A Definite Miss By Publishers

About four to six times a month I get unsolicited books sent by publishers. This is in addition to the solicited books I get to do author interviews (of which i've been doing about 25 a year for ten years or so now.)

Sometimes the book i'm sent unsolicited is a perfect fit to my usual books interests of the three m's - memoir, media or mystery.

And sometimes not.

Once I received a book of advice for women on how to find the perfect husband. And then I received also the paperback edition.

I once got one called Dump the Chump which was about determining if your man was a chump or not. I did an interview on that, sort of an attempt to determined if I was a chump or not (she said i was not.)

Which brings me to today.... when I received this book: Tales From the Back Row: An Outsider's View From Inside the Fashion Industry.

Who thought this would be a good fit? Did someone think I've been asking myself, "what it's really like to work in the fashion industry?" (to quote the book's back cover

While not a chump I pay as much attention to fashion as Trump does to how to properly meditate

Radio, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," and short cuts

Radio, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," and short cuts

I like when I see how my charge is processing things. Like earlier this week when he asked permission to skip a page in a book and
explained that he self censors rather than obsessing on telling others things he wants or hopes for (xbox)
We had three of those moments Friday which, like so many moments happen in a car. I did a terrible job with one of those and a good job with the other.
1) We have our own routine for the radio. If we both like a song obviously we listen to it, both dislike it, we skip it. If he likes it I may
listen to it... but I can also announce driver's perogative and nix it. And if i like it and he doesn't, well, it depends on the song.
He'll give me a look of (and sometimes say) "that's a song you like that's really old" which can be beatles or REM.
Ok, so i guess it's more nuanced.
Anyway we switch between five pre-set stations and we find some of our favorite songs on all five stations.
So I was thrown for a loop friday, en route to park day, when he asks why one station was playing a certain song.
Why wouldn't it?
He looked puzzled and said usually we only hear a particular song (the name of the artist and song were forgeotten, sorry) on a certain
station.
Later, I realized,he was figuring out genres of stations and so his expectation for one station was thrown.
Instead I made a joke of it. "Oh, do I need to call Kate Perry to say a different station is playing her song?"
He laughed.
So I missed a chance for a talk about genre but we both laughed it off and it was fine.

Then on the way home he said, "What does 'No more Mr. Nice Guy?" I took it for a general question - "um, well, someone is being nice
and then they stop being nice and sometimes they then say 'No more Mr. Nice guy."
His expression indicated that was an insufficient and weak explanation.
He said he meant what did it mean when I said it?
Oh, when do I say that?
Then we both answer at the same time
"During backgammon!" and he says, "Yeah."
so I asked himw when I say that?
He told me I usually say that after I lose a big game.
Right, I tell him.
This cut to the quick on something: I sometimes let him win games. I once wrote a piece for an earlier charge where I detailed not
only how to go about intentionally losing a game at Uno which I determined, after many games of winning and losing, is harder to do than to
win because you have to figure out your opponents card needs and then sneak it to him.
With my charge I sometimes let him win backgammon matches but I try to be subtle about it. In both cases I do it both because my charges
would lose interest if they always lost plus why put them in a bad mood when part of my job is helpong them stay in a good mood.
So I asked him, what happens when he gets stuck and starts to give up during a game and starts to get frustrated?
He says I give him "a shot"(a chance to hit one of my pieces and change the direction of the game)
me: "Do you think that happens because i've made a mistake or, sometimes, because im being nice?"
him: "Because you're being nice," he said. (that's the first time he told me was on to me. i'd always wondered.)
me: "And what could you call a player being nice?"
him: "Mr. Nice Guy?"
Yup. And what happens when I help him, I ask. He wins, he said, and, now laughing, "Then you say 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' and try to win
but lose again."
I couldn't help but laugh. It was true. I'll let him win when he's mad that I'll vow to not help him then he'll win again.
The student has become the teacher
3) Friday afternoon in the Austin area and what does that mean? Lots of traffic, you say. Yup.
We were in traffic and his dad wanted him home early so they could go swimming.
So you know how it is when you're struck in traffic and there's a block or two of businesses all intersecting, which could and was providing
a short cut? I'm sure there's a law against driving through parking lots of Target, HEB, etc without intent to shop there but rather to
drive on, just like when people drive through a gas station at a corner to avoid those stuck in traffic wanting to make right turns?
Anyway, we were stuck in traffic and i'm thinking how fast his brain is working so I decide to show him something else.
Me: "What are we in?
He: "A traffic jam."
Me: "Do you see that McDonalds?
He: "Yeah."
ME:  Do you see alll those cars driving to McdDonands - Are they stopping?
He: "No, they're driving right through and then driving on.
Me: "What do you think they're doing?"
His eyes lighten up.. realization hits.
He: "They're taking a short cut!"
Me: "Yup."
He smiles and practically rubs his hands together and asks, "Can we try this 'short cut' too?"
Me: "You want to?"
And so like we're going on a fun glorious adventure we join what seems like 20 percent of the traffic behind us as, like minds, we
all take that short cut and cut 15 minutes off our travel time."
I was full of lessons.
But my funniest moment of the day? We passed by "Mt. Playmore" and he asked if it was just for kids or... and I disappointed him with the
answer that it's for little kids, lots of bouncing or trampolines."
He doesn't like that answer.
So I give him another: I point out it's spelled like Mt. Rushmore but with the word "play" added so I say ORRRR 'It's the presidents
who are on Mt. Rushmore come back to life so there's George Washington on the trampoline, Lincoln can't use the trampoline because he's
so tall so he climbs up the rocky wall and..."
"You're joking!" he announces.
Yup, I pause to let him join in on this joke be just laughs and laughs which is good because I was suddenly blanking on the other
two presidents (he would have known the answer which I now recall is Teddy Roosevelt and, I think, Thomas Jefferson.)
Then we turned off the radio and had silence, which calms us both so that we were both back to calm and normal (or however normal
I really am) by the time we got back to his house
Some say 'whistle while you work', I say, at least for that day, "Laugh while you work." I used to fear him laughing too much because
that was a thing I was taught to watch for but now that we've worked together going on 1 1/2 years I've got a great sense of when he's about
to have trouble or laughing will cause trouble or whatever.
He has also, gone the longest time in his life, during the last 9 months, without a psychiatric emergency. So I like to think I'm doing
something right.

