Entries from September 2008 ↓

Flirts is the name of the hotel lounge at the Holiday Inn near the airport in Portland, OR. We were there for the PNBA conference. The bar had a disco ball, many mirrors, bright lighting, and, oh, I don’t know, the feel of the end of the line, the end of any road taken that wasn’t the right road to have taken in the first place.

And Willy Vlautin of the band Richmond Fontaine was there, charged with being on the stage in this place. I wish I had a photo – the only one I took was of the software-broken juke box, which seemed to fit in perfectly with the 30 years-ago run-down future the bar seemed to promise. When I walked in Willy was hunched over his guitar, and his guitar held open a copy of his own book, Northline, and he was singing the dialogue from it.  I have to say – this still sounds like a bad idea, sounds like something that would turn out strained and faked. But it wasn’t – it was really great. Like Jeff Tweedy and Raymond Carver had merged into one. Afterwards we talked and he was a hell of a nice guy, and it turns out that Laura and he buy their chicken feed from the same store. So, you know, we’re practically related.

Our new cat, Kitty Carper, (used to be named Backblink but the boy changed his mind) went into zero g training this last weekend (For the LOLCat tryouts).

Here are a few shots I took of the training session.

(A note: I’m breaking internet rules and not using official LOLspeak here. I realize there’s probably some level of the inferno reserved for just such offenders. However, and I’ll be frank, here, my cat doesn’t speak that way. Maybe yours does. But Kitty Carper – well, let’s put it this way, you’ve seen My Fair Lady? The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain? I think you get my point.)

Where did all the GBP machines go? Many are now on there way to a better fate than our basement.

We’ve found a very nice home for about 4 of our Gumball Poetry machines, as we slowly retire the project.

Lex – who will be turning the project into Portland Poetry News and will be running a newspaper(!) out of 2″ capsules! Awesome.

URL to follow when I have one.

Also, Small Beer Press has a retired Gumball Poetry machine in Northampton, and when they ring me back, the Capsule Studio and Gallery will also get one.

I will be giving away books at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Nightcapper event (links to a PDF)

I’m not sure how to get in or if it costs anything but…come by if you can!

Lots of nice developments to post on Couch.

First – the new cover! Drawn by UK Graphic Novelist Andi Watson

Super nifty and really gives a lot of emphasis on the adventure and their decay. I love how it’s wraparound.

This cover is up on Amazon, Powell’s still shows the old one for now.

Second: I have a few reading dates.

September 15th: I’ll be signing books at PNBA

November 14th: Reading at Powell’s books in Portland

November 17th: Reading at Elliot Bay Book Co in Seattle

Third: Paul La Farge was kind enough to read and blurb Couch:

“A lot of people are looking for magic in the world today, but only Benjamin Parzybok thought to check the sofa, which is, I think, the place it’s most likely to be found. Couch is a slacker epic: a gentle, funny book that ambles merrily from Coupland to Tolkien, and gives couch-surfing (among other things) a whole new meaning.”

I hadn’t thought of slackers & Couch together before, and I’m not sure why, but it’s an interesting and generous blurb. Thanks Paul!