Now reading...

[WestCoast Ghost]

RADICAL HOLLYWOOD, a sympathetic look at lefties in Lotus Land circa 1930's-50's.

[Jazzmoose]

I finally started Myself When I Am Real .

[Mnytime]

Since I have been basically stuck in hospitals or home I have been doing a whole lot of re-reading and listening to music.

Books re-read since last posted:

Anthony Trollope-The Way We Live Now
Marcel Proust-In Search of Lost Time-yet the latest version
F. Scott Fitzgerald-The Beautiful & Damned
Wilkie Collins-The Moonstone
Hemingway-Farewell to Arms
Hermann Hesse-The Glass Bead Game
Theodore Dreiser-Sister Carrie
Gabriel Garcia Marquez-One Hundred Years of Solitude
Roberto Calasso-The Marriage of Cadmus & Harmony
Kobo Abe-The Woman in the Dunes
Cormac McCarthy-Blood Meridian
Dostoevsky-The Brothers Karamazov
Henry Miller-Crazy Cock

Vladimir Nabokov:
Ada, or Ardor
Pale Fire


Yukio Mishima-The Sea of Fertility tetralogy


Yasunari Kawabata:
The Master of Go
Thousand Cranes

Faulkner's:
Sanctuary
The Reivers
Absalom, Absalom!
As I Lay Dying


Hermann Broch's:
The Sleepwalkers
Virgil


Samuel Beckett:
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable
Murphy

[Clinton Forry]

I have been reading this great book titled "The Fabulous Phonograph" by Roland Gelatt, published 1955. It details the history of recording up to that point. I just finsihed the chapter about Caruso's first recordings.

The funny thing is, there were audiophiles before 1900. A man by the name of Gianni Bettini was making gramophone upgrades and selling premium-grade cylinders for $2-$6 while most other companies were charging 50 cents. His upgrades appear much like today's esoteric equipment might.

I got this book at the library sale for a buck. Well worth it!

[Matthew]

Just finished "Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker" by James Gavin. It does not give a very nice look at the life of Baker, but, after all, what junkie lives a "nice life" centered upon helping others? Reading in between the lines, Baker also comes off as a major racist, always complaining how Afro-Americans are dumping on him. Reminds me of Art Pepper's infamous rant in "Straight Life." It's one of those unspoken realities that there were great racial tensions in the "West Coast Jazz Movement" in the 50's. I've even read where Stan Kenton refused to hire Afro-Americian to his band. I'm sure I'll read the Baker bio a couple more times this year -- it was weak on any musical insight though.

[Joe]

On the recommendation of a friend, I've been idly flipping throught THE STONES OF SUMMER by Dow Mossman. The book and its author are also apparently the subject of a new documentary -- STONE READER by Mark Moskowitz

http://www.stonereader.net/

Doubt I'll read the whole novel, though. I'll probably turn to Jerome Charyn's book on ping-pong (SIZZLING CHOPS AND DEADLY SPINS) instead...

[Hardbop]

Yeah. "Deep in a Dream" is a great read. One of the best bios I've ever read and perhaps the best jazz book I've ever read.

I'm surprised you could even find a copy of "The Stone Reader." Ever since the Moskowitz doc. has been making the rounds on the film festival circuit that one has been tough to find. I saw the doc at last fall's Tribeca Film Festival and it played at the Slamdance Film Festival that runs concurrently with the better known Sundance Film Festival. I have no plans to read that thick and dense novel, but I do strongly recommend the documentary, particularly for anyone who loves to read. The pure joy of reading and finding that out of print book comes through. Or the joy of finding someone else who loves the same book that you do.

Meanwhile, I am working my way through Pauline Kael's "Hooked," a collection of her film criticism from the mid to late 1980s. I probably read many of these reviews when they came out because I did subscribe to the "New Yorker." I also saw many of the films she reviewed on original release so it brings back quite a few memories. I've been reading a number of her books of film criticism, but this is the first collection that contains films I've seen as an adult. The other collections I've read were reviews from when I was a kid or young adult and didn't really follow film the way I started to in the 1980s.

[connoisseur series500]

Originally posted by Mnytime
Since I have been basically stuck in hospitals or home I have been doing a whole lot of re-reading and listening to music.

Books re-read since last posted:

Anthony Trollope-The Way We Live Now
Marcel Proust-In Search of Lost Time-yet the latest version
F. Scott Fitzgerald-The Beautiful & Damned
Wilkie Collins-The Moonstone
Hemingway-Farewell to Arms
Hermann Hesse-The Glass Bead Game
Theodore Dreiser-Sister Carrie
Gabriel Garcia Marquez-One Hundred Years of Solitude
Roberto Calasso-The Marriage of Cadmus & Harmony
Kobo Abe-The Woman in the Dunes
Cormac McCarthy-Blood Meridian
Dostoevsky-The Brothers Karamazov
Henry Miller-Crazy Cock

Vladimir Nabokov:
Ada, or Ardor
Pale Fire


Yukio Mishima-The Sea of Fertility tetralogy


Yasunari Kawabata:
The Master of Go
Thousand Cranes

Faulkner's:
Sanctuary
The Reivers
Absalom, Absalom!
As I Lay Dying


Hermann Broch's:
The Sleepwalkers
Virgil


Samuel Beckett:
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable
Murphy

Omigosh, what a list!!

