Okay, so the usual: Alto's a classy, lovely restaurant, and they've mastered the art of sashaying through the crowd during a reading and silently picking up cues about who wants food or drink (I didn't even order that extra glass of wine, but the waiter said he "sensed" I might want it). This time, the first time I've ever known a Lighthouse reading to contain long strings of profanity (of the best kind, of course), we were separated from the other diners by a sheer curtain. So...
Forty-five or fifty of us packed the joint, and Lighthouse New Media Czarina Laureen Harris did us the honor of kicking things off by reading part of her novel from her iPod. "It's kind of hard to explain," she started. "In the novel, people are having other people's dreams, and in this scene a guy's having a nightmare. Someone else's nightmare." To say it was funny is to understate it, but I just loved how she didn't miss a beat -- get up, read from your iPod, resume the Lighthouse Twitter update stream. Wow.
Jim Ringel read his new opening to his novel (great stuff), Laura Stine bewitched us with poetry, and Zack D. did a great job with some serious samurai action, and on and on until we hit the spoken word peeps. Mark, Vicki, and Angela--three readers who needed no notes--setting a new standard for Lighthouse? I was impressed and surprised. Lynn Wagner read a poem that must be published, pronto: dogs, pee, lovers. Rosemary, Judith, and Cara read excerpts from riveting memoirs.
Yes, I did take pictures, and yes, they're all blurry. I'll upload them later... (let the painful wait begin). Thanks, all you readers, for an entertaining evening, emcee Mike Henry who gave me an emcee break, and Gary Schanbacher for all your help. And Erika Krouse for sharing my extra wine. And Tiffany and John for being funny and supportive of my bad photography. Laura S. for bringing an Australian to the reading. And Kerry Booth for schlepping stuff out to the car so I could be lazy. And, of course, Laureen, for taking us to the new century with Twitter.
See you all at the Niche tonight, 7:30 drinks/ 8 PM start @ the Wynkoop (upstairs Morey room).
