The Doctor and the Kid picks up one year later with the infamous Doc Holliday losing his life savings in a drunken poker game, money he’d earmarked for a comfortable room in a sanatorium to ease his inevitable demise from tuberculosis. In an effort to recoup his gambling losses Holliday decides to hunt down the outlaw with the largest bounty on his head, newcomer Billy the Kid. But in order to have a chance to defeat the Kid (who has magical protection provided by Hook Nose), Holliday has to make a reluctant deal with Geronimo and to enlist the inventorly genius of Edison and Buntline.

Most of Resnick’s characters are real historical figures, although he plays around with timelines and circumstances. Still, I yearn to learn more about the history of the story’s setting. Here are some questions that come to mind and some titles that might help provide answers.

 1) In Resnick’s book Doc Holliday is 32 and nearly dead from tuberculosis. Is this an accurate portrayal of his medical condition?

• Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend
• The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral and How It Changed the American West

     
2) What is tuberculosis and how prevalent was it in the late 19^th century?

• The Tuberculosis Survival Handbook
• Plagues, Pox and Pestilence
• The Forgotten Plague: How the Battle Against Tuberculosis Was Won – And Lost

3) What events led Billy the Kid to a life of crime and murder? How much of what we “know” about the Kid is factual rather than apocryphal?          

• To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West
• Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride
• The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid
• Billy the Kid
  
  

4) Were medicine men thought to have magical powers?

• Geronimo his Own Story: The Autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior
• Geronimo: Apache Freedom Fighter
• The Medicine Way: A Shamanic Path to Self Mastery

5) What are some of the important inventions that have forever changed Americans’ lifestyles?

• Hooray for inventors!
• American Firsts: Innovations, Discoveries, and Gadgets Born in the U.S.A.      
• So You Want to Be an Inventor?

 6) Were violence and corruption part of everyday life in the Wild West?

• Which Way to the Wild West? : Everything your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You About America’s Westward Expansion
• What Made the Wild West Wild?
• You Wouldn’t Want to Live in a Wild West Town! : Dust You’d Rather Not Settle
• The Wild West on 5 Bits a Day

            
And if you’re interested in historical fiction revolving around these characters, take a look at the following titles:

• Doc: a novel
• Territory
• Trouble in Tombstone
• Lucky Billy

Can’t talk, lots more to learn.

Then filmmakers and authors began to play with these rules, and this too was interesting. Charlaine Harris’s vampires, for example, have a blood substitute available so that they do not have to use humans for their nutritional needs.

Zombies also exist within a fairly tight set of rules. They typically crave brains and thus try feed off humans, they can survive loss of limbs and other severe bodily damage, they don’t sleep or breathe or feel pain, they do not remember their previous lives, typically they moan but do not talk, and they are strong but slow moving. The standard method of dispatching a zombie is to destroy its brain.

Zombie infestations are generally caused by objects from space, chemicals, or disease. If a living person is bitten by a zombie, he or she joins the ranks of the brain eaters. Most zombie stories feature groups of the living trying to survive zombie attacks and to wipe out the zombies.

So what fresh zombie twists have been unleashed on our zombie-hungry nation?

In Handling the Undead by John Ajvide-Linqvist, strange weather causes the dead to come back to life. In addition to your typical zombie mayhem, the author examines the psychological side of the undead.

In Dead Mann Walking: a Hessius Mann Novel by Stefan Petrucha, a criminal is executed, exonerated, and then brought back to “life” as a zombie. This story looks at the details of zombie life, culture and slang.

In My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland, Angel Crawford dies in a car crash and then comes back as a zombie. In life Angel was a drug addict, but in death her only addiction is to brains. Fortunately for her, a local serial killer seems to prey upon a victim whenever Angel craves brains.

In The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman, a medical team studies zombies in an attempt to find a cure for the zombie epidemic. This book details the unique biology of zombies and includes anatomical drawings.

Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S. G. Browne is a romantic zombie comedy that details the day-to-day life of zombies.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks tells about the zombie wars as if they were an historical event. Included in the text are interviews with survivors of the zombie apocalypse.

In I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked it by Adam Selzer, a high school student starts dating a zombie without realizing that he is undead. When she does find out and tries to break up with him, things do not go as easily as planned.

 
In My So-Called Death by Stacey Jay, a freak cheerleading accident leaves Karen undead. She is sent to a boarding school for the “death-challenged” and discovers a mysterious plot that might bring about the end of all the students.

Ron

The story is narrated by an acquaintance of Lacey’s and he presents her adventures as a cautionary tale. We learn that morally questionable business practices can stall a career (when the perp is caught), that the art world is at the mercy of international economics, and that major events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks impact business and economics.

Martin’s writing style is delicate and genteel and the narrator creates just the right degree of tension to make the reader wonder what’s going to happen next.

As a result of my narrow focus on fez/chimp related art, many questions arose as I read Martin’s novel. Here are a few of those questions along with some Everett Public Library holdings that might offer answers.

 1)      What goes on in the lives of art dealers?

• Seven Days in the Art World
• The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby’s – Christie’s Auction House Scandal
• Zoe Dusanne: An Art Dealer who Made a Difference
• The Girl with the Gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert and the Making of the Modern Art Market

2)      Martin paints art collectors as a rather idiosyncratic bunch. How much truth is there in this portrayal?

• The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks of the Modern Era
• At Home with Art: How Art Loves Live with and Care for their Treasures
• Self-Taught & Outsider Art: The Anthony Petullo Collection

3)      Collectors might see something in a piece of art that I cannot see. How do I learn to better appreciate art?

• Cave paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpieces
• More than Meets the Eye: Seeing Art with All Five Senses
• Art for Dummies
• How to Visit a Museum

4)      After primarily selling works of dead European artists, Lacey becomes interested in living American artists. What are some of the trends and techniques in American art and who are the artists who have been successful?

• The American Century: Art and Culture, 1900-1950
• American Expessionism: Art and Social Change, 1920-1950
• Sister Wendy’s American Collection

5)      “What is art?” is an all-encompassing philosophical quandary. A simpler version of this question is, “Why is modern art considered to be art?” Paint splatters, found objects and installations where the viewer is part of the artwork have become commonplace means of expression. How can one appreciate such unconventional works?

• In the Time of Warhol: The Development of Contemporary Art
• 50 Modern Artists you Should Know
• Revisionaries: A Decade of Art in Tokion
• No. 1: First Works by 362 Artists
• Pop Art
• Lives of the Artists

Gotta go, so much more to learn!

Ron

In later years I came to love his goofball comedies like The Jerk and The Man with Two Brains for their hilarity, but somewhere along the way I discovered that Mr. Martin (or Steve as his friends might call him) is a fine actor. In 1987’s Roxanne, a modern retelling of Cyrano, Martin (or Mr. Martin) presented what I thought was an Oscar-worthy performance as a wonderful guy with a huge nose.

Throughout his performing career, every now and again I would see Steve (or Steverino) play banjo and think to myself, “Hey, this guy’s good.” And now he’s making fabulous bluegrass albums.

He has written comedic books such as Pure Drivel, novels like An Object of Beauty, and theatrical plays, for example 1993’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

Even children’s books are not safe from Mr. Martin’s (Steve’s) multi-genre-al skills.

I have seen him dance divinely in Pennies from Heaven, perform in ridiculous and hilarious skits on Saturday Night Live, and juggle kittens.

Somewhere along the way, namely in 2003, Little Steve-O became the #4 box office star in moviedom. Not bad for someone who at one point had only his friends and his thermos. Here are some movies the S-Dog (Stevabamalama) can be found in:

• It’s Complicated
• Baby Mama
• The Pink Panther
• Cheaper by the dozen 2
• Shopgirl
• Cheaper by the dozen
• Looney Tunes, Back in Action
• A simple twist of fate
• Father of the bride
• Dirty rotten scoundrels
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Little shop of horrors

Did I mention that he makes fabulous balloon animals?

