"You Think It, |'ll Say It": https://amzn.to/2k8SqDH
You want to read this.
Ever feel alone, like no one understands you, like you're an alien and everybody else is connecting but you're not?
I do.
And then you meet someone who gets you...
It's always a surprise, it's always when you're not looking, you get into conversation and...it just flows, you're the real you, you're riding an endless wave like Laird Hamilton and then...
The encounter ends.
That's when you realize how special it was, when you exit and feel numb, start to tingle. Just when you'd given up hope, the universe delivers for you.
Now what?
To tell you the truth, I'm always anxious about the subsequent encounters. To the point I avoid them. I know, I know, that's ridiculous. But what am I gonna say? How am I gonna act? I'm gonna be self-conscious and tongue-tied and it just won't be the same, better to wallow in my memories of the connection.
But sometimes you continue to run into the person and it's just as good, over and over again. And you're wondering... Is this romance?
They might wink at you. Touch your arm. You can stay up all night on the buzz, thinking of them, what could be, imagining a whole life between the two of you and...
DO YOU SAY SOMETHING?
This is not your typical romance. Wherein you get signals and ask. This is serendipitous, you're not looking for love, and neither is the other person, but could this be the real thing?
You're looking for signals, signs. You share something you've rarely had before, maybe never.
I said something once. She used to call me for hours after midnight. She'd insist we go to gigs without her husband. I kept keeping her at bay, saying she was married, she'd send me postcards from vacation, telling me she was missing L.A. Finally she got the message, she disappeared.
And then a year later, she called to tell me...
She was getting a divorce.
And in the ensuing conversation, as she was driving in the hills, as the connection was breaking up, I said... "You know I love you ____."
I never heard from her again. I wasn't gonna reach out to her, in our conversation she told me she needed time, I was willing to give it to her. And then I became self-conscious, and then I went with my buddy to the all night electronics store and...
There she was. In her cowboy boots.
With another guy.
She came over to talk, but unlike previously, not forever. She was both flirty and distant. I managed, spoke earnestly, albeit with a bit of attitude, poking fun, but that was the nature of the relationship.
She e-mailed me a couple of years later, I did not respond.
I Googled her, I think she's married with a couple of kids, even though she said she wanted none, but she's got a somewhat common name, and she's not all over social media, assuming it's her, but who knows.
A few years later, I met someone I'd denigrated in print.
And...
The same thing happened, we connected, we made jokes, she invited me to events, she'd e-mail me her hopes and dreams, she'd whisper in my ear and this time...
I didn't have the balls to confront her, to ask her, to profess my love.
And I thought of all this when I read the title story in Curtis Sittenfeld's new book.
I loved "Prep." I hated "Sisterland." But reading "You Think It, |'ll Say It"...
We live in a culture where the inner voices is repressed. It's the antithesis of hip-hop, if you're talking about yourself, you're a driver, you're a winner.
And it's hard to do inner life in filmed entertainment.
But in writing...
But today's anointed books are all character development and little plot, like the new one by the unreadable Rachel Kushner, lauded by the cognoscenti.
And then you stumble on to something like "You Think It, |'ll Say It."
I started reading slowly, I didn't want it to end.
It's short stories, so a few leave you wanting more.
Then again, you can't wait to dive into the next one. For the peek into people's souls.
We're all broken, we all have hopes and dreams, we all have secrets, WHO DO WE TELL?
That's what makes us feel so alone, the inability to share our stories, not the facts so much as the nuance, especially if you're a guy, you can talk sports and money but emotions? No way.
There's a morass of product and then there's something like "You Think It, |'ll Say It." That's what people don't realize in today's world of art, that very little is truly great, that very little truly speaks to us, but if it does...
We just can't get enough of it. We want more than the single, we want EVERYTHING!
And I will say it's hard to cut through the clutter without marketing but...
The goal of art is to make us feel so not alone.
I haven't felt this connected with art in years.
Read this book.
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Saturday 19 May 2018
Thursday 17 May 2018
Re: My father
Hi Bob,
Jeffrey Trachtenberg sent me your column about my father Tom Wolfe. I absolutely love it. He would have too. I'm going to send it to my mom and brother. I agree, I still see him as a beacon too. You say it all so well and so perfectly.
Thank you thank you thank you,
Alexandra
--
Alexandra Wolfe
Reporter, Review
The Wall Street Journal
1211 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10036
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Jeffrey Trachtenberg sent me your column about my father Tom Wolfe. I absolutely love it. He would have too. I'm going to send it to my mom and brother. I agree, I still see him as a beacon too. You say it all so well and so perfectly.
Thank you thank you thank you,
Alexandra
--
Alexandra Wolfe
Reporter, Review
The Wall Street Journal
1211 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10036
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--
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Wednesday 16 May 2018
Re-Tom Wolfe
(note-no anonymous postings unless I determine your identity or career is at risk, if you just want to be unknown, your e-mail will not be printed.)
______________________________________________________
I was Kesey's lawyer. I picked up Tom Wolfe at the airport and drove him down to San Mateo County to see Kesey in jail. My daughter, 5 years old, promptly spilled a Coca Cola all over his white suit. The guy was such a gentleman. He never copped an attitude and I'll tell you this, he never took notes. He only made one mistake in that book.
Brian Rohan
______________________________________________________
Amen. Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was a birthday party gift staple for us middle school age kids in Laurel Canyon back in the day. If your boyfriend gave it to you, (as did mine) you just really knew he loved you.
Kerry Gogan
______________________________________________________
Will never forget the phrase, "boiling teeth," as he described the smiles of dowagers on the Upper East Side.
One of a kind. He will be missed.
John Hummer
______________________________________________________
Clagett was a mess. He ran the only writing seminar at Midd, so if I was going to write for credit I had to go through him. He was on the other side throughout, plus I suspect the new culture threatened his entire sense of order. RIP Tom Wolfe. He elevated low culture until it ruled.
Peter Knobler
Middlebury '68
Crawdaddy '71-79
P.S. Writers were on their own up there. I reviewed Cream in concert for the Campus. And the March on Washington when we levitated the Pentagon. And the night when I saw Hendrix sit in w James Cotton at the Cafe au Go Go. Any way to bring the '60s to the college despite their kicking and screaming. Clagett wanted none of it.
______________________________________________________
Thanks for this, Bob. It's nearly impossible, I think, to really articulate how important Wolfe was. He and Hunter changed the whole paradigm.
Sam Smith
______________________________________________________
A great read Bob on Tom Wolfe who inspired a generation of writers. Keroauc's "On The Road" came first for many of us though. But a generation of music journalists including Paul Williams, Michael Lydon, Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, Nick Kent, Nick Tosches, Robert Palmer, Lenny Kaye, and the great Grover Lewis owe much to Wolfe (as did Gay Talese). I saw Wolfe speak at York University where I was taking film. The full Wolfe charm white suit and all. But it's his words and his style I remember most. And tried to emulate before I found styles of my own.
Larry LeBlanc
______________________________________________________
Terry Southern came before. No slight on Wolfe
Luke Lewis
______________________________________________________
Feeling this one. Kool Aid Acid Test, Right Stuff, Bonfire, Pump house, Bauhaus, ... these were the novels of my formative years (well, add in some Kesey, Kerouac, Tom Robbins and that was about it).
Wolfe is from Richmond where I've lived for 30 years. Went to high school at St Christopher's where my son goes, graduated from my alma mater, Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. It seems like I've felt connected not just to him but his writings my whole life.
He's had a special place in my heart for decades. He spoke at his alma mater when I was there. I still have my autographed copy of Bonfire. My paperback Koolaid Acid Test that he inscribed "Craig, have a good trip) was sadly lost when my basement room flooded in law school.
Craig Davis
______________________________________________________
Bob, "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" changed my life as well!
Thanks for Honoring Tom Wolfe today.
Alan Oreman
______________________________________________________
Thanks Bob. He was simply the very best.
