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The response to the first chapter of my new humor novel, Million Dollar Ideas (about a couple of screenwriters in a slightly surreal version of '40s Hollywood), was very gratifying, and now I've posted Chapter 2 on two sites: http://edandjohnny.blogspot.com and Red Room, the new online writers' community. My collaborator on this is Will Jacobs, with whom I wrote The Trouble with Girls, The Beaver Papers and many pieces for National Lampoon...and we are both hungry for comments! Thanks!
Laura Fraser has won the 2008 International Association of Culinary Professionals essay award for "Food for the Heart" in EatingWell Magazine.
Congratulations, Laura!
Hey folks, here's my latest, a short op-ed essay on the disastrous Farm Bill
about to be passed through Congress. Hope you can give a quick read and pass
along to friends and colleagues. This isn't just a farming issue, this bill
defines our food and fiber and the future of our environment and public
health, among other things.
George Birimisa, Diane DiPrima, and Steve Susoyev will be reading from Return to the Caffe Cino, a collection of plays originally performed at the Manhattan club credited with launching the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. Birimisa, now 83, was the first openly gay playwright to receive a Rockefeller Grant and wrote many groundbreaking works, including Daddy Violet, Georgie Porgie, and Looking For Mr. America.
From the book:
"[Caffe Cino] was a coffee-house, a theatre, a brothel, a temple, a flophouse, a dope-ring, a launching pad, an insane asylum, a safe-house, and a sleeper cell for an unnamed revolution..."
Tuesday, Apr 22, 7:30 pm @ Different Light Bookstore, Castro bet 17th & 18th.
The Washington Post ran a nice feature today on Meatpaper, the meat-centric magazine published by Grotto wife (or at least my wife) Amy Standen and Sasha Wizansky.
"They are on to something," Peter Carlson writes, "the notion that meat, and the endless variety of rituals, symbolism and taboos surrounding it, can tell us a lot about our fellow humans."
(Carlson also ponders whether my own feature in the latest issue, "Sweat Sock: The Other White Meat," was written with the assistance of much alcohol. I resemble that remark.)
More info about Meatpaper itself right here.
Saturday, April 19, 7pm at The Makeout Room- 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco, (415) 647 2888
Price: $10 - $20, sliding scale at the doorAll Funds Go To Saving Rent Control!Readers:With special guests- The Progressive Reading Series All Star Minstrels!And Extra Extra special Guest- Board Of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin!!The progressive reading series happens on the third Saturday of every month though the 2008 election at 7pm at the Makeout Room in San Francisco. get on the Progressive Reading email list by sending an email to:
Gerard Jones is now serializing his new novel, Million Dollar Ideas online, one chapter a month, at this link: http//edandjohnny.blogspot.com.
It's a funny novel about a couple of Hollywood screenwriters in '40s, with a surreal twist. Gerry cowrote the book with Will Jacobs, his old collaborator from back when they were regular writers for National Lampoon. Yes, that National Lampoon - it's a wonder Gerry is able to keep his puckishness under wraps as well as he does. See those wraps come completely off in Million Dollar Ideas.
Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power is launching a radio documentary he co-produced/reported with American Radio Works. It's out today: Check out CIR's website: www.centerforinvestigativereporting.org. Airs on KQED on April 25 and 29...meantime it's up on the web...Mark holed up here to write his book and is threatening to come for lunch...
The super-informative Grotto Notes didn't go out this month because there's some stuff going on with our list server. But you can still read them here.
