, until the water is as dense with leaves as the seaweed-swirling Sargasso Sea; it is consumed until all hours when work requires alertness and lucidity.”
—Laren Stover, from Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge, 2004.
Beneath The Blue
“Oh Muse, how I served you beneath the blue;
And oh what dreams of dazzling love I dreamed!”
—Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Wyatt Mason, from My Bohemia, A Fantasy. As found in Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge by Laren Stover, 2004.
Pastel: Masks and Faces
“The light of our cigarettes
Went and came in the gloom:
It was dark in the little room.
Dark, and then, in the dark,
Sudden, a flash, a glow,
And a hand and a ring I know.
And then, through the dark, a flush
Ruddy and vague, the grace
(A rose!) of her lyric face.”
—Arthur Symons, Pastel: Masks and Faces, as found in Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge by Laren Stover, 2004.
I am the Bearded Iris
“I am the One out of
a Hundred
I am the Bearded Iris, the flower of chivalry
with a sword for a leaf
& a lily for a heart
I am the Rainbow—a hybrid of celestial
hues
blue in the end, a message between
Gods.
I am your shadow in the
darkness,
your reflection in the
mirror
I am the Jack in your box.”
—Ira Cohen, from I am not a beat, 2004, as quoted in Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge by Laren Stover, 2004.
over the rainbow
“Somewhere over the rainbow way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby,
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”
—from Somewhere Over the Rainbow, lyrics and music by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen, 1939. Written for the motion picture The Wizard of Oz and famous forever after.
Red, n.
A penny. “That crumb ain’t got a red, and he’s puttin’ on a million-dollar front (appearance).”
—Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo, Hyman E. Goldin, Editor in Chief, 1950.
gold brick.
1. A bar of gilded cheap metal that appears to be genuine gold. 2. A fraudulent, worthless substitute.
—The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1992.
Goldbrick, n.
One who goldbricks.
—Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo, Hyman E. Goldin, Editor in Chief, 1950.
Goldbrick, v.
To malinger; to use any expedient, as feigning illness, to avoid work or obtain narcotics.
—Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo, Hyman E. Goldin, Editor in Chief, 1950.