Barb recently won second place for fiction in the most recent Barnes and Noble Discover Awards. If you haven’t already, you really should read her book of stories More of This World or Maybe Another. Phenomenal.
Was at the local Borders recently and unexpectedly saw my friend Lindsay Rae Spurlock‘s cd on the shelves. I had to be silly and snap a picture because I was so proud. She’s been doing pretty well for herself – touring a lot and her song “November” has been featured a few times on MTV’s The Real World.
Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s newest, Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming: A Memoir, is available. When I interviewed her about Poor Man’s Provence, she told me about this and it sounds hilarious and compulsively readable. Nicest lady ever and incredibly talented, so check it out.
Oh, just as I’m writing this, I got an email from Amy Serrano about her film The Sugar Babies and a screening at Prytania Theater on Thursday. From the website: “The Sugar Babies examines the moral price of sugar –present and past — from the perspective of the conditions surrounding the children of sugar cane cutters of Haitian ancestry in the Dominican Republic, and the continuing denial of their basic human rights.” Purchase the movie and check out the screening schedule.
My friend David Loti’s cd Amalgam is out. Loti is a fascinating, talented guy, who was in the popular Baton Rouge band A Soup Named Stew before going solo and going up to Vancouver for seminary school. It’s a weird thing to say, but I mean it as a compliment – I continually forget that I know Loti as I’m listening to the cd. He sounds both like and unlike himself, to me, as his friend. It’s a great cd. You can listen to several of the songs online, so check it out.
And here’s some fun silliness for you. Terri, of Peauxdunque fame (where I also met Amy), had a back-and-forth with Neil Gaiman via Twitter about the local restaurant Green Goddess. Gourmands may know one of Green Goddess’s chefs Chris DeBarr for his own achievements. But literary folks like me know him as Poppy Z. Brite’s husband. Well, having eaten at Green Goddess with the Peauxdunque gang, I now know him as both chef and literary husband. Yum!
@neilhimself Lunch tomorrow at Green Goddess, NOLA. Jealous? 4:08 PM Mar 2nd
@TerriSusannah very much so. Mention the Mezze of Destruction and something nice might happen. about 1 hours ago in reply to TerriSusannah
@neilhimself If I could pronounce it, I would! 4:21 PM Mar 2nd
After seeing this back-and-forth, I followed Neil Gaiman on Twitter and was ecstatic when he talked about The Magnetic Fields, one of my favorite bands, and posted pics from behind-the-scenes at their Milwaukee show. I knew that Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields) was friends with David Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, but didn’t know about the Fields-Gaiman connection.
@neilhimself: so jealous u’r seeing The Magnetic Fields & having lunch w Claudia! But I had lunch @ Green Goddess yesterday w @TerriSusannah
@emofalltrades jealous back. Did you ask for the mezze of destruction? 3 minutes ago in reply to emofalltrades
And just so I can end on an incredibly light, sweet (but slightly sour) note, I’d like to announce (from the rooftops, really) that Pinkberry is opening a New Orleans location!! You might remember that I begged Pinkberry to open a New Orleans location in a 2008 post after I visited New York. But Pinkberry, whhhhhhhhhhhhhhy aren’t you open yet?
Emilie Strong Emilie 