jukeboxgraduate.com

opening day 2007

...and I have a short story in Hobart's April web issue, which is their annual baseball issue. (Serendipitously, and completely without plan, I am joined in this issue by my dear friend, the fabulous Litsa Dremousis.)

Play ball!

ain't it strange: patti smith on the hall of fame

'Rock ’n’ roll drew me from my mother’s hand and led me to experience. In the end it was my neighbors who put everything in perspective. An approving nod from the old Italian woman who sells me pasta. A high five from the postman. An embrace from the notary and his wife. And a shout from the sanitation man driving down my street: “Hey, Patti, Hall of Fame. One for us.”'

One for us, indeed.

33 1/3 madness

WOWEE.
It's kind of amusing how many people want to write about, say, Cheap Trick At Budokan. And kind of cliched that, out of all the albums in the Lou Reed canon, there are three proposals for Metal Machine Music and NOTHING ELSE.

That's my proposal for Black Love on there. Dammit.

like punk never happened

My debut entry over at This Ain't The Summer Of Love -- Like Punk Never Happened: Patti Smith and the Hall Of Fame.

this ain't the summer of love

While I'm still figuring out what this place is - or will be - because I'm a masochist and love a deadline, I joined b.markey's new project, This Ain't The Summer Of Love. Look for my debut post this weekend. (See? Deadline)

33 1/3 results are in

The results are in, and no I did not make it (and yes, more on that after the jump). But, looking at who made the cut, the august company there makes me feel a little better about the rejection. The submission list was long and broad, too.

My choice?

Black Love by the Afghan Whigs.

My original vision was for something like The River or Quadrophenia, but I tried writing a proposal for the former and it turned out to be a short story and not a book, and the latter -- well, my junior year thesis in high school was about Quadrophenia and when I went back over it, I realized I had pretty much said everything I would have wanted to say about it, plus it wasn't an album I wanted to live with for a year.

I fell into Black Love when New Orleans flooded (even though it doesn't specifically say it takes place there, in my mind's eye, it always certainly could have) and I thought about the comment a writer-friend had made about the series, about how your choice should be an album you not only always come back to, but an album that, in effect, has never left you, and that changes like a chameleon as the years go by.

Thus, Black Love.

And of course, because I fucking love that record and think it is one of the most underrated records of all time.

I had thought about posting the proposal but it was a specific assignment and, well, who knows what the future might bring. But if you're a writer who didn't (or did) make the cut, or who thought about submitting but didn't, and you want to take a look, drop me a line.

young neil on writing

From Rolling Stone #992, interview by Alec Wilkinson (go buy it, this interview is worth it):

Then he turned the book over and showed me the lyrics, written in pen, with only a word here and there crossed out, and with the verses themselves not usually running below the top half of the page. "I might have two lines and use only one version of them," he said. "Or a line or two not used. If you look, sometimes it's three, four, one, two in terms of the order of verses, but usually it's just as it came. It's just a matter of where did I tap into it, what part of it. If I don't question it, it comes together. If I question it, it can take months."

He closed the book. "When you start writing," he said, "don't let other things bother you. Just keep going. It doesn't take long. It isn't long to be absent."

Just leaves me awe-struck.

New Backstreets out

Backstreets #83/84 is FINALLY out, praise the deities.

Inside from me: an interview with Alan Vega from Suicide, a sidebar with Jesse Malin, and something I thought was just *funny* -- I interview the wizarding group Harry & The Potters, because "Harry" is an enormous Springsteen fan. (Disclaimer: at the time I suggested this story to my editor, the most recent Harry Potter was just about to come out and so it was, actually, timely. Now it just looks stupid, I realize this. But it was hardly intended to be the highest of high art.)

the nature of truth

Chasing Ray: The Nature of Truth

"There are things you need to do as a writer, skills you have to acquire, a craft you need to develop. I have no interest however in becoming a liar. I wrote a story, a good story, a story about how it was for me once, how it was, mostly. My story is fiction."

Just beautiful.

Yet more pointless comments about Frey and LeRoy

...with some Greil Marcus thrown in.

I have been thinking about this, a lot, partly because if you are a writer you have no choice; if you and read writing/publishing blogs, the subject is unavoidable; and, frankly, if you breathe air in the U.S. right now, it is everywhere. I didn't watch Frey on Larry King last night; I missed the 9pm showing, and caught highlights later on Anderson Cooper, where Frey's attitude was so - unabashed - that I realized that They have decided to let him get away with it, because he was still an addict and blah blah blah blah blah.

That was when I went on Amazon and put my copy of A Million Little Pieces (hardback, no Oprah's Book Club here) up for sale. It took all of 90 minutes before someone bought it.

To be fair, I stumbled onto that book accidentally, not through the hype or the hoopla around its original release. I heard or read something that made me go seek it out and it helped me, greatly, gain some much needed insight into a situation I was tangled up in. Of course I have to wonder how valid my conclusions were, but it doesn't matter much any more. I still hung onto the book for that reason, but last night I was just pissed off and figured I might as well profit from the situation.

I am intrigued by reports that the original, fictionalized manuscript was rejected by the publisher and Frey allegedly took out the "fictional" bits. (When I went to buy the book at a mom & pop bookstore, I didn't know what it was called or who wrote it, so I had to describe the plot as I knew it, and the clerk laughed and said, "We have it in both places: fiction and non-fiction.") I think I would have had more sympathy if he had said, "Listen, I wanted a fucking book deal and so I was going to do whatever they wanted me to do and write whatever book they wanted me to write." I do, however, seriously believe that his publisher knew exactly what was up. I just think they never thought it would matter *that much*.

So the question is, of course, would it still be a good book if people bought it as fiction? Would it be as compelling? Would it have become what seems to be a virtual cult of James Frey (stories of parole officers handing the book to clients, etc.)? The answer should be: if the writing and the story made you believe it then YES. I am not sure if I would have been as moved by it if I didn't believe it to be someone's life story, simply because of where I was at the time and why I was reading that book. I excused the unconventional style for that reason, too. And for the many people who were reading, maybe because they know someone who is an addict or is in recovery, they were looking for some truth. So in that situation: yes, it matters.

But for the most part, the general audience, the people watching Oprah and reading along (and honestly, I say, more power to her and thank you for going back to living writers again, Steinbeck really does not need your help). The entire Frey fray boils down the fact that what matters to most people is:

Is it factually true? Did it really happen?

So the rock and roll tangent finally comes in here. As usual, when this debate about truth and fiction arises, I think of Greil Marcus and that great section in the Randy Newman piece in Mystery Train:

"The imagination has fallen upon sorry days in post-Beatle rock n' roll. Audiences are no longer used to the idea that someone might make something up, create a persona and act it out, the way Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan used to do. Audiences take everything literally, partly because sensitive personal confession, "honesty," and one-to-one communication between the singer and whoever is listening is so attractive and reassuring in times when pop culture and politics have lost their grander mythic dimensions, when there are no artists and no politics to create community, and every fan is thrown back on himself."

How many times has complete and utter crap as songwriting been excused or promoted simply because "You don't understand, this really happened to him!" And how many times have you seen fans defiant and proud that they had debunked the line in Song X because "that could not have happened to him, he was in California at the time!"

There is an alarming tendency of fans to use "true" as a barometer or substitute for "good". Rarely do I see anyone ever stopping to consider that it was a song, that it was a story, that it doesn't have to be true, that it doesn't have to be linear, that it didn't have to happen to him personally to be a good story or a good song, and if it didn't actually ever happen to him, if he wasn't a drug addict he could still write a song about being on drugs, or that a married man can write a song about infidelity without actually being unfaithful, or can write about dog sledding in Alaska without ever having been there. It's not just the defense of truth as a superlative, it's the exaggerated betrayal portrayed when a song is "debunked" as not being "real" because "that never really happened" or "it happened 10 years ago, and to someone else!"

I find a lot of discussion when an artist writes something, never alleging it to be autobiographical or factual, and fans "discover" that it isn't. But I never find anyone dissecting the songs written by the sensitive, I-write-from-experience types to analyze if that is all correct and true and perfect. The Smoking Gun isn't looking at that. (Well, yet anyway. But didn't Jewel go on Oprah already?)