Geoff
______________________________________________________
Thanks for this one Bob - I spent 8.5 years in New York, and I believe that Bonfire of the Vanities is the definitive account of what real city life is like. RIP
Emanuel Feemark
______________________________________________________
Brilliant. Truth.
And as a fellow Richmonder I thank you.
Cheers,
Dave Schools
______________________________________________________
All true Bob. I booked him at colleges in the 80s and he was exactly what you would expect. Smart, wry, slightly distant and completely comfortable in his own skin. All his work remains relevant and ripe for rediscovery but Radical Chic stands out for me, especially these days.
reachnyc
______________________________________________________
Great column on Tom Wolfe. Glad to know that I wasn't the only fish out of water in freshman Creative Writing at Middlebury. Didn't quite have the Springtime for Hitler reaction to my work, but realized that Breadloaf wasn't in my future.
Mike Wyatt
______________________________________________________
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," was rightfully de rigueur in the late
sixties but I most remember how the first page of "The Right Stuff"
grabbed me like the first page of Robert Penn Warren's "All The Kings Men" did. Could anyone really write that beautifully? I couldn't put it down and I was sad when I finished it knowing that Mr. Wolfe was not going to take me through Project Gemini next. RIP.
William Nollman
______________________________________________________
Thank you Bob. Great eulogy.. you nailed it. I was born in between the boomers and X-ers .. we are called Generation Jones.. go figure. However, I listened to my older cousins and friends and read anything Tom Wolfe wrote as I knew it WAS necessary in order to at the very least, get through this life with a smile on my face during so many screwed up decades in a row. I even read "I am Charlotte Simmons" when critics were putting him down for writing it! I decided to read it because once again, the critics obviously hadn't read beyond the blurb on the back! Suddenly, everyone decided it was a great book. yeah .. they should have asked people who took the time to read it! Great, Great, Great, insightful, spot-on literature in current culture and about current culture. Geez.. a light went out in the universe. The cool pieces of the world are today, just a bit less COOL or KOOL... Though, I know many a BIC lighter will be shining in unending applause, forever. G*dspeed Tom Wolfe.
Be
Beki Brindle-Scala
Chester, NY
______________________________________________________
Thanks, I'm glad you got to hear from him. I started reading his
stories in the Herald-Tribune Sunday magazine, in the mid-sixties. He
gave me a look at cultural back alleys that I knew existed, but I
hadn't seen or touched yet. The First Tycoon of Teen, was a look at
Phil Spector that was unlike anything in print, The Noonday
Underground, took me to a subterranean Mod disco where kids, working
in dreary offices, went to dance on their lunch hours. They longed to
stay in the club, work there, never leave, stay in "The Life." Then in
'68 "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, along with my impending draft,
permanently changed my life direction, I never did work a 'straight
job' I'm still in "The Life'"
Paul Zullo
______________________________________________________
Great writer!!! Bonfire of the Vanities was great but I loved Man in Full. The part where the main character struggled to find or panhandle to get a dime to make a phone call is classic
markrandy55
______________________________________________________
My honors US history teacher in the early 90s, when he realized we were running out of class time, had us skip WW2 so we could read "Electric Kool Acid Test" and cover Vietnam. I'm sure today some helicopter parent would complain. To 20 smart kids, in rural NH, where the American Legion had political power, reading Tom Wolfe felt as mind-altering as the adventures of those he covered.
Francis Doehner
______________________________________________________
Great write up Bob. My favorite Wolfe of all time is the collection "Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine," I have the completely worn out paperback, and have read all the essays at least a dozen times over the years. If I have my way I will be buried with it. It includes the infamous Lenny Bernstein/Panthers party, the Me Decade stuff, and a tremendous novella about a black baseball player struggling to get "The Commercial" right and still stay "black enough." Insanely great stuff.
jimeddy
______________________________________________________
I was waiting to be assigned at the Fort Campbell Processing Center after returning from Vietnam during the fall of 1970. To pass the time, I had picked up the paperback version of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and couldn't believe what I was reading - what a great book! I couldn't put it down; luckily I was stuck there for several days and had plenty of time to finish it. That book, along with "On The Road" and Hunter Thompson's Hells Angels account inspired many free spirited road miles for a whole generation. Finally we had a national voice!
So here's to Tom Wolfe, a trail blazer with a resounding voice that did it with honesty and style - thank you Tom.
Marty Jorgensen
______________________________________________________
I met the great Tom Wolfe only once, but so memorably, at a fitness club on New York's upper East Side where we were both exercising. It was at least ten years ago and I recognised him even without his trademark white suit. He was thin and friendly and talked with a slight southern accent which was charming. I broke through when I told him that I too had published fiction in Rolling Stone ("Cold and Electric" Jan 1980) and that there weren't many of us who could claim that honor. (Although I suppose you could count Rolling Stone regular Hunter Thomson as a fiction writer as well and, interestingly enough, when I did meet Hunter (like Tom only once) at a Rolling Stone Christmas Party he told me his favorite writer was, like me, F. Scott Fitzgerald. From Gatsby to Gonzo ...) For me, Tom Wolfe was the first legitimate rock 'n roll author who actually thrived in the established literary world and more than "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" it was his earlier collection of essays, "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby", that probably changed my life's direction in some imperceptible way by treating my teen age obsessions with both seriousness and wit from a mature author's perspective. I mean, he was writing about pop icons like radio DJ Murray the K (a star in the NY area) as "The Fifth Beatle" and declaring Phil Spector to be "The First Tycoon of Teen" and giving West Coast custom car designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth his due respect. Although many of these essays had appeared previously in Esquire, having them bound all together in a actual hard cover book gave credence to what even back then I believed to be sacred. Tom was not only a brilliant writer but also a dandy who dressed in bespoke sartorial splendor - the rightful heir to Mark Twain in both style and substance I suppose!
I remember telling Tom that I was writing a new novel that took place in East Hampton and NYC in the 70's when everything was changing, kind of inspired by Bonfire of the Vanities, with both fictional and real characters and he seemed genuinely pleased and interested and I promised to send him a copy when it came out ...
From Paris,
Elliott Murphy
______________________________________________________
I interviewed Tom Wolfe for NBC News (I was a field producer at the time) at his upper East Side townhouse. This was back when personal video cameras were becoming popular (they were bulky things), and Wolfe had written a story about how in the future the entire city of London, England would be a theme park where people would videotape themselves all day and night with cameras attached to hats. Basically, Wolfe predicted the selfie and our need to video tape the experience, rather than enjoy the experience for itself. Mr. Wolfe was gracious and insightful and, as I recall, he didn't mind me throwing in a few non-interview questions about "The Right Stuff." I remember that interview because it was one of my favorite.
Philip A. Wasserman
______________________________________________________
An amazing eulogy. Thanks.
Mark Telloyan
______________________________________________________
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" changed my life!
Further,
Larry Green
______________________________________________________
I have been a lecture agent since 1972. Between 1972-1984, I worked for the American Program Bureau in Chestnut Hill, MA (still in existence). Each agent was assigned to a series of the company's clients to be a "liaison" doing things like clearing dates and keeping the speakers happy in all areas of interaction with APB.
It was my luck to be "given" Tom Wolfe. He was one of the nicest persons you could ever meet and had "Southern manners" which made all his requests pleasant and attainable. I enjoyed our many conversations. He never talked down to the listener, if you know what I mean.
I still have in my possession several notes/letters he wrote to me about things he needed or comments on the business. It is hard to believe now but that is how things were done 40 years ago-you wrote something, mailed it and got a response.
What really stands out for me (and why I have saved these documents) is that Tom wrote them in cursive. I have worked with hundreds of folks over the years (even Presidents and Prime Ministers) but no one wrote so beautifully. They are unlike anything else.
This man had "class".
