Thursday, May 31, 2012

Friends of Paul Williams from the Frankfurt Book Fair


Me and Paul and his dear friend and book agent, Dieter visiting from Basel Germany, 1999 Encinitas


Paul visiting his longtime friend, publisher Weiner Pieper in Heidelberg, 1991

After Paul's bicycle accident in 1995 and after the months of rehab he went through to recover from the brain injury, Paul was offered and took on a lecture tour in Germany. It had only been six months since his accident and he was not quite "right"; quick to anger, easily confused by spacial-visuals like maps, so I accompanied him on the trip. It was wonderful. He'd have the talk in the evenings, on the performing art of Bob Dylan, and by day I'd get to wander the city streets exploring in ways I couldn't when I'd done my own tours of Germany. 

We went to the Frankfurt Book Fair and stayed with a friend of his that helped make compilation albums of world beat artists, getting to hear some cool new sounds. This was around the time that Paul was toying with the idea of writing a book called The Love of the Singer about countries and large communities that were in love with a voice, a persona, that they felt spoke and sang for them. Some of the artists that were to be included in the book were Om Kalthoum, Jenny Lynne (from the US 1800s), Edith Piaf...etc. Still a book I'd love to read.

1 comment:

  1. Here's a picture from the Fan World, featuring you and Paul in the lead roles for Andy Hooper's play, "Fanotchka" -- from Corflu 14 in 1997:
    http://spacecrab.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/262/1634

    If anyone's curious about the play, it can be found in fanzine form at: http://efanzines.com/Fanotchka/index.htm

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