What book are you reading?

[philipchevron]

Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America's First Black Star by Camille F. Forbes (Basic Civitas Books)

No less a comic great than WC Fields said of Bert Williams "He was the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew". Every now and then, Bert Williams is rediscovered and reappraised and becomes the subject of a scholarly critical biog. This periodic rehabilitation has been going on since 1923. Professor Forbes does an excellent job on this latest effort, but the real mystery is why Mr Williams has needed such frequent reintroduction. He might well ask "Is it cos I's black" and the answer, I'm afraid, would have to be "Yes it is."

[Low D]

"Passion is a Fashion: the real story of The Clash" by Pat Gilbert. Was an xmas gift from my father-in-law. My partner's families might be raving lunatics in their way, but they are a nicer (& my father-in-law way hipper) than the bunch i come from.

[Sandyfromvancouver]

Your father in law sounds cool, Low D. Mine's lovely too tho' I'd never get such a book as that from him.

I'm reading Eat Pray Love. So many people said I MUST read it that I was sceptical. But the author doesn't take herself too seriously, and I heard her interviewed on the radio. It's a fun read and has some lovely moments, Gilbert's description of the behaviour of a certain group of Italian soccer fans being one of them.

[Insert Witty Username Her]

Franny and Zooey - J.D Salinger - yet again, oh i love it. It may well be fiction but the story seems to me to be pretty clearly just a catalyst for some pretty interesting ideas from Salinger... but then id love anthing he wrote after reading The Catcher In The Rye

[Billie]

Franny and Zooey - J.D Salinger - yet again, oh i love it. It may well be fiction but the story seems to me to be pretty clearly just a catalyst for some pretty interesting ideas from Salinger... but then id love anthing he wrote after reading The Catcher In The Rye

Love Salinger. Re-reading the catcher in the rye, for the thousandth time

[Low D]

Your father in law sounds cool, Low D. Mine's lovely too tho' I'd never get such a book as that from him.

Yeah, he's alright. Concocted the whole Irish/Jamacian dub connection years before anyone got around to making the music. Made sure that my now-partner grew up on a steady diet of stuff like Red Roses for Me, too. From Dublin, relocated here (or more specifically Haidi Gwaii, aka Queen Chrlotte Islands) as a child.

But now i'm reading The Ghost Map: The story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world by Steven Johnson (author of Everything Bad is Good For You), a gift from my biological parents back east. And so i finally know what a "tosher" is. Plus, I've discovered a great, unwritten traditional ballad of working-class life & death olde Britain (are you paying attention, Mr. Woods?):

... city landlords hired the men to remove the "night soil" from the overflowing cesspools of their buildings. The collecting of human excrement was a venerable occupation; in medieval times they were called "rakers" and "gong-fermores," ... Whlie the rakers and their decendants made a good wage, the work conditions could be deadly: in 1326, an ill-fated laborer by the name of Richard the Raker fell into a cesspool and literally drowned in human shit.

I shall expect to hear "The Ballad of RIchard the Raker" on the next album (or maybe the faux-Dylan, americanna style "The Lonesome Death of Richie Raker"?)

[Sandyfromvancouver]

Your father in law sounds cool, Low D.

. . .Concocted the whole Irish/Jamacian dub connection years before anyone got around to making the music. Made sure that my now-partner grew up on a steady diet of stuff like Red Roses for Me, too. From Dublin, relocated here (or more specifically Haidi Gwaii, aka Queen Chrlotte Islands) as a child. . . .

Oh, I love dub music. Have you ever heard Lilian Allen's dub recordings? Most likely you're familiar with Linton Kwesi Johnson. But I haven't heard Irish-inflected dub. Who? And I went to Haida Gwaii for the first time last summer and was there for half an hour when I knew I must return. Made sure to drink from St. Mary's Well. Love that place more than I can say.

Books books. I've just started Paul Theroux's The Elephanta Suite. I'll see how it intersects with Eat Pray Love which I haven't finished yet.

[LittleCupcakes]

Oh, I love dub music. Have you ever heard Lilian Allen's dub recordings? Most likely you're familiar with Linton Kwesi Johnson.

I actually saw Linton a few years back. He kept us waiting for a couple of hours, but it was a good show. I understand he doesn't/didn't play many shows.

[Low D]

Oh, I love dub music. Have you ever heard Lilian Allen's dub recordings? Most likely you're familiar with Linton Kwesi Johnson. But I haven't heard Irish-inflected dub. Who?

Well, you might start with the Pogues' Young Ned of the Hill-dub version. Sinead dabbled a couple of albums ago, mixing dub effects with traditional music (Sean Nuos), beyond that... i'd have to ask him.

I LOVE LILLIAN ALLEN! I'm from Toronto, so it may seem more obvious, but i rarely encounter anybody who's heard her. I still spin Revolutionary Tea Party regulairly. She's the best. And, um, since this is a thread about books & all, you should know she's published at least as many books as albums. Maybe more (cheaper to make, she once told me).

[Irishbookish]

An enjoyable book to savour.
Imaginative and strangely fascinating.
I LOVE Time Travel Fiction.

[Sandyfromvancouver]

I LOVE LILLIAN ALLEN! I'm from Toronto, so it may seem more obvious, but i rarely encounter anybody who's heard her. I still spin Revolutionary Tea Party regulairly. She's the best. And, um, since this is a thread about books & all, you should know she's published at least as many books as albums. Maybe more (cheaper to make, she once told me).

So what's she published? Oh, I can google her. And for everyone else reading this forum, she's a treat. I lost her music when I switched to tapes and then CD's.

[Billie]

Oh, I love dub music. Have you ever heard Lilian Allen's dub recordings? Most likely you're familiar with Linton Kwesi Johnson.

I actually saw Linton a few years back. He kept us waiting for a couple of hours, but it was a good show. I understand he doesn't/didn't play many shows.

I really like some of Linton's songs.

[jennylois]

Marianne Faithfull, memories dreams and reflections

[Sandyfromvancouver]

Oh, I love dub music. Have you ever heard Lilian Allen's dub recordings? Most likely you're familiar with Linton Kwesi Johnson.

I actually saw Linton a few years back. He kept us waiting for a couple of hours, but it was a good show. I understand he doesn't/didn't play many shows.

I really like some of Linton's songs.

Little Cupcakes, Billie, Low D: I won't write more about dub artists just here, but it's so cool to find people with similar musical tastes! Then again, that's why we're here eh?.

[Clash Cadillac]

it's so cool to find people with similar musical tastes! Then again, that's why we're here eh?.

Also a dub fan. I did a 3 hour weekly reggae show in college and rarely missed any reggae band that came through Denver the 5 years I lived there.

Oh, and to keep on topic. I am still reading Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia.