Better Off Dead: Coffin Factory’s Issue Two Launch Party at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

1. Michael Signorelli, Adam’s editor and beer rest; Adam Wilson, writer, Faster Times editor, mean-mugger; Sarah Rapp, Adam’s girlfriend and community manager at Behance; and Amanda Bullock, the Housing Works events director who brought these lit-loving beer-drinkers together. 2. Joe, Penguin representative, Tiffany, book blogger, and Robert, tie-wearing MTA employee who couldn’t tell me when I’ll be able to trust the Q train again. Between Tiffany and Robert: grade-A photo bomb. 

 

Somehow, I managed to be an English major in New York without visiting Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. I fixed that last night around seven. Two hours and a few $5-suggested-donation beers later and Amanda, the events director, had to remove me from under the store’s sloping staircase, where I figured I’d hide forever and live among the books. In between I’d attended the launch party for Issue Two of The Coffin Factory, a new literary magazine that I’ve fallen for as suddenly and unconditionally as Housing Works. Contributors Adam Wilson, Carlos Labbé, Jeannie Vanasco, and Justin Taylor read excerpts from their Factory pieces to celebrate the launch before the evening flowed into beery schmoozing.

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CRITICAL HIT AWARDS: February 2012

Welcome back to the Critical Hit Awards for book reviews. This is a round-up, a recommended reading list, and—why not?—a terribly prestigious and coveted prize. Nominate your favorite review of the month by tweeting it at @electriclit with the hashtag #criticalhit or cast your vote in the comments section below.

 

Hard to believe, but in a month when Luc Sante dropped some knowledge about Patti Smith, Ben Marcus got everyone talking about The Flame Alphabet, and our beloved readers came through with some great nominations, none of those book reviews actually won. I know, I know. You’re aghast. Well, the competition for Critical Hit Awards is brutal. Here are this month’s winners.

(Thanks to @CalJoPo, @t_nesbit, @TradePaperbacks, @benasam, @msnowe, and @thelazyw for nominating book reviews this month!)
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Radio Reading! StoryCorps at Greenlight

1. Never seen so many people at a reading that didn’t advertise free wine. Sweet. 2. Isaac Kestenbaum, Mike Dougherty, Kate Brown, Kira Limer, and Sylvie Lubow, all wonderful people from StoryCorps and old regulars from the cafe I worked at next door. Hi!

 

Last night something happened at Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene: They had a radio program. Sort of. It was the first night of the book tour for All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps, the third anthology from the fantastic public radio program founded by Dave Isay, five-time Peabody Award and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. It was a reading, a listening, a cartoon-watching event rolled up into one uber-intimate media presentation that made a few people tear up, which, for me, was a first at a literary event. I’m embarrassed to tell you when the last time I saw someone cry in public, but I’ll tell you: I was 8. There was a dinosaur.

 

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum (But Don’t Spill it on Me Book): Sara Levine’s Treasure Island!!!

1. Happy buccaneers milling around the rum punch.  2. Sara Levine in the swashbuckling act of READING!

 

Way to go for WORD of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Last night’s Treasure Island!!! event kicked off the month of February with rum, adventure, and the American sensibility of self-improvement! And yes, that’s Treasure Island with three exclamation points—author Sara Levine’s editor wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Fiction Addiction — That’s Some Good $hi*

1. John, a photographer, & Lacey, a bartender, going back to the LES after feeling withdrawals from their recent move to Brooklyn. 2. As Brad Listi would say: “It’s a book, you can read it, oh my god.”

 

I’d been hearing some buzz around the new(ish) reading series Fiction Addiction, but had failed to make it out to see what all the talk was about. Then I met the series’ curator, Christine Vines, at Franklin Park earlier this month, and, after being impressed by both her writing skills and sweetness, I decided I really had to get over to 2A this month to check it out. This month seemed to be an especially good place to start, with the theme being “Potential” (fitting for the new year), and the readers including Said Sayrafiezadeh, Joshua Furst, Nadia Kalman and Tanya Rey.

