and now they're deadJim Carroll, Author - Jim carroll - GawkerJim Carroll, Author
Jim Carroll, the former drug addict turned prolific poet and writer of The Basketball Diaries, died of a heart attack on Friday at his residence in Manhattan. He was 60.
Carroll's writing career started when he was attending Catholic prep school in the 1960s; he chronicled his rapid decent into heroin addiction—and the lengths he went to get it, like prostituting himself for money to buy it—in his diaries. These diaries were turned into The Basketball Diaries, which, after gaining popularity in the 70s, surged to popularity again in the 80s when they were repackaged and republished, and again in the 90s, when they were adapted into a film with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Carroll.
Carroll rose to fame as downtown fixture on New York's punk scene after the publication of The Basketball Diaries; he gained the accolades of and influence over Patti Smith, Harmony Korine, Keith Richards, Lou Reed, Pearl Jam, Rancid, and others over the years.
Carroll and his mentor, Ted Berrigan, once took a trip to see Carroll's idol, Jack Kerouac. When they got there, Kerouac supposedly said: "At thirteen years of age, Jim Carroll writes better prose than 89 percent of the novelists working today."
Writers, magazines, actors, rock stars continued to want to be a part of Carroll's ongoing narrative; if the CBGB of yore had a poet laureate, it would've been unanimously voted as him. At one point, he actually hit the stage of CBGB as a musician sometime after Patti Smith infamously made him get on stage with her to read. He shortly secured a three-record deal after with Atlantic Records, which was assisted by Keith Richards.
Carroll's personal life remained spotty. He moved to New York to escape drugs and was married, once to Rosemary Klemfuss, in 1978. They later divorced, but Carroll remained off drugs, and continued to write, perform spoken word, and record music, prolifically so.
Caroll loved writers, and loved the act of writing as much as the art of it. Carroll's survived by his brother Tom. He will be missed. Here he is, talking about Frank O'Hara:
September 13, 2009
Jim Carroll, Author - Jim carroll - Gawker
Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker, Is a People Whose Dead at 60 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com
Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker, Is a People Whose Dead at 60
Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs who chronicled his wild youth in “The Basketball Diaries,” died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.
The cause was a heart attack, said Rosemary Carroll, his former wife.
As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry. This highly unusual combination lent a lurid appeal to “The Basketball Diaries,” the journal he kept during high school and published in 1978, by which time his poetry had already won him a cult reputation as the new Bob Dylan.
“I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation,” the singer Patti Smith said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “The work was sophisticated and elegant. He had beauty.”
The diaries began, innocently: “Today was my first Biddy League game and my first day in any organized basketball league. I’m enthused about life due to this exciting event.”
By the end of the book, Mr. Carroll was a heroin addict who supported his habit by hustling in Times Square. “Totally zonked, and all the dope scraped or sniffed clean from the tiny cellophane bags,” the final entry read, continuing, “I can see the Cloisters with its million in medieval art out the bedroom window. I got to go in and puke. I just want to be pure.”
“The Basketball Diaries,” reissued in a mass-market edition in 1980, became enormously popular, especially on college campuses. In a film adaptation in 1995, Leonardo DiCaprio played the part of Mr. Carroll
The writer’s good looks and flair for drama made him ideal raw material for rock stardom. “When I was about 9 years old, man, I realized that the real thing was not only to do what you were doing totally great, but to look totally great while you were doing it,” he told the poet Ted Berrigan in the 1960s. In the late 1970s, with the encouragement of Ms. Smith, he formed the Jim Carroll Band, whose first release, “Catholic Boy” (1980), is sometimes called the last great punk album.
James Dennis Carroll, the son of a bar owner, spent his childhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where he attended Roman Catholic schools. After the family moved to Inwood, at the northern end of Manhattan, he won a basketball scholarship to Trinity. There he discovered a love of writing and began spending time at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project in the East Village, falling under the spell of Allen Ginsberg and Frank O’Hara.
