[.ca] The Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations with ... (ISBN 0609809911)

like being at a cocktail party full of interesting people:
I wasn't entirely certain if I would like this book. Could a collection of interviews, more than a few of which I've read before, really be all that interesting? A few interviews into the book, and I knew that the answer was yes. Reading this book is like being at a cocktail party full of interesting people. Some of them are interesting for what they have done, some are interesting for what they have learned, some are interesting for how they have evolved and changed, and some are interesting because they're such flaming jerks. And like a cocktail party that you attend with a friend who provides running commentary on the people you meet, "Weird Al" Yankovich provides sidebars to several of the interviews with his impressions of and experiences with the interviewee. Also like a cocktail party, there is a recurring theme of someone whose story to which you keep on returning to hear where it has progressed: the comic geniuses behind the HBO sketch comedy show "Mr Show" provide five separate interviews through the course of their show's tenure on HBO. My favourite interviews were those with Henry Rollins (whose interview provides the title for the collection), Berkeley Breathed, Joan Jett, David Lee Roth, both halves of Penn and Teller, KRS-One, and Alice Cooper. I could name my least favourite interviews, but these interviews were not least favourite because of the interview itself. Rather, they were not as interesting because the subject turned out to be a flmaing jerk, but not enough of a jerk to be funny. This is an interesting roadtrip through pop culture. I didn't read it all in one setting, but rather between other things. It's not deep or meaningful (although the book does close out with a collection of interviews with several people who had positive messages), but it is entertaining and often hilarious.

You Won't Tenacity To Read This GREAT Book:
This is a MUST motivational book for ANYONE. It doesn't matter what you do for a living -- you're going to read in this zippy book of interviews a bit about how people (mostly writers and entertainers) went from point A to point Z...and how they stuck to their guns in doing it no matter what. Stylistically, there not a thing to dislike about this collection. The interviews are from The Onion A.V Club (entertainment section) and cross generational lines. Everyone from cultural (and it is weird) icons such as Bob Barker, Henry Rollins, Harlan Ellison (the guy's charisma comes across with every word he spits out), Mr. T., Roger Corman, David Lee Roth, Conan O'Brian and many others. There isn't a single solitary misfire in this collection and the subjects are so diverse there is something for everyone and every age group. Two profiles stayed with me for days. One was the interview/profile of 1950s-1960s satirist Tom Lehrer, who dabbled in his art, wrote a limited number of classic pieces (available in a great Rhino collection here on Amazon), then walked away from his satire...and has absolutely no desire to perform ever again. And the other was The Unknown Comic, who performed with a bag over his head (something some known comics might consider doing, given their acts). His anecdote of an elderly and furious Frank Sinatra threatening him for poking fun at him -- then nearly having a stoke as he wouldn't believe it was THE REAL The Chairman of the Board -- is a show business classic. (It was only when he got a phone call out of the blue from Milton Berle that he knew it was for real; and he says he later learned that Sinatra was looking for someone to teach him a painful physical lesson). It's like having these folks sit in your living room, shed their famous identities, share a bit about themselves, and give you some valuable lessons on the importance of sticking to your goals (long range or quickly improvised ones) -- and to your own PERSONAL ART, whatever it may be. If I could give it 10 stars, I would...Well, I'll stick to it: 10 STARS.

Original but not much depth:
This is a quick, easy read. The choice of subjects makes it work --- the people at the Onion went after the entertainers on the fringes, people whose careers have hit the ceiling. You get to hear about Elvira at conventions, the Unknown Comic living a normal life raising his daughter, and Roger Corman summing up an impressive career. Then there are the bad interviews. No one needs to interview Harlan Ellison, for example. He rants a lot and says nothing. Henry Rollins promotes his ego over his work. And who is Quentin Crisp, anyway? This would be a five-star book if some of the bad interviews were cut --- preferably replaced with more interesting people. The book can also be faulted for not digging very deep into the lives of these people. Too many interviews read like a fan's meeting with his idol, asking relatively smart questions, but not bothering to ask anything that might upset the subject. But it's worth a read. You could do worse than find out what's on the mind of Pen & Teller, Alice Cooper, and Ray Bradbury.

Great fun:
A very worthwhile collection, with something to entertain and inform in nearly every interview. As the title says, the subjects are mostly entertainers who've maintained their popularity over some duration without ever going totally mainstream: Tom Lehrer, Berkeley Breathed, Dr. Demento, Henry Rollins, Harlan Ellison, KRS-One, etc. There are few exceptions: what is cultural blip Vanilla Ice doing here? Some of the interviews interested me especially, for various reasons. Ian MacKaye proves himself to be a man of deep intelligence, which I already knew, but more than that: he possesses a strong, pragmatic view of the world. Rather than railing (rather short-sightedly) at the evils of record companies, as several of the subjects in this book do, for example, he sees that they exist to make a rpofit, and those musicians who wish to make their own profit by signing onto them shouldn't be surprised when they're used as dollar-generating tools rather than as artists. As he says, he doesn't want to destroy the world, just create his own little world that can co-exist within the larger system. Andrew WK, whom I envisaged as some head-thrashing meathead based on his music (and song titles), turns out to be an introspective young man, honest and full of enthusiasm for all life has to offer. He's a bit like Brian Wilson: meticulous, fragile, but wanting to bring joy to people with music. Who knew? KRS-One also turns in a surprising interview, with some rather unusual comments about the sate of hip-hop culture and how the black population is hurting it. And there's David Lee Roth, whose interview is a splendid olio of self-aggrandizing, stream of (semi-)consciousness, disjointed logic, and outright nonsense. The man's brain must be fried. But all the subjects have something of value to impart (except perhaps Russ Meyer, whose answer to every single question involves his need for well-endowed women), even if a streak of the curmudgeon runs through most of them. Good fun.

Give this cockroach a good blast of Raid.:
I expected this book to be hilarious, but it was a huge let-down. First of all, I do not like books that have an obscene word in every other sentence, as this book does. Consequently I don't recommend it for pre-teenagers. Second, the people who were interviewed for this book seem to say pretty much the same thing: "I was right and the people who disagreed with me were wrong, so ***** them." Third, there are many times when the author stops in the middle of a sentence, fills in ellipsis (...), then changes to a completely different thought and leaves you hanging in mid-air. This is maddening! I would demand my money back, except that this book was a Christmas gift from a close relative who should have bought me a necktie instead. Skip this book; it's not worth your time.