My first stop was Tuesday, November 29th at Manhattan's McNally Jackson Books where I was invited to be part of their "Ask me about..." series of book talks. Each of these events, co-hosted by Time Out New York, focuses on a particular classic novel which, presumably, nearly everyone has heard of but very few have read. Here is the exterior of that fine store...
As always, I enjoy seeing my book on display in stores...
I never thought I would finally see one of these, but here it is...
Me, just before the event kicks off, with from left to right The Gospel of Anarchy author Justin Taylor and Tin House editor Rob Spillman...
The evening was appropriately lubricated by copious amounts of delicious Whale's Tale Pale Ale courtesy of Nantucket's Cisco Brewers. And yes, I drank my fair share...
We kicked off the night with some mesmerizing music from Therese Cox of the band Balthrop, Alabama, who sang like an angel and played the accordion as fiercely as a demon...
Time Out New York's editor Matthew Love got the book talkin' started with in a suitably rousing manner...
And here I am, doing my thing. And, oddly enough, looking like I am singing a gospel song or something. Must've been all the Whale's Tale Pale Ale...
After all my boring book talking, the stage was commandeered by the Pequod Players who put on the best abbreviated version of Moby-Dick ever. This is three of the four of them, all playing multiple parts, of course. And very ably, I might add...
The close of the performance by the Pequod Players. That's their Captain Ahab lying dead on the ground there...
Again with the talented and beautiful Therese Cox, holding her copy of my book...
And chillin' with Matthew Love, who was genuinely awesome...
After all of that, it was off to my wife's favorite restaurant, Tsampa in St. Mark's Place...
We can never resist a quick visit to the esteemed St. Mark's Bookshop where we always spend far too much time and money. But it was a great thrill and a great honor to see my own book on the shelf there, and in the fine fine company of Walt Kelly's Pogo: Through the Wild Blue Yonder...
The next day dawned bright, clear and cold, and my wife and I were off to Philadelphia on the Amtrak train. This was my first ever train ride, not counting many short jaunts on the Long Island Railroad from White Plains, New York into Grand Central. I was ludicrously excited, and here I am holding up my ticket...
Also, considerably less excited, here is my wife. Sleeping. She's going to punch me for posting this...
My first Philadelphia event was a radio interview with Peter Crimins of WHYY. This is their building...
And here I am in the booth talking to Peter...
We had a few hours to ourselves, so we spent that gazing at the vast assortment of monstrosities in Philadelphia's own Mutter Museum. It was indeed disturbingly informative and I highly recommend it, especially if you want to see real soap ladies, megacolons, deformed fetuses, and so on. So cool...
After dinner, we rushed off to the Rosenbach Museum and Library. I thought I had already seen the most amazing museum at the Mutter, but the Rosenbach topped it and then some. An absolutely astonishing repository of literature, vast bookshelves full of gorgeous editions of so many books it boggles the mind, rooms full of art and sculpture and furniture and all of it steeped in the history of Philadelphia and the United States. My wife and I were very kindly given a private tour of the museum by their incredibly generous staff, and I was able to actually see some of Melville's own furniture, gaze in wonder at some of Maurice Sendak's original drawings, and so much more. What's even more amazing is that the Rosenbach is not only a museum, it is a library! And its collection is accessible! Anyone that is anywhere near Philadelphia owes it to themselves to spend some time here.
Alright, that's probably enough of my gushing. Here is the outside, very unassuming...
And here I am, talking to a fantastic crowd about Moby-Dick, my art and my book...
Signing, after the talk (and very happy to be doing so)...
Then off to Philadelphia's delightful Brickbat Books. They graciously held the store open much later than usual for my event, and treated me with exceptional kindness...
My favorite event picture ever. I think that is the owner's wife staring at the camera, and she was awesome and outspoken and down to earth and really cool to get to know. As was the owner, but you probably guessed that from my description of his wife. I really liked this event. It was a very small, very intimate event and really felt a lot more like a conversation with friends then a book talk.
One thing I will never get used to is people giving me gifts for stuff like this, but I do deeply appreciate it. The folks at the Rosenbach made for me this beautiful little handmade blank book with silkscreened whale covers inside...
And later I spent way way too much money at Brickbat Books, although these books are all treasures. From left to right are the Calla Editions copy of East of the Sun and West of the Moon illustrated by Kay Nielsen, Vovo by demented Japanese artist Ichiba Daisuke, a 1966 children's book called No End of Nonsense with verse by Jack Prelutsky and wonderful illustrations by Wilfred Blecher and a true treasure, a self-published Moebius collection titled Chasseur DePrime in original black and white. It's mostly "Airtight Garage" stories and is huge and gorgeous...
Two more massive zines here. The left, again, from Ichiba Daisuke and the right from self-taught artist Chris Hipkiss...
Part 2 in just a bit...
0 comments:
Post a Comment