What we have here in Steve Martin is a Renaissance guy in the true spirit of the word, a man who has mastered not just one but many artistic forms. I find this to be truly amazing. Perhaps it is difficult to take a comedian seriously, but Steve Martin has some serious talent.

In Katie Couric’s book The Best Advice I Ever Got, Martin cites a quote by e. e. cummings:  “Who would be secure? Any and every slave.” Which leads me to believe that he is not a secure person, for Steve Martin is not a slave to people’s expectations nor to artistic norms. He’s a wild and renaissancey guy.

Ron

On occasion I will be intrigued by a title or book jacket and will read the plot summary. If sufficiently impressed with the description I will next want to examine the author’s writing style. And where better to start than at the book’s beginning? First sentences are the window to a book’s soul, a literary equivalent of personal ads on craigslist, designed to engage a reader and to woo him or her away from competing books with their less interesting unfoldings.

Take, for example, the immortal first sentence of Paul Clifford by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton:

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents–except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

That just about says it all. And even more than all.

One day I began to wonder about the contents of the many books I’ve never investigated. How many scrofulous pygmy stories were escaping my purview, taunting me on a daily basis? So I set up a library experiment for all to witness, randomly choosing books and examining their first sentences to see what they contribute to our sacred shelves.

 And here is what I found.

Murder in Chinatown by Victoria Thompson

“I’m not in labor, am I?” Cora Lee asked.

 
The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall

“If the eyes could lie, his troubles might all be over.”

 
Devil’s Gold by Julie Korzenko

Gardiner, Montana: “Edward Fiske stepped from the shadowed recesses of the front porch.”

Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr

“In my apartment in California there hangs a picture of my grandfather.” 

The Mirage by Matt Ruff

“This is the day the world changes.”

Wire to Wire by Scott Sparling

“The screens in Michael Slater’s editing suite had immaculate reception.”

 
Red on Red by Edward Conlon

“Nick Meehan knew there was more to every story, but he usually didn’t want to hear it.”

The Hour of Dust and Ashes by Kelly Gay

“You mean to tell me every single exorcist in this city is gone?”

Lip Lock by Susanna Carr

“If she didn’t get something to eat, her coworkers would have to take cover!” 

Salty by Mark Haskell Smith

“The Andaman Sea stretches out for 218,100 square miles along the southern peninsula of Thailand, extending south until it tickles the shores of Indonesia, flowing west where it mixes with the dark water of the Indian Ocean.”

Some of these sentences make me long to know more. Where have all the exorcists gone? And why does the city need multiple exorcists? Is the world changing for better or for worse? Why are we in Thailand? Will Cora Lee’s baby be delivered safely? So many stories waiting to be told!

If any of these sentences catch your eye, click on the book’s title to read a plot summary. And perhaps this will lead you to reading the entire book, maybe even other books by the author. Who knows, perhaps a new literary love affair is about to begin!

Ron

Today’s starting point is a historical mystery by Max Allan Collins titled Bye Bye, Baby.  In this story, PI Nathan Heller is hired by Marilyn Monroe to protect her from potential unknown threats. As the tale unfolds we learn of Monroe’s intimate relationships with both John and Robert Kennedy, JKF’s incessant womanizing and ties with the mob, and brother Robert’s infidelity and flexible morality. The author also provides plausible conspiracy theories which explain Marilyn’s death. Other characters of interest in this book include Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana.

As I read this piece of historical fiction, questions arise and I wonder how much of the writing is factual, how much is speculative, and how much is simply fabricated to make an interesting story. So here are some of my questions and some titles that might provide answers.

What is the generally accepted explanation for Marilyn Monroe’s death?

My Week with Marilyn
Marilyn Revealed:  The Ambitious Life of an American Icon
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
My Story
The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe

 JFK is remembered as one of the greatest presidents, but what was the reality of his personal character?

