The Olive Reader

This Sunday The Earl McGrath Gallery New York will open at its new location with new paintings by Joe Andoe. This will be Joe Andoe’s fifth solo show with the Earl McGrath Gallery. Joe Andoe has been exhibiting worldwide for over twenty years and his work can be found in numerous public and private collections; including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

This show will coincide with the paperback release of; Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full Speed, by Joe Andoe, published by Harper Perennial, scheduled for July of 2008.

Earl McGrath Gallery
200 West 57th Street, Suite 908
New York, NY 10019

I’ve clearly got Josh on the mind. Below you’ll find and no doubt enjoy the dramatic fruition of a soap opera long lost.
DALLASTY! from Candy Everybody Wants

Yesterday evening at the Bowery Electric, with the help of OUT Magazine, we celebrated the publication of Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s new novel Candy Everybody Wants. The recently opened Bowery Electric provided a smoothly lit atmosphere for a Monday crowd and the complimentary Christiana Vodka (perhaps “the world’s smoothest vodka”) kept everybody classy. I like mine with a twist! Things remained casual with the exception of some fine words delivered by Aaron Hicklin, editor-in-chief of OUT, and Josh, the man-of-the-hour. The trippiest visuals were most likely provided by the books themselves.

I would have taken one but it was in another dimension. We also had some special guests (well, close friends of the author) who came to lend their support.

Josh Kilmer-Purcell and James Frey took a moment to beam into the camera. Tonight these two handsome gentlemen will appear at The Blender Theater for a reading and book-signing.

The big James Frey novel — Bright Shiny Morning — has inspired a styled and enthused review from Janet Maslin: “Little Piece of Los Angeles, Done His Way.” It’s a coup!

The AP (Hillel Italie) reports that “A children’s story about a family of penguins with two fathers once again tops the list of library books the public objects to the most. “

The offending book, “And Tango Makes Three” is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins who, for a time, formed a couple in New York’s Central Park Zoo. The book aims to send the message that it is cool to be in or know someone who has a non-traditional family.

So the fact that this lovely CHILDRENS BOOK ABOUT PENGUINS is the top of the list of banned library books really, really sucks.

Here’s a link to the Live Penguin Cam from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

He’s gay.

I had a gold cap installed on my molar this past weekend. Blinging. Now for some links:

Three Guys One Book: A potent combination and a new literary blog.

“Sartre and the problems with British public transport”: Carrie really liked this article. I liked it, too. And I’ve been to that bookshop! Twice!

The Smoking Poet’s first annual short story contest: Enter!

For those of you struggling to decide what to read next, our friend Will reminds us of two articles that appeared a few months back in the Guardian that each contain more answers than you can probably handle: “How did we miss these?” and “How did we miss these? Part two”

I’ve just exited the sucking mind-warp of the comment thread below Tony O’Neill’s article on Dennis Cooper for The Guardian blog. All thought is pointless.

Thanks-be to music and sexy b/w author photos: A Playlist with Willy Vlautin, author of Northline, on the Paper Cuts blog.

For words, check Poets House upcoming events.

This Friday, May 2nd at 7pm, there will be quite a gang of writers at KGB Bart on 4th Street in NYC. (And at least one editor, incidentally.) For a rundown of the event and the writers, go here. If you’re in the NYC area this weekend and haven’t yet made dinner plans, why not join me for a drink or two as the words rain down upon us?

Oh, you can’t? You have to wash your hair? OK, maybe next time then? What? A kidney transplant? Well, good luck.

After completing the longest post I’ve written in perhaps a year, I lost it all. Where did it go, huh? WHERE?!!

Gah! It’s my own fault. So much anger. Anyway…

Here are the links I so sinuously wove together:

OliveTV (links now available low on the left side-bar)
Harper
Harper Entertainment
William Morrow
Simon Winchester
Joyce Carol Oates

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!

The Telegraph gives a good list.

The show must go on, as they say … here’s a recent interview with Sebastian with the CBC …

Life is just basically smoke through a keyhole, its just chasing after wind…

For now. The Edith Wharton house (“The Mount”), which faces foreclosure, has been granted a reprieve until May 24th. The house will be open to visitors for another month. So far they have raised $800,000 of the needed $3 million. NY Times. If you follow the link to The Mount above, you’ll see where all that money went and why it was worthwhile.

Vladimir Nabokov’s son Dmitri has told Germany’s Der Spiegel that he has finally decided to ignore his father’s instructions to burn his final manuscript, The Original of Laura, and will instead have it published. Dmitri said, “I’m a loyal son and thought long and seriously about it, then my father appeared before me and said, with an ironic grin, ‘You’re stuck in a right old mess – just go ahead and publish!’”

Dmitri has called the manuscript “the most concentrated distillation of [my father’s] creativity.”

As reported by the Guardian blog: “Nabokov’s last work will not be burned.”

One of our very favorite paperback authors, Kenneth C. Davis, author of the fantastic Don’t Know Much About® series, has written America’s Hidden History, which goes on sale in a week. In the video below, Ken explains the objective of his new non-fiction project:

…to link/blog about all of the below.

Harper Perennial’s publisher defends her author in Publishers Weekly: “Tropic of Turpitude.”

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

My girlfriend’s parent’s plane was struck by lightning this past week. They’re OK, but thank you for that pang of concern. Here’s the news story. Watch the video. See the people.

San Francisco International Film Festival runs from April 24 to May 8.

At BookSlut there is an interview with Scott Heim, author of We Disappear.

Chip Kidd, author of The Learners and The Cheese Monkeys, has an amazing website: “Good Is Dead.”

Sarah Hall has won the James Tiptree Jr. Award for her novel Daughters of the North (published in the UK as The Carhullan Army).

And I’m spent. Now back to the Inbox.

In recognition of the release of Christopher LaMarca’s Forest Defenders: The Confrontational American Landscape and Earth Day 2008, SHIFTING LANDSCAPES features several prominent photographers’ perspectives on our environment and its natural and often unnatural states.