This is where you stick random tidbits of information about yourself.
The Jim Neighbors Masculinity Project
Saturday, March 09, 2002
The Rat Pack revival has been in full swing for a while now, so recommending a biography of Dean Martin is not exactly going out on a cultural limb. Maybe I should make a big case for Joey Bishop... Still, I just got around to reading a great biography of Dean by Nick Tosches and I would be remiss if I didn't rave about the book and Dino. First, the book is remarable because it manages to feel like it is written by a Damon Runyan character without collapsing in a florid heap. In showing Martin's rise from the chop suey joints of Steubenville, Ohio (I can't make this stuff up!) to the status of an iconic entertainer Tosches touches on wide cross-section of the American experience in the 20th century. Tosches also paints a vivid history of an American pop culture that was either blissfully unaware, or actively hostile to any sort of artistic sensibility. There are sections of the book that show a world so seedy and corrupt that you want to take a shower after every paragraph. (That is about the highest recommendation I can give, incidentally!). None of this is esential to understanding Dean Martin, however. Dean used his charm and natural wit to keep people away, it would seem. It's some trick to write such a compelling biography of such an unknowable man.
4:07 PM
My wife has been abducted by this blog thing. From my furtive glances over her shoulder, I am beginning to understand why this has lately become her own little opium den (besides the actual opium den we both "attend" regularly). Arcane pop cultural theories, hate-filled screeds about celebrities and politicians, and frothing raves about music and films consume most of my time. Hence my poverty *and* general unpopularity! Yay! I thought, why not share the love worldwide? Why not give that poor, lonely kid surfing the web in the Sudan the opportunity to experience Western self-absorption at its most pristine and pithy (you may sit down Eve Ensler)? Well, I am carpe-ing the diem and starting my own blog thing. Is this how Matt Drudge started?
2:16 AM