The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled
Brothers in Arms: The Kennedys, The Castros, and the Politics of Murder
The John F. Kennedy Handbook
Forty Ways to Look at JFK
Private Lives/Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in Modern America

Robert Kennedy is known for his harsh stance against organized crime. Did this public persona hide an unrepentant womanizer who was willing to compromise his ideals?

Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between the Kennedys and J.
Edgar  Hoover that Transformed America
Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story
Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia

How did Marilyn die? Did she have affairs with both John and Robert Kennedy? Was JFK involved with organized crime?

That’s What They Want You to Think: Conspiracies Real, Possible and Paranoid
The Kennedy Detail:  JFK’s Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence
The Encyclopedia of Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia

What kind of a person was Frank Sinatra and what kind of involvement did he have with organized crime?

Sinatra in Hollywood
Sinatra: The Life
Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey & the Last Great Showbiz Party

Peter Lawford was a member of Sinatra’s rat pack, but was also JFK’s brother-in-law. What was his role in Marilyn’s death and in the Kennedy’s lives?

The Leading Men of MGM

Was Chicago crime lord Sam Giancana employed by JFK’s administration to assassinate Fidel Castro? Did Giancana and Kennedy share a mistress?

Double Deal: The Inside Story of Murder, Unbridled Corruption and the Cop Who Was a Mobster

 
Can’t talk anymore, gotta research.

Ron

When westerners listens to music they expect it to follow certain rules, even if they’re unaware of this habit. If the rules are not followed to some extent, the music might sound confusing or unappealing. Presumably, all cultures expect music to follow certain rules. However, these rules differ from culture to culture.

Western music is extremely goal-oriented. Tension and resolution occur repeatedly until finally a climax is reached, with perhaps a short denouement rounding off the piece.

 Most non-western music, by contrast, is not goal-oriented. If one listens to Indonesian gamelan music with a Beethoven symphony as a model for musical expectations, one will be sorely disappointed. Gamelan, the name of the orchestra as well as the name of the music, is circular in nature. Patterns of a certain length repeat, and with each repetition new bits are added and subtracted. There’s nothing that a westerner would recognize as a melody, and there is no melodic or harmonic tension and release. The music can be stunningly beautiful, but confusing to the uninitiated.

African drum-based music relies on intricate variations in rhythm as a method of development. While each drum might be tuned to a different pitch, there is nothing readily recognizable as a melody in the music.

Bulgarian vocal music utilizes tight, dissonant harmonies and an extremely nasal vocal technique.

Tuvan throat singing showcases a single person singing two pitches simultaneously: one a low frog-croak of a drone, the other a high wispy melody.

Many cultures rely heavily on improvisation in their music. In India, classical musicians train furiously in the use of ragas (melodic scales) and the rules that govern ornamentation and improvisation over those ragas.

It seems odd to refer to Native American music as non-Western since it occurs geographically in the west, but stylistically the music does not fit under the “western” umbrella. Typically, Native American flutes are tuned to pentatonic scales, which produce melodies that are not goal-oriented but rather are in a somewhat pensive mood.

Native American flute music is often meditative, improvisational, and inspired by nature. If you’d like to experience this music in person, come hear Peter Ali perform at the Main Library Auditorium, Monday, February 6, 6:30-7:30 pm as part of the Everett Reads! progam. In addition to presenting flute music, Ali will share stories relating to his heritage and the flutes that he plays. Take advantage of this unique experience to gain insight into a possibly unfamiliar musical tradition.

Ron

]]> http://areadinglife.com/2012/02/03/how-we-hear-music/feed/ 0 raverill gamelan drums Bulgarian tuvan India Native American flute http://areadinglife.com/2012/01/11/let-there-be-post-punk/ http://areadinglife.com/2012/01/11/let-there-be-post-punk/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:00:28 +0000 Ron http://areadinglife.com/?p=10454 Continue reading →]]> Recently, boys and girls, we learned all about the early punk rock movement and how it revolutionized rock music in the mid seventies. Another important genre from this time period is known as post-punk, post from the Latin for “after” and punk from the Indo-Iranian for “bad haircut.” However, in a stunning bit of originality, post-punk did not come about after punk but rather at the same time. This would be what I think of as Confusion #1. Confusion #2 could be stated roughly as: Post-punk is not a single particular style. Hence, it’s a difficult music to pin down or summarize. Yet here I go.

