Category Archives: Biography

BOOKS: How to Talk Dirty and Influence People by Lenny Bruce

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How to Talk Dirty and influence peopleHow to Talk Dirty and influence people by Lenny Bruce
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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This is the autobiography of the comedic legend, Lenny Bruce. The first half (or so) of the book discusses Bruce’s life before standup comedy. This includes time as a sailor (US Navy) during the Second World War, as a sailor in the merchant marine, as a farmhand, and brief stint as a grifter. The second half takes place while Bruce is a working comedian but focuses heavily on his legal troubles including multiple Obscenity trials and one for Narcotics.

Being the work of a comedian, it’s no surprise that this book is funny — frequently of the laugh-out-loud variety. However, it may come as more of a surprise how interesting it is as the account of a man’s life. Besides some interesting stories, such as: how Bruce got discharged from the Navy, how he acquired priest’s uniforms to conduct a con, his experiences getting high with a Turkish sailor as a merchant marine, and the ins and outs of his marriage to a stripper, one gains some insight into Bruce’s philosophy and why he insisted on being maximally edgy, even at the cost of blackballed by clubs. The book holds up surprisingly well, considering it was first published in the early / mid-1960’s.

If you’re interested in outlandish people, standup comedy, or free speech, this book is well worth reading, and will not disappoint. (If you liked “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” it’ll definitely be up your alley.)

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BOOKS: Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson

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Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American CenturyKingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century by Hunter S Thompson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Kingdom of Fear is part memoir and part commentary on the state of America at the turn of the millennium. As a memoir, it explores Thompson’s bid for Sheriff, his arrest and judicial proceedings for drug and explosives charges that resulted from a “he said / she said” accusation that did not warrant charges in and of itself, a wild and wooly road-trip through Nevada, and Thompson’s position at the center of an investigation of a “threat” on the life of actor, Jack Nicholson.

As a commentary on the decline of America it discusses the battle for Grenada, a trip to Cuba, 9-11 and its aftermath, and the book revisits the ’68 Democratic Convention. It’s all written in Thompson’s drug-fueled Gonzo style, making it incredibly entertaining to read even as the hard walls between fact and fiction seem to dissolve. While the factualness might be at times in question, there is always a kind of truth that can only be received from those who’ve tossed off the shackles of societal convention and are willing to tell it as it is — even the embarrassing bits (especially the embarrassing bits.)

It’s not for those who take life and authority figures too seriously, but otherwise it’s a tremendously compelling and sometimes hilarious in its depiction of pre- and post-Y2K America.

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BOOK REVIEW: Wrath of the Dragon by John Little

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Wrath of the Dragon: The Real Fights of Bruce LeeWrath of the Dragon: The Real Fights of Bruce Lee by John Little
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Release Date: September 5, 2023

There are many Bruce Lee biographies out there, from general bios (such as Matthew Polly’s Bruce Lee: A Life) to those that are much more narrowly focused (e.g. Rick Wing’s Showdown in Oakland about Lee’s fight with Wong Jack Man.) This book is somewhere in between in that it is theme-focused (Lee’s fights and matches,) but it does offer insights from Lee’s childhood through to his death as they pertain to these fights and sparring experiences. The book explores all of the known real-world scraps and matches, as well as some of the more telling sparring sessions. Fights range from Lee’s adolescent skirmishes as a punk kid through the challenge matches with extras on the set of Enter the Dragon as an astute (if still quick-tempered) master. When I say that the book includes sparring sessions, I’m not talking about every time Lee sparred, but rather those exchanges that offered particular insight into Lee’s prowess, such as his last ever sparring session with his old Wing Chun teacher, Wong Shun-Leung (a senior student of Ip Man’s) as well as those with athletes at the top of their respective combative sports.

The point of the book is to challenge a belief — widespread at times — that Lee was a blow-hard offering banal quasi-mystical Eastern philosophy and martial insights that were based only on a few Wing Chun lessons from Ip Man. In contrast, the book paints a picture of a broadly experienced fighter who was obsessive about his betterment as a martial artist. Lee was an innovator and trained with great endurance and intensity. The book portrays Lee as a martial artist of such speed and athleticism that even World Champion competitors were left in awe.