Tony Colao
Easthampton, MA
______________________________________________________
Tom Wolfe had just published "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" when I arrived in New York in 1968. I saw him on the street a couple of times and we made eye contact the last time I saw him. Of course, neither of us said anything, but I knew from his smile that he remembered seeing me before. Maybe not, but that's how I remember that moment. I read all of his books as they were published (until "Bonfire"). He was also a neighborhood activist and was the block association president for his street on the upper east side, a real "man in full." Thanks, Bob, for this memorial.
Tom Kirby
______________________________________________________
Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gail Sheehy, Nora Ephron, and art design by Milton Glaser. Bravo to Clay Felker for creating a haven for the politics and pop culture of its day, and a great read every week.
Paul Brownstein
______________________________________________________
Amazing tribute to Tom Wolfe, thank you for this! He was a writer who changed my life. It was his invention of New Journalism that changed the way we heard and told stories. He crafted a new set of norms meant to break all the rules that desperately needed to be broken. The storyteller belonged in the story, fact or fiction, which is precisely why he acknowledged you as autobiographer qua music news reporter. You and the music are inseparable, as were Tom and his biting critiques of hypocrisy.
When I first read his 1989 manifesto in Harpers, "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast," I knew the coming shift in literature was more than cosmetic. To combine that public statement of intent with a novel as perfect as "Bonfire of the Vanities" would have itself constituted a life achievement, but he was just getting started.
Important works of literary fiction that are fully entertaining may not be in the same demand today as they were when we learned to love words as life inspirations. Yet when we remember Tom Wolfe as author and provocateur, we remember what is possible when we demand as much of our artists as they demand of themselves. Words matter. Stories matter. Tom Wolfe matters.
Ken Goldstein
Los Angeles
______________________________________________________
Great one. There is no other author for whom I can say that I read every novel he ever wrote.
John Brodey
______________________________________________________
I live on Long Island and often drive upstate. When I can't stand the traffic on the Cross Bronx or the Bruckner I take the service road. I call it my "Bonfires" shortcut. Nobody ever knows what I am talking about but it always makes me smile. RIP Tom Wolfe.
Regards,
David M. Ehrlich
______________________________________________________
He broke open writing. For me he did. I remember staring at the pages. I didn't realize how many rules there were until I saw them all smashed. English class went from most hated to "yeah, let's write stuff!"
Michael Alex
______________________________________________________
I love Tom Wolfe. The man is brilliant. You should read "Man In Full" or "I Am Charlotte Simmons" if you haven't yet.
Charlie Soste
______________________________________________________
Bob - Wonderful tribute to a great writer. Thanks for your perspective and for the reminders about real writing and the importance of being true to yourself.
Burke Long
______________________________________________________
Bob---I got that book to read "The First Tycoon of Teen": Phil Spector on the plane, Phil on David Susskind, Phil in the office railing against his network of regional distributors. An endearing portrait of a highly influential impresario who had been operating mostly in the shadows. Paul Lanning
______________________________________________________
phil spector attempted to live the life that tom wolfe had given him - and that was the beginning of the end.
(name withheld by me)
______________________________________________________
This is the best eulogy I've read on Tom Wolfe.
Thanks!
Josh Patrick
______________________________________________________
I was Kesey's lawyer. I picked up Tom Wolfe at the airport and drove him down to San Mateo County to see Kesey in jail. My daughter, 5 years old, promptly spilled a Coca Cola all over his white suit. The guy was such a gentleman. He never copped an attitude and I'll tell you this, he never took notes. He only made one mistake in that book.
Brian Rohan
______________________________________________________
Amen. Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was a birthday party gift staple for us middle school age kids in Laurel Canyon back in the day. If your boyfriend gave it to you, (as did mine) you just really knew he loved you.
Kerry Gogan
______________________________________________________
Will never forget the phrase, "boiling teeth," as he described the smiles of dowagers on the Upper East Side.
One of a kind. He will be missed.
John Hummer
______________________________________________________
Clagett was a mess. He ran the only writing seminar at Midd, so if I was going to write for credit I had to go through him. He was on the other side throughout, plus I suspect the new culture threatened his entire sense of order. RIP Tom Wolfe. He elevated low culture until it ruled.
Peter Knobler
Middlebury '68
Crawdaddy '71-79
P.S. Writers were on their own up there. I reviewed Cream in concert for the Campus. And the March on Washington when we levitated the Pentagon. And the night when I saw Hendrix sit in w James Cotton at the Cafe au Go Go. Any way to bring the '60s to the college despite their kicking and screaming. Clagett wanted none of it.
______________________________________________________
Thanks for this, Bob. It's nearly impossible, I think, to really articulate how important Wolfe was. He and Hunter changed the whole paradigm.
Sam Smith
______________________________________________________
A great read Bob on Tom Wolfe who inspired a generation of writers. Keroauc's "On The Road" came first for many of us though. But a generation of music journalists including Paul Williams, Michael Lydon, Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, Nick Kent, Nick Tosches, Robert Palmer, Lenny Kaye, and the great Grover Lewis owe much to Wolfe (as did Gay Talese). I saw Wolfe speak at York University where I was taking film. The full Wolfe charm white suit and all. But it's his words and his style I remember most. And tried to emulate before I found styles of my own.
Larry LeBlanc
______________________________________________________
Terry Southern came before. No slight on Wolfe
Luke Lewis
______________________________________________________
Feeling this one. Kool Aid Acid Test, Right Stuff, Bonfire, Pump house, Bauhaus, ... these were the novels of my formative years (well, add in some Kesey, Kerouac, Tom Robbins and that was about it).
Wolfe is from Richmond where I've lived for 30 years. Went to high school at St Christopher's where my son goes, graduated from my alma mater, Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. It seems like I've felt connected not just to him but his writings my whole life.
He's had a special place in my heart for decades. He spoke at his alma mater when I was there. I still have my autographed copy of Bonfire. My paperback Koolaid Acid Test that he inscribed "Craig, have a good trip) was sadly lost when my basement room flooded in law school.
Craig Davis
______________________________________________________
Bob, "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" changed my life as well!
Thanks for Honoring Tom Wolfe today.
Alan Oreman
______________________________________________________
Thanks Bob. He was simply the very best.
Geoff
______________________________________________________
Thanks for this one Bob - I spent 8.5 years in New York, and I believe that Bonfire of the Vanities is the definitive account of what real city life is like. RIP
Emanuel Feemark
______________________________________________________
Brilliant. Truth.
And as a fellow Richmonder I thank you.
Cheers,
Dave Schools
______________________________________________________
All true Bob. I booked him at colleges in the 80s and he was exactly what you would expect. Smart, wry, slightly distant and completely comfortable in his own skin. All his work remains relevant and ripe for rediscovery but Radical Chic stands out for me, especially these days.
reachnyc
______________________________________________________
Great column on Tom Wolfe. Glad to know that I wasn't the only fish out of water in freshman Creative Writing at Middlebury. Didn't quite have the Springtime for Hitler reaction to my work, but realized that Breadloaf wasn't in my future.
Mike Wyatt
______________________________________________________
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," was rightfully de rigueur in the late
sixties but I most remember how the first page of "The Right Stuff"
grabbed me like the first page of Robert Penn Warren's "All The Kings Men" did. Could anyone really write that beautifully? I couldn't put it down and I was sad when I finished it knowing that Mr. Wolfe was not going to take me through Project Gemini next. RIP.
William Nollman
______________________________________________________
Thank you Bob. Great eulogy.. you nailed it. I was born in between the boomers and X-ers .. we are called Generation Jones.. go figure. However, I listened to my older cousins and friends and read anything Tom Wolfe wrote as I knew it WAS necessary in order to at the very least, get through this life with a smile on my face during so many screwed up decades in a row. I even read "I am Charlotte Simmons" when critics were putting him down for writing it! I decided to read it because once again, the critics obviously hadn't read beyond the blurb on the back! Suddenly, everyone decided it was a great book. yeah .. they should have asked people who took the time to read it! Great, Great, Great, insightful, spot-on literature in current culture and about current culture. Geez.. a light went out in the universe. The cool pieces of the world are today, just a bit less COOL or KOOL... Though, I know many a BIC lighter will be shining in unending applause, forever. G*dspeed Tom Wolfe.
