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Politics and Prose, Washington DC

October 3rd, 2006

Politics and Prose is an amazing bookstore. I entered through the buzzing café, passed a room where a big book group was meeting, then went upstairs to the large and well-stocked store proper. It was kind of like a reading factory.
me & virginia
Here I am with Virginia Harabin, who works there. She gave me an introduction that almost made me weep, and which perhaps set the tone for the audience, who were so attentive it was disconcerting. I worked hard to try and live up to their expectations.
politics and prose
It was a great crowd. A whole mess of women from off our backs showed up. My comic strip has been running in that paper continuously since 1985. And there were lots of regular people who’d never read a graphic novel before. And a professor who’s teaching Fun Home in his class, and some of his students. A lovely evening.
Now I’m trying to finish the presentation I have to do at Oberlin College tomorrow. Soon I leave DC for Cleveland. I’m so psyched because I just found out Harvey Pekar is introducing me tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. 7pm. Come!

London event

October 2nd, 2006

Thanks again to Pam Isherwood for keeping me apprised of what’s going on with the UK release of Fun Home. (If you ever tire of photography, P, you should consider becoming a publicist.)

I’ll be doing a reading at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, (which is right on the Mall) Monday the 23rd of October. At 6:45pm.

Also on the London front, Fun Home got a nice review on BBC Collective.

Left Bank Books, St. Louis

October 1st, 2006

I just had a lovely reunion with my old college pal Kathleen Finneran, who I haven’t had any contact with for the past 27 years. I recently found out she’d written a memoir, The Tender Land, and read it in preparation for our visit. It’s a remarkable book, one of the most moving things I’ve ever read. You should go get it this moment.

Anyhow, it was delightful to find myself hanging out with her again, all these years later. We pretty much just picked up the conversation where we’d left off. While she drove me around St. Louis and I did my laundry at her sister’s house in the suburbs. Here we are with Kris Kleindienst at Left Bank Books.

me, kathleen, kris

(Me, Kathleen, Kris.) And here’s a portion of the lovely audience at Left Bank Books.

crowd at left bank books

What a great bookstore. I’m very glad I finally got to come to it. And to St. Louis, where I’d never been before. After my reading, Kathleen and some friends and bookstore people took me to visit a local oddity, the City Museum. I can’t really describe it. It’s sort of like a cross between an art installation and a fun house. It was filled with people climbing on all these bizarre structures, sitting around a campfire outside, sliding down tubes and crawling through tunnels. Someone apparently got stuck in one while we were there—the fire department had to come to the rescue.

firemen in city museum

Here I am next to the giant underpants. Over them is a Latin inscription, Semper ubi sub ubi. Can you translate?

giant underpants

Malaprop’s Bookstore, Asheville NC

September 30th, 2006

malaprop's

Such a huge throng showed up for my reading last night at Malaprop’s that we had to scrurry and rig up a bigger screen, because the tiny living room-sized one was clearly not going to suffice.

impromptu screen

It was a very lovely evening. People asked some difficult questions, like, how did writing Fun Home change me. It’s like having therapy in front of a crowd.

Here’s how pretty Asheville is at the ungodly hour I at which had to arise this morning.

dawn in asheville

As soon as I pack my tents, I’m going back to my favorite airport, ATL, en route to St. Louis. Maybe on the flights I’ll have time to finally read all the comments on the Michigan Fest brouhaha, which I now see number three hundred and two.

Books and Books, Miami Beach

September 29th, 2006

I had a really nice reading last night at Books and Books. Actually, it was at the Design Within Reach store next door, which is a furniture showroom. So everyone sat around on these groovy modern couches and chairs, like we were in a big living room. And there were a lot of people there because the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce sponsored it, and many of their members came. I love the Chamber of Commerce! I like just saying it. Chamber of Commerce.
reading in the furniture store

(Right now I’m at a Chili’s in the Atlanta airport. The waitress just asked “What can I get you, sir?” Usually people say “I’m sorry” once they hear my voice. But she just came back with my coke, “Here you go sir.” It’s 10:45 in the morning and I’m having a hamburger because this is the only restaurant on the concourse and that’s all they have.)

The Atlanta airport is full of soldiers—lots of guys in white navy uniforms, and men and women in those strange new digitized camouflage fatigues that look sort of fake, like a kid’s halloween costume. (Uh…and by the way, I think I’ve spotted about a dozen lesbians so far.) It reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting of Grand Central Station during World War II, with soldiers from various branches bustling through, meeting relatives. I remember looking at that as a kid and thinking, wow, that’s what it looks like when there’s a war going on. Yeah, it is.

camo2
This is a very blurry picture because I didn’t want to be conspicuous and use my flash.

It’s easy to forget about what’s going on in the world when I’m traveling and doing all this self-absorbed stuff about my book. I try to retain a grip on reality by watching Democracy Now when I can. Like last night, while I was having my room service dinner at the Ritz-Carlton.

amy goodman at the ritz

I took a picture because it seemed so incongruous, Amy Goodman at the Ritz. She’s on an eighty city book tour! Every time I watch, she’s broadcasting from another place. And I bet she’s not staying at no Ritz-Carltons.

