Michael Jahn
Michael Jahn
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Michael Jahn (words)
Male
101 years old
NEW YORK, New York
United States
Last Login: 6/28/2009
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Mood:
wanted
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Michael Jahn's Interests
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| General | * * *
"Jahn writes with a flourish that is entirely his own."
--The New Yorker
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Me as a distinguished
man of letters --
the Wikipedia entry
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Me as a dancing Santa
onstage with
the Flaming Lips --
The YouTube Video
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Read about all my books on my fiction site --
Michael Jahn's
New York
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My rock site --
Tales of the Ancient Rocker
Featuring personal encounters with John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Pete Townshend, and more
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| | Music | The Flaming Lips, Dandy Warhols, White Stripes, Love, Seatrain, Dr. John, MC5, Primitivo & the Tit Squeezers, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Blood Sweat and Tears, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Richie Havens, the Band | | Movies | La Dolce Vita, Casablanca, The Big Chill, The Third Man, Apocalypse Now, The Road Warrior, The Front Page, M*A*S*H (the movie), the Star Wars Saga (to a point), On the Waterfront, The Quiet Man, the Godfather Trilogy (to a point), The Matrix Trilogy (to a point) | | Television | BBC World News, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, CSI (the original), Dr. Who, Stargate SG-1, Mythbusters, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the Nine Tailors, Smiley's People, The History Channel (without the Roswell stuff) | | Heroes | Mort Sahl, Bill Maher, George Carlin, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Robin Williams, Douglas Adams |
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Michael Jahn's Details
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| Status: | Married | | Here for: | Networking, Friends | | Orientation: | Straight | | Hometown: | New York, N.Y. | | Religion: | Agnostic | | Zodiac Sign: | Leo | | Children: | Proud parent | | Education: | Post grad | | Occupation: | Author, critic and commentator |
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Michael Jahn's Networking
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Michael Jahn is one tweet over the line
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Michael Jahn's Latest Blog Entry
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'That night I was in England making a ham sandwich for Mama Cass'
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The Black Freighter is Steaming Into the Harbor
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The Black Freighter is Steaming Into the Harbor
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Tales of the golden age of rock from a guy who was there
(view more)
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Read the first review of Donovan & Son, my new mystery novel
(view more)
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| [View All Blog Entries] |
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Michael Jahn's Blurbs |
About me:
I'm Michael Jahn, an author and commentator who has published more than he ever should -- 50 books by last count, and hundreds of newspaper articles and reviews, mainly in The New York Times. Considering the number of trees cut down to accomodate my words, my ecological footprint is big enough to take up Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island too. I apologize.
'There's only room for one smartass on this paper, and it's not you'
So warned the Culture Desk editor at The New York Times shortly after the paper hired me in 1968 to inaugurate its coverage of rock
and roll. It was Clive Barnes who cornered the market on smartass, an attribute which, along with a cast-iron jock strap, should serve him well in his current job
at that
Murdoch cringe-inducer, the New York Post.
But there is room for more than one smartass on Myspace, so here I am.
I've been in print since my teenage years. At age 17 my massive Speed Graphic - the size of a toaster oven or an Improvised Explosive Device -- and I took a photo of Presidential Candidate John Fitzgerald Kennedy
as he stepped off a plane toward the end of the 1960 campaign. The photo is here someplace. On the photo page, perhaps? The pic says less about
me than it does about the relative innocence of the era.
Then,
an unknown kid without warning, a shred of credentials or identification, or God forbid a telephoto lens could stride right up to the future President of the United States and stick a large metal box in his face.
I may have begun as a photographer,
but soon switched to writing. I've had bylines in lots
of newspapers -- hundreds of 'em as a syndicated columnist -- but famously in The Times. I've also published more
than 50 books, mostly mystery and suspense novels, notably The Bill Donovan Mysteries,
and won an Edgar Award.
And then were were the novelizations of famous TV shows and movies, among them The Six Million Dollar Man, the Rockford Files, Black Sheep Squadron,
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and Car Wash. And then were were the original series written under other names. Shall we discuss Omega Sub, of the fiction niche
"post-apolalyptic technosuspense." This is a book that I referred to as "Star Trek with fish," possibily accounting for the fact that I was only invited to write the first two of them. Upon reflection,
better not discuss Omega Sub. I also was one of the
eight million novelists who did episodes of Nick Carter novels. Writing Nick Carter novels is clear evidence that you are an "old, ink-stained
wretch" who is burdoned with the need to support a family.
Thousands of starving Brazilian laborers hacked feverishly away at the rain
forest to make the paper for all this.
The damage is done. There's no incentive for me to stop writing now.
Let's look at life twenty centuries after, as Douglas Adams put it, a
man was nailed to a tree for suggesting that people get along for a
change. That's a fair description of the crime; the trail of bodies is
long leading to the third year of the Bush administration. We
have come a long way in that time, haven't we?
On Michael Jahn's Myspace page are words about that, about my
wretched past in rock and roll, and least of all about my books. I
don't have a book out now, so don't worry about my trying to sell you
something. Plenty of American libraries have some of the earlier ones.
What I have instead, beyond the profound humility of a writer whose first daily newspaper job was at The New York Times,
;-)
are random, raucus observations about lots of stuff. There also may be the occasional smartass remark.
(Some of them will appear in the space right below this, as well as in the blog.)
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Michael Jahn has 341 friends.
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