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[The Mule]

For those of you who are fans of HBOs "The Wire" I would strongly recommend the novels of George Pelecanos, who has been on the writing staff of the show this season.

Last month I read KING SUCKERMAN and just recently finished it's sequel, THE SWEET FOREVER. I'm about to start the last in the trilogy, SHAME THE DEVIL.

These three are all crime novels set in Washington, D.C. in the 70s, 80s, and 90s and follow the exploits of black Vietnam vet/small record store owner Marcus Clay and his Greek-American friend Dimitri Karras. Minor characters in the first three novels are continued in his subsequent books such as RIGHT AS RAIN, HELL TO PAY and SOUL CIRCUS.

If you like "The Wire" you can see threads of Pelecanos' work throughout. Although Pelecanos wasn't writing for the show during its first season, you can see characters like Omar have their roots in KING SUCKERMAN. After reading two of his novels now, I'm pretty convinced I can pick out lines of dialogue in "The Wire" that he has written.

If you like crime fiction, Pelecanos is a modern master.

[Late]

A fine collection of poems by Caley O'Dwyer — Full Nova.

In my opinion, few contemporary poets are able to integrate such understated humor into their writing. O'Dwyer achieves this poem after poem. I believe the book's out-of-print, but it's well worth seeking out.

[Gary]

Im currently reading

Straight Life - Art Pepper

Same here. How are you liking it so far? I've found that I'm flying through it (relatively speaking). He sure doesn't hold anything back. It's good, though, that the book is sprinkled with interviews with other people who knew Art well, as that seems to give the book some alternate viewpoints (obviously).

its a great read , but bit disturbing too . Yes hes certainly very frank i'm only about 100 pages in & he's been a peeping tom & virtually admited to rape. It looks as if he had a terrible upbringing to start the ball rolling.

Im enjoying reading the other viewpoints to balance things up.

Edited August 12, 2003 by Gary

[ghost of miles]

For those of you who are fans of HBOs "The Wire" I would strongly recommend the novels of George Pelecanos, who has been on the writing staff of the show this season.

Last month I read KING SUCKERMAN and just recently finished it's sequel, THE SWEET FOREVER. I'm about to start the last in the trilogy, SHAME THE DEVIL.

These three are all crime novels set in Washington, D.C. in the 70s, 80s, and 90s and follow the exploits of black Vietnam vet/small record store owner Marcus Clay and his Greek-American friend Dimitri Karras. Minor characters in the first three novels are continued in his subsequent books such as RIGHT AS RAIN, HELL TO PAY and SOUL CIRCUS.

If you like "The Wire" you can see threads of Pelecanos' work throughout. Although Pelecanos wasn't writing for the show during its first season, you can see characters like Omar have their roots in KING SUCKERMAN. After reading two of his novels now, I'm pretty convinced I can pick out lines of dialogue in "The Wire" that he has written.

If you like crime fiction, Pelecanos is a modern master.

I like what I've read of Pelacanos, which is little--THE BIG BLOWDOWN and a novel set in D.C. in 1986 (can't remember the title, but the saga of Len Bias is referred to several times throughout the book). Jason Bivins, an improv musician who used to live here in Bloomington, turned me onto him. Good stuff.

Art Pepper's STRAIGHT LIFE is insane! Wait till you get to the prison parts.

[The Mule]

I haven't read that one, although the Len Bias saga is playing out in the background of THE SWEET FOREVER, too...

[ghost of miles]

I haven't read that one, although the Len Bias saga is playing out in the background of THE SWEET FOREVER, too...

I think it must be the same book. THE SWEET FOREVER does ring a bell.

In addition to VOICEOVER: THE MAKING OF BLACK RADIO, I'm also reading ON A FIELD OF RED: THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND THE COMING OF WORLD WAR II. Fascinating stuff!

[paul secor]

Recently finished reading Drew's Blues by Drew Page. The subtitle is A Sideman's Life with the Big Bands, which is an apt if too concise description of this book. Drew Page was born in 1905, began playing professionally at 18, and continued to play professionally into the mid 1970's when he retired temporarily to write this book. He played primarily with big bands, among them Harry James, Ben Pollack, and Phil Harris, and with many territory bands. He led a fascinating life, coming into contact with literally hundreds of performers (some well known, some not) over the course of his career. One of the problems with the book, to my mind, is that too many people are mentioned, and it's difficult to keep track of everyone. I realize that as a history, these names are necessary. It's only as a reader that they tended to annoy me. Over the course of the years covered in the book, jazz giants (Art Tatum, Jack Teagarden, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge), jazz legends (Hix Blewett, Jack Purvis, Peck Kelley), and show biz performers (Lili St. Cyr, Lord Buckley, Amos and Andy (Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll), and Rita Hayworth (when she was Margarita Cansino) all pass through.

Drew's Blues is a fascinating book in many ways. For example, Page writes about changing his playing style from being a pop- dance musician to becoming a jazz (or at least jazz influenced) musician during the 1920's. I also received an education as to what the music business (Page's part of it, anyway) was like over the course of 50 years - in some ways it didn't seem to change all that much. It was especially interesting to me since I once worked with a man who had a similar musical career to Drew Page's. He played in territory bands, big bands, pit bands, did studio work, and ended up playing lounges and shows in Nevada (in his case it was Reno, in Page's case Las Vegas). My friend grew tired of the music business after 30 years or so and left it for other fields. He never went into details when he spoke about his life in music, except to hint that he wasn't enthralled with music as business, and this book gives me a sense of what he might have experienced. If my friend was still living, I'd send him my copy of Drew's Blues. I feel sure that he'd be able to identify with it and would enjoy it.

