Big Hair and Plastic Grass

Something For The Weekend

 

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who made my NYC promo swing for Big Hair & Plastic Grass such a stone groove — including Scott Ferrall on Sirius/XM's Howard 101, Evan Davies on WFMU, The Daily Line, and all the good people at St. Martin's, The Bell House and Rizzoli. And, of course, all the friends, colleagues and baseball fans who made the scene at the aforementioned Bell House and Rizzoli events. I've currently got stuff in the works for LA, Chicago, Seattle, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco and NYC (again) this summer, and I'll let you all know what's happening as the dates, times and venues get nailed down.

And to cap off this amazing week, Cam Martin from ESPN.COM's Page 2 gave the book a nice write-up, which you can read HERE. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the Oscar Gamble pic that accompanies the piece is from his more conservatively-coiffed days with the Yankees — so I shall attempt to redress the balance with the truly fro-tastic pic above. Have a great Memorial Day, everyone!

"Enormously Entertaining" — The Onion A.V. Club

Wow. Got back "home" last night after my Rizzoli reading/signing and a guest spot on Scott Ferrall's Sirius/XM program to find this rave review of the book by Onion A.V. Club writer (and super soul aficionado) Michaelangelo Matos in my BH&PG Google Alerts. Very, very cool...

In other Big Hair & Plastic Grass review news, the Largehearted Boy blog calls the book "Enough to make me nostalgic for a decade I never witnessed." Many thanks, y'all!

Still In The New York Groove

I'd like to thank everyone who came out to the Big Hair & Plastic Grass release party last night at the Bell House, and made the evening such a memorable blast. Great tunes, better people, and a lotta love for 70s baseball in the room. Thanks again to Bell House proprietor Jack McFadden, and DJs Pat Pierson and Phast Phreddie (pictured above) for making the whole thing swing.

I'm reading today at 5:30 pm at Rizzoli in midtown Manhattan (see invitation above), so come on out if you're in the area. And if you're not in the area, or even if you are, I'll be guesting tonight at 8:30 EST on the Scott Ferrall Show (located at the Howard 101 channel on Sirius/XM Radio). Now I'm off to find some kind of edible hangover cure...

Yahoo — Vida Blue!

As someone who's been a fan of WFMU since the late '80s, it was a real honor to be invited to guest on Evan "Funk" Davies' FMU show last night. We rapped '70s baseball and spun '70s jams, including not one but TWO funky tributes to Vida Blue. It was a stone gas — and lotsa folks from all over the country (and the UK!) contributed some great comments. Thank you to Evan, and to all who tuned in; and if you missed the broadcast, you can stream the archived version RIGHT HERE.

(Still) Talkin' Baseball

My interview with Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf is now up in podcast form — I haven't listened to it yet (like many folks, I can't stand to listen to recordings of myself talking), but I was apparently so verbose that he needed to cut it into two parts!

I also recently chatted about the book with Mike Silva of NY Baseball Digest — you can listen to and download the podcast HERE.

In other Big Hair & Plastic Grass news, the book finally drops tomorrow (it just received a brief but nice mention in the NY Post's Summer Beach Book Preview) and I'll be observing the blessed day by appearing on The Daily Line and Evan "The Funk" Davies' WFMU show. If you're in the NYC area and want to get yer '70s baseball on, please come on out to Brooklyn on Wednesday night and join me at the Bell House for a night of beer, cracker jack, gourmet hot dogs, '70s soul and funk, and a reading by yours truly. I will also be reading late Thursday afternoon at Rizzoli in midtown Manhattan. Come on by and slap me five, baby!

And in the meantime, enjoy this bizarro pic of Joe Torre on the "bitch seat" behind Mickey Lolich at Shea Stadium's "Camera Day" in 1976. As my editor Rob Kirkpatrick sagely (and sarcastically) notes, "The Mets had a knack for getting players in their prime..."

Five Days 'Til BH & PG!