Be
Beki Brindle-Scala
Chester, NY
______________________________________________________
Thanks, I'm glad you got to hear from him. I started reading his
stories in the Herald-Tribune Sunday magazine, in the mid-sixties. He
gave me a look at cultural back alleys that I knew existed, but I
hadn't seen or touched yet. The First Tycoon of Teen, was a look at
Phil Spector that was unlike anything in print, The Noonday
Underground, took me to a subterranean Mod disco where kids, working
in dreary offices, went to dance on their lunch hours. They longed to
stay in the club, work there, never leave, stay in "The Life." Then in
'68 "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, along with my impending draft,
permanently changed my life direction, I never did work a 'straight
job' I'm still in "The Life'"
Paul Zullo
______________________________________________________
Great writer!!! Bonfire of the Vanities was great but I loved Man in Full. The part where the main character struggled to find or panhandle to get a dime to make a phone call is classic
markrandy55
______________________________________________________
My honors US history teacher in the early 90s, when he realized we were running out of class time, had us skip WW2 so we could read "Electric Kool Acid Test" and cover Vietnam. I'm sure today some helicopter parent would complain. To 20 smart kids, in rural NH, where the American Legion had political power, reading Tom Wolfe felt as mind-altering as the adventures of those he covered.
Francis Doehner
______________________________________________________
Great write up Bob. My favorite Wolfe of all time is the collection "Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine," I have the completely worn out paperback, and have read all the essays at least a dozen times over the years. If I have my way I will be buried with it. It includes the infamous Lenny Bernstein/Panthers party, the Me Decade stuff, and a tremendous novella about a black baseball player struggling to get "The Commercial" right and still stay "black enough." Insanely great stuff.
jimeddy
______________________________________________________
I was waiting to be assigned at the Fort Campbell Processing Center after returning from Vietnam during the fall of 1970. To pass the time, I had picked up the paperback version of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and couldn't believe what I was reading - what a great book! I couldn't put it down; luckily I was stuck there for several days and had plenty of time to finish it. That book, along with "On The Road" and Hunter Thompson's Hells Angels account inspired many free spirited road miles for a whole generation. Finally we had a national voice!
So here's to Tom Wolfe, a trail blazer with a resounding voice that did it with honesty and style - thank you Tom.
Marty Jorgensen
______________________________________________________
I met the great Tom Wolfe only once, but so memorably, at a fitness club on New York's upper East Side where we were both exercising. It was at least ten years ago and I recognised him even without his trademark white suit. He was thin and friendly and talked with a slight southern accent which was charming. I broke through when I told him that I too had published fiction in Rolling Stone ("Cold and Electric" Jan 1980) and that there weren't many of us who could claim that honor. (Although I suppose you could count Rolling Stone regular Hunter Thomson as a fiction writer as well and, interestingly enough, when I did meet Hunter (like Tom only once) at a Rolling Stone Christmas Party he told me his favorite writer was, like me, F. Scott Fitzgerald. From Gatsby to Gonzo ...) For me, Tom Wolfe was the first legitimate rock 'n roll author who actually thrived in the established literary world and more than "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" it was his earlier collection of essays, "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby", that probably changed my life's direction in some imperceptible way by treating my teen age obsessions with both seriousness and wit from a mature author's perspective. I mean, he was writing about pop icons like radio DJ Murray the K (a star in the NY area) as "The Fifth Beatle" and declaring Phil Spector to be "The First Tycoon of Teen" and giving West Coast custom car designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth his due respect. Although many of these essays had appeared previously in Esquire, having them bound all together in a actual hard cover book gave credence to what even back then I believed to be sacred. Tom was not only a brilliant writer but also a dandy who dressed in bespoke sartorial splendor - the rightful heir to Mark Twain in both style and substance I suppose!
I remember telling Tom that I was writing a new novel that took place in East Hampton and NYC in the 70's when everything was changing, kind of inspired by Bonfire of the Vanities, with both fictional and real characters and he seemed genuinely pleased and interested and I promised to send him a copy when it came out ...
From Paris,
Elliott Murphy
______________________________________________________
I interviewed Tom Wolfe for NBC News (I was a field producer at the time) at his upper East Side townhouse. This was back when personal video cameras were becoming popular (they were bulky things), and Wolfe had written a story about how in the future the entire city of London, England would be a theme park where people would videotape themselves all day and night with cameras attached to hats. Basically, Wolfe predicted the selfie and our need to video tape the experience, rather than enjoy the experience for itself. Mr. Wolfe was gracious and insightful and, as I recall, he didn't mind me throwing in a few non-interview questions about "The Right Stuff." I remember that interview because it was one of my favorite.
Philip A. Wasserman
______________________________________________________
An amazing eulogy. Thanks.
Mark Telloyan
______________________________________________________
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" changed my life!
Further,
Larry Green
______________________________________________________
I have been a lecture agent since 1972. Between 1972-1984, I worked for the American Program Bureau in Chestnut Hill, MA (still in existence). Each agent was assigned to a series of the company's clients to be a "liaison" doing things like clearing dates and keeping the speakers happy in all areas of interaction with APB.
It was my luck to be "given" Tom Wolfe. He was one of the nicest persons you could ever meet and had "Southern manners" which made all his requests pleasant and attainable. I enjoyed our many conversations. He never talked down to the listener, if you know what I mean.
I still have in my possession several notes/letters he wrote to me about things he needed or comments on the business. It is hard to believe now but that is how things were done 40 years ago-you wrote something, mailed it and got a response.
What really stands out for me (and why I have saved these documents) is that Tom wrote them in cursive. I have worked with hundreds of folks over the years (even Presidents and Prime Ministers) but no one wrote so beautifully. They are unlike anything else.
This man had "class".
Tony Colao
Easthampton, MA
______________________________________________________
Tom Wolfe had just published "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" when I arrived in New York in 1968. I saw him on the street a couple of times and we made eye contact the last time I saw him. Of course, neither of us said anything, but I knew from his smile that he remembered seeing me before. Maybe not, but that's how I remember that moment. I read all of his books as they were published (until "Bonfire"). He was also a neighborhood activist and was the block association president for his street on the upper east side, a real "man in full." Thanks, Bob, for this memorial.
Tom Kirby
______________________________________________________
Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Gail Sheehy, Nora Ephron, and art design by Milton Glaser. Bravo to Clay Felker for creating a haven for the politics and pop culture of its day, and a great read every week.
Paul Brownstein
______________________________________________________
Amazing tribute to Tom Wolfe, thank you for this! He was a writer who changed my life. It was his invention of New Journalism that changed the way we heard and told stories. He crafted a new set of norms meant to break all the rules that desperately needed to be broken. The storyteller belonged in the story, fact or fiction, which is precisely why he acknowledged you as autobiographer qua music news reporter. You and the music are inseparable, as were Tom and his biting critiques of hypocrisy.
When I first read his 1989 manifesto in Harpers, "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast," I knew the coming shift in literature was more than cosmetic. To combine that public statement of intent with a novel as perfect as "Bonfire of the Vanities" would have itself constituted a life achievement, but he was just getting started.
Important works of literary fiction that are fully entertaining may not be in the same demand today as they were when we learned to love words as life inspirations. Yet when we remember Tom Wolfe as author and provocateur, we remember what is possible when we demand as much of our artists as they demand of themselves. Words matter. Stories matter. Tom Wolfe matters.
Ken Goldstein
Los Angeles
______________________________________________________
Great one. There is no other author for whom I can say that I read every novel he ever wrote.
John Brodey
______________________________________________________
I live on Long Island and often drive upstate. When I can't stand the traffic on the Cross Bronx or the Bruckner I take the service road. I call it my "Bonfires" shortcut. Nobody ever knows what I am talking about but it always makes me smile. RIP Tom Wolfe.