[BruceH]

Growing Up All Wrong by Robert Christgau

The Big Splat (Or How Our Moon Came To Be) by Dana Mackenzie

[.:.impossible]

This thread.

Actually, I just finished Steve Martin's "novella" called SHOPGIRL. I have been curious to find out what kind of a writer he was. I thought his style was actually quite nice, in that it was never tedious and I found myself entertained throughout the entire book, however short it was. His humor comes through in little comments that he makes here and there, but I forgot that I was reading the words of a great comedian. I wouldn't say that he is a matured writer yet though. While bringing the main storyline back in a simple full circle, he neglected to close off the secondary storylines. I am still trying to figure out why the book was published in this form. Certain characters, certain storylines, in hindsight, never added anything to the book. ??? I imagine Claire Forlani as Mirabelle.

I am now reading House Made of Dawn. N Scott Momaday.

[pryan]

Yesterday I finished STRAIGHT LIFE, which is a book I was totally absorbed in for about a week or so. Not sure if all of the stories that Art describes are true, but I tend to believe a good portion of them. Man, that guy went through a lot of shit in his life. Seemed like a pretty decent fellow as well.

I don't really have anything on deck to read but I might do some re-reading, possibly Carol Shields' THE STONE DIARIES. Shields lived in Winnipeg for about twenty years and wrote a lot of her best known stuff here. THE STONE DIARIES won the Pulitzer Prize, FWIW. Shields died recently from breast cancer; I don't think she was even 70 yet.

[jazzbo]

After finishing Santoro's "Myself When I Am Real" which I liked, I've started Walter Van De Leur's "Something to Live For: the Music of Billy Strayhorn" which is equally fascinating.

[rockefeller center]

"Banish Greg?"

"Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman"

[ghost of miles]

Alfred Kazin, STARTING OUT IN THE THIRTIES.

[Guy Berger]

The Name of the Rose (by Umberto Eco) -- My second time reading it... incredible!

Guy

[kumakuma]

I noticed a few people are reading Straight Life. Check out the movie "Art Pepper - Notes from a Jazz Survivor" as well. Its much the same material but it is great to see Art and Laurie talk and to see Art play. You even get to see his abdomenal scars. I picked it up on Ebay for $17.50.

[jacman]

i just finished Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air". i would never mountain climb, but i love to read about it.

Into Thin Air, is the most amazing adventure story i've ever read, bar none.

[ghost of miles]

Really enjoying this so far, wishing only that they'd included even more of his writing for CREEM. The two essays on Miles' 70's work & MAN WITH A HORN return are entertaining and illuminating. And hell, even when Bangs is wrong he's still fun to read.

[paul secor]

I'm just finishing Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville, Stephen Jay Gould's collected essays on baseball.

[SEK]

I've just begun reading Lewis Porter's John Coltrane: His Life and Music.

[pryan]

After hearing many positive comments on the book, I will soon be acquiring David Rosenthal's "Hardbop", from the local library.

[ghost of miles]

A very cool book (in spite of a few copyediting errors--kinda ironic in a book about journalism) entitled PM: A NEW DEAL IN JOURNALISM 1940-48. PM was an experimental, liberal New York daily that introduced some of the design and content practices that have since become common in newspapers:

And the Bangs book is awesome! Esp. the two-part piece from the June/July 1976 Creem detailing his visit to Jamaica to write about the emerging reggae phenomenon.

[paul secor]

This thread has been dormant for two weeks. Time to bring it back.

Just finished reading A Knot Garden by Geoff Nicholson. He's written a fair number of novels and at least two no fiction books. So far, I've only read this and Hunters and Gatherers, but I plan on reading them all.

I've also been letting my eyes and intellect feast on the drawings in Philip Guston's Poor Richard. Guston nails Tricky Dick and his cabal perfectly. Highly recommended to anyone who ever detested Nixon or even to anyone who can't stomach politicians.

[jazzbo]

Immanuel Velikovsky, "Earth in Upheaval."

[ghost of miles]

A bunch of things at once, per the usual... Barbara Foley's RADICAL REPRESENTATIONS: U.S. PROLETARIAN LITERATURE 1929-41 (a genre for which I definitely have a big ol' bourgeois fetish); the graphic novel adaptation of William Gresham's NIGHTMARE ALLEY; re-reading parts of Duncan Schiedt's JAZZ STATE OF INDIANA; and a new book by a friend of mine who's also a jazz-lover, Michael McGerr (he teaches history here at IU and appeared on my Bix radio special; his book is A FIERCE DISCONTENT: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT, 1870-1920). Also still plugging away at Dos Passos' U.S.A., as I just got the new Library of America volumes of his work in the mail and am hoping to do some kind of article on him.

I need more time!

[Dave James]

Got a couple going right now. On the serious side, Sam Tanenhaus' biography of Alger Hiss.

On the not at all serious side, Florida Road Kill by Tim Dorsey. I can't recall reading a book that's made me laugh out loud at least a half a dozen times, and that's in just the first 60 pages. If you didn't know you could be killed by a pair of Levis 501's, a Barbie Doll or the Space Shuttle, then this is the book for you. As one of the back-of-the-jacket reviews says, "Imagine Hunter Thompson and Groucho Marx sharing a by-line." I couldn't say it any better.

Up over and out.