Beast Crawl

It's interesting. When I try and use digital techniques specifically as labor-savers, either they look cheap and crappy or they turn out to look good but not save me any labor at all. I'm regarding this experiment as falling into the latter category. Click on this pup -- I'm quite pleased by the abstract shapes that make up the areas of tone.

Have you ever heard of LitQuake? It's a San Francisco literary event that's based on a pub-crawl model. People go from one bar to another to hear a bunch of different writers read.

The first time I attended a reading, it was LitPunk, a counterculture alternative to LitQuake. I know, I just said, "The right wing of the Republican party," but that's how it was. I was there primarily to see John Shirley read, and I walked away determined to read myself. Here's what I said at the time -- if you know me these days, you'll see how much things have changed.

Anyway. Last Friday there was another Lip Service West performance. I wasn't on the bill, but I'd been intending to go anyway -- the current venue is within walking distance of my house, so it's hard to make the excuses good.

But I'd had a hard week. A baaaaaaad week. I might blog about it later. But I wasn't gonna go.

Joe bugged me, so I went.

People, take heed of this. If you want me to do something, bug me. It works, mostly.

Anyway, it was a good time. I ran into old friends Maria Sanchez and Kent Young, and Zabrina Zabriskey, who finished off the night, was in-fucking-credible. Art and show-biz -- it's kind of rude to compliment a writer's appearance, but it was part of what she was doing. She had sex, violence, passion, and even pulled off some Shakespeare quotations. I was blown away, and felt oddly competitive.

And Joe Clifford asked me to participate in something called Beast Crawl. It's an East Bay event modeled on LitQuake. It's going to be on July 7, so start getting ready.

This really feels like a compliment and a step forward. I'll be talking about this more, but now I'm facing the real question.

Do I go light, with the magic mushrooms at the Special Olympics story, or dark, with the EZ-Off story?

Either way, there will be giggles, I assure you. More information to come.