Regards,
David M. Ehrlich
______________________________________________________
He broke open writing. For me he did. I remember staring at the pages. I didn't realize how many rules there were until I saw them all smashed. English class went from most hated to "yeah, let's write stuff!"
Michael Alex
______________________________________________________
I love Tom Wolfe. The man is brilliant. You should read "Man In Full" or "I Am Charlotte Simmons" if you haven't yet.
Charlie Soste
______________________________________________________
Bob - Wonderful tribute to a great writer. Thanks for your perspective and for the reminders about real writing and the importance of being true to yourself.
Burke Long
______________________________________________________
Bob---I got that book to read "The First Tycoon of Teen": Phil Spector on the plane, Phil on David Susskind, Phil in the office railing against his network of regional distributors. An endearing portrait of a highly influential impresario who had been operating mostly in the shadows. Paul Lanning
______________________________________________________
phil spector attempted to live the life that tom wolfe had given him - and that was the beginning of the end.
(name withheld by me)
______________________________________________________
This is the best eulogy I've read on Tom Wolfe.
Thanks!
Josh Patrick
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YouTube Music
It's pretty cool!
Lyor says he's on the side of the artists, if one streaming service wins it will be able to crimp compensation to rightsholders, he says that's why he took the job at Google. And we can debate Lyor's motivation all day long, but the end product...
Is gonna attract users.
It's personalized. That's what differs it from its competitors. No one is gonna see the same homepage. Furthermore, you get a different homepage depending upon your location!
Let's say you listen to instrumental music at work, IT KNOWS THAT! And will suggest music to play accordingly. Ditto if you're at home, or exiting a museum, it tracks the location and squares it against your history and creates a homepage on the fly.
And they've got a lot of history. That's right, they're incorporating all your viewing on YouTube to build your favorites. And if for some reason you've been living under a rock and have never been on the default video service, you can choose different acts to inform YouTube so your homepage can be populated before it learns.
And there's a row of new releases based on your preferences. This happens to me all the time, I find a new release a YEAR after it came out. That's the hardest thing to do in today's marketplace, spread the word, especially to people who want to know. But if the YouTube app learns you're a fan of an act or genre, it will put their new releases right on the homepage. Do you know Neil Young has a new release of his "Tonight's The Night" show from the Roxy? I didn't, until I read an article. I was listening to Supertramp and wanted to know if they were still touring so I went to the band's homepage and found out Gabe Dixon was playing keyboards for the band. I LOVE Gabe Dixon, but I did not know he released a live album from Boston that I've got to write about, I've listened to it for days straight. Any service that puts this stuff up close and personal is attractive. Of course, the proof is in the pudding. Spotify does something similar, but I find its New Release Radar has too many remastered tracks, I already know them, I don't care, I want NEW STUFF!
Speaking of which, for now YouTube Music does not feature Spotify's killer app, i.e. Discover Weekly. They say they're gonna put that in... And unlike Amazon, and now Spotify, voice control is not built into the app, then again, if you're on Android, you can say "Hey Google!" and achieve the same result. And if you've got Google Home... You can call out and get playlists on the fly. Like I had Lyor ask his phone to play "Depressing Songs From 1987" and it immediately played U2's "With or Without You," this is Amazon Music's killer feature, it creates personalized playlists on the fly, via algorithm. YouTube's are not personalized.
But YouTube's killer app is...YOUTUBE!
Happens to me all the time, I get deep into an act on Spotify and I want to hear live shows, see fan videos, I click over to YouTube, but now that's BUILT IN! All the authorized and fan videos, and they pay at the subscriber rate, not the ad-supported rate.
As for trials... They're just not sure yet. Right now they're gonna have a thirty day trial, could go to ninety days, they've got carrier partners...it's flexible.
Not that you can get much data out of them, that's what's great about Spotify, it gives you plays, it gives you so much data, whereas Apple and Google hold their info close to the vest.
So, playlists are created based on your listening habits, with as many as 500 songs, and they learn along the way, if you skip the track will not show up next time.
Once again, these are not generic playlists. Yours might have the same name as a buddy's, but it will be slightly different, all based on your listening habits. But you can go deeper into the app and find the hand-curated playlists.
Also, there's a feature where they list what's hot. So, if Childish Gambino puts out a video the night before, you'll be alerted right on your homepage, think of it as a news service for music.
But you won't know until you try it.
The app is gonna have a soft launch on Tuesday, and then spread slowly thereafter. There will be promotion/advertising, and the first question you have, which is the same one I have, is...IS GOOGLE TOO LATE?
Timing is everything in tech, there's a huge first-mover advantage.
And behemoths can be undercut and toppled. Hell, think of all of Google's failed products, Glass, whatever their social network was called...
But, first mover advantage only works if you continue to improve and stay better than the competition. From what I can see, YouTube Music is a step ahead of the competition, it's very fan-friendly, even downloads/synch are emphasized in a way that nitwits can figure it out.
And there's those YouTube videos...
So it'll be ten bucks a month, and if you want the YouTube Red stuff, you'll pay a few bucks more for Premium, Red goes away, you can't buy Red without Music.
And what we find here is all of Google's machine learning and experience has been baked into this app. It's the personalization that wows, the location services, you want to try it out.
Is there enough room for all services to survive?
I'm not sure, it's a race for subscribers, and so far, most people don't have subscriptions.
And if you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have said YouTube has no chance.
But today??
It's quite possible!
Lyor says he's on the side of the artists, if one streaming service wins it will be able to crimp compensation to rightsholders, he says that's why he took the job at Google. And we can debate Lyor's motivation all day long, but the end product...
Is gonna attract users.
It's personalized. That's what differs it from its competitors. No one is gonna see the same homepage. Furthermore, you get a different homepage depending upon your location!
Let's say you listen to instrumental music at work, IT KNOWS THAT! And will suggest music to play accordingly. Ditto if you're at home, or exiting a museum, it tracks the location and squares it against your history and creates a homepage on the fly.
And they've got a lot of history. That's right, they're incorporating all your viewing on YouTube to build your favorites. And if for some reason you've been living under a rock and have never been on the default video service, you can choose different acts to inform YouTube so your homepage can be populated before it learns.
And there's a row of new releases based on your preferences. This happens to me all the time, I find a new release a YEAR after it came out. That's the hardest thing to do in today's marketplace, spread the word, especially to people who want to know. But if the YouTube app learns you're a fan of an act or genre, it will put their new releases right on the homepage. Do you know Neil Young has a new release of his "Tonight's The Night" show from the Roxy? I didn't, until I read an article. I was listening to Supertramp and wanted to know if they were still touring so I went to the band's homepage and found out Gabe Dixon was playing keyboards for the band. I LOVE Gabe Dixon, but I did not know he released a live album from Boston that I've got to write about, I've listened to it for days straight. Any service that puts this stuff up close and personal is attractive. Of course, the proof is in the pudding. Spotify does something similar, but I find its New Release Radar has too many remastered tracks, I already know them, I don't care, I want NEW STUFF!
Speaking of which, for now YouTube Music does not feature Spotify's killer app, i.e. Discover Weekly. They say they're gonna put that in... And unlike Amazon, and now Spotify, voice control is not built into the app, then again, if you're on Android, you can say "Hey Google!" and achieve the same result. And if you've got Google Home... You can call out and get playlists on the fly. Like I had Lyor ask his phone to play "Depressing Songs From 1987" and it immediately played U2's "With or Without You," this is Amazon Music's killer feature, it creates personalized playlists on the fly, via algorithm. YouTube's are not personalized.
But YouTube's killer app is...YOUTUBE!
Happens to me all the time, I get deep into an act on Spotify and I want to hear live shows, see fan videos, I click over to YouTube, but now that's BUILT IN! All the authorized and fan videos, and they pay at the subscriber rate, not the ad-supported rate.
As for trials... They're just not sure yet. Right now they're gonna have a thirty day trial, could go to ninety days, they've got carrier partners...it's flexible.
