This exemplary collection of journalism is fueled by a powerful nostalgia for a New York—and a world—that once was. Hamill (A Drinking Life, 1994, etc.) here gathers pieces that originally appeared in outlets like New York magazine, the Village Voice, and Esquire. Unlike much journalism, even the older pieces hold up to the passage of time, thanks to Hamill's gift for the right phrase and his eye for telling details. Of special interest are his observations on the New York of the 1950s; he writes with deep affection of bohemian Greenwich Village, full of characters like Joe Gould, ``who has translated Rimbaud into the language of seagulls and is writing the oral history of the world'' and the typographer Hans Hess, who ``once more insists upon the obvious superiority of Caslon over Garamond, except, of course, in boldface.'' It was a district full of bookstores and lively coffeehouses—all killed, Hamill writes, by television and its fundamentally antisocial impulse. Hamill does not reside in the past, however. His pieces on contemporary New York, police corruption in Miami, the inner workings of the drug trade, feminist censorship of pornography, and the latter-day Zapatista rebellion in Mexico show that his eyes are wide open to what is going on around him. Along the way, Hamill offers little asides on the craft of reporting. He recalls that Gene Krupa, the great jazz drummer, kept his internal metronome going by chanting ``lyonnaise potatoes and some pork chops'' to himself; Hamill took up the phrase as his own chant to coax along his battered Royal Standard typewriter. ``Even now, when a deadline is crashing upon me, I chant Krupa's mantra,'' he writes. Such artful glimpses into the reporter's daily work make this required reading for aspiring journalists. General readers will find a wealth in Hamill's pages as well.
Pub Date: Jan. 17, 1996
ISBN: 0-316-34104-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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