Review: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

I am looking forward to a book discussion tonight of this fascinating, excellent, depressing but educational book. It explores how the government and its leading thinkers have dealt with and treated the lower class through the last 400 years in America.

In a word, they were always treated awful but just how awful... that I didn't know. While I knew there was talk of eugenics in America way before the Nazis discussed it I didn't know, for example, that it wasn't just blacks they were considering - and sometimes did -  sterilize but also poor whites. I didn't know that many of our nation's founders and leaders believed that people in the lower class were genetically disposed to always be poor, that they believed for hundreds of years a stereotype that they could not and would not
try to get themselves into a better position of society, that they believed those who were the most poor were that way because they were lazy not because they were hopeless and being screwed over, generation after generation.
This is an important read. Just as reading someone like Howard Zinn made many, including me, consider that the history taught in the  textbooks was leaving out important people, details and arguments so does this book show that the history books almost always focus on the winners  and the upper class. It was also pretty interesting to read, for example, that 50 or 60 years ago people were trying to make these same argument
recently made by Bernie Sanders and, before him, the Occupy movement: That the government was doing all it can to help the top 1 percent at the expense of the other 99 percent.
A big surprise for me was that as bad as slaves, after they were released, were treated they were sometimes treated better - and deemed harder workers - than poor whites.
I know some who are put off by the title but the book explains that the various slurs used against the lower class became more than just words - they summed up exactly how most government leaders treated this. This is definitely an example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
lastly, i was blown away that even after the slaves were freed poor white people were still treated as, well, trash. This included poor white people who fought in World War I. The idea that there was a genetic predisposition for folks to be "lazy" also blew me away.
 

Education Via Harry Potter

My charge and I just finished the last 80 page of Harry Potter, book six, the saddest part of the series so far.
It led me to add item #5 - to the rough draft of this list
as well as a conversation about crying (more on that below)

What my charge has learned from reading Harry Potter with me (including during breaks or asides from me, to
add to a detail in the book, or to stop and ask him questions or giving him something to think about):
1. Girls/ladies sometimes travel in a group including to the bathroom. I asked him what he thought girls talked about in the bathroom -
he suggested they were discussing Captain America. I'd assumed they were talking about the dates/guys they were with. A poll of female
friends suggested his answer was the right one:)
2. What not to discuss on a date? He learned from Harry's mistake that discussing the weather was never a good talking point.
3. Jealousy, Crushes and being tongue tied around girls. He has experience with crushes and i've never seen him have trouble with
a topic (see Captain America topic above) but i think it was good and healthy to see Ron and Harry have similar problems, namely being
unsure what to do around girls and acting cautiously.
4. Grief, be it regarding a fictional character or a real person. I told him what i've told adults and  teenagers: There's no right way or wrong way to grieve. It affects different people in different ways and that's natural and normal.
5. As with grief it's ok to be sad when something terrible happens. And, yes, sometimes people you love do die. It's terrible and it's
hard but it happens and eventually life goes on.
6. Concepts like prophecies. I suggested it was prophesied that he would, one day, be king of a nation. He got excited. I told him it was
a nation of one, namely himself. I kid.... He was less enthused and suggested it was prophesied he would be kind of North America.
7. Learning big tough words like assiduously 

I told him i felt a bit teary-eyed about the death of such a beloved important character at the end of book six and he laughed. Sometimes he laughs when he's not sure what emotions to feel. I suspected he may have been taught, especially while in residential treatment centers with other boys for three years, that men don't cry. And sure enough, I told him it's healthy and fine and ok for men or boys to cry. "Men don't cry!" he said. Yes they do. Some guys say that but they're wrong. It's good to let out emotions with tears and it's goof for you too. He looked skeptical but i know he cares what i think so, for now, i've introduced a foreign concept into his brain. And it reminds me of a piece I wrote while struggling once to cry and writing about
this, Big Boys Don't Cry, is from 2007:
    
Maybe it's a guy thing:
"Big boys don't cry."
"Only girls cry."
"You can't be macho and cry."
There are so many stupid sayings drilled into males while still boys. The result? Tears held in. Emotions held in check. Friends, relatives, lovers, always wondering what guys are really feeling. Or maybe it's a Butki thing. Dad never really showed much emotion. No tears, no hugs. Handshakes at church, but that was just a playful way of saying "peace be with you."
Mom cried. Mom hugged. Mom even occasionally kissed me. But that was Mom. I was supposed to be like Dad, right? Right? So now here I sit, far from that home - in geography anyway - and now I want to be emotionally more like Mom and less like Dad. Sometimes now I will be watching some dumb movie and feel my heart being tugged by a plot device about love or dads and I will feel a tear duct being moved. "Come on, cry, damn it!" part of me says, the part that knows it feels better to cry than not to cry sometimes. The part of my brain that wants me to let out my emotions rather than to just have that tear duct tease me week after week. But that fricking macho brain tissue screams "No, no, no, you can't cry," and the sensation goes away.
And so it goes. I see a sad, sappy movie and feel close to tears, can see and hear women on both sides of me bawling, and I feel almost apologetic for not crying myself. Sometimes the result is a form of sympathy tears - I can cry because they are crying. A weird thing, that.


Then there are days like when I watched the television coverage of Princess Diana's funeral, feeling like crying but the tears not coming. For more than an hour I would hear something particularly sad and the tear ducts would go jerk, jerk, jerk, but nothing happened. Then a camera pans and shows Diana's boys walking, oh so silently, and with faces turned toward their feet, and the jerks of the tear ducts come still stronger. The camera goes into montage mode and shows people crying outside: a woman crying, a man singing and... wait, what's this? A man crying. And another one. And still another one. My God! Is this allowed? I feel a tear starting to come. But only one. And then they stop, like a spigot has been turned off. But for some odd reason, I'm happy. I've cried, however briefly.

Men will scoff at this, I imagine. But I feel I've accomplished something, shown I'm human. Shown I have emotions. I have shown, perhaps, that I'm not as emotionless as some men are.
------------------------------
I posted the above on facebook and then added, Since i wrote that ive found that i can cry much easier in a dark theater esp when a dad (as mine did) or the story includes a son grieving his father, as i still do.

Learning To Drive, The Butki-Way

Growing up Butki we had a tradition - you learned to drive at the cemetery. That way if you hit anyone, well, odds are they are already dead. Curbs at cemeteries are usually curved which is easier on the car if you hit them and is practically begging, "Please learn to drive on me."

