TOM WAITS: yes, this would seem to be the well-known pop star, songwriter, actor and former jazz singer—who once gave me permission to quote his song “$29 and an Alligator Purse” in my novel MINDKILLER, in exchange for $29.00. (Guess he didn’t need a purse…)
STEPHEN GASKIN: a preacher and semiretired wizard, who taught classes on spirituality at the Family Dog back at the dawn of the Hippie Era, crossed the continent with a convoy of school buses, and eventually founded the most successful of the hippie communes, The Farm, in Summertown, Tennessee. (It’s still there—and so is he—but the last time I visited, they were pointedly ignoring each other.) At its peak, The Farm consisted of 1,000+ freaks on 1000+ acres, totally self-supporting and living in harmony with their rural neighbors. Their international disaster-relief arm, Plenty, was praised as a model by the Canadian government. Nowadays The Farm is a corporation: you own shares, or some such; and I’m not sure what happened to Plenty, since everyone I knew in it has quit.
I got no use for gurus and holy men. Irish whiskey works just fine for me. But I’m willing to punch the ticket of Stephen, and of one of his teachers, Shunryu Suzuki-roshi—because neither of them ever claimed to be any more than a guy who’d had a few minutes to think, and had noticed some interesting things.
One quick Stephen story that may make my point: he gets up from dinner one night in the early ’70s to answer the door. There stands an awestruck young man who says he’s just walked here from the Coast because he’s decided his mission in life is to follow Stephen around and record his every utterance for posterity, unobtrusively and at the lad’s own expense. Stephen gently closes the door in his face and returns to the table. “Who was that?” asks his wife, Ina May. “A temptation from the Evil One,” Stephen murmurs, and finishes his soyburger…
That’s my kind of preacher. Which is partly why I wrote the introduction to his latest book, HAIGHT-ASHBURY FLASHBACKS (Ronin Press 1992). To give you an idea, its original 1980 edition was titled AMAZING DOPE TALES.
CHARLIE DANIELS: one of my oldest and best friends in the world; directly responsible for my move to Canada in the ’70s; presently straightening spines and otherwise practicing chiro in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The Lucky Duck, who appears in the current book THE CALLAHAN TOUCH, bears a bit of a resemblance to Charlie. Less sarcastic, though…
ANONYMOUS: a Callahan’s regular so self-effacing that no one can recall much about him. Not even how he got that name, which I’m sure we must have asked. In fact, I’m not sure he isn’t still around Mary’s Place somewhere (the bar Jake opened up after Callahan’s Place was destroyed).
SAM MEADE: a passing folksinger who ended up in Nova Scotia.
EDISON RIPSBORN: nothing is known about this customer. Related to Pangborn somehow?
BEN BOVA: yes, the Ben Bova, multiple-award-winning writer, ex-editor (of Analog and Omni) and space enthusiast, and my oldest friend in this business. (Well, I knew Jim Frenkel first, but neither of us was in the business then.) He became a regular at Callahan’s shortly after I sold him the very first of Jake’s stories about it, in 1972…and he and Barbara are still seen in Mary’s Place today. But not often enough…
About the Author
Since he began writing professionally in 1972, Spider Robinson has won three Hugos, a Nebula, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the E. E. (“Doc”) Smith Memorial Award (Skylark), the Pat Terry Memorial Award for Humorous Science Fiction, and Locus Awards for Best Novella and Best Critic. His book CALLAHAN’S CROSSTIME SALOON was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. His short work has appeared in magazines around the planet, from Analog to Xhurnal Izobretatel i Rationalizator (Inventor & Innovator Journal, Moscow), and his books are available in eight languages. Twelve of his seventeen books are still in print in the U.S. and Canada.
He was born in the Bronx in 1948, on three successive days (they had to handle him in sections), and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English.
He has been married for eighteen years to Jeanne Robinson, a modern-dance choreographer, former dancer, and teacher of both dance and the Alexander Technique; she was the founder of Nova Scotia’s Nova Dance Theatre, and its Artistic Director during its eight-year history. The Robinsons collaborated on the Hugo-, Nebula- and Locus-winning 1976 classic STARDANCE (Baen Books), which created the concept of zero-gravity dance, and on its 1991 sequel, STARSEED. (Jeanne was on NASA’s waiting list for a Space Shuttle seat, to try out zero-gee dance in practice—until the Challenger tragedy ended the Civilian In Space program.)
The Robinsons currently live in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Off The Wall At Callahan's Page 6