24 Comments

I like to think I’m a good writer. Then I read this brilliance and realize I’m not even close. Panting pictures with words - so beautiful.

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Well that was harrowing and all I did was read about it. I cannot imagine actually being there.

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Now I understand the song

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Hell of a story chronicling a world most of us never knew existed.

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BRILLIANT!!

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Terrific read! But the Nurse in me just wanted someone to take him to the hospital ASAP. I’m glad you were there for him. BTW—kidney stones are no minor thing, ever. Besides representing an acute problem, they are a sign of chronic underlying issues as well… and he clearly had all sorts of significant problems 😖😣🤯

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Wow! Reading this was like watching a movie; only better! A movie could.t do justice to who these characters were.

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JFC this is brilliant. Almost too brilliant: I had to force myself to keep reading. I'll reread it for sure, but for now -- I've been messing around in what I was doing in the late 1970s: getting more and more involved as writer and bookseller in the Women in Print movement, which was closely linked to the women's music movement so I got to know a lot of those people too. Last fall, Ginny Berson's book _Olivia on the Record_ came out, a personal history of Olivia Records, which played a huge role in bringing the likes of Cris Williamson, Meg Christian, and Linda Tillery to wider attention. (Ginny was a co-founder and for years the main mover.) Olivia and women's music in general grew up because lesbian and/or feminist musicians of all genres were shut out of the mainstream record industry. It often wasn't clear at the time that this exclusion was a blessing. As you write, Lucian, this "Hotel California" was indeed "a place apart in time and space from the rest of the world." A circle of hell for sure. There really are other ways to make music, even if they're not so good at making fame.

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This was fascinating. Brilliant. How did you happen to be there? Another story?

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On assignment for New Times Magazine.

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Can't wait for HST.

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It couldn't possibly be Harry S Truman, could it? ;-)

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Hunter S. Thompson.

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??? What are you talking about?

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Didn't I read something about your time with Thompson?

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He was a friend for many years.

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Gathered that, looking forward to any and all on him when you are ready after this non-stop shit show.

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Crazy shit. Great piece.

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Magnificent.

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I always thought if I had come of age in the 60s I would have died. Your writing let me experience them without the consequences.

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Jeez. This is so good I can almost smell the room. I can't recall anything like this that captured full attention the way this one did. A California YOLO story if there ever was one. Every sentence of it rings true.

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Great piece

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Just Great!!!

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