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November 9th, 2011

I am way deep down in the mine of my new memoir Are You My Mother, so haven’t had time to blog. But in case anyone’s still reading, here are a few odds and ends.

Here is a picture of me on a recent visit to Quimby’s Bookstore in Chicago signing these two very adorable young peoples’ skateboards. I never signed a skateboard before.

Here is my friend Hillary Chute, who I will be teaching with at the University of Chicago next spring, in front of a beautiful life-size Anders Nilssen comic panel at an exhibit called Cartoon Ink: Emerging Comics in Context, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The show is down now but it was really good.

Here are two very worthy Kickstarter projects:
• The Harvey Pekar memorial statue!
•Jessica Abel’s new project sounds amazing–a graphic novel about roller derby on Mars. If you pitch in, she’ll give you an article from her wardrobe. (I’m hoping for the vintage 40s men’s swim trunks.) Check out her great little film about what she’s up to.

My buddy Phranc has turned her cardboard crafting skills to artifacts of the old west. She has an installation of cardboard cowboy boots, geetars, and suchlike, at the Autry Store.

Fun Home The Musical is under way. The brilliant Lisa Kron (Well, The Five Lesbian Brothers) has written the book and lyrics. The very awesome Jeanine Tesori (Caroline or Change, Shrek The Musical) is the composer. It’s kind of unbelievable. But I’m starting to believe it. I’ve seen some of their early work and it blew me away. Lisa and Jeanine are working on the play right now at the Sundance Theater Lab.

And if you’re in Chicago, come see the premiere of “Alison and Riva,” a documentary about the artist Riva Lehrer, and our collaboration together as she draws a portrait of me. Riva’s work is fascinating. You can see some of it, and also details about the screening, here.

Okay. I’m now I’m grabbing my pickaxe and donning my miner’s helmet and going back down. OMG. I once had a miner’s helmet! I sent away for it with boxtops from Quake cereal. It was yellow hardhat with an actual flashlight in it!