Saturday, January 22, 2011

Update 14

Currently reading Patti Smith's JUST KIDS, the 2010 National Book Award-winning memoir about her early days in New York City, living with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, getting her poetry together, & meeting folks like Todd Rundgren, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Sam Shepard, Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsburg, Lenny Kaye, Jim Carroll, Johnny Winter, etc. So far it's vivid & involving & at times beautifully written. Smith makes being hungry & homeless in New York sound almost ... fun. I promise a full review when I'm done.
It's not music-related, but Robert Graysmith's ZODIAC UNMASKED (2002) is pretty good if you're into true crime or police-procedurals. Graysmith -- who was an editorial cartoonist with the San Francisco Chronicle when the Zodiac murders started in the late '60s -- does not know how to keep himself out of the story, & he doesn't always completely identify the people he quotes -- the book coulda used a little more editing; they shoulda hired me -- & he sometimes hypes things just a little.
But the MASSIVE amount of detail included about how the police homed-in on one suspect as the possible killer is quite impressively presented by Graysmith. There was a lot of material to keep track of. I've got about 100 pgs 2 go & I don't want any1 2 spoil the ending 4 me....
I've started posting again over at THE GAS NAZI!, beginning with my recent efforts 2 cut back on my massive caffeine habit, which was messing me up at work & probly everywhere else 2. Not sure if any1's intrested, but there it is. & if there's $$$ in it, I am of course available 4 public appearances & talks about How Too Much Caffeine Screwed Up My Life.
More soon....

No comments: