I write about the Boston music scene, but Rick Berlin has lived it. Emerging from the COVID shutdown with two new recordings and a bunch of upcoming gigs (see below), Rick has also captured his particular wit and self-reflection in a new book. The Big Balloon (A Love Story) is the poet/artist’s second book, and I was lucky enough to get him to tell me about it here.
During the shut in I was able to record two records (7 SONGS) and (THE CHA CHA CLUB) and write my second book: THE BIG BALLOON (A Love Story).
‘A brief encounter can be the most efficient dart to the heart’
I succumb to the Joni Mitchell Syndrome, often needing to be ‘in love’ to inspire work/art/music. These two records and this book are no exception.
It’s fair to say, at this late winter in my life, that I met someone. A notice-r. Someone who, visiting my house, sees what’s here. Asks about it. Pointed questions. Questions that, being asked, move me to answer fully. To be interrogated, even about something as offbeat as a heating pad for a cat or as memorable as reading out loud the liner notes on the cd of my first band ever, Orchestra Luna, is a savage gift, an awakening about parts of my life I’d lost interest in re-examining, forgot, or was weary of the autobiographical tape loop. To produce long buried details and anecdotes required an unusual heat lamp, an in-your-face, genuinely interested detective, someone who I could open up to from the heart and for real.
Had he not been like this – intelligent, empathetic, inquisitive, hilarious, gentle and beautiful – these bits and pieces (I had sworn off a second book after ‘The Paragraphs’ was published) would have never been typed up.
“There are somethings you don’t even know you know until you’re asked. But it’s so seldom you find anyone who’ll ask the right questions. Most people aren’t that much interested….”
– Christopher Isherwood
After countless hours in front of the computer screen, developing bag lady swollen ankles and buying compression socks, I slammed BALLOON out in a few short months.
Why the title?
Not sure when this happened or who said it, but it goes like this:
“Rick, I’ve seen three of your apartments. The rooms always look like you blew up a big balloon and your stuff wound up on the walls and floors like Bang! Drag this mess around.”
He’s right. In honor of his comment, I took photos of the inanimate in my house and wrote about each one. In so doing I fell down unexpected rabbit holes of memory, unlocking doors long shut. Portraits, observations and déjà vu recall, as humorous and amorous as they are disturbing. I pray that Balloon is not the Berlin edition of Capote’s Answered Prayers, the book that, once published, lost him all his friends. He betrayed them, exposed their secrets and burned every bridge. I also hope it doesn’t bore the shit out of you. Some are close to frivolous, but I think they offer relief from the headier, deeper cut pieces.
There is no linear structure to this book. No over-arching narrative. Each entry is self-contained. One piece can relate to another, but it isn’t necessary to make that connection. The reader can pick it up, crack it open anywhere, read a section and put it down. The ‘chapters’ are just the rooms in my house.
“He populates his writing with memories that will break your heart and wisdom disguised as tossed off one-liners. Walk through Berlin’s House, flip on the lights room by room, see what he has left there for you and all of us.”
– Ryan Walsh, Hallelujah The Hills, author of Astral Weeks
It could be said that I chose this odd-ball format for bathroom reading. For those with short attention spans. On the other hand, much as I love the twists and turns of a full blown story, the Haiku simplicity of disparate entries exposes Berlin as if opening the paper window flaps of a Twelve Days Of Christmas holiday card in no particular order.
The Big Balloon is super personal. Most art, at least the art I love best, is personal. From another’s truth one extrapolates one’s own echo, wisdom, embarrassment and laughter. That’s what I’d hope for you, dear reader. That you’d That you’d laugh or at least find something self-relevant in these independent passages of my peculiar life.
There are 150 photos each of which trigger the writer and lead the reader down the path of memory. A memoir collage of sorts.)
The Big Balloon is available through indie bookstore internationally via BOOKSHOP. In the Boston area you can find it at PAPERCUTS JP and TRES GATOS BOOKS & RECORDS. (The book is also available through AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, GOOGLE BOOKS, ABEBOOKS, SCRIBD, TARGET, BAM! and as an e-book KINDLE, KOBO, RAKUTEN, BOOKTOPIA, LEHMANNS, FNAC (France), HUGENDUBEL.de (Germany).
The eBook version has links throughout BALLOON that connect you to songs, videos, people mentioned, etc. Jes’ sayin’.
Also, if you’re interested in my first book, THE PARAGRAPHS
With heart,
Rick Berlin
Longtime songwriter/musician/videographer Rick Berlin has recently indie-published two books: The Paragraphs and The Big Balloon (A Love Story). The latter is best described as a memoire collage dating back to his early days with Orchestra Luna as well as insights into his relationships, friendships and family. It’s funny, disturbing and profoundly honest – a torn pocket on the shirt of an idiosyncratic heart. He can be reached at www.berlinrick.com, or on Twitter @rickberlinn
Rick will be performing Sat Dec 4 Wenham Street Cinema, JP Sat Dec 18th MIDWAY Fri Jan 21 Warp n Weft, Lowell Fri Feb 4 The Jungle, Somerville Fri March 4 The Plough & Stars, Cambridge Sat March 19 Sq Root, Roslindale