Save Yourself Barack!

OKAY... I have election fatigue. I am officially tired. I am even tired of Obama and his call for “hope” and “change”. I love the guy but I am tired. Hillary just looks like a disaster to me. Mean spirited. Scolding. Grabbing every opportunity to grab the cheap sound byte and play lowest common denominator slash and burn politics. The problem is that her tactics are tried and true and they work. The republicans have proven it for years with wonderful things like the swift boating of that inept Kerry fellow but Bill and Hillary (and I still love Bill) were masters of the hard, cheap shot to the back of the leg. There is no act too cheap and nothing is deemed too low if it brings about getting the “right” person the job. These ends justifying the means politics are just what we were hoping Obama would lead us out of.

Right now he is failing us. He is embracing the politics of fear and pettiness that have dictated the argument for over 20 years. Instead he has dropped into the same thing himself and it is a grave disappointment. He has squandered his cash on fast reaction teams that respond in kind to every cheap shot in a vain attempt to grab moral high ground. It sickens me and it has to stop. More importantly he has the chance to stop it and make a difference and prove his rhetoric. Here is what I am suggesting... demanding of my candidate.

1. Call a press conference.

2. Muzzle and control your own people. Release a list of people who speak for your campaign (make it short) and make clear anyone else is NOT authorized by you or your campaign. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOUR AIDS AND CONFIDANTES SAY. Let Hillary have her pocket politicians smear you. It means nothing if the people believe you.

3. At the press conference announce the following:
A. He is ceasing all attacks on Hillary or responses to attacks. The campaign is about ideas and having the courage to leave stupid partisan politics aside. the challenge is too great and the stakes to high.
B. He will agree to use matching funds and federal funding of the national campaign as he said he would and he will donate whatever cash is stored up to the DNC.
C. He wants Florida and Michigan to be able to vote but they must be campaigns where he is both on the ballot and has a chance to campaign. He should apologize to the people in both States on behalf of the national party, and their state parties and state government for their apparent disenfranchisement and remind them that neither he nor Mrs. Clinton were responsible for it.
D. He will stop contacting and lobbying super delegates. That too is old style politics and stinks of deal making that is beneath the party and beneath the American people. These people will vote with the majority of the party and if they fail to do so the Democratic Party is done and you should lead the charge out of it.
E. He will praise Mrs. Clinton and suggest that she would be a worthy and admirable President.
F. He will praise John Mc Cain and his service to this country and acknowledge that he too would make a worthy and admirable President.
G. Whoever the PEOPLE elect he will vow to work for the change he has been preaching.
H. He will start his campaign anew with the theme NO EASY ANSWERS! He will list the things we face which have no easy answers like:

i. The economy which Bush has ruined with tax cuts, budget increases and a war he lied the country into. Americans are going to have to face up to some lean hard years while the country finds it’s way. He will bring the best and brightest of the economic leaders of our country including Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and labor leaders. If America is going to get out of this it is going to be through technology and new ideas.

ii. The War. We must get out of Iraq but he is NOT going to withdraw our troops on day 1. The blood shed that would be caused would be unforgivable. Mr. Bush’s ruining of the country has created debts and he will once again exercise best efforts and seek best advice not just of Generals but of allies, world leaders and perhaps even sit down with our enemies IF he thinks it would be productive towards our countries goals. The “war on terror” is going to be discontinued. We will defend our borders and exact a toll on those who aid people who kill Americans.

iii. He will seek justice in our own country and start to answer the question about why 1% of us are in jail. He will review the “war on drugs” which compares favorably to the “war on terror” and make the decision that we can afford neither. America leads by being strong and brave and it is hard, expensive and will cost American lives and treasure... but not without a plan and not without measurable results.

iv. He will support a constitutional amendment which specifically states that Money is NOT speech. When the founders protected our right to speak they did not protect our right to pay off our politicians and bribe them through our appallingly wasteful and expensive election system. He will lead a personal crusade against the lobbyist. He will disclose every dollar of special interest money he has received...ever and apologize and say NO MORE.

I know that there is much more to be said or done but he has an opportunity with the coalition he has to be transformative. We need to start the debate and attempt to really change the system that has lead us down this road to where we are ruining our economy and our country and borrowing against our children’s environmental and economic future. It has to stop. He can stop it. he must stop it but his time is running out and every day he plays the same old game he undercuts his chance of turning it around.
This is most certainly true.

