Tag Archives: Jarett Kobek

Angry, Yet Scathingly Funny

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“If you have a President who comes from reality TV, why would anyone be surprised there would be a specious relationship with the truth?” Asks Jarett Kobek in our conversation about his latest novel, Only American Burn In Hell. Truth and reality versus lies and fantasy criss-cross in Mr. Kobek’s vision of the current state of our world. The present occupant of the White House is omnipresent in Jarett’s novel as his foul tentacles and clawing apologists clog the air of every landscape on every page. What if your country had elected as its leader a shameless millionaire who was stealing your money, your democracy, and your dignity? What if the media were owned by filthy-rich men who didn’t give two shits about any of it as long as it continued to make them filthy rich? Wouldn’t it be enough to send you certifiably insane? To make you write a novel about an immortal lesbian fairy that mimicked the conventions of movies like Wonder Woman but became an accidental allegory for #MeToo? To write a savage death wail of a satire about how the rich stole everything from us?

The delight of conversing with Jarett Kobek is the tangents you can go to, just like his writing. Does he commit rock ’n’ roll blasphemy by relating incredible details about the unrelated track, “Doing’ The Dookie” from Lou Reed’s Berlin sessions? His pastiche of Reed’s austere lyrics is masterful.

Show #342

Next On Life Elsewhere

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In the next edition of Life Elsewhere, frequent contributor, film, and media critic, Bob Ross stops by to bring us up to date on current films he suggests are worth watching. Bob manages to give his take with a slight nod and a wink, but then, we’ll ask Bob to tackle a serious topic. We’ll discuss a movie that has been mentioned all too frequently in the news over past few days since the tragic events in Charlottesville and, the comments by Mr. Trump.  That movie is the 1915 silent epic drama, directed and co-produced by D. W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish, The Birth Of A Nation. The screenplay was adapted from the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon Jr.

Music has always been an integral part of Life Elsewhere and in this edition, we introduce you to Canadian singer-songwriter, Dana Gavanski. Her new beautiful single, How Much Is Enough?, taken from her debut EP, Spring Demos, out on September 12th on Fox Food Records. We’ll also hear from Bunny a band out of Chicago. Fronted by Jessica Viscius, who manages to erotically whisper on Let Me Be Your Dog, three words, “bow wow wow”, that we promise you will never hear or say the same way again. Bunny is set to release their EP Sucker later this year. For a regular input of new music, make sure you go to Life Elsewhere Music, available right here and over at Mixcloud.

To round out the show, Norman B talks with Jarett Kobek about his new novel, The Future Won’t Be Long,. It’s a gritty, unflinching, name-dropping & juicy chronicle that focuses on ten years, from 1986 to 1996, the heady period of excessive club kid culture, set mostly in New York. Could this be a veiled autobiography? Find out, when you hear the next edition of Life Elsewhere.

Life Elsewhere is available at iTunes

Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3  
Mondays 5.00pm PT & Wednesdays 2.00pm PT at NWCZ Radio
Thursdays 6.00pm ET at Internet Radio Network
Fridays at 9.00pm GMT on Cornucopia Radio

If you miss any editions of Life Elsewhere, go here then go to the Listen On Demand panel, choose the date of a show and click play.

Life Elsewhere Music airs:
Mondays at 6.00pm & Wednesdays at 3.00pm Pacific Time on NWCZ Radio
Fridays at 10.00am Eastern Time on IRN
Cornucopia Radio airs Life Elsewhere Music throughout each week
You can hear all the volumes over at Mixcloud
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Gritty, Unflinching, Name-Dropping & Juicy!

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Jarett Kobek photographed by Helmut Fricke

When Adeline, a wealthy art student, chances upon a young man from the Midwest known only as Baby in a shady East Village squat, the two begin a fiery friendship that propels them through a decade of New York life. In the apartments and bars of downtown Manhattan to the infamous nightclub The Limelight, Adeline is Baby s guardian angel, introducing him to a city not yet overrun by gentrification. They live through an era of New York punctuated by the deaths of Warhol, Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and Tompkins Square Park. Adeline is fiercely protective of Baby, even bringing him home with her to Los Angeles, but he soon takes over his own education. Once just a kid off the bus from Wisconsin, Baby relishes ketamine-fueled clubbing nights and acid days in LA, and he falls deep into the Club Kid twilight zone of sexual excess.

As Adeline develops into the artist she never really expected to become and flees to the nascent tech scene in San Francisco, Baby faces his own desire for artistic expression and recognition. He must write his way out of clubbing life, and their friendship, an alliance that seemed nearly impenetrable, is tested and betrayed, leaving each unmoored as the world around them seems to be unraveling. This is the synopsis of The Future Won’t Be Long, the new novel from Jarett Kobek. A gritty unflinching roller-coaster ride, detailing the excesses of New York’s club scene from 1986 through 1996. Kobek deliberately name-drops, incorporating juicy details, some obviously real, some imagined while laying bare what has to be in part, a thinly veiled autobiography. Jarett Kobek, also the author of cult favorite,  I Hate the Internet joins Norman B for the next edition of Life Elsewhere to discuss The Future Won’t Be Long.

Life Elsewhere is available at iTunes

Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3  
Mondays 5.00pm PT & Wednesdays 2.00pm PT at NWCZ Radio
Thursdays 6.00pm ET at Internet Radio Network
Fridays at 9.00pm GMT on Cornucopia Radio

If you miss any editions of Life Elsewhere, go here then go to the Listen On Demand panel, choose the date of a show and click play.

Life Elsewhere Music airs:
Mondays at 6.00pm & Wednesdays at 3.00pm Pacific Time on NWCZ Radio
Fridays at 10.00am Eastern Time on IRN
Cornucopia Radio airs Life Elsewhere Music throughout each week
You can hear all the volumes over at Mixcloud

Show #234