Lessons in Curating. Lessons in Culture.

"i'm sorry u died i'll miss you." Tweeting death...

2009-12-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

Like most everyone else trying to avert actual work, I've been reading online stories about the sudden death of Brittany Murphy. The actress, whose work I don't know - I couldn't even tell you what movies she's been in - apparently once dated the actor, Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher, in what to me is an egregious and appalling move, one that either highlights his youth or my age, tweeted his condolences.

"2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine. My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany's family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon."

Dude, where's your common sense? I'm not simply disgusted that he used a format that sets limits on expression, I'm also disgusted that he shortened his limitations: hacking down brevity into even smaller units. Will he Skype his eulogy at her funeral? Could it really be that this makes me old school? that tweeting your ex's death is actually appropriate? I realize that letter writing is a thing of the past (I'm surprised we even have stamps!) and that people email their thank yous and condolences left and right - I accept that, do it myself, even - but this is a new low. Maybe I hold death too dear. Am I being overly precious to expect that a condolence be sent through a proper channel? Is it wrong to be offended by someone else's expression of grief? I mean, at least he expressed it, right?

Well, I guess to me a condolence should portray reflection, and sorrow should be offered in a more meaningful and personal way. Your words are an attempt to provide comfort. The meaning of life may be unclear, but I'm certain it means more than 140 characters. A condolence is a gift given from one subjective heart to another. When done well, it's a heartfelt offering, a compassionate expression of shared grief. A condolence might even make clear the impact the departed had on your own life, might even allude to the way your own life was transformed by the person who is now just a conglomeration of memories. Together, all these offered condolences create an etching into the air, an indelible impression for the left behind.

If Kutcher's grief for the loss of a loved one is contained to 140 characters, how many do we have to use on him when he goes?

More Reasons to Love AMERICA (NIGHT)!

2009-12-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

Folks! Excellent news!

Colum McCann, National Book Award winner for 'Let the Great World Spin,' is joining us as the third reader for America Night on January 6th!

Awesome! (unless you made a New Year's resolution to watch more TV and do less fun stuff, in which case this development might be an issue for you.)

Check out a recent interview with Colum here, and be sure to buy tickets for the 1/6 show (also featuring Rich Benjamin and Jonathan Dee).

I'm acculturating on WNYC's Culture Page

2009-12-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

See here: WNYC CULTURE PAGES

These kind folks have featured my Stacked Up TV video.

Pinkalicious!

2009-12-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

DJC and I took my niece, Mia to see Pinkalicious! This oddly expensive, non-Broadway production is about a girl who eats one too many cupcakes and turns - you guessed it - pink! Mia was all pinked up from head to toe, and I won accidental points because my skirt was pink and red. Pre-show, we played Dollhouse and Chinese Checkers at Grandma's where DJC gave Mia a run for her money. Then we went for a pre-show pre-lunch (plunch?). The waiter fell in love with Mia and made her a very special apple, pineapple, orange juice concoction. Soon after, she discovered the art of the double straw flirting (a la Archie and Betty) and invited DJC in for a sip.

Success!

Then, it was off to the theater, where I stood on line and Mia and DJC waited for me, but when I returned...

I couldn't find them anywhere! It was very distressing.

Soon, though - they magically appeared and Mia discovered a large table with pink sparkly cupcakes, wands and other Pinkalicious treats.

She wanted a wand, no - a t-shirt, no - a pencil, no - some cupcakes, no - a hat, no - a playbill, no - a cd, no a a a a....She chose the wand and DJC bought two cupcakes.

Cupcake stupor.

Mia made her face temporarily disappear with her magic wand.

DJC's Barbie was no match for Mia's wand.

Shhhh....the play is starting! Git yer ass in the chair, dude.

All in all, a very pinkalicious day!

This is me, stacking up!

