[Jandek] Jandek Fictional Biography Forthcoming;Author to Read/Sign in Toronto & Chicago

[justchester at mac.com]

Here's a pic of the Jandek venue in Toronto 
On Sunday, September 03, 2006, at 07:48AM, Decisions Laboratory <decisionlab at gmail.com> wrote:

>Is there such a thing as "understanding the music" anyway?  
>Understanding music = empathizing with algebra?  (eg tap dancing about 
>architecture etc etc)
>
>...
>
>(The book will in the end have to stand or fall on its own merits 
>regardless of its inspirational source/ostensible subject.  That someone 
>published it lets us know at least something about it.... that is that 
>at least one or two people thought it was interesting and readable...)
>
>...
>
>In the end, it will turn out that "Danen Jobe" is Jandek, publishing the 
>whole truth of his life in the form of a fan's "fictional" biography. 
>
>
>
>
>
>Frank Hardy wrote:
>> But what is really the point of a fictional biography of a real 
>> person? The world has enough half-truths. Why not just write a 
>> completely fictional novel inspired by Jandek? How does making crap up 
>> help us to understand the guy's music?
>>
>> */"Danen D. Jobe" <djobe at uark.edu>/* wrote:
>>
>>     Okay.
>>
>>     So I've sent out dozens of press releases and spent a solid year
>>     now working on this, and yet this is the email I've had the most
>>     difficulty composing. Really - started and stopped it six or seven
>>     times in the last three weeks. If you want the short of it, skip a
>>     paragraph or two. But for THIS list - people I genuinely care
>>     about and trust - I want to give an idea of what writing this has
>>     been like. So here goes:
>>
>>     As a few of you know, I've been working on a fictitious biography
>>     based on Jandek, written with Corwood's cooperation and approval.
>>     It uses the Jandek name, song titles, lyrics, album covers, music
>>     descriptions, etc though it in NO way is to be mistaken for the
>>     REAL story of Jandek. Rather, this is culled from - literally -
>>     HUNDREDS of hours of listening to the music, discussions with a
>>     few people involved with Corwood at one point or another, numerous
>>     back and forth letters to and from Houston, a chapbook publication
>>     that caused me to destroy (by fire, thank you) EVERYTHING and
>>     start over - this being exactly one week before my thesis reading
>>     at the University of Arkansas (which I've been writing this
>>     project for). Coming up with the RIGHT story, finally, for said
>>     reading and then spending the summer hammering out some 200 pages
>>     of sprawling story, followed by me asking Corwood if they thought
>>     it might be a good idea for me to read in Chicago and Toronto
>>     (they agreed), an
>>     d me thinking, "you know, it might be nice to have something
>>     published," followed by the WONDERFUL folk at Single Cell Press
>>     (out of Glasgow - so fitting) agreeing to publish this first
>>     installment in what I see as a "Jandek trilogy," three weeks of
>>     editing, re-writing, re-thinking and ultimately agreeing on 63
>>     pages of content, coming out this month on Single Cell Press, and
>>     which I will be reading from the day after the Toronto show and
>>     the day before the Chicago one.
>>
>>     And now for more specific details: in Toronto I'll be at Circus
>>     Books and Music on Monday, September 18th at 6 PM. This is located
>>     at 253 Gerrard Street East (I'll give better directions and a
>>     phone number in a following email as I figure it out myself) and
>>     should be a blast. From there I get to make a maddash back over
>>     the border to read at Quimby's Books in Chicago (154 W Northern
>>     Street, Chicago - more info www.quimbys.com) at 7 PM Tuesday the
>>     19TH at 7 PM. I can promise the best excerpts I can come up with
>>     from the book, which is closest to dark Southern Literature (it's
>>     what I write), tracing the future Corwood Rep's life from
>>     childhood to his garage band days, growing up in the Ozark
>>     Mountains admist much family turmoil (his mother and father leave
>>     him to care for his developmentally disabled brother at one point
>>     - his mother moving off to Kansas City and Dad going on a
>>     six-month bender). There are also other fictiionally recast real
>>     people here, most significantly one
>>     Frank Stanford, whose poetry you can check at www.alsopreview.com.
>>     Stanford is the young narrator's shadow twin, so to speak, and
>>     also the person who gets said narrator to take his musical roots
>>     and do something with them. Frank happens to be married to Nancy,
>>     who ends up singing for the original garage band (and John, the
>>     drummer, lifts many of the instruments from "people who won't miss
>>     them). It includes sections of the narrator developing the guitar
>>     sound (which, by the way, I picked out myself on a 40's era black
>>     Gibson acoustic, picking at the strings over Charley Patton songs
>>     until it emulated what Jandek does on the early acoustic albums)
