Douglas Coupland – Reading/Talk
Wednesday 31 May [7pm]
15 Gordon Street
Douglas Coupland has always had the uncanny knack of catching a certain zeitgeist and preserving it for generations to follow. Generation X, and Microserfs are two of his best known novels dealing with life and culture in our gnu-technological environment. JPod, his newest book, returns to the same theme of technology culture as pop culture.
My favorite Coupland book is “All Families Are Psychotic” which tells a story arc of a family that has half it’s members with AIDS and the other half dealing the best they can. Say what you will about DC – I do find his writing poignant and in parrallel with what is in the back of peoples minds.
If your in London, try this link
Desmond Dekker, RIP
Desmond Dekker, singer/songwriter who helped introduce ska music to the world, died of an apparent heart attack in London on Thursday. He was 64.
Dekker’s biggest hit, 1969’s mournful repatriation song “Israelites”, went to No. 1 in the UK and reached the top 10 in the U.S.– the first worldwide Jamaican success since Millie’s 1963 bubble-ska single “My Boy Lollipop”. Unknown to most music heads, Desmond himself had been introduced to a mass audience in 1968 as the inspiration for the Beatles “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” (“Desmond works a barrow in the marketplace…”).