Lettre à Tony O'Oneil écrivain américain

Hi there Tony

thanks for your touching e-mail...
If it makes you feel good reading my e-mails
let me tell you that it makes it worthwhile writing them
and knowing that they understood
as coming from the bottom of my heart

today your e-mail made my day and more...

Hey Tony, Chet Baker...
I just received from France «Let's get Lost» that I ordered and although I kind of knew it would be in the European Mode,
I wanted it so bad that I still ordered it anyway... hoping that there would also be an American Mode... but no way! So I played it on
my computer via my «home cinema» projector... and today I took it to a teck who will transfer it in normal mode...

I am a huge fan of Chet... have about 30 cds and vinyl of his... Please do write the book! And if you have a chance and do not already own it, get the box-set, album size, of his French recordings... it his so fantastic...

What a super name, Nico... It was on my list .... I chose Virginie for that Stones song: «Sweet Virginia»... and the movie «Paul et Virginie»...
and «Virginia is for lovers» and because it was rare at the time...
Nico is great! And 5 years young is marvellous... it stays that way until 8... then it starts to change and slowly but surely, after 10
well the outside world takes over and at 12 the parents are not the total universe anymore... So make the best out of it my friend...
And your wife and yourself make a couple like Claudine and me: her and I the rebel the stable one! It is important that the child has both parents
idiosyncrasy...

Good luck with your novel... it seems almost there... Also can't wait to get the translation of «Down and out...» so Claudine can read it... By the way she is also a well-known poet... in Quebec and France... As a matter of fact she received one of the 2 most important literary award of the francophonie: The Tristan Tzara for poetry!...2-3 years ago...
and that made her happen in France... As far as myself over there: when my daughter was born in 1987 I stop going there and let go of my career... to stay home and do the John Lennon trip with my daughter... I'll never regret that choice I made... well sometimes a little bit... I was doing great over there: songs on the radio, TV...my own band over there... etc etc.... contracts with RCA and CBS...

Also, when I will receive your book, I will order the other from Amazon Canada... there is only one that I will have to order from Amazon Britain or may be USA: « Songs from the shooting...» And like I said I will send you some of my stuff: book(s) and cd(s) etc...

Again Chet Baker is a big thing for me... is to jazz what Jim Morrison was to rock! I have a lot of things of and about Jim Morrison...

I am going to look into John Fante... and also into the bands that you mention in «Down and out» and in your website...where I spent some time and really enjoyed it!

So Tony,... make the best of those years before you turn 50... If I could start again I would write a lot more and record a lot more outrageous stuff like I was doing in the beginning... because when I became more of a notoriety, and had Virginie, my style changed and today kids are looking into my old stuff, and I wish I had done more wild writing!... So do it while you can! We all change (luckily!) when we grow older and become more accepted... we tend, well me and most of us, to «simmer down»... is that a good expression? You know what I mean anyway...

Well I am going to listen to some Chet Baker and Art Pepper and read James Crumley «The right madness»...

Oh yeah take a look at Claudine's literary magazine on the net: «mouvances.ca»... the only one in French literature...
She just got back from Africa where she was invited to read her poetry... then spent 2 weeks in France to get her summer trip (2 months) ready... She works a lot and has the success that comes with it...

Me I am the lazy type... smack mood... I take things as they come...

Praise the Web, for making our connection possible! And for sure life will take over and take away the intensity of our e-mails, but as far as I am concern the bound is there forever... I took a chance doing what I almost never do: reach out... and I had a good intuition... we have a lot in common: the lifestyle (freak past as much as straight present); the «reality writing»... «road writing» sort of....; life as a couple with one child and a daughter... the music... the old girlfriend Suzanne (eve if it is a fiction name) who played a role... Chet Baker (another coincidence) and like they say there are no coincidence...

so take good care Tony
best of the best
to you and wife and daughter…