A million years ago, I tried to make a documentary about the Hamas murder of Ismail Bakr, Mohammed Bakr, Ahed Bakr, and Zakaria Bakr, four Palestinian boys said to have been killed by the IDF on a beach in Gaza, July 16, 2014. I learned during the process that what I’d heard is correct: Journalists…
Never look for rationality where there is none
January 19, 2016
My lawyer told me that. He said the hardest thing he had to learn was to never look for rationality where there is none. I understand intellectually, but so far I’ve been unable to emotionally disconnect myself from the global irrationality I see. It fills me with horror and rage. I’m apolitical. Although I always…
Repayment for the Best Interview Ever
August 19, 2015
Can’t post tonight. Here’s my account of how a record company helped me out after I conducted the best interview ever of one of its stars. Repayment for the best interview ever After “Gene Simmons: Call Him Doctor Love” was published in Bass Player, I did something for the first and only time in my…
Nausea
June 25, 2015
My nausea prevents me from posting tonight. All the behind-the-scenes folderol having to do with my documentary—Operation Four Little Martyrs: A Hamas Deception that Fooled the World—has wiped me out. Stress is the worst thing for Meniere’s disease. It’s what exacerbates the symptoms more than anything. Every book I published relied on the cooperation of…
Reader questions, Hamas beach operation
October 25, 2014
I’ve gotten hundreds of reader questions about the Hamas deception operation that took place on the beach at Gaza, July 16, 2014. Though I have no doubt that my theories about Operation Four Little Martyrs are generally correct, nobody in the current Israeli government has contacted me. Several active-duty members of the Israeli Defense Forces…
The music of the spheres
June 20, 2014
There are certain phrases that are so elegant that they sound inevitable. Tim thinks “meandering belligerence” is one. I wish I’d coined it! To me “Pink Panther” is a great example. Also “the music of the spheres.” The phrase “music of the spheres” refers to the intertwined relationship between the structures of music and those…
Sorry, Becca Pilkington. You made your bed.
June 18, 2014
Today I got a funny message. It couldn’t have come at a worse time for the person it was intended to help. I’m in a trough. Oh, I’ll climb out; I always do. But yesterday I realized that the rest of my life is going to be as unpleasant as its been up to now….
Talking points for Ghosts and Ballyhoo
April 22, 2014
Since I’ve accepted that Ghosts and Ballyhoo can no longer be professionally marketed, I may as well explain what I did to try and publicize it. The overwhelming majority of radio hosts don’t read the books that their guests have written. I had to prepare talking points so that they could fake it. Mike Albee…
The men behind the masks
April 12, 2014
The band Kiss was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10, 2014. Here are the men behind the masks, holding their awards. From the left, they are Paul Stanley (guitar, vocals), Ace Frehley (guitar), Peter Criss (drums), and Gene Simmons (bass, vocals). This was the first time the original lineup…
Gene Simmons worried I’d do this to him
November 25, 2013
I interviewed Gene Simmons on January 28, 1996. You can read all about the confusing, stressful lead-up to the interview in my book In Cold Sweat: Interviews with Really Scary Musicians. There’s a reason the book has been in print for twelve years: It’s good. And the reason it’s good is because the interview subjects…