Category: Appearances

Well, we’re back in the City of the Big Shoulder Pads, and I think the whole brood is finally getting back in fighting shape. I can now sleep a little past seven, ignoring the workers cutting up the street outside our window for almost 10 minutes. I also curse a little bit less driving around town, although that might have to do with the kids being in the car. And the car windows being open.

Fall is the time when I make lots and lots of resolutions that probably won’t get accomplished. (First got this idea from the Tribune’s Eric Zorn, and it is a much better notion than waiting until January, with its short, cold days and hibernating lethargy.) Of course, there are more demands on my time now, too, but during the day, I’ve got about 7 hours of straight time, which I hope I can put to awesome use.

One resolution is to get out to more readings and performances this fall. Writing is incredibly solitary, but there’s no need to make the problem worse. Any night of the week in Chicago, there’s a good reading series happening somewhere. so I’m going to stick my nose out, meet a few people, and maybe sign up to read, if the hosts will have me.

So far I’ve been able to read at two gatherings. The first was the venerable Uptown Poetry Slam, run every Sunday by my old friend Marc Smith. He found out I had a new ebook to publicize, and his first instinct was to give me a buzz and offer some stage time to read. I hadn’t read there in a couple years. The Green Mill Lounge is one of the most special places in Chicago, a watering hole and musical oasis that could exist in no other place. It looks great, feels cozy, and SOUNDS unlike anyplace else in the whole city. Mark let me read for quite a while, so I brought out the clown bar fight from Chapter 5 of “Honk Honk, My Darling”, and followed it with the steamy encounter between Rex and a certain senator’s wife in the yet-to-be-published thriller, “The Wet Nose of Danger.” I also read for the first time in North America, the newest PC Bedtime Story, now available in the British edition and e-book edition, “The Duckling That Was Judged On Its Personal Merits and Not on Its Physical Appearance.”

What a jolly and engaging stage presence I am !!

Reactions were weird, but I should be used to that by now. Cackle here, laugh over there, but I didn’t have them at my mercy as much as I’d like. I’m also a little rusty, so I can’t pull the audience along like I used to. Will have to brush up on my chops.

Then last week I got to participate in Reading Under the Influence (RUI), which is run monthly by the wonderful Julia Borcherts out of Sheffield’s Bar. This was a totally different kind of reading than what I was used to: Everyone standing up, about four feet from the reader, all drinking, many joining in and heckling. It wasn’t an aggressive audience, but they sure were involved with me and the other readers. I also stumped most of them with my trivia questions about the end of the world and Nostradamus and the Book of Revelation. But most importantly, I met some cool people and heard some good writers, especially Geoff Hyatt, whose new book just came out. I gave away a lot of coupons for free copies of “Honk Honk, My Darling,” but only a few of them have been turned in yet.

And today I sat down with the notion that I was going to write 1000 words. For me, this is like running a marathon. I don’t think I’ve written that much in one sitting in years. And what do you know, I beat it! 1458 words! It felt great! And no one at Facebook even noticed I was missing.

This Thursday night, April 8, will be “Guys Night” at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. There’ll be lots of scratching, spitting, and thinking about sex every 7 seconds.

And if you can’t find your own way to the Nonfiction Section, don’t ask any of us to ask for directions! Burp!

I’ll be the humble host of this night of readings, which will feature:

Jonathan Eig, reading from his about-to-be released blockbuster, Get Capone.

Bryan Gruley, reading excerpts from his further-down-the-road-to-be-released sequel to Starvation Lake, entitled The Hanging Tree. Hockey, northern Michigan, egg pie, MURDER–the works!

Peter Schilling, author of a book that’s by-god in the store, The End of Baseball, a fictional account of Bill Veeck’s attempt to field a major-league team in 1944 with all Negro League players.

And to make everything even muy mas macho, I’ll read a few poems from Bardball and throw around words like mackinaw, ingot, and smelt. Come on out at 7:00 and support your local indie bookstore!

The reading for Mark Caro’s book The Foie Gras Wars went very well last night. He sold a lot of books, and his girls were very cute in their demand for the spotlight and the microphone. But the biggest surprise was the cake below, which his parents had made and brought to his reception after. This should be the standard, I think, for what all book signing cakes should be held to. This picture might not show it, but the cake was about 4 inches high, layered with chocolate, fudge and bananas (and thankfully no meat or organ products). Congrats to Mark, and our waistlines.

A couple of years ago, my friend and Trib writer Mark Caro found himself covering an odd spat among Chicago celebrity chefs. One chef (high-strung, combative, perfectionist, and a sucker for publicity) made it known through Mark that he had decided not to serve foie gras at his eponymous groggery. He stated further (okay, no need to be coy, it was Charlie Trotter) that he would like to eat the prepared liver of chef Rick Tramonto “as a little treat.”

A year later, through some silly aldermanic shenanigans, Chicago had the distinction of being the first city in the world to ban the sale of foie gras in restaurants. Restauranteurs dared city health inspectors to prevent them from serving it. The city’s top hot dog chef (and no fool about publicity, either) managed to become the first chef to be fined for serving his foie gras “dog”. Suddenly, Mark had a front row seat to the emotional battle over the fattened goose liver. And so, he decided to write a book about it.

“Foie Gras Wars” is now in the stores. Mark will be signing some Thursday night at 7 pm at the Borders at Clark and Diversey. Come on out and support him. (For a good article on the book, check out this from the New York Post.)

I’ve had the chance to read some chapters over the past two years. It’s a very entertaining and even-handed story, one that presents many facts and viewpoints but avoids easy answers. Mark even threw himself into the coverage by attending a goose liver weekend at a farm in France, where he learned the issue from the “inside out”, as it were. Once he had his research done, he told me he’d really learned a lot about food choices and this little delicacy, and that his cholesterol had gone through the roof.

In these economic times, macaroni and cheese might be on more people’s minds than foie gras, but keep an eye out for this book and pick up a copy. It’s a fascinating look into politics, money, class, the artisanal food movement, and our relationship to nature and what we put in our bodies.

UPDATE: Here’s a good article about Mark in the Chicago Reader. He’ll also be signing at the B&N in Old Orchard in Skokie next Thursday.