Poseur: A Memoir of Downtown New York City in the '90s - Couverture souple

Marc Spitz assumed that if he lived like his literary and rock ’n’ roll heroes, he would become a great artist, too. He conveniently overlooked the fact that many of them died young, broke, and miserable. In his candid, wistful, touching, and hilarious memoir, Poseur, the music journalist, playwright, author, and blogger recounts his misspent years as a suburban kid searching for authenticity, dangerous fun, and druggy, downtown glory: first during New York’s last era of risk and edge, the pre-gentrification ’90s, and finally as a flamboyant and notorious rock writer, partying and posing during the music industry’s heady, decadent last gasp.

Part profane, confidential tell-all and part sweetly frank coming-of-age tale, this dirty, witty memoir finds Spitz careening through the scene, meeting and sometimes clashing with cultural icons like Courtney Love, Jeff Buckley, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, Chloë Sevigny, Kim Deal, The Dandy Warhols, Guns N’ Roses, Ryan Adams, Paul Rudd, Coldplay, Pavement, Peter Dinklage, Julie Bowen, The Strokes, Trent Reznor, Chuck Klosterman, Interpol, and Franz Ferdinand, as well as meeting heroes like Allen Ginsberg, Shirley Clarke, Joe Strummer, and Morrissey. Along the way he finds literary guru Gordon Lish is a long-lost relative, and erstwhile pal and sensation JT LeRoy is an even bigger poseur.

Spitz refuses to give up the romantic ghost until a post–9/11 breakdown and an improbable new love (fellow music writer Lizzy Goodman) finally help him strike the hardest pose of all: his true self.

Buffalo News, 2/10/13
“Poseur is a marvelous spin through 90s New York...It is a truly moving study of a disappeared New York...[Spitz] is a needle-sharp, self-deprecating writer with pop culture coursing through his veins...This is criticism and memory merged, and it’s funny, beautiful and wise...It is the music memoir as art.” 

PopMatters.com, 2/22/13“Think of Spitz’s Poseur as the Life of rock memoirs, with less Stones and more typewriters. Spitz is a rare find: the self-aware bad boy, the articulate addict, the earnest punk, the wastoid with an excellent memory...This is an entertaining read for music lovers and ’90s fetishists and fans of addiction narratives, sure, but it’s also meant for those who enjoy learning everything about a person without expecting anything more. It’s a portrait, masterly and self-contained, and you have to be satisfied with the portrait alone.”

BackstageAxxess.com, 3/5/13“[A] fascinating piece of history...It’s reflective, funny, thought-provoking and at times sophomoric in its use of dick humor, and it works.”
Blurt.com, 3/6/13“A fun read...[with] amusing behind-the-scenes anecdotes.”

Village Voice, 3/12