"Crazy For You: A Memoir of the 60's"

The Real Animal House was set in 1960 and 1961, the dawn of what we now know as “the sixties.”  The next book, also a memoir, chronicles its sunset.  It’s 1970.  Pinto’s living in a Village apartment, hair hanging down, dealing weed to pay the rent while trying to get published.  Of course, he’s not called Pinto anymore.  Most people refer to him as “man.”  As in “Hey, man.”  And the story has a happy ending as Chris gets his first story—“Caked Joy Rag”—into National Lampoon’s July, 1971 issue.

The backdrop is the meltdown of the sixties, as seen from New York City.  The optimism was long gone, Vietnam had caused a mood of chronic anger and depression, and the counterculture was falling apart.  After the Summer of Love in ’67, in rapid succession, occurred the death of Otis Redding, the assassinations of Kennedy and King, the Tet Offensive, the police riot at the Democratic Convention, the My Lai Massacre, Altamount; the deaths of Hendrix, Joplin and Jim Morrison; and blah blah blah, down the line. 

But the disintegration of Chris’ subculture was no reason to stop enjoying himself!  In the spirit of Nero, he partied on.  In Crazy For You, the fun that began in The Real Animal House continues.  The sex, beer and rock ‘n’ roll ethos of the Adelphian Lodge has evolved into the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll mania of the late sixties.  And Chris is in the thick of it. 

He’s writing the manuscript now.  Send him energy vibes.  Or money would be okay, too.

 

Chris seems pleased by the Himalayan mountain range Kanchenjunga, which is Tibetan for "Home of the Gods."