"THE EDGES ARE NO LONGER PARALLEL"

Hi folks. Last night was one of the best readings so far, but also one of the weirder nights I've had in a while.



I was introduced by the lovely and talented Kathleen last night, who broke the ice and got everyone chuckling to get things going, which I'm always in favor of. I started by reading some highlights of interesting emails I've gotten lately, as I mentioned I would. Then, I explained that snapping, hooting, heckling, throwing (provided) paper, (G-d forbid) clapping, laughing, etc. were all encouraged tonight. I plopped a big box on the edge of the stage with "Paper To Throw At Author" printed across it, and made sure everyone had plenty of the balled up paper to chunk. This worked in a trickle at first, but the two lines that got a big response (and plenty at thrown paper) were the lines about shitting in the George Bush airport and about fucking a pro-lifer.



Questions were a little weird, and more personal that the questions I've had aimed at me before, but I got through them and afterwards, hung out a bit and made some new friends and sold a few books and signed a few books and people were beyond generous with my "Book Tour Fund" tip jar. Beeeyond. A man showed up and chatted to everyone and nobody before getting on the phone at one point with his mother to talk about Matlock and Law & Order, then returning to telling me he wanted to interview me, though he never specified what for, so the subject was dropped.

Once most everyone was gone, hung out with the owners of The Fixx for a while. The Fixx is adorable and cozy, and the couple who owns the place are just about the nicest and funniest people around. They have this kickass coffee lounge that's open until midnight everyday, and somewhere in there she finds time to teach high school and he finds time to write. Hmmm.. I wonder if he could be coaxed to do a reading of his work there at his own Fixx? That would be cool. They told me about their idea of having haiku night, which I'm totally in favor of, and Kathleen perked up her ears at the mention of the possibility of an open-mic comedy night.

Albert Einstein made an appearance, of course.



Ah, and I do believe that is a game of Pac-Man there in the background. You know the place is good if they have Pac-Man.