Record Review: Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend








So it is time to have a little fun which is never a bad thing. Every year it takes a while for new releases really to get out, get heard and get reviewed but this diner is happy to report that there has been some good stuff this year, and some fun stuff, and it starts with Vampire Weekend.

First of all... forget the name. Sure it is kind of gay and trendy and perhaps even a tad desperate. This CD is there first major release and it came out on January 29, 2008 so they are “fresh faced” at best and in a grammy dominated by Amy Winehouse (who could not even attend) there is a massive need for something...anything...fresh. These guys pretentiously claim to be influenced by African popular music and Western classical music... whatever. They burst onto the scene by way of the blogosphere and I am claiming them the first quarter of 2008’s “next big thing”. realize that they are only the next big thing for thirty and forty somethings like me. For teens and twenty year olds who are really cool the band was likely “over” before they ever released their first CD. Releasing a CD is becoming for these indie snobs an arrogant, outdated pretense. Screw them.

This is a CD that is not meant for february or even March but more for spring or summer. it makes you smile as these preppy ivy league boys with all their pretenses give us some odd percussion and and danceable rhythms but more then anything else it is music to dance to. Starting with “Mansard Roof” the lilting tones start immediately. Ezra Koenig plays a clean guitar and his vocals are excellent and as i say below he does a Ray Davies, Paul Simon, Sting thing that is hard to beat. There is a little bit of Sting type vocals that pop out occasionally such as on the second track “Oxford Comma” which seems to bemoan pretenses to a martial drum beat and polynesian sounding guitar. “A-Punk is track number three and it has the sounds of a signature concert song which once again echoes the Police at their best Zenyata Mendata days. Like I said it makes me smile. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” is full of pretense and to my sad little ears rips off Paul Simon’s “Graceland” but seriously... how bad can that be? “M-79” starts with...harpsichord? Isn’t that like soooo 2006? Lots of strings and more pretense but it all seems self mocking. More Paul Simon vocals here and it makes me miss his best work. “Campus” is a pean to the prep and this time... awesomely so Koenig is channeling Ray Davies and this one makes me miss the Kinks. God I love the kinks and this song only makes it more so. “Bryn”... I don’t know. perhaps the style is starting to wear on me by this time but this seems like the weakest song on the Cd but once again... great percussion might save this otherwise trite (to me) love song. “One” is not the remake of the great Three Dog Night song but instead is a little techno/caribe’ ditty once again giving me Ray Davies... in the sun. Nice or annoying chorus harmonies depending on your mood at the time but a nice tune.”I Stand Corrected” might be the best thing on the CD.

This is some good music by a good new band. The songs are short and punchy and the whole thing clocks in at like 39 minutes. They are pitching a fairly fresh sound but they seem to be reaching for something more. I am not sure that they get there. As I said redundantly up above the CD and the bands music is a lot of fun. i think, it will make several year end “best of” lists and that is pretty bold prediction for January releases. To find out a little more hit the links below. The always cool and pretentious Pitchfork liked it even more then I did. Buy it. 8 Slingers on the 10 scale.

THEY ARE ALSON ON SATURDAY NIGHT TONIGHT 3/8/08

Their Web Site: http://www.vampireweekend.com/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_Weekend

Pitchfork: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/48053-vampire-weekend

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/44502-vampire-weekend-cape-cod-kwassa-kwassa-mp3stream

Book Review: The Last Dropout

The Last Dropout
Bill Milliken
Hay House Publishing 2007
240 Pages






I am deeply suspicious of non-fiction. Whether it is history, biography, social commentary or self help.... they stink of fiction, masked in fact. As a Christian I get people handing me Christian self help books all the time. Granted... I am a person who needs a lot of help. But historically these books leave me cold. Max Lucado, James Dobson, the mega Church guys... all have great messages (well maybe not Dobson) but these books all wrap around individual themes. They then take those themes and extrapolate them out into action plans and life plans and planning plans... and it always feel like they are telling me something I already know, whether I know it intuitively or because I learned it, or because I know it because Christ spoke it in “The Sermon On The Mount”. I do not mean to be smug about this. Christian or not we all live our lives or should at least be guided by what we are simple rules.

