Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 206

100,673.

Cause and effect?

Embarrassment. Awesomeness. My Father's House. Pre-order half-price madness.

On the heels, or maybe its prior to the heels, of the upcoming release of TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer's new novel You Can Make Him Like You from Artistically Declined this coming February, Main Street Rag Publishing Company has decided to publish his (other) new book My Father's House, hence both the embarrassment and the awesomeness. The book is scheduled for release next July and will sell for $9.95, but you can get it now for a mere $5.50 + shipping by placing an Advance Discount order from the Main Street Rag Online Bookstore, or if you are more inclined to pay by check, they are $8.75 each including tax and shipping. Please remember that ordering in advance does not mean you will receive the book prior to July, but you can get it for a mere $5.50. Did we already mention that? We would also really appreciate it if you would consider sharing this information with every person you've ever met, ever, anywhere, Rabbi's, prom dates, exterminators, etc., not to mention maybe plugging it on your blogs and the Facebook. Thanks in advance for the support and interest, and for your reading pleasure we have included a brief synopsis below. Finally, please note that the cover is illustrated by Ben Tanzer's late father Michael Tanzer and we are hoping that wherever he is, he is digging that.

Inspired by The Basketball Diaries, My Father's House is an homage to the sparse lyricism of Bruce Springsteen and the slamming, punchy storytelling of The Ramones. Both raw and humorous, it is a tale of illness and coping, fathers and sons, and the birth of the writer. It explores compulsions and confusion, and how it is we deal with grief, ghosts and our inability to communicate what we feel and think and need despite our every desire to do so. With nods to JFK Jr., Ray Bradbury, Magnolia and all things in between, My Father's House is a journey that begins by asking whether we can ever know death, and along the way shows us that if even if we cannot, it doesn't mean we shouldn't face it, embrace it, run with it and ultimately let it wash over us like a song.

New joint. Staff Meeting at Curbside Splendor. Sweetness.

Big thanks to Victor David Giron and the crew at Curbside Splendor for running our new piece Staff Meeting. It is much appreciated and we hope you will take a look. We also hope it changes your life, because that's what we do, care about you and your happiness. Now, how about some excerpt? Awesome.

"I should begin by telling you that what I have to say unquestionably hurts me more than it hurts you. But I won't, because that would be selfish, self-serving and self-indulgent.

Further, this isn't about me and it never was. It's about you and how you know that I know that you know that you would rather not have to have this conversation at all.

Still, while I will not dwell on how I have suffered in preparing for this conversation, I will tell you that I have been struggling for weeks now to maintain an erection, something I am proud to say, had otherwise not been a concern for me since I gave up sniffing glue in the late eighties."

Nostalgia. Grandiosity. Excitement. And thankful. Definitely thankful.

Earlier today, we stumbled into a podcast we did with the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography almost three years ago to the day surrounding the release of Lucky Man and all that had started happening around the book. It was a wonderful time and so many wonderful things have happened since and it made us feel very thankful for all the support and love we have received during this time. It also got us excited about all to come and how much we look forward to sharing it with everyone. Huh. Pause. What just happened, not sure, but there you go, our lives have changed, and for the better, and for that we are most appreciative. Thanks everyone.

Fix It Broken.

We would have been quite geeked about the debut issue of lit zine Fix It Broken based on the mere fact that it features a collaborative piece between long-time TBWCYL, Inc. favorites Barry Graham and Peter Schwartz, but imagine our excitement when we learned that each issue will feature a Fashionable Fiction winner whose story will be turned into a T-shirt. Awesomeness. Just the idea of it has changed our lives.

2,029,071.

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And now for a non-Petting Zoo Jim Carroll moment.

"It was a dream, not a nightmare, a beautiful dream I could never imagine in a thousand nods. There was a girl next to me who wasn't beautiful until she smiled and I felt that smile come at me in heat waves following, soaking through my body and out my finger tips in shafts of color and I knew somewhere in the world, somewhere, that there was love for me." Jim Carroll, The Basketball Diaries

KICKSTARTER action. THE2NDHAND. And El Vocho.

There are two KICKSTARTER campaigns happening right now that we are most excited about and want to let you know about as well.

The first is by the always sublime THE2NDHAND, a long-time supporter of TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer's work, and their efforts to fund a massively awesome literary celebration of THE2NDHAND's now ten plus years of publishing.



And the second is by long-time TBWCYL, Inc. favorite and This Zine Will Change Your Life contributor Steve Lafler and his efforts to fund the balance of shipping and printing costs for his terrific new graphic novel El Vocho.



We hope you will take a look at both of these campaigns and consider offering them your support, it may or may not change your life, but it will certainly make the lives of these artists that much easier.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live and all about moms and children and Beckman of course. Or something like that.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live and all about moms and children. Or something like that. We have a new piece M...is For by Paul Beckman, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and compromised tax 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 video, yes, video, and combinations there of. And most finally, we want to give a shout-out to the street artist and Marine SURE whose work we are highlighting this week and who recently lost his life in Afghanistan. If you want to learn more about SURE please do check out the below video as well.

One Forty Fiction. Human Rights Week. And Glen Binger. Bam.

Man, we totally stumbled into One Forty Fiction's Human Rights Week postings today and were really floored, crushed even, there is some really good, and moving, stuff here, though we were especially taken with TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Glen Binger's joint "Taking My Right To Live," which we have pasted below.

"Hold still while I drill through your hands," he smiles, teeth glowing. "If you taut your arms, I can't stretch you on my wall properly."

Bam.