8-17-06

I got the tickets today for the Oct 14th .. Heartbreak Hotel matinee show at 1500 (3PM) at the Gaslight and also tickets for the Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde show (the regular Gaslight show) that night at 1900 (7 PM). Should be quite a Saturday. Just enough time between for dinner and drinks.

Had a pretty good day at work today. During the breaks in the action, I am re-listening to James Lee Burke's Prisoners of Heaven on books-on-tape. I love JLB's descriptions of everything. If he describes scenery ... you can walk through it, flowers .. you can smell and touch them, people ... you can stand beside them and you will recognize them in the dark, food ... damn! you get hungry and can almost taste it. His plots are O.K., but his descriptions of everything are most remarkable. After reading / listening to about 17 or so books of his, and talking to him back and forth on the internet ... I have formed a picture of him that may or may not be accurate. He is about 11 years older than me. He has a Martin flat-top guitar (which he loves and plays), he is obsessed by music, history, people and writing .... hell, no wonder I love the guy. His biography is as follows:

James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later received a B. A. Degree in English and an M. A. from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps.

He and his wife Pearl met in graduate school and have been married 46 years, they have four children: Jim Jr., an assistant U.S. Attorney; Andree, a school psychologist; Pamala, a T. V. ad producer; and Alafair, a law professor and novelist who has 3 novels out with Henry Holt publishing. (note: She's a good writer too, -Antonio)

Burke's work has been awarded an Edgar twice for Best Crime Novel of the Year. He has also been a recipient of a Breadloaf and Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant. Two of his novels, Heaven's Prisoners and Two For Texas, have been made into motion pictures. His short stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, Antioch Review, Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. His novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Today he and his wife live in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana.
Both of which he writes about in a way that shows his real love and attraction for the landscape, people and ambiance of those locales.

I am really appreciative of anyone who actually has a REAL talent for writing. Whether they write fiction, poetry, non-fiction or technical stuff. I would give almost anything to have that kind of talent. But the Devil has never wanted my soul badly enough to offer me any such talent. Oh well !