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Foreword: 1904–1948 (Texas)
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1906
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Sep. 14 |
Norma Belle Clifton born, Pecos, Texas |
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1915
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Aug. 25 |
Conway Leslie Bangs born, Enlow (Dallas), Texas |
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1935
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Jan. 15 |
Conway Leslie Bangs sentenced for assault with intent to murder |
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Feb. 05 |
Conway Bangs begins serving a ten-year sentence in Huntsville, TX |
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1945
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Sep. 11 |
Conway Bangs completes his prison sentence; is released |
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1947
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Conway Bangs and Norma Belle Clifton wed in a Jehovah's Witness church and move to Escondido, CA |
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Part 1: 1948–1971 (California and Arizona)
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1948
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Dec. 13 |
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs, born 10:58 p.m. in Escondido, California |
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1951
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Jan. |
Norma moves with Lester into a small apartment on the Mexican border, to take work as a cook on a ranch |
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Dec. |
Norma, Conway and Lester move to Perris, California for work on the Palomar Ranch |
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1953
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Lester begins joining mother Norma in her proselytizing campaigns in downtown San Diego |
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1954
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jobs at Palomar Ranch come to an end |
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1956
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Family moves to Glendale, Arizona to take jobs at Orne Ranch School |
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1957
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Conway and Norma Bangs separate, and Conway returns to the California and takes work as a truck driver |
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Aug. 05 |
Conway Bangs burns to death in an Escondido house fire; Norma and Lester leave Arizona and return to California |
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Lester enters the 4th Grade at Lincoln School |
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1960
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Family moves to El Cajon, CA |
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Lester buys his first Miles Davis album; reads Catcher In the Rye; Burroughs; Kerouac; Ginsberg; Charles Mingus |
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1961
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Summer |
Lester takes summer school class in Creative Writing and Drama |
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Sep. |
Lester enters the 8th Grade |
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1962
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Sep. |
Starts freshman year at El Cajon Valley High School |
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1962—1965
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becomes an active member of the drama and speech clubs |
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meets friends Roger Anderson and Rob Houghton |
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continues to take interest in Creative Writing, literature, and English |
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takes up smoking |
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discovers Alistair Crowley |
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meets first girlfriend, Andrea di Guglielmo |
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1965
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May |
competes (as a high school student) in a regional Speech and Debate tournament at Grossmont Junior College |
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1965—1966
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contributed writings to El Cajon Valley High School's Smoke Signal |
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1966
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Jun. |
graduates high school |
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announces intention to study Journalism at Grossmont Junior College |
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1967
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Jan. |
Lester is classified available for military service, and enrolls in Grossmont College as a full-time student to avoid draft |
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Jun. |
gets his first car (1955 Plymouth) |
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takes road trip to Northern California |
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discovers over-the-counter drugs, with friend Roger Anderson |
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begins life-time abuse of Romilar |
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meets Jack Butler and Jerry Raney of Thee Dark Ages |
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plays harmonica on selected songs during their live shows |
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moves into an apartment with his new roommates in El Cajon |
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1968
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Jan. |
discovers Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" |
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Mar. |
witnesses a Hell's Angel rape next door |
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completes a draft of a novel that includes an account of the rape |
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Apr. |
presents the scene to his Creative Writing class, which is met with harsh criticism of his lack of action to help—Lester is crushed by the experience and drops out of school |
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Summer/Fall |
Lester has a nervous breakdown |
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begins to purchase and write about records as a form of occupation therapy |
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sees an actual therapist |
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registers for San Diego State College |
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Sep. |
enrolls in San Diego State College, to become a teacher; enrolls in literature and writing courses |
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1969
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Apr. 05 |
Publishes his first review in issue #30 of Rolling Stone Magazine: "MC5 – Kick Out The Jams." |
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Oct. |
with friends Houghton and Anderson, meets Lou Reed backstage at Whiskey-a-Go-Go in Los Angels |
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Rolling Stone fly Lester to Oakland, to meet Greil Marcus; Lester spends the weekend in Berkeley with Marcus and friend Langdon Winner |
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Oct. 21 |
Jack Kerouac dies; Lester falls into depression |
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1970
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Spring |
Alan Ginsberg comes to San Diego State College; meets Lester |
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Takes a job at Streicher's Shoes in Mission Valley Shopping Center begins dating Debbie Rachac |
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Sep. 17 |
Publishes a Coltrane review in local alternative newspaper The Teaspoon Door |
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Oct. |
is fired from Streicher's Shoes |
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sends his first record review to Rolling Stone |
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1971
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Sep. |
Lester flies out to Detroit to interview Alice Cooper; a two-week planned stay turns into two months |
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Nov. |
Lester returns to El Cajon to collect belongings and moves to Detroit to take the position of assistant editor at Creem |
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Part 2: 1971–1976 (Detroit, Michigan)
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1971
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Bangs meets Richard C. Walls |
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Nov. |
Andy diGuglielmo visits Walled Lake; breaks up with Lester |
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1972
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Mar.-Jul. |
Walled Lake Creem offices fall under FBI surveillance |
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Jun. 08 |
garners attention of the music critics with a Rolling Stone essay on Janis Joplin's early death |
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Summer |
Lester and Patti Smith meet |
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Fall |
Creem offices moved to Birmingham, MI, on the 2nd Floor of the old Birmingham Theatre Building |
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Lester has a brief affair with Judy Linn, Smith's best friend |
