Jim Carroll at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-on-the-Bowery
Word Virus Celebration
New York, NY 6 February 1999
Review by Joscakes at aol dot com
Got to see Jim Carroll and Lenny Kaye at the “Word Virus” reading at St. Mark’s Church last Saturday. Jim read a very interesting excerpt from Junkie wherein Burroughs tells of how he’s ripped off by a young, teenage boy with red hair who asks Burroughs if he wants to sleep with him. Burroughs gives him $10 to find a hotel room and the kid disappears into the hotel never to be seen again. Jim found this very amusing and pertinent, of course, (as did the rest of the audience) and did his terrific Burroughs impression besides. He said a lot of Burroughs’ work reminded him of an older, better- written Basketball Diaries. As usual Jim was great and he stayed in the audience for most of the performances which is always nice for us fans.