Not that you can get much data out of them, that's what's great about Spotify, it gives you plays, it gives you so much data, whereas Apple and Google hold their info close to the vest.
So, playlists are created based on your listening habits, with as many as 500 songs, and they learn along the way, if you skip the track will not show up next time.
Once again, these are not generic playlists. Yours might have the same name as a buddy's, but it will be slightly different, all based on your listening habits. But you can go deeper into the app and find the hand-curated playlists.
Also, there's a feature where they list what's hot. So, if Childish Gambino puts out a video the night before, you'll be alerted right on your homepage, think of it as a news service for music.
But you won't know until you try it.
The app is gonna have a soft launch on Tuesday, and then spread slowly thereafter. There will be promotion/advertising, and the first question you have, which is the same one I have, is...IS GOOGLE TOO LATE?
Timing is everything in tech, there's a huge first-mover advantage.
And behemoths can be undercut and toppled. Hell, think of all of Google's failed products, Glass, whatever their social network was called...
But, first mover advantage only works if you continue to improve and stay better than the competition. From what I can see, YouTube Music is a step ahead of the competition, it's very fan-friendly, even downloads/synch are emphasized in a way that nitwits can figure it out.
And there's those YouTube videos...
So it'll be ten bucks a month, and if you want the YouTube Red stuff, you'll pay a few bucks more for Premium, Red goes away, you can't buy Red without Music.
And what we find here is all of Google's machine learning and experience has been baked into this app. It's the personalization that wows, the location services, you want to try it out.
Is there enough room for all services to survive?
I'm not sure, it's a race for subscribers, and so far, most people don't have subscriptions.
And if you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have said YouTube has no chance.
But today??
It's quite possible!
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Tuesday 15 May 2018
Gilberto Gil-This Week's Podcast
You may not know him, but he's a superstar in Brazil.
He was exiled from the country, landed in London in the early seventies, and then came back to Brazil for his victory lap, further success and even a stint in the government as Minister of Culture.
Now Rio is a dangerous place. You can't walk around willy-nilly and after dark the cars don't even stop for red lights. Gilberto's studio is on a hill across the street from the American School, just shy of the favela. The American School wants to move, but no one will buy the land, at least not at a reasonable price.
Gilberto now lives in an apartment building with security features after his family was accosted in his previous home.
But his studio, high in the hills...
Visiting it was like a fall day in Los Angeles. We got behind the gate, every house has a wall and gate, and walked through to a staircase that brought us down to the studio, which to label it "home" would be doing it a disservice. Gilberto was elegant and wry and went into detail about his career and... He wanted to do music, but first he got a degree to please his parents, but after being on TV his career blew up and...
You may not know him, but you'll learn from his story. You'll enjoy the discourse. You'll be brought to a foreign land, which is always illuminating, but ultimately learn...
The music business is always the same.
A snippet: https://bit.ly/2jXFaSf
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/2KorsTS
Apple: https://apple.co/2wJZdNh
Google Play: https://bit.ly/2rIiTfC
Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2jXSO7S
Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/2IrsnSY
Overcast: https://bit.ly/2IJdWwQ
Acast: https://bit.ly/2InNDgb
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He was exiled from the country, landed in London in the early seventies, and then came back to Brazil for his victory lap, further success and even a stint in the government as Minister of Culture.
Now Rio is a dangerous place. You can't walk around willy-nilly and after dark the cars don't even stop for red lights. Gilberto's studio is on a hill across the street from the American School, just shy of the favela. The American School wants to move, but no one will buy the land, at least not at a reasonable price.
Gilberto now lives in an apartment building with security features after his family was accosted in his previous home.
But his studio, high in the hills...
Visiting it was like a fall day in Los Angeles. We got behind the gate, every house has a wall and gate, and walked through to a staircase that brought us down to the studio, which to label it "home" would be doing it a disservice. Gilberto was elegant and wry and went into detail about his career and... He wanted to do music, but first he got a degree to please his parents, but after being on TV his career blew up and...
You may not know him, but you'll learn from his story. You'll enjoy the discourse. You'll be brought to a foreign land, which is always illuminating, but ultimately learn...
The music business is always the same.
A snippet: https://bit.ly/2jXFaSf
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/2KorsTS
Apple: https://apple.co/2wJZdNh
Google Play: https://bit.ly/2rIiTfC
Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2jXSO7S
Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/2IrsnSY
Overcast: https://bit.ly/2IJdWwQ
Acast: https://bit.ly/2InNDgb
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Tom Wolfe
"I do believe you're writing the first autobiographical newsletter."
That's what Tom Wolfe wrote me in the nineties, before the internet, before I became self-conscious about revealing my truth for fear of blowback.
Tom Wolfe was never afraid. He threw bombs into the villages of conventional wisdom. He hewed to his own inner voice. He was a cultural signpost.
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" was a rite of passage, back when collegians still read books to point the way. Word came down you had to read it, and when you did...
You not only learned about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, you were informed of a whole philosophy.
This was before the movie, a couple of years later we all read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and just after the counterculture had embraced Jack Kerouac's "On The Road," but it was "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" that spread the ethos of this roving band with its own philosophy.
You were either on the bus or off. And it didn't matter whether you were actually inside or outside, it was a state of mind. Kinda like long hair. Just because you had it, it didn't mean you were a free, left-wing experimenter.
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" changed my life, as it did for so many others, because it illustrated the POSSIBILITIES! In a world that was your oyster, where you didn't have to jump through preordained hoops just to survive.
Tech...only a few can get rich.
The rest of us are living lives of drudgery so we can buy the stuff the corporations sell us and get high at night.
That's life in the twenty first century.
And there's always been an overclass, an elite we're supposed to adore and emulate. But Wolfe had no problem skewering Leonard Bernstein's tribe's foray into "radical chic." Who is the person who's going to skewer the Met Gala? Even better, the royal wedding, tell me why I should care again?
And I remember reading about the "Me Decade" in "New York" magazine on my flight to law school, learning about EST for the very first time, before the self-improvement quacks gained traction across America, before the eighties, the greed decade. Wolfe could see things, both past and present.
Like the space program. His account in "The Right Stuff" is now the de facto story, the one we all refer to, Chuck Yeager is a bigger hero than anybody who got into a capsule.
And despite the movie being so bad, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" captured an era that was puffed-up, when money first began to rule, trump every other quality, as it still does.
So Wolfe was a seer.
But even more he was a stylist, even though he'd hate that word. Because his writing was not affected, it was truth. He played with the art form, he was beholden to no strictures, he skewered "The New Yorker," which is still too self-satisfied.
One of my most memorable moments, in a bad way, is taking a creative writing course at Middlebury from a professor who wrote sea stories, unsuccessfully. When I read in class it was like "Springtime for Hitler," jaws would drop, mouths would be agape, nothing would be said. But one time I wrote something that John Clagett, you can never forget the names of impediments, kinda liked, but he said it needed a twist. This was 1973, had he ever heard of Tom Wolfe, of the New Journalism, which was already OVER??
Nobody in that class became a writer. John Clagett died in obscurity. They were about conformity, there's not only no future in that, but no fun.
Tom Wolfe liked fun.
He lived to the ripe old age of 88, unlike our rock stars, he didn't abuse his body and die young, we got to see what he could create in his later years. And the usual suspects still decry him. Although most of them are dead. Like the novel. Which is now about style as opposed to plot. That's what's lauded in the highfalutin' journals, what's taught in MFA programs, ones that say rewriting and editing are king.
No, INSPIRATION is king, and the key is to capture it and not beat the life out of it whilst getting it on paper.
If you've never read "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid" test you should. It'll tell you what happened in California back in the sixties. When it was pooh-poohed as it is now. People can't handle those who break from the pack. And although they accept Hunter Thompson, he was seen as a comedic character, a court jester who truly wanted a seat at the table, whereas Wolfe never became his subjects, never partook, was always the observer, never worried about offending someone, he was a beacon.
