A review for Insomniac.com of my top ten favorite ambient and downtempo tracks, with links to each song.
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I contributed "field reports" to the app version of this inventive literary project -- and now it's time for its physical publication. Join authors Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby, and Kevin Moffett and friends James Ransone (The Wire) and Miranda July (The Future) for a celebration of the release of The Silent History. 6:30 PM on Saturday, June 14th at 826LA Echo Park.
More info here.
While Hot Dish is on a brief hiatus until the late summer, I'm helping produce this event for the excellent Aaron Burch:
The Hobart founder/publisher reads & signs his debut short story collection, BACKSWING, with bonus stories from authors Amelia Gray, Tim Kinsella, Dylan Nice, and Adam Novy. There will be whiskey.
Thursday, June 26th at the Pop-Hop in Highland Park; 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90042
Doors at 7:30; start time around 8:00 pm. FREE.
This offseason, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher R. A. Dickey—a book enthusiast who claims that he would be an English professor if he wasn’t a baseball player—traveled to the red-light district of Mumbai as part of his charity work to curb sex trafficking in India.
“It made me want to grab every downtrodden person I could find,” he told the New York Daily News, “and walk them through the door, into the light and possibility, beyond the vile and violent world they’ve grown so accustomed to.”
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Where I interview the excellent Jim Ruland about his new collaborative book Giving The Finger, the memoirs of Bering Sea fisherman and Deadliest Catch star Scott Campbell Jr.
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Hot Dish Reading Series, The Rumpus, and The Nervous Breakdown have united to produce this Los Angeles Times Festival of Book off-site event, starring Gina Frangello, Jerry Stahl, Dana Johnson, xTx, comedian Ted Travelstead, and DJ Mira Gonzalez.
Details: Thursday, April 10th at 8:00 pm
at the Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90057
$7.00 in advance or at the door.
More info on the Facebook invite and on the poster below (designed by the incredible Lyndsey Lesh)
I'm co-curating and reading in this gallery show, this coming Saturday night in Los Angeles. Six writers, interpreting (speculatively, objectively, or otherwise) the works of five visual artists. $5.00 admission; details on the flyer below.
Join HOT DISH for Sunday brunch & a mimosa in support of 826LA, featuring writer & comedian Sara Benincasa, comic book writer Erin Hickey, novelist Cari Lynn, and short stories from Tommy Moore, Zoe Ruiz, and Eric Stolze.
Featuring a full brunch spread, including near-infinite mimosas and wonderful culinary contributions from Kima Jones (turkey bacon), Kate Maruyama (scones), Elina Shatkin (pancakes) & something delicious & vegan from the kitchen of Erin Hickey.
Where: 826LA Echo Park, 1714 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90026. Free parking in the back!
When: Sunday, March 16th. Doors at 11:30 (come early and get some food and a mimosa!) & the show starts at noon.
Cost: $5.00 at the door, 100% of which goes to support the educational programs at 826LA.
Hosted, as always, by Summer Block Kumar & J. Ryan Stradal.
We're also joined this time by David & Hilary from the Book Bound Mobile Library, so please bring a book to trade (but no text books, magazines, journals, dictionaries, encyclopedias, high school yearbooks, or instruction manuals -- thank you!)
Even more details on the Facebook event page. Hope to see you there!
Saturday, February 15th, I'm joining Amelia Gray and other excellent writers for Vermin on the Mount in San Diego. Details on the flyer below.
Join us at 826LA Mar Vista (12515 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90066) on Saturday, January 11th for an evening of wine and stories with Amber Benson, Franki Elliot, James Greer, Ben Loory, Theresa Sotto, and Chris L. Terry.
Doors at 4:30pm; event starts around 5:00 pm. Drinks and a few light snacks will be served. Come by before your Saturday night plans, have a glass of wine, and listen to six excellent and very different stories from six of L.A.'s best authors.
It's always nice when the boss likes your work. Author, filmmaker, and Rumpus.net founder Stephen Elliott has some kind words to say about my "Fantasy Football for Poets" series on The Rumpus:
What a great column this has been by the enormously talented J. Ryan. You don't have to like football at all to get into this. J. Ryan's one of those people, I know a number of them actually, who is really successful but wants to be a poet. Or maybe not a poet, but he's a succesful TV creative person who wants to write short stories and takes pleasure publishing in literary magazines. Alex Mar is like that. She was the editor of the Rolling Stone website, a producer at MTV, she directed a great documentary. Now she's coming out with a collection of essays from FSG which you'll probably be hearing a lot about here. I like to joke with them, Why are you demoting yourself? Of course I know why.
Online literary publisher Joyland tells me that "The Pop-Up Restaurant" was their most-read story of 2013 in Joyland LA. Huge thanks to the wonderful Mathew Timmons and Katya Apenika at Joyland, and to you folks, for reading the work of a guy who's still amazed when more than five other people in the world enjoy his stuff. Much gratitude.
Join us downtown Los Angeles tomorrow for the final Hot Dish event of 2013 with authors Jim Gavin, Meg Howrey, Julia Ingalls, Tracy McMillan, and Mary Otis. Doors at 7:30, event starts at 8:00. Free. For more details, visit the The Last Bookstore website.
Hot Dish Reading Series gets a kind mention on KCRW from Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times, in a segment on literary events in LA. Honored and happy to be included among stalwarts like Vermin on the Mount, Tongue & Groove, and Dirty Laundry Lit.
Reading at Republic of Pie at 7:30 pm tonight as a part of the sprawling program that constitutes Lit Crawl: LA. Free, with an afterparty at the Hesby. Details on the flyer below.
At the launch of his new novel, Vintage Attraction, the multi-talented Managing Editor of Bookslut sits down, over a figurative glass of wine, to spill his passions.
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This Sunday ay 1:30 pm: Tacos, beer, and readings from Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (writer for "Family Guy" & YA author), Sacha Howells (Coachella Review, Menda City Review), Kima Jones (2013 PEN Emerging Voices Fellow), Brittany Michelson (numerous literary journals), Elina Shatkin (Los Angeles Magazine & the Los Angeles Times) & Chris L. Terry (the new novel Zero Fade, on Curbside Splendor). More info on the 826LA site.
$5.00 at the door benefits the non-profit student programming at 826LA. Come early and bring an appetite.
I've started writing a fantasy football column for The Weekly Rumpus. It may not actually help your fantasy team, but if you like my Super Bowl Preview for non-fans, you may like this. As Stephen Elliott says, "It's The Rumpus, not ESPN."
For subscribers only, I believe. Check it out at iTunes.
This Sunday at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco, I'm reading my story from The California Prose Directory as part the Portuguese Artists Colony series, alongside authors like Zarina Zabrisky, Zahra Noorbakhsh and more. Free, doors at 5:00 pm.
This Saturday the 24th, join us out on the back patio of host Summer Block Kumar's home at 1521 N. Maple St. in Burbank for a laid-back summer evening with writers, alcohol, live chickens, a fortune-telling machine, and lots of food.
The readers:
Cecil Castellucci
Andrew Choate
Heather Havrilesky
Summer Block Kumar
Michal Lemberger
Ruth McKee
Come over and grab some food around 6:30; we'll hear three stories sometime after 7:00 pm, take a break, and then hear three more stories. Afterwards, we'll hang out in the backyard some more, have more drinks, and eat more food. What's not to like? Hope to see you there.