Gillian McCain's Desk Notes
Author Gillian McCain gives us an annotated workstation tour
I don’t have a desk (I write at a table) but I do have a display mantel in my home-office that serves as a kind of mood/inspiration board. These are a few of my favourite things…
1. This particular issue of CREEM, of Alice Cooper with some lady friends, makes me happy for some off reason.
2. This is the DATEBOOK issue where John Lennon said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. I’ve pasted a little photo of my friend Danny Fields on the cover because he was the managing editor of the magazine at the time.
3. The postcard is for my husband’s bar, the Lakeside Lounge, that was on Avenue B for seventeen years.
4. This is a photo of me taken in the early 90s that was on the cover of my lit-zine, MILK, that I did when I worked at the Poetry Project.
5. I love this photo on the cover of the 1969 issue of AUM of the GTO’s, which includes my friend Pamela Des Barres.
6. The drawing of the mouse with the machine gun is on a Christmas card from Dee Dee Ramone to Danny Fields (who gave it to me).
7. I bought this Patti Smith chapbook in the late 80s at the Gotham Book Mart.
8. STAR was a short-lived magazine in the 70s that featured L.A. groupies. It’s hard to find a copy; it was a present from my husband.
9. The Janice Joplin photo, taken by Richard Avedon, is a clipping from an auction catalogue that my brother gave me. It was uncanny because I had just discovered it, and decided it was my favorite photo of her.
10. The pink index card is taken from the archive of Paul J. Fitzgerald, who was the lead defense attorney in the Manson trial. I have a box of them and sometimes just pull one out to see what my (day) might turn out. This one says, ‘The mistake you make is trying to figure it out.’
Gillian McCain is the co-author of Please Kill Me, the authoritative and iconic oral history of punk. She has also served on the team at the Poetry Project and has published several works of poetry. Though she doesn’t work at a typical desk, she agreed to show us around the board in front of her workstation that keeps her inspired.