Still in his teens, he published a limited-edition pamphlet of his poems, “Organic Trains” (1967), which, with its successor, “4 Ups and 1 Down” (1970), won him a cult following that was enhanced when The Paris Review published excerpts from his journals in 1970. “Living at the Movies” (1973), issued by a mainstream publisher, won him both acclaim and a wider audience.
His life was colorful. Hailed by Ginsberg, Berrigan and Jack Kerouac as a powerful new poetic voice, he became a fixture on the downtown scene. After briefly attending Wagner College on Staten Island and Columbia University, he found his way to Andy Warhol’s Factory, contributing dialogue for Warhol’s films. Later he worked as a studio assistant for the painter Larry Rivers and lived with Ms. Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer. He chronicled this frenetic period in “Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries, 1971-1973.”
In 1973 Mr. Carroll left New York to escape drugs. He settled in Bolinas, an artistic community north of San Francisco, where met and married Rosemary Klemfuss in 1978. The marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by a brother, Tom.
Mr. Carroll’s music career started by accident when Ms. Smith brought him onstage to declaim his poetry with her band providing background. Encouraged by the response, he formed his own band. It caught the attention of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, who arranged a three-record deal with Atlantic Records.
The critic Stephen Holden described Mr. Carroll in The New York Times in 1982 as “not so much a singer as an incantatory rock-and-roll poet.” Like Lou Reed, he had a mesmerizing power, evident on songs like “People Who Died” from “Catholic Boy,” a poetic litany of his dead friends that became a hit on college radio and part of the soundtrack for “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.”
The group’s next two albums, “Dry Dreams” (1982) and “I Write Your Name” (1984), caused much less stir. After writing lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult and Boz Scaggs, Mr. Carroll returned to the studio in 1998 to record “Pools of Mercury.”
Mr. Carroll published several more poetry collections — “The Book of Nods” (1986), “Fear of Dreaming” (1993) and “Void of Course: Poems 1994-1997” (1998) — as well as releasing several spoken-word albums.
Jim Carroll: Was a People That Died | can you imagine how many fucking blog posts are gonna start out with something like, “Jim Carroll: People That Died”… Including THIS ONE! OOH, GO CHECK BOING BOING AND SEE IF A HIPSTER IS TRYING TO GET LAID IN THEIR COMMENT SECTION YET - THANKS GERMAN Nerdcore
Jim Carroll R.I.P. | NerdcoreJUST REPRINTING THE COMMENT I LEFT FOR NERDCORE BLOG. NOT A PROPER POST. JUST FIRST ON THE BLOCK. TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH THE JONESING AND CARROLLS
FIRST. (ALWAYS WANTED TO SAY THAT.)
ANYWAY, BESIDES all the R.I.P.s, etc., (believe me, after willy deville and jim dickinson – i kinda don’t care so much). But seriously: Can you imagine how many fucking blog posts are gonna start out with something like,
“Jim Carroll: People That Died”…
Including mine.
Anyway, good quick first post. The ol’ lady kick you to the couch?
feederzaine,
mrjyn
(Youtube Direktjim, via Laughing Squid)Jim Carroll, der New Yorker Punk, Poet und Ex-Junkie, den die meisten von Euch wahrscheinlich aus dem 95er Film mit Leonardo DiCaprio „Jim Carroll – In den Straßen von New York“ kennen dürften, verstarb am Freitag in Manhattan an den Folgen eines Herzinfarkts, RIP.
Oben sein wohl bekanntester Song „People Who Died“ in einem Video zum Soundtrack des Films. Snip von der New York Times:
As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry. This highly unusual combination lent a lurid appeal to “The Basketball Diaries,” the journal he kept during high school and published in 1978, by which time his poetry had already won him a cult reputation as the new Bob Dylan.
“I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation,” the singer Patti Smith said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “The work was sophisticated and elegant. He had beauty.”
The diaries began, innocently: “Today was my first Biddy League game and my first day in any organized basketball league. I’m enthused about life due to this exciting event.”
By the end of the book, Mr. Carroll was a heroin addict who supported his habit by hustling in Times Square. “Totally zonked, and all the dope scraped or sniffed clean from the tiny cellophane bags,” the final entry read, continuing, “I can see the Cloisters with its million in medieval art out the bedroom window. I got to go in and puke. I just want to be pure.”