The ones for business life are even worse where people take simple ideas and m them into your “plan” for success. I am sure that there are some good ones out there but in the main they stink and are useless... or at least that is my opinion.
The non Christian, non business, self help books I believe are all about dieting.

So a person I respect a lot who knew of my passion for teenagers recommended this book about our troubled approach to education. I liked a lot of portions of the book which emphasizes that the dropout problem is not a “school” problem but is instead a community problem. The author is the head of a GREAT program called Communities In Schools and the idea is simple, that we need a supportive community AROUND (embracing) our schools in order to educate and ultimately advance our children. Especially children in under privileged environments.

The book gives a little history of the author and his rough and tumble up bringing and how a Young Life leader and Young life camp saved his life and helped him become a servant. Mr. Milliken has done a lot of awesome things but among others he started up the urban street academies to give inner city youth a path towards their GED’s. What that experience allowed he and some of his cohorts to do was to realize that for schools to function properly the kids had to have a certain baseline. This lead to some essential principals which the book fleshes out:

• One: Programs don’t change kids – relationships do.
• Two: The dropout crisis is not just an education issue.
• Three: Young people need the five real basics, not just the Three R’s: a one-on-one relationship with a caring adult; a safe place to learn and grow; a healthy start and a healthy future; a marketable skill to use upon graduation; and a chance to give back to peers and community.

• Four: The community must weave a safety net around its children in a manner that is personal, accountable, and coordinated.
• Five: Every community needs a “Champion for Children” – a neutral third party with “magic eyes” to coordinate and broker the diverse community resources into the schools on behalf of young people and families.
• Six: Educators and policy-makers can’t do it alone...and they will welcome your help.
• Seven: Curing the dropout epidemic will demand change, not just charity.
• Eight: Scalability, sustainability, and evidence-based strategies are essential to creating permanent change in the way our education system combats the dropout epidemic.
• Nine: Our children need three things from you – your awareness, your advocacy, and your action.

****

That is some pretty good stuff. This guy has some good partners and has hung with some good people. Bill and Melinda Gates, Jimmy Carter and Senator Lugar are just a few. He also rips on the dreaded sacred cow of “No Child Left Behind” which of course resonates with me but points out, over and over again, that the drop out problem is NOT an education problem and that, in case you did not know it, a kid whose parents are beating the shit out of him, or each other, cannot learn. He writes about it dryly but you get the picture and you get some heart warming stories AND you get a call to action. I noticed St. Louis does not have a Communities In Schools Program. Another sign of our backwards approach. We could use a Champion For Children in this town. Any takers?

The Death Of No Depression

Reading Is Dead... long live reading.

“And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book”-Elvis Costello






So for the past few years I have only subscribed to a couple of magazines. The first was the New Yew Yorker and the second was the Alt-Country music mag No Depression. So it was with some sadness that I was informed by my son that No Depression will cease publication with its next issue. No depression was around since 1995 and they had a good run.
To quote the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

“No Depression, named for a Carter Family song recorded in the 1930s, has been the top magazine for the roots-oriented, alternative-country genre.

Son Volt was featured on the cover of the first issue of No Depression, published in September 1995. The publication was quarterly in the beginning, then went bimonthly as it grew. The Chicago Tribune ranked No Depression No. 20 in its 2004 list of the country's top 50 magazines in all formats.”

That is some pretty heady stuff. I was there from the beginning and it was my music mag covering my favorite Genre lovingly and in heavy print stock. Chock full of adds which sometimes were just as good as the magazine itself. They got me into a lot of good music and also led me down some blind alleys just because the band being reviewed twanged a little.
It seemed like the magazine flourished starting with issue one which featured our own (Belleville’s) Jay Farrar and it flowed from there fairly dreamlessly with some truly brilliant stuff through the years. They had a reasonable eye for talent and were not afraid to reach out and embrace the different. The magazine also had a reverence for rock and roll royalty and spent ample time on Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Costello and Van Morrison. The magazine introduced me to a record house called Miles of Music (milesofmusic.com) and i became a reasonably good customer. There was something liberating about buying CD’s from a catalogue or on line, and something that seemed noble or disciplined about waiting a week to ten days for them to arrive. And when a package of four CD’s arrived it seemed like Christmas.

