Month: December 2014
Madison Smartt Bell ~ Devil’s Dream
Continuing my OCDevotional traversal of Madison Smartt Bell‘s complete works (thanks to Stona Fitch and Concord Free Press for introducing me to his work via their printing of MSB’s ZigZag Wanderer, his latest collection of short stories), I just finished his novelized biography of military auto-didact, the famous Confederate leader, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Devil’s Dream. …
John Fante ~ Ask the Dust
Connecting with Ann and Stona Fitch is always an occasion for fine food, film and fiction. As the executors of Concord Free Press, they are tireless in their championing many of the brightest, unsung lights of American literature. It was through their advocacy that I came to devote myself to reading the complete work of …
Jeremy Robert Johnson ~ Skullcrack City
I first came to know of Jeremy Robert Johnson‘s work through the generous and encouraging daisy-chain of recommendations/collaborations/consanguine-writer’s blog-nexes which began for me with Chuck Pahlaniuk and continued through OCDevotional binge-readings of the work of Stephen Graham Jones and Carlton Mellick III, among others. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a novel from JRJ, and …
Dan Williams’ New Pictures
I think for some reason I have more dear friends in Tucson, where I’ve never lived (but played a lot over the years), than I do anywhere else in the country. At least, I can tell by the fact of my requisite 10 comps per concert, Tucson’s the only place I’ve run out! Played this …
Johannes Brahms ~ Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 1
Just wrapped our live taping of From the Top at Montclair State University with our special superstar guests, the Shanghai String Quartet. They closed the show in spectacular style with the Finale of Brahms’ G Major String Sextet alongside two of our young guests, Jasper Snow, viola and Chase Park, cello. As appetizer, for my …