Jim Carroll R.I.P. - FUCK--OH, WELL, LADIES, I GUESS YOU LOST YOUR BLOGFRIENDS FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF HOURS...I MEAN IF THEY'RE WORTH A SHIT AND NOT PUSSY-WHIPPED
Jim Carroll R.I.P.
http://www.nerdcore.de/ wp/ 2009/ 09/ 14/ jim-carroll-r...
( Youtube Direktjim , via Laughing Squid ) Jim Carroll, der New Yorker Punk, Poet und Ex-Junkie, den die meisten von Euch wahrscheinlich aus dem 95er Film mit Leonardo DiCaprio „Jim Carroll – In den Straßen von New York“ kennen dürften, verstarb am Freitag in Manhattan an den Folgen eines Herzinfarkts. Oben sein wohl bekanntester Song „People Who Died“ in einem Video zum Soundtrack des Films. Snip von der New York Times: As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry.
Jane Aldridge “Sea of Shoes” ORNATE OBSESSION » oxygen.com.my YOUR ONE-STOP FASHION AND PLAGIARISM BLOGSPOT
oxygen.com.my » ORNATE OBSESSIONJane Aldridge “Sea of Shoes” ORNATE OBSESSION » oxygen.com.my YOUR ONE-STOP FASHION AND PLAGIARISM BLOGSPOT
ORNATE OBSESSION
She has hundreds of thousands of fans all over the world. She has been interviewed, photographed and quoted in international publications. Her blog receives millions of hits daily. Fashion model she is not. What she is, however, is a teen queen who is amassing hoards of followers universally on her shoe-loving website.
At a mere 17 years of age, Jane Aldridge is nothing like your typical teen. Hailing from Texas, USA, she has killer looks that can make any heart melt and a slender figure that fills up her designer togs nicely. Her good genes come courtesy of mummy dearest Judy Aldridge, a former Japan-based fashion model and now clothing designer and vintage retailer at Atlantis Vintage. Jane is used to showing off her idiosyncrasies and original style in eccentric clothing selections and tasteful footwear.
If anyone is going to be crowned the “Teen Queen of Shoes”, then Jane would win hands down. As an author and creator of her blog “Sea of Shoes” (http://seaofshoes.typepad.com/), she has single-handedly collected a wide mass of computer-literate fans, who religiously follow her fashionable travels (most of the time with mum), bargain-hunting experiences and of course, new shoe purchases, through short story-telling paragraphs and photo essays. Grown women, teenage girls, and even a few men have dropped comments on her posts – all combining bliss, agony and envy for a sweet, young thing who has accomplished so much, all for the love of shoes.
A peek into Jane’s shoe closet will have any shoe-lover turn green with envy. She has what one would call a “Sea of Shoes”, literally. In here, one can find styles that are exotic, vintage, avant-garde and always chic, ranging from brands like Chanel, Yves St. Laurent, Stella McCartney, Givenchy, etc. Her collection of shoes is artfully parked in their own showroom – her bedroom closet and awaits her daily selection.
Jane’s obsession with shoes will definitely lead to one very obvious and very promising conclusion – her very own fashionable shoe line. Though she has confirmed that she is working on it, she remains tight-lipped about her plans. Her idea of “not getting too dressed up” is of herself wearing a MIU MIU lace skirt and delicate Chanel bowtie ankle-length booties. Talk about a fashionista! In this e-mail interview, we speak to Miss Jane Aldridge herself on what inspires her and to also get a few pointers on what it takes to be uber-stylish like her…
What was it that made you obsess over shoes?
I’ve always been a collector of beautiful objects-not just shoes. It’s a behavioural habit! Shoes appeal to me because each shoe has a life of its own – its personality is communicated in its form.
What is your general style preference?
To look dignified without taking oneself too seriously.What is your most interesting or most loved fashion purchase to date?
A pleated Dries van Noten skirt my mom bought at Stanley Korshak in Dallas in the eighties. Dries is one of my favourite designers and the skirt is from one of his first collection. It’s a piece with sentimental value and integrity.
