Reading In The Hamptons In The Hamptons

By Dan Rattiner

This weekend, I will be continuing on my quest to read every chapter of my new memoir, In the Hamptons, at the location where the action of that chapter (and the person who was most prominent in that action) takes place.

Prior chapters were read at the Indian Field Ranch in Montauk, on the beach in front of the Andy Warhol estate and at the very isolated and rural Long Pond, where my account of the Long Pond Sea Serpent resulted in CBS news teams rushing to the site by helicopter.

This Friday, June 27, at 11 a.m., I will be reading the chapter, "Merton Tyndall," in the Starbucks on Main Street in Bridgehampton. Starbucks used to be a bank. Merton Tyndall was the president of that bank for half a century, and gave loans to numerous business owners, including me at the age of 23, on their word of honor.

On Saturday, June 28, at 11 a.m., I will be at the Memory Motel in Montauk reading the chapter, "Esther and Sarah and the Rolling Stones." The Rolling Stones quite famously went to the bar of the Memory with a whole entourage of people one night, and were quickly thrown out by the proprietors. Today, the Memory Motel is a kind of shrine to the Rolling Stones and their visit, much in the manner that the Hard Rock Café would handle it. The Stones, after their experience there, wrote a song called "The Memory Motel," which is about a girl they fell in love with while there.

On Sunday, June 29, at 5 p.m., I will be reading "Jackson Pollock" at the Pollock-Krasner House on Springs Fireplace Road in East Hampton. Pollock died in a car crash on that road with two young women, neither of whom was his wife, in the car. He was, along with Willem de Kooning, also of this place, the greatest of the abstract expressionists, and founder of drip painting.

The following Saturday morning, July 5, at 11 a.m., I will be reading the chapter, "Bobby Van's," in the restaurant of the same name in Bridgehampton. Bobby Van threw me out of that restaurant when it was a major literary bar back in the 1970s because of something I wrote. I wanted desperately to get back in. Should I write about it? Was it legal for him to throw me out because of something I wrote? Wasn't it in the literary tradition to be thrown out of a bar? Nah. Take me back.

The public is welcome to attend these readings free of charge.

Back to Contents