So we did learn to drive at cemeteries in Riveside, Calif. First my older brother than my older sister and then it was my turn - first we would drive at a small cemetery and, when good enough, move on to a bigger one with more turns. And finally, when good enough, we would move up to empty parking lots at the community college on weekends.

I thought at the time it was brilliant. Actually, I still think it was pretty smart - it was very typical to how the mind of my dad worked: practical, a bit outside of the box but completely logical. I mean this is the same guy who would insist we order different items on the menu so we would not only each try something different but explore as much on the menu as possible

After dad died I got to know for the first time his side of the family, who live in Michigan. While there my favorite uncle died - the one I had used as a platform for a newspaper column urging parents to tell their kids those words they need to hear (that you love them, that you are proud of them), which prompted total strangers to reach out to me to tell me they had just had the best most meaningful conversation of their life. That may have been my biggest accomplishment as a journalist.



I attended this uncle's funeral. While there an aunt invited me to return but this time for a happier occasion, namely Thanksgiving. So I did and had a great old time.
The last stop on the trip was a cemetery, where I saw for the first time where my grandparents on my dad's side were buried. On a hunch I asked a question and had a suspicion confirmed: Yes, they too were taught how to drive in cemeteries like this.
What I thought to be dad's ingenuity was actually the continuation of a family tradition.

And so it goes, traditions passed down. By the time I have kids I hope to be driving hybrid cars. But still, kids need to learn to drive so guess where I will teach mine to drive? That's right - the cemetery. So if you are going to a cemetery and see an erratic driver, step aside and watch as a Butki ritual and tradition drives by.
The end

Explaining Grief To My Charge

As I read Harry Potter to my charge we hit at least 10-15 words a day that he doesn't know. During slow parts of the book I might stop and add them to a vocabulary list but when we're in fast, intense parts like the last half of book 4 (we just finished it) I'll summarize it in 15 seconds or, for words like 'astonished," just act it out.
And so it was that he asked me today what "grief" is.
Oy.
Can't think of a time when I've mentioned, heard, felt, explained or expressed grief as much as I have in the last two weeks. It's one of the reasons that I decided to provide a safe space for people to process grief and pain and sadness both with our high school class at church (I wanted them to not only have that space but also to know that adults are still processing emotions, including grief, from those killed by cops and the cops killed by a man, and so if the teenagers don't know how to feel that is perfectly normal) and with our anti-racism group of adults at my church.
So it wasn't hard to summarize grief... the challenge was doing so without mentioned the violence of recent weeks of which he is (at parent's request) ignorant. So instead I asked if he remembered how people reacted to Prince dying.
Yes, he said, and when Michael Jackson died, too.
Yes, I said. Some people get mad, some get sad, some want to cry and some, like the character in the novel (Mrs. Weasley, if memory serves) was tearless but perhaps wanting to cry but no tears came right then.
Basically, there's no "right way" to express grief, I told him.
Then I remembered something, it was one of the first issues i saw with my charge, unsure what to do with his emotions and it was about grief.
When he got home in May of 2015, after 3 years in residential clinics, and when I started working with him immediately, he had just learned that his grandpa had died and he didnt know how to react to this news and the emotions, and he laughed. And his mom corrected him that this was sad news.
And thus my charge "knew" that he should be sad about this.
But how long to be sad? How to express this? These are questions we all face, many of us in recent days.
Each of the 6 kids in the family had been given a bookmark that marked the life and death of his grandpa. And my charge, not knowing what to do with that, thought the proper response was to carry that with him every day to dayhab and that he needed to be sad each time he got home.
And I'm pretty sure that was one of my first lessons to him about this important topic, namely you don't have to act or look sad if you are not truly sad. And then he lost the bookmark and THAT made him mad and sad because he felt like he'd somehow dishonored his family or his grandfather. And that's when I explained to him that it's ok that's gone, it was just a way to remember his grandpa.
Do you remember him? I asked.
He did, he said.
That's what matters.
And so today we returned full circle to that topic of grief and how it comes in all shapes and sizes and types and forms and all are ok.
Teachable moment.... taught.
Scott out.... drops mic.

Interview: Bob Mehr, Author of ‘Trouble Boys: The True Stories of The Replacements’

Originally published here
http://blogcritics.org/interview-bob-mehr-author-of-trouble-boys-the-true-stories-of-the-replacements/

Bob Mehr has pulled off quite an accomplishment, writing a biography of one of my favorite bands, The Replacements. What
made the band’s story hard to tell, and the reason the book is a dense 435 pages, is what made the band hard to love at times. They seemed at times  to revel in disappointing fans at their shows. In Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements, Mehr chronicles how Paul Westerberg, leader singer and main songwriter, time after time would have the band up to hijinks ranging from switching instruments to playing covers instead of their own songs, during concerts that could help make their career and lives easier.

A big show with influential people who can help promote the album? They’d do a terrible job at that concert, driving everyone away. A show with few folks? Oh, that one they’d do amazing at. It was a pattern repeated throughout their career and chronicled in the book.


There are many bands who never hit it big but were loved and influenced many other musicians and bands who came after them. What makes The Replacements heartbreaking is they had the potential to become bigger. However, they kept hijacking their own career, sometimes with the hijinks I mentioned, sometimes by literally burning their earnings for a show, and other times by personally insulting producers, radio personalities and anyone else that could help them.

The band lived down to many rock group stereotypes and cliches: Destroying tour buses, vans, rooms and furniture (and even instruments of people they were working with), getting drunk and stoned often.


Sure, some of their obstacles to success came from events beyond their control, as was the case with one of their best songs, “The Ledge,” about a boy contemplating suicide. Westerberg wrote it about his own personal experience with the subject. The song was set to be the lead single of what Warner Brothers thought would be their breakthrough album, Pleased to Meet Me. But MTV banned the song after some recent high-profile suicides and even radio stations who had been playing the song soon stopped. Bad luck like that plagued the band.

At the same time they were living this hard life, Westerberg was writing some of his best songs, which were often slower with tender, thoughtful lyrics that did not match the hard-rocking style of the first few album. Those poignant tunes foreshadowed problems with the band’s direction.
Mehr meticiously describes the band’s evolution from album to album. How the band moved from rocking hard to having some slower numbers (still mixed with harder rocking songs), but ultimately moving from a band that would rehearse and record together to Paul Westerberg recording pretty much by himself to the band breaking up as Westerberg went solo.