What are your favourite fashion brands?
Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Threeasfour, Rodarte, Henrik Viskov, Bless, Undercover, Hussein Chalayan…
How many pairs of shoes do you currently own?Probably around 70 pairs. My favourite is a blue and white ombre Martin Margiela cowboy ankle boots.
Who is your style icon and why?
Tina Chow – she was a passionate collector of vintage couture and had an incredible collection. I’ve never, ever seen someone as regal or sophisticated as she was. It’s sad that she is no longer with us.
At such a young age, most teens are balancing school work and boys but you’re focusing on your passion for fashion instead. Is fashion any different from regular teenage pastimes?Not to me, it isn’t. But then again I guess I wouldn’t know – I’ve never felt like I fit in with friends my age. I just feel lucky to have a passion that is inexhaustibly interesting to me, and has so many viable outlets of expression.
On your blog Sea of Shoes, you are seen wearing shoes from fabulous designer brands – from Givenchy to Stella McCartney to Balenciaga. Not many can afford such luxury. Is money not an issue?
I’d rather not answer this J
Does it take up a lot of time to maintain your blog? It seems that you update it on a regular basis.
Yes, it takes up an enormous amount of time mostly because of projects that I’ve taken on in connection with it, along with the never-ending barrage of e-mails. But I enjoy it very much!
What fashion item do you think is a classic?
Levi’s 501’s for sure.
If we happen to be lazy to traipse the malls, tell us where to hunt for good bargains online.
Yoox.com – such good deals from designers who are hard to come by!
Being picked to be featured on TeenVogue must be a dream-come-true. What were your thoughts then?
I was way nervous – excited, but nervous. I found it hard to believe they were actually going to come to my house. But when it happened, it was so much fun and my nerves went away immediately.
How did your friends react when they saw you in TeenVogue?
Needless to say, they were very excited for me.
Do your mum and sister share the same tastes in clothes and footwear?
My mum does, absolutely. She has her own blog (atlantishome.typepad.com). I often say that my mum is my only fashion friend. We’ve bonded so much over our love of clothes and shoes. I got my collecting habit from her. My sister has great style but she’s much more conservative than I am, but she ALWAYS looks extremely well put-together. She is not as interested in fashion as my mum and I are, but she still loves to shop. She has her own hobbies – she’s a fantastic cook and a scrupulous organizer. I always wish I had her work ethic – I don’t know anyone as task-oriented as Carol.
What would you be found doing if you’re not shoe-hunting?
Looking for cool stuff on the internet, hanging out watching Dynasty with my mum and my sister, going to shows on the weekends… boring things!
We’re positive many young girls your age would be so jealous of your trendy personality. Does this bother you?
I’ve never experienced jealousy over my clothing with my friends. None of my friends are interested in fashion and if anything they’re a bit embarrassed to be seen with me when I’m all dressed up. But if someone was jealous of me, it would bother me. Jealousy is a repulsive personality trait.
Do you get guys falling head over heels for you? Have you ever encountered a nasty pick-up line?
Oh my god, no! I hardly ever have guys hit on me where I live, and most of them think I look like an alien anyway. Haha!
You’ve found fame in your own small way. If given the opportunity, which designer would you most like to collaborate with?
Haha! I wouldn’t be so bold as to think I’m worthy of collaborating with my favourite designers… this question is so hard to answer!Many thanks to Jane for her photos and interview
September 13th, 2009 at 21:59 | #1Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Wow, your copy and paste skills are as uncanny as your lack of attribution. Good look with that in the future. I’m sure you’ll receive a lot of blog lovin’ from the community.
