Vetting at Jim Carroll's Zoo

I went back and reviewed some thoughts I forced out (May 11, 2011) immediately after finishing Petting Zoo by Jim Carroll. I may re-read it and add or subtract  opinions.

 

Michael Jackson's compound ? No

 Allusions or references to his teenage years getting blown for dollars in  male  public bathrooms. However, the main characters, Billy Wolfram , 38 year-old  painter /sculptor who had sex once in his life and that occurred during his last year on earth.. Interesting use of moving ahead then back to the recent past. Sometimes it felt like he banged on the same points, too often which reminded me of Mailer's final book.  The Castle in the Forest which was his version of Hitler's childhood. Does getting old mean one has to analyze a point to nullity (borrowing a Henry Miller line here)? Here's how  I jumped to a Nazi reference: I looked up wolfram or tungsten and found it was an essential material for armament production that Spain secretly traded with Nazi Germany during WW2.

I started thinking about the  a line from Tragically Hip song  38 years old: "38 years old , never kissed a girl."

The Catholic claws left permanent marks on the  basketball poet and the raven watched from his sill as he  slipped to the floor and died.

Kerouac and Carroll died clinging to Catholicism while fully aware of  human follies.

Gotta believe in something, many say.

I read a few tweeter-like reviews in which folks were looking for more stories about  1960-style drug deals, gay bathroom sex , and other  fast-paced action from the Basketball Diaries. Many folks (including me) were stunned he lived almost 60 years (1949-2009).

One passage from Petting Zoo that caught my attention was the character Billy Wolfram feeling  a sense of comfort watching 1950's TV re-runs while fully aware of how unrealistic they were.

11/21/12

 I  recall seeing Jim C chat about his poetry and literary friends in the basement below a jazz bar in Baltimore in the late 1980's.  As a friend and I were hurrying to be on time, my foot made contact with a scurrying rat on W. Preston St 

3/20/13

 After reading Patti Smith's Just Kids , I sensed that Mapplethorpe's artistic fervor was inserted into the character Billy Wolfram. Just a guess. wonder if JC ever considered writing an essay on the changes in basketball since his playing days in the early to mid 1960's.

7/28/13

 I wonder what words  are on Jim's tomb:  It's too late

11/24/13

Above tune entered my skull when I read some foolish lass wanted to marry Jailbird Manson

12/20/13

From Carroll's song Jody: 

Jody, are you still hanging with that latin? With rabbit fur inside his wheels? With his Gilbert Roland piece, And his glove department deals

1/19/13

JC's blue collar roots came through on it's 7/28/13 linked tune:

they're so decadent til their daddy's money from home is all spent 

2/16/14

I watched part of the Basketball Diaries movie again and it gets lamer each time. De Caprio as Jim C -poor casting choice

7/6/14

Listening to  Robert Palmer sneakin sally this morning and a line from Jim Carroll came to mind

Its when the sneak thieves are checkin, They're checkin the alleys for unlocked doors

11/17/14

I doubt if Patti Smith will cover Jim's Catholic Boy at the 2014 Vatican Xmas Festival

"redeemed through pain not through joy"

3/28/15

Dynel Catrece Lane  attacked a pregnant woman and cut the baby from her womb.
Chuck Manson's crew stabbbed and shot a pregnant Sharon Tate in 1969.
In a 1970's tune, Leaving it up to you,  John Cale's  sarcasm  got to the point:

I know we could all feel safe like Sharon Tate

6/20/15

I was leafing through The Petting Zoo and this line from Billy nabbed my attention.

"These graffiti artists main concern is maintainng a contrived attitude, which only limits their parameters, restricting both their art and themselves." 

This could be said about many vocations.

8/2/15

JC would've been 66 yesterday so I revisited the Catholic Boy tune linked on 11/17/14

5/30/16

paraphrasing a Jim Carroll line "they were all going to the Vietnam protests to get laid"

9/10/16

When #JimCarroll slid off a chair and died on 9/11/09 folks said to me "he lived that long." Despite many years of "stick them needles in your arm" (from Lynyrd Skynrd tune) he made it to 60. #paregoric baby #catholicboy

11/5/16

NYC will hosting both  #hillary and #trump post-election gatherings on Nov 7, and I doubt if this #jimcarroll tune about Manhattan will be played. city drops into the night

4/15/17

I suspect some folks view #jimcarroll, a minor poet and or lyricist, but I woke up with his line from the song Day and Night: "Remember when . . . I watched her on the stairway
She was drinkin' wine..." chanting through my cranium.
Some young singer should cover this tune.

5/4/18

Re-reading some #jimcarroll quotes and wondering has a contrived attitude become more essential than actions and words.

8/31/18

Lines from #jimcarroll s " city drops into the night" reverberate

I'm just a constant warning to take the other direction, Mister, I am your connection

6/28/19

 I don't recall meeting a gal like this one in #JimCarroll 's tune Three Sisters:  "But she just wants to lay in bed all night /Reading Raymond Chandler"

11/30/19

 It would have been interesting if #Tarantino had included songs from #Johncale and #jimcarroll in his latest movie which references #sharontate  .   "It's too late to fall in love with sharon tate" from Carroll ,and "we could all feel safe like sharon tate" from Cale

6/27/20

Since Antifa wants to cancel almost everything, maybe their next chant will borrow a possibly, humorous line from the late Jim Carroll's tune Wicked Gravity.

9/11/21

 re-listening to a "I want a world without gravity" and went to the dictionary:  parvenu- one that has recently risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige associated with it.

10/23/21

#jimCarroll (1949-2009) In the late 1980s, I recall hearing a variety of opinions on him from "he's still alive" to "he's strictly a minor poet." From time to time I skim through his works and appreciate some solid lines however, the question I would have asked him if I'd 'bumped' into him after seeing him talk at a basement club over thirty years ago: Did you cross paths with Lew Alcindor(Jabbar)(1947-) on the NYC basketball courts in the early 1960s.

Jan 26, 2023

I thought of Jim Carrol's lyric "it's too late to fall in love with Sharon Tate" when I saw this today: Sharon Tate would have celebrated her 80th birthday on Jan. 24, 2023. And that in 2013 some woman wanted to marry Jailbird Charley Manson whose cult members murdered Tate.

Aug 12, 2023

"sky over Jersey-that sky starts to drain from view" Jim Carroll. Gets me thinking about NYC!

Feb 9, 2024

"The voices, He hears the voices" lyrics come to mind listening to Biden sputter.