Writers dig Elvis

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 6:39 am

Baby Plays Around: A Love Affair with Music, by Helene Stapinski

http://www.sunspot.net/features/booksma ... ty-utility

Stapinski goes on to discover other twilights and
intermissions and pains. She writes of her wedding as
a flashback almost halfway through the book, and does
it in a way that is utterly convincing and
irresistibly moving. Her description of serving for a
semester as an unpaid intern at Musician magazine -
surrounded by misogynistic music geeks - is riotously
funny, crisp, spare. She bangs on drums throughout the
saga, and all around, but specifically the title of
the book comes from the title of a song that Elvis
Costello and his then wife, Cait O'Riordan, had
written and which was on Costello's record "Spike"
when Stapinski met her husband-to-be, working on a
daily newspaper.
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see also
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

Baby Plays Around : A Love Affair, with Music
by Helene Stapinski

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Villard; (January 20, 2004)
ISBN: 1400060141

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Author Russell Andrews (aka.Peter Gethers) also digs Elvis

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune ... 72509.html

If there's anything of Gethers' personality that seeps
into Westwood's character, it's a love of music.
Throughout "Aphrodite," the author references songs by
Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, REM and
Loudon Wainwright III.

-------------------------------------------------------
see also
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

Aphrodite
by Russell Andrews

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Mysterious Press; (January 2004)
ISBN: 0892967846

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:06 pm

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0402/lyttle.php

Table Talk
by Bethany Lyttle
January 14 - 20, 2004

Baby Plays Around
By Helene Stapinski
Random House, $23.95, 288 pp.

Your book is about being in a band and in a marriage,
but it's also about infidelity. How has writing it
altered your definition of infidelity?
Oh, it hasn't. Believe me. Cheating is the worst
thing you can do to another person. Short of killing
them, it's the most violent act you can commit.

To write this book, you listened for hours to the
band's practice tapes. How would the process have
differed if the tapes had been video?
Videos are too real. You can't change what you see.
There's something pornographic about that. With audio,
there's more elasticity. Hearing is more sensual than
seeing, I think, which accounts for the power of
music.

Elvis Costello shows up frequently in this book. What
is his role?
Elvis is not a muse exactly, but sort of a guide. He
appeared and disappeared at all these really
significant times in my life. To tell the truth, I'd
not even noticed this until I'd nearly finished the
book. But Elvis was there during all the important
moments. And of course, the title of the book is a
reference to one of his songs.

How do you think he'll react to the book?
He'll like it. Elvis loves to talk about Elvis.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:52 pm

Wasn't there some books about a detective called Dec McManus once, using song titles as book titles...?

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:32 pm

Nick Hornby makes reference to Elvis in High Fidelity. In fact, there is a Top 5 list based around Elvis on page 98:

"We are so happy, in fact, that between throwing the customers out and leaving for the day, we list our top five Elvis Costello songs (I go for "Alison," "Little Triggers," "Man Out Of Time," "King Horse," and a bootleg Merseybeat-style version of "Everyday I Write The Book" I've got on a bootleg tape somewhere, the obscurity of the last cleverly counteracting the obviousness of the first, I thought, and thus preempting scorn from Barry")"

ginaraquel · Post by **ginaraquel** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 4:42 pm

And of course, let us not forget Bret Easton Ellis's "Less Than Zero"....

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:45 pm

Helene Stapinski wrote a great book about Jersey City called Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History. Apparently we have quite a bit in common, though I like my hometown a lot more than she does.

sulkygirl · Post by **sulkygirl** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:11 pm

laughingcrow wrote:Wasn't there some books about a detective called Dec McManus once, using song titles as book titles...?

Yep, sp00ks & I discussed it a while back on the Narbz board... see:

http://www.booksnbytes.com/authors/judson_ddaniel.html

D. Daniel Judson, author of The Poisoned Rose and The Bone Orchard. Man makes no bones about being an avid Costello fan.

P.S. Haven't read the books yet, meself...Michele???

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:06 pm

I bought the book, but I'm so bad about letting books sit around after I buy them. Anyhoo, I gave it to DrS, because he reads much faster than I. He said it was fun reading, but would not qualify as great literature. But the main character's name was Declan MacManus.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:18 pm

Blue Chair wrote -

Nick Hornby makes reference to Elvis in High Fidelity

The title itself is a reference to Elvis.

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 1:53 am

I just found another book called The Bone Orchard, by some other guy....

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

The one by the Daniels guy is up for sale at $ 0.97!!! Might check it out for that price!!

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:35 am

Harry Potter looks a bit like EC...

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 2:27 am

LC,

Stop smoking the wacky weed.....it's gettin' to ya!

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 8:03 am

Anybody hazard a guess as to who Elvis could play in the HP films/books? Professor Sprout would have been a good choice if the character wasn't a woman. Steve would definitely have to be Snape. Or Sirius Black.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 10:09 am

There doesn't seem to be an enchanted music teacher at hogwarts does there, so I guess he'd be one of the Order of the Phoenix...or Harry's dad

Did anyone hear that rumour that ROWAN ATKINSON was gonna play Voldemort....how good would that be!!!!! Also Tom Baker should be Mad Eye Moody.

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 12:31 pm

LC,

Harry's dad doesn't get much airtime, though.....

POP, I think with some contacts, EC could have had fun playing Snape, .....

Rowan Atkinson as an older Voldemort????!!! Cool!!!!

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:48 pm

No, no, no, no! You can't have Mr Bean as Voldemort! RA would be better as Ludo Bagman or Karkaroff.

But Misha, Snape is tall and thin. EC is far too, um, "cuddly".

LC, spot on with Tom Baker/Mad Eye Moody. If he was alive another ex-DrW, Jon Pertwee, would be my choice.

sulkygirl · Post by **sulkygirl** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 7:44 pm

Misha wrote:I just found another book called The Bone Orchard, by some other guy....

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books

Yeah, but that Detective's name is Yablonsky, not McManus....