Ok, I have to admit, I haven't been reading very closely during the last 40 pages. The book is really good, but I read these forty pages while I was watching TV today, so the Keeping Up with the Kardashians got the better half of my attention. In this section, Anthony talks about his budding music career. He starts experimenting with music and performing in front of people, as the opportunities present themselves. First, he think's he's going to be a rapper, after hearing a song called "The Message." It's perfect for him, because he doesn't have to have a good voice, just a knack for rhyming and rhythm. It ends up that Tony forms an average little group with his friends Flea, Hillel, and Jack. They don't hold formal rehearsals or write music, and they improvise most of their stuff. However, they seem to be a big hit wherever they play. After a time, Jack and Hillel quit the band, and Flea and Tony are left to go through a number of replacements. They also have trouble finding a producer/manager, and they eventually settle for a man named Andy Gill. Andy ends up being a total jerk, and that's where I am in the book right now. While all this is happening, heroine begins to creep into the picture. Tony doesn't do it every day, but he does whenever he can, and the effects aren't so good. His band members are less than pleased about how he is acting, showing up late for shows or missing them all together. But hey, that's just the price you have to pay right....?
There's a section that stood out to me as I was reading:
"One day I was shooting coke at his place, but I got all crazy and he kicked me out. I had been fastidious about using sterile rigs and sterile cotton when I first started shooting up, but by now I didn't care much. If I had to, I'd use a syringe that I found in the street. Instead of sterilized cotton, I'd use a section of my sock or, more commonly, the filter tip of a cigarette. At first I'd use only sterilized spring water to dissolve the stuff in, but now i'd just pull the back off a toilet or look for a lawn sprinkler or even a puddle."
If his life has gotten so dependent on drugs that he's willing to use water from a dirty puddle to shoot up with, he needs to rethink a couple things. So far, he's done a good job of not trying to glorify his drug use (I'm sure he could easily do that), but to present everything as it actually happened without too much personal bias. This being said, I don't think that Anthony believes drugs to be bad either. From what I've read, he seems to believe that they are just a tool, kind of like an accessory, that can be made into whatever you want. You can let the drugs control and inevitably ruin your life, like I think he is going to do, or not.
Really nice reading log, and thoughtful. I'm a little concerned not to see any posts since last Tuesday, 1/25 . . you've almost missed out on a week's worth of work here.
ReplyDeleteI understand your confusion about what to write here. You can make it as personal as you want--but a blog can be great even without "innermost thought." Bring in links to other sites you hit on the internet and reflect/respond to them. Or talk about things going on in other classes, the world, Homestead in general. It's up to you.