Every month i would read the magazine, review the adds, check out the CD reviews and make a list of what I “needed”. It kept me current, if only in my little genre and the indie scene tangentially related to it. It is my understanding that they are going to keep up with their web site. Their last issue stated in a letter from the editor that decreased add revenue and ever increasing costs for things like paper made the future of the magazine a losing proposition. They also blamed the new postal regulations giving the mass publications that mail a huge advantage in postage because they could buy and maintain the proper sorting equipment. So big triumphs again and while No Depression dies key publications like “Outlaw Biker” and Cosmo Teen” will roll on. Dark times my friend. Dark times indeed.

Pick up the last issue of No Depression when it comes out next week. Read it, enjoy it and savor it These words are going boy and they ain’t never coming back.

****
I still like the New Yorker. The quality of the writing is top notch. Yes it is liberal leaning but of course as I amble toward being a commie that becomes easier and easier to swallow. Sometimes their articles run long... some times WAY too long and with my well documented ADD that can be a problem but also, being a quitter, I find i have the ability to stop.The fact is that they employ some of the best writers in the world, whether for fact or for fiction and although they are no longer an edgy publication, they are a bastion of quality and deep thinking liberalism. So the New Yorker soldiers on and for that I am well pleased. But there is some more good news for readers.

I read a book a few years ago by a nice young writer named Dave Eggers called “They Shall Know Us By Our Velocity”... it was clever and quirky. There was no title page and in fact the book started on the inside of the front cover. Moreover it was published by his own publishing house, Mc Sweeneys. http://www.mcsweeneys.net. Mc Sweeney’s is irreverent and cool. They attract some of the best and most interesting writers and the topics run the gamut. This web site is a current readers dream. In the age where no one reads books anymore we all have to rely on Amazon and Borders and even worse on the old line publishing houses which... like the old line record companies are dying and had better morph quickly if they are going to survive. The costs involved with main line publishing and bringing a book to market are simply too steep for them to try anything interesting or out of step. Good for John Grisham... bad for everyone else.

Along with what is now a long line of books they publish several magazines and do some things on the internet or some multi media thing which I don’t even pretend to understand (Wholphin). Their web site is rewarding enough but I have recently started subscribing to a brilliant pulp monthly they do called The Believer. The Believer is what the New Yorker would be in this cyber age if the New Yorker started now. They have offbeat art, poetry and fiction. They do feature articles and short interviews of people they (and thus we) fin interesting. The Believer has a great column each month by (like him or not) Nick Hornby who if nothing else is extremely well read and I get some great book ideas from him that I simply would not read about anywhere else. The mag is only on it’s 51st issue so it is still in its toddling stages and it will be interesting and exciting to see how they form it as it goes forward. In short... The Believer might save your life.

Concert Review: Robin Trower

Concert Review
Robin Trower
The Pageant
March 1, 2008

I am... as his been over documented in these pages... an idiot. I seem to be especially “challenged” in regard to concert performances and the ticketing and attendence at same. The doctors do not have a name for this mallady as of yet but I am hopeful that the people at Barnes/Jewish/Christian Hospital with the assistance of some MRE’’s and PET scans and perhaps a little invasive surgery into my brain will be able to come up with something but I will also throw it out to you to name my disease.

I had intended to take my god child rocker Brian Kukla with me to see the Drive By Truckers at the Pageant on Saturday night. The DBT’s have been around for almost 10 years and I have seen them three or four times. They are old school southern rock, cutting their teeth with three guitars ala Allman Brothers or Lynard Skynard. It is a noble heritage when done correctly and their CD from about 5 years ago, “Southern Rock Opera” is somewhat of a classic. So I was excited and had picked up the tickets at the Pageant earlier that day, walking in, saying “I need two tickets for tonights show”, and taking them and paying for them and never looking at them. BRILLIANT!

The problem was that the DBT’s were at the Pageant on Friday night. I did not realize it until I got out of the car and looked at the ticket. Then I said to Kukla...”They gave me the wrong tickets”... but they didn’t. I just screwed up. Fortunately Kukla is a guitar player, bluesy rocker so when i saw I had tickets for Robin Trower I thought... well, it is a sunk cost, and he will probably like him better anyway.

