Ben East Books

Tag: Rock

  • Operation Sheltering Sky

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    Ben East
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    Rajasthan is desert country, 70% of the state—India’s largest—an arid mix of scrub and sand. We trekked by camel into the Thar Desert about 50 km outside Jaisalmer. Abdullah led our beasts on foot, their names Simon, Paulos, and—inexplicably—Johnny No. 1. Toward sunset we reached the Sam Dunes. The wind died down and we made…

  • Freddy!

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    Ben East
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    I’m ready for this. I’m hanging on the edge of my seat.       ##

  • Another One Bites the Dust

    Another One Bites the Dust

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    Ben East
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    All in one Mumbai day we enjoyed these musical interludes. At Malabar Hill we toured the Hanging Garden (The Cure, Pornography, 1982). It doesn’t hang so much as stand upon a series of reservoirs that hold—depending on who you ask—30 or 90 or 300 million gallons of water. The garden’s benches and clocks and topiary fill the paths,…

  • The NRA’s Chosen People

    The NRA’s Chosen People

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    Ben East
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    As I watched Charlton Heston lead the chosen people out of Egypt last night I wondered: in a remake of The Ten Commandments, would Ted Nugent play Moses? Nugent, whose awful music from the 1970s apparently qualifies him to talk down to us about such weighty matters as constitutional law, seems to be the NRA’s…

  • 1989

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    Ben East
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    I always consider it my strange good fortune to have a past life that includes making music in Joe Frawley’s basement. New Joe Frawley music: https://t.co/CMZ0y4XmNr — Joe Frawley Music (@joefrawley) February 23, 2018 Yes, in high school I’d haul my black Pearl drum kit to his house and set it up with Dan Cote…

  • When the Music Is the Trip

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    Ben East
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    Speed-reading fans will rejoice in Ted Prokash’s latest gift to literature, Journey to the Center of the Dream. Pills, beer, and blow fuel this fast-paced account of a rock band’s tour of 30 cities in five weeks, but even more than the chemical enhancements and a whole lot of weed besides, this epic road trip book…

  • Work out! Rock out! Write on!

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    Ben East
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    Here’s an inspiration to kick off the new year. John Grisham built a reputation as a writer (love him, hate him, it’s unimportant) by turning tax lawyers into the kind of people who drive fast cars, plot murders, and enjoy lives of sinister intrigue. Tax lawyers. Whatever you do for a living, it’s got to be more…