My vision of post-punk is as a weird and challenging music with angular lines and dark subject matter. The vocalists often sing with reedy, quavering voices exploring all known vocal registers (and some that have yet to be discovered). The music can be extremely repetitious and filled with odd time signatures. Artsy and experimental sum it up pretty well.

Post-punk poster children Joy Division featured a dark, brooding sound, lyrics filled with abject hopelessness, and driving synthesizers. One of their best known songs, Love Will Tear Us Apart, is a bit atypical in its musical cheerfulness (although lyrical depression still abounds) and infectious poppiness, but it stands out as one of the anthems of post-punk. Following the death of the lead singer, Joy Division morphed into New Order, a band which bridged the gap from post-punk to synth pop.

When Devo hit the scene in the late 70’s they were a weird bunch, dressed in radiation suits and creating surreal videos at a time when MTV had yet to be birthed. Their first album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, is filled with odd rhythms, occasionally frightening caterwauling, strange topics, and a reliance on synthesizers rather than the traditional instrumentation of a rock band. Over the decades the band moved towards the mainstream and today Mark Mothersbaugh, an original member of Devo, is one of the hardest working men in showbiz, writing soundtracks for movies, TV shows and children’s cartoons.


The first video I ever witnessed on MTV was Don’t You Want Me by The Human League. The band had already released some impressive albums in the UK, but it was the 1981 release of Dare that finally brought attention to this talented group in the US. While their first two releases are filled with oddities, Dare is simply a pop gem of synthesizer-based music. Some songs brood, others infectiously bring a need for quasi-legal dance moves. The Very Best of the Human League focuses on their accessible music, largely ignoring their first two albums of challenging yet rewarding songs.

Mission of Burma, a little-known Boston band, made some of the greatest music of the early 80’s. Pounding toms, complicated song structures, fury-fueled enthusiasm and generally riveting music caused MOB to outshine their contemporaries. There is a raw intensity to the band’s sound, a musical teetering-on-the-edge between amazingly excellent music and potentially vicious wipe outs. Vs. invites repeated listenings, and in three decades its magic has yet to abate.

It pains me not to gush on and on about Talking Heads Remain in Light, an album filled with booming funk riffs, R&B/soul covers and strange tales of alienation; or Pere Ubu’s Dub Housing which features perhaps the strangest vocals you’ll ever find, mixed with some beautifully sloppy instrumental playing; or Johnny Rotten’s foray into post-punk with PIL, a group as far-removed from The Sex Pistols as possible; or the incredible guitar work found in Television’s Marquee Moon. Not to mention the bass-ment singing of Nick Cave or infectious quirky grooves of The Feelies. But sadly, room does not permit to speak of every amazing group out there.

So do some research and listen to a variety of bands. You might hate some and love others, or at the very least learn something about rock history. As they say in the business world, it’s a win-win situation.

Ron

Westerns were once as popular as vampire books are today, but like the great cattle drives that long ago terrorized sheep and prairie dogs alike, that time has passed. However, the formula of good guys and bad guys vying for dominance continues to prosper in many genres.

In fact, Westerns have never entirely left us, and many sci-fi books over the years have provided the same elements as a good western:  untamed frontiers, men with no names looking for anonymous places in which to disappear, and lawmen or villains seeking these men. Michael D. Resnick is one of the masters of this style

My favorite new take on Westerns comes in the form of steampunk. This genre is not particularly new, but it does seem to be growing in the world of fashion and art. Perhaps steampunk is the new vampire.

