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…
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…
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…
Grady Harp review of Ghosts and Ballyhoo
October 17, 2013
Grady Harp has reviewed Ghosts and Ballyhoo on Amazon. Five stars! Thank you, Grady. I was going to write a post about how Mom’s death has left me in a state of hyper-irritation. Most of what I see and hear strikes me as unbearably trivial. The radio spews out the same set-piece political bitch-fests that…
Mom’s favorite song
October 14, 2013
Mom was a music prodigy. She gave her first public piano recital at the age of four. She quit playing when she was sent to boarding school at five due to family problems. Someday I’ll write about that. Mom’s time in the boarding school led directly to her death eighty years later. Since there was…