2009-12-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

Jill Bauerle, Creator and Executive Producer of Stacked Up TV! and her crew (Susan and Antonio), came over to my apartment and asked me lots and lots of questions about the books on (and off) my shelves. Then they saw my guitar and asked if I played and I said I was teaching myself, so no, not really, and besides, I told them, it's out of tune and I have no idea how to tune it. To demonstrate its tune-lessness I picked it up, strummed out the proof and then attempted to tune it by ear (something I don't really know how to do) and a miracle happened: I DID IT. Holy crap. I tuned a guitar by ear, with no electronic devices or better informed guitar people nearby. This was a very important lesson for me. I learned that TV IS magical. Once you are on it, you can do all sorts of things you couldn't do before. For example, once they were shooting, I was no longer the smooth-tongued, well-expressed, connoisseur of language you know and probably have very conflicted feelings about, as opposed to the straight up love you have for other people. Instead, I fell into the 1983 Martha Coolidge helmed patois of Julie Richman, aka "Valley Girl." I liked the shit out of almost all my sentences. Once I paddled past all my likes, I surfed my way back on succulent waves of curses. So there you have it.

Someone likes to "like," a lot.

2009-12-11T11:55:00.001-08:00

An extra from "Stacked Up!" The rest is coming soon...

2009-12-10T12:57:00.001-08:00

Holy starred reviews, authors!

2009-12-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

The end is here.

Editor & Publisher closing after 108 years

By ANDREW VANACORE (AP) – 34 minutes ago

NEW YORK — The Nielsen Co. is selling some of its most prominent trade journals — including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard — and shutting down Editor & Publisher, which has chronicled the newspaper business for 108 years.

In all, Nielsen is selling eight titles to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed by private equity firm Pluribus Capital Management, and Guggenheim Partners, a financial services company. Nielsen said James Finkelstein, who founded Pluribus this year with George Green and Matthew Doull, will serve as e5's chairman.

Along with Editor & Publisher, the company is also shuttering the book review title Kirkus Reviews. The two publications have 18 employees combined. Nielsen would not reveal details about the financial performance of E&P or Kirkus.

Spokesman Gary Holmes said Nielsen is still reviewing its properties to make sure the company is focused on businesses with "the highest potential for growth."

Nielsen is keeping a handful of other media properties, including Contract Magazine and Progressive Grocer.

Intern Post-Show Recap: FILM NIGHT

2009-12-06T19:02:00.001-08:00

Sweet god I have never eaten that much popcorn in my life. Thank you, Film Night, for coating my stomach walls with whatever puts the 'kettle' in kettle corn.

Also, thank you superguest Jonathan Coauette for hooking us up with a camera when ours broke last minute (on film night, of course). How nice is that? Without that camera I wouldn't have been able to record Coauette's home address and personal phone number provided as his risk, and without that valuable information, how would I know where to send my annual 'Horsin' Around On the Holidays' christmas-thank you card??

Coauette showed some of the 42 experimental films made by 42 exciting names (Coauette, Kenneth Anger and David Lynch among them), each 42 seconds of an impressively-rendered dream-nightmare state. These were excellent--I really loved 'em, sometimes funny, often waaay strange, occasionally both (I'm lookin' at you, Mr. Korine). And then there was Sean Lennon's, which resembled a perfume ad.

Maybe you're like me and you saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch through your raccoon-eye makeup in high school and thought John Cameron Mitchell was one of the prettiest human beings you'd ever encountered on a screen. Well, then I'm here to keep the dream alive, because he does not disappoint in person. I think it has something to do with those Anderson Cooper-esque-subdued-caring mouthlines, the ones that say, "I know. I know, and I'm here. Here to make you sad-laugh." In that same vein (the mouthline vein), JCM's reading about his visit to Russia for a so-underground-it-put-moles-to-shame gay film festival was both funny and consistently heartbreaking. Sad-laugh aplenty. Also, it provided a good life lesson: when the Uncle Vanya vodka starts getting poured into shot glasses, its time to head home unless you're ready to become a human tear towel real fast.

Thomas Bartlett aka Doveman sang a beautiful extended set, covering (of course of course) Only Love Can Break Your Heart and we all sang along, though not quite as emotively as we are wont to do face-deep into some Vanya shots/alone on long road trips. It's okay, for a full venue it still felt like a pretty intimate evening, so I'll understand if you just felt like whispering the words. Lip-synching, however, remains out of the question.

Are you a cartoon?

2009-12-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

From Michael Arthur's Blog comes a lovely drawing of John Cameron Mitchell from last night and a really amazing write-up....

"Thursday, December 03, 2009
Happy Ending

John Cameron Mitchell read and sang as part of Amanda Stern's Happy Ending Music and Reading Series at Joe's Pub last night.

