yes, and all is filled with rallies, marches, music, art, books, godspeed!...

Thursday---
Highlight: The reading. The first time I've read since the Variety show. I read some newer poems, including one about the apocalypse and interspecies sex. Michael Pisano had apocalypse sex in his fiction too. It was comprised of flow-charts and Japanese-to-English translation machines and other clever gizmos. As for the end of my own reading, the lovely Annika sang (impromptu!!) one of my songs. It will be a Honey Badgers classic.

can't I be a cat that eats bon bons
and fucks all night to a reggae song

Thanks to Annika for putting up with my nonsense.

Saturday---
Cause: War Protest. I was shaking a little navy blue egg with sand particles. Everyone was shouting and blowing horns and whistles and trumpets. Anarchists marched with us, red and black flags. Austin beat the drums, Alan held up our makeshift signs. Allison and I took pictures.

Night: Hung out with Eileen, attempted to watch Sympathy for Lady Vengeance but failed. Went to a reunion party with C-basementers, and then went to join Kelsey and Avery. Mushroom pizza, picture telephone, etc.

Sunday---
Adventure: Oscar, Eamae, and I got LOST on the way to Mr. Smalls to see Stars. The 54C dropped us off at East Ohio and we ended up walking over two miles ALONG THE HIGHWAY to get to Millvale, relying on Mapquest from ipod Touch to tell us how to get there, forgetting the fact that Mapquest is only for people with cars.

Along the way there was amazing scenery. As in, fucked up houses. Broken down, evacuated, forsaken homes. Cobwebbed birdbaths, plastic swans, shattered glass everywhere. So many haunts in Pittsburgh.

Music: But when we got there, Stars was AMAZING. I got a rose from Amy Millan, who got six stitches in her thumb that day. Bad day for her, but she still kicked ass. Inexplicable moments in the songs: "Your Ex-Lover is Dead", "Ageless Beauty", "Bitches in Tokyo", "One More Night". Ah, it was beautiful. This is a band I've waited over two years to see.


Monday---

Reading: Junot Diaz read from his story collection, Drown, and his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I've listened to this guy read "How to Date a Brown Girl" on the NYer fiction blog and it was pretty damn mesmerizing. Hearing him read was even better in person.

After the lecture, we had a pen competition. He asserted his I asked him to be my pen pal, which he obliged. (hopefully.)


True story.