Huh?

Someone got to this site by searching for: "dr. david blumethal nyc."

Thought you might like to know.

Okay -- so listen all 0 of you who visit this blog -- I have this Joe's Pub thing coming up Wednesday and I've a lot to do and two articles to write so naturally, I'm posting instead. Things will be quiet here for a couple days, but when I return you'll read, not only about the Joe's Pub event, but about:

The Groupo Corpo show I saw at BAM Saturday night
My first time playing Guitar Hero
My ex-husband, Pablo Ouziel
A story about a bag
Older Happy Ending events

For now, enjoy this picture of me from when I was 13...

Village Voice Write-up

Wednesday 4:2

[READING]

Mystic Lady

Like a little musical angst with your literary readings? Downtown gal Amanda Stern's always-excellent Happy Ending Music and Reading Series (which usually takes place at the Happy Ending bar) moves to Joe's Pub tonight for this special indie-rock-themed edition, which is presented in collaboration with Sufjan Stevens's record label, Asthmatic Kitty. The evening includes readings by rock writers Alec Hanley Bemis (co-founder of Brassland Records), Daphne Carr (the series editor of Best Music Writing), and Rob Sheffield (author of Love Is a Mix Tape), along with a set by My Brightest Diamond (a/k/a the super-stylish pianist-guitarist-singer Shara Worden), whose new album, A Thousand Shark's Teeth, will be out in June. At 9:30, Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, 212-967-7555, $15 ANGELA ASHMAN

(Thanks, Angela).

New Camera, bad memory

I bought a digital camera for my birthday (it was last week - thanks for calling) and I took it to my friend Fiona's book party last night. I took 5 pictures of me and my friends before it said, "memory card full." What kind of shit camera IS this? I can only take 5 pictures? Who owns a Canon SD1000? What up? Here's three of the five pictures taken....

Smitty, Frankie, Leigh, Koch, Maazel



Smitty, Frankie, Leigh, Koch, Maazel


Koch

JOE'S PUB SHOW -- SOLD OUT!!!!

Thanks all for buying tickets. Everyone at Asthmatic Kitty and I are so excited for this show and are floored that it sold out during the pre-sell. Thank you! We think it'll be worth your fifteen bucks.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND:

It's a biggin!

All star line-up tonight, kids.

TOD WODICKA
MATTHEW BAKKOM
FIONA MAAZEL
SAMANTHA HUNT

with music from Kelley McRae

302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge

Doors open at 7pm

Show starts at 8pm

as always -- it's free!

I'm behind on posting pictures so please know that many more images are coming. Pictures of Janice Erlbaum for your screensaver are coming soon! Some of Owen Sheers, David Shields, Aryn Kyle, Paul Brill and Jamie Leonhart will be posted soon. Stay the fuck tuned.

My Week in a List

0. Have dinner with Alison
1. Get wait-listed at Yaddo.
2. Get rejected for a Guggenheim
3. Go to Katz's for Pastrami
4. Complete rough draft of novel
5. Age up a year -- Birthday
6. Go to New Museum of Contemporary Art
7. Visit Julie's new office with Alison
8. Reschedule lunch with Anthony
9. See bad play
10. Have dinner with friends at Norwood
11. Have amazing gathering of more friends at Norwood to celebrate birthday
11. Worry.

Are You Drunk Enough to See This Play?

A friend took me to see a play at the Public Theater called, "Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?" The best part of the play was in the lobby when my friend saw Philip Seymour Hoffman and I saw Maria Tucci. We should have left then. But we didn't. We sat in the front row. Two men on a couch spoke in clipped unfinished sentences arguing and agreeing about every political plight and wrongdoing in the world. The second best part about the play was that it was 40 minutes long. If you're a bad play I appreciate it when you're time conscientous (I am not drunk enough to spell this word correctly). There's nothing worse than a bad play, except having to sit through it. When I lived in Europe with The Clown we stumbled upon some performance in a garage where people were wearing comedy and tragedy masks and throwing veal at each other. True story.

Other things that happened in Europe: We stole a queen size mattress from a hotel room to exchange for our double. When we heard someone coming we opened the door to the stairwell and stowed the mattress. Then we took the elevator back to our room to get the double but we forgot where we put the Queen. We spent a lot of time up time running up and down those stairs. Already that's a better play than the one we saw.

ONE WORD CELEBRITY INTERVIEW #3

COMING SOON! With Lisa Edelstein...

Search me.

Sometimes people get to this site via keyword searches on the world wide Google. Those keywords are kept track of on my "Stat Counter." Here's what you kids looked for today on the interweb:


happy ending reading series
paul brill
yale evelev
happy ending david shields
kate christensen pen faulkner
julie barer
happy ending reading
lauren groff
maxine swann
cheating
andrew vladeck
owen sheers
michael anthony hall
katie merz
steve toltz jewish
kate christensen
the happy endings
kate christensenfaulknerblog
amanda stern blogspot
david shields bestseller
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get a new daddy
crushing on steve toltz
margot livesey
etienne de silhouette
michael idov
mistress lessons
jack livings
happy endings blogspot
joshua furst beth
laurie anderson stage
texty the happy ending
guy lesser
anne landsman
kitty celebrity silhouette cutouts paper
michael anthony hall photo
owen sheers happy endings
oren bloedow blogspot
beanball ron carlson
daniel robert epstein
he hit on me
happy ending lauren groff
rivka galchen
happy ending reading series new york

ASTHMATIC KITTY AND HAPPY ENDING

Go to the JOE'S PUB WEBSITE to purchase tickets

The Twirl-Off

For her risk, Lauren Groff raised her cheerleading past out of hiding and onto the stage. Here she is in all her baton glory...

2 more from Feb show

Orange Vladeck


Steve Toltz reads

A recap of a night in February

Steve Toltz playing mouth trumpet.



I'm considering getting taller, but it's not been easy.



Sculptor, Samuel Nigro in the audience



Margot Livesey (Margot, I lovesey)



The holy crotch of Andrew Vladeck



Chris Adrian reads about wanting to be a dog. I'mma lovin him.

A Town Called Amen

Jim White played this at Union Hall a few weeks ago. Must hear it live, but for now, hear it digitized.

Winner PEN/Faulkner!!

Goes to Happy Ending veteran, Kate Christensen for THE GREAT MAN.



Congratulations!

New York Times Bestseller List Steals From Me

The streak continues --- first it was Charles Bock (#14) then Lauren Groff (#19) now it's David Shields (#?). Come hear the newest maker of the list read at Happy Ending tonight.

Lineup:

Aryn Kyle
Owen Sheers
David Shields

with music from

Paul Brill

The host, as always, is Jennifer Grey from Dirty Dancing.

302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge.

Doors at 7pm

Show at 8pm

Money exchanges hands only at the bar - not at the door.

Is it really cheating...

If it's only this big?

Patrick McMullan is on my face

Uh - you got a little something there, on your face.



No, it's still there.



Never mind, no one will notice.

Michael Anthony Hall

used to be Anthony Michael Hall. But now he's Michael Anthony Hall. I know this because I met him backstage at the Beastie Boys concert two night's ago. Did he hit on me? I'm not sure. I'll pretend he did. Better story. Michael Anthony Hall hit on me backstage at the Beastie Boys concert. He left in a puddle of tears when I rejected him. Although I'm not sure he hit on me. Regardless. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

Because I May Not Have Understood Yesterday

That must be the reason why The American Academy in Berlin sent me a SECOND rejection letter. Can't wait to see what they have for me tomorrow.

So much....

I need a digital camera. Or a new Treo. I need photographic evidence of all the things I want to write about or else you may not believe that Anthony Michael Hall (now, Michael Anthony Hall) hit on me at a Beastie Boys concert last night.

Topics for when i get my shizz together:

1. Beastie Boys Concerts
2. My ex-husband, Pablo
3. Buying a bag off a man on the street
4. the party tonight for The Wire
5. In Treatment
6. General complaints

Can you wait? Yes, you can, because you didn't care in the first place.

One Word Celebrity Interviews

Actually, it's One Word Celebrity Answers, but I don't like the ring as much, so I'll sacrifice precision for taste.

