#37 - Book of the Month: Just Kids (May '19)
In this episode of the, It’s Not What It Seems podcast, my brother Darron and I discuss May 2019’s book of the month, Just Kids by Patti Smith.
Here’s a little more about Patti Smith:
Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released 12 albums including Horses, which has been hailed as one of the Top 100 Debut Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone. In 2007 she was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Just Kids won the National Book Award in 2010.
Here’s a little more about Just Kids:
It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.
Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-Second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max’s Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous, the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years.
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists’ ascent, a prelude to fame.
Darron and I handled this book chat a little differently than previous ones given the nature of the book. While it is beautifully written, this book offers more jumping off points to talk about concepts and ideas than our previous books, so we used a lot of quotes to touch on many of those that caught our attention.
Here’s more on the Book Club for 2019: http://douglasvigliotti.com/blog/bookclub
Here’s the June 2019 Book of the Month - Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert: http://bit.ly/stumblingonhappiness
LINKS & RESOURCES:
Listen to Patti Smith: http://bit.ly/horsesfullalbum
BOOKS FROM EPISODE:
Just Kids by Patti Smith: http://bit.ly/justkidspattismith
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari: http://bit.ly/21LessonsFor21
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert: http://bit.ly/stumblingonhappiness
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