Marc Spitz

the best books i think, or good books at least, are the ones where you come away with little lists.  like books in which movies that you haven’t seen or albums that you haven’t heard or other books you have not read are mentioned.  i think the memoir that i am working on in my down time is both one of those books since a LOT of product is mentioned, but also a narrative of that act itself in that the entire first section is glueless, green long islander me just – consuming, whether it’s movies at the cinema village or books at gotham or music from someone’s record collection that i just had to tape.  gil scott heron’s “whitey on the moon” or lou reed’s “the power of positive drinking.”  stuff i didn’t know existed.  this david foster wallace transcript bio is a book like that.  at one point towards the end, the author and DFW just talk about movies.  jurassic park, glory, jaws, schindler’s list, etc.  i’ve stopped reading stones books (sort of could not achieve cruising altitude with billy wyman’s stone alone so i just put it down), and just delved into the video pile.  the thing about the stones, or one thing about the stones is that they’re just monsters on stage.  i know it’s fashionable to knock the stadium thing and i’ve been to see them in places like that, but i’ve also seen them from the pit up real close, and was reminded of just how hard they blast, watching the scorcese film.  watching the early videos on you tube or the tami show or whatever and it’s sex and sex and sex and sex and sex, right?  but they really survived that as their looks went and they’re just a big, impossibly powerful blues rock band now and because they’re such a corporation, and an institution i don’t think they get credit for that.  there was that HBO special of one of the oo tours they did last decade and i remember danny fields who i was briefly working with at the time, commenting on just how good they still were.  it didn’t sink in but i see now what he meant.  and i really hope they tour again.  they were such symbols of youth rebellion, you know “we piss anywhere man,” that i understand a bit better why people have been asking them how long they will carry on since 1969, the year i was born.  maybe even before that the whole “Do you see yourself singing satisfaction at 35, 40, 50, 60″ questions started coming.   it’s like they were all obliged to die young like romantic  brian jones and it’s probably one of the reasons why jagger’s public image is what it is, because he so obviously finds the whole thing ridiculous and has never played along with it.  he never slotted himself into our mold for him and there’ve been, i guess, tacit penalties with regard to the way the media has tried to alter the common perception (Peter Pan, lothario, in denial, not knowing when to hang it up) ever since.   “silly” is a word he uses a lot in interviews, i’m discovering, and i think it is all a bit silly.  i am going to be careful not to be too pro-Jagger, because i don’t want to gush or hagiography-out but i do see an injustice or an imbalance and will definitely address it.  also, version of “loving cup” with jack white = excellent.  there’s an essay, i think it’s by amy taubin, in the criterion collection of gimme shelter where she says “the joy went out of the stones a long time ago” but if you think about it, they NEVER just play the hits.  they always play a few new songs if there are new songs, or careful and lovingly selected covers, blues, and soul or reggae, as well as tracks off less celebrated records whether it’s emotional rescue or undercover.   plus – they’re all still skinny.  i mean, they really are a marvel in three dozen different ways.   this book is going to be hard.