Events Calendar
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Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns vs. Lions live …
Akron Zips:
Akron trounces Howard to reach .500
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Robiskie, Harrison inactive
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
A Random Rant on Testing
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Published on Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
The year is 1979, and Akron is the music capital of the world. No, really. Punk Rock and Trailer Parks, the new graphic novel by former Beacon Journal artist Derf (John Backderf), is set during the brief but white-hot period when Akron supplied the world with new wave and every punk act came to the Bank on South Main Street.
The main character is Otto Pizcok, a senior at Richford High School (it's really Richfield). By day he's a band geek who lives with his uncle in a forlorn trailer park; by night he and his friends hit the Bank to see acts like the Ramones, whom he introduces to Sky-Way burgers. Otto gets hired to work at the club, and befriends Clash guitarist Joe Strummer and rock critic Lester Banks. There are plenty of compromising situations and some nudity.
Derf has a bang-on sense of time and place (do you remember those fuzzy foot-shaped rugs?). A news release says that Punk Rock and Trailer Parks (144 pages, softcover) is the first graphic novel set in Akron. It costs $15.95 from http://www.slgcomic.com.
Derf was among the cartoonists chosen for inclusion in The Best American Comics 2008, an annual anthology. Four selections from Derf's syndicated The City appear. The 352-page hardcover costs $22 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Derf will sign Punk Rock and Trailer Parks from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Square Records, 824 W. Market St., Akron.
Cab driver takes
us along for ride
Brooklyn cab driver Thomas Jasany says a year in physical therapy gave him plenty of time to write ''A Fares'' of a Street Savvy Cabby: 75 True Stories. Jasany, who uses the pseudonym Harry Longfellow, says he was struck in downtown Cleveland by two Akronites who ran a red light.
A Fares is a tell-all of ''Harry's'' passengers and their quirks and kinks. He lists 16 different kinds of drunks, from arrogant to lonely (a lonely drunk is the ''American Dream''), and recounts conversations with hookers and visits to crack houses. This book carries a strong R rating, like its 1998 predecessor ''A Fares'' of a Cleveland Cabby. The late Craig Wilson here called Cleveland Cabby ''fender-denting brutality and un-PC honesty.''
Street Savvy (136 pages, softcover) costs $9.95 at Visible Voice Bookstore, 1023 Kenilworth Ave., Cleveland, or $14 by mail to Jasany, 8261 Memphis Ave., Apt. 8, Brooklyn, OH 44144.
Events
Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Legacy Village, Lyndhurst) — William Heath discusses and signs his novel Blacksnake's Path, about Miami Indians and settlers in the late 1700s, 4 p.m. today; Susan Orlean (The Orchard Thief) signs Lazy Little Loafers, a picture book, 6 p.m. Monday; Marcia Pledger signs My Biggest Mistake and How I Fixed It, about business messes and solutions, 7 p.m. Thursday; Chicago crime novelist Sean Chercover signs Trigger City, Saturday, 2 p.m.
Holiday Inn Cleveland South (6001 Rockside Road, Independence) — Ghoulardifest 2008. Chuck Schodowski (Big Chuck: My Favorite Stories from 47 Years of Cleveland TV), 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; Carlo Wolff (Cleveland Rock and Roll Memories), 5 to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; John Gorman and Tom Feran (The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio), 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday; Mark Dawidziak (The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula) 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; Neil Zurcher (Ohio Oddities), noon to 2 p.m. Sunday; Charles Cassaday (Cleveland Ghosts) and Dave Schwensen (Beatles in Cleveland), 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; James Renner (Serial Killer's Apprentice), 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $15 per day; $30 for all three days. Visit http://www.theghoulardifest.com/ for more information.
Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson) — Artist and author Kathleen Whitmer will sign her books as part of Hudson's monthlong ''In the Pink'' month promoting breast cancer awareness; Whitmer is a cancer survivor. 2:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
— Barbara McIntyre
Special to the Beacon Journal
Send information about books of local interest to Lynne Sherwin, Features Department, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309 or lsherwin@thebeaconjournal.com. Event notices should be sent at least two weeks in advance.
The year is 1979, and Akron is the music capital of the world. No, really. Punk Rock and Trailer Parks, the new graphic novel by former Beacon Journal artist Derf (John Backderf), is set during the brief but white-hot period when Akron supplied the world with new wave and every punk act came to the Bank on South Main Street.
Get the full article here.
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