Feeling Pale in South Beach

September 28th, 2006

What a very odd time I’m having. Austin, Atlanta, now Miami. I’ve never been in Florida before. It’s, like, HOT. Who knew? My glasses steamed up when I went out last night for a walk. In my corduroys and jacket, an instantly regrettable ensemble.

But get this. Yesterday before I left Atlanta, I had lunch with Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor for the New Yorker. He happened to be in town and was being driven by the same literary escort service as me. I don’t know exactly how it happened, I guess the escort must have mentioned she was driving around another cartoonist. And Bob (I call him Bob!) had recently heard about me from some other New Yorker cartoonist (I’m not sure which one, some guy who apparently also wrote for Six Feet Under) so he suggested that we meet. And so we did. We had lunch, see?
me and bob

He invited me to start submitting stuff to the magazine, so I can join the august ranks of cartoonists, including Roz Chast, who get their work rejected on a regular basis.

I haven’t even been able to process that yet.

new yorker

Right after lunch with BOB I was whisked off to ATL. Where I made this short film entitled, Why Am I Always the Only Lesbian at the Airport. In the long and badly managed line to go through security, I noticed this curious instructional display of things you’re not supposed to pack.

chainsaw

Did you know you weren’t supposed to bring chainsaws on the plane? What about circular saws? Or hedge clippers? Or shoulder-fired rocket launchers for that matter. Why stop with chainsaws?

And now here I am this morning in South Beach.

beach

The ocean’s like bathwater. The beach was kind of sad. There were homeless people sleeping and changing their clothes, some daring to sit on the fancy furniture put out by the ritzy hotels. Speaking of which, I’m actually staying at the Ritz-Carlton. Very lovely, but disconcerting. All these guys opening the doors for me as I walk in or out. Now I’m gonna go get some work done.

Time to spare

September 25th, 2006

Things to do at the airport when your flight is delayed:

1. Get your shoes shined. Surprisingly sensual!

2. Take an extra moment and use the tissue paper toilet seat cover.

tissue paper

3. Do some wildlife photography. I spotted this cricket on the concourse, and it reminded me of the mouse I photographed on the floor of the Philadelphia train station in June. As I tried to get a better shot, it climbed onto my shoe and up my leg. I thought of bringing it along to Atlanta, but it jumped off.

4. Have a properly-steeped cup of tea.

tea

5. Catch up on your reading.
tender land
This is the most astonishing book. The Tender Land, by Kathleen Finneran. It’s a family memoir about her brother’s suicide. But the most moving thing about it so far (I’m on page 75) is its description of a loving, intact family. A functional family memoir—what a concept. Yet it’s not remotely sentimental or predictable. It reminds me of something my friend Judith Levine recently said that a friend of hers said: Tolstoy had it wrong, it’s unhappy families that are all alike.

I actually went to college for a brief period with the author, Kathleen Finneran. We bonded around being lonely, socially awkward transfer students. She left school after a few months, though, and I haven’t been in touch with her since 1979. But I’m going to see her when I’m in St. Louis at the end of the week. It’s weird that after our little oasis of friendship in college we both went on to not only have suicides in our family, but to write memoirs about them. Oh, and we have the same publisher.

Holy Michigan, Batman!

September 24th, 2006

Thank you everyone, for the 72 feet of discourse (at rough estimate) spawned by that last post. I’ve been totally crazed with work for the past several days and haven’t even been able to read all the comments yet. In fact, the last time I checked, there were 78—astonishing enough. But now I’m staggered to see the count is up to 226.

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the conversation. People have said some really smart things, and for the most part are being civil. I think. As I said, I haven’t read everything yet.

I feel bad I haven’t been weighing in, and I’m too fried to add anything right now. I stayed up all night last night finishing my latest batch of strips, threw some clothes in a suitcase, caught an ass-crack of dawn (thanks to Katie for that excellent expression) flight to Austin, Texas, and did a reading for a very engaging and inquisitive crowd at BookPeople this afternoon. Tomorrow, on to Atlanta. Tonight, crash. Now.

bookpeopleinquisitive

Episode 495

September 19th, 2006

Here’s th’ latest episode. Trying a new technique for posting it here. Let’s see how it goes.

Read the rest of this entry »

it’s a mystery

September 17th, 2006

The UK edition of Fun Home was just released, and got a nice review in the Times. Thanks to Pam Isherwood for alerting me to it. I don’t understand why there needs to be a separate UK edition, though. It’s not like it has to be translated. Unless maybe they threw in some spanners or torches. Or puddings maybe.

Another thing I don’t understand is these bugs that keep appearing in my basement. They’re some kind of ants that crawl up through cracks in the floor, metamorphose into winged bugs every night, and in the morning they’re all dead.

bugs