About

Peter Ames Carlin, who in the photo to the right is about five minutes away from tearing his left hamstring, is the author of "CATCH A WAVE: THE RISE, FALL AND REDEMPTION OF THE BEACH BOYS' BRIAN WILSON." He is also the author of PAUL McCARTNEY: A LIFE, and is now  working on a biography of Bruce Springsteen, to be published by SImon & Schuster in the fall of 2012. 

The hamstring thing really hurt, not just for the physical pain aspect (which was considerable) but also because at the moment this picture was taken he was so delighted that all his waterskiing skills, unused since the age of 22, had re-emerged even at the ripe old age of 46. "Ha-ha!" is what he's thinking here. Nature, and age, clearly had other ideas in store.

Previously, Carlin has been a senior writer for People magazine in New York, a TV critic for The Oregonian newspaper and then a free-ranging cultural reporter, also for The Oregonian. He left that job in 2011 in order to focus on his hamstring. No, I meant the Springsteen book. The hamstring still twinges a bit, but it's back to business as usual. More or less.  

These days Carlin can be found in Portland, Oregon, often in the company of his wife and their three children.