Some rock band biographies glaze over the hard, emotionally challenging parts of a band’s career focusing on the fun stuff instead. And, sure, some of this is hilarious like the band’s behavior when they got their first big break on TV, performing on Saturday Night Live, and between being drunk and, more problematic for the live show, cussing on air, leaving them not appearing again on television for years.

But Mehr, a veteran music journalist, not only tackled the band members’ struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction but even chooses to start the book at a tough emotional place, namely the 1995 funeral of founding member Bob Stinson, the guitarist whose alcohol and drug problems grew so problematic that he was kicked out of the band. This was complicated even more by the fact that one of the other main and founding members was Bob’s little brother, Tommy. Detractors of the band considered Bob the soul of the band and his removal more proof the band was getting more mellow and common.

And with that let’s start the interview, which Mehr was gracious enough to conduct with me, about this book written with the participation of most of the band members.


Why do you think this band, without awards or great sales, are still so important to its fans?


The songs Paul Westerberg wrote, the legend the band carved out for itself, the fact that they fell short commercially in their time — all those things have kept them powerful and relevant. Also, there was some mysterious intangible quality to them — as people, as a band — that resonated so deeply with those who heard and saw the Replacements. I think that people connected with the Replacements musically, emotionally and almost spiritually. That’s largely due to the fact that they were so purely themselves. There was no “act” or image that they were flogging. They were who they were, onstage and off, in the songs, and in the street. That’s a rare quality in rock and roll, and even rarer in show business in general. That’s what’s precious about the band.


What do you think readers who are fans of the band will be most surprised to learn in your book?

Hopefully, everything. I tried to write the history of the band almost from scratch. To probe more deeply into their pasts and personal lives than anyone had ever done, in order to understand what each of them brought to the group, and how it impacted their career. Certainly, I think there are revelations about the early life of Bob Stinson that are difficult and shocking, but that holds true to varying degrees with all the members of the band. Also, I think people will come to understand the psychology and dynamics of a rock and roll band, and the politics of the music business of the 1980s in a way they haven’t before.

What were you most surprised to learn when researching this book?

Just how much went into the formation of the Replacements. That while the group seemed almost fated to come together, there was still years of pain and study and graft and so much life that had to come before the magic evening in 1979 when Paul Westerberg found the Stinson brothers and Chris Mars in that basement in South Minneapolis. It made me value and grasp the idea that there’s a whole lifetime of moments that lead to the birth of any great and important band. And the Replacements are a perfect example of that.

What’s your favorite song and album and why?

My favorite song is probably “Color Me Impressed” off of their third album, Hootenanny. I think that song and that album mark the key transitional point in the group’s musical evolution. They started out as a snotty punk band, and quickly decided that their real rebellion would come in their ability to try (and sometimes fail) playing any and every kind of music. So for those reasons Hootenanny, and its best and most quintessentially Westerbergian track, “Color Me Impressed’ rank as my favorites. At least for today — if you ask me tomorrow you’d probably get a different answer.


What did band members think of the finished product of the book and did they request and changes?

Part of my informal “deal” with the band at the outset was that although they would participate fully, they had no editorial control or veto power over the finished product. It was my book to write.
The only real allowances I made in that regard was with the Stinson family. Since I was dealing with such sensitive and painful matters from their past, I wanted to be sure I was portraying everything accurately and delicately, particularly since they weren’t part of the band and hadn’t signed up for this project as such. Fortunately, everyone involved on the family side approved of the job I’d done, even though the subject matter was very difficult.

As for Paul and Tommy, their reactions were much as I expected: discomfort with much of what was depicted in the book, but also a sense that I had taken the task seriously, and created a biography worthy of their legacy. It’s not an easy book by any stretch – certainly not for those closest to the story. But as Paul told me many years ago when he agreed to be a part of this, the only way to do the Replacements tale any justice is to tell everything honestly.

Do you recommend the book be read while listening to the band’s albums?

Absolutely. One of the things I’ve been most pleased about in hearing from people who’ve read the book is that it’s given them a new appreciation for the music and songs, or that they’ve been able to hear the albums in a new way. Or even that it’s made them reconsider records or tunes they’d once dismissed. Given that I go into the writing and record of each album in depth, I think absorbing the music along with the story is an ideal way to immerse yourself in the Replacements world.


Why did you decide to start the book with the funeral for Bob Stinson?

Ultimately, Bob’s life and death are pivotal to both the book’s narrative and the history of the band. Although it might seem a counter-intuitive or bold choice to begin that way, it felt like starting the story with anything else would almost be a cop out. For the book to really function the way I wanted it to, it was essential for readers to understand the stakes for this group from the very first page.

Do you think there will be any future reunions?

That’s not something I could ever speculate on with any insight. Paul and Tommy tend to march to their own beat. I think the recent 2013-2015 reunion started fairly spontaneously, and continued on because of the tremendous creative momentum and public demand. If they never play another show, I think the reunion served its purpose: to show that the Replacements are a deeply beloved group, that they have reached a critical mass in terms of their popularity (as proven by the tens of thousands who showed up to see them), and most importantly that their music will live on long after we’re all gone.

For those who have not read this book how would describe your own relationship with the Replacements? Were you really one of their drivers on some of their tours?
No, I was just a fan, first and foremost — one of those great many people who loved the band as much for what seemed to be their philosophy as their music. Then I became a professional music critic and journalist and developed casual connections with the group. I had no real relationship with them beyond that before starting this project. But I think that’s probably what allowed me to write the book as I did. I came at it with an outsider’s curiosity, but wanting to tell an insider’s story. I hope I succeeded in that.
Which do you prefer, writing magazine articles or a book?
I tend to have a kind of monomaniacal focus when it comes to writing. So anything that can satisfy or appease that — whether it’s a book or long form magazine feature is something I enjoy.
The whole idea of immersing yourself in a subject — be it for a couple weeks for an article, or eight years, like it was with Trouble Boys, is what I love most.

How My Position On the Death Penalty Wavered While Covering A Serial Killer's Trial

After graduating from college in 1991 I worked as a newspaper reporter in Southern California. Often the newspaper's sole reporter I covered a variety of beats. Looking back on the work, though, the stories I remember the best are the ones I covered as a police reporter. On that beat you see the best and worst of people - well, more often the latter - and are left with memories, some good and some bad. This is part of a series of memoir pieces I'm writing about some of those events, thoughts and emotions.
It has been said that a conservative is a liberal who got mugged. I thought about that saying after covering a murder trial and sentencing for a serial killer.

