Baby Plays Around: A Love Affair, with Music (Paperback)

~ (Author) "We lived in Brooklyn on the sixth floor of a building that looked like something out of a fairy tale..." (more)
Key Phrases: aro und, new drummer, bass amp, New York, Smash Mouth, Elvis Costello (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her newest, after Five-Finger Discount, Stapinski places her life under the microscope, this time looking at love and music. Stapinski evocatively recounts her life in 1990s New York City, where she tries to balance a freelance writing career with the responsibilities of a new marriage while playing in a rock band led by Julie, one of her interview subjects. Her account of learning to play drums as a teenager by sneaking into her brother's room to play his set is a touching piece on the secret joy that rock music can provide "to hold on to those last, panicked moments of childhood lost." She also captures the strange exhilaration that comes from relentless rehearsals and performances in dingy clubs, and her exploration of her love for the music of Elvis Costello is touching. Her musical idyll is shattered, however, when she discovers that her journalist husband has been having an affair with a co-worker. Her description of violent fights with her husband, including smashed objects and a visit by the police, is harrowing, as is the affair's effect on her drumming: her husband's face and that of his girlfriend are "mentally planted on each drum skin." Only the book's too tidy ending, in which new-mom Stapinski waxes nostalgic for the "more than two years" covered here, gives the narrative a somewhat forced attempt to wrap up her story neatly.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

While establishing herself as a freelancer in 1990s New York, Stapinski married her Daily News reporter boyfriend and covered everything from Yu'pik tribal music to the sex lives of night-shift-working women, like the Wall Street drudge who wanted to start a band and needed a drummer. Fortunately, Stapinski used to sneak into her brother's room to play his pearly white Ludwig kit, and so . . . . Her expertise and pleasure in playing grew with the novice band, which her husband helped out on bass until he couldn't hack nights on the paper and gigging into the wee hours. Eventually, he wretchedly confessed an affair, to which Stapinski reacted by hurling records and pounding the skins--an oddly satisfying scene. Throughout, Stapinski's other musical passion, Elvis Costello, presides as an example of the gift, the presence, the influence every musician envies and craves; and finally, a chance encounter with a Musician editor yields a chance to interview him. Skillfully balancing emotion and amusement, this is a compelling personal story of onstage and backstage relationships. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Villard (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812967895
• ISBN-13: 978-0812967890
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,987,767 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly a love affair..., September 1, 2004

By	Buster (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Plays Around: A Love Affair, with Music (Hardcover)

"Baby Plays Around --A Love Affair with Music" really is the perfect title for this book. The author plays around town in a rock band; her husband just plain plays around. His isn't the only affair here though.

At first glance you might think that this book is meant for a pretty select audience, being about a little band struggling to make it in the New York club scene, but Helene Stapinski is really writing about relationships. As a band member, she must deal with the interpersonal dynamics occuring amongst a group of people trying to be creative and successful, and to add to the complexity of the situation, the band (at least for a time) also includes her husband. Jealousy, competition, ambition, anger and fear all come into play, but each are in a way quelled by the experience of music --an experience that seems to be an awful lot like love.

Though I'm a pretty slow reader, I finished Baby Plays Around in just a couple of days. It held me in both its details and the arc of the character's emotional growth --which I think should be the measure of any great story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yeah Baby , You Really Got Me!, January 23, 2005

By	Eric G. Muller - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Baby Plays Around: A Love Affair, with Music (Hardcover)

I am always on the lookout for authentic books that deal with the music scene -- and I'm not talking about the countless fan books, nor the ones that are simply out to attack one genre or another. Stapinski's entertaining book is written with insight, passion, and unassuming honesty. On the surface it's just another band getting into playing music, being creative, and trying to make it one way or another. It is refreshing that it's not about a famous band, but a chronicle of one of the millions of groups that form and dissolve almost daily. It's easy to forget that each band is made up of musicians -- i.e., people struggling with their individual destinies and myriad relationships (the essence of all good fiction or non fiction). Having played in many bands myself, I could relate to many of the archetypal scenes described. But more than that it took a critical look at the phenomenon of rock, as well as being informative -- especially in regard to the club scene of New York City. A true delight! -- and the last page came all too soon.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, June 29, 2004

By	Robert Colmant (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Plays Around: A Love Affair, with Music (Hardcover)

One of the richest, and perhaps one of the most honest nonfiction books I've read, Helene Stapinksi mines her obsessions, both music and love, to create a riveting masterpiece. This story of a freelance writer who falls through the rabbit hole to end up living a childhood fantasy -- as a drummer in a band -- speaks to any of us who hold a dream in our hearts about 'what could have been' were we to follow our wilder creative spirits. But it comes with a price, with significant and painful fallout in many of her relationships, particularly with her husband, and Stapinski doesn't spare any of the uncomfortable, awkward, and many times hilarious experiences she encounters, taking the reader on a wild ride through the smoky downtown clubs in Alphabet City. The writing is so inviting and personal you feel as though you're helping her lug her cymbals as she chases the chimera of musical fame, and discovers the true meaning of unconditional love: a love that persists through our fleeting, nonsensical adventures.