Showing posts with label Phil Ochs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phil Ochs. Show all posts

Sunday, September 01, 2019

The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll (Penguin Books 1978)

 



FALL 63

Today was my first Biddy League game and my first day in any organized basketball league. I'm enthused about life due to this exciting event. The Biddy League is a league for anyone 12 yrs. old or under. I'm actually 13 but my coach Lefty gave me a fake birth certificate. Lefty is a great guy; he picks us up for games in his station wagon and always buys us tons of food. I'm too young to understand about homosexuals but I think Lefty is one. Although he's a great ballplayer and a strong guy, he likes to do funny things to you like put his hand between your legs and pick you up. When he did this I got keenly suspicious. I guess I better not tell my mother about it. I don't want to describe the first game; I played bad and we lost anyway. I was nervous, I took my girlfriend Joan to the game which was at 153rd St., a Negro church called Minisink. Our team is from Madison Sq. Boys Club on E. 29th St. The starting team consists of two Italians, two spades and me.

When the game was over and we were waiting on the subway platform at 155th, Tony Milliano started a fight with Kevin Dolon. Tony is a huge monster who loves to fight; Kevin is a wise ass little prick. Some guys tried to break it up but Tony wouldn't let them and kept on yelling, "I want blood!" It was scary but interesting; I don't like to fight but I love watching others fight. Kevin asked me to jump Milliano from behind but he was too big for me to get involved. Who wanted to help that little fucker anyway? He's forever getting me in trouble down at St. Agnes grade school, where we go. Just today he snitched to Sister Mary Grace about me spitting on the first graders from the lunch room window.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Love Him, He's A Liberal

What's those lines from Phil Ochs's introduction to his live performance of the 'Ringing of Revolution':

" This is a fictional song . . . a cinematic song. You've got to picture this mansion on the top of a hill housing the last of the idle rich, the last of the bourgeois, the last of the folk singers. As they are being encircled tighter and tighter by their ringing of revolution, all the people on the inside spiritually resemble Charles Laughton; all the people on the outside physically resemble Lee Marvin . . . "

Nice to see that George Clooney is lending his name and financial support to the writers strike.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Friday's Playlist #14

An ongoing series:

  • Richard Hawley, 'Something is . . . !' (Late Night Final)
  • Super Furry Animals, 'Run! Christian Run!' (Rings Around the World)
  • Elvis Costello and the Attractions, 'The Long Honeymoon' (Imperial Bedroom)
  • Rose Royce, 'Magic Touch'
  • Elvis Costello, 'Baby Plays Around' (Spike)
  • Delta 5, 'Mind Your Own Business'
  • Scott Walker, 'The Ballad of Sacco & Vanzetti' (The Moviegoer)
  • Patsy Cline, 'Why Can't He Be You'
  • Kirsty MacColl, 'Treachery' (Tropical Brainstorm)
  • Phil Ochs, 'Ringing of the Revolution' (Phil Ochs in Concert)
  • Spotify Playlist Link.