Subculture Vulture: A Memoir in Six Scenes

Subculture Vulture: A Memoir in Six Scenes by Moshe Kasher

Moshe Kasher creates a memoir of his life in "six scenes" which cover subcultures that he has been involved in phases of his life. He was an alcoholic at as a teen and become sober through AA. He was later involved in the Bay Area rave scene, both DJing promoting and selling ecstacy. Burning Man became another key part of his identity as he was involved as an attendee, and an employee. He was raised Jewish, which was an important part of his life (his father became orthodox after his parents divorced.) His parents were deaf, while he and his brother could hear, making him part of the deaf community and involved in translation efforts. Finally, he worked his way up through the comedy scene and has become involved in the comedy scene. There were challenges in each of the areas, as well as plenty of humorous anecdotes. The story of his deaf dad beating up the son of the mafioso stuck in my mind. (The result was the mafioso coming out and punishing his kid for getting beat up by a deaf Jew.) The book reads like a long comedy routine by a stand-up, complete with plenty of self-effacing vulgarity.