While reading, one does have to question how objectively the information is being presented. After all, Little is definitely a bit of a fanboy and he’s clearly taking a stance on Lee’s prowess. Furthermore, the fact that (at one point, I’m not sure about presently) Little was the only one with full access to Lee’s archived notes suggests his message was sufficiently on point for Lee’s family to feel comfortable with him. That said, I felt there was enough admission of Lee’s weaknesses and mistakes as well as a willingness to present competing statements when details were in question that I believe this is an honest attempt to get the details right (within the unavoidable constraints of memories of events being decades in the past and being seen from multiple perspectives — psychologically as well as geographically.)

I found this book to be fascinating from cover to cover, and well worth reading. In addition to the stories of the fights, the author discusses the lessons that Lee learned along the way. Even in winning, Lee was sometimes dissatisfied with his own performance, and this drove him to adapt and to develop new training methods. I’d highly recommend this book for those interested in the martial arts or who love a good biography.

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BOOK: Caged by Brandon Dean Lamson

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Caged: A Teacher's Journey Through Rikers, or How I Beheaded the MinotaurCaged: A Teacher’s Journey Through Rikers, or How I Beheaded the Minotaur by Brandon Dean Lamson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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In Caged, Brandon Dean Lamson tells the story of his time teaching inmates on Rikers Island, finding himself in conflict both with students and with the guards. There is definitely a unique culture to the world of incarceration. I found myself thinking about the Stanford Prison Experiments in which ordinary people were randomly assigned to play either inmate or guard. The subjects’ behavior changed during the short period of the experiment, guards becoming more domineering and sadistic and inmates becoming more scheming and duplicitous than these people were in their regular lives. One sees evidence of this strange power dynamic and the resulting unusual behavior throughout the book. Lamson and the other teachers and staff involved with the school often saw the guards as vicious fascists, but – at the same time — they couldn’t trust the prisoners because learning was never an inmate’s top priority but rather was a combination of survival and maintenance of status.

As interesting as the story inside the wire is, it’s equally fascinating to learn what happens with Lamson outside his workday. The author is forthright about changes in his own psychology as he developed a need to work out his own violent tendencies as well as uncharacteristic sexual behavior. Lamson describes time spent in a boxing gym and S&M dungeon in service of these changes.

The book also offers some insight into what teaching methods worked or didn’t. Some of this pedagogical insight might be exclusively applicable to jails and prisons, but some would likely be of use to regular teachers, particularly in dealing with troubled or challenging kids. Lamson is also forthright about his own teaching missteps and failures, while offering the reader insight to what he learned from those teachers who seemed to be unusually effective.

I found this to be a fascinating book. It’s well-written and thought-provoking. I’d highly recommend it for readers of nonfiction.


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Limerick of Richard Dadd

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Titania Sleeping (1857); Richard Dadd
An English painter named Richard Dadd
 went completely stark raving madd.
  He stayed in asylums -
  Broadmoor to Bedlam.
 For stabbing to death his dear old dadd.

Pushkin Limerick

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The poet Alexander Pushkin
 challenged twenty-one duels with no win.
 But just that one loss,
  put him under a cross.
 Perhaps, he'd have lived if his skin weren't so thin.

Kafka Clerihew

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The Bohemian writer Franz Kafka,
 more conflicted than Queen Jocasta,
  wrote tales, absurd -n- surreal...
   yet how factual they feel.

Francisco de Goya Clerihew

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The Madhouse (1812-19)

The work of Francisco de Goya
 shows a touch of paranoia.
  Worry of going insane
  can cause quite a strain.

Voltaire Clerihew

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The Enlightenment thinker called Voltaire
 beat the lottery to become a millionaire.
   To the man, he did stick it,
    by buying every ticket.

Cambridge U. Limerick

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When Lord Byron lived at Cambridge University,
he greatly increased campus diversity.
He lived with a bear.
They were quite the pair.
For the poet, the dog ban was a perversity.