1. I’m not sure which comes first — acceptance or belief.
2. I would love to have met Groucho.
3. Americans are very forgiving.
4. Mel Brooks is the funniest person I’ve ever met.
5. A broadcaster can not be late. Well, he can.
6. Well, of course I met Bob Marley. It was no big deal.
7. This song reminds me of a good time I had with Bob Costas.
8. I’ve always hated gossip.
9. Artie Shaw was a genius.
10. My point is: I’m not Sam Snead.
11. Lincoln’s name has seven letters.
12. If you’re ever going to interview Barbra Streisand—do it live.
13. Me, I’m a guy who likes to remember the great riffs Lenny Bruce used to do about telethons.
14. In Brooklyn, if you say you’re going to be dangerous, you’d better be dangerous.
15. When I see Bono, I don’t see a musician.
16. Piers gave me a pair of Union Jack suspenders. They were clip-ons, but I appreciate the gesture.
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One of history’s most successful and artistically revered popular bands, Radiohead is infamous for the meticulous and democratic recording process that’s thus far produced seven rather amazing records (and also PABLO HONEY, its admittedly less-than-stellar 1993 debut).
To become a Radiohead song is a rigorous endeavor, as applicants’ working parts get twisted and convoluted, sped up and slowed down, reversed and fed through all manner of filters, machines and instruments, sometimes by each member of the band.
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Dialing it a bit back from his last book, MCGRAVE, Lee Goldberg starts a new series in KING CITY, also police-themed, but very much a modern-day Western. Tom Wade is an honest cop who took down the whole Major Crimes Unit, of which he was a part. This did not sit well with the department, so they give him a new assignment they think will either get him to quit or be killed.
The job in question is running a police substation in the part of town called Darwin Gardens, where — as you might figure — only the strong survive. Wade is also given the help of two rookie police officers fresh from the academy. One is a headstrong African-American woman, while the other is a clueless wonder who is just thrilled to be in the action. This is all the help Wade gets.
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Crissa Stone, the career criminal introduced last year in COLD SHOT TO THE HEART, is back in Wallace Stroby’s latest novel, KINGS OF MIDNIGHT. Not much has changed for her … and that is pretty much the main problem with this new work: Not much has changed.
Still desperate for enough money to assure her lover’s parole from a Texas prison, Crissa leads a two-man team on what should be a quick and easy heist. It all goes wrong afterward, however, when her partners argue about their take. Crissa ends up on the run and is further frustrated when she loses a big chunk of her stolen cash to a crooked money launderer.
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Hey, I’ve never heard of GENTRY magazine, either, but between 1951 and 1957, it apparently published 22 issues. This paperback collects dozens of articles from the forgotten periodical, chosen by Hal Rubenstein, who created the short-lived but much-loved, square-shaped magazine EGG in the late ’80s. If you at all remember that one, it will make perfect sense why he undertook this project.
THE GENTRY MAN works because it reprints the actual articles as they appeared, all monochrome color scheme, god-awful fonts and antiquated layout intact. Rubenstein has separated them thematically, from style and sports to food and culture.
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