Metafilter notes Henry Rollins has now got a blog, which makes up in prose what it lacks in layout or functionality. (No RSS feed, for god's sake). The MeFi page has plenty of dull bitching about Rollins which seem to completely miss both the humour and intelligence of his work. He has appeared in several shit films, it's true, but his record label and publishing house 2.13.61 is almost singlehandedly keeping alive the legacy of numerous great authors and bands whose work would otherwise be unavailable. I've never cared for Rollins' music much, but I've seen him do his stand up routines several times and he is electric, almost Bill Hicks like at times. I recommend The Boxed Life if you want to hear some of his best stuff. I particularly liked the bit about dropping a train on Edie Brickell's head. But maybe that's just me.

I've wrote about Henry Rollins at the very beginning of Splinters back in October 2000 and my opinion hasn't changed. I also noted a while later reading his unauthorised biography Turned On, at the same time as Philip Gourevitch's We Wish To Inform That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, a book about Rwanda which is an example of what investigative journalism should be. Given the scope of the horror Gourevitch's book tackles, I always intended to write a proper review of it and then, I think, simply chickened out.

More on Henry Rollins:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Henry Rollins

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Posted by Chris to splinters: books, authors, literature, travel, politics at 1/17/2006 04:01:39 AM