Monthly Archives: August 2010
The Lessons of Glenn Danzig
In 1990, I bought my first guitar. It was a black Ibanez RG560. I paid for it with money earned from my paper route, delivering the Pittsburgh Press. But I forgot about sales tax. I always forgot about sales tax when buying things as a kid. My parents covered the difference. I took the guitar home and had nothing…
The Faith of Graffiti: Watching My Name Go By
Back in 1973, Norman Mailer and Jon Naar collaborated on The Faith of Graffiti. The book combined Mailer’s essay about the kids who were writing their names on the walls and subway cars in New York City at the time with Naar’s photographs. The Faith had been out of print for years, until HarperCollins reissued it this past…
A Brief Phone Conversation with Harvey Pekar
Back in 2005, I called Harvey Pekar on the phone. My reason for calling was to ask if he’d be interested in contributing an essay to an anthology I was putting together called Fame & Misfortune. I’d gotten his number from a man who used to book him for speaking engagements. He told me: “Harvey’s real cool, just give…
The House That Brev Mekis Built
Rumor has it that R.E.M.’s new album, Fables of the Reconstruction, contains a song about a schizophrenic man named Brev Mekis, who actually divided his home into two separate living spaces, one for each of his dual personalities. I say this is rumor, because I don’t own a single R.E.M. record. Nor do I keep up with their career. But…
Quit Stealing My Paper You Son of a Bitch
Yesterday was quiet. Michelle and I had the day to ourselves, Ethan stayed with his grandparents. We went to the library and ransacked their music collection. I randomly walked through the stacks, pulling every album that piqued my interest off the shelf. I also took out a GRE test prep book to further fuel my obsessions of potentially pursuing an…