Back to the literary world: even in my own experience, when people read my manuscript, the first question I would get is: "Did that really happen?" and "Is it true?" Before anyone had ever read the manuscript, I had determined that I would never ever go through line by line and tell people what was a creation in my own mind and what might have been based on factual events, because at the end of the day, THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED FICTION. But during my process of obtaining literary representation, I received an impassioned note from one agent who said they loved the work but wanted to call me on not being willing to "claim" it and sell it as memoir.

Tempting, isn't it? Not to me, because I *like* writing fiction. I like making things up. I like inventing worlds and people and places. Obviously, the fodder comes from real life, but the glorious thing about writing fiction is that it's a story! Continuity and plausibility aside, IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE TRUE, it doesn't have to happen the way it did in real life (if it happened at all).

But, as hard as it is to get representation and get published (and I will confess being very reassured that 17 publishers passed on A Million Little Pieces before it found a home), I could see a situation where, if a story was mostly true, or grew out of a personal experience, it might just be very tempting to say, "Sure, it all happened to me, just like it says," because then there's no doubt about How To Sell it. Your hook is built in. (And as any writer knows, the feedback of "We loved it, but we don't know how we'd sell it" is quite possibly the most infuriating.)

As to l'affaire JT LeRoy: to be honest, I was not emotionally engaged in those books so I had less interest -- except that a dear friend of mine was one of the countless many hoodwinked by this entire mishegoss. They were a friend of The Voice On The Telephone, they took me to the "Harold's End" book release party where we were introduced to The Guy In The Hat and The Glasses, and I am more upset that they took advantage of this individual's generous nature than anything else. I know they are in good company but still. But, again, it was more attractive if it was the truth and less so if it was just a good story. At least I was more interested in the writing in the LeRoy books. I felt there was a beauty and a fragility there. The fraud and the deception, however, is far-reaching and insidious. As I said to some writer-friends, " It is sad and crazy and unbelievable and throws everyone off kilter, just a bit, in terms of belief and humanity and generosity of spirit."

dear readers: your input solicited

I am looking at pulling together some of my best pieces to submit for an anthology, and would invite your comments as to which of my writing on this site (or anywhere else, for that matter) from the year 2005 you enjoyed the most, or didn't enjoy but think was a damn good piece of writing.

Email or comments, as you like. And THANK YOU.

(P.S. I just upgraded to a new version of Moveable Type so comments may not work perfectly - email if they don't work for you, also so I know...)

more 33 1/3

Here's a list of ALL of the artists proposed from all of the 33 1/3 submissions. Those of you who want to guess, perhaps this will help. (Again, don't go for the obvious.)

Out of all of these, eight will be chosen.

33 1/3

Today is the deadline, and my proposal for a book in the next edition of this amazing series has been completed, emailed and receipt confirmed. Decisions at the end of January.

I will tell you then which record I wanted to write about, because it will either be "Drat, didn't make the cut" or hopefully: "Great, I now have to spend the better part of 2006 writing 30,000 words on this album."

springsteen enters the mcsweeney's zone

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Bruce Springsteen Songs, If the Title More Accurately Reflected the Subject Matter.

It's funny, sure, but it's still stupid snarky cooler-than-thou enough to make me want to defenestrate the author. It's the stereotype of what your average hipster thinks Bruce's songs are about (and tell me, "It was written for McSweeney's, DOH" and I'll defenestrate you.)

NaNoWriMo Update

For those keeping score:

23,169 / 50,000 (46.0%)

Two more weeks to go.

and so it begins

The time has come, as the walrus would say, for novel #2 to begin in earnest. The flip of a United States coin will determine which of the two concepts that have been battling themselves within the confines of my brain for the past year will be what I go forward on.

Of course, what this means for you, the reader of this blog, is this: frequent updates as I flail around to write something, anything -- except what I'm supposed to be writing. Works like a charm.

Thank god the new laptop arrives tomorrow. Wish me luck.

glory days: a bruce springsteen symposium

The abstracts are online now.

I still have no idea what I am doing here (if you peruse the rest of the abstracts you will see what I mean) but I was invited by the organizer and encouraged by Dave Marsh to submit, so I did. Now I have to write the damn thing.

Truth be told, there's a lot of interesting food for thought here, and not much of the trainspotting variety at all. I hope people will come; it will be tough because there will be yet more tour dates in this time zone around the same time, but I hope people will come.

Nick Hornby meets Bruce Springsteen

The Observer UK: as you might expect, an interview that is thoughtful and asks a lot of the questions you would if you had the chance. I also like it because there is this undercurrent of "ohmigod I am talking to BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN" even though it's Nick fucking Hornby doing the talking. It's humble and sincere and imho makes for great reading. But, then again, I dig Hornby.

Which reminds me, of course, that an article about his shows last month with Marah is long overdue. Moving, and the pesky work thing have been getting in the way of the words lately. Anon.

greg kot interview with bono

"But if a show is a little off, and there's a hole, that's the one song we can guarantee that God will walk through the room as soon as we play it."

So, once again a musician doesn't like what a Chicago rock writer wrote about their performance, and calls them up and leaves a voicemail which results in the two sitting down for a conversation.

When I heard about this incident last night, the first thing I said was, "What is it with rock writers in Chicago that rock stars keep calling them up to yell at them?"

And then I realized it was because Chicago is one of the few towns left that has intelligent, erudite rock and roll writers on the payroll of the daily papers (and yes, I include DeRogatis in this mix. While I think sometimes he is overly cranky and too predictable, he is still smart, articulate and passionate about what he does).

But this time it was Greg Kot's turn to sit down with Bono, and the result is an interview that is one of the greatest rock and roll interviews of the last 10 years.

It's the first interview for longer than I care to remember that made me think, that made me question my own assumptions about the music and the artist, where the writer doing the interview did not back down BUT YET also conceded points -- or had his own mind changed as he was speaking to the artist. It was a dialogue, it was an actual intelligent conversation.

I also typed "and wasn't clouded by editorial concerns" but I don't know that to be true, you know - I don't know if U2's record company advertises in the Chicago Tribune or if Kot's editor's care if they do or don't. What I know is that I don't feel like that was a factor in the direction of the conversation, and I can't think of many publications where that consideration isn't in the back of my mind as I read it. (I mean, even on one of the tiny websites I write for, I am getting more and more concerned because more and more writers on it get all psyched when a band's official web site linked to their article or they get a nice note from the artist thanking them for their review.)

Kot wasn't trying to be Bono's new best friend, or have Bono like him (again, I don't know, all I do know is that the questions made me feel like that wasn't a concern) which is another big pet peeve with interviews today; so many writers are afraid of pissing off the musician or the publicist or the record company and having their access cut off (either to that band or to other artists they represent). Bono says, "We need from writers some rage, and we need spleen, but we also need the pursuit of truth."

This has not been an easy year to be a U2 fan; I have struggled hard with my own relationship with the band -- truth is that I have for years, since the first time they played Madison Square Garden (I didn't go; I turned up my nose at seeing any band I loved in a space that big). For some reason I feel like I want to give up on them, or I want an excuse to be able to; I don't want to have to pay $160 to see them or feel like shit when I can't or won't spend that sum of money. (And even in this interview, Bono calling "Vertigo" a "three-minute punk rock song" is enough to make me see red.)

But this interview made me change my mind about more than a few things, made me rethink my position on others, and also had me consider viewpoints that would never even have entered my mind. If nothing else, Bono wins me over for his accurate characterization of the indie rock ghetto, and he takes on the question about commercialization of songs with what at least feels like candor and frankness (which is more than I can say for Townshend, who always comes across being angry and defensive about it). There are some mind-blowing quotes, some statements that are utterly legendary. I was going to quote some here, but then I realized that if I took them out of context, they could lose impact when you read the article, and also what was incredible to me might not be the same to others.

So you'll just have to read it yourself. Even if you truly don't like U2, this is mandatory reading if you care about rock and roll at all. And it's ensured that I will head for MSG when they come back through here in the fall.

blogcritics reviews

A few cd reviews up this week over at Blogcritics.org: the Moaners, Kasabian, and Akron/Family.