What i read in January

January was Manuary in Villa Lile-Pastore. There was really no desperate need for me to participate in a whole month of reading only dudes, but y'know, brotherhood. What happened was this, last year my reading habits strayed dangerously into the weiner camp, too many novels about boys sulking, boozing, taking themselves seriously, and falling for nasty femmes...all that testosterone can seriously increase the risk of being a dick. There are times when you've got to look at yourself and say hey champ, you are not doing your bit for the world as you want it to be. Likewise there are other times when it's equally as important to say screw it, you owe the world jack, but you do owe yourself the wondrous thrill of reading Joyce Carol Oates, or Megan Abbott, or Dorothy B. Hughes, Edith Wharton, Michelle Tea, Toni Morrison, Elizabeth Bishop, Amy Hempel, Diane Di Prima, Mary Gaitskill etc. So anyway, at the end of last year for 2 months i only read female authors, and it was of course high-rankin'. Anyway, my darling squeeze had the opposite realisation, she was worse actually, her page-to-weiner ratio scored abysmally low, which is why Manuary. 

Goat Mountain by David Vann

Extreme butchosity and bad camping times in the wilderness. This was grim and hypnotic.

Franny And Zooey by J.D. Salinger

Salinger can do no wrong.  Manages to be both frothy and profound, and probably somewhere in it you'll find the meaning of life.

Selected Poems - Kenneth Fearing

Really enjoyed this.  Fearing's poems are almost pop-arty; a collage of modernity, whitmanesque riffs, and the language of hardboiled noir.  

The Riverside Villas Murder by Kingsley Amis

I think if you're going to do Manuary right you ought to read at least one arrogant misogynistic alcoholic prick. *Enter Kingsley Amis* Enjoyed this, not his greatest work, and morally way off, but fun.   

The Primal Urge by Brian Aldiss

My first Aldiss, and an early one. Not great, kinda pointless, like an extended joke with an actual punchline in the last paragraph. Still, the Sixties. Sigh.

Raw Material by Jorg Fauser

Tale of communes, student politics, struggling to be a writer, sex, opium, and booze. An outsider gem from the German 70's counterculture, funny, cynical and probably all true. 

Coffee, Tea, or Murder? by Donald Bain

I've read a few of these and this was by far the crappest yet. Shame on you Donald Bain. Shame. On. You.

(Here's what Sian read...go have a look)

What I've been listening to...

Jessica Pratt

Mystic bedsit baroque folk, I'm loving her more than is appropriate.
Listen to: Half Twain The Jesse

Sturgill Simpson

Hell yeahs. Sounds kinda like Waylon Jennings. Sometimes he sounds like Waylon Jennings having a major cosmic epiphany, but y'know in a cheap motel room or something country.
Listen to: Turtles (All The Way Down)

Mayonnaise by The Woolen Men

This song's been stuck in my head all week, fucker's catchier than syphilis.

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats

Biker-psych heaviosity, they are so great it makes me want to puke.
Listen to: Death's Door

Lana Del Fucking Rey
If her mindblowing Kerouacian intro and accompanying video to Ride doesn't make you weep you're a dick.
Listen to: Ride

Hall of Mirrors by Vum

Loving this song right now. A dark psychedelic L.A soundscape, 

a bit hypnotic and woozy. Don't know anything about this band, derp.

Books i might read in February

I might read these books next month, but who knows for sure.
They're all right here waiting to be picked up, like kittens, or a sandwich.
Have you read any of them? Any good?

Sister Golden Hair by Darcey Steinke

California by Edan Lepucki

A Meeting By The River by Christopher Isherwood

The Catherine Wheel by Elizabeth Harrower

Women by Chloe Caldwell

Signs Preceding The End Of The World by Yuri Herrera

Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

My pal Sadie...

Matching Mole - O Caroline

Robert Wyatt, post-Soft Machine (Machine Molle in French...) wrote this with Dave Sinclair from Caravan - absolute legends the both of them.  We used to listen to this a lot in my mate's camper, which was knackered and permanently parked at the end of his road, and was the scene of more bonhomie and madcap experimentalism than a school night usually warranted. If the mood's just right though, if it's grey and drizzly out, and you're feeling a little nostalgic, then this song will rise through the years and the rainsoaked weeds and the taste of TUC biscuits, cigarettes, cornershop wine, chewing gum, and there you'll be, 16 years old, wishing you knew a girl named Caroline.

Why I Love James Rockford

On a quiet night like this I like to watch some Rockford Files.  Rockford's great.  His mid-70's golf-casual L.A-chic houndstooth blazers, wide-lapelled shirts and tan loafers combo is a powerful look which I believe only a man of his specific build (cirrhotic ex-jock at a roadside diner) can really pull off.  He's modest, honest and he lives in a trailer.  He's not sneakily endearing like Columbo, or intimidatingly sexy like Kojak, he's just a regular guy trying to get by without too much trouble - something we can all relate to in this goshdarned world.  In my favourite episode The Big Ripoff, Jim gets roughed up by some goon that looks like Roger Waters.  He gets beaten up in most episodes, which is always difficult to watch as you know how little he enjoys it.  Not that he can't defend himself, he's got some chops.  I'm watching The Big Ripoff tonight.  It's something you can watch over and over again and not feel too bad about.  I like the bit where he says he's working for the Avocado Growers of America.  I'm totally allergic to avocadoes guys.  

So What - Little Wings

"Sometimes people let the same problem make them 

miserable for years when they could just say, so what?  

That's one of my favourite things to say.  So What."

-Andy Warhol 

William Eggleston

"Have you ever felt like a phone call that's been disconnected?"

-Shannen Doherty

John Broadley