La Vie En Robe

Show Me The Way To St. Louis

October is here, and with it comes all sortsa baseball madness — especially this year, it would seem. My latest High and Tight column for Rolling Stone Online takes a look at the sublime craziness of the first week of the postseason — and it was written before Raul Ibanez belted his way into the history books, or the Oakland A's burnished their "team of destiny" credentials by pulling off a come-from-behind victory to stay alive against the increasingly frustrating Detroit Tigers.

The St. Louis Cardinals are in the mix as well; even if they no longer have Tony Scott and Garry Templeton (pictured above in a wonderful 1979 Walter Iooss photo) and no longer play on Astroturf, they're still pretty fun to watch right now, especially if you have less-than-positive feelings for the Washington Nationals. (Yeah yeah, I know, they're descendents of the Montreal Exposl but gimme Ellis Valentine over Bryce Harper, any day.) St. Louis has to be rocking with playoff fever at this point, and I'm heading right into the thick of it — or, at least, the outskirts...

Thanks to the friendly folks at the Steelville Arts Council, I will be doing a reading and signing event for Big Hair and Plastic Grass tomorrow night (that's Friday, October 12) in Steelville, MO. The shindig will be held at the newly-opened Gallery Zeke on 106 East Main Street (next to MO Hick BBQ) in Steelville, and starts at 7:30 pm. Junction 19 will kick off the good times with an acoustic set — the first time I've ever had an opening band for one of my readings — and then I'll take the stage around 8 to preach the 70s baseball gospel, followed by a Q&A session. The new paperback edition of the book will be on sale, and beer, wine and appetizers will be served — click HERE for more details. Oh yeah: The event is FREE and open to the public.

It's the only event I'm doing in the St. Louis area, and the last reading I'll be doing this year. And need I mention that an autographed copy of Big Hair & Plastic Grass would make a great gift for that baseball fan on your Christmas list? Hope to see ya there...

Eddie Money: Best Interview Ever (Encore)

Back in the spring of 1999, when I interviewed Eddie Money for the long-gone BAM Magazine, I didn't even know what a "blog" was — and I certainly couldn't have guessed that one day it would result in the most popular thing I've ever published online. A snippet from that interview, posted here on La Vie en Robe in 2007 as "Eddie Money — Best Intervew EVER" has been picked up or passed along by several music and pop culture blogs over the years. And now, thanks to the Money Man's cringe-inducing new Geico ad, that post is once again getting a ridiculous amount of hits.

Which is truly awesome, and I'm quite relieved that it's finally supplanted "Is Gary Fencik Gay?" as the most popular post on "The Robe". But anyone who digs that snippet REALLY needs to read the whole mind-blowing interview, which was finally published in its entirety by Jake Austen at the great Roctober fanzine a few years later. While it's not available on the Roctober site, I scanned the whole thing and posted a PDF file of it about two years ago; and in the interest of public service/spreading the Money Man gospel, I'm posting it again here. Click the link below to read all about his "stroke," his days of drug-fueled debauchery (incl. doing blow with the late Andy Gibb and John Belushi), his brief tenure as a bell-bottoms salesman, fighting with his wife, why he doesn't think he'll get into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, why he's got the right to sing the blues, and so much more. Whatever you think of the man's music, I guarantee you will come away with a greater appreciation for the Überschlub himself, Mr. Eddie Money — as I wrote in the intro, the man "keeps it real" in ways that the Wu-Tang Clan never even imagined...

Download PDF: Eddie Money Interview (1999)

Life for the taking, indeed!