Stale Update #2

It's been a while, dear readers.

I can't say that this particular blog hasn't been far from my mind.  It has.  I think about adding to it frequently.  However, it takes a lot of time to sit and read a book and work and do stuff around the house and be totally fucking awesome.  It takes work.

But, we are back with a whole new batch of books that have been plowed through.  I must admit, recently I have been on a reading kick about musicians.  So, expect a bunch of music biography reviews.  As I type this, I have a massive collection of music-related biographies.  They interest me, what can I say?

Anyway, we are back.  We've been reading so that you may check out what I think about certain books.

The bargain bin has been kind with its bounty.  Now, I will share more with you...

All the best!

Stale Book Review #17: Riders On The Storm

Riders On The Storm by John Densmore

Cost: $3.00US

Page Count: 319

Riders On The Storm by the venerable drummer of the rock band The Doors was a refreshing read.  For once, a rock star didn't recount his inability to kick drugs and speak of his ever-so-public fall from fame.  Nope, this was a straight up biopic on the life of Densmore, his career with The Lizard King, and his frustrations in working with such an unstable human (Morrison).

The book is Densmore's account of the band and how frustrations grew within the band because of their troubled lead singer, Jim Morrison.  Unlike No One Gets Out of Here Alive, another book on The Doors, Riders On The Storm is full of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and the narrative is continuously interspersed with a long, heart-felt letter to Morrison.  The effect is kind of trippy and fun.  Sure, at times the overuse of these literary devices bogs the narrative down.  But, at least Densmore is trying something different than what is usually put forth in these music biographies.  Give him props for that.

Riders On The Storm was a great book for a weekend read.  As with most of the books within the genre, it helps if you are or were a fan of the band.  But, with this one...well, it's just pretty good.  So, I don't even feel like you need to be a fan of the band to get some enjoyment from the book.

Through Densmore, you really get a feel of what the other members of The Doors were like during that time period.  Here's kind of a run down of those personalities:

Densmore (Drums):  Fun, lively, creative, and always ready for a new challenge.

Krieger (Guitar):  Talented, quiet, reserved, yet still ambitious.

Manzarek (Keyboard):  Driven, reserved, talented, and exceptionally normal.

Morrison (Vocals):  Fucked-up and confused, genius lyricist.

A little more on Morrison.  Not too much, though, since so many books and articles have been written about the man.  Anyway, it struck me as how naive and "soft" Morrison came off during the early stages of his career.  It was hard for me to read about his decline in mental state and about his inability to separate Jim the performer from Jim the philosopher-dude.  You hate to see that sort of mental decline.  But, there is a fine line between genius and insanity.  A fine line, indeed.

Anyway, Densmore created himself a pretty decent little book.  No, it's not in the same literary vein as Flannery O'Connor or Hemingway, but, it's still pretty fucking good.

Check it out.

Stale Book Review #16: Nobody Likes You

Nobody Likes You by Marc Spitz

Cost: $0.75US

Page Count: 182

Well, we're back here at Stale Reviews.  It's been a long time and there has been some serious reading going on here around the household.  So, there will be a multitudinous splatter of reviews right off the jump.  Hope you are ready.

Nobody Likes You: Inside The Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day turned out to be a really short and really quick read.  As a fan of the band, it is sad for me to say that there is little in the way of new information revealed within the pages of this text.  The reason it is sad is that I was looking for new insights, something different, anything that would urge me to push forward in my research on the band.  Nope.  The book reads like rehashed Spin articles mixed with a few interviews with some of the folks from the Gilman St. scene.

The added interviews, with the likes of Tim Armstrong, Jessie Michaels of Op Ivy, and Fat Mike, were what kept this relatively uninteresting piece of "literature" moving.  As someone who grew up on this type of music, these were the guys in the punk scene who I looked up to.  Seeing their insights were the highlights of the book.

Thankfully, Spitz didn't go too far into the childhood activities of each of the members of Green Day.  Many biographers will go so far deep into the past of the artist that the text just completely loses interest for me.  Spitz didn't do that.  He gave just enough info and then moved on.

The book itself is lighthearted even if the author didn't mean it to be.  To me, it was the literary equivalent of a VH1 Behind the Music episode.  Quick, to the point...kind of senseless.

For less than a buck, though, this was one worth reading.  That is, if you are a fan of Green Day.  If you are not a fan and view Green Day as your father's or older brother's punk band, move along.  

Stale Book Review #15 - In Search Of Captain Zero

In Search of Captain Zero by Allan C. Weisbecker

Cost: $3.00US

Page Count: 328

I love me a good travel narrative.  In Search of Captain Zero involves friendship, surfing, a beat up travel vehicle, and a good storyteller.  It has all the elements to make up a travel narrative that is worthy of coveted space on the bookshelf.

