Real Conversations 1: Interviews by V. Vale
RE/Search Publications/$12.95
Just as the back cover promises, V. Vale's Real Conversations contains "tales, advice and dark humor from citizens of the eternal underground." These smart, topical and witty conversations with four counterculture thinkers — three punks and a beatnik — begin with the spewings of Henry Rollins, who despite his involvement in such above-ground swill as The Chase, shows why Details once named him its man of the year. He discusses the struggles of running an indie press, social pressure, the spreading corporate blob and "keeping it real" in general.
Next up, British punker and Stuckist Billy Childish, the least amiable of the guys to submit to the Q and A process; that is, he and Vale don't see eye to eye on a few topics, such as collecting and archiving. It's such friction that makes his interview the most stimulating. In fact, just as he's not down with stockpiling trinkets and other junk to wall himself off from the world, Childish argues that books and ideas distract us from "true" pursuits. He tells a discombobulated Vale: "I think ideas are so overrated."
Testify, Billy! That may the best idea in the book, right there.
Other interviews include spoken word maven Jello Biafra and beatnik poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who contribute their share of peevishness to the collection. Biafra rails on "corporate feudalism" and the piss-poor media coverage of the WTO protests so vehemently one gets the suspicion he was still high on Seattle coffee (but not Starbucks!) when his interview took place. Finally, Ferlinghetti shares tasty anecdotes of Burroughs' put-ons and Bukowski's drunken stoogery.
Real Conversations No. 1 will stir something in the reader, be it creative juice or righteous indignation. My only hope is that for No. 2, Vale interrogate some Bushes and Limbaughs instead of the boys in the choir. He should bring Childish with him if he does.
—David Jasper
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2001.