That's several years of reading for me: usual lame excuse: "I don't have the time." Of course we always do, but I've got too many other distractions.

My favorites from your list that I've read before are "Sister Carrie," and"Brothers Karamazov."

I tried to get through the Mishima Tetralogy and even lived in Bangkok, Thailand when I was reading the book on the Temple of the Golden Dawn, but I found it all impenetrable. Must have missed a bunch in the translation.

A lot of Faulkner, but no "Sound and the Fury," or damn!, I'm getting old, forgot the title: Is it "Light in August?" The one with Joe Christmas in it. Also, I liked "Wild Palms" powerful stuff. I should start a thread with Faulkner quotes.

[David H]

Just finished:

Peter Ackroyd's - Albion (Ackroyd's view of the hitory and development of the English imagination)

Currently reading:

Nevill Judd's - Al Stewart: the true life adventures of a folk-rock troubadour (fond memories of Stewart's 70's music)

[Chris A.]

I am close to finishing a very sad, shocking book called Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion, it is a collection of eyewitness accounts gathered by various people who managed to sneak into Jenin. There is no author, as such, but it is edited by Ramzy Baroud.

A quick read, it is very moving, very disturbing--I recommend it to anyone with an open mind.

[jazzdude]

"The Many Lives of John Lennon" by Albert Goldman.

I know the book was very controversial when it came out in the mid-80's. I see why. Depressing. Fascinating. But one-sided, to say the least.

I next want to read the book on the Beatles by Peter Brown. Mentioned as one of the best by someone on the "inside." He was mentioned in Lennon's song, "The Ballad of John and Yoko."

[WestCoast Ghost]

Originally posted by Chris A.
I am close to finishing a very sad, shocking book called Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion, it is a collection of eyewitness accounts gathered by various people who managed to sneak into Jenin. There is no author, as such, but it is edited by Ramzy Baroud.


I can hear it now: "Your Fatah and Hamas buddies will say anything, Chris, to promote their murderous cause... etc., etc." The echo of bulletin boards past!

Thanks for mentioning that book. I'll have to take a look for it.
BTW, anybody spotted Barak here, at JC, or on Organissimo? I have his e-mail address and will let him know where we've all migrated; I believe he puts in occasional appearances on the Harlem board too. He returned to Israel for a couple of weeks on March 3 but may be back in the states by now.

[WestCoast Ghost]

Originally posted by jazzdude
"The Many Lives of John Lennon" by Albert Goldman.
I know the book was very controversial when it came out in the mid-80's. I see why. Depressing. Fascinating. But one-sided, to say the least.


Was Goldman's bio the source for Ian McDonald's footnote in REVOLUTION IN THE HEAD about Lennon's meeting with the other Beatles in '68? He allegedly summoned all three so that he could inform them that he was God.
I've always enjoyed imagining what their reaction must have been to that announcement.

[Chris A.]

Originally posted by WestCoast Ghost


I can hear it now: "Your Fatah and Hamas buddies will say anything, Chris, to promote their murderous cause... etc., etc." The echo of bulletin boards past!


You do a good pixel imitation of Greg.

Apropos Albert Goldman, I originally met him when he was working on the Lennon book (Yoko Ono once worked for me as a music dept. file clerk) and he began phoning me with fair regularity, mostly to check out industry gossip. We also had a dinner a few times--he was a rather peculiar, interesting man. I have two books of his with odd inscriptions, which I will share:

Elvis:
For Chris - my colleague and now my friend in the world of the dark arts.
Fondly, Albert
5/7/84
N.Y.C.

The Lives of John Lennon:
For Chris -
My friend, colleague, and fellow white nigger.
Albert
4/10/89

:confused:

[gregk]

Originally posted by jazzdude
[B

I next want to read the book on the Beatles by Peter Brown. Mentioned as one of the best by someone on the "inside." He was mentioned in Lennon's song, "The Ballad of John and Yoko." [/B]

I have this Brown book. It is a good read, to be sure. I would comment more on it but I read it 15 years ago, so I would probably just confuse things now!!

[gregk]

In between baby and work, I have been reading So What by Szwed since December 2002. I barely have time to read (more like skim) Time magazine each week or the newspaper

[Mnytime]

Chris

When is the Bessie Smith Tome coming out?



Just finished Kafka's Amerika

Next up

Gunter Grass-The Tin Drum

[Mnytime]

Chris

So when can we expect to see your update on Bessie Smith?


Re-reading some of my favorite Russian Lit.

The Master & Margarita-Mikhail Bulgakov
Dead Souls-Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
Diary of a Madman-Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
Father's & Sons-Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Home of the Gentry-Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
A Hero of Our Times-Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov
Oblomov-Ivan Goncharov
Cancer Ward-Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk- Kikolai Leskov

[Chris A.]

Originally posted by Mnytime
Chris

So when can we expect to see your update on Bessie Smith?


It will be in stores June 1. Atlantic Monthly will carry a review in the July issue.

Thanks for asking.

[Mnytime]

Chris:

What will the title be exactly so I can try looking if it is up for pre-order already?

[Mnytime]

Found it at Amazon for anyone interested.



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0300099029/qid=1053325024/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-0140522-7398211?v=glance&s=books


Chris I sent you a PM