A Rockin' Reading

A Rockin’ Reading

Welcome

Last night’s reading at Aurora Coffee in Little 5 was attended by a small but enthusiastic group. There was wine on hand, and the lovely Lucy baked a mountain of cookies. They were quite good. The beauty of a small reading, for the audience anyway, is the ability to talk with the author afterwards without monopolizing their time.
John Sheppard reading from Small Twon Punk

John Sheppard reads from Small Town Punk

Up first was John Sheppard reading from his novel Small Town Punk. I talked briefly with the author after the reading about punk rock movies and cartoons. He thinks that Repo Man did a much better job of capturing the 80′s Reagan-era punk gestalt than SLC Punk, which he hated. I agreed that Repo Man was clearly the superior movie, but I also really enjoyed SLC Punk. The difference in opinions appears to be variable tolerance levels for Matt Lillard. I didn’t realize it until I got the book home, but there is an enthusiastic blurb by Sam Lipsyte, author of Homeland, on the back cover of the book. Cool.
Evan Mandery reads from Dreaming of Gwen Stefani

Evan Mandery reads in front of a backdrop of concert posters

Evan Mandery followed with a reading from his novel Dreaming of Gwen Stefani. About two sentences in, singer Paulo Nuttini cranked things up next door at Criminal Records. While still recovering from that sudden intrusion, there was a loud effeminate yell from outside about a cowgirl singing – or something. These were momentary setbacks. After reading two witty sections of the book, Mandery took questions from the floor. I think we each got at least one question in.

Afterwards, Mandery hipped me to a book that slipped under my radar, personalized my book with a pithy quote from the Woody Allen movie Bananas, and volunteered his e-mail address to talk writing. Capital guy. Capital. His dad was also in attendance, which I think kept us all on our best behavior. Way to plan to ahead, Evan.

And that was it. Each of the authors was gracious and approachable. They genuinely didn’t seem to mind that there was a smaller crowd than they might have hoped. Many thanks to Russ and the gang at Wordsmiths for hosting the event. I hope that they continue to bring us interesting events. I can’t wait for the store to open already.

My family’s original plan for the event was to divide and conquer. I was going to check out the readings, and Mrs. and L’il Cayenne were going to rock out with Paulo Nuttini. Mrs. Cayenne enjoys his song New Shoes, because it’s about – uh – new shoes. However, they decided to bail at the eleventh hour, so I don’t have a report on the Scottish guy playing next door. Based upon the 14-year old girls packing the joint, Paulo must be dreamy.

Paulo Nuttini Sign

Books, Happenings | Tim | March 15, 2007 7:00 am

By Russ, March 15, 2007 @ 8:36 am

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you coming-amusingly enough, Lucy and I ran over to the library for Cassandra King, and gave the southern-fried romance fans some cookies, as well.

Glad you had a good time
By Beth (The Toronto One), March 15, 2007 @ 9:31 am

Wine, home-made cookies, books and a chance to speak to authors – wish I’d been there.
Bit far to travel, though…

(P.S. If this comment also ends up in your spam box, I will cry. So bad for my ego.)
By DJ Cayenne, March 15, 2007 @ 10:39 am

Russ: You are a brave (and generous) man.

Beth: Hooray! The spam filter has been made to see the error of its ways.
By flavawheel, March 15, 2007 @ 2:04 pm

Wow, sounds like a killer night — wish I were within 2,000 miles of Atlanta, might have made it.

For the record I, too, was not a huge fan SLC Punk. I liked the concept and some of the visuals were pretty great — I always liked the scene where they went to the liquor store in Wyoming, the whole thing was so surreal — but I just found Lillard’s character excruciating.

It’s not that he didn’t act it well, but it’s hard to feel much empathy for a self-obsessed trustafarian who’s conflicted over whether he should continue to sponge off his wealthy dad, drink beer all day and be an all-around tool or *sigh* go to Harvard Law School because he’s just so. darned. brilliant. What’s a punk to do?

Now Repo Man… I can’t even talk about that one, it’s sacred.
By DJ Cayenne, March 16, 2007 @ 12:15 am

Flav: Believe me, my point was not to elevate SLC Punk over Repo Man. From the reading, I thought that SLC Punk related to the author’s story. My favorite scene in that movie was the discussion of why the most hardcore bands in the world refused to play Salt Lake City a second time.

Repo Man on the other hand was pure genius. The “plate of shrimp” and “the cosmic unconsciousness” scene is beautiful. I have a friend that was such a fan that his favorite scene was one without any words where Miller drags a garbage can across the Repo lot. Why was that even in there?
By flavawheel, March 16, 2007 @ 1:00 am

Oh no, I didn’t take it that way — that’s crazy talk. Ah, Repo Man. The line that always comes back to me: “Let’s go commit crimes. Yeah, like, let’s go get sushi and not pay.”
By John Sheppard, March 16, 2007 @ 3:10 pm

It was great meeting everyone. I think it was the warmest reception I received on the whole tour.

“The lights are growing dim Otto. I know a life of crime has led me to this sorry fate–and yet, I blame society. Society made me what I am.

“That’s bullshit! You’re a white suburban punk just like me.

“Yeah… but it still hurts.”
By DJ Cayenne, March 16, 2007 @ 3:34 pm

Hey, John. This is pretty cool – you were there – now you’re here – crazy…

As long as we’re going to riff on Repo Man, the lines I love to break out whenever I’m about to play some impossibly cool new music…

“You like music? You’re going to love this…I was into these guys before anyone. They asked me to be their manager. I called bullshit on that…”

Also: the life of a Repo Man is always intense…
By John Sheppard, March 17, 2007 @ 12:32 pm

Okay, one more riff and I’ll shut up:

“Put it on a plate, son. You’ll enjoy it more.

“Couldn’t enjoy it any more, Mom. Mmm, mmm, mmm.”