What I'm Reading 2021: Loose Gravel by Ginny Fanthome

I received a random email from the author in which I was invited to review this book in the hopes of producing some positive press.

Here's what I came up with:

Loose Gravel by Ginny Fanthome – A Punk Band’s Blood, Sweat and Tears

Few fictional stories are written about the nightmare of being a musician in a band doing one nighters touring across the continent in a van. If you have been there and done that my guess is that it’s a memory you try to blot out of your mind. Also you are probably in your fifties by now.

Breaking news: the music business changed. Now there is no cash for anybody. Small and mid-sized town bars are poor. No money is left to pay bands doing one-nighters. Even back in The Day, ie. the era in which Loose Gravel takes place, there was barely enough money to cover the band’s gas, meals, and a poor performance fee. Accommodation was out of the question, hence sleeping in the van. And yet, bands could make a go of it if they didn’t self-destruct or kill each other.

We paid our dues, but very few actually made a career out of music. Hardly anyone even made a living wage.

To add to the suffering, the pandemic has kicked the music biz while it was already down. Beginning bands, one nighters, touring … the dream is dead.

We of the “older generation” have forgotten how bad life on the road was, and what we were willing to put up with to play. A fucking grind, it was. 

But I wouldn’t change a thing, because in the midst of all the idiocy there were life lessons. Loose Gravel has brought it all back. Therefore it is a worthwhile read.

Loose Gravel by Ginny Fanthome is a brutally honest, realistic yet fictional look at touring and playing in a punk band doing one night stands. The band’s name is Spooge. The four members are Steve: super-talented gay guy of Asian race who happens to sing and put on a good show; Marcus: A super smart, witty, closet writer/asshole and womanizer who happens to play guitar; Lion: A tall, tough dude from a poor and shitty childhood who thinks he’s Sam’s boyfriend who happens to play bass; and Sam: The chick drummer who has a heart of gold and a clear mind despite wrestling with her own demons.

The story is told from Sam’s perspective.

Loose Gravel thoroughly explores the personalities and relationships of the four bandmates. To sum it up: There is always much brokenness, but hope springs eternal.

Spooge is on an odyssey, an entry-level opportunity where the musicians will travel and sleep in the van to save money. They will sleep with their gear unless they can scrounge some sort of better sleeping arrangement. As they drive to the next gig they pray that the driver will stay awake and that the van will keep on running. They will try to give each other space. Of course, people will be inconsiderate; tempers will flare. Mix in some booze and fists will fly.

There is never a dull moment in Loose Gravel. It is a fun read, but it is much more than just the craziness of life on the road. Fantholme in telling the story through Sam’s eyes has carefully woven a thread of hope into the story. It’s all about relationships.

I enjoyed how Sam’s hopeful and reflective nature, particularly her compassion, developed as the tour’s chaos churned on, and I was happy to see how she did not stay down when knocked over emotionally. And believe me, there were some hard knocks! 

Loose Gravel is a reminder that every person has their own struggles and backstory, and how being on the road makes it possible to meet and even try to help all kinds of needy people.

Each of Sam’s bandmates show some growth, providing a few more glimmers of hope as the story developed. Loose Gravel didn’t have a perfect happily-ever-after ending, but I was left feeling satisfied.

Kudos to Ginny Fanthome. Loose Gravel is a gem of a story and would be a welcome addition to the musician lore section of any book collection.

Recipe List

Roasted Bone-in Chicken Breasts on America's Test Kitchen

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo on America's Test Kitchen

New England Baked Beans on America's Test Kitchen

Beef Stew Recipes

Oven-Baked French Fries

Cabbage Rolls

Chef John Hamburger Buns

Vietnamese or Filipino Spring Rolls aka Lumpia

Pork Stir-fry

Sam the Cooking Guy

Tuna Casserole

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo: America's Test Kitchen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxV4k76UawU

Pork Stir-fry

YouTuber channel: Souped-up Recipes

INGREDIENTS

300 grams of pork

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of baking soda

1 tbsp of soy sauce [Pearl River Bridge Natural Brewed Light Soy Sauce: https://amzn.to/2TdlvOB]

2 tsp of Chinese cooking wine [Shaohsing Rice Cooking Winehttps://amzn.to/2RW4KWG]

2 tsp of cornstarch

A bunch of Chinese celery (you can use regular celery)

Some chilies (You can use bell pepper if you don’t eat spicy food)

Five cloves of garlic

Some salt to taste (Add when stir-frying the celery)

Oil to stir fry

Homemade Lumpia - Filipino Spring Rolls, Several Different Versions

Ingredients:

Meat: 1 kg ground pork

Veggies: Garlic, Chopped Onions, Shredded Carrot, Shredded Cabbage, Green Onions

Salt, Pepper, Soy Sauce, Packaged Spring Roll Pastry

Brown and drain the meat; Sweat the veggies until cabbage is limp; Mix together; Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp soy sauce. Make flour paste to seal the pastries, or use egg wash.

Fry in 1 inch of med-hot oil, or deep fry until brown on both sides. Dry on paper towel. 

This version from Natasha's Kitchen includes noodles. She recommends frozen egg roll pastry because it is thinner than refrigerator type. Correction from comments: Egg roll pastry is thicker than Spring Roll pastry. She uses Spring Roll pastry.

This version uses shrimp and other fresh vegetables in a rice paper wrapper and is not fried. The rolls are served cold. The sauce recipe is pretty easy.

This version is from YouTube channel Souped-up Recipes. She mixes pork and shrimp together with cabbage, shredded carrot, bean sprouts, leeks, chives, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, and then flavours with onion powder, garlic powder, sugar, binds with two eggs. 

THE FILLING

- 7 ounces (200 grams) of ground pork

- 5.5 ounces (155 grams) of peeled shrimps, uncooked

- 1 cup of shredded cabbage (not Vietnamese tradition)

- 1 cup of shredded carrot

- 1 cup of leek

- 1 cup of chives (or substitute finely chopped shallots)

- 2 cups of glass noodles (aka mung bean noodles, bean vermicelli)

- 1 cup of bean sprouts

- 2 medium size eggs (this binds the ingredients together)

- salt, white pepper if you have it, fish sauce

This version explains very well about the rice paper wraps and the glass noodles. She also instructs how to minimize moisture content to prevent bursts while cooking. She gives a good basic recipe for the dipping sauce. Many of the comments are good advice on different variations, for example it is possible to add slices of taro root for a more traditional Vietnamese flavour.

And finally, this version is completely a different take. I am amazed at the variety of egg roll recipes! This one uses only cabbage and shrimp. The shrimp is chopped and fried with extensive add-ons such sesame oil, salt, oyster sauce, "five spice powder", black pepper, and smooth peanut butter, and then after removal from the heat, white sugar is added. The cabbage is cooked soft and wrung out.