| Author | Message | ||
     Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
Greetings to my RCMB friends: This week, I've written a review of "Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin," a tendentious history of Baghdad-by-the-Bay that I've used for research for my WIP "Butchertown.": http://tbdeluxe.blogspot.com/2012/03/butchertown-chronicles-angle-of.html Hope you like it and thanks for reading! Thomas | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.18.174.156 |
Hi Thomas, love the new sign-offs!  All I know about San Francisco was gleaned from listening to a lot of 60s hippie music, along with Frank Zappa, who gloriously ripped the piss out of them at the time [with specific attention paid to Haight-Ashbury in one of the most perfectly structured concept albums spawned within that great decade], and from Fritz Leiber's brilliant horror novel (one of the greatest of last century - I can feel another Top 10 coming on...), 'Our Lady Of Darkness' (1977). If you haven't read it, or listened to 'We're Only In It For The Money' (1968) [recorded during the "summer of love"], then I strongly advise you do so, as invaluable research. Good luck with the WIP, man! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.18.174.156 |
And, cinematically, from 'Vertigo' (never has the city been more beautiful or mysterious) and 'Bullitt' (or exciting) or the 'Dirty Harry' films (or scuzzy). | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
Thanks, Stevie. Unfortunately, my novel is set in the 1920s Bay Area, long long before the hippies, when SF was a comparatively quiet--but no less powerful and corrupt--port town. I know Zappa's work quite well and saw him conduct works by Edgar Varese in SF in the 1980s at Symphony Hall. Can't say I ever fully cottoned to him though; someone I admire more than love. I like "Our Lady . . ." OK, but think "Conjure Wife" by far is the superior Fritz Leiber novel. (I knew Fritz a little . . . but I think I've told those stories already.) | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Is the novel going to have a Dashiell Hammett type vibe then, Thomas? I'm still trying to take in the fact that I'm conversing with a man who not only breathed the same air as Frank Zappa but actually knew Fritz Leiber!  Zappa is one of those artists you really have to work at to understand. When first introduced to him, back in the 80s through his "comedy music", I fell in love instantly but was confounded by the sheer depth of his musical ambition and skill. Being a stubborn sod, when confronted with the patently brilliant but incomprehensible, I determined to understand this perverse genius if it killed me and some 30 years later I'm still hearing new things - and experiencing revelatory flashes of insight - every time I listen to any one of his myriad of albums (for the umpteenth x10 time). Once that man has insinuated himself into your consciousness, that's it... lifelong obsession. His finest albums: Vocal Rock - 'One Size Fits All' (1975) Instrumental Rock - 'Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar' (1981) Narrative Concept - 'Joe's Garage' (1979) Political Satire - 'Broadway The Hard Way' (1988) Comedy Pop - 'Sheik Yerbouti' (1979) Rock 'n' Roll - 'Cruising With Ruben & The Jets' (1968) Psychedelic - 'We're Only In It For The Money' (1968) Jazz - 'Hot Rats' (1969) Instrumental Classical - 'Frank Zappa & The London Symphony Orchestra : Volumes 1 & 2' (1983) & (1987) Vocal Classical - 'Civilization Phase III' (1994) Broadway Musical - 'Thing Fish' (1984) Electronic - 'Jazz From Hell' (1986) Live - 'The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life' (1991) Best Of Compilation - 'Have I Offended Someone?' (1997) Rarities Compilation - 'The Lost Episodes' (1996) ...and that's only scratching the surface. I currently have 67 CDs, and counting. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
Hi Stevie: Oh, I've heard quite a bit of Zappa, once had numerous of his albums, but overall find him cold and mannered. When I want some avant-garde, I go with Ennio Morricone (of whose albums I have around 200, not really counting anymore . . . .) I find he has more fun and color in his work and more emotion. |