HAL HARTLEY



1) Hal, I've started this thing on my blog called, "One Word Celebrity Interviews." I ask celebrities a question and they must answer using only one word. Wanna do one?

Yes.

2) "Priority seating for persons with..."?

HATCHETS

3) In the beginning there was...

EXPLOSIONS

4) What's the most horrifying news story you read about today?

PALESTINE

5) Describe Berlin

GREY

6) What is your favorite film about?

SACRIFICE

7) Politics, politics, politics. It's all anyone ever wants to talk about.
Whatever happened to the good old days when people talked about...

ADVERTISING

8) How old is your oldest friend?

EIGHTY-SIX

9) What's your worst habit?

PILSENER

10) Are you friends with any children?

YES

11) Do you ever feel like you're walking around on the inside of a painting?

NO

12) What's the name of the painting?

INAPPLICABLE

13) You have a book coming out in the Fall. What's it about?

WORKING

13) What was your nickname for your grandmother on your father's side?

NANNA

14) What distracts you?

MUSIC

15) What color is the word tomorrow?

ORANGE.

16) Describe your childhood.

CROWDED

17) What do you think my middle name is?

SADIE

18) Did you watch the Oscars?

NO

19) Who were you happy to see (or hear about) win?

INAPPLICABLE

20) Will you ever live in America again?

PROBABLY


Look to the LABELS on your right and read the first One Word Celebrity Interview with MOBY.

Ron Carlson Writes a Story

A few weeks ago at JB's party, WA and I were talking about something - probably Particle Theory or the force intention has on cells - when HT showed us the new One Story. It was Ron Carlson's Beanball. W nearly threw his drink in her face he was so excited and he, as graciously as one can grab, took it from H, deciding it should be immediately re-appointed as an object to fit in his bag. H seemed to understand W's insta-klepto mentality. Me - I'm slow. I hadn't read Ron Carlson. I heard his name, knew of his existence on the planes of this earth, but hadn't read a single sentence written under his command. H then told me about this amazing lecture he gave at Breadloaf about writing a story, about how he specifically writes his. She urged me to find it. I emailed MM at Graywolf and she sent me a copy of Ron Carlson Writes a Story. I started it two days ago.

When I was 27 I went through a breakup that required all but giving back a ring. My therapist at the time kept on telling me to "live the questions." It made sense to me, this idea of sitting with discomfort. I hated it and felt, well, uncomfortable, but thought she was kind of brilliant coming up with something as profound as "live the questions." Turns out she didn't come up with the sentence. When we finished working together (actually she fired me because she got Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - true story for another time) she gave me "Letters to a Young Poet," by Rainer Rilke, whom she had plagiarized that indelible line. I read and underlined nearly every sentence of that little book. Kept it in my bag with me at all times. It went through so much with me it's swollen now from rain and collisions and impatience. I learned a lot from that book about how to be alone, about how to love solitude and I haven't felt myself actively growing during the course of reading a book since then. Until now.

Ron Carlson Writes a Story is affecting me similarly to Letters to a Young Poet. Perhaps I needed this book now, as much as I needed Rilke then. If I read Letters to a Young Poet now, it probably wouldn't make such an impact. This book is doing something to me, changing the way I view time and the way that I write - why I write. HT was right about this, as she is about many things. I urge you to buy it.

Get a New Daddy

The Whitest Kids U' Know have more energy than it might seem. One of my favorites:

A Good Week in Culture

Jim White's been in town and I was lucky enough to see him play an unbelievable show at Union Hall on Thursday (thanks, Paul Dalen!). I pretty much loved everything he played, but there was one song he sang that was so intrinsically beautiful I can't remember anything about it. That's how deep inside it traveled.

Jim White's record label is the superb Luaka Bop.

My friend Yale Evelev started Luaka Bop. Yale is the ultimate champion - the chief of the great find. Also, he has the most amazing loft in Soho (at affordable 1980s prices)!

A good week for music...

AND THEN

My friend, Sheila Heti started a metaphysical poll...




This is about to get a lot of press, so go there now and say you were first in line! While you're there look into Sheila's other work. She's a damn fine writer and always doing interesting thought-provoking things. Canadians. So free-spirited.