I have a habit of buying Vanity Fair only for reading on transcontinental fights; I don’t know why I am not a regular subscriber, because every issue I read is full of great stuff.
The August issue is no exception.
I read a piece by Buzz Bissinger on the life and death of Barbaro that had me in tears; Dominick Dunne’s Diary re the Phil Spector trial (Nick is pretty damn sure Phil is guilty); a provocative oral history of The Simpsons that makes me wonder what went wrong between Matt Groening and Jim Brooks (and included the tidbit that Elizabeth Taylor “said ‘Fuck you’ to Matt Groening and stormed out of the recording session after he made her read [Maggie’s one-word speaking debut] more than 20 times. He said it kept sounding ‘too sexual.'”); a sympathetic but unflinching piece on Sly Stone; a story about a couple who palled around Europe with the Picassos, the Porters, the Fitzgeralds, et al.; James Wolcott on Morth Sahl at 80; David Halberstam’s last piece, a flaying of Bush and Cheney; Graydon Carter’s moving Editor’s Letter about Halberstam, who died in a car crash last spring; and an account of the home-invasion of billionairess Anne Bass.
Looking at the ultra-high-end ads, I can’t imagine the publisher has me in mind. But every time I pick this magazine up, I am satisfied and enlightened.
Buzz Bissinger also wrote the fabulous book “Friday Night Lights” about the Permian HS football team in Odessa, TX. I enjoyed the book probably more than the movie. Bissinger’s book that followed Tony LaRussa and the St. Louis Cardinals through a series of games was OK, but didn’t make as big an impression on me.
Sly Stone made a recent appearance at a park concert in SJ and performed for about 20 minutes with the Family Stone.
-DP