I'd read arguments on both sides of the capital punishment argument and I knew where I stood. I was a good liberal - I'd quote Mahatma Gandhi at the drop of a conservative speaker's hat. I did speeches on the issues and probably annoyed my parents with my rantings on the matter.

But after seeing the death penalty actually being considred, as I covered murder trials for the Hemet News, that I began to question things... a process I'm still continuing to this day.
There was a man in Riverside County named William Suff. He was accused of murdering 13 prostitutes. It took the county 18 months to figure out who the serial killer was. It turned out he was a county employee. There was a lovely picture of him on a county newsletter, praising him for carpooling.

I grew up fascinated by mysterials. And legal thrillers. With a copy of my latest Robert Parker or Scott Turow I'd sometimes go by the courthouse on the way to work. Who wants to cover a city council meeting when a crime hearing that is somehow related to that town is going on?
After some pleading, my editor said I could cover portions of the Suff trial. After all, one of the victims was from the area. But I also had to cover my usual government beat.

I thought that by seeing people like Suff, people doing deeds that seemed like pure evil, I could better understand people. But if there are people of pure evil, then where did that leave ideas like rehabilitation?

And what about people I'd later cover like Dora Buenrostro, who would stab to death her three children, blame the crimes on her husband and then scream in the middle of a courtroom that there were snakes coming right at her? The court said she was mentally competent to stand trial.The prosecutor said the crimes came about because of passion and jealousy.

Is this the best way to understand human weaknesses? I wondered. I'm not sure now. I just know I had some sleepless nites then.

The first and the last days were the worst, both to watch and to describe in print.

On the first day of the Suff trial they began showing photos of the victims. I guess they wanted to shock the jury with his callousness of his actions. I was sitting between two elderly couples. figured they were families of the victims but I didn't ask them.

In thinking and writing about war crimes and torture the other day the way I put it is this: "We should not use extreme circumstances, real or imaginary, to make policy decisions or take ultimate stands on a complicated issues. Better to make those decisions in unemotional circumstances."

I still think that makes sense. But who would I tell these relatives, who seem to be almost blood-thirsty in their quest for revenge, that they should wait until calmer times to stake out a position on the issue? I can't. Can you?

If I had to try to sum up what I learned it is this - taking absolute positions is easy, provided you don't have to actually test those positions in sticky emotional situations like this one.

A Positive Life-Affirming Story At A Post Office

In a time where I see so many people being selfish and we have candidates feeding ignorance, bias and hate it's so nice to see something truly life-affirming.

Three times this week i've gone by the post office to mail a package and each time there were at least ten people in line. This time I stayed at the post office on Parmer near Lamar.

Others today were also complaining about the line... until a lady got in life who was blind and asking about the line and fretting that the longer the line the more she had to pay taxis. Suddenly seemingly everyone was trying to help and it was such a good thing to see. I was in front of her in line so I'd feed her updates on the line while others helped her hold a package while she called a taxi driver.

A postal worker came by to see if she needed anything and she needed someone to help her write the address on the box so the worker helped her. 

Then when I was debating letting her go in front of me (not sure how the 12(!) in line then behind us would feel about it a worker opened a counter to help her finish up with writing the address and getting things sent.

I know i help those who need assistance and while many tell me how great that work is what's even better is seeing others doing the same thing, which is basically just being good humans helping others.

My Al Gore Encounter

During my approximately 13 years as a newspaper reporter I had many highs and lows. I learned everything from how to manufacture a meth lab - a defendant argued, from the witness stand, that she could not have caused the meth lab fire that claimed the lives of her kids, because she was too skilled at what she did, as she spelled it out step by step - to how to get Civil War reenactors furious at you (I suggested there were similarities between those who join gangs and those who join reenactors, both looking for things not found at home)

I stop and reflect from time to time about some of those experiences.
Sure, there are a few nightmares like covering the trial and sentencing of a serial killer or covering way too many fatal traffic accidents.
 

But today I wanted to stop and answer a question a friend asked me recently. She wanted to know the circumstances of this photo, probably my favorite photo taken of me while in action.


The backstory to the photo: It was about a month or two after the election. We'd heard that his son's lacrosse team was playing a local private school's team. I volunteered for the interview thinking, "How often would I get a chance to meet and interview a president I'd voted for?"


I arrived and had a dilemma. He was sitting by himself in the stands and was clearly enjoying the freedom of being away from everything. And here I was about to burst that bubble and ask, in so many words, how's life after one of the most public and contentious presidential election losses in recent history.

If I walked toward him from in front of him he'd see me, note the reporter's notebook and would have the chance to say, "no comment" and I'd have to return to work, head down, saying I didn't have a story.

In the photo you see a Newsweek in my jacket pocket, proving once again that I take reading material everywhere I go.

I wrote down things Gore said which consisted of brilliant, eloquent comments like "Go!" and "Yeah!"

Finally I decided it was time to make my move. I jumped onto the bleachers behind him, jumped a few steps (i was so afraid I'd fall and be really embarrassed since I am a total klutz.

The good news is my plan worked. As far as he was concerned I appeared out of nowhere, standing next to him, asking him how the game was going, what he thought of our fair county, before moving on to tougher ground like "What's he going to do now?"

I was counting on him being too polite to end the interview amid discussion of his son's lacrosse game.

Amid that interview that photo was shot.
But speaking of shot, I almost was. Shot, that is.

Seems that the photographer said he spotted at least three men,secret service guys - who I'd detected before but ignored - who reached for their guns when I jumped over to the former vice president.
It probably didn't help that I was taking something out of my pocket. That it was a notebook, not a gun, was known to me but not to them.

So I got my interview but also could have been maimed, if not killed.
And THAT - as Paul Harvey would say - is the REST of the story

An Index Of My Interviews With Authors and Book and Movie Reviews

For more than 10 years I've been interviewing a minimum of 20 authors each year.

Some of the highlights have been interviewing Roger Ebert (part two is here)
Robert Parker and most of my favorite crime writers from silly but fun (Lisa Lutz)  to deeper characters (Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke) to heavy thinkers like Sarah Vowell plus memoirists and others.

