Archive for the 'readings' Category

A good end

paperhaus October 28th, 2009

Although yesterday began grimly, it ended well. Jonathan Lethem read at the LA Public Library’s ALOUD series, and answered questions, and was kind enough to hang out for a cocktail afterward with people who’d paid a small fee. I interviewed him on Friday for Jacket Copy, over the worst Skype connection ever, so it was nice to hear his voice without an echo and meet him in person.

I went to the cocktail thing, but the room was too sit-down-y so Chris and I headed to the bar to grab drinks, hoping people would mingle soon. I sat near a tall man, who agreed that he didn’t much like the room either. He ordered food, and then his friend showed up; as they were talking and we were talking Chris recognized the friend. We exchanged a few words with him, as he and the tall man were leaving. Which would be entirely unremarkable, really, if he hadn’t been John Taylor from Duran Duran.

The 15-year-old me is still screaming. On the outside, though, I’m going to try to be cool.

Tonight at Vroman’s: Ben Greenman

paperhaus April 28th, 2009

Ben Greenman, who I get to needle and prompt at Vroman’s tonight, is on book tour for his new novel “Please Step Back.”

And to let the world know what a book tour means for Ben Greenman, he penned this Tour Rider that’s up at McSweeney’s.

Bookstore agrees to provide and maintain three (3) backstage preparation rooms. They shall be comfortable, well lit, and entirely free of books other than the Author’s books. Rooms must be climate-controlled to dry heat so that the Author’s reading voice (which will henceforth be referred to as his “instrument”) does not get scratchy or phlegmy. Employees of the Bookstore must never use the word “phlegmy” in the presence of the Author, as it may make him vomit, which would damage his instrument. The same goes for the word “vomit.”

Allrighty them. See you there, my clear-throated friends.

Festival, schmestival. Don’t miss Vroman’s on Tuesday

paperhaus April 23rd, 2009

I love me some LA times festival of books. I’ve been soaking in it all day, and I think the panels will be great, the stages, the crazy big campus, the authors riding on golf carts, the nighttime events, the quiet mornings, great great great.

But then it’s over, and our literary lives in LA must go on. Mine, fortunately, will be going on at Vroman’s, where I’ll be interviewing Ben Greenman at 7pm on Tuesday, April 28.

Greenman — I can’t call him Ben yet, I haven’t met him. Although I will, at the festival, where I’ll be moderating a panel he’s on — hang on, focus. Ok. So. Greenman is an editor at the New Yorker, and he’s the author of a pile of books playing with pop culture and the brilliant booklike project “Correspondences.” I’d call his new book, “Please Step Back,” a kind of musical fable. It follows the path of Rock Foxx and the Foxes, a band which bears no small resemblance to Sly and the Family Stone.

Writing about music is insanely hard — like dancing about architecture or swimming about politics — but Greenman succeeds, I think, using resonant, uncomplicated metaphors and carefully-weighted sentences to bring the pop and soul and funk of the music of the sixties and seventies to life (but it’s WAY more fun than that sounds). It’s all through the world of a regular-enough guy who becomes a brilliant, progressively more fucked-up musician.

After blogging so much for the LA Times, it is inordinantly fun to type the word fuck in a blog post.

Did I mention we might have a boom box at Vroman’s? How can I get it to play my Sly Stone vinyl?

Ok, right, focus. Vroman’s is in Pasadena; we’ll be in the upstairs reading area. The event begins at 7pm on Tuesday night. It’ll be hot fun in the springtime. Come.

Imaginary syllabus

paperhaus September 22nd, 2007

At Pitt’s Fuel & Fuddle reading series, which I cohost with Adri Ramirez, we asked attendees to write down the name of their favorite writer. (On nametags, which they wore, and later we had a drawing for the night’s prize). The room was full of creative writing grad students — poetry, fiction, and nonfiction — and this is who they became:

Orson Scott Card
Bernard Cooper
John D’Agata
Don Delillo
Joan Didion
Annie Dillard
Ernest Hemingway
L. Ron Hubbard
Etgar Keret
Tracy Kidder
Haven Kimmel
Yusef Komunyakaa
Milan Kundera
Ben Lerner
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vladimir Nabokov
Marcel Proust
John Steinbeck
James Tate
Kurt Vonnegut
Richard Yates

With the exception of a joker or two, I like this as a syllabus. It’s more diverse and contemporary than the readings I’ve had to read so far in school. And now that I think about it, I’d take them all — reading L. Ron Hubbard could actually be interesting.

