Archive for June 10th, 2006

The Fun Home tour: A Different Light, LA

June 10th, 2006

ADL

Here I am last night at A Different Light, helping the bookstore guy to rig up an impromptu screen for my “reading.” Man. I thought I was done with the techno-geek stuff when I finished all the complicated computer work on Fun Home. But apparently not. Now in order to read, I have to lug around all this equipment–my laptop, a projector, cables–and I have to make sure bookstores are set up for me to do this powerpoint presentation.

It’s worth it, though. It’s really cool to project the story and narrate it to an audience. A very nice crowd came last night to A Different Light, even though the Dyke March was amassing at the same time. Soon after I finished, there was this tremendous roar of motorcycles from Santa Monica Boulevard. It was the Dykes on Bikes starting off the march. But I couldn’t even run to the door and watch because I had to finish signing books then rush off to the airport to catch a 10:20 flight to San Francisco. Which ended up not taking off until nearly midnight.

travelworn

God, air travel is torture. Here I am as we sat on the tarmac waiting to go. At least I had all three seats to myself.

The Cardboard Cobbler

June 10th, 2006

phranc's studio

Yesterday I went to Phranc’s studio for a couple hours. We worked on stuff for a show we’re doing together this fall at Pine Street Art Works, the gallery in Burlington where I had my book launch last week. Phranc’s been making astonishing things out of cardboard for years–it started with shoes, I think, then she moved on to all kinds of clothes and other objects. Pop tarts! Lifejackets! Cardboard chocolates! Check out her blog.

Her latest venture is Phranc of California, a line of clothing fabricated entirely from paper and sewn on her grandmother’s sewing machine. Here she is creating a hand-painted length of striped fabric from which she’s going to make a shirt. That’s me in the background making a life-size paper doll of Phranc. It’s a mock-up to see if we can figure out a way to get the paper clothes onto flat cardboard cutouts of these big drawings of people. The people will be part of my contribution to our art show.

pinstriper

Here’s a close-up of Phranc making stripes. She’s gonna painstakingly stripe up that whole huge sheet of paper. It’s an amazing feat.