Laurie Sandell's Blog, page 367

Outside my old college haunt in Madison, WI

[image error]Note to self: If you do not want to feel old, do not revisit the bar you used to frequent in college, The Kollege Klub. Do not breeze past the bouncer and shoot him a quizzical, "Need my I.D.?" look, only to have him look past you to the dewy droplet of girlhood standing behind you. Do not sit at a table filled with pitchers of beer, sipping a club soda. Pay no attention to the Michigan Lacrosse team, trying to get your attention by yelling, "Hey, Cougars! Come dance with us!" Do not yawn...

OK, I have a confession to make

[image error]Last night's reading in Chicago went well, though it was empty–absolutely empty–for the first 15 minutes, since it was pouring rain and there was a Cubs game in town. I thought, well, this is what I've heard about from writer friends, and I guess it's my turn to experience the humiliation. There were literally two people there when I began–one crazy guy and the woman who was there to introduce me–and then a few more people trickled in, and by the time I finished reading, the house was full...

I'm off to Chicago to read from my book

[image error]I'm sitting here in the American Airlines Admiral's Lounge, a privilege for which I pay roughly $400 a year, and let me tell you, it's worth every damned penny. I'm one of those people who likes to get to the airport 24 hours before my flight is scheduled to take off, so there is no chance whatsoever that I will miss it. Which means I'm usually sitting in the airport, twiddling my thumbs–and/or inhaling tabloids–for hours. There is a huge difference between sitting here or in the terminal...

Peter Maass on our Crude World

[image error]Last night I went to Half King to hear my friend Peter Maass read from his new book, Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil. Peter is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, and a former war reporter (his lovely wife, Alissa, also a writer, put the kibosh on that, duh), and  an all-around brilliant guy. He also has a powerful freestyle stroke–I know this because I saw him swim across the lake all summer long when the three of us met at Blue Mountain Center a few years ago–and a...

Banished from your family? Invent your own

[image error]Today is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Not that I have anything to atone for. My book isn't even a bestseller, and I owe a shitload of taxes, and I still can't find my Leica camera. So personally, I think G-d should just give me a pass and inscribe me in The Book of Life–which, last I checked, hasn't hit The New York Times bestseller list, either. This marks the second holiday since my book has come out that it would be a leeetle awkward to have dinner with my family. So last...

Fits and stops and starts

[image error]That headline pretty much describes my writing style. I'll have a few weeks where I can't write fast enough, am glued to my chair in whatever coffee shop I happen to be working in, and feel breakthroughs happening all over the place. Then I'll hit a wall and stop completely. It's not w—-s b—-k, per say (I'm not even going to type that phrase, but I'll link to it on Wikipedia so you know what I'm talking about), but it is a very annoying style of working that drops me into the camp of "slow" w...

Finally, a great fall film: Coco Before Chanel

[image error]Saw the movie last night with (a very cranky) Amanda and her boyfriend, Dave. We drove into the city, and Amanda was annoyed because she felt sure I wasn't going to be able to find a parking spot. Well, I proved her wrong. We found a spot on 19th St., in front of a restaurant called Socarrat Paella Bar. I'd gone there with my cousin Jaimie a few weeks before, and the avuncular, verging-on-obese owner fell in love her at first sight. He seated us at a special table for friends and family in...

Books bring people out of the woodwork

[image error]It's really funny: One byproduct of putting a book out into the world is that you hear from all kinds of people you thought you'd never talk to again. Ex-boyfriends, high school chums, ex-coworkers, even long-lost relatives pop up out of nowhere to say congratulations and hello. Not that it's a bad thing, it's really cool and funny, but it does give one a little jolt. Today, I got an e-mail, out of the blue, from an ex-boyfriend from college (hi, Avi!) who may or may not be reading this...

What color is your mustache?

[image error]This is a problem. I honestly can't tell the difference between a hipster mustache and a regular, run-of-the-mill one. In other words, I'm no longer able to distinguish between slouchy hipsters nursing hangovers, and regular, blue collar guys on their way to work. Clothing sometimes helps, but not always, because these days, hipsters don everything from collar shirts to button-downs, not just ironic tees from Urban Outfitters that say things like, "I Only Like New York As a Friend." As a...

A book reading followed by a celebrity interview

[image error]Last night's reading at KGB went really well; the house was packed! I was fascinated by Jeff Sharlet's reading about his infiltration of the "quasi-cult" The Family. After the reading, I grabbed a bite with my friend Saïd (author of a wonderful memoir called When Skateboards Will Be Free), then headed uptown to do a celebrity interview for Glamour, which was scheduled for 11:00 PM. (Just a tad past my bedtime: I was yawning in the car.) Sadly, I can't reveal the name of the celeb since it's f...