The Rock, the Pihlar

Sometimes he has a spotlight on him, sometimes he's blurry, but always, he owns the bar. Oliver

The Ricker, The Schroedster.

The Ricker, age 11.

The Faces

The Happy Ending icon.

Those hep cats

Best audience in town.

These people have performed but I don't have photographic evidence

BARBARA BROUSAL
MARY GAITSKILL
NELLY REIFLER
DAN SALTZSTEIN
DIMITRI EHRLICH
BEN GANTCHER
HONOR MOORE
BETH BOSWORTH
JONATHAN COULTON

Innovative MTV

Jeffrey Lewis plays us a music video.

One Ring Zero

Kevin Sampsell during the INSOMNIAC READER NIGHT.

Rick Whitaker and friend. They didn't have a good time.

John S Hall is a really good guy. We ran into each other during the blackout. In front of this deli on Bleecker Street and Thompson. Ahhhh, the good old days.

Jamie, the bartender.

Jonathan Ames is calling. This is from INSOMNIAC READER NIGHT with Kevin Sampsell.

More from DEPRESSION NIGHT.

Andrew Solomon and Arthur Phillips take question on DEPRESSION NIGHT. Some Irish woman yelled out in her brogue to Arthur, "Yer not depressed!"

The night Samantha Gillison read someone heckled me. I flipped them the bird. That was as quick a reflex as I could muster. It was like someone coming over and heckling me while I showered. I'm naked, how much can I do?

Laurie Sandell laughs from the crowd.

Jonathan Katz tries out a joke but it doesn't really work for her.

Laughing until she cries.

Audience members.

Dawn Raffel studies the risk at hand. She will do better. She must do better. She will do better.

Darin Strauss writes treatment for next novel via song lyrics.

A.M Homes read at Barnes and Noble and then flew over to us the same night to make it on stage opening night, September 3, 2003.

Whether he's there or not, every Wednesday night at Happy Ending is Todd Colby night.

Blake Nelson tries to get dirty with his girlfriend.

Hannah Tinti watches from a banquette.

From Dr. Katz's power point presentation.

During Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin's set, Dr. Katz (Jonathan Katz) had to pee, so he used his motorized scooter to make his way through the crowd to the bathroom. To get even, Todd and Jon, scooted through Dr. Katz's set.

Cool For You, Eileen Myles.

Alison Smith wrote the heartbreaking memoir, Name All the Animals. A few years back, I was trying to illegally sublet my old apartment in the East Village when Alison walked in to look around.

Beth Kimmerle and Will Noonan have done these amazing Candy Making nights. One was done when Steve Almond (Candy Freak) was there. Oh my god oh my god. This is Beth's book. The whole thing is edible, even the hardcover.

ROXANA ROBINSON
BETH KIMMERLE
SIDDHARTHA DEB
TOURE
NICOLE BLACKMAN
PRISCILLA BECKER
CAROLINE LEAVITT
JEFF TAMARKIN
EMILY XYZ

John Wesley Harding even plays his guitar with a British accent.

Lizzie West almost decapitated someone at a show. But, it was all due to overexcitement caused by Anti-Bush sentiment and everyone is okay and out of the hospital. Even if I made the part up about the hospital.

Kirven Blount and Steve Knight sit one out.

Maggie Estep and I share the same birthday. So does Toure. William Hurt also. Oh, can't forget, Ovid. But, he never returned my call last year, so he's off the list.

Rachel and Jason Trachtenburg of The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.

Because I don't have pictures of everyone who has read or played at Happy Ending, I will, on occasion, randomly type their names.

CINTRA WILSON
JILL BAUERLE
CHAD ALLEN
IAN CHARAO
MARK SWARTZ
MILA DRUMKE.

Our attempt at being intellectual involved us in a Literary Festival. Our readers were, Hannah Tinti, Brock Clarke and Alix Ohlin. Unpleasant Event Schedule played. The theme was Home.

Jonathan Ames and Mike Daisy continue a literary feud begun just weeks earlier by Mike Daisy, but directed at Neal Pollack.

How 'bout those table linens I saw at Bed, Bath and Beyond?

Some people take this time to contemplate. Even to think or to study the molding.

A Happy Audience.

A bunch of your postcards and submissions....

Here's a story with no picture. One night, when Lisa Glatt was reading, I had taken one too many Wellbutrin (was trying to quit smoking) and had a panic attack that lasted the entire event. I hosted the event while my bones were quaking and then as the finale, told the audience that I had been having heart palpitations and night sweats throughout the entire affair. How I suffer for your art.

The physically vituperative band, The M Word.

The first year of Happy Ending the musicians were required to cover 80s tunes. I should have changed the name of the series to Whitney Ending because Whitney Pastorek was the 80s music star of 2003.

Tom Hopkins and his sister, Cynthia Hopkins play.

Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin introduce the novel they wrote a few days ago in time for this event. Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin continue tointroduce the novel they wrote a few days ago in time for this event.

Miss Noble Hatch herself, Amy Miles.

It's pronounced Leutz, like toots, not nuts like Lutz. The incomparable, Gary Lutz.

The elusive, Ed Pastorini explains it all via strings.

Daphne Merkin as part of the upifting, DEPRESSION NIGHT.

As part of his risk during DEPRESSION NIGHT, The Egyptologist, Arthur Phillips, armwrestles his wife.

Cynthia Hopkins of Gloria Deluxe played with her brother, Tom Hopkins (not pictured here. Sorry Tom, you'll get yours). They sang a version of The Talking Head's song, Home. I think people started booking them for personal engagements after that.

David Rees got his powerpoint on.

Tom Bissell got over his fear of playing Banjo in public. He read from his new short story collection, God Lives in St. Petersburg. Years ago Tom and I went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and I asked him if he liked Chinese Broccoli and he responded, "Johnny's Broccoli?"

Amy Miles has this great little leg kick she does when she sings. It could, if all goes as planned, become a drinking game of sorts. She's played twice, for us, I think. Too few times, in my book. One of her covers was a Prince song. And it was sex Y.

Aimee Bender did the most amazing thing. It's a bit hard to describe, but she took the structure of mad libs, and using random birthdays, she had the audience call out parts of speech (only the people who's birthday was closest to the one she called could respond) and told an impromtu fairy tale. It was bold and it worked.

Danzy Senna started it all. For her risk, she had two volunteers come to the stage to read with her, some of the scripts written in the Scientology booklet she had. Then Tom met Katie and Brooke wrote an Op-Ed.

This is what things look like before you arrive. Sometimes I live on the edge (for a Jew with chronic stomach distress) and eat in one of those skank Chinese places nearby and spend a good amount of time pre-show secreted away in a hidden bathroom.

Rick Moody read from his forthcoming novel, The Diviners. Then he sang a song, A capella, no less, that he had written several days before and had just sung to his wife while she was showering. Maybe I added the showering part. He and John Lurie read together.

Blurry Lurie.

John Lurie read from his memoir, "What Do You Know About Music You're Not a Lawyer." For his risk, he played Harmonica onstage for the first time in 35 years. Maybe it was 25 years. Whatever, it had been awhile. And it was something that can't be recounted in words. It was astounding. It was stunning. It hurt because it was so good.