Hi Friends,
I'm collecting bandanas--old, new, all colors, for a project I'm working on. Do you have any? If you find any at stores, Ill buy bandanas up to $3.

Oral History workshop

From New York Post: "Being photographed looking "fat" in a bikini is the best thing that ever happened to Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 2007, the star was dubbed chubby after being snapped on the beach, and famously brought herself back into the limelight by declaring, 'A size 2 is not fat!' Now, Hewitt is on the cover of Shape showing off her new sexy bod. She told the magazine, 'I fall asleep feeling beautiful. Then, in the morning, before I leave the house, I say five things I love about myself.'"

Hmmm...what did I say to myself before I left the house this morning?
1. I love that you (I) dreamt about growing lettuce and giving birth to a small white snake that nursed.
2. You (I) should not walk out that door to buy coffee.
3. I should have been done with this section of the book 2 months ago. Maybe I was smarter two years ago.
4. Oh look. It's my bedframe, still in a box.
5. I love myself! Did my tie-dye jeans shrink?

I'll be running an oral history workshop at the farm skillshare party, this Saturday. But I understand if you want to learn about bees and blacksmithing--so much to do!

knock-knock

More TRUE STORY: Nonfiction at KGB
September 22: Laurie Sandell + Jeff Sharlet
KGB Bar
85 E 4th St (between Bowery and Second Ave)
East Village | Map
212-505-3360
Subway: F, V to Lower East Side–Second Ave; 6 to Astor Pl | Directions
Free

At tonight’s installment of KGB’s True Story series, Sandell presents passages from her illustrated memoir The Impostor’s Daughter, about her father’s lies, and how they affected her own ideas about herself. Jeff Sharlet reads from The Family, about a power-hungry faction of Christian fundamentalists.
Tue 7pm

What could be better than this?

This!

With this.

Happy New Year, Friends.

My halfway point breaks the reverie: a crusty motel with a damp disco. I close the drapes and tear through two bags of Frito’s in front of teevee. I am the pictogram for “lonely traveler,” that unseemly woman with crumbs in her bed. She is up too late watching bad shows, still hoping for something to transpire before she calls it a day. Out of habit, I blame the anomie on something academic, like 'a breakdown of American community!,' while I curse the one that’s fast forming outside my window. There, a group of girls is singing songs whose baselines already bumped against my room. I might be jealous of their unison. That’s the kind of easy regret that got me on the road. Tomorrow, I am heading toward Utopia. Sort of.

Everyone travels west with hope. The West is imbued with an ethos of self-betterment, a second or third chance. In the 19th century, people went west with hopes of transforming America and transforming themselves. It was an optimistic expedition but also a diaspora of the greatly disappointed.

TRUE STORY: Nonfiction at KGB. We hosted opening night of our nonfiction series last week, with Susan Orlean and Dan Engber. Here, Susan meets a fellow twitter-er, in person. Also: Dan Engber and my co-curator, Erin Edmison. Erin knocked over a glass of water and announced, at the microphone, that she has very large elbows.

Next week: Laurie Sandell and Jeff Sharlett