phineas by proxy
10/25/2004 @ 12:37 pm Comments (13)heads up velvet dwellers. if you are planning to hit Tuesday night’s reading at book soup on the Sunset Strip, be advised: there’s an outside chance I may not actually be there. but believe me, you will want to attend anyway. as you may or may not know, my wife penelope is due to have our baby any day now. we are at def con 5, people. and in the event that the wee bundle decides to arrive tonight or tomorrow, I have a stunt double lined up in the form of brother Clevenger, who is much nicer than me anyway and no doubt better groomed. so here’s the deal. should penelope and I go to battle stations, Craig has agreed to travel south in my ’stead and read selected scenes from Hell’s Half Acre and maybe, just maybe, throw in a special sneak peek at something tasty and still dripping and never before seen that would sure as hell be worth the price of admission.
breathe, baby.
-wcb
pete’s candy
10/23/2004 @ 9:38 am Comments (16)miles to go before I sleep and I’m back in California after 36 hour transcontinental turnaround to do a reading at pete’s candy store in Williamsburg, the dark heart of Brooklyn. first, I gotta say that Pete’s is by far the coolest little venue I’ve ever done a reading. the space is like a cross between a Twin Peaks theater set and some sort of warped sunshine goth chapel. if you live in the nyc area I highly recommend you make pete’s a regular Thursday night stop. so thanks to mira and allison and all the pete’s folk. thanks to Dennis and Josh for watching my back and getting me there on time. And big thanks to the velvet posse who journeyed from parts unknown. naked dan and his buddy who practically went awol to get there, james, Ferg, mick and anybody I’m forgetting, sound off below. it was a real pleasure to meet you guys and warmed my heart like a glove. for those of you who missed it, there are some photos posted in the Misc section and to recreate in your skull I read two scenes from Hell’s Half Acre: the sex scene in chapter 12 where Jude comes in colors and Phineas gets paranoid about curious George, and the improvised love scene between Jeremy and Daphne in chapter 28, where Daphne’s head splashes through the window and the escaped monkey lands on the hood of the car. I was pretty delirious from zero sleep and yuingling beer and I was losing my voice a little toward the end but it was easily my favorite reading thus far. next fall, when I hit the road with Clevenger, we will definitely stop in at the candy store and blow the place out.
promises to keep.
-wcb
the skin remembers
10/3/2004 @ 1:14 pm Comments (16)not to be a bastard but sometimes I can’t help myself. I feel like the kid on the playground with an ice cream cone torturing the kids who got jack.. Clevenger hit me with the first five chapters of Dermaphoria the other day and I have two words for it: mindfucking good. if you haven’t sampled the dermaphoria synopsis offered up by Pat Walsh, taste the ice cream here.. and when you get down on your knees at night to pray to god your soul to keep, mutter a little extra prayer of godspeed to Craig so he can get this beautiful mutant of a novel out by next fall. and speaking of Godspeed, I wanted to mention that I might not be around for a while, neither here nor in the velvet. I need to go under for a time and work on the new book and I have a strict zero internet rule when I’m working. so while there may be no new blogs for a few weeks there will still be presents under the tree. mirka, dennis, and kareem will continue providing links to new interviews and reviews as soon as they hit the pavement, and they will also unveil the promised sample pages of the judas graphic novel and screenplay within the next month, with announcements in the velvet. so please, play nice. stop hitting your brother. and if I hear any swear talk I’m gonna pull this car over..
going under.
-wcb