TO THE READERS OF OXYGEN.COM - If you’d like to watch the video and read its unplagiarized description, see below. And if you happen to feel strongly about intellectual property, please let this blog know in its comment section:
RT @sea_of_shoes - http://bit.ly/4r38TB - Jane Aldridge Sea of Shoes - #youtube #video via @mrjyn
http://visualguidanceltd.blogspot.com/2009/07/jane-aldridge-pronounced-ktps-from.html
Jane Aldridge - Sea of Shoes –For More As-It-Happens Fashion Insider Videos Follow Nichopouluzo @Twitter @mrjyn HERE: http://twitter.com/mrjyn AND at [::] Video Blog HERE: - http://www.visualguidanceltd.blogspot.com -
Jane Aldridge in her first televised interview is calm, composed, and at home (literally). She is unfazed, but not immune to scrutiny. Her media experience includes articles and interviews in fashion staples from ‘Teen Vogue’ to ‘French Glamour,’ and “Sea of Shoes” blog is linked daily by thousands of readers who seek her every mention.
JANE BITES
Most hits in a day? [61,000]
Kanye West ‘Boot-y call’? [Maybe]Her personal collection of shoes include those from designers of the most exotic, avant-garde, always chic, this side of Paris [France, not Texas]. Jane’s shoes artfully park in their own showroom–her bedroom closet, awaiting her selection du jour for their big break–a photo layout in ‘SOS,’ whose repercussions, one imagines, inspire serious late night sole-searching sessions, like: ‘Who has more hits?’ or ‘Who’s a played-out pump from the early 07’s?’
Jane, with insight beyond her years, and an easy Texas laugh appropriate to them, credits Mom for inspiration and an early initiation into High Fashion by Kabuki.
This three-minute clip, accompanied by Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown,” conceived as an ‘human interest peek into Jane’s closet,’ finds Jane cobbling absurdity into Zen stilettos. Jane (with a twinkle) ends…’If I were a shoe…’ selecting a chic 2009 Alaïa [a-LIE-a] Maryjane-on-steroids and anthropomorphizing it with only a modicum of detectable Texas bullshit which would normally define superfluity, but which here transforms High School student-Jane into superhero-Shoenami-J!
While cynical observers doubt her Wunderkind street-cred, it seems her age is proving to be just one of her assets in the quixotic flux of the world which she chronicles and inhabits. The naysayers and omnipresent critics are eclipsed and sloughed off by their coequal but less conspicuous fans, whose gallery Jane spies as if from the disguised eye of her favorite creature–the octopus–sometimes camouflaged, but always employing all eight arms in an acquisitive feeding frenzy from which no predation dare distract.
*Having been privy to what YouTube calls ‘Analytics,’ I’ve vicariously tracked the peaks and hillocks of my second [don't ask] viral phenomenon. It’s been a learning experience as a video-blogger–NOT an ‘SOS’ groupie. But what’s more interesting to me, is that it has enabled me to witness a particular phenomenon of social-bashing and worship which Jane enjoys from grown women to teenage girls [and not just a few men (you know)], whose comments combine bliss, agony, sea-green envy, and obeisant boot-licking, with the rare Jerry Springer-reject thrown in for kicks.
*Peruse the comment section of this video (*written for the first upload which reached upwards of 50,000 views in a little less than three months). My current pick, peeking through the spam–as this video reaches 46k views + with a spike from ‘UO’–being from YouTuber ’sueannwashere’ who writes:
“I didn’t know her face was? so fat. But she has an awesome fashion sense.” Sueann’s comment is of that rare Wildean breed of equal parts, placement, brevity, and Anna Wintour critique–its subtlety distinguishing and endearing it from the usual ‘School of Carp’ which populate JA’s Sea.]
~ nichopoulooza [revised 13 September, 2009]
[::] http://www.visualguidanceltd.blogspot.com
Sea of Shoes: http://www.seaofshoes.typepad.com@sea_of_shoes “jane aldrige” “jane aldridge” “sea of shoes” “boots off” “anna wintour” “sea of shoes vogue” sunglasses “jane sea of shoes” “seaof shoes” “sea of shoe” “blog sea of shoe” “vogue shoes” “jane adridge” “karl lagerfeld” “jane altridge” seaofshoes “juicy couture magazine” “lesbian interest” “jane lagerfeld” “fake blog” “chanel gun shoes” “jane alderage” “jane aldrigde” “jane alridge” “urban outfitters” fashiontoast “trying shoes” @sea_of_shoes seaofshoes.typepad.com nichopoulouzo @mrjyn #youtube
