Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 146
June 10, 2012
June 9, 2012
"This is a collection of short pieces of a comedic bent...More good stuff from Tanzer. Check it out." This American Life gets some Goodreads love And likes it. A lot.
A real lot. So thank you to the Tim Frederick for that. And drinks on us, for sure, when next we meet."This is a collection of short pieces of a comedic bent. Stand outs like Ira Glass Wants to Hit Me, Hate You, and Jesus Walks get at "deeper stuff" beneath the funny. More good stuff from Tanzer. Check it out."
June 8, 2012
New joint. May The Force Be With You. Untoward.
And big thanks to the Matt Rowan and Untoward for that. Excerpt? Cool."In a panic, I quickly look around for my nitroglycerine tablets. I spy them on my nightstand. I struggle to raise my hand into the air, beckon them to come to me, and watch as they hurtle across the room before shakily landing in my palm. I take a moment to regain my strength. I wipe my brow, then fight the childproof cap and take my pill. I drink some water. And I am calm again."
June 7, 2012
This Book Will Change Your Life - Half A Life by Darin Strauss.
Read. Travel. Rinse. Repeat. You know the drill. Our drill anyway. And so it is that we have read Half A Life by Darin Strauss, not so much a rumination on death, as much a rumination on living with death, a death you directly played a role in, if not outright caused. Which is different, much different than musing about the death of someone that you had nothing to do with, the death, not the person, and can't escape. And yes, we are projecting here, thinking about My Father's House and the recent interview we did in Rain Taxi. In that interview we talked about listening to Strauss talk about Half A Life. Strauss commented on how it had to be a memoir, and listening to him made us think about how the foundational material in My Father's House had ultimately felt like it had to be fiction, that we needed more latitude than real life seemed to allow us. Mind you that was before we read the book, and mind you, it's not that we're sure we feel any different now, but we are struck that as intimate and and tortured as one might be regarding the experience of losing someone you love, it seems impossible that it can ever be as intimate or tortured as a death you play a role in. We're also struck that we have absolutely no sense how torturous this must be, and even a book as well-crafted, and moving, as this one feels like it must barely capture what the second half of Strauss' life must have truly been like. Finally, any number of people have commented on how brave Strauss was to write all of this down, and it is brave of course, but it is also what writer's do, especially great writers like Strauss. They write, everything they know, everything they experience, they have to, they have no choice. Given this, we would like to offer a different take on the narrative surrounding Half A Life. And that take is this, what makes Strauss brave, is that even as he has struggled with and against this tragedy, he has somehow been able to live not just a writing life, but any life at all.
June 6, 2012
Dang. R.I.P. Ray Bradbury.
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)
June 5, 2012
"Tanzer balances smart social commentary with humor at times bordering on surreal." This American Life gets Murder Your Darlings'd. And likes it. A lot.
Big thanks to the much cool CL Bledsoe and Murder Your Darlings for some most kind words about This American Life. Drinks on us for sure yo, whenever, and wherever, we next meet. Now, how about some excerpt? Cool. "Many of Tanzer’s characters are quirky, self-absorbed, and often oblivious to the inappropriateness of their own actions, but also driven to achieve, at times, nearly impossible goals. It’s this juxtaposition that usually gets them into trouble."
June 4, 2012
This Book Will Change Your Life - The Damnation of Memory by Mark R. Brand.
Travel. Read. Planes. Trains. Read. Read. Read. Which brings us to The Damnation of Memory by the Mark R. Brand. So much to think and feel with this book, a book highly indebted we think to The Road, among other sources, but The Road for sure. Which is tricky in a way. What does it mean to compare a book to one of the best books of the last decade? Do you risk over-hyping it? Or possibly overshadowing it? What about people who don't like The Road, find it too dark or sad? We don't know what to say about that, but there is journey, end of the world ruminations, and fathers and sons. And yet, its different as well, being indebted to something is not being something, and Damnation is something else, bleak, but not stark, with more nuance and room to breath, the relationships, and the world, less black and white. The story is also less propulsive, and more like life itself, looking forwards, even as we look backwards, and sideways. And all of this makes for a relentlessly absorbing read that is sad and dark and ultimately also akin to other stories about the road, not just The Road, especially Of Mice of Men, less journey maybe, then being set loose in a world that has no place for you. Though maybe it does, but not exactly, and ultimately not at all. We should add here, that we are fans of Brand's earlier work, and Brand once said to us that he appreciated our appreciation of his debut novel Red Ivy Afternoon, but it felt so old to him now and didn't necessarily reflect how he had grown and where he was going. Authors say this all the time, all artists do, but we have to say that Brand did speak the truth here, Red Ivy Afternoon is an absorbing read for sure, but Damnation is a leap forward, richer, with a more varied voice and grasp of description, and this is a wonderful thing to see, and experience, and we hope you will see it and experience it too, because if you do, we think it just might change your life. 
June 3, 2012
June 1, 2012
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. All full of Measuring. And Thurgood.
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. We have a new story, The Measuring by John Patrick Thurgood, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and mistrial prose love from Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy this edition and we appreciate all shout-outs and links. Finally, please note, we are hoping more of you will submit comix, and music, novel excerpts, and art, and video, yes, video, and combinations there of. And most finally, Johan Santana. That's all.[image error]
"ON THE MORNING OF BEN TANZER, 2012 (notes from a fortune-telling)." Or if you prefer, a view and a yell, and some most beautious Tomaloffian Ben Tanzer birthday fiction.
Most beautious it is. And something else, more, more than appreciated, more than moving, just more. Thanks bro."iii.
In the last photograph from the bottom right-hand corner, a man holds a camera pointed in the direction of the man of the hour. You move your head. The wall behind you appears. On this wall, backwards in your view, is a banner produced using a dot matrix printer in the summer of 1986. You do not recognize anything else on this wall. The banner reads, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN. YOUR FUTURE IS EVERY POSSIBLE CONNOTATION OF THE WORDS HAND & GRENADE."
