Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 190

More new book excitement - Fathermucker by Greg Olear.

Quite excited we are about Fathermucker which is coming soon from new BFF Greg Olear. There is a lot more at the Fathermucker site and when we have more to share, we will, for reals.

A Nothing or Next to Nothing review intersection of sorts.

Excited for Nothing or Next to Nothing by TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Barry Graham we are. And when we see a rocking review of it by another TBWCYL, Inc. favorite, in this case the Lavinia Ludlow, even more excitement there is. Loads of excitement in fact. Waves. And buckets. Check it.

"Barry's stories tend to read like bizzaro Twain or Steinbeck, but they seem believable because of his talent to write in grotesque detail. Some of his scenes made me shiver and crave a scalding hot bath with many bars of soap, maybe, to just wash out my eyes. But as vulgar as everything was, I think there's a closet romantic lurking inside Graham's rough-around-the-edges-tough-guy façade and it definitely bubbles up from the caverns of his subconscious and emerges in his writing."

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Thirty-Six - I Miss the Cuddling.

We are Interview Sundays. Yes. We are This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Thirty-Six - I Miss the Cuddling. More yes. And we are way TBWCYL, Inc. favorite and This Zine Will Change Your Life contributor Jesse Bradley. Mass yes. Enjoy. [image error]

A week-ending Knee-Jerk-centric, Tom Selleck-loving, chevron-preferring and most definitely self-serving mustache contest check-in.

The quite fine crew at the quite fine Knee-Jerk magazine want TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer to grow a mustache. They also want to hype their awesomeness, as well as, their 2011 essay and chapbook contests. We of course want to support all that. We also want to sell books. And so, if growing a mustache, or at least talking about it, for now, because there will be growth, sells books and hypes Knee-Jerk, we're all in. The catch, people are voting on five choices, Salvador Dali and Rollie Fingers among others, and while we love them all, we favor "The Tom Selleck," also known as, "the chevron," so please vote, and please vote "The Tom Selleck," but mostly have fun, and hype, all of it, some of it, any of it, it just might change your life, and it will most definitely change ours, even if only briefly, and aesthetically at that.

"Such an engaging, entertaining read." You Can Make Him Like You gets decomP'd. And likes it. A lot.

We promised a double-dose of decomP and here it is, with a most kind review of the You Can Make Him Like You, and much thanks to reviewer and TBWCL, Inc. favorite Spencer Dew. Drinks on us brother when next we meet.

"The set-up for all of this is familiar enough. Keith has a distant father, his wife gets pregnant, he deletes her texts informing him of every time the baby kicks, sneaks a joint with a buddy, wrestles with how trapped he feels. Even Jeff's psychological summation has a whiff of MacGuffin to it: "You're human Keith, deal with it. Confront it, don't run, don't tell a good story, just confront who you are and what hurts you, and scares you and makes you sad. Those are normal reactions to everyday life. You're human. But You Can Make Him Like You is such an engaging, entertaining read precisely because of this suggestion. Tanzer doesn't just want to tell a "good story," he wants to put something real on the page and have it hit his readers right in the heart, the balls, the tear ducts."

"Arousal." And a double-dose of decomP love.

This is the first dose of a double-dose of the always stellar decomP, this dose being our latest quasi-Chicago story "Arousal" which runs in decomP's May issue, and follows on the heels of "The Guy" which ran in the Smalldoggies earlier this week. Big thanks decomP and more soon.

"You know how much The West Wing arouses me sexually?" the wife says.

I do, the combination of Rob Lowe, Mary Louise Parker and progressive politics are clearly too stimulating to ignore.

"I do," I respond, "and whenever you say this I want to tell you that I feel like I'm in a short story. Not a good one necessarily, but definitely a story about us or people like us, white, aging, wannabe, Chicago hipsters who vow to watch The Wire and bemoan the loss of dive bars in the city."

"You definitely like to talk," the wife says.

