5/3/02
Yes, I know I haven't updated in rather longer than usual, but things have been eventful. After a couple of days of mindbending stress, I got a piece of really excellent news, which is not quite ready to go public beyond a few friends, but will probably be generally circulated within the next week or so.
Eventful day today. I spent the better part of it at BookExpo America, which means that I spent rather a lot of time lugging mammoth heavy bags full of books around. I did pick up some worthwhile stuff, though--I'm most of the way through Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel & Dimed right now. Dropped off a total of about 30 books at home, then headed up to Harlem for a fundraiser for the Museum of African-American Cinema, featuring several hours' worth of James Brown films. The first and by far the best was a tape of JB with the '70-'71 incarnation of his band (with the Collins brothers, Fred Wesley, Bobby Byrd, etc.). It's not the Paris Olympia show, which I've seen--I don't know where it was filmed, but it's possibly the most exciting thing I've ever seen. Well, this year at least, but actually probably for a while before that.
Then headed to Brooklyn for the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards, where I hung out with Mike Vazquez and Karen Eng, and presented the best-graphic-novel award (to Joe Sacco's Palestine, as it turns out). And made the audience sing the "Spider-Man" song. It's good to have a mike in front of me sometimes.