It blows my mind like Kurt Bevacqua's winning bubble to say this, but my book Big Hair And Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball And America In The 1970s is going to hit your local bookstore in five days — Tuesday, May 25 to be precise. And I just wanted to remind all you beautiful, '70s baseball-lovin' people that you can buy it from Amazon and Barnes & Noble (both of whom also have it available in digital form, if you're into that 21st Century reading experience kinda thing) or from the indie bookseller of your choice.

Also wanted to hip you to a very cool Windy City-centric interview I just did with the Onion's Chicago AV Club, and a lovely shout-out from Bruce Markusen (a baseball author whose work I admire greatly) in today's Hardball Times. Thanks again to everyone for all the support and good vibes; I'm about to embark on my first promo jaunt on the book's behalf, and I am more hopped-up about it than Larry Bowa with a fistful of greenies.

We Want The Airwaves

 

While this has nothing directly to do with the above card of Oscar Gamble — I'm just posting it because that 'fro is truly DY-NO-MITE — I just found out today that Big Hair & Plastic Grass will be making its first radio appearance tonight, courtesy of satellite radio's The Dino Costa Show. If you're a Sirius or XM subscriber, you'll be able to hear me and the esteemed Mr. Costa rappin' about '70s baseball, starting at 8 pm PST (11 pm EST) on Sirius channel 123 or XM channel 144.

Dino's website says, "If you ever see an ugly, unshaven, overweight, brown hair, and blue-eyed guy, driving around in a 1974, beat-up light blue, El Camino, chances are you have spotted Dino Costa." Dino also had this to say about the book in his post today on Facebook:

"One of the best and most fulfilling baseball books I have read in a long-long time. Dan Epstein brought back not only baseball in the 1970's with terrifically poignant detail that I could actually 'see' as I flipped through the pages...but he also allowed me to recapture moments of my formative years so vividly as well."

Sounds like a Big Hair & Plastic Grass kinda guy — tune in and hear what kinda aural fireworks we get going.

Almost There

Received my first actual hardcover copy of Big Hair & Plastic Grass this morning, and my mind is suitably blown — to have it in my hand after all blood, sweat, tears and years that went into it is an indescribably great feeling. Hard to believe that it actually hits the bookstore shelves in less than two weeks...

More praise has been forthcoming, as well, this time courtesy of Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf: "Dan Epstein captures the spirit of this strange, transitional decade in this quirky chronicle with a mix of humor and cynicism."

You can read the full review HERE.

Gettin' Rizzy With It

Back during the teenage summers I spent in NYC, I would often kill time (or grab some air-conditioning) during my architectural and historical strolls around Manhattan by stopping in at the Rizzoli store in midtown, where I would idly pore through one gorgeous, lavishly illustrated book on ancient Greece or Egypt after another.

Flash forward decades later, and — in a rather poetic turn of events — I've been invited to read from my not-so-lavishly illustrated book, Big Hair & Plastic Grass, at Rizzoli's midtown Manhattan store. You can click the invitation above for details, but I'll also spell 'em out here: The reading and signing takes place Thursday, May 27, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at Rizzoli, which is located at 31 W. 57th Street (between 5th and 6th Aves). You are all invited to attend, and to pass this info on to anyone else who might pick up on what I'm layin' down.

This will certainly be a somewhat more sedate and dignified affair than the celebratory blow-out we're doing the night before at the Bell House in Brooklyn (to which you are all, of course, also invited), but come on out anyway and help me liven up the august joint. After all, I hear they're gonna be serving Cracker Jack...

Big Hair and Plastic Grass: The Scratchbomb Interview

I'd like to raise a cold, crisp glass of Champale in the direction of Matthew Callan at Scratchbomb.com, who offered me the chance to expound at length upon my love for '70s baseball in this interview. A man who has long appreciated the brilliance of Willie McCovey's sideburns, Matthew totally gets where Big Hair & Plastic Grass is coming from, and he asked me some pretty stimulating questions on the players and events of the era. And as an added bonus, he dug up this 1975 card of Ron Cey — my favorite player when I was a kid — just to run alongside the piece. Thanks, Matthew!