Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 39
January 19, 2015
January 18, 2015
This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode One Hundred - Really Lucky, starring the Brad Listi.
Drum Roll. Confetti. Laser light show. Fog machine. Champagne. Balloons. Swag bags. And podcast. So much podcast, and our one-hundredth guest, none other than the Brad Listi, host of Other People with Brad Listi. Quite thrilling it is, and quite an honor to have spoken to so many cool people about so many cool things over the years. Here's to one hundred more. Mic drop, and all that. Thanks for listening, and for being you. Please keep coming back. Please share this episode. Please rate the show on iTunes. And please do hit it, and repeatedly as needed, it just might change your life as much as it has changed ours.
January 17, 2015
January 16, 2015
"You really need to read it, and then you'll know." After the Flood is first review. Kindle too. All resemblance to rhyme is purely coincidental.
For real. All of that. And appreciations as well. Excerpt? Word. "The best stuff in this volume though isn't something I can convey by description. It isn't that tangible, too subtle and delicate despite the simultaneous presence of that which is harsh and brutal in life."
January 15, 2015
Most excited we are to be Story Sessions at the Fillet of Solo this Saturday at the Lifeline Theater.
Truth. Most excited. And quite Fillet of Solo. Details here. Totally.
January 14, 2015
"Heavy stories. Heavy and great. I'm already itching to dig into After the Flood." So Different Now. Goodness.
Feels good indeed. And much appreciated. Excerpt? Word."Tanzer has some breathtaking endings in some of these as well, heavy gut shots there was no way I could see coming but might fight someone if they suggested it could be any other way."
January 13, 2015
This Book Will Change Your Life - A Tree Born Crooked by the Steph Post.
We suppose we could tell you how A Tree Born Crooked by the Steph Post evoked similar feelings in us as Justified does, but maybe you would expect that, given the blurbs and her Facebook posts, and our great love for the show. But what does that mean? It means that Post writes a deeply nuanced portrait of a place and the people who live there. That there is an ongoing dance between humor and dread that can leave you dizzy. That her language feels as lived in as the characters themselves. And that the characters, as well as the places they live and happen upon, are not truly all that familiar to so many of us. We don't know trailers and younger brothers named Rabbit. Much less small-time crooks with big time senses of self. Further, we may not know crime novels at all, though A Tree Born Crooked is so much more than that, a story about relationships, and how anger and pettiness, regret and distance, can so profoundly fuck things up, it can feel easier to just stay away. So yes, we can say that too. But really, what we want to say most, well besides what a great, new talent Post is, and how excited we are to see what comes next from her fertile lit brain, is that Post's book did for us what we want all books to do, it made us want to read more, Elmore Leonard and Daniel Woodrell and Donald Ray Pollock and Bonnie Joe Campbell, because we suspect that we will find kindred spirits and kindred voices, and now we want to consume those voices too. A Tree Born Crooked did that for us, and it just might for you as well. What it will certainly do, is change your life, if only for a moment at that.
January 12, 2015
Lost in Space and The Truth of Memoir Tweet hype there is. And it is lovely.
@BenTanzer Read excerpts of Lost in Space in @kerrycohen 's new book. Looking forward to reading it. I like your sense of humor.
— S. Jane Gari (@SJaneGari) January 11, 2015
January 11, 2015
"Tanzer has flexed muscles some writers may never discover they even have." Lost in Space. And massive appreciations to the Revolution John and Sheldon Lee Compton for that.
Massively massive. Excerpt? Word."I carried Ben’s book around the house hunting for my wife after reading this passage. At one point, I stopped and thought, My new goal is write so that I make someone hunt other people down to show them something I’ve written. We should all write this way, I think."