To quote the very quoatable John De Penalozza...”Robin Trowers not dead? Who knew?” Apparently a packed house at the Pageant knew. I did not. I mean... I guess i knew he was alive but I hardly cared. He started out in Procol Harum and while “Whiter Shade of Pale” is probably a top 100 all time song, he left their to di solo work. I think the only album he released which is still out was the somewhat seminal “Bridge of Sighs” (no relationship to the bridge in Venice or Richard Russo’s recent book) which had a number of FM hits including “Day of the Eagle”. I knew he was a guitar god (small g) but he was also from the “Clapton is God (large G) era and there was little in the way of blues rock that Clapton and for that matter even Jeff Beck had not already done to death, at least for my taste.

The show, though sold out had room on the floor and the opening act was already playing when we arrived. It was a local band called Logos and well... they were really good. They rocked really loud, appeared to be just kids and really tore it up. This was good solid blues rock by some younger local kids and they played VERY well. Check out their myspace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=27275677

The crowd loved them and the crowd was... old and ugly. I was by no means old at the show fitting right into the middle and can I say unequivically and for the record... the 60’s people are not aging well. This was an ugly group of about 90% men. One of those crowds where there is always a line for the men’s room but the ladies room is wide open. Whether it is because they are using their Flomax or whatever, it is hard to take a piss when you get 2000 upper middle aged men together with 4 men’s rooms. And as to ugly... a lot of us are going bald but these guys have the long stringy bald hair, lots of unkept sideburns and trucker caps saying things like “Kiss Army”. Ugly men and to be fair... the women were worse (the sole exception being Ethan’s wife). You get the idea.

Soo, after a 30 minute break Trower came out. To be fair... he is 62 and he looks pretty good. Long and lanky with long thinning gray hair but... he looked good. His band was a 40 something body builder with a Rod Stewart do and a muscle shirt that showed off his breasts, a fat lank haired drummer and this singer...Davey Pattison. He looks like Jerry Springer and even Wikipedia does not know how old he is but he had all the moves he still had when he was in his 30s singing for Ronnie Montrose. He played the tambourine and pointed a lot. I guess he could sing but you could not really tell.

It was a loud show and Trower still has his chops. he is a large man and thos big hands move across the fret board as well as anyone I have seen in a while. he is no Richard Thompson but my guess is that he could play circles around BB King on most blues licks at this point. Trower has a new CD out which he did with another dinosaur god, Jack Bruce and he interspersed those songs with his “hits”. He played and thumped for an hour and a half including his encores. The Kukla kid was all smiles after seeing a lot of old people rock out. It was kind of fun and kind of sad but... I have spent worse nights and made worse mistakes. That is the good thing about my disease. Even your mistakes can work out.

DAY OF THE EAGLE
I saw a light, just up ahead
But I couldn't seem to rise up from my bed
I'm not alone, than I am
People seem to think I'm superman
But I watch for the love
I'm living in the day of the eagle, the eagle not the, dove

Its like a weight, that brings me down
If I don't move, I'm on the ground
Its in my mind, Its in my soul
Its telling me the things I can't be told
Its a watch for the love
Living in the day of the eagle, eagle not the, dove

Another day, another night
I want to love, they want to fight
I need the time, I got to be alone
I got to meet a lover on my own
I watch for the love
Living in the day of the eagle, eagle not the, dove
****
This is not deep shit.

Diner Review: The Three Monkeys

Three Monkeys









There is something that always piques my curiosity when new places open up and are obviously bar/restaurants but they chose to also serve breakfast. I understand the logic of having a physical plant, open for lunch and dinner that you might as well get some revenue during breakfast rather then just be closed but historically the model does not work. Having been, in a past life, in that trade and having been lectured about how a really “nice” place can never serve breakfast AND charge $30.00 for an entree and have a good bar business at night... I get piqued.

So a few months ago I stopped by for cocktails at The Three Monkeys on Morganford. this is that area of Morganford just south of Tower Grove Park where several plays have tried to turn it into:

The New Gaslight Square
The New Loop
The New Lacledes Landing (ugh! What a bad idea that would be)
The New Maplewood
etc...

It could be kind of a cool little strip but other then the faux cool “Tin Can” and the Verona and Stella Blues there is very little really going on here and the 7-11 right across the street can attest to same. All that having been said The Three Monkeys is cool looking. It has a very tasteful exterior and inside is all dark woods and a big long bar. Think of the front room at Annie Gunns, deduct an average of about a 500k in net worth for each one of the patron and add a person or two who is not white (something rarely seen in the Chesterfield Valley) and you get the idea. For cocktails it was more then pleasant but i saw they had breakfast.

