Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 189

15 Views of Orlando? Yes. And quite digging it.

Please file this under dispatch from new BFF Nathan Holic. And coolness. What is this you ask? What are you being asked to file? The 15 Views of Orlando project from Burrow Press. Excited we are. Life changing you. So hit it. [image error]

Dang. R.I.P. Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

"Bow down to the kingdom of the madness!" Randy "Macho Man" Savage (1952 - 2011)

A most sweet YMTE 8x8 Podcast edition live reading and performance thing.

Most enjoyed this, a live reading, or dare we say, performance, of Daddy Dreariest, a piece originally run in THE2NDHAND and soon to be appearing in This American Life, as part of the most awesome Podcast edition of the most awesome YMTE 8x8 show. Much fun indeed, big thanks to the whole YMTE crew, and way geeked in general to not only be in the company of so many fine comedians, but more specifically the quite killer Wood Sugars. More on them soon. For sure.

We Are Vespertine interview.

There is more Tanzer Tuesdays at the We Are Vespertine, and yes we are a day late as we were last week, well, and the one before last, but we are no less geeked, and quite appreciative, and today we are interview. Big thanks Vespertine. And drinks, many, on us, when next you're here, July, yes? Yes.


What can we look forward to next from Ben Tanzer?
We are very focused right now at TBWCYL, Inc. headquarters on expanding the various lines of our growing lifestyle brand, so there is a denim collection in the works; condoms, and sponges, do people still use those, the latter, not the former; and now that Liz Taylor has passed, may she rest in peace, perfume for sure. I'm always prepping for the X Games, you know, just in case. And in the literary universe, I have a humor collection called This America Life coming out this summer from Achilles Chapbook Press which gathers pieces of mine that have been published over the last several years and then sometime soon thereafter I have novella titled My Father's House coming out from Main Street Rag which is intended to be both an extended riff on losing a parent and an homage to The Basketball Diaries. I'm also working on a science fiction joint, and we'll see how that turns out.

"I Am Richard Simmons" gets some Short Story Month 2011 love.

Big thanks to TBWCYL, Inc. favorite, This Zine Will Change Your Life contributor and This Podcast Will Change Your Life podcastee BL Pawelek for showing "I Am Richard Simmons" some Short Story Month 2011 review love. Big thanks as well to the Matt Bell for the orchestration and to J.A. Tyler and the ml press for first giving this piece life. And now some excerpt.

"Richard Simmons was me? It was a radical thought which took me a few months to accept. For the same reasons of hope, love, transformation to something better… I thought I was Henry Rollins. Maybe I can be both. Maybe I can be Ben Tanzer too."

A This Podcast Will Change Your Life Special Edition, Episode Thirty-Seven - Stranger Will.

Excited we are to support TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Caleb J. Ross on the Stranger Will Tour for Strange by hosting today's tour stop with this new special edition episode of This Podcast Will Change Your Life. We are also happy to report that this is our first edition done via the Skype, and while the first couple of exchanges are a little more "tinny" than we are accustomed to, this distraction quickly passes as Caleb's strange brilliance, eloquence and fine looks quickly rise to the fore. So, please do take a listen, please do visit other stops on the tour and most definitely obtain a copy of the book as recently did, and more on that soon, because it will for sure change your life. And strangely at that.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. Full of Chris Castle. And all Buster. And Tank.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. And all Buster. And Tank. We have a new story, Buster and Tank by old friend Chris Castle, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and mayoral transition 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, and art, and video, yes, video, and combinations there of. And most finally, Go Bulls.

Sophomoric Philosophy and TNBBC's The Next Best Book Blog. Most beautious.

Quite happy we are to see this most beautious review of TBWYL, Inc. favorite and This Podcast Will Change Your Life podcastee Victor David Giron's Sophomoric Philosophy from TBWYL, Inc. favorite and killer supporter TNBBC's The Next Best Book Blog.

"Filled with a lifetime worth of drug use, sex, partying, and havoc-wreaking, Sophomoric Philosophy is going to speak loudest to those of us who have reluctantly given up our 20's and firmly refuse to stare our rapidly approaching 40's in the eye. Giron is not afraid to make his narrator look like an asshole, openly admits his fear of making the first move on the fairer sex, and dispels the whole opposite-sex-being-friends myth by exposing it for what it really is."

You Can Make Him Like You Goodreads review love.

Blogger may be trying to keep us down, but the people have spoken, well they have posted reviews anyway, and we are quite geeked by two new reviews for You Can Make Him Like You on the Goodreads.

The first is from our newest BFF, and maybe bestest BFF, Kate who wrote among other things:

"Ben Tanzer = pop culture
Ben Tanzer = PopRocks! of literature
Ben Tanzer = rock star

Ben Tanzer is all these things but most importantly a phenomenal writer that I am glad to know."

And the second is from our other newest, favoritest BFF Anne who wrote:

"Frankly, I don't read nearly enough modern-day pop culture novels. Do you? Feels like every day I'm only offered upmarket literary novels with excessively trick-making plots or the experimental novel written in dense prose that is good for me (like, say, spinach) and yet, admittedly, I can only handle in very small doses. Sure, those have their place and I wouldn't dismiss them. But the world needs more novels like this one, slightly satirical, funny, emotive, a reflection of life itself."

Big thanks to you both, and drinks, many on us, when next we meet.

More Vespertine. More Tanzer Tuesdays. More appreciation. And some "Good Parents."

There is more "Tanzer Tuesdays" at the We Are Vespertine and we are once again a day late, but most appreciative. Last week there was You Can Make Him Like You review and this week there is new New York story, "The Good Parents." Please feel free to imbibe, big thanks to the Vespertine crew and some excerpt.

"The baby was born on a cold, upstate winter's night, kicking and screaming. It was a boy and they named him Joe. Other names were more popular, and more interesting, but how many Cameron's did the world need? And what kind of message would they send giving him a name like Holden? We like to read? We like to be different? We hope our son is one day punched in the stomach by a hateful concierge cum pimp after running off to New York City? No, Joe was good, sturdy, and safe, and they liked that."