Journey into serenity!

Everything you can imagine is real! -- PICASSO

I was born in a very good year 1933 as the astrologer thought as wine vintage; the same year a corporal declared himself of a master race! My name is Duc; in Vietnamese signifies the German... ha ha ha funny no? Then later on an imam enlightens my name: Its means the virtue, the strength; a leader like the Roman Duce I like that... because as an orphan I humbled myself without doubt that I am the son of the Sun! Also this soi-disant metaphysics imam clarified it to me: every word has 4 meanings: the current, the profane, the literary and the esoteric sense... wow wow wow! for an 8th grade drop out I received an heavy duty industrial connaissance! This arcane savoir could only transmit by telephone arabe!

So I ask him what's my name in the hidden meaning sense; he told me: "Many are called... few are chosen!" I will always in search of something else? Holy merde man! me a chosen, me a big shot wow wow wow! Then I realize later on that after a shot... I got shot many time over and asking for more... in the bar!

As an Infant in Hanoi, I think Paris's the creme de la creme.... then eat and manure in Paris I realized that the Gotham City is the place... where you have it or you don't as well put by the lousy pale piss Rheingold cerveza! Reinforced by the song "I want it all I want it now" by the Master Big Nose Kokaine merchant! That is my town but at this time me no habla Ingles... now grosso modo !Kapish?

Don't wait for the Last judgment... it happen everyday! -- ALBERT CAMUS

Who lived too long in France must be an imbecile or a brain damaged... matter of fact the French are nasty: simple raison is after 4.000 years marinated in the petit verre de vin rouge they ought to be a shit head! I drink too so I like to live in the comfortable puke! You do something in Paris: jalousie they hate it then you do nada they call you a schmuck so the alternative is suppuku... n'est-ce-pas! Isn't their fault if they parted in bananas because the Rayonnement du Beajolais take over their brain and body... they need help!

My 2nd wife Vicki Koskinein kept telling me: "Go to New York!" I suspect she's a Jew! End of the rope... I sent my son John Kustaa Von Ducmanh; a 4 year old bambino to Finland to be tend by the in-laws! We flew to "The Kapital of the World" Ueber Magnetov! I ask my wife where we go to live? She replies: "Manhattan!" I concede she's smarter than I and women always marry beneath them!

I like this Motherfucker City, they leave you alone as long as you paid Uncle Sam some pesos by the 15 of April! They are direct, not subtle racists like the French, give one hand and take off from the other! As long you know your rank and limitation!

What make this US of A. number uno is: You do something, some likes it some don't and some don't care ... you have 3 choices! breathable!

I want to become rich and famous... But God had another plan. -- DUKE

I landed in the old JFK the 15th of April 1965, heavy load of dream, ambition but thin in resource... when a barrister in Wall Street asks me how much dough I rolled in... my wife's face shame reddened when I replied $500... our case for green card unsettled luckily God favors the meek... Mgr. ABS guarantees that I could be a dark horse in a long shot in future art market!

An artist must create art whatever happen so I looking for job... I was a typographer in Paris... I did show some of my layout graphic designs to some agencies here but alas my English is less than adequate plus I got an attitude problem I screamed at people: "Why you can't comprehend my English are you a Polak or what?" Ad people had hard time to accept my ideas: the name of perfume like "Guilty" or "Honeyquicu"... So I settled for a position as dishwasher in the famous institution Howard Johnson! Elated by the first time getting pay in America dollars; plus in the first week on the job: a 21 year old waitress gave me a vigorous soothing blow job in ,the basement of the joint!

I helped myself frozen steaks and silverware bring it to my place for my wife! Bring my portfolio around to show to the galleries in NYC but no avail... at this time the art thing here is op, pop and happenings! My abstract calligraphy is good if my name is Franz Kline or Hiroshige but I must live and combat against time: running out and alone against the world!

Desperate I went to the Asia House show my stuff... A very genteel and scholastic man told me to go see Mr. Porter McCray, head of the Silver Muscles Family and I become je ne sais quoi -- a Rockefeller Fellow!

From a paisano va-nu-pied sans culottes... now reckon as an potential artist maybe future oracle from the east... that call for a celebration... let have a drink and I resign my job at Howard Johnson! It was a good job: free food and the manager turn his head the other way he saw me often sneak out.: a ultra king size drink of Early Times!

I got the moolah from the foundation; now I am a player; Kobashi, son of a steel magnate from the Banzai Empire introduces me to Mr. Allan Stone!

Work is the curse of the drinking class. -- OSCAR WILDE

I rent a loft all ground floor Jefferson St. (now a Chinatown Project)... In France petit is the delectable motto: petite bonne femme, petit verre, petit coin, petite maison a la campagne... I think big but I paint petit because manqué of space; the most largest I could produce is 2' x 3' here at the land of abbondanza: I attack some paintings size 8' x 6'! 1 executed 10 big one then called the director to come down check it out. He came with an assistant and a photographer to record my production... liked what he saw granted me a 2nd grant... Here's a man of great eye!

There're only three tastes: good taste, bad and no taste! -- DUKE

Contact with Mr. Allan Stone...

Kobashi told me Allan Stone likes European and French art, suggests that I go to see him... quite largely true Allan Stone's an incorrigible collector! When a man said he has a couple of Bugattis then he corrects it and said: have a fleet of them... to have a fleet you must possess at least 14 pur sang that's a rule not counting an armada of Duesenbergs par ici and some Hispano-Suizas par là plus Ferraris, Rolls and so on... personally he steers in town a small Isuzu as the Cerberus Pierre Hotel doorman disdains to park his car!

I met Allan Stone (ABS) one afternoon as he perched on a ladder fixing a light fixture in the show; he dresses casually in chino pants and a T-shirt open collar this kind of accouterment only the super rich could afford because they got it they don't need to prove anything neither seeking approval!... He said today is a bad day come back tomorrow same time!

I returned carry a portfolio stuffed with works on paper. He looked; saying he remembered years ago a dealer Mr. Rene Drouin from Paris had shown it to him! Man of action... ponder a minute he said. "I take the all portfolio!" Ça alors! then he adds have more of those? I did the same and he repeated the same! Wow wow wow ... I don't reveal the number of things acquired because a lot of envy lurking around and T-men always on the qui vive checking what people did in and out... off-shore!

Success is a trap for many downfalls... I got the mean so I brought my son back from Finland poor kid he thought I abandon him... good thing is he came here at 6 years old; he speaks Suomi: a pretty tough language! His mother enrolls him in Lycee Français Kennedy Prep snob: noblesse oblige!

But I need more income so I worked as a waiter then as barkeeper and that begin my escalation in the realm of boozing!