And to me he still is.
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That's what Tom Wolfe wrote me in the nineties, before the internet, before I became self-conscious about revealing my truth for fear of blowback.
Tom Wolfe was never afraid. He threw bombs into the villages of conventional wisdom. He hewed to his own inner voice. He was a cultural signpost.
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" was a rite of passage, back when collegians still read books to point the way. Word came down you had to read it, and when you did...
You not only learned about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, you were informed of a whole philosophy.
This was before the movie, a couple of years later we all read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and just after the counterculture had embraced Jack Kerouac's "On The Road," but it was "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" that spread the ethos of this roving band with its own philosophy.
You were either on the bus or off. And it didn't matter whether you were actually inside or outside, it was a state of mind. Kinda like long hair. Just because you had it, it didn't mean you were a free, left-wing experimenter.
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" changed my life, as it did for so many others, because it illustrated the POSSIBILITIES! In a world that was your oyster, where you didn't have to jump through preordained hoops just to survive.
Tech...only a few can get rich.
The rest of us are living lives of drudgery so we can buy the stuff the corporations sell us and get high at night.
That's life in the twenty first century.
And there's always been an overclass, an elite we're supposed to adore and emulate. But Wolfe had no problem skewering Leonard Bernstein's tribe's foray into "radical chic." Who is the person who's going to skewer the Met Gala? Even better, the royal wedding, tell me why I should care again?
And I remember reading about the "Me Decade" in "New York" magazine on my flight to law school, learning about EST for the very first time, before the self-improvement quacks gained traction across America, before the eighties, the greed decade. Wolfe could see things, both past and present.
Like the space program. His account in "The Right Stuff" is now the de facto story, the one we all refer to, Chuck Yeager is a bigger hero than anybody who got into a capsule.
And despite the movie being so bad, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" captured an era that was puffed-up, when money first began to rule, trump every other quality, as it still does.
So Wolfe was a seer.
But even more he was a stylist, even though he'd hate that word. Because his writing was not affected, it was truth. He played with the art form, he was beholden to no strictures, he skewered "The New Yorker," which is still too self-satisfied.
One of my most memorable moments, in a bad way, is taking a creative writing course at Middlebury from a professor who wrote sea stories, unsuccessfully. When I read in class it was like "Springtime for Hitler," jaws would drop, mouths would be agape, nothing would be said. But one time I wrote something that John Clagett, you can never forget the names of impediments, kinda liked, but he said it needed a twist. This was 1973, had he ever heard of Tom Wolfe, of the New Journalism, which was already OVER??
Nobody in that class became a writer. John Clagett died in obscurity. They were about conformity, there's not only no future in that, but no fun.
Tom Wolfe liked fun.
He lived to the ripe old age of 88, unlike our rock stars, he didn't abuse his body and die young, we got to see what he could create in his later years. And the usual suspects still decry him. Although most of them are dead. Like the novel. Which is now about style as opposed to plot. That's what's lauded in the highfalutin' journals, what's taught in MFA programs, ones that say rewriting and editing are king.
No, INSPIRATION is king, and the key is to capture it and not beat the life out of it whilst getting it on paper.
If you've never read "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid" test you should. It'll tell you what happened in California back in the sixties. When it was pooh-poohed as it is now. People can't handle those who break from the pack. And although they accept Hunter Thompson, he was seen as a comedic character, a court jester who truly wanted a seat at the table, whereas Wolfe never became his subjects, never partook, was always the observer, never worried about offending someone, he was a beacon.
And to me he still is.
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Monday 14 May 2018
R. Kelly/Spotify...& Apple & Pandora...
The goalposts have moved.
If you'd asked me about this a year ago, I'd be testifying about free speech, decrying Spotify, et al's, moves.
But as Bob Dylan once put it, things have changed.
Yes, it appears these artists are being punished without being convicted. But this is no different from Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, Schneiderman... This is the way it's been going. Is it right? Probably not, but this is what happens when you have decades, centuries, millennia of sexual abuse. Kinda like the L.A. riots, does anybody trust the police since, the rappers were right. Kinda like Watergate, lawyers went from heroes to zeros overnight. So...
The court of public opinion convicted R. Kelly. He's been skating.
Meanwhile, we've got a President who's committed multiple sexual faux pas and not only got elected, but is continuing to serve. And save me your tribal diatribe, you're a right winger, you support Trump, I get it, but do you support sexual abuse?
I doubt it.
And let's not forget, Spotify, et al, are not banning R. Kelly from their services, they're just not PROMOTING HIM! Just like every artist does not get an endcap at physical retail, just like every artist does not get on the Apple or Spotify homepage. You can still find his music, still listen to him, but you've got to want to, it's not being foisted on people willy-nilly.
You don't have to look back in history too far to see the same thing. David Geffen dropped the Geto Boys. Didn't prevent them from making new music. Should Spotify, et al, be complicit in advancing the career of R. Kelly? Many of his victims would say no.
What does this impend in the sphere, what about other bad actors, or ACCUSED bad actors?
I know, I know, the hoi polloi like a rebel, but to what degree have artists fed into this, perpetrated it, is this good for society? Maybe if we send a message if you abuse women we won't promote your music men will stop, isn't that a good thing?
And when YouTube and Facebook didn't police hate speech and inaccuracies, look what happened, Russia came in and spread fake news, and bad actors were all over YouTube with heinous messages, should there be a line?
I think most people would say yes, they believe in truth, they don't want it obfuscated, and we're a long way from the fairness rule, you can be victimized by algorithms that feed you stuff reinforcing beliefs that no one should have.
Oh, please don't take this to an extreme conclusion, about all tracks being banned, about chilling free speech, that's not what this is about.
And the male-dominated record industry has been based on abusing women, it was the ethos of heavy metal, the only thing that's curbed this behavior is cellphone cameras and social media, should we ban them so men can continue to invade women with mud sharks?
And if one remembers, rap acts used to sample willy-nilly, without getting the rights, as a result of lawsuits/crackdown, they started making original beats. Was this a good thing or a bad one? I don't know, but we need a rule of law.
Then again, that's the issue here, R. Kelly has not been convicted.
But let's retry all those rape cases now, where the juries believed the perp. I bet a lot would come out the other way. And the more sunlight and changed values we have, the more women are willing to come forward, to hold bad actors accountable and change behavior.
Women don't have much of a voice in the music business. That does not mean Spotify doing the right thing, a company run by Swedish men, is bad.
Once again, I'm troubled by the conviction of men in the marketplace who have not been convicted in court. But that rule no longer applies. And at what point do you save future women (girls!) from abuse? Do you just let someone continue to rape until a court convicts them?
This is complicated, and touchy. Where is the line?
Damned if I know.
But we're trying to find it. This is the only way we can, by making moves, taking chances.
I don't want to live in a society where abusing women gets a pass. I don't want to live in a society where music is the abuser in chief, under the rubric of "free speech."
This is not Tipper Gore and the PRMC. No one is saying R. Kelly can't make music. No one is saying people can't listen to it. Hell, there's no warning attached to his tunes regarding his behavior. This is solely a decision not to promote.
And the most vocal people challenging this are...
Right wingers, who out of the other side of their mouth support our abusing President.
And musicians and their support teams who fear falling on the wrong side of this equation.
Are we gonna make Spotify, et al, the new NRA? Protecting the right to "kill," despite so many being sacrificed in the process?
Turns out schoolchildren want gun regulation. And I'd say most people want to rule out hate speech and sexual abuse.
Once again, we're trying to find the line.
And if you're one of those blowhards pointing to Bill Clinton...
IT WAS A DIFFERENT ERA!
That was then and this is now.
Never forget it.
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If you'd asked me about this a year ago, I'd be testifying about free speech, decrying Spotify, et al's, moves.
But as Bob Dylan once put it, things have changed.
