{MOD INSERT: Continued from
Interviewing Bassists Stories part 2}
I need to apologize to the readers of Talkbass for engaging someone who only wanted to mess with me and disrupt the "Interviewing Bassist Stories Part 2" thread, which he succeeded in doing thanks to my responses.
The thread is about my book
Ghosts and Ballyhoo: Memoirs of a Failed L.A. Music Journalist. If you aren't familiar with how the book came about, I was asked by the forum readers to pitch the idea of a book that chronicled my ridiculous career in music journalism. I didn't want to write the book because I thought it would just be another failure, and I was ready to move forward, not revisit the past in any real detail.
Writing the book turned out to be the best thing I've done in twenty years, both artistically and on a personal level, as it allowed me to finally cast out all my demons and make peace with my ghosts. I can now proudly say that Scott Thunes is a close, dear friend instead of a ghost, and that wouldn't have happened if the Talkbass readers hadn't persuaded me to write the book.
In the thread that got closed, I was accused of perpetrating a hoax on everyone here by making up everything in the book. The person making the accusation clearly did so just to cause trouble and inflict discomfort, or hopefully pain. He claims that the outlandish things I've related couldn't possibly have happened, yet he doesn't perceive that his own actions validate my repeated observation that I attract unbalanced people who do extremely strange, irrational things. His very presence proves that what I say happened to me did, in fact, happen.
Several readers have been perceptive enough to see that what I've described is true. They watched it unfold in real time. For whatever reason, something about me makes people want to act out and subject me to crazy, destructive, inexplicable behavior. You now have the proof. You can see it for yourself in the closed thread.
Still, at least one reader seemed to express doubt over whether or not what I've written is true. Given our present era of corruption and dishonesty, it's a reasonable question. A writer named James Frey hoaxed Oprah Winfrey with his phony autobiography
A Million Little Pieces. We've all just heard that Lance Armstrong has been lying for years.
There's no way I can convince you that what I've written is true. That's okay. You can accept or reject the veracity of my book; I didn't write it for any reason except to banish my demons and to entertain you. I've banished my demons, and you will be entertained.
What I will do is show you the references I used to write my book. The photo includes pretty much everything.
1. Manuscript for my unpublished, gigantic, universally rejected novel
The Mermaid Lamp, about the L.A. music industry.
2. Personal correspondence from my time in Norway and Japan.
3. Material from my time at Lewis and Clark college.
4. Memorabilia, ephemera, and correspondence from Japan.
5. Photos from college, Japan, and San Francisco.
6. Correspondence from "Carmen."
7. Miscellaneous personal correspondence from 1944-2004.
8. Rejection notices from literary agents and publishers.
9. Memorabilia and ephemera from college and my trips across the country by car.
10. Notebook from my teaching days in Japan.
11. Personal correspondence from 1985-2000.
12. Ephemera and correspondence from my career in music journalism.
13. Ephemera and correspondence from "Nakamura," the Cat-Faced Ghost in the Rising Sun.
14. Tapes of my interviews with musicians.
15. Tapes of my interviews with musicians, photographers, antique dealers, and publicists, for
The Mermaid Lamp.
16. Diary from the period I taught English in Japan.
17. Correspondence from
Bass Player.
18. Memorabilia and ephemera from Japan.
19. Letters I wrote to my mother from 1985-1994, which she saved.
20. Correspondence from "Abby."
This is what I drew on to write my book.
So, I'm sorry I caused the other thread to be closed. I shouldn't have engaged the person in question when it became clear that all he wanted to do was assault me. I'm used to it, so it didn't upset me, but my responses made the situation worse by encouraging him to ramp up his obnoxiousness and by planting the seed of doubt in peoples' minds.
It was poor judgment on my part that resulted in everyone being punished and a fun time coming abruptly to an end.
I'm sorry.
) whether it be fact or fiction, literary art or embellished entertainment, it is of no consequence to me. I will take it for what I expect it to be. "A good read" and hope to be thoroughly entertained. 