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FEBRUARY MIX by Emma Straub

Songs That I Play Really Loud So No One Else Can Hear Me Cry

Is there anything better than a sad love song? I’ve checked–there isn’t. Here is a brief list of some of my all-time favorites to get you through Valentine’s Day, whether or not you’ve got a date. Each and every one of these songs is vetted (by me) as a song that you can listen to on repeat, either pining for a lost love, being sad about being lonely, or still being mad at that guy who cheated on you in high school. Extra points go to anyone who burns this onto a CD and listens to it in their car and/or lives in a dorm room and/or with their parents, places were self-indulgent sadness is best appreciated. This mix includes songs that I know I’m supposed to be embarrassed to love, but hey, this is an irony-and-coolness-free zone.

1. Al Green — Tired of Being Alone
So plainly stated, so perfectly sung.

 

2. Otis Redding — Try A Little Tenderness
My love for this song began with Duckie lip-syncing in Pretty in Pink, which still makes my heart skip a beat.


3. The Beach Boys — God Only Knows
I usually like to keep God out of my personal life, but in this case, I make an exception.

 

4. Belle and Sebastian — My Wandering Days Are Over
For when you’re ready to settle down.

 

5. Big Star — Thirteen
If this song doesn’t give you middle school flashbacks, you have no soul.
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POSTSCRIPT: A letter from Samuel Morse

Each month in Postscript, Anna Knoebel revisits letters from prominent writers and other artists to revive the dying art of letter writing. Anna is the editor and co-publisher of Abe’s Penny, a magazine of arts and literature delivered in the form of postcards.

 

With our easy access to instant messenger and video chat, it’s hard to imagine a time when communicating by telephone was a big deal. Try imagining even further back, before the telephone, when letters sent the news, and Samuel Morse had yet to “press” Government to support his invention, an electrical telegraph system.

He was making a living as a painter and a painting teacher, having by then studied and the Royal Academy and completed his masterpiece, the Dying Hercules. According to the story, Morse was in New York, commissioned to paint a marquis, when he learned his wife was gravely ill. Though he immediately traveled home to be with her, he was too late; she had already been buried. Morse was always tinkering with electricity and inventions, but it may have been grief that spurred his obsessive interest in rapid long distance communication.

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Boy With a Blog in His Side – Largehearted Lit’s 10th Anniversary at WORD Brooklyn

1. WORD’s “Vandalized by Author” wall. There weren’t any phone numbers. 2. Jen Gillmore, Dead Heads, joints.
 
David Gutowski, of Largehearted Boy and most recently Book Boroughing, describes himself on his Twitter bio as such: “I read and write and listen to music. A lot.” This is all you really need to know about Gutowski and his blog, who celebrated 10 years (!) of lit/music blogging at Greenpoint’s fantastic WORD bookstore last night with readings from Emma Straub (Other People We Married), Jen Gilmore (Something Red), a musical performance from Alina Simone (You Must Go and Win), and a ridiculously sweet raffle benefiting Girls Write Now.

 

LAST NIGHT’S LIT PARTY… Bookforum Release Party!

1. Mike Winston works at The Barbarian Group and takes his Scotch on the rocks. 2. Cheers!  Amy Bryant, blogger and budding PR maven. 3. Literature as bar napkin.

  

 

Wednesday night marked the latest of Bookforum‘s increasingly notorious Issue Release parties, this one at Hotel Americano.  I’d never seen the hotel before (hell, I’d never even heard of it and my husband works around the corner), but Grupo Habita‘s swankadelic new space fits in perfectly with surrounding Chelsea’s arty, clubby scene.  It’s actually a welcome, shiny sliver of cool in an otherwise desolate corner of the hood.

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BEYOND BOOKS: The 12th Annual Edwardian Ball

Beyond Books is based on the premise that “leading a literary life” is not only about reading and writing and editing and solitude; it’s about complete cultural immersion and exploring the language of every lived experience.

San Francisco freaks and geeks who like to play dress-up and waltz beyond the midnight hour celebrated the macabre cartoon fantasies of Edward Gorey this past weekend at the 12th Annual Edwardian Ball. This year’s spectacular multidisciplinary tribute — featuring music, dance, theater, video, painting, sculpture, fashion, installation art, aerial acrobatics and absinthe-rootbeer cocktails(!!!) — was inspired by the cult author-illustrator’s The Iron Tonic (Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley). What follows is a parody of the Gorey text with photos from the show.

 

The Eternal Balm
(Or, A Winter Night in San Francisco)

The tinies at the Gorey Ball
Danced brightly till they hit the wall.

Those who could not twirl stood upright,
Leather corsets binding most tight.

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