<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: a good perspective on 2 mixed bags and 2 relatively unknowns
Review: 2 noted ex-users turned full time cranks Biafra-speed, Rollins-ritalin fronting 2 good punk bands DeadKennedys and BlackFlag are getting old. Their legacies are questionable.
They both never met a microphone they didn't like. They talk more than little girls. Both are way too serious and need to lighten up. They're in the entertainment industry yet yearning for artistic integrity (then stick to arts and craft shows).Rollins complains about book/album sales, his business, and his own niche marketing scheme. The guy brags about hard work, working out, and dislike of everything hokey and cheesy. Typical manic depressive straight edge loudmouth. Relax buddy, you need a rest guy. He turned out just like his parents, but he can't settle down. Hence the mass confusion running out of his head. Every job has it's ups and downs. They get monotonous and draining. Worrying about money [stinks], so you compromise nearly everything up to and including you're very being. Hank likes being "commercial" because big corporations pay well and promptly. Movies and commercials are money on the table. It's easy and if he doesn't take it someone else will. Biafra is one man publicity stunt show. Running for mayor(truly funny and creative). Including a poster of sodomy in records and calling it artistic freedom under the holy grail of free speech. I don't know anyone who buys a record expecting or wanting such a thing. The poster is funny but is by all definitions pornographic. Not everyone has a dirty sense of humor. Jello fought and lost for our right to do such silly things. Now he worries about his company's future as a b-music distributer especialy with the rise of this internet file sharing thingy (more punk than the whole punk movement combined). He's made a living as a paranoid alarmist worrying people to death. Bottom line, everyone's replacable, independent. Past succes doesn't guarantee future success, but that's who gets better odds. Like it or not. Whether your stuff has critical mass approval or not. Carrying the torch will get you burned both up and out. These guys are one trick ponies branching off into other areas. A good perspective on 2 long winded spotlight hogs. Their music speaks or itself. JB's album with no means no and doa are worth buying or downloading. Black Flag is good clean fun. RESEARCH/VSEARCH always put out good stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Great reading for this election year (or any other)
Review: Here are four in-depth conversations, most centering on art and politics, published in 2001. Considering the tidal wave of events since then, it's astounding how these interviews still resonate with contemporary issues. Depending on your point of view you'll find Rollins, Biafra, and to a certain extent Billy Childish, insightful or exasperating in their politics, but its hard to miss the passion in their arguments. Ferlinghetti, by far, takes the longest view of events past and present, and suggests solutions (some new, some old), sounding the most conservative by comparison. Many will consider these four exchanges as nothing more than preaching to the already converted, but in this political season they take on the character of voices crying in the wilderness.
Rating:
Summary: Real Conversations: an envigorating and inspiring book!
Review: I've been familiar with Biafra/Rollins/Childish and Ferlinghetti for a long time, but can't say I'm a huge fan of any of the four, but in reading through these interviews, I have a whole new respect for all of them. Vale talks about so many issues of political importance, artistic integrity, life, and everything with them. What comes through is not esoteric or academic, not something only appealing to punks or poets, but a feeling of being alive. All four are very smart, funny, engaging and interesting individuals and Vale really knows how to bring out their personalities. This is like a bible of common sense from 4 great prophets of the eternal underground. If you yearn to be creative and find your own happiness outside of the constraints of a 9-5 job and mainstream culture, this book will hopefully be an inspiration to you. It's also refreshing to hear people talking about important political and philosophical issues in a way that makes you believe that you can be involved and help make culture and live how you want. We also glimpse into their lives outside of the public eye through some wonderful storytelling. Vale helps to put the nail in the coffin of the "dumb punk" notion: these guys are geniuses. You need this book!
