i do believe this is my favorite david bowie biography ever.

mainly because it's not a typical biography but a novel about a bowie fan, which just so happens to feature lots of great bowie trivia while telling a story about a fictional character's life over two decades.

it's not just a novel and a quasi-bowie bio, but it's also a really cool history lesson about '70s and '80s pop culture. great read.

I should stop doing research. I keep finding new angles to the story I am writing I am going crazy.

~runs and tries to find soltitude~

Natisse said:

DIE! DIE! DIE! (not you. HIM)

HamsterHuey said:

you should have seen how angry I was reading it cosign DIE DIE DIE!!! oh and I knew it

here's what i'm reading next. one of my friends from college co-wrote it!

Natisse said:

PFFFT.

I was rooting for Ron. He's a git.

I am SO bored with Harry Potter. I am still readng, cuz you know, I started it, let's finish it, but I SO moved on to Keys Of The Kingdom...

I am still a lil boy inside, I know...

HamsterHuey said:

is that the series you were telling me about? who's the Author again?

and

Natisse said:

Fellow Aussie Garth Nix.

HamsterHuey said:

cool... I'll check it out! thank you

The Journeyer, Gary Jennings.

A historical fiction about Marco Polo.

An assessment of how things are going "over there."




.
[Edited 8/26/05 4:47am]

2the9s said:

Amen, brother.

I am currently reading Ellas' mind.

AsianBomb777 said:

Have you read it?

It's chilling.

2the9s said:

No. I try to avoid political books. They upset me.
But maybe I will read it--I'm so fed up with the increasing boldness of social conservatives. To me, they're no different than the confusionist undercurrent thats stiffled creativity, and ingenuity in Imperial China.

Why is it chilling?

2the9s said:

Wrong choice.

IstenSzek said:

oh I loved the Fermin character in that book! Good read.

I just got the new catalog for S&M/fetishist wear from one of the porn shops nearby. I don't know, they just shoved it for me even if I wasn't asking for it. But it makes a great read nevertheless! Especially in the underground.

I'm going through two books right now. One for fun and one to help me at work. Y'all can prolly guess which is which



Drawing upon conversations with addicts as well as experts in the gay community and at drug treatment centers, journalist Frank Sanello examines how crystal-meth abuse is reaching epidemic levels among gay men, and how almost one-third of the new cases of HIV are caused by the decreased mental capacity associated with crystal. Tweakers get a quick, cheap high, an exhilarating loss of inhibition and increased stamina at the price of permanent behavioral changes, brain damage and death.




The author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Still Life with Woodpecker has regularly published shorter pieces in Esquire, Playboy, the New York Times and elsewhere. The whimsical, quixotic nature of that work comes through in this hit-and-miss affair—one that remains woefully short on fiction, focusing mostly on the author's travel writing, essays, celebrity profiles and poetry. The best travel piece, "The Day the Earth Spit Wart Hogs," finds Robbins traversing a big game park in Tanzania. His commentary on the '60s, the legacy of burger mogul Ray Kroc and the prose of Thomas Pynchon remains trenchant and provocative; other pieces are dated to the point of irrelevance (his foreword to Terrance McKenna's 1992 The Archaic Revival). As a poet, Robbins is obvious and heavy-handed, but occasionally he hits the kind of mystical note that characterizes "Catch 28" and makes his florid imagery work. The fiction is brief and mostly forgettable. But an essay called "In Defiance of Gravity" starts as a riff on an obscure club and winds up being an ode to the combination of unconventionality and humor that define Robbins's career as a writer.



I'm only about 30 pages into Tweakers, but it is EXCELLENT so far. Written in a way to draw the reader in. So far, it explains the physiologic aspects of meth use and abuse in a way that is very understandable to a "lay-person." Based on the bit I've read, I recommend it to anyone who knows/works with/struggles with meth.


As for Wild Ducks...I've long been a Robbins fan although I was quite disappointed in his last 2 books. This collection is no different. I think I've grown beyond his over-the-top writing style. That being said, I have really enjoyed some pieces as he touches on descriptions and ideas and characters which later bloomed into some of my all time favorite novels. For that it is worth the read. If you aren't a BIG robbins fan though, this book is probably not worth the time...


...
[Edited 8/26/05 10:04am]

Stuff.

Anxiety said:

What are your feelings about Bowie the man? What is your read on him? Also: do you believe that he actually had sexual relationships with men? Or was that just a pose?

Yes, he only pretended to have sex with men while he was having sex with them.

Ace said:

i think he's an intelligent, easily bored, somewhat mercurial guy who at this stage in his life is pretty grounded, humble and appreciative of all he has. i think he has a great relationship with his fans, and he's been able to build up a respectful rapport with them/us via his web site (though not so much these days) and his concert appearances (he always came out the stage door after shows on the reality tour to sign autographs and shake hands with fans). i think he's also as much of a music geek as anyone who is a fan of his music. how many 60 year olds get off on grandaddy and the arcade fire?

as for the gay thing, he said once in an interview that he considered himself to be a "sexual tourist" when he was playing around with bisexuality. i'll buy that.

Anxiety said:

I took my girlfriend at the time to see him on that tour he did with Moby (first time I'd seen him since the Let's Dance tour!). Our seats were right up front and I must say he looks very good for his age (especially in light of the years of drugs and cigarettes).