Author Archive for liz

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Dishwasher Pete!!!!!!!!!

May ’07
22
12:00 am

HOLY COW!!!!Dishwasher PeteTuesday May 22nd 7:30 PMHe has a long overdue book coming out, so join us for a reading and signing.
Dishwasher Pete at Quimby?s!
Most people would love to travel the country, work at unique places, see beautiful and renowned cities and landmarks, and preferably not spend a lot of money. But who has the money or the time? Pete Jordan had the time, didn?t have the money, but he made it happen?by washing dishes.
 
Pete Jordan was a college drop-out, a self-proclaimed slacker, and was always looking for free grub or a place to crash, but had the desire to travel and explore. As a result, he became a man with a mission ? to wash dishes in all 50 states. After chronicling some of his experiences in his self-published ?zine called Dishwasher, which erupted into a cult following of 10,000 people, contributing to public radio?s This American Life, and being approached by countless publishers, Pete finally decided to immortalize his outrageous 12-year journey through countless kitchens across America in the paperback original, DISHWASHER: One Man?s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States
 
After a few short dishwashing stints, Pete soon learned the ropes of the covenant position of dishwasher, or plongeur, as the French say. But it was not until he followed a girl to Alaska where he took up a dishing job at a mess hall for fisherman that he realized dishwashing could quite possibly be the perfect job. Pete ended up losing the girl, but he had found his calling.
 
In DISHWASHER, ?Dishwasher Pete? as he was famously dubbed, highlights some of the more interesting adventures, of which there are many, on his crusade to dish in each American state. He learned about a ?three day soaker? and the best places to get a ?bus tub buffet.? He worked on an oil rig, college campuses, at a nature camp and a casino in Reno. Pete never knew where his next job would be or how much he would get paid (or if he would get paid,) which makes his story and the cast of characters he meets along the way all the more extravagant. Irreverent, entertaining, enlightening, and sometimes a little disgusting, DISHWASHER is one man?s journey to find love, stability, and the elusive happily-ever-after. And despite that Pete walked out on most of his jobs, slept on the floors of friends and friendly establishments, he was able to meet the love of his life.
 
Pete Jordan, aka ?Dishwasher Pete,? spent twelve years on his cross-country quest before finding love and abandoning both the dish-room and his country. In 2002 he moved to Amsterdam with this wife and began a new life as a bicycle mechanic and writer. Jordan chronicled his adventures in dishing on pubic radio?s This American Life and in the ?zine Dishwasher, which amassed a cult following of nearly 10,000 readers. Dishwasher?s subscribers have been waiting for Dishwasher #16 and soon they will wait no longer, as it is being published simultaneously with his book. DISHWASHER is his first book. www.dishwasherpete.com

Matthew Sharpe author of Jamestown

May ’07
17
12:00 am

Matthew Sharpe reads and signs his new book JamestownThursday May 17th 7PMwith local favorites Elizabeth Crane and Anne Elizabeth Moore reading stuff too!
 
Set in the indeterminate but not too distant future, Jamestown chronicles a group of “settlers” (more like survivors) from the ravaged island of Manhattan, departing just as the Chrysler Building mysteriously collapses, heading down what’s left of I-95 in an armor-plated vehicle that’s half-schoolbus, half-Millenium Falcon. They are going to establish an outpost in southern Virginia, look for oil, and exploit the Indians controlling the area.
 
The story is of course based on the actual accounts of the first ten years of the Jamestown settlement from 1607 to the death of Pocahontas in 1617. Set against a cataclysmic backdrop, the book features the historical characters?John Smith, Pocahontas, her father Powhatan, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and John Rolf?but in an act of wild re-imagination, akin to Baz Luhrman’s re-interpretations of Shakespeare (the great playwright of the Jamestown era), Powhaton is half-Falstaff, half-Henry V (with a psychiatrist consigliere, Sidney Feingold); John Martin gradually loses body parts in a series of violent encounters, while John Smith is a ruthless and pragmatic redhead continually undermining the aristocratic leadership; and Rolf’s and Pocahontas’s romance is conducted by text-messaging, IM-ing, and ultimately telepathy.
 
Despite the grim sounding circumstances and large quantity of spilled blood, it’s a romantic book, a meditation on history and interpretation, told in language that is endlessly delightful?the jokes, the rhymes, and the rimshot dialogue throw the story’s bleak underside into brilliant relief. It’s a big book?a cross between the terrific maximalist novels of Barth and Safran Foer and the minimalist magical