In Search of Captain Zero is the recounting of the travels by the author throughout central America in search of his friend, Christopher, who has seemingly fallen off the face of the planet.  Christopher had always been a free-spirit whom the author suspects has gotten lost on purpose.  So, he packs up the beat up van and his surfboards and heads south from the states to find his friend.  The stories of his journey are well told, humorous, and pretty vivid.  The first few hundred pages of the book are a great read.  Weisbecker does quite well in painting verbal pictures that are extremely well done.  Then...well, then you get to the end.

There is a spoiler in here, so you have been warned.  Anyway, after a long ass time of searching, Allen finds his buddy Chris.  Here's where I was completely deflated.  Over the course of the narrative, Allen reveals his friend to be a caring, free-spirited, soul-surfer type guy.  The first three quarters of the book had me really looking forward to the eventual meeting.  Well, do we ever meet Chris.  He is, to the relief of the author, still alive.  But...but...he's hooked on CRACK!  What the fuck?  I was so disappointed to know that the guy we had been searching for throughout the entire book was a fucking scumbag crackhead.  I was gut-punched.  I can only imagine what the author had felt when he discovered this elegant fact about his friend.  The ending of this book was such a downer.  I like happy endings, not cracky endings.  This still pisses me off.

But, overall, I think In Search of Captain Zero is worth a read.  It does exactly what a good book should do: elicit an emotion.  That it did.  That emotion was pissed-offed-ness.  I'm pretty sure that's not a real word...but, it should be.

Read the book.  Get mad.  Fuck Christopher, you crackhead.

Stale Update #1

Hello people.  This is a Stale Update.  Currently, your narrator is deep into three or four books that will be making their way onto the Stale Site.  It's just that with work and all, it takes a few minutes (or hours or days or weeks) to plow through a book.  So, your patience is appreciated and will be rewarded...I promise.

There will be some more Stale Music Reviews coming soon.  Actually, there will probably be a decent little string of them once I find the shoebox that I shoved my last purchase into.  I lost that in the garage somewhere.  But, once I find it...ooh, you'll be in for a treat.

I just wanted everyone to know that I ain't forgot about ya.

Stale Book Review #14 - Gullible's Travels

Gullible's Travels by Cash Peters

Cost: $1.95US

Page Count: 272

Picking up Gullible's Travels, I didn't really know what to expect.  Therefore, I had zero expectations.  Gladly, I must say, that those expectations were exceeded.  Cash Peters is a funny fella.  I had no idea who he was.  But, apparently, Peters has done well for himself by writing and doing other stuff for the BBC.  

I've always been kind of a sucker for a good travel narrative.  They have to be decent travel books, though.  Robert Young Pelton, William Least Heat Moon, and Paul Theroux are a few that do a stupendous job.  Their book, however, are usually less on the humor tip and more on the serious side of the genre.  In Gullible's Travels, Peters explores the humorist side of travel writing.  I liked this.  A lot.

Other reviewers have compared Peters with Bill Bryson.  This is not fair.  Bryson writes well but Peters is far funnier.  And a better writer.  Sorry Bill.

Anyway, in Gullible's Travels Peters takes you everywhere you never thought you wanted to go.  You probably will never go to these place.  Like Salem, MA.  I've been and the author's summation of the city is so much better than anything that I could ever put into print.  There's the Sanitation Museum, the Lizzy Border Bed and Breakfast, Graceland, and the like.  Basically, Peters hits all the sights of a tourist that would make Clark Griswold (from National Lampoon's Vacation) ever so proud.  On the surface, these places would seem to suck so hard.  They probably do.  But, Peters' adept writing skills and humorous style bring these little, shitty, pockets of the world to life.

After reading a book for Stale Reviews, I often throw it in a box to be donated or given away.  Not so with Gullible's Travels.  I will likely read this again sometime.  So, on the shelf it goes.  

Good stuff.  Read it.  I'll let you borrow it if you promise to return promptly!

Stale Book Review #13 - The Tiger Warrior

The Tiger Warrior by David Gibbons

Cost: $2.95US

Page Count: 502

I always finish a book.  Unless...unless it is just awful.  I did not finish The Tiger Warrior.  Not that I have anything against Mr. Gibbons.  It's just that I cannot believe that a publisher would willingly put this book into print.  Maybe they were hoping to ride the strength of Atlantis, a Gibbons book that was moderately decent.  This one...was just...ouch.

Don't waste your money.

David Gibbons.  The Tiger Warrior.