>>     and falling in love - not with Nancy, but with Frank's fiery
>>     sister Jessica. There's also "fictionalized' versions of Son House
>>     (he gets a great scene) and a poet/novelist named James Whitehead
>>     who's well worth checking out.
>>
>>     Okay, that's enough. If you want more I've got a few excerots up
>>     at the Myspace page I've created for this puppy:
>>     www.myspace.com/niagrablues. I'll keep updates going there. Also,
>>     please check my publisher's website at www.singlecellpress.co.uk,
>>     as this is where the book will be available (unless you buy it
>>     direct from me). While you're there, pick up a copy of Jackie
>>     Gilroy's slang-crazed "Thugs and Thieves." The writing style of
>>     our books couldn't be any more different and yet there's a
>>     communal spirit there. But seriously, Gilroy is the rightful heir
>>     to Bukowski, and I mean that lovingly. My book is probably closer
>>     to Carson McCullers' "Ballad of the Sad Cafe" or maybe a bit of
>>     Cormac McCarthy, but I've worked hard to have it be it's OWN thing
>>     first and foremost. Hope anyone who reads it feels the same.
>>
>>     Anyway, PLEASE contact me for more info. Now that I can relax
>>     (having finally written this) I can say that I hope at least some
>>     of you can attend these events - I intend for it to be a pretty
>>     wild tour: Jandek on Sunday, my reading on Monday, another reading
>>     on Tuesday, Jandek on Wednesday and then I sleep for a week.
>>     Somehow my employer at the University has decided this is a good
>>     "academic" thing and is supporting this, so I feel all "official."
>>     I don't know. Books will be dead cheap (I've got to move them -
>>     you knew that was coming, right?) but the readings are free. And
>>     hey, I intend to max out a credit card buying pitchers afterward.
>>     Seriously. Also, if anyone has floorspace in Toronto or Chicago
>>     let me know. This was going to be a family trip but looks like
>>     it's a solo thing now (a cost-efficient idea - got the wife and
>>     kids' support but this is gonna be a bit intense for young ones),
>>     so I find myself in need of floor space. I'll even bring my own
>>     pillow and free books
>>     a'plenty. I also make a mean coffee.
>>
>>     Oh, and finally, there is a tour "pre-launch" radio show at 88.3
>>     KXUA radio from the University of Arkansas next Wed night at 9 pm
>>     CST. Fear not, non Arkansans (which is what, all of you?) - it
>>     will be streamed on the net. I'll get details for that in the next
>>     few days, but PLEASE, if you happen to listen in, call and
>>     request. It's going to be a very loose show covering what I feel
>>     is his key moments mixed in with some of the Summersteps' tributes
>>     (including stuff off the new Corwood Variations handmade - I think
>>     the "Om" is a must) and a few "Corwood influences" like Blind
>>     Willie Johnson. This is going to be three hours long and something
>>     special indeed. I'll also read a few short passages from the book.
>>
>>     Whew! Okay, I've done it. Thanks for your patience (those who made
>>     it this far) and I hope a few of you can make the readings. I
>>     think you all know the great respect I have for this artist so
>>     please trust that I've put TREMENDOUS effort in making this as
>>     good a story as possible, staying true to the roots of Corwood
>>     Industries.I'm proud to say that I got the "thumbs up" from
>>     Corwood last week in a lovingly detailed letter that gave what may
>>     be the world's first lyric correction from the source: the opening
>>     passage from "Niagra Blues" should read: "Sometimes go to
>>     Niagra/sometimes go the grave/crazy 'bout your dreamer/crazy 'bout
>>     your dark night." And here, for thirteen years, I've thought the
>>     "uh" after dream was an inflection. Wow.
>>
>>     And again, any questions please send my way. As I said, more
>>     detailed maps and such as we get closer to reading dates. Books
>>     will be for sale until Single Cell Press is so tired of me they
>>     toss the rest in the ocean. Thanks again for listening, all!
>>
>>     Danen
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     jandek mailing list
>>     jandek at mylist.net
>>     http://mylist.net/listinfo/jandek
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Do you Yahoo!?
>> Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail. 
>> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=42297/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta> 
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> jandek mailing list
>> jandek at mylist.net
>> http://mylist.net/listinfo/jandek
>>   
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>jandek mailing list
>jandek at mylist.net
>http://mylist.net/listinfo/jandek
>
>


http://www.thelastpogo.net
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CoG front 1.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1339829 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mylist.net/archives/jandek/attachments/20060903/53a4f706/CoGfront1.jpg