"I thought that was one of the things you liked about me."

"At one time I did," she says smiling."

"An internal dialogue that's so spot-on." You Can Make Him Like You gets We Are Verspertine'd. And likes it. A lot.

More love. Love for the Brandon Teitz and the thrilling We Are Vespertine. For Tanzer Tuesdays at the site. And for their most kind review of You Can Make Him Like You. Drinks sir when next we meet. For sure.

"Bottom line: I don't think I will ever read anything that captures the mind of the late-thirties American male the way this book did, this delicate tightrope of fearing what the future holds and hoping that the best days aren't already gone. Tanzer weaves this all together in a very non-heavy-handed kind of way, disguised in the bullshit conversations you have with friends, the train of thought when temptation lurks, and the ticking time-bomb that is childbirth. We all have to grow up sometime, and whether it's Tanzer simply recalling his experiences or something wholly conjured—I'm not sure I care. It works. I feel a little bit older, a little bit wiser, a little bit more prepared for the future…whatever it may hold for me."

"The Guy." At the Smalldoggies.

We are loving the Matty Byloos and his all his Smalldoggies action. Today we are especially appreciative that he has run our new joint "The Guy" on the Smalldoggies site. This piece is part of a string of quasi-interconnected Chicago stories we've been working on including pieces at Atticus Books, Thunderclap and Metazen, with hopefully more to come. Again, big thanks brother and drinks on us for sure when next we meet.

"Here's the thing. You were the guy.

That guy. The cool one. The good-looking one.

You were the guy.

There's always a guy, the one that the women and the older married guys at the office gravitate to. The guy is inevitably new and probably young, though the guy doesn't have to be young if he's attractive and dynamic. The guy doesn't even have to be friendly. In fact, it never hurts the guy to be somewhat removed, distant and moody.

It's about freshness. And it's about office life and the lack of exposure to the new and different. Sameness breeds need and desire.

Of course, it's also about safety, people at work are supposed to be safe, like your family is supposed to be safe. You can take chances at work, not real chances mind you, but you can not quite be yourself at work and yet be yourself all at once. You want to flirt, you flirt. It's work. You want to be more like the geek you wish you could be, you geek. It's work. And having the guy there makes this possible. The guy strives to be non-judgmental, because unlike you the guy knows that work is just work and so he just wants to enjoy the attention.

The fact is, for most of us work is everything and the guy makes that palatable.

And you were the guy."

You Can Make Him Like You Beauty Bar release party video love.

Big thanks to the Jason Pettus and the whole crew at CCLaP.

Interview Sundays are back. And Knee-Jerk sublimeness.

So happy to have Interview Sundays back in the house. Doubly happy we are the interviewee. Self-absorbed we know. Triply happy for said mostly-magical interview to appear in the always awesome Chicago-based Knee-Jerk magazine. And fourthly happy that said interviewer is the always lovely Lauryn Allison and that in fact this is quasi-part two to our earlier interview in the Barrelhouse. That's a lot, and yet, there is one more thing you should know, Knee-Jerk's 2011 Essay and Chapbook Contests are nigh, and upon us, so get on it, submit, feel the Knee-Jerk love, and maybe, just maybe change you life. Nice, right? Way.


Mine too. I went to school for writing and the community was very tight, so there was this sense that a success for one was a success for us all. But I always felt like it was important not to lose sight of the fact that it's a competition on some level too.

It is a competition. It's funny you bring that up because it's something I've been thinking about a lot. It is absolutely a competition, but I think we can use that as a springboard. For example, Alan Heathcock, whose short story collection Volt came out about a month or so ago and has just fucking blown up. It's really hard for me to articulate how excited I am about that, even though I hardly know him. To me, he's a guy who was swinging at the fences for a long time and writing great stuff, and now he's getting national recognition. So, top of the list: that's awesome. I've met him and he's great, so that makes me even more happy. He's a dad writer, so you know—