Entries from November 2008 ↓

To finish out my battle madness set of photos I will, as promised, post photos of the readings here to prove to myself that I attended these events, in some form or another. I am working under the assumption that I took these photos, since they came from my camera, and not some doppleganger that filled in while I lay fainted on the floor. 

At any rate - these were all lovely audiences, smaller than the incredible ones at Elliot Bay Books and Powell’s, but certainly no less sharp.

Amherst Books (note: in the end neither I or Amitav Ghosh showed for my proposed duel, as I’d described in this post. It’s for the better, as I really only had one performance shirt and it would have looked sad with a hole through it.)

I was on Amherst College radio too and that was a blast.

This is what the window of Raconteur Books looked like when I arrived. So cool.

The reading was dark and intimate and there was free wine!

Take a look at this dictionary that was there with an opening letter to the KING - I photographed the first page (click for large view). I post this for ‘the happinefs of the people’:

And then finally I read (presumably) at Pandemonium Books in Cambridge, MA:

There are some incredibly nice people in this photo.

Many thanks again to all.

And now I’m home - where I seem to have caused an altogether impressive amount of havoc by introducing slide whistles to the children, and vice versa.

Thanks to all who came to a reading or provided a couch to sleep on (fitting!) or who resisted the temptation to mob me after I’d knocked down the entire set of their play.

- Funny story there. I watched a great, small production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline in Manhattan with my good friends Ned & Bronwen.

The theater was set up so that you had to walk past the stage to leave - the entire audience faced the door. Since there was another play that followed, the whole audience was still seated.

This was very clear in my mind - that it was as if I were on stage, as I leaned against that which very much seemed to be a stable wall near the exit.

When that  stable wall  began to move, I did my best to try to arrest its fall by frantically clutching at it with my finger nails. Then the entire set collapsed with a great boom and all eyes in the theater turned as one toward me. Oh Jesus! The theater manager said, several times. I tried six or eight apologies in rapid succession, and then I ran for the door.

Here’s Sylvie, who seems to have changed somewhat in my 12 day absence. I haven’t been able to locate the rest of the family - except the cat, who was locked up in the keep. 

I’ll post the last three audience pics and some errata in the next day or so. Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m in Northampton, Massachusetts and am about midway through my little book tour. It’s been tremendous fun. 

Powell’s in Portland was my first reading - it was a lovely time with many friends in attendance. It was there that I realized that I suffer a taste of battle madness. Battle Madness - popularized by vikings - is when you go into battle and perform admirably with your axe, and then can’t remember a thing about it later. So it was in Portland. I remember being very graciously introduced by a Powell’s employee Amber, and then I came to in the Under Wonder Lounge with a pint in my hand and my axe at my feet. Sure there are a few fleeting images here and there, and I remember thinking - ah, I’m getting Theo’s voice right, but that was about it.

Thus by the time I read at the Elliot Bay Book Co.  (introduced by Anthony - thanks!) in Seattle I’d decided to start photographing the audience at the beginning to prove to myself later that I’d actually been there. Here’s the evidence (click for full view):

I had to take it in three shots - there were so many awesome, awesome people there, thanks in no small part to the review in The Stranger. I should also admit that I prefaced the photo-taking by saying I would not post it to my blog with nude photos of myself. True! Lucky for you, there are no nude photos of me. The reading was just incredibly fun (what I remember of it) and they sang me happy birthday at the end. I love you Seattle! The next day I got on a plane and flew over the surface of Jupiter:

Which was unexpected. And then landed in Russia:

Where I read with Caitlin Kiernan at the Fantastic Fiction reading series hosted by Matthew Kessel and Ellen Datlow - which was, apparently, just a great, great time, from what I remember of it.

Incidentally, one of the symptoms of Battle Madness is foaming at the mouth. So I’m told.

Tonight I read in Amherst at Amherst Books and tomorrow in New Jersey - if you have friends in the area I’d be grateful if you let them know, as these might be a bit on the quieter side and then what am I to do with my axe? My tour schedule is here.

Incidentally - Amitav Ghosh also reads from his book Sea of Poppies at Amherst tonight - I tried to find something to link to here for time/place but  the intertubes failed me. It looks like just a great book, which is a shame, since I suspect that after our simultaneous readings we’ll have to joust or something.

