Tuli Kupferberg // Renaissance Left

By Mark Kaufman
I saw the new Cohen Bros. film Burn After Reading the other day, and I liked it, but the most memorable thing about it for me besides my wife comparing me to the angry, blow his top character played by John Malkovich was the end credits. I don’t remember anything about the credits visually, but I DO remember the music playing underneath by The Fugs. I must admit they were a fave of mine when I was a teen back in the early 1970s, but I haven’t really thought about them in ages. I liked their music, their anti-establishment stance and I especially liked band co-founder, author, cartoonist, activist, actor, TV host, pacifist and poet Tuli Kupferberg, a true renaissance man of the left. A big influence on me, and still active well into his 80s. I always loved his horribly drawn, chicken scratch cartoons, which reminded me of a radical James Thurber. It was about the writing and wanting to voice an opinion, not about technical expertise. So for all of us that can’t draw, but have something we want to say, thanks Mr. Kupferberg