My interview with author Kate Atkinson was exciting because she included it in the paperback version of the book
An index of music reviews and musician interviews is here 
(last updated in Nov 2017)
---------------------------------------------------------


The three most exciting recent interviews are two amazing mystery writers, James Lee Burke and Ian Rankin. The third is with Austin mother Sarah Barnes, who writes an amazing nonfiction picee about what it's like to raise a daughter (now in high school) with an atypical brain.
When i'm not doing interviews or fighting injustice via writing and activism I work with families like the Barnes though usually with folks with intellectual
disabilities often on the autism spectrum

All interviews are sorted by last name of the author - you can tell which title it is by looking at the name of the link

A few highlight from the last two  years- an interview with Cary Elwes, the lead actor of a great movie (Princess Bride) and the Greg Sestero, lead actor of one of the world's worst movie (The Room), and with the best-selling authors Laura Lippman and one of my current favorites Craig Johnson.

Many of the more recent media interviews have been published at Mystery People, part of Austin's Book People, a great indie bookstore,
 

Lastly if you wonder who I am
I wrote a two part summary of my life here: - part one here and part two here

 Author interviews - Fiction and non-fiction mixed together

Abbott, Jeff -  Interview With Jeff Abbott on Adrenaline, First Order and Last Minute- https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/07/interview-with-jeff-abbott-on.html


Abramowitz, Andy - An Interview With Author Andy Abramowitz About His Debut Novel Thank You, Goodnight - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/07/an-interview-with-author-andy.html

Abramson, Peter - The Dog Who Knew Too Much and Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street - http://blogcritics.org/interview-peter-abrahams-author-of-the/

Alexander, Bryan -My Interview With Bryan Alexander, Author of The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media
http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/07/my-interview-with-bryan-alexander.html

Anderson,Patrick- Interview With Patrick Anderson, Author of The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-patrick-anderson-author.html

Armstrong, Lori - http://blogcritics.org/interview-lori-armstrong-author-of-merciless/

Arthur, Charles - http://blogcritics.org/interview-charles-arthur-author-of-digital/

Atkins, Ace - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-ace-atkins-author/ and
http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-author-ace-atkins-about-his-two-new-books-the-broken-places-and-wonderland/
for the Ranger: http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-ace-atkins-author/

Atkinson, Kate - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-kate-atkinson-author/

Auletta, Ken -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/my-interview-with-new-yorker-writer-ken.html

Baldacci, David - The Collectors - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-david-baldacci-author-of.html

Barnes, Sarah - https://bookpeopleblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/an-interview-with-sarah-barnes/

Bazell, Josh - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/y-interview-with-josh-bazell-author-of.html

Beauchamp - http://blogcritics.org/interview-monte-beauchamp-on-his-collection-masterful-marks-cartoonists-who-changed-the-world/

Belden, Chris - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-chris-belden-author-of-the-new-novel-shriver/

Belsky, R.G. - https://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/mysterypeople-qa-scott-butki-interviews-r-g-belsky/

Brown, Sandra - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/my-interview-with-sandra-brown-about.html

Bryan, Bill -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-bill-bryan-author-of.html

Burke, Alafair and Clark, Marry Higgins - http://blogcritics.org/interview-mary-higgins-clark-and-alafair-burke-about-their-first-novel-in-a-series/

Burke, James Lee - House of The Rising Sun - https://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/mysterypeople-qa-with-james-lee-burke/
and For Jesus Out to Sea- https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-mystery-writer-james-lee.html

Burke, Jan - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-author-jan-burke/

Burnett, John -  http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-john-burnett-author-of.html

Burns Eric -http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-eric-burns-author/
Carr, David - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/scotts-interview-with-david-carr-author.html

Carey, Mike  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-interview-with-mike-carey-author-of.html


Cartooncat - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/scoop-interviews-cartooncat-about-her.html

Cerasani, Richard - http://blogcritics.org/interview-richard-cerasani-author-of-love-letters-from-mount-rushmore-the-story-of-a-marriage-a-monument-and-a-moment-in-history/

Chrome, Cheetah - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-cheetah-chrome-author/

Clark, Lucy - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-lucy-clarke-author-of-swimming-at-night-2/

Clark, Marry Higgins and Burke, Alafair a - http://blogcritics.org/interview-mary-higgins-clark-and-alafair-burke-about-their-first-novel-in-a-series/

Collins, Max Allan http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-max-allan-collins-about-his-two-newest-books/

Crais, Rober - The Promise - https://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/mysterypeople-qa-scott-butki-interviews-robert-crais/
and The Watchmen - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/2-12-interviews-with-robert-crais.html
and Taken http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-robert-crais-about/
Chasing The Darkness -  http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/2-12-interviews-with-robert-crais.html

Connelly, Michael - Scarecrow  http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/three-interviews-with-michael-connelly.html
and Crime Beat http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/three-interviews-with-michael-connelly.html
and- Overlook - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/three-interviews-with-michael-connelly.html

Crosley, Sloan - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-sloane-crosley-author/

Crowley, Kieran - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-kieran-crowley-the-author-of-hack-a-shepherd-novel/

Cummings, John Michael - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2008/09/12/1858335-scotts-interview-with-john-michael-cummings-author-of-the-night-i-freed-john-brown-https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/scotts-interview-with-john-michael.html

Dangle, Lloyd - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-lloyd-dangle-author-of.html

Deaver, Jeffrey  - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/four-interviews-with-jeffrey-deaver.html
and- https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/four-interviews-with-jeffrey-deaver.html
and Sleeping Doll -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/four-interviews-with-jeffrey-deaver.html
and - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/four-interviews-with-jeffrey-deaver.html

Denby, David - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-interview-with-david-denby-about-his.html

Earles, Andrew - Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-andrew-earles-author/

Ebert, Roger - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/07/interview-with-film-critic-roger-ebert.html
part two is here: https://blogcritics.org/interview-with-film-critic-roger-ebert/

Egan, Jennifer - https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/An-Interview-With-Jennifer-Egan-Author-of-A-804478.php

Eisenhower, David -http://blogcritics.org/interview-david-eisenhower-author-of-going/

Eisler, Barry -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-barry-eisler-author-of.html

Elwes, Cary - Princess Bride - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/my-interview-with-cary-elwes-author-and.html

Friedman, Kinky -   An Interview With Writer Kinky Friedman, Author of You Can Lead a Politician to Water, But You Can't Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-interview-with-writer-kinky-friedman.html=


