trust me, i'm as suprised as you are.
i was first introduced to carson mell's work through the devil in denim shorts (how so is a story i'd rather not get into, but lets say it involves an iphone and one of those types of guys that like to show off their iphones) which carson made for sundance that eventually spurred the book i just finished saguaro: the life and times of bobby allen bird. i loved the shorts (granted i was high as shit) but i didn't initially run out and buy the book; i assumed it was just another campy rock 'n roll story which i'm getting pretty tired of; i pretty much couldn't have been more wrong. it wasn't until i checked out the rest of carson's work on youtube a few weeks later that i ordered the book from his site (i think that's the only place it's available; from what i can tell he's publishing it himself.)
it's a short book; 152 pages... larger text. i read it in 3 sittings (3 chapters at a time) and looking back it was a good way of going about it. this isn't a story loaded full of groupies and trashed hotel rooms, in fact the story has little to do with bobby's music career but more with how his rock success and his more on than off love affair with drugs and alcohol that bore and destroyed many deep relationships through out his better years. it's not far into the first chapter kid bird you realize carson didn't base this story around an old tired image of a rock 'n roll tough guy. even though he does kick a lot of ass in chapter 6 (my favorite chapter.)
you can hear carson read chapter 3 fame here and chapter 4 sara here (it's funny the woman mispronounces the name of the book.) once you hear the story though the voice carson gave bobby, it's hard to shake.
if you'd like to borrow the book once again feel free (but give me a few days, i think i'm going to do a reread.) but if carson gets more support hopefully that sci-fi book he's working on based on his latest shorts will come out soon...