Steampunk novels are frequently set in either Victorian England or in the Wild West, sometime after the Industrial Revolution has commenced but before the use of electricity has become widespread. The genre is actually a type of historical fiction where technology that did not really exist in a given time period, i.e. computers in the post-Civil War years, is built with materials/technology that really did exist in that time period, i.e. steam power. Happily, the stories are filled with unique gadgetry, adventure, and very often authentic historical individuals.

Wild West Steampunk
The Buntline Special: A Weird West Tale by Michael D. Resnick
A United States that ends at the Mississippi River, Indian nations led by men with powerful magic, and the convergence of Thomas Edison, the Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday and a zombie Bat Masterson (among others) in Tombstone, Arizona. How can such a premise not by entertaining? The U.S. government wants to expand its territories with the aid of Edison’s steampunk inventions. But Geronimo, the Clanton gang, and famous gunfighter The Thing That Was Once Johnny Ringo are not about to allow the expansion to proceed easily. Resnick recently followed up this tale with The Doctor and the Kid: A Weird West Tale.

Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
Loosely related to Priest’s Boneshaker, Dreadnought is the story of a Civil War nurse who needs to travel from Richmond, Virginia to Tacoma and find out why her estranged father wishes to see her. The trip is filled with harrowing dirigible rides (one of the genre’s favorite modes of travel), attacks from both Yanks and Rebs, steampunk military technology (including a terrifying steam engine called the Dreadnought), bandits, and, of course, zombies. The result is a no-holds-barred free-for-all certain to leave you mentally dodging the undead and panting for more. Clementine by Cherie Priest is another book that is loosely linked to Dreadnought.

Stay tuned to a reading life for a look at Victorian steampunk.

In the meantime, if you have a hankering for related  movies or graphic novels, you might want to try the following titles:

Movies
Brazil              Steamboy       Sherlock Holmes

Graphic Novels
Grandville by Bryan Talbot
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore
Fullmetal Alchemist

Ron

The beauty of punk was that anyone could do it. Music of the Sex Pistols and their contemporaries was simple, imprecise, distorted, a shouting match of political lyrics. This guileless mind-set was nearly inconceivable in the context of the highly technical progressive rock that ruled the airwaves in the 70’s. A do-it-yourself movement quickly swelled and punk’s muse birthed a litter of exciting bands.

It’s hard to remember how shocking punk was at the time of its inception. Back in the day, every new song hurtled listeners on a rickety roller coaster of adrenaline towards a certain grisly death. Listening to these bands nowadays seems somewhat like a gentle carriage ride through halcyon fields.

Here in America the Ramones, leather-clad Beach Boys on musical steroids, provided perhaps even more of an easy listen. Songs were simple as can be, three distortion-driven chords with lyrics that might consist entirely of “I don’t wanna be a pinhead no more, I just met a nurse that I could go for.” Yet the Ramones continue to be one of the most influential rock groups of the last 20 years.

If you want to check out some of their contemporaries, try Iggy and the Stooges, New York Dolls, X, The Runaways, Talking Heads and Blondie.

And now punk has run the full gamut, from a rebellious musical revolution to the soundtrack for 21^st century commercials. Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, an ode to drug culture, appears in ads for the Royal Caribbean cruise line. The Ramones turn up in a surprisingly large number of commercials, including one for Pepsi. And, most surprising to me, abstract post-punk band Gang of Four features in Microsoft ads. Perhaps not one of the signs of the apocalypse, but still disturbing in its own right.

The point being, punk of the late 70’s is the music of my generation. And some demographic genius in upstate Vermont determined that I have significant purchasing power, passed this well-researched data to swarthy middle-managers on the rise who then implemented a “business plan,” and presto! the songs of my youth became a Pavlovian soundtrack designed to free up some space in my duct tape wallet. Which is an interesting irony, perhaps disturbing to some, but simply amusing to me.

I’m sure that Harold and Nigel are laughing all the way to the bank.

Stay tuned for future punk-related posts. In the meanwhile, meditate on these meaty lyrics from the Dead Kennedys:

My ambition in life is to look good on paper

All I want is a slot in some big corporation

Ron

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