I hadn't heard he died, Chris, but having read that dreary Basketball Diaries book one day whilst standing in Crown Books (remember that chain?) I'm sure he would have wanted it that way.

Surprised he made it to his 60s.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

I went to see Carroll do a reading in 1996, and thought he was a really powerful writer who was fairly captivating to watch, even if a lot of his work was visceral and gross.  That was then, though.  He hasn't gotten a lot of talk in the past bunch of years, I would guess because B.D. has faded from the public eye.

-cg

I just got around to listening to Vin Scelsa's Idiots Delight  from Sept. 19.  He starts the show with reminiscences of radio interviews with Jim Carroll in the 70's and 80's,  then plays a couple of Carroll songs, and a spoken word piece from the  Praying Mantis collection called "Tiny Tortures", recorded in the 80's at St. Mark's church in the Bowery. Then Vin reads a piece called "The Bells" from Carroll's book Forced Entries, about Phil Ochs at a Timothy Leary benefit.   Tidbit from the show: Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Carroll all lived together in N.Y. before they  became famous.  You can listen here:

http://wfuv.streamguys.us/archive/9407.asx

(if the link doesn't work, you can find it at the WFUV-FM website)