Jim Carroll, RIP

Jim Carroll died on September 11th.

Even without the momentous timing, it would be as if yet another nail were driven in a bygone New York's coffin. Not to make his death into a potent symbol at the expense of his humanity--he seemed a decent and sensitive man--and the moniker "punk rock poet" so many articles seem to saddle him with is incomplete and misleading. He was a poet and diarist in a punk rock milieu who extended his art into a few largely overlooked albums. But what a poet!

It seems appropriate here to send you in the direction of this here essay by LoS commentator Jon about that disappeared New York. It's not about Jim Carroll, yet it is....