Sunday, April 24, 2016

Did Robert Smith of The Cure Like Prince?



Prince died this week on Robert Smith's birthday -- April 21st.

It's difficult to tell whether Robert Smith of The Cure was a fan of Prince. After lots of searches I have been unable to find an interview where he mentions him. But one thing is for sure, Robert Smith thinks his Starfish and Coffee was one of the best songs of the 1980s and he listed it as such in a poll he did.  The song can be found on Prince's Sign 'O' the Times album.

Above is a one minute take. Enjoy!

#PrinceTheCure #StarfishandCoffee

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The Best Selling Non-Fiction Book of 2017 Will be Prince's Autobiography



I'm writing this on 4/21/2016, the wrenching day that Prince has died and left the world in shock. Typing the words doesn't make it seem any more real. Fact is, I don't want it to be real. When I was younger I admired him for his music and later I admired him for the artist he unabashedly became. His musical talents were truly boundless and without measure. They called him The Kid.

When one thinks of Prince, literature is not the first thing that comes to mind. If it does, The Little Prince novella is a cheeky response at a dinner party. Still, many of his lyrics were poetic and his The Ballad of Dorothy Parker was homage to the fine American poet of the same name.

Prince and literature?

Yet in 2017 I am predicting that Prince's forthcoming biography from Random House will be the number one selling non-fiction book. It already is getting a lot of buzz and if Prince came anywhere close to completing it, you can bet it will be read the world over.

"We've seen the future and it will be."

Meantime, The Very Best of Prince is a must own album if have nothing else by Prince Rogers Nelson.

#PrinceAutobiography #PrinceDeath



Sunday, April 10, 2016

On Negative Book Reviews and Writing the Novel That's Inside of Me


As a writer I have been fortunate in that the majority of people who review my books give positive reviews. Every now and then I get a negative one. This, in itself, does not bother me. Negative reviews are the price of art. Good art should come from an unfamiliar place and when it does it has the ability to exhilarate and shock the eye of the beholder. Because of this authors who are only getting positive reviews are doing something wrong, as strange as that may sound. Take any great book of literature and you will find many horrible reviews. "The Catcher in the Rye," one of my favorite little jewels of literature, has many one star reviews.

So not only do I expect the occasional bad review, but they are necessary if I am being true to my art form. The kind of review I hate the most--yes, even more than the "this was the worst book ever written"--are those that say "this is not what I expected." Read another way, the reviewer means this is not the book they wanted me to write.

Pardon, moi. I recently got a two-star review in such a way for Coffee with Poe: A Novel of Edgar Allan Poe's Life.

I need to write the book that's inside of me begging to get out; the one that nags at me while I'm sitting at the table having a holiday meal with my family while I stuff another piece of broccoli in my mouth; the one that talks to me at two in the morning when I'm having trouble sleeping.

I have no way of knowing what a random person I have never met will need to me write for them. Even if I had such a blueprint, I would not do it. I simply write the books I want to read and that will push the art form forward. I am not trying to sound cruel or be calloused. I can accept bad reviews. Ii really can. Please, try not to judge my books because they fail to be the book you wanted me to write.

#NegativeBookReviews

Saturday, April 2, 2016

The Cure Albums Ranked - All 13 of Them to Date



Check out this link where PopMatters ranks every album by The Cure.

http://www.popmatters.com/feature/the-cure-ranking-their-albums-from-13-to-1/

This is how I rank them. In my view The Top is completely underrated. Agree?

1. Disintegration
2. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
3. Pornography
4. Head on the Door
5. Seventeen Seconds
6. The Top
7. Wish
8. Bloodflowers
9. Faith
10. Three Imaginary Boys
11. The Cure
12. 4:13 Dream
13. Wild Mood Swings

#CureAlbumsRanked #TheCureBand