I read The Basketball Diaries years ago and remember liking it very much, especially the parts about the Upper West Side back when it was a rough and tumble neighbhorhood.
Wow. I hadnt heard about his death. Read the book in my teens, and so many of his images have stuck with me, especially the darker passages about heroin -- but the image I loved the most was his description about playing basketball, and how you can change direction mid-air. I didn't see the movie based on the book, and I didn't follow his careers as an artist, or musician. I hope he found peace in his life. Very gifted, very tragic guy.
Worth reading as well is his downtown diaries, a sort of sequel to the basketball diaries, where he hangs out at Max's Kansas City with Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.
I think it's in that book where he recalls watching the ABA all-star game on tv while strung out and remembering that he used to dominate a number of the ABA all-stars during his playground hoop days as a kid.
As for his music, People Who Died, which deals with his friends who appear in the BBDiaries is a punk classic, well worth a listen.
I missed this as well. Carroll is a recurring character in Please Kill Me the fantastic oral history of the NYC punk movement of the 1970s. For those who have already read Basketball Diaries, I highly recommend Please Kill Me.
Wow. I hadnt heard about his death. Read the book in my teens, and so many of his images have stuck with me, especially the darker passages about heroin -- but the image I loved the most was his description about playing basketball, and how you can change direction mid-air. I didn't see the movie based on the book, and I didn't follow his careers as an artist, or musician. I hope he found peace in his life. Very gifted, very tragic guy.
Worth reading as well is his downtown diaries, a sort of sequel to the basketball diaries, where he hangs out at Max's Kansas City with Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.
I think it's in that book where he recalls watching the ABA all-star game on tv while strung out and remembering that he used to dominate a number of the ABA all-stars during his playground hoop days as a kid.
As for his music, People Who Died, which deals with his friends who appear in the BBDiaries is a punk classic, well worth a listen.
I missed this as well. Carroll is a recurring character in Please Kill Me the fantastic oral history of the NYC punk movement of the 1970s. For those who have already read Basketball Diaries, I highly recommend Please Kill Me.
[3] that book is worth it just for the stories about The Dead Boys, who might be the most revolting characters I have ever read about