I asked a friend advice on giving a reading, since I do my first tomorrow and he said:

“At an early reading in the 70s at my publisher’s house in Vancouver, B.C., I was so anxious I drank a little too much, took off all my clothers except under shorts in front of the audience and about a third of the way through threw my loose-leaf manuscript out over the heads of the audience screaming that it was a bunch of fucking shit and lies…the adrenalin of some fear is good, gives you an edge.”

In case you were wondering what to expect should you happen to attend a reading.

I remember seeing Dave Eggers read - he had the audience diagnose a problem with his leg (night tremors) and then he brought an exercise coach out and we all did a bit of a workout. That might be more my style. I’ve been calling around town to see if I could get a therapist to travel with me, in case we need to diagnose any madness in the audience. I also might play a game or two of bingo, or challenge someone to leg wrestle. No one can beat me at leg wrestling. No one. I’m just saying.

Why does a search for podium aerodynamics turn up almost nothing?!

Peter Fogtdal - who is on tour now - is an impressive reader. I would classify it as about 38% insane, contradicting himself schizophrenically every third sentence. It was a great performance.

Laura bought me a black button shirt with little pin stripes that mesmerize me. So that’s probably what I’ll wear, and subsequently remove at the pinnacle of the performance. I’m also considering a hat, maybe this, or this?

If anyone else has any reading tips for me - please say!

A couple of things related to Couch:

Here’s an interview with me done by Dmae Roberts on KBOO - plus a picture of me reading the book on air she took. Dmae Roberts runs MediaRites and has done many other incredible projects.

Thanks, Dmae!

Paul Constant of The Stranger gave a great, generous review of Couch. In a review with a title I love:

One Couch to Rule Them All
How a Novel About Moving a Couch Saved a Genre

“Couches have a weird totemic power. There aren’t nearly as many pieces of art about desks, for instance, and songs and poems about chairs generally have to do more with the lonely person sitting in them than the chair itself. And there’s some pain mixed in with the pleasure, too: Just about any adult who’s lived on their own knows the mundane agony and awkwardness involved with moving a couch from one apartment to another, or the vexation involved with getting rid of a ratty old couch when no thrift store will take it as a donation.”

“…by making the magical MacGuffin a beloved household item that nearly everyone has a complicated relationship with, he gives the story the depth and allure of the best modern literary fiction.”

Thanks, Paul!

Read the whole review

The Willamette Week had a very nice article about me today. I spent a couple of Fridays ago riding around with WWeek journalist Tony Piff, retracing some of the Couch journey that takes place in Oregon. 

What’s not in the article however, among the projects of mine mentioned, are my collaborators. 

Gumball Poetry: Laura Moulton was the editor and co-creator. We also had several interns that became editors over the course of their involvement: Libbey White, Krista Hanson, Emily Ford. And there were hundreds who gathered at each issue launch to stuff capsules and many others who helped along the way.

Operation Peachblow (run by the Black Magic Insurance Agency): Andy Hockersmith and Laura Moulton did the first one with me, and we believed we were creating something new - a game that laid over the top of reality, that made a player feel as if the whole city had been rigged - this was in early 2000. OPBII, OPBIII and OPBIV were created by Dave Cain, Thane Stumbaugh, Prashant Gandhi and myself. OPBV, which took place on the show floor of Book Expo America was just done by me and was also a publicity stunt for Couch.

Project Hamad was a collaboration between David Naimon, Laura Moulton and myself.

The web component of Message in a Bottle was coded for me by Noah Magram. Incidentally, since Gumball Poetry is shut, the web component is all that remains of Message in a Bottle. I think of it as the world’s slowest, random bulletin board.

Laura Moulton was the psychic behind The Psychic Book Project, until that too became automated. Even psychics get laid off in this economy! She was also the co-creator of SuvLuv.

If I missed somebody here, let me know.

Many of these projects are in states of semi-decay. I apologize for not closing them out in a more official capacity, sometimes the energy burns for just so long until you discover another avenue of interest. Have you heard of Couch? That’s fresh.