Fusco, John - http://blogcritics.org/interview-john-fusco-author-of-dog-beach/

Fulghum - Robert - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-interview-with-robert-fulghum-author.html
 Gladd, Todd - http://blogcritics.org/interview-comedian-todd-glass-author-of-the-todd-glass-situation/

Gonick, Larry - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-larry-gonick.html
 Gordon, Howard -http://blogcritics.org/interview-with-howard-gordon-executive-producer/

Green, Tim http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-tim-green-author-of.html

Hall, Tarquin - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-tarquin-hall-author-of-the-mystery-the-case-of-the-love-commandos/
and http://blogcritics.org/interview-tarquin-hall-author-of-the/

Harding, John Wesley aka Wesley Stace - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-interview-with-wesley-stace-aka-john.html

Henshaw, Mark - http://blogcritics.org/interview-mark-henshaw-author-of-the-fall-of-moscow-station-red-cell-cold-shot/

Hohn, Donovan -  http://blogcritics.org/interview-donovan-hohn-author-of-moby1/

Horwitz, Tony - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-interview-with-tony-horwitz-author.html
Hunter, Stephen - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-newsvine-interview-with-stephen.html

Huston, Charlie - Shotgun rule and Sleepless - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/charlie-huston-sleepless-and-shotgun.html

Isaacson, Walter - Einstein - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-walter-isaacson-author.html

Jacobs, A. J. - Guinea Pig Diaries - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/3-interviews-with-aj-jacob.html
and The Know-It-All -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/3-interviews-with-aj-jacob.html
Year of Living Biblically  -  - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-aj-jacobs-author-of-year.html
Jance, J.A. - http://blogcritics.org/interview-j-a-jance-on-her-50th-book-moving-target/

Johnson, Craig - http://blogcritics.org/talking-with-author-craig-johnson-about-his-latest-booka-serpents-tooth-and-the-rest-of-the-longmire-series/

Keen, Andrew -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-rantreview-of-andrew-keens-cult-of.html 
Interview of him is here: https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/nterview-with-andrew-keen-author-of.html

Kurtz, Howard -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-howard-kurtz-author.html

Leopold, Jason - News Junkie -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-jason-leopold-author-of.html


Lippman, Laura - http://blogcritics.org/interview-laura-lippman-on-her-new-novel-after-im-gone/
Lippman, Laura -I'd know you anywhere http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-laura-lippman-author1/
Lippman, Laura - No Good Deeds - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-laura-lippman-author-of.html


Lopate, Philip - American Movie Critics - An Anthology From the Silents Until Now - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-phillip-lopate-editor-of.html

Lutz, Lisa  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-lisa-lutz-author-of.html
Lutz, Lisa - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-lisa-lutz.html
Lutz, Lisa  - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2008/02/21/1316350-my-newsvine-interview-with-lisa-lutz-author-of-curse-of-the-spellmans
Lutz, Lisa - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2010/04/27/4209317-an-interview-with-lisa-lutz-about-her-new-book-the-spellmans-strike-again-a-novel
http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-hilarious-author-lisa-lutz-about-her-latest-book-the-last-word/
Lutz, Lisa and ex-bf David Hayward
http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2011/04/04/6409394-an-interview-with-lisa-lutz-and-david-hayward-authors-of-heads-you-lose


Maraniss, David - Rome 1960 - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-author-david-maraniss.html

Marks, Stephen - Confessions of a Political Hit man - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-interview-with-stephen-marks-author.html



Mnookin, Seth - The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science and Fear http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-seth-mnookin-author/ -

Morris, Roy - Author of Lighting Out For The Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-roy-morris-jr-author.html


Paretsky, Sara - Body Work - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-sara-paretsky-author/

Parker, Robert - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-mystery-writer-robert.html



 Pelecanos, George - The Night Gardener -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/two-interviews-with-mystery-writer.html
Pelecanos, George - The Turnaround - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/two-interviews-with-mystery-writer.html

Penzler, Otto - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2009/11/18/3514307-good-news-theres-a-new-collection-of-pieces-by-my-favorite-mystery-writers-an-interview-with-otto-penzler-editor-of-the-lineup

Perry, Leigh - http://blogcritics.org/interview-leigh-perry-author-of-the-family-skeleton-series/

Phillips, Lisa - Public Radio: Behind the Voices - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/28/590345-interview-with-lisa-phillips-author-of-public-radio-behind-the-voices

Plotz, David - The Best of Slate - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2007/03/07/602759-interview-with-david-plotz-deputy-editor-of-slate-on-the-best-of-slate

Poole, Eric - Wheres My Wand? - http://www.newsvine.com/_m1/edit/- http:/sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2010/06/12/4498271-an-interview-with-eric-poole-author-of-wheres-my-wand-one-boys-magical-triumph-over-alienation-and-shag-carpeting

Portman, Frank - King Dork and Sequel to King Dork -   https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-frank-portman-author-of.html


Rankin, Ian (Even Dogs In The Wild) https://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/mysterypeople-qa-with-ian-rankin/
Rankin, Ian - Bleeding Hearts -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-mystery-writer-ian.html
Rankin, Ian - Naming of the Dead - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-ian-rankin-author-of.html

 Rushkoff, Douglas -Life Inc
https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-douglas-rushkoff.html
Rushkoff, Douglas  Program or be programmed ten commands for a digital age -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-douglas-rushkoff_21.html

Sanford, John - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2009/09/29/3330167-newsvine-interview-with-thriller-author-john-sandford-about-his-new-book-rough-country

 Scott-Coe, Jo - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-jo-scott-coe-author.html
 
Sestero, Greg - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-interview-with-greg-sestero-author.html

Shrum, Robert -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-interview-with-political-consultant.html

Simon, Scott of NPR - Baby, We Were Meant For Each Other- http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-scott-simon-author/

Slaughter, Karin - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2010/08/08/4844341-an-interview-with-karin-slaughter-author-of-broken

Soper, Kerry: Garry Trudeau and the Aesthetics of Satirehttps://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-kerry-soper-about-his.html
About Walt Kelly and Pogo - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-kerry-soper-about3/


Specter, Michael -Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms The Planet and Threatens Our Lives https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-michael-specter-about.html

Spencer, Scott - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-scott-spencer-author/
 

Sullivan, Bob - Gotcha Capitalism - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-bob-sullivan-msnbc.html

Straw, Tom -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/an-interview-with-tom-straw-tv-writer.html