Pittsburgh’s lit life picks up

paperhaus September 11th, 2007

9/27 - Mark Z. Danielewski at Joseph Beth Booksellers!

10/1 - George Saunders at Pitt!

10/1 - Ander Monson at Chatham!

10/8 - Orhan Pamuk at the Drue Heinz Lecture Series!

10/8-10 - Don Lee at Pitt!

10/22 - Ann Patchett at the Drue Heinz Lecture Series!

10/29 - Dave Eggers at the American Shorts Series!

11/5 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Drue Heinz Lecture Series!

11/17 - Found Magazine at Future Tenant!

And in 2008 -
Philip Gourevitch at Pitt and Anthony Bourdain at the Drue Heinz Lecture Series. Sweet.

Pitt MFAs get cracking

paperhaus September 8th, 2006

Pittreadings_julie

Last night the ritual of having first-year MFA students read our work in public began, and I wouldn’t consider it hazing but for the loud Steelers fans on the floor above.

That’s Julie Granum at the mic. She’s a fine poet.

April Line, who is very funny, read a serious story about being a single mom.  Adri Ramirez, who is also very funny, read a funny story about being a brick house (that’s me trying to be funny. It was more involved than that).

Nonfictioneers Helen Gerhardt and Mark Kramer deftly handled weighty issues (don’t ask/don’t tell and identity in the Balkans, respectively). But nonfiction isn’t always serious, as Dan McMillan proved with his story of getting a ride  from Jehova’s Witnesses.

I’m up next week. Come on down to the Fuel & Fuddle basement Thursday if you dare.

Shiver me timbers

paperhaus August 20th, 2006

Ahoy, mateys! The extraordinarily talented Chris Abani headlines the Vermin on the Mount reading series, punnily calling itself Pyrats of Chinatown in LA tonight. Also on the bill are Teka-Lark Lo, a snappy poet who’s got something, plus novelist Karen Palmer and poet Carol Novack. If I were within 2000 miles of Los Angeles I’d show up; in my book, 132 miles is definitely within striking distance (this means you, Tod Goldberg.)

The LitBlog Coop pick for summer is Michael Martone’s Michael Martone, and this week two more Martoney posts went live: the Michael Martone podcast interview and a separate e-mail conversation for those who are MP3-averse. Martone! Martone! Martone!

This Tuesday the 22nd Joe Meno will be in Pittsburgh to read from his new book is The Boy Detective Fails. Also reading are fellow Chicagoan Todd Dills (Sons of the Rapture) and Mickey Hess, who I am failing to provide a link for. It’s happening
Artists Image Resources, 518 Foreland St. Hopefully my car will be out of the shop so I can do what I always do in Pittsburgh and drive around lost for a while before arriving at my destination. Which in this case is a place called AIR.

one missing vermin

paperhaus July 25th, 2005

Vermin_july2005I’m so late to the Vermin On the Mount round-up that it hardly seems there’s anything left to say, after Karen’s summary for The Elegant Variation, writer Daniel Olivas’ spotlight on fellow reader Lizz Huerta, and Vermin’s own pictorial review.  My contribution is just this picture of host Jim, who is not nearly as short as he appears.

Rat-a-tat-tat

paperhaus July 15th, 2005

Hip hop hooray, the rat climbs the mountain again! Vermin on the Mount, a reading series that is actually fun, is back for its summer edition, Saturday the 16th. This one features Jacob Forman, Lizz Huerta, Wendy Molyneux and Daniel Olivas, who is everywhere this week.  Besides, MC/host Jim Ruland rules. He rules so much I’m not sure that "rule-land" is his real last name.

The Mountain Bar is in Chinatown. So if you want to be super-cool, swing by the Basquiat opening at MOCA on your way.