Yes, it appears these artists are being punished without being convicted. But this is no different from Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, Schneiderman... This is the way it's been going. Is it right? Probably not, but this is what happens when you have decades, centuries, millennia of sexual abuse. Kinda like the L.A. riots, does anybody trust the police since, the rappers were right. Kinda like Watergate, lawyers went from heroes to zeros overnight. So...
The court of public opinion convicted R. Kelly. He's been skating.
Meanwhile, we've got a President who's committed multiple sexual faux pas and not only got elected, but is continuing to serve. And save me your tribal diatribe, you're a right winger, you support Trump, I get it, but do you support sexual abuse?
I doubt it.
And let's not forget, Spotify, et al, are not banning R. Kelly from their services, they're just not PROMOTING HIM! Just like every artist does not get an endcap at physical retail, just like every artist does not get on the Apple or Spotify homepage. You can still find his music, still listen to him, but you've got to want to, it's not being foisted on people willy-nilly.
You don't have to look back in history too far to see the same thing. David Geffen dropped the Geto Boys. Didn't prevent them from making new music. Should Spotify, et al, be complicit in advancing the career of R. Kelly? Many of his victims would say no.
What does this impend in the sphere, what about other bad actors, or ACCUSED bad actors?
I know, I know, the hoi polloi like a rebel, but to what degree have artists fed into this, perpetrated it, is this good for society? Maybe if we send a message if you abuse women we won't promote your music men will stop, isn't that a good thing?
And when YouTube and Facebook didn't police hate speech and inaccuracies, look what happened, Russia came in and spread fake news, and bad actors were all over YouTube with heinous messages, should there be a line?
I think most people would say yes, they believe in truth, they don't want it obfuscated, and we're a long way from the fairness rule, you can be victimized by algorithms that feed you stuff reinforcing beliefs that no one should have.
Oh, please don't take this to an extreme conclusion, about all tracks being banned, about chilling free speech, that's not what this is about.
And the male-dominated record industry has been based on abusing women, it was the ethos of heavy metal, the only thing that's curbed this behavior is cellphone cameras and social media, should we ban them so men can continue to invade women with mud sharks?
And if one remembers, rap acts used to sample willy-nilly, without getting the rights, as a result of lawsuits/crackdown, they started making original beats. Was this a good thing or a bad one? I don't know, but we need a rule of law.
Then again, that's the issue here, R. Kelly has not been convicted.
But let's retry all those rape cases now, where the juries believed the perp. I bet a lot would come out the other way. And the more sunlight and changed values we have, the more women are willing to come forward, to hold bad actors accountable and change behavior.
Women don't have much of a voice in the music business. That does not mean Spotify doing the right thing, a company run by Swedish men, is bad.
Once again, I'm troubled by the conviction of men in the marketplace who have not been convicted in court. But that rule no longer applies. And at what point do you save future women (girls!) from abuse? Do you just let someone continue to rape until a court convicts them?
This is complicated, and touchy. Where is the line?
Damned if I know.
But we're trying to find it. This is the only way we can, by making moves, taking chances.
I don't want to live in a society where abusing women gets a pass. I don't want to live in a society where music is the abuser in chief, under the rubric of "free speech."
This is not Tipper Gore and the PRMC. No one is saying R. Kelly can't make music. No one is saying people can't listen to it. Hell, there's no warning attached to his tunes regarding his behavior. This is solely a decision not to promote.
And the most vocal people challenging this are...
Right wingers, who out of the other side of their mouth support our abusing President.
And musicians and their support teams who fear falling on the wrong side of this equation.
Are we gonna make Spotify, et al, the new NRA? Protecting the right to "kill," despite so many being sacrificed in the process?
Turns out schoolchildren want gun regulation. And I'd say most people want to rule out hate speech and sexual abuse.
Once again, we're trying to find the line.
And if you're one of those blowhards pointing to Bill Clinton...
IT WAS A DIFFERENT ERA!
That was then and this is now.
Never forget it.
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The North Water
https://amzn.to/2GhKU1Q
Read this book.
You won't know half the words, you'll sometimes keep reading even though you didn't quite understand what just happened, but you'll be riveted nonetheless, I couldn't wait to get back into my room in T.O. to dive into it, and I had trouble turning out the light, it's that kind of book.
The kind on paper you won't be interested in. A nineteenth century whaling story. But in so many ways contemporary. Yet antiquated. I remember in Tahiti hearing the story of the Bounty, and the professor saying there was no way the islanders wanted to be with the sailors, because the mariners hadn't taken a shower in months, wore the same clothes, this was an era before hygiene was prominent.
So you might be a tad grossed out, but that's kind of the appeal.
So what is "The North Water"?
On one hand, it's the story of sailing into icy waters long before electronic navigation, when you were fighting the elements for very little pay, assuming you're a crew member.
And the protagonist is a surgeon with a backstory.
And if it were just about the adventure, that'd be enough.
But as you continue to read, you realize it's a thriller.
Now this book came out two years ago. I passed it by until I got an e-mail from an agent telling me he was strangely addicted. And then I read a story in the "Times" talking about the phenomenon.
You see the thing with books is you have to read them. And not that many people do. So it can take a long time for them to percolate in the marketplace, especially if they're not typical, heavily-promoted genre books.
This is what reading is supposed to be. An entry into a world where you're disconnected from everyday life and intrigued by what you're encountering.
I'm not gonna give you any more plot, because first and foremost I read for plot, and if someone gives it to me in advance, why bother?
And I won't guarantee all of you will like this.
And it takes a while for them to get on the ship.
But if you stick with it, you'll enjoy the journey.
P.S. Now I'm in the midst of Curtis Sittenfeld's "You Think It, I'll Say It," and I read the title story on my way back from Toronto and I can't stop thinking about it. The book is a collection of short stories, which is frequently an ungratifying format, but Sittenfeld's writing cuts like butter and there's so much truth and humanity in the stories you won't want them to end. This is the kind of writing that makes me feel connected, that someone understands me, the kind that made me want to be a writer.
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Read this book.
You won't know half the words, you'll sometimes keep reading even though you didn't quite understand what just happened, but you'll be riveted nonetheless, I couldn't wait to get back into my room in T.O. to dive into it, and I had trouble turning out the light, it's that kind of book.
The kind on paper you won't be interested in. A nineteenth century whaling story. But in so many ways contemporary. Yet antiquated. I remember in Tahiti hearing the story of the Bounty, and the professor saying there was no way the islanders wanted to be with the sailors, because the mariners hadn't taken a shower in months, wore the same clothes, this was an era before hygiene was prominent.
So you might be a tad grossed out, but that's kind of the appeal.
So what is "The North Water"?
On one hand, it's the story of sailing into icy waters long before electronic navigation, when you were fighting the elements for very little pay, assuming you're a crew member.
And the protagonist is a surgeon with a backstory.
And if it were just about the adventure, that'd be enough.
But as you continue to read, you realize it's a thriller.
Now this book came out two years ago. I passed it by until I got an e-mail from an agent telling me he was strangely addicted. And then I read a story in the "Times" talking about the phenomenon.
You see the thing with books is you have to read them. And not that many people do. So it can take a long time for them to percolate in the marketplace, especially if they're not typical, heavily-promoted genre books.
This is what reading is supposed to be. An entry into a world where you're disconnected from everyday life and intrigued by what you're encountering.
I'm not gonna give you any more plot, because first and foremost I read for plot, and if someone gives it to me in advance, why bother?
And I won't guarantee all of you will like this.
And it takes a while for them to get on the ship.
But if you stick with it, you'll enjoy the journey.
P.S. Now I'm in the midst of Curtis Sittenfeld's "You Think It, I'll Say It," and I read the title story on my way back from Toronto and I can't stop thinking about it. The book is a collection of short stories, which is frequently an ungratifying format, but Sittenfeld's writing cuts like butter and there's so much truth and humanity in the stories you won't want them to end. This is the kind of writing that makes me feel connected, that someone understands me, the kind that made me want to be a writer.
--
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