Gymkhana no ordinary Sunday drive

Kenny Block hasn't yet accomplished much in his first season in the World Rally Championship but his brand new Gymkhana 3.2 video shows he's still the king of by-the-seat-of-your-pants car control.

The video is purported to be one long 7-minute shoot, with Block performing a bunch of daring driving stunts, including a series of doughnuts around a brave guy on a Segway, some fast drives through tight spaces and one nice trick on a wet track where he gets his car to behave like a Ground Flower firework.

Block is no stranger to Gymkhana, and if his racing career peters out, you can bet he can make a healthy living as a stunt driver.

"Apathy for the Devil"

"Apathy for the Devil" as the aptly named title of Nick Kent's new book, a recollection of his days as a self-absorbed but supremely talented rock journalis in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Nick Kent's second book was published 25 years after the firstKent did some amazing work during that period (as noted in a previous post on Kent's first book) but became his own worst enemy. Hanging out with drug-addled musicians for days on end led to him taking drugs for days, weeks and months on end. At some point, your work suffers and your boss at New Musical Express takes notice. Kent skated on his talent and charm for years but after a while, he burned too many bridges in the music and publishing business.

"Apathy for the Devil" is an enjoyable book, but Kent is exasperating. While he takes light blame for his general woes, too often he sees demons that probably weren't there. For example, The Sex Pistols seemed to spend much of their waking hours plotting how to beat, cajole and otherwise snuff Kent, all for reasons Kent can't fathom. He has a love affair with a then-unknown Chrissie Hynde but hasn't a clue why she suddenly dumped him. Later, during a long unstructured but totally NME-funded reporting assignment in Los Angeles (can you imagine the expense account?) he nearly dies through violence and drugs. Again, he points to enemies, be they John Bonham or angry managers.

That incredulity on Kent's part to understand why he's so disliked resurfaces throughout the book. Lather, rinse, repeat. To Kent's credit, he delivered some potent criticism of the musicians he covered -- some of them close friends, even drug buddies -- so backlash was inevitable. But Kent's blame game gets old after awhile.

I read the Kindle edition of "Apathy for the Devil" because a print edition was not yet available but it's easy to see why Kent has been slow to regain a publisher 25 years after his first book arrived. He clearly was his own editor, a mistake for someone so full of themselves. And while this book doesn't come close to the more focused "The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music," it's a breezy, fun read for fans of glam, early punk and the underside of some of rock's biggest names. 

When your heroes don't age well

Rock journalist/musician Mick Farren was one of my heroes as a teen. I loved his monthly columns in Trouser Press magazine, where he came across as a genius, the little man taking on the machine. I was a wide-eyed teen/young adult at the time, discovering my own sense of right and wrong, but Farren seemed like the real deal. He was a musician turned journalist, so had some street cred.

Fast forward 30 years to this interview with Farren, promoting "Speed-Speed-Speedfreak: A Fast History of Amphetamine." I don't have anything against anyone writing a history of speed, particularly when it was government sanctioned at one point. But this interview, while interesting enough, just crushed all illusions I had of Farren as a rock god, a voice of my generation.

Granted it's been 25 years since I read anything by him (I was unaware he was cranking out unknown books by the dozens, but have bookmarked his blog). But these days he's a stumbling, bumbling, hacking shell of his former self.

To my two daughters, I hope you watch this. This is what happens when you abuse drugs.