Symynkywicz, Jeffrey -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-jeffrey-symynkywicz.html


Thorne David - http://blogcritics.org/interview-with-david-thorne-author-of1/


Tinley, Scott - Things To Be Survived -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-scott-tinley-author-of.html

Vasseghi - http://blogcritics.org/interview-motivational-speaker-sourena-vasseghi-about-his-book-big-dreams-take-small-sacrifices/

Vowell, Sarah - l -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-interview-with-sarah-vowell-over-her.html

Walsh, Jim - The Replacements: An Oral History - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-jim-walsh-about-his.html

Wambaugh Joseph - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-joseph-wambaugh-about.html
Wambaugh, Joseph - Hollywood Hills - http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-joseph-wambaugh-author/

Westerson, Jeri - http://blogcritics.org/interview-jeri-westerson-author-of-the-silence-of-stones/
http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2012/11/24/15415829-interview-jeri-westerson-author-of-blood-lance-and-the-crispin-guest-book-series
http://blogcritics.org/an-interview-with-jeri-westerson-author/

 Westlake, Donald - What's So Funny -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-donald-westlake-author.htmll

Wilson, Charles - Chew on This -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-review-fast-food-nation.html

Winslow, Don - http://blogcritics.org/interview-don-winslow-author-of-the/

Movie interviews
911 Dust and Deceit - http://911blogger.com/news/2007-03-29/interview-penny-little-director-911-dust-and-deceit-world-trade-center

Along Comes Kinky (Friedman) - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/interview-with-david-hartstein-director.html

Happiness Is - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-andrew-shapter.html
The Horse Boy (movie) - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-conversation-with-director-of.html
Maz Jobrani (comedian) - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-comedian-maz-jobrani.html






Book Reviews

Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/reflecting-on-truth-versus-fiction.html
 Buckley, Christopher - Thank You For Smoking and Boomsday
https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-reviews-thank-you-for-smoking-and.html

Colbert, Stephen - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/review-stephen-colberts-book-will-help.html


Elleree, Linda - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-review-girl-reporter-sinks-school_22.html
Groening, Matt- The Huge Book of - Hell - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-review-huge-book-of-hell.html
 Herblock - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/good-news-theres-great-book.htmlhttp://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-rupert-isaacson.html


Hornby, Nick - A Long Way Down - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/14/569070-review-a-long-way-down-is-not-really-a-downer
Isaacson, Rupert - The Horse Boy -http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-interview-with-rupert-isaacson.html

Keen, Andrew -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-rantreview-of-andrew-keens-cult-of.html 
Interview of him is here: https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/nterview-with-andrew-keen-author-of.html

Martin, Steve - Born Standing Up -
https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-curious-case-of-steve-martins.html

Orange is the New Black (review/comparison of tv show and memoir) - http://blogcritics.org/thoughts-on-orange-is-the-new-black-both-the-tv-series-and-the-memoir/

Schlosser, Eric - Fast Food Nation - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-review-fast-food-nation.html


Stewart, Jon - The Daily Show's Book America: The Teacher's Edition -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/book-review-america-book-teachers.html

Vowell, Sarah - Take the Cannoli -http://blogcritics.org/book-review-take-the-cannoli-stories/ (My interview with Vowell on a later book is here - http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2008/10/14/1997360-my-interview-with-sarah-vowell-over-her-new-book-the-wordy-shipmates
https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-interview-with-sarah-vowell-over-her.html
 
Westlake, Donald - Comeback - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-review-comeback-by-richard.html (My interview with Westlake is here -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-with-donald-westlake-author.html

Wolfe, Tom - A Man In Full - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-review-man-in-full-by-tom-wolfe.html



Movie and TV Show Reviews

Alice's Restaurant -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-review-alices-restaurant_22.html
American Hardcore -http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-review-american-hardcore-history-of.html
Bill Hicks  - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/thinking-about-comedian-bill-hicks.html
Bowling For columbine - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/movie-review-bowling-for-columbine.html

Bus 174 - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/documentary-movie-review-bus-174.html
Butch Cassidy - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/thoughts-on-paper-moon-and-butch.html
Control Room -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/control-room-makes-you-think.html
Devil's Playground - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-review-devils-playground-about-amish.html
Dixie Chicks - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/movie-review-dixie-chicks-shut-up-sing.html
 
Five things The Last Indiana Jones Movie Did Wrong - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/five-things-indiana-jones-movie-did.html

Jesus Camp - http://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/08/jesus-camp-truly-disturbing-documentary.html
Johnny Cash Live Videos Concerts -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-reviews-johnny-cash-concerts.html

Jonestown - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-review-of-jonestown-life-death-of.html

Lars and The Real Girl - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-reviews-millions-and-motorcycle.html
Maya Lin - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/10/thinking-about-maya-lin.html
Millions - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-reviews-millions-and-motorcycle.html
Motorcycle Diaries -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/dvd-reviews-millions-and-motorcycle.html

Orange is the New Black (review/comparison of tv show and memoir) - http://blogcritics.org/thoughts-on-orange-is-the-new-black-both-the-tv-series-and-the-memoir/
Oswalds Ghost -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/documentary-movie-review-oswalds-ghost.html
Road To Guantanamo - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/road-to-guantanamo-reviewed-george.html
Sicko -https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/11/michael-and-me-reflecting-on-michael.html
Sunset Boulevard - https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/classic-movie-review-sunset-blvd.html
 Temple Grandin -  https://thinkingandtalkingandacting.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-review-of-hbo-movie-temple-grandin.html
 

A busy weekend

You know it's going to be an unusual weekend when it starts with my 14 year old charge playing truth-n-dare with teens who i don't know (but I know their parents.) Talk about a trust exercise. - hooray for more play with others (we encourage that) and hooray it didnt turn into spin the bottle.
Then going to see a band with the unusual name A Good Rogering at a venue called the Dirty Dog with a friend staying way up too late Friday.
Then Saturday morning canvassing the neighborhood where David Joseph deemphasizing we were with Black Lives Matter but instead giving them info on how if they ever see someone acting weird or erratic instead of just calling the cops you can request the mental health unit to hopefully resolve problems in ways other than fatal shootings.
Saturday afternoon donated blood plasma, Saturday night my usual gig. Watched the funny movie Date Night. And Finished one of two interviews I owe Mystery People.
Up early for something regarding church and then it's time to truly chill and relax for our bimonthly backgammon tournament.