Lester Bangs Memorial Reading and Book Launch

[PPI Karl]

Everyone's invited to attend tonight's 4th Annual Lester Bangs Memorial Reading which, this year, launches a new anthology of poems and creative nonfiction about San Diego's east county, The Far East: Everything Just As It Is.  I'm one of the featured readers this year.  My piece, "Simple Music," is included in the anthology, which will be available at the event in limited numbers.

Lester Bangs, for those who are unfamiliar with the name, was one of our foremost rock critics in the 20th century, famous for coining the term "Punk."  He was portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous, and he is one of our "completely famous" Grossmont College alumni.  Every year, we stage a reading that honors the "rock" spirit of Bang's legacy, with subversive poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction, and presentations about Lester Bangs.  In the past we've had rock bands at the event, but this year we'll be featuring a musician who has set some of the featured works to music and whose CD will be available with limited editions of the anthology. 

If you're in the area and you can make it, the reading is tonight (Wednesday, October 17, 2012) at 7:00 p.m. in Griffin Gate (at the back end of the Griffin Student Center), 8800 Grossmont College Drive, El Cajon, California 92020.  Be sure to come up and say hi to me if you come.  

Attached is a map of the campus with "Griffin Gate" marked in red.

[PPI Brian]

I really really want to attend, even if it's only for a little while. My car is in the shop today, and I just walked back to my office from the dealership. Hopefully I will get my wheels back in time. 

[PPI Brian]

I hope the reading went well last night. Sorry I wasn't able to attend. I was stuck finishing a 400+ mailer with three inserts by myself. Had to walk a couple of miles back and forth to the dealership to get the oil changed in my car, and finally delivered the letters to the Midway Post Office at 8:45 pm. Got home in time to do lockins with Alexis from 9:30 to 10:45, and then had to get up early and head up to Huntington Beach for a meeting. I'm getting ready to head home now and pack an overnight bag and head back up to Huntington Beach again in the morning. I'm absolutely exhausted... 

[PPI Tracy]

I hear it went very well, Karl.  Congrats on yet another amazing event!

[PPI Karl]

Sorry to hear about how busy you were, Brian.  I do understand, so no worries.  Tracy, thanks for your well wishes.  The event turned out pretty well, as I was confident it would.  We rehearsed it on Monday night and sorted out the worrisome details of musical accompaniment, lighting, and seating.  I'm thrilled to be published in such a beautifully and thoughtfully edited work.

The book has a limited initial run, but I'll be surprised if it doesn't eventually become available in our San Diego Public Library.  I'll show you the book on Sunday when we get together.

[PPI Tracy]

Very nice, Karl.  Proud as peach pie, I am!

[PPI Karl]

Have another slice . . .

I'm reading the tonight, at Third Space gallery in University Heights, at 7:00 p.m.  This was a last-minute arrangement (like, I'm talking yesterday evening!) to help promote the new, The Far East: Everything Just As It Is.  I new there would be readings opportunities, but I didn't think I'd have less than 24 hours to prepare for one.  I'll be reading "Simple Music," my story about moving to downtown El Cajon and about the Mother Goose Parade.

Anyway, if any of yous are interested, please come on down to the reading.  It would be excellent to see any of you.  Here's a link to Third Space Gallery: http://3rdspace.co

Probably the weirdest coincidence in all this is that Third Space is directly behind the house where I lived in 1990, when I had just moved back from Irvine to San Diego.  You could look out the back window of the gallery and see my house from there.  (That last sentence makes me think of a punchline to a bad joke:  "Peter, Peter . . . I can see your house from here." ::|

[PPI Brian]

[PPI Karl]

Yikes!  Why do I always look like I'm about to cough up something and spit it?!  Oh, yeah.  I'm a writer.  That's what I do.

It was a hugely fun reading, despite the rain.  Great turn out, and a horribly stupid review of the anthology, published in East County Magazine on-line followed the next day.  I was baffled by the complaints, almost as though the writer hadn't ever read a work of modern literature.  Hmmm.

Thanks for posting the pic.