The Patterson Years

THE TOM PATTERSON YEARS is the centerpiece and first published installment in an autobiographical trilogy. The protagonist is the author, the city is Atlanta, and the year is 1977. Patterson's arrival coincided with the beginnings of Atlanta's punk-rock and alternative-art scenes, Jimmy Carter's first year as President, and a moment when the national spotlight was on Carter's home state and its capital city. A run-down bungalow Patterson rented with friends in Atlanta's Virginia-Highland neighborhood promptly became a social gathering spot for likeminded contemporaries and the scene of legendary parties. Patterson paints a vivid picture of the city's bohemian scene at a pivotal, energized moment in its history. The narrative follows his trajectory as a regional journalist, small-press publisher, and budding arts writer over seven years, and it details the beginnings of his involvement with outsider art. Anecdotes of a lively personal life form the thread connecting a series of engaging, sometimes hilarious stories about poets, performers, artists, culture mavens, and distinctive characters with whom the author became acquainted. Some of these individuals and groups have remained obscure, while others have attained enduring fame or notoriety (the Sex Pistols, the B-52's, Bruce Hampton, Saint EOM, Howard Finster). Lesser-known in the long run but equally important to the story's cultural timeline are artists Bob Tauber and Mark Smith, publisher/editor Fred Brown, poet Jonathan Williams, writer and arts administrator Laura Lieberman, pioneering art dealer Judith Alexander, and artist/folklorist Fred Fussell. Watch also for cameo appearances by President Jimmy Carter, Ru Paul, and Museum of American Folk Art director Robert Bishop. The book's title was supplied by Bruce Hampton, a key figure in the narrative. The author employs it here with ironic intent, as probably needs to be specified in our own excessively literal-minded era.