Breakfast is of course the great test of any kitchen and there are a lot of disconnects with three monkeys cool bar interior and it’s menu which seems to have a totally disconnected tropical theme. At 6:45 on a Saturday morning (they open at 6 for breakfast) I stumbled in remarkably un-hungover (legal term.. hungover is also now referred to as Spezioed) and checked it out. It is pleasantly dark inside but that is not a good thing for breakfast. You need light in order to read the paper. You need light to see what might be moving in your hash browns. But i can live with dark. It has it’s place. There are numerous tables...2, 4 and 6 tops but they all have these annoying, hard, not quite bar stools to sit on. They are not as high as bar stools but have the same design and are not comfortably short, like school chairs, so depending on your leg length they are at best... awkward.

I eschewed the tables and sat at the beautiful bar and was promptly served by a pleasant, pretty, pregnant (that is a lot of alliteration for me) bartendress/waitress. There is another dichotomy. Which is she. She is standing behind a bar in front of a full rack of booze and she is taking a breakfast order. But i digress. She was very pleasant and the service was good. there were three or four tables with people and at least one table of “regulars”. The regulars were also a little disconcerting because there were women at the table. As we all know from our reading women do not go out for breakfast. Strippers on their way home eat breakfast but that is substantially different then a middle aged lady, waking up and heading out with her husband to sit and eat breakfast at 6:30. it is once again... disconnected.

Checking out the menu I saw it was average in size but contained all the basics but everything once again had the annoying tropical theme:

The Amazon: French Toast
The Islander: Biscuits and Gravy
Lava: Belgian Waffle
Cyclone: Eggs, Pancake and Sausage
Congo...

You get it. To put it kindly, in breakfast parlance such themes are... lacking a better term...gay.
I ordered the biscuits and gravy along with a side of sausage and hash browns. The iced tea was good and fresh brewed. The hash browns were shredded (as God indicated they should be), the sausage patties were thin and large, reminiscent of Steak n Shakes old patties. The biscuits were thick dry and home made and probably would have been tasty on their own. The gravy was the only problem as it had more in common (and appeared to be) a mushroom sauce then sausage gravy. Closer inspection revealed that the mushrooms were indeed pieces of gravy but it was thin, separated easily and was too sweet and unsavory to really cut the mustard.

Still, your diner bravely muddled through. Over all it was not bad and the ambience of the place is soothing and it seems like it might be a nice place to hide for a few months until the bar either closes or realizes that breakfast is a losing opportunity. In the mean time I strongly recommend it as a breakfast experience. Bring someone to talk to.
Their Web Site (what kind of Diner would have a web site?) http://www.3monkeysstl.com/

Book Review: Invitation To A Beheadinge: Vladimir Nabakov

Invitation To A Beheading
Vladmir Nabakov

I know I argued that you must read the Russians in February but having just finished my second Nabakov book of the month... I have changed my mind. This book exhausted me for all the wrong reasons. When you are setting your reading list out and deciding what of Nabakov you read I am giving you official permission to duck this one.

The premise is pretty simple. We have a condemned man named Cinncinatus who is in a cell awaiting his ultimate beheading. Should be grist for some nice dark observations on death, life, captivity, the meaning of it all... etc... But unfortunately he does not handle it this way.

Cinncinatus as might be expected is going insane as he awaits his demise. He keeps asking his jailer, his warden and anyone who visits when his time will be as he reads lengthy works and keeps writing always wringing his hands that he will not be able to finish one or the other. Who cares.

He seems whiny and shallow. He is sentenced to death for killing his wife’s lover but it seems that even that was pointless because she was a whore who slept with a lot of men and kept doing so after his arrest. Still he pines for her and she visits him twice with disastrous results. He has other visitors as well including his mom and another character who we later find out is his jailer.

The most annoying part of the book is that I was never ever to get a feel for whether what he was telling us was happening was really happening or just a dream. There are parties he goes to, tunnels dug, fields run through, spiders spoken with, card tricks done ... and in the end he is always in his cell waiting to die. Exhausting... and annoying. He used his device of lengthy several page paragraphs but it seemed like he never said anything.
In the end.... surprisingly? He gets his head cut off. At least I think he did. But sadly i could not care less. A front runner for my worst read of the year.