Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 120
January 25, 2013
MEATY Pre-order happiness now yes.
And totally coming this September from the Samantha Irby and Curbside Splendor.
January 24, 2013
This Book Will Change Your Life - This Isn't Who We Are by Barry Graham.
Work. Travel. Read. We did. Today. Totally. On a plane. On a train. In a cab. And quite This Isn't Who We Are by Barry Graham we were. We also mistakenly dug into a massive, freakishly fast, tomato-laden Jimmy John's sub while reading Whatsoever A Man Soweth or Bloody Mary. But more on that later. We have always thought of the Barry Graham as our Poet Laureate of prostitutes and tacos. We have also thought that as the tacos, prostitutes, gambling, broken homes, violence, and abuse mashed into one another in all their sordid, Graham glory, that what lay beneath was a writer trying to capture all the ways we love and how terribly wrong it all goes as we desperately, and sweatily try to get it and hold on to it. With This Isn't Who We Are Graham continues his sweaty, taco-ridden, rampage through relationships of all kinds. But in doing so, he introduces a new wrinkle to his work, a wrinkle, which in retrospect was probably there all along, a sense of horror. With Whatsoever A Man Soweth or Bloody Mary, there is a bluntness to the horror, but it's there throughout the collection, more subtle, but endlessly lurking, the horror of loss, of families imploded, of mental illness, and love gone explosively wrong. Or if you prefer, the world according to Graham meets American Horror Story. So do grab yourself a taco, if not a sub, and do hit it, it just might change your life.
This Isn't Who We Are by Barry Graham.
Work. Travel. Read. We did. Today. Totally. On a plane. On a train. In a cab. And quite This Isn't Who We Are by Barry Graham we were. We also mistakenly dug into a massive, freakishly fast, tomato-laden Jimmy John's sub while reading Whatsoever A Man Soweth or Bloody Mary. But more on that later. We have always thought of the Barry Graham as our Poet Laureate of prostitutes and tacos. We have also thought that as the tacos, prostitutes, gambling, broken homes, violence, and abuse mashed into one another in all their sordid, Graham glory, that what lay beneath was a writer trying to capture all the ways we love and how terribly wrong it all goes as we desperately, and sweatily try to get it and hold on to it. With This Isn't Who We Are Graham continues his sweaty, taco-ridden, rampage through relationships of all kinds. But in doing so, he introduces a new wrinkle to his work, a wrinkle, which in retrospect was probably there all along, a sense of horror. With Whatsoever A Man Soweth or Bloody Mary, there is a bluntness to the horror, but it's there throughout the collection, more subtle, but endlessly lurking, the horror of loss, of families imploded, of mental illness, and love gone explosively wrong. Or if you prefer, the world according to Graham meets American Horror Story. So do grab yourself a taco, if not a sub, and do hit it, it just might change your life.
January 23, 2013
January 22, 2013
Wherein we celebrate the Pete Anderson's (Kuboa) Wheatyard success.
Like really celebrate it. A lot. Are we being effusive enough? Good. More here. More to come. And mass congratulations brother.
January 21, 2013
New joint. Your Destiny Lies With Me, Skywalker. At The Good Men Project.
New joint indeed. And most thankful we are to the always beautiful Robert Duffer and The Good Men Project for running with it. Excerpt? Cool. "Star Wars is a touchstone for me, even more so as a parent. It represents childhood. Watching it is one of my favorite memories, and yet as popular as it was, it also represents how I was different at one time before I molded myself into something else, something more conformist, and something that involved moving away from comic books and movies like Star Wars, instead choosing to focus on becoming a varsity athlete, getting high, and chasing popular girls.
And while I may have just outgrown whatever Star Wars had once meant to me, I wonder what I gave up along the way, and I find that I am having a battle with myself about who I am, was, and will be, all of which plays into being a parent as well.
For one, it’s me wanting my children to want to experience these movies because they meant so much to me and I want them to mean something to them, something that will allow us to connect in some fashion, but also because it might give them more insight into why I do the things I do, and maybe not now, but later, when they’re trying to figure out who I am, was, and what that means to who they are, and will be."
January 20, 2013
Vaughan. Compton. Lit Pub. Storm.
We do love it so when our friends get together and talk writing, especially when old friends find new friends, and so it is with old friend Robert Vaughan talking with new friend Sheldon Lee Compton at The Lit Pub about a variety of writerly things including his new joint The Same Terrible Storm. Delightful it is. All of it. So please do hit that. Because it just might change your life.
January 19, 2013
Dang. R.I.P. Earl Weaver.
"On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.'" Earl Weaver (1930-2013)
January 18, 2013
This Book Will Change Your Life - The Map of the System of Human Knowledge by James Tadd Adcox.
Books love we. And not just reading them, because love that we do. Immensely and compulsively. But touching them. Running our fingers across the binders. Having the covers pop into our consciousness. And yes, sure, losing ourselves in the blur of words before us, page after page and on and on forever too. This might sound like the start of an anti-ebook rant and while true that we are not so ebook inclined, unless its one of ours and that is the only way you will buy it this is not anti- anything. We don't think? No, this is about book titles. Or more accurately how often we pay much attention to titles at all. Their meaning and intent. The thought that may have gone behind them. Titles are a bit like lyrics in that way for us. They are there and we celebrate that, just enough anyway to figure out what's happening, but otherwise barely pay attention to them. And yet, sometimes a title comes along that is so telling it deserves attention, and such a title is The Map of the System of Human Knowledge, the recent joint by the James Tadd Adcox. Because here is a title that tells you everything you need to know. This is a book about everything, more especially, about learning about everything, dissecting things, relationships mainly, but still all that might be explored and deconstructed. Which isn't to say the title should overshadow the content, and Adcox's linguistically jackhammer-like efforts to rip open everything in his reach and look inside. It's merely a desire to pay tribute to how effectively he tells us what he is going to do and then goes and does it. And that's the thing, he does it, and does it, and does it, searching, exploring, seeking, assessing, everything, seeking not not just answers, but understanding. Which Of course is the thing about understanding. Just because you figure out how to see what lies behind the curtains, and just because doing so may change your life in some fashion, it doesn't mean doing so provides you with a better grasp of why it is there in the first place.
