A little followup on the reason why my publicists thought they could scam me without repercussions. It’s a classic case of seeing only what you want. The answer came to me when I reviewed e-mails that an interviewer sent. Writing about the book, your publicist refers to your humility… To me, you come off as…
I AM sorry but go away
December 28, 2013
August 20, 2012, was not a good day. I learned that someone was not at all who I thought. It was genuinely horrifying because I discovered that I’d been dealing with an insane person. She’d hid her insanity relatively well, but as always, I denied the little signs that things were awry. In August of…
Improvement is not always conscious
December 23, 2013
Those of you who’ve read Ghosts and Ballyhoo may have noticed that I make only one mention of Tony Levin, on pages 42-43. This was not deliberate. My friend Steiv Dixon and Carmen were Levinites, as they called themselves. They introduced me to Tony Levin’s best work. As a result he became one of my…
Noreen in the Rat Palace
December 5, 2013
I’ve received several queries about Noreen in the Rat Palace. One came from Scott Thunes. So I’ll tell the story. First, an explanation: Ghosts and Ballyhoo is an art project. It isn’t a memoir per se. Everything in it is true, but I wrote it in order to elicit a certain reaction among readers. I…
Mom, I’m really pissed off at you
November 8, 2013
I’m very angry at you for killing yourself, Mom. Sad-angry, not I’ll-smash-your-face angry. So I’m going to do what you always said when you got upset: “I want to write a letter to somebody!” Here’s my letter to you. Dear CeeCee: You died on October 13, 2013, after nine months of refusing to eat. Since…
Is female beauty in fiction really a problem?
November 5, 2013
The novelist Adelle Waldman—author of The Love Affairs of Nathanial P.—recently wrote a piece for The New Yorker titled “‘A First-Rate Girl’: The Problem of Female Beauty.” In it, Waldman says the following: You’d think it would also be a rich subject for fiction writers—after all, our attitudes about beauty and attraction are tightly bound…
Scott Thunes plays my bass
October 31, 2013
A member of Talkbass.com sent me a message: Finally I got to see Scott Thunes live! Hi Tom Last night I was fortunate enough to see Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels being performed at the Royal Festival Hall in London – the full BBC concert orchestra plus a huge choir. Before the show, Scott, Gail Zappa,…
Reason No. 184,987 why I am now apolitical
October 29, 2013
In my youth I was apolitical. After 9/11 I became very politicized. I am now apolitical again. Don’t get me wrong; I still read about politics every day and vote in every election, but I invest no emotion in any political party or politician. Now, we can see more clearly than at any time in…
How things got better
October 22, 2013
I had a love-hate relationship with Howard Jones’s song “Things Can Only Get Better.” Though I wanted to believe, I just didn’t. There was no evidence that Howard was right. Loved the music, though. The bass line of this live version is one of my favorites. Carmen loved it too, the reason I never listened…