BOOKS
The road goes on forever For the dirt road visionary.
Dirt Road Visionary Poems and Photo- graphs By John Charles Griffin (Snake Nation Press)
Weekend warrior Armed with an SLR A pad and a pen Chronicles history As it happens. Music and art People, places and things The Big House. Rose Hill. Mama Louise. Lunch at the “H.” Man on the street. Cop on the beat. Beatnik. Beat poet. Beat the clock. Meet the Beatles. Do poems rhyme? Is a bear catholic? Freeform thought. Scribbled on a legal pad Paints a picture Behind the third eye Pixels trump Kodachrome. The times they are a changin.’ Artist. Shaman. Mr. Macon. Finds beauty Behind the wall Where others dare not go On his way down to his seat There on the front row. Where the drums beat tribal For dancers beneath the moon
-Michael Buffalo Smith
Backstage Pass By Paul Stanley (Harper One) Could it possibly be
true? Is the hard rock- ing, greasepaint wear- ing, fire-breathing, blood spewing rock band seriously heading toward retirement? Yes, they are in the middle of a two year “End of the
Road” tour that is selling out worldwide and making them even more gazillions of dollars. The band is doing all of this with only half of its original members. Drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley are long gone, with two other guys wearing their old costumes and makeup, and it doesn’t seem to matter to the hordes of folks paying ungodly ticket prices for admission, as well as even more hundreds of dollars for a “meet and greet” where you, yes you, can have a photo made with the band and score a few trinkets to boot. Or the Gene Simmons “Vault” experi- ence that costs in the thousands, but you get a personal meeting with the bat lizard king for a few minutes, autograph, photo and some other junk that is sure to make any of us feel like we are 16 again. The thing is, I remember when they retired in 2000 and sucked every- one dry on their “Farewell Tour.” The joke was on us. In the middle of all of this mayhem, 67-
year old lead singer Paul Stanley, releases his second book. All four original members have
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