A new collection of essays from this acclaimed critic on photographers, musicians, artists, and writers (from Patti Smith to Weegee to David Wojnarowicz). Most of the pieces have a strong autobiographical element and sense of place, the Lower East Side of New York City where the author came of age in the fertile 1970s/80s. He traces his engagement with music and photography, his experience of the city, and his development as an artist and observer, in a series of articles that range from memoir to essay, fiction to critical analysis, humour to poetry.