"Hundreds of people garbed in the latest consumer digest outfits moved equivocally up and down the strip with overstuffed shopping bags, biting thin air on hidden cell phones. Some were poised in between building entrances, jabbing at two way pagers. On every other corner there were boxes set up with two or three people who clearly did not fit in with the working class citizens/denizens, standing like buzzards over three cards shuffled by crusted hands."
That's Manhattan for you, viewed through the eyes of Livingroom Johnston, a street storyteller, former skateboarder, and Brooklyn-based writer. He came of age in the nihilistic generation of teenagers that captured director Larry Clark's eye in the 1995 film, Kids.
Now Johnston has released his first novel, part of his eccentric, captivating series of stories. This week he's sharing his unconventional writing experiences in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
Livingroom Johnston:
My writing and painting life is my job. That’s how I pay the bills. So it’s like I’m working around the clock.
I skated for many years, not as a pro though. As an amateur. Before I went pro I dropped the board. I have been writing for about twenty years. I was writing when I skated. I just happened to keep it to my self.
When Larry Clark put out the movie KIDS I was writing and going to readings, living kind of like a dual life. I hung out with the skaters and with rappers like Killer Priest from Wu Tang, etc.
It was a long-term transition. Barnes and Noble helped a lot. You can read for hours for free in there.
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