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1973
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Spring |
meets Dori |
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May 26-28 |
Bangs attends 1st Annual National Association of Rock Writers Convention, Memphis, TN |
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Jun. 07 |
Publishes a scathing Canned Heat review in Rolling Stone Magazine; is subsequently fired (banned) by editor Jann Wenner |
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Jul. |
Bangs publishes "Deaf Mute In a Telephone Booth: A Perfect Day with Lou Reed" |
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Fall |
Dori tells Lester she's pregnant; has abortion |
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Dec. |
Bangs returns to San Diego for the holidays; meets Cameron Crowe |
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1974
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Feb. 08 |
Joins J. Geils band on stage, with his typewriter; writes his review, "My Night of Ecstasy With the J. Geils Band" (published in Creem August 1974) |
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Spring |
Bangs, Tosches and Meltzer attend a Rock Critics Symposium in Buffalo, NY |
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John Morthland joins Creem staff |
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Winter |
Nancy Alexander meets Lester |
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1975
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Mar. |
publishes “Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" in Creem (March 1975) |
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Summer |
Lou Reed releases Metal Machine Music; Richard Meltzer departs to Los Angeles |
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Bangs and Peter Laughner record the Creem Office Sessions |
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1976
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Feb. |
Bangs visits Jamaica |
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meets Andy Shernoff of The Dictators |
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visits CBGBs for the first time |
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Part 3: 1976–1982 (Manhattan, New York and Austin, Texas)
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1976
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Fall |
Lester and Nancy move to 542 Sixth Ave., Manhattan, NYC writes for The Village Voice |
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1977
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Spring |
proposes Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung book |
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Nancy and Lester break up |
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May 05 |
The Lester Bangs Conspiracy is Lester's first performance at a Punk Magazine benefit at CBGBs |
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Bangs meets Richard Quine at CBGBs |
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Jun. |
"Let It Blurt" sessions are recorded, with John Cale and Richard Quine |
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Jul. 13 |
experiences New York City blackout, with Bill Nelson |
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Bangs follows the UK Clash "Get Out of Control" tour for six days |
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1978
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Nancy moves to the Bronx |
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begins meeting with therapist Phil Sapienza for counseling |
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Lester dates: Jean Holabird; Cynthia Heimel; Susan Toepfer; Galen Brandt; Debra Rae Cohe |
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forms Birdland with Mitch Hyman (Mickey Leigh) |
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1979
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"Let It Blurt" / "Live" released on SPY Records |
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Apr. 01 |
sneaks into Electric Lady Studios with Mickey Leigh and records the Birdland sessions |
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Nov. |
Birdland disbands over mounting tensions within the group |
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Dec. 17 |
The Village Voice prints "White Noise Supremacists" |
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1980
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publishes Blondie (Is a Group) |
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moves to Austin, Texas |
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contributes to Contempo Culture fanzine |
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discovers The Delinquents and meets bassist Brian Curley |
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Oct.-Nov. |
Lester Bangs and The Delinquents perform gigs in the Austin music scene |
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Bangs and the Delinquents record eleven tracks at Earth and Sky Studios (Austin) |
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for Jook Savages On the Brazos |
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Oct. 11 |
Bangs is arrested in Austin, Texas, for drunken and disorderly conduct |
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Nov. |
briefly "dates" Veronica Sullivan |
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Nov. 21 |
performs with Talking Heads at The 'Dillo [a.k.a. The Armadillo] |
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Dec. 08 |
John Lennon is killed |
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1981
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Jan. 29 |
Creem editor Barry Kramer dies |
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Apr. |
joins Alcoholics Anonymous; Jim Fouratt becomes Bangs's AA sponsor |
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Fall |
Paul Nelson and Lester Bangs publish Rod Stewart biography
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Jook Savages On the Brazos is released
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Norma Bangs's health declines |
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Nov. |
visits San Diego for the first time in fifteen years |
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1982
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Jan. |
Stephanie Hill interviews Lester for a fashion piece in The Village Voice |
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Feb. |
visits mother Norma Bangs, in San Diego; meets with Richard Meltzer |
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Mar. 13 |
Norma Bangs dies; Lester returns to San Diego for the funeral |
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Apr. |
Lester finishes manuscript for Rock Gemorrah |
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Apr. 30 |
Lester Bangs dies from an accidental overdose of Darvon |
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Posthumous: 1982–present
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1982
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May 02 |
Lester's body is cremated |
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May 03 |
Memorial service at Redden's Funeral Home |
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May 07 |
Ben Catching takes Lester's ashes back to California |
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May 15 |
colleagues stage a tribute to Lester at St. Mark's Church, East Village, NY, with readings by Billy Altman, Georgia and Robert Christgau, Richard Hell, Legs McNeil, Nick Tosches, and others, with recordings of Richard Meltzer |
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1988
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Sep. 12 |
Greil Marcus publishes Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung |
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1990
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Catching releases Lester's ashes into the Pacific Ocean |
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2000
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Apr. 18 |
Jim DeRogatis publishes Bangs biography Let It Blurt |
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2001
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Nov. 01 |
Cameron Crowe writes the screenplay for Almost Famous; casts Philip Seymour Hoffman in the role of Lester Bangs (released 2001) |
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2003
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Aug. 12 |
John Morthland publishes Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader |
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2009
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Sep. 17 |
Grossmont College Creative Writing Program holds its first annual Lester Bangs Memorial Reading |
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2010
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May 08 |
Grossmont College Lester Bangs Archive is launched |
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May 21 |
Grossmont College Foundation recognizes Lester Bangs with bronze plaque in its "Walk of Fame" |
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2013
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Oct. 22 |
Raul Sandelin's biographical documentary A Box Full of Rocks: The El Cajon Years of Lester Bangs makes its San Diego debut |
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2016
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Jul. 22 |
Raul Sandelin's rock journalism documentary, Ticket To Write: The Golden Age of Rock Music Journalism, premieres in San Diego |
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