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Today is comedian Bill Hicks' 43rd birthday. Too bad he's not with us to celebrate it.

Even eleven years after his death of pancreatic cancer, Hicks' anti-corporate, anti-pap culture routines still resonate in the era of wall-to-wall marketing, FCC witch-hunting, and the stubborn persistence of celebrity culture (aided, we must admit, in no small part by sites like this).

Hicks was a bit like Howard Beale from Network: Part prophet, part crackpot.

Okay, mostly crackpot. But prophet, too. And funny, as you can see from these quotes.

Brooklyn's Soft Skull Press, which published Love All The People: Letters, Lyrics, and Routines, by Bill Hicks (with foreword from The New Yorker's John Lahr) is throwing a birthday tribute to Hicks tonight at Bowery Poetry Club at 7:30 PM EST.

Buy two drinks, and tip one into the street for old Bill. May he rest in peace never knowing whom the country elected president twice.
Bill Hicks Biography [billhicks.com]
Bill Hicks Quotes [Wiki Quote]
Love All The People: Letters, Lyrics, and Routines [Soft Skull]
Bowery Poetry Club