(TV) The Strand

[raw408@aol.com]

I have seen Tom at the Strand as well. I do yoga upstairs from the store and
sometimes wander through the books before or after. He's aged, obviously, and
reminds me somewhat of John Zacherly ( those in the NYC area will recall him
as a DJ and TV personality) - tall, gaunt and not one who gets much sun. I've
also seen Richard in the garment district where I am led to believe he has a
rehearsal space. We have mutual friends and  he's approachable. Tom? I give
the man a wide berth.




-----Original Message-----
From: Leo Casey <LeoCasey@comcast.net>
To: tv <tv@obbard.com>
Sent: Mon, Nov 1, 2010 10:29 am
Subject: The Wayback Machine / RE: (TV) Tomspotting


Hi Jesse,
Regarding:
 know if Tom by any > chance _works_ at the Strand? Seems unlikely, but it's
my
> impression a lot of > artists and musicians have worked at the Strand for a
ong
 time - and Tom has to
According to Ms. Secret X (from quite a while back) and a couple of old
agazineinterviews/articles, Tom worked at The Strand Bookstore in the
early-mid
0s.
I think it's unlikely he works there now.
And given his notorious frugal lifestyle I  think he's able to live
comfortably
aking a living
being Tom Verlaine' as Michael Carlucci once put it.
Leo
PS:  He 's also supposed to have once worked (again from Ms. Secret X, and
again
n early - mid
970s)  on the docks loading crates of  bananas onto trucks.

"He did what we all do.
e went about his dull routine
s if all the days in the world
ere still to come".

> -----Original Message-----
 From: tv-owner@obbard.com [mailto:tv-owner@obbard.com] On
 Behalf Of Jesse Hochstadt
 Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 8:16 PM
 To: TV list
 Subject: (TV) Tomspotting

 This may be par for the course in NY, but having recently
 returned after 15
 years living elsewhere, thought I'd mention it: I saw Tom
 outside the Strand
 Bookstore the other day when I was waiting to get in to sell
 some books. I'm 99%
 sure it was him: I saw him recently play at Galapagos as part
 of the DUMBO Arts
 Festival, and so I have a pretty good image of what he looks
 like nowadays. He
 was dressed in a black shirt, black pants, and plain black
 shoes, and was going
 through the $1 book racks. At one point he was chatting in a
 friendly fashion
 with one of the Strand employees. The only thing I could hear
 him say was some
 reference to a guy who "owns a large chain of steakhouses" -
 seriously.

 At first Tom looked like he was going through the books very
 systematically,
 lifting a bunch of books at once and moving them over into an
 adjacent column
 when, I assumed, he'd finished thumbing through them. But
 after a while it
 seemed to me that he was re-racking the books. Does anyone
 know if Tom by any
 chance _works_ at the Strand? Seems unlikely, but it's my
 impression a lot of
 artists and musicians have worked at the Strand for a long
 time - and Tom has to
 make money somehow when he's not recording his customary
 three albums a year and
 going on tours of Latin America, Europe and Japan with huge
 light shows and
 dazzling pyrotechnics.

 Anyway, by the time I got out of the Strand he was nowhere to be seen.
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