1 July 2010

I read too slowly, and don’t have as much time with books as I’d like.
Keep trying to catch up with the pile of texts I want to get to when on
tour, but I’m usually so tired when traveling I end of falling asleep
on the trains or planes. I’ve got a ton of Polish poetry and literature
from Laurence M?kinia that I haven’t
touched and about 20 non-fiction books on art and music to finish.
Yesterday completed “The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon,” by
Daniel Farson, which was more of a memoir of Farson’s experiences in
London’s Soho, but it did present aspects of Bacon’s personality that I
hadn’t read before. Next is “Rites of Spring: The Great War and the
Birth of the Modern Age,” by Modris Eksteins, which I picked up as a
companion book to “Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century
1914-1991,” by Eric Hobsbawm, which was recommended to me by Andy Moor.
95% of what I read, listen to, watch are things suggested to me by
other musicians or artists; one of the great things about visiting
someone for the first time is checking out their library and record
collection, getting to see what influences and inspires them. Now to
rehearse with Powerhouse Sound! Willie Dixon’s birthday: