A Night Well Spent; Disaster Week Ends

Went up to SF this evening to experience Writers With Drinks, a spoken word/variety event sponsored by (and in support of) other magazine. And lemme tell ya, it was a blast! There were several readers present, among my favorite were Alicia Erian, reading from her first novel, Towelhead. It was a chapter both erotic and disturbing. Enough so that I bought a copy from the author before leaving.

Also reading was Tad Williams, who read a chapter from his book The War of the Flowers. That's one I'll have to get in the near future, but he wasn't selling copies like Ms. Erian was. Poet Liz Henry read 5 poems, and Mondo 2000 founder R. U. Sirius read from two of his books, including Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House.

But for me, the true highlight of the evening was meeting and hearing Violet Blue. She read a chapter she's contributed to the upcoming "Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong". It's the (extremely humorous) story of her taking part in an educational production on sexual anatomy and technique using actual porn performers. Yes, it turns out about as well as you're now surmising. (She also has some photos from the day in one of her online albums, linked off her home page.) Getting to meet her and hear her read made me into a total stuttering fanboy. I love reading her weblog, and to top it all off she's amazingly cuter in person than the pix in her albums (and the albums are pretty flattering, make no mistake). She was a delight to chat with, I'd have loved to have had more time.

So, moving right along...

I'm calling "Disaster Week" to a close. I thought I could make more of it, but I suppose I'm pretty grateful that I only have a handful of true disasters to recall. Three posts, and I'm fresh outta material. Time to go back to more enjoyable sexual escapades.

Dausa