Earlier in the day, the New York State Senate had voted down the Gay Marriage Bill. "They'll all be dead someday," Mitchell sighed and shrugged, before unfolding some crumpled pages and reading aloud from a journal he kept during a trip to Russia for a screening of his film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The screening had been part of the first gay and lesbian film festival in Russia, a festival shut down before it could screen any film and driven underground in a land still emerging from underneath it all. The memories read aloud were bittersweet and poignant, and sadly less distant on a day when even the most impassioned hopes could not move the mountain of fear.

All participants at the Happy Ending are required to take a public risk and, for his, Mitchell concluded by singing a lullabye in Russian. In days gone by, he explained, the song he chose was broadcast every night on Russian television as a sort of transition between the broadcast day and the evening news. Mitchell talked about how everyone in Russia knew it and sort of hated it as a fossilized artifact, a dust-covered tune incapable of being new.

He sang it sweetly and beautifully and the room was as reverent, attentive and fiercely present as the room gets.

It was a same old song that almost no one there had ever heard before. It once signaled the end of a day that would start again, the same, tomorrow. It was sort of beautiful and sad and I can't tell you what it meant, but it will stay with me for a while."

Be a drawing!

2009-12-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

Outside of MY BOOKY MAN AWARD from PASTE MAGAZINE, I just came across the second coolest thing in the world. And I found it on the third coolest person in the world's blog. That's right, from - Jack Pendarvis's blog to mine, I have learned of the best project ever...

Jason Polan is attempting to draw every person in New York City!

From Jason Polan's blog:

"I am trying to draw every person in New York. I will be drawing people everyday and posting as frequently as I can. It is possible that I will draw you without you knowing it. I draw in Subway stations and museums and restaurants and on street corners. I try not to be in the way when I am drawing or be too noticeable. Whenever I have a new batch of drawings I will post them on this blog. If you would like to increase the chances of a portrait of YOU appearing on this blog please email me (art@jasonpolan.com) a street corner or other public place that you will be standing at for a duration of two minutes (I will be on the corner of 14th street and 8th avenue on the North-east corner of the street from 2:42-2:44pm this Thursday wearing a bright yellow jacket and navy rubber boots, for example). Please give me more than a 24 hour warning and please make it a scenario that is not too difficult for you to accomplish (the corner outside of the store you work at during lunch time, or in front of a museum you were going to go to on a Saturday) because I may unfortunately miss you and do not want you to have to invest more than 2 minutes of your time in case I cannot make it. You may or may not see me drawing you during this time. If I do draw you, you will see yourself (or rather, a drawing that hopefully somewhat resembles you) on this blog that evening.

When the project is completed we will all have a get together."

I won my first ever, first-ever award!

2009-12-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, first off I am woefully behind on posting pictures from past shows. My blog and website are both currently undergoing changes to make uploading things easier for semi-incompetent people like myself.

I will blog about last night's show starring John Cameron Mitchell and Jonathan Caouette, soon (it was ridiculously amazing). But first, I need to do just a little bit of bragging.

I WON SOMETHING, SORT OF! Click here for proof!

Charles McNair, Paste Magazine's Books editor has, for whatever reason, decided that I deserve an award, but since an award doesn't exist for what I do - he made one up! Can you believe that? That's like...very hard to believe and yet, it just happened, so unless you just don't want to believe it because it's too hard to believe, you can believe it!

My friend, Arthur Phillips sent me the link this morning! I didn't even know about it!

FILM NIGHT!

2009-12-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

Last chance to get tickets (if there are any left) for tonight's show starring John Cameron Mitchell, Jonathan Caouette and musical guest: Thomas Bartlett.

CLICK ME to purchase!

Rick Moody in 140 Characters or Less

2009-11-30T16:36:00.000-08:00

Because maybe you couldn't handle more?

So good: Electric Lit is tweeting installments of Rick Moody's "Some Contemporary Characters" (first day's worth here), and then asking the masses whether or not they find it annoying.* Social network democracy in action, friends.

general consensus seems to be: yes, but only when RT'd by everyone they follow. I don't have twitter so this is all complete gibberish to me.

I am getting married!

2009-11-30T12:44:00.000-08:00

At least, that's what Google Alerts tells me.

Apparently, I'll be marrying a fella named Matthew Dzwilefsky (I'm so not changing my last name, dude.) I'm really glad that I was alerted to my impending nuptials because there are a lot of things I'd like to register for. I definitely want to own an apartment, so I'm going to register for that. I don't know where Matthew wants to live, but he's welcome to register for his own apartment. I'm also going to register for a steady income. It doesn't really matter where the money comes from, just so long as it's steady.

I've also been alerted to my personal wedding website, which is hosted by the wedding channel. I'm a little disappointed that Matthew couldn't spring for a hosting site with more exciting features, but I guess that's just the kind of guy I'm marrying. Also, I read the "Our Story" section on our website and, out of a score of 10, I'm going to give the "how we got engaged" story a 3.4. I would have preferred something a little more creative and also, he popped the damn question right in the middle of Gossip Girl and now I don't know what happened with Jenny and Eric!

All in all, I'm just glad someone told me that I'm getting married in July 2010, because I was going to apply to Yaddo for that time period. Maybe I'll just honeymoon there, instead.

Can I pick 'em or what?

2009-11-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

TEN authors from the most recent "Best of," lists at the New York Times have read at Happy Ending! Congratulations, everyone!

'The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America'
By STEVEN JOHNSON

'The Song is You."
By ARTHUR PHILLIPS

'Do Not Deny Me: Stories'
By JEAN THOMPSON

'Don’t Cry: Stories'
By MARY GAITSKILL

'Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned'
By WELLS TOWER

'Lark and Termite'
By JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS

'Sag Harbor'
By COLSON WHITEHEAD

'The Sky Below'
By STACEY D’ERASMO

'Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned'
By WELLS TOWER

'When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir of a Political Childhood'
By SAÏD SAYRAFIEZADEH

And...I'm in discussions with at least 4 of the others. Not bad, I say. Not bad at all.

A Peek Into America...Night at HERS

2009-11-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

Check out this Time.com vid of the superbly-named Rich Benjamin, one of the readers for AMERICA NIGHT (Jan. 6th! Mark those calendars or we'll label you a flag-burner!). Here he talks about his new book, Searching for Whitopia, which Booklist describes as "a thoroughly engaging and eye-opening look at an urgent social issue" and has selected for the 2009 Editor's Choice Award! Congrats, Rich.

Catching Up...

2009-11-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

I've disappeared. It's true. I can't tell you what I've been doing because it's boring and it will make me want to turn my skin inside out with irritation. But, here's a visual rundown of some things I wanted to blog about, but didn't due to the time constraints that boring things impose upon your life. In no particular order...

1. HALLOWEEN

2. ART

Derek Loosvelt, my neighbor and friend, runs the Adelphi Salon out of his apartment once every couple months. He asked writers to make some art for his salon. The art had to include written words. Here's what I made. Notice there are no written words. Oh siiit - rule breaker!

3. SUFJAN STEVENS

Went to the 92nd Street Y Tribeca (or whatever the hell it's called) to see Osso, David Stith and Sufjan Stevens' BQE screening (which I saw live at BAM a couple years ago.)

4. STACKED UP

Shot an episode of Stacked Up which was really fun. The site and the idea are both fantastic. Check it out. Mine will be up in a couple weeks.

5. HIKING

I went to Connecticut with DJC and his sister, CC to go hiking with their family and friends. We went to the Edwin Way Teale Memorial Sanctuary. He had a writing cabin (it's the first picture below) which I would like to have relocated to my living room.

6. BRICK BREAKER

CC got DJC addicted to Brick Breaker over our hiking weekend. DJC broke CC's high score and then CC broke that score and then I went to see what all the fuss was about and I broke both their scores by, well - A LOT. I'm at 6200. This guy is in the millions.

7. LILI

Had a sleepover with my 9 year old niece who told me and DJC that she was "Attacking every 80s song on YouTube she could find." Then we watched old 80s videos for hours.

8. DEADLINE

Handed in 2nd (out of 3) children's books I'm writing for Penguin. Got galley for the first one. Here's the cover.

9. NOVEL

Been working on my own novel. Here's what it looks like.

In The Spirit Of Film Night

2009-11-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

I know like, a half second ago I told you to go to All Tomorrow's Parties on either Friday or Saturday this weekend, but I'm retracting that statement and telling you to go on Friday so that you can go to Cinema 16 on Saturday.

In case you're not familiar, Cinema 16 pairs old, often under-watched films with a live soundtrack by a band (with completely original music for the event), and is sponsored by Drambuie, meaning free dranks all night (and free admission with rsvp). I've only had the chance to go to one of these showings and let me give you a little advice: Avoid the "Chambuie." It's champagne and Drambuie and if you ask me nobody should be drinking drinks with the words "SHAM" and "BOOO" in their names.

The band this weekend is These Are Powers and the films will be:

Two PSA's and one educational video from the 60s and 70s:

Styling and Experimenting, 1964 - Illustrates the process of designing the "new" mustang.

One Got Fat: Bicycle Safety, 1963 – A group of children wearing ape masks, demonstrate the dangers of biking in this strange and dark PSA.

Solar System 2nd Edition, 1977 – Tom Smith headed up the Special Effects team at Industrial Light & Magic, where he created all the goodies for the Star Wars films. This is his academic film masterwork.

(thanks for the program, myopenbar).

Galapagos

7:30 PM, Sat. Nov. 21st

16 Main Street at Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn

Intern Post-Show Recap: Crisis&Suburbia

2009-11-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

CRISIS: waking up with serious kate gosselin bedhead.

BRUTAL.

I have a knack for crises, as November 11th's show and this morning proved. You see, I put together a little suburban video comp to play in the background of Crisis&Suburbia nite, had the cd all ready to go, but apparently this disc did something to piss off computers in a past life, because no device would play it. I had to admit defeat and explain the entire vid onstage--to a VERY sympathetic audience, I should add (whoever cooed, "Ohh, it's alright!"--I love you. You're great.).

Everyone else seemed to have a pretty smooth run that night. Kaiser Cartel sounded great (and were hella cute, let's be honest). Victor Lodato may have almost knocked an audience member unconscious with a music stand, but he was too heliumated to notice, and I was too enthralled with his reading to care. Lauren Grodstein juxtaposed a superbly down-trodden excerpt from her novel A Friend of the Family with a bubbly postcard she received from a not-quite-stranger in Amsterdam. We were "impressed," too, Lauren. Paul Rudnick performed the monologue that opens his, The New Century, painfully funny and inspired in part by his late mother, who was clearly quite a woman.

Alright, I'm going to go fix my "backwards mullet" hair situation. See you on Dec. 2nd for Film Night with John Cameron Mitchell and Jonathon C-A-O-U-E-[and sometimes Y!]-TTE!

Party All the Time

2009-11-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

So you missed out on the midnight, Friday the 13th showing of upcoming (Dec. 2nd!) HERS-er Jonathon Caouette's new film, All Tomorrow's Parties, because you were doing something REALLY, REALLY important, like celebrating my birthday. It's forgivable, but only because this phenom-looking movie will be back at IFC tomorrow (Friday the 20th) and Saturday, both for 12:15 am showings. Really, it looks so good.

Here's a blurb on the film from the Seattle International Film Festival:

On the eve of its tenth anniversary, the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival is an ingenious testament to alternative music, communal living, and iconoclastic creativity. Founded by Belle & Sebastian’s Barry Hogan in 1999 as an alternative to larger, more corporate festivals, ATP is a sponsorship-free festival where the organizers, artists, and fans all stay in the same chalet-style housing complex. Every year the event is curated by a specific artist or band, essentially making each festival a concert as ultimate mix tape. This unique concept is mirrored in All Tomorrow's Parties’ visual approach. The film is created from found or contributed footage from over 200 filmmakers, fans, and musicians who've attended the British All Tomorrow's Parties festival over its history. With interviews and footage of more than 30 bands (ranging from Nick Cave to Animal Collective and from Portishead to Grizzly Bear), this post-punk DIY bricolage uses material filmed in a multitude of formats, including Super8, camcorder, and mobile-phone material. The final product, which captures the experience from the perspective of fan, artist, and curator alike, celebrates the uncompromising vitality of this unique festival experience.

Ahh, can't wait.

Reviews and things that happen after...

2009-11-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

My Crazy Music blog reviews Crisis and Suburbia Night.

I will now get dressed and ready for the National Book Awards although I am going to the Gin Mingle at Housing Works and not to the National Book Awards. I will, however, be going to the National Book Awards after-party, because really, it's only after that things really start.

Crisis & Suburbia: Post-Show Intern Write-Up

2009-11-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

Sitting backstage at Joe's Pub, listening to Amanda read off a list of possible crises, I couldn't help but think of a few of my own.

