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Back The Underminer Save as PDF
Chapters (21)
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Bright Young Things campus of Clarkwell College, graduation in the town of Clarksville, somewhere upstate, 1990
  6. Cool Days open mike night at Kafka-fe, after band "2 Much" plays, 1991
  7. New on the Scene utside in front of Club Hush, for a film screening party of Kill Fee, 1993 o
  8. Single in the City at a French bistro, 1995
  9. Hangover brunch, the morning after, 1995
  10. Natural Health a chance meeting at Jasper’s Yoga Studio, 1996
  11. The Fat Flush ’90s in the foyer of a friend’s renovated brownstone, 1997
  12. Art Stars at Bonwyck Gallery, 1998
  13. Inner Odyssey the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, 1999
  14. Life After Death facedown in the dirt of the desert, next morning, 1999
  15. Loyal Companions catching up at the dog run, 2000 catching up at the dog run, 2000
  16. In the Real World a run-in at the ShopShape magazine launch party sponsored by Senor Strawberry Liqueur, early 2001
  17. Wartime spotted at Kinko's, late 2001
  18. Office Job in the cafeteria of the Conde Nast building, 2003
  19. Settling a yard sale on an obscure block in the outer borough, 2003
  20. Starting Over in a remote village tavern on the farmlands of New Zealand, 2004
  21. Epilogue a gathering of friends

Inside the club, there's a diverse party crowd with beautiful women and thugs, all waiting for the show to start. The anticipation is so thick it's sweating off the ceiling. When Boo hits the stage, it's like a fuse has just been lit and, in a hail of lights and hands in the air, the crowd explodes... As she plunges into "Pink Pudding," a sea of bodies pulsate in one collective rhythm all around her. Boo will look exquisite as she works the stage, always lit and framed in tight angles that showcase her talents and highlight her hot sexy 11-year-old beauty.

Wartime spotted at Kinko's, late 2001

Wartime

spotted at Kinko's, late 2001

Hey! It's genuinely so good to see you!

No, really. I know a lot of people seem so false when they say that to you, but I mean it. I just have been through so much lately I appreciate even the smallest contact with my friends. Or anyone, really. And everything seems so small now, in comparison to the . . . you know the . . . the Crisis. All those petty differences don't matter. Like I totally don't even care anymore that you served me food I was allergic to and I almost died, you know? All that stuff just doesn't matter.

What are you here for? Photocopying your resume. On mid-weight paper. Wow, fancy fancy. Well good luck. The job market has really suffered, hasn't it?

So what have you been doing? How are you? Getting by? Kind of watching the war and world events on CNN in shock? Yeah . . .

Well I wasn't really that surprised because I'd read the Hart-Rudman report, and I met Condi through Sheila at a small dinner. So I sort of knew about how things were getting serious. So, but—I just couldn't sit by and be all inactive. And then weirdly my friend Bertrand, who is a French photojournalism called me. I picked up the phone and without saying hello he said, "How would you like to make a difference?" Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but it isn't weird if you know him and our relationship. He's just more . . . more . . . direct and honest than a lot of people in this country?

I mean I know that you probably read up on everything that's happening . . . like in Time, and the New York Times, and the Nation or whatever. To be honest I try to get a more balanced view. These days I get most of my news from BBC World and aljazeera.net.

Anyway Bertrand knew of my capabilities and magic ability to pick up languages and asked me to accompany him as an embedded reporter for NBC. They call it the "Pulitzer Package" because you kind of always end up with one, but it's sort of an inside joke among top journalists.

Damn, the lights are bright in here. Do you have a tan? No? Oh, it just looks like you have a tan.