Incidental Contact by Jim White Self Published (2022)
Jim White is many things. In a career that has seen him feted as a singer-songwriter and performer, he has also been a ditch digger, a suntan oil salesman, a landscaper, a dishwasher, a short-order cook, a fashion model, a fashion photographer, a professional surfer and a New York City cab driver. To say nothing of his skills as a visual artist and many other roles he has tried on for size during his incredible life. White alternates between solo projects and collaborations in his music and appears almost like a modern day shaman who walks the earth lightly.
His incredible resolve to ride the surf board of life, despite the squall of the ocean tides, is more than memorable in his debut book that visits areas of his fertile mind that both entertain and enlighten. White exists in a world that seems to engage on a regular basis with altered states of consciousness, constantly offering gifts and threats that can interpreted either way, and that certainly stretch beyond the realm of most mere mortals that walk this planet.
He surmises upon the big questions and speaks of the great corrector, the pulse that turns the cosmic wheel and the role that chance and circumstance play in life. Whether driving a taxi in NYC for a living, or moving around a variety of low opportunity cities in the USA, White makes every successive situation appear almost a necessary hurdle to be overcome in the great marathon of life. The universe speaks to White on a regular basis and he listens in a way that conjures up images of psychic balance and insane conjecture. A life lived on a series of roller coaster rides and fair ground attractions often leads to going home with no real idea of exactly where ‘home’ is anymore.
White denies the concept of seeing patterns or connections in random data. Trusting in psychic antennas the argument is that we all perceive ‘reality’ with different intensities. He frequently cycles around NYC , when not driving a taxi and learns much about life from the rich variety of human-kind that come across his radar. He speaks of the psychic undertow that is an ever present in his life and the power that unseen forces can bring to bear at seemingly unrelated moments in time. He expounds upon his theory of a psychic antenna that we all have, some more attuned than others into the pulse of the universe, our brains acting as giant receivers in picking up information and secrets.
His stories are so incredibly laced with larger than life moments that you can only read in awe and disbelief at the experiences that White encounters. From various contacts with his Crazy Maker (ex-wife), to being mistaken for David Byrne of Talking Heads fame; having an encounter with Samuel Beckett in central park and, in his taxi driving years, with the likes of Woody Allen, expert handwriting analysts, a gangster and drug dealer, along with transvestites and toxic midget prostitutes who conspire to spoil job interview opportunities for him. I know, crazy stuff, right? But oh so compelling and superbly woven into and through the fabric of his unique book. Novel or autobiography, the work of a fantasist or an unstable imbalanced mind. We get to decide over the 300-plus pages on offer.
Driving a leased cab is itself a risky business with the prohibitive charges and fees almost outstripping the ability to turn a profit on any given slow night; the hope of picking up a lucrative fare always a temptation to stay out driving around aimlessly. From wealthy wall street fund managers to upper east side NYC socialites, White has seen all aspects of humanity. He finds his stolen car another day while cycling in traffic and confronts the driver in a rage which ends up with the return of his vehicle. He speaks of on-course adjustments as a metaphor for his life, always having to react to circumstances that ensue from random events. His luck dips and swoops from incidents of having to look in garbage cans for recently discarded food, to receiving a sizeable royalty cheque for one of his songs that was used in a movie soundtrack, the life of Jim White is a roller coaster of emotion, karma, momentous occurrences and mysterious wayward decision making. A unique book that is a celebration of being alive and open for adventure.
Review by Paul McGee