CONSTANT READER (with apologies to D. Parker)

Amy Rigby's second act, Hoboken history, and a punk rock lifer's haikus

GIRL TO COUNTRY: A Memoir by Amy Rigby (Southern Domestic Books)
In her first memoir, Girl To City, Amy Rigby fondly recalled moving to New York City from her native Pittsburgh just out of high school, and immediately diving headfirst into the city’s music scene. She got married, worked at clubs, played in bands, had a daughter, and eventually found herself on the cusp of middle age, trying to launch a solo career with her breakout album, Diary of a Mod Housewife.

In Girl To Country, Rigby takes us through the years that followed, uprooting herself and her daughter from her beloved Manhattan for a stab at making it in Nashville as a performer and, more importantly, a songwriter. She’s a wonderful writer who, in a conversational but tightly wound voice, illustrates her tale with a wealth of details - memories I almost can’t believe she retained, although keeping a journal undoubtedly helped. My biggest compliment? It reads like a novel, even though every sentence actually happened.

Through it all, Rigby struggles through painful self-doubt, with every small bit of success - gigs, tours, albums, boyfriends, and finally, the Holy Grail, a publishing deal where she’d be paid to write songs - weighed against her feeling that she was just faking it, that she didn’t belong there, that she wasn’t nearly as talented as the amazing friends and collaborators she met in her new home. This ying/yang provides the tension that propels the story and keeps the reader engrossed. It’s a terrific read, and even though I’ve known Amy (mostly through mutual friends but also by writing about her music) for decades, even I kept turning the page to see what would happen next.

There are life lessons here for musicians, of course, but also for anyone who’s ever had to leave a comfortable situation for a risky one, for no better reason than that eternal flicker of hope that things might get better. You’ll learn a lot about Amy Rigby reading this book, but you’ll almost certainly discover a few things about yourself too.

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LOST HOBOKEN by Joseph Lauro (The History Press)
I’ve always been a sucker for local history. As a teenager, I’d spend hours scouring the shelves of the Weehawken Public Library for dusty old tomes about what Hudson County was like in the 1600 and 1700’s. If you share the curiosity, I can guarantee you’ll enjoy Joseph Lauro’s Lost Hoboken. The book is a treasure trove of information about the Mile Square City, from Colonial days through the latter half of the 20th Century.

Lost Hoboken offers a bounty of fascinating details, starting with lascivious stories about the wealthy Stevens family (for whom Stevens Tech is named) and the important firsts Hoboken can claim in commerce, technology, manufacturing, sports, and politics. The chapters on Hoboken’s docks and their role in international travel, shipping, shipbuilding, and war in the 20th Century are nothing short of riveting, and it was fun learning about the origins of local institutions that I knew as a youth, like Sybil’s Cave, Schnackenberg’s, the Clam Broth House, and the Union Club (as well as many restaurants, social clubs, theaters, and even an amusement park long lost to history.) Did you know Tootsie Rolls used to be made in Hoboken? Hostess Twinkies? Pencils? And long before anyone had heard of Subway sandwiches, Hoboken gave birth to the Blimpie sub.

I was a little disappointed that the beginning of the book skipped over the horrible treatment of the Lenni Lenape, who were here when the Dutch first arrived but brutally dispatched to reservations by the British long before the towns of Weehawken or Hoboken were even incorporated. Lost Hoboken ends with Maxwell’s and its vaunted reputation as an internationally respected tour stop, although it stops short of chronicling how the musicians and artists who flocked to Hoboken because of Maxwell’s (and cheap rents) would trigger the city’s gentrification. Maybe that’s the next book. There’s certainly a story there to be told.

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“vertical in the sun” by Mykel Board (Tsuri-dodo Press)
If you were around for the early days of the NY Hardcore scene, you might know Mykel Board from his bands Art (The Only Band in the World) and Artless. Or perhaps you read his curmudgeonly column in Maximum Rock N Roll. You probably don’t know that he writes haiku as a member of a haiku club. And I never knew that the 5/7/5 syllable rule we were taught in school isn’t mandatory for haiku enthusiasts.

Which brings us to “vertical in the sun,” a slim volume of haiku poetry by Mr. Board. If you know Mykel at all, if only by reputation, you will not be surprised to learn that many of these poems will make you laugh out loud, or at the very least, smile broadly. They are FUNNY and often, surprisingly subtle. It might take a second to get the joke, but when you do, it’s worth it. Mykel is Jewish, although as Lenny Bruce once said, aren’t all New Yorkers Jewish? Mykel does Jewish humor well.

to the seder
his shiksa girlfriend
brings donuts

He is often iconoclastic but in this collection, unlike his monthly blog, never tasteless. Some of these poems follow 5/7/5. Others don’t. Doesn’t matter.

after the workout
taking the elevator
to the second floor

peanut butter
large type on the label
WARNING: CONTAINS PEANUTS

with arm outstretched
the one-armed man
describes the one that got away

And one more, because I want you to buy the book.

new AARP card.
under my name
my expiration date

”vertical in the sun” is available in the U.S. for $10 from PayPal@seidboard.com. Mykel will autograph your copy if asked. For international orders, Mykel recommends Amazon. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but Mykel’s blog, if you want to read it, is here.