Yesterday I was sent a message explaining why the person in question didn’t want to cover my story of how Mike Albee and Lura Dold of Sandpiper Publicity defrauded me of $40,000 by exploiting the suicides of my parents in 2013. The writer mentioned the Woodside Literary Agency and how its con artists stalked the…
You are quite safe here
January 26, 2024
The first time I heard “Paranoimia,” by Art of Noise, I was in a cafe in Tokyo. There was a video jukebox by the door. Since I loved the band, I chose this unknown song, curious to see what it was like. I was floored. It wasn’t just the brilliant musicianship or the imagery; the…
A nation of mice
January 26, 2024
In the book Alfred Hitchcock’s Solve-Them-Yourself Mysteries there’s a great story titled “The Mystery of the Three Blind Mice,” about a rich old bastard who everybody hates. The story begins this way. Forever after, Andy Adams would remember that tremendous, metallic voice screaming for help, bringing him out of a sound sleep with the blankets…
The danger of reactionaryism
January 25, 2024
Merriam-Webster defines reactionaryism as follows. Attitudes or opinions tending to favor established ideas, conditions, or institutions (The region’s entrenched reactionaryism made it one of the major battlegrounds for the civil rights movement in the 1960s.) Synonyms: conservativeness, die-hardism, reactionaryism, traditionalism, ultraconservatism Related Words: neoconservatism, Toryism; bigotry, illiberalism; conventionalism, conventionality, fogyism (or fogeyism) Near Antonyms: neoliberalism;…
Stuck in the middle
January 24, 2024
I’ve always loved “Stuck in the middle with You,” by Stealers Wheel. You hear it once, and it’s in your head for good. Trying to make some sense of it all But I can see that it makes no sense at all Bassist Tony Williams has a Fender Musicmaster, a short-scale and the first bass…
Fraud is the new normal
January 24, 2024
I hate fakery. When I was in college, a guy on my dorm floor overturned his BMW as he tried to pull into the parking lot. He ended up in a ditch, upside down. A tow truck was called, and his Beemer was removed. He and I were not exactly friends, but we spent a…
Introducing my two favorite con artists
January 23, 2024
I’d like to introduce you to my two favorite con artists, Mike Albee and Lura Dold of Sandpiper Publicity. Stand up, kids! Don’t be shy. Mike also runs another fake company, Magnus Publicity. Let’s give Mike and Lura a hand! Mike has a long history of defrauding people. Unfortunately for me I didn’t see this…
Time to embarrass Scott Thunes
January 22, 2024
Well, it’s time to embarrass Scott Thunes. I’ve written two books that are mostly about him, In Cold Sweat and Ghosts and Ballyhoo. I’ve interviewed him several times. Requiem for a Heavyweight? Scott Thunes: Unghosted. Scott Thunes on the Ghosts and Ballyhoo Album. Although it’s blasphemy to say so, I listen only to the Zappa…
Excised Snippet Number Two
January 18, 2024
Here’s the second passage from my novel Invisible Idiot, which became Chasing the Last Whale, Volume Two of the Ghosts Trilogy. Though I agreed with the need to remove these scenes, I liked them, so I’m publishing them here when I get the urge. Tonight I have the urge. Excised Snippet Number Two: Terrible Pagan…
A letter to Mom and Dad, Part One
January 16, 2024
Dear Mom and Dad: Today I got some really good news, which I’ll keep to myself for now. In case you hadn’t heard, I signed up with a fake publicity firm that stole almost $40,000 from me. The guy who runs the company has no background in the publishing industry. What happened was that Tim…