Rating:
Summary: Honesty from both sides
Review: The interviews in this book shed light into the world of independent media existence (making and promoting one's music, books art) and how it relates to these four famous figures. The Rollins interview is interesting in that both the interviewer and Rollins admit to having poor book sales up front. From there they go into the state of independent book sales, and readers will learn a lot about the practices of book sales (a lot of stuff I didn't know at least.) The Biafra interview was politically charged, as one would expect, and did mention a little bit about his lawsuit with the ex-Kennedys. It also discusses his involvement in the WTO protests in Seattle a while back. Lawrence Ferlinghetti's interview is particularly interesting because he has such philosophical insight into the world. He discusses how the pursuit of fame affected Allen Ginsburg, and the way the Internet is affecting book sales. Also, Billy Childish discusses punk principles and the do it yourself ethic to some extent. If you're interested even mildly in any of the people interviewed in this book, I would highly recommend it. Although it sometimes strays from the subject at hand (being independent in the corporate world), it lends insight into the way these people think, which I think is just as important.
Rating:
Summary: revive the independent and order directly from ReSearch
Review: This is a brilliant book. But if you really want to check it out you should order from ReSearch's own homepage and support them so that they will be around and continue to publish interesting work that large pub. houses do not. I ordered some other things and got a personal email from V.Vale himself. Their site is great ...
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and Inspiring
Review: Wow. This collection of interviews is amazing. Though I had heard very little about any of these men when I picked the book up, I found their words very interesting. Even where I disagreed with their messages, they caused me to think about why I disagree. Many times I felt like putting down the book and going out to either create or protest. Even though all four of these men are politically active and radical, they each provide very different perspectives that, when presented together, have much more power than they could on their own. I recommend this book for anyone in search of inspiration to question and act.
Rating:
Summary: A great read for these times
Review: [paragraph missing] Essentially, the best thing about "Real Conversations No. 1" is that it's just that -- a good chunk of honest dialogue between a guy and four other guys who sound like they're pretty close friends with him, talking about what's on their minds and in their lives (both theirs and his) in ways that are sometimes entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking and sometimes even illuminating. And, yes, at least two of the people talking in this book have figured somewhat prominently in the entertainment and pop culture landscapes for the past few years. But guess what? They actually say stuff that doesn't totally sound like part of their act! Henry Rollins, for all the macho, stoic bluster that he gives off, turns out to be pretty funny and down-to-earth, as well as enthusiastic to the point of geekdom when it comes to archiving bootlegs of bands that he admires and/or played with. Jello Biafra's comments are obviously more political and exhibitionist, but he does make light of how he got that way in the first place, and how he was just as inspired by other people in the anti-WTO protests in Seattle as they were by him. Besides that, the most wholly "inspirational" words probably come from Billy Childish, who advocates "doing it yourself" (and "thinking and taking responsibility for yourself" as well) not just as a moral or even as a craft, but as something that fits into enjoying the simple fact that you're alive. And Lawrence Ferlinghetti comes off almost as the wise grandfatherly figure who has a wealth of stories to tell about the past but knows pretty clearly about what the future entails. But really, the total effect of all these conversations for me wasn't so much hero worship or a privileged glimpse into the workings of complicated minds. It was more the idea that, if I ever had the chance, I'd wanna hang out with these people and talk about some of this stuff with them myself. (Of course, in some ways, I'm not sure that I could even get a word in edgewise, but that's another matter.) I guess that's one of my personal reasons for being glad that I bought this book directly from Re/Search in San Francisco, almost beyond the whole deal of supporting the independents: When I called the place up to inquire about my order right after the attacks happened, I thought at first that I'd gotten a particularly thoughtful and conversational assistant who sounded vaguely like Jello Biafra on the phone. It turned out to be Vale himself, and we talked for maybe half an hour about the attacks, how they'd played out on CNN and the likelihood that any chance for progressive politics was dead now. He seemed as interested in what I had to say as I was in what he had, and I think it probably helped get us both out of the shell-shock and thinking clearly again. So maybe some of these good things still aren't quite out of reach yet. Or, if they are, then maybe now we'll scramble a bit more to get hold of them again.
<< 1 >>
|