I don't receive at least two Facebook notifications every 30 minutes: Crisis.
Twitter doesn't work on the internet or my phone: Crisis.
The temperature dips below 60: Crisis.
When the food on my plate touches the other food on my plate: Crisis.
The New York Times includes every section except the one with the crossword: Crisis.
They're out of grits at my local grocery store: CRISIS!
Moving to New York after growing up in perhaps the largest cluster of suburbs ever: Crisis.

See? My life is hard, y'all. But at least all these crises make me extra-excited when I find Sharpie pens on sale or get a free slice of cake.

Last week's Happy Ending was one of the best.

After their amazing set--including a Mellencamp cover(!!!)--Kaiser Cartel is my new favorite local band. I urge you to take a listen, so when your hip friends mention them you won't have to ask, "Oh, you mean Cartel?" and make the hip friends slap you. I also want to bunny-nap their mascot.

Lauren Grodstein's A Friend of the Family was so creepy! After, she risked reading from an amazing postcard from someone she met on what was apparently the kind of Eurotrip that they based the movie on.

Victor Lodato let me hold balloons! If I forget everything else about this night, I will remember that I got to stand onstage holding a bunch of multicolored balloons, while Victor gave a heliumed reading of Mathilda Savitch. Balloons are the opposite of a crisis.

For most of the night, I had been thinking that Paul Rudnick's name sounded awfully familiar. There's no reason why it shouldn't, since he wrote Addams Family Values and In & Out, among others. But he also wrote, I Hate Hamlet, one of the favorites in my high school directing class--I'm not really sure any of us understood it, though.

This Happy Ending was definitely not a crisis situation---it must have had something to do with the ballooons.

How do YOU Stack Up?

2009-11-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

Have a look at this cool site and great idea...STACKED UP! They came to my house on Monday and shot me. Believe it or not, I'm still alive.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Book Tour - Bring HeLa to Your Town

2009-11-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite almost-published book. I've been calling it a "red blood cellular thriller," so if you hear anyone else refer to it that way, tell them it's a goddamn TRADEMARK and they owe me money.

Don't let your cells get scraped out of you before reading this book.

Rebecca Skloot was supposed to do Happy Ending on February 10th (alongside Joshua Ferris, for Illness Night), but her book is about to EXPLODE and was moved up a week and now she can't do it (don't worry folks, Ferris is still in and it's still going to be sick! Ha ha ha pun). I'm sad to lose her, but since I have issues of propriety and territory and I like to pretend I've discovered people who have long been known to many, I will just go right on believing that, while she ultimately had to cancel, I booked her first. Take that Oprah!

More on her book, in her own words below....

Lots of excitement and news about my book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (aka HeLa), which hits stores February 2nd (after ten years in the works). It just got a starred review in Publishers Weekly and in Booklist, and was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers title for Spring 2010. Culture Dish is very excited about all of this. But the big news for this post is that I'm organizing a three-month-long book tour that will have me speaking nationwide at universities, scientific organizations, bookstores, book groups, high schools, and more. If you'd like me to speak about the book, about HeLa, the history and ethics of tissue culture, race and medicine, or any number of other related topics, see the Immortal Life's interactive book tour map below. Click on your region to see when I'm scheduled to be in your area, and email me to bring The Immortal Life to your town.

The Immortal Book Tour is a grass-roots, author-funded tour on a scale that no sane publishing house would or could organize or fund. (For those not familiar with the publishing industry, see here for the New Yorker's humorous take on why this sort of thing is necessary). Crazy as it may be, I'm convinced it will be a fun and effective way to spread the word about this book -- and honestly, after ten years of working on it solo, I'm ready to go talk about it with everyone I can. I admit, I've imagined touring in one of these with cells painted all over it, but at this point, due to budget constraints, I may be touring in one of these. This tour will depend entirely on and funding from talks at universities and other venues, so locations able to help cover expenses get priority (and many, many thanks), but I'm also looking to hear from bookstores and other organizations in towns I'll be visiting, where I'll gladly speak if I'm able to get myself there. Interactive book tour map and link for below the jump (and if you're interested in having me speak at a date after the tour, that works too: my schedule for summer and fall is wide open at this point):

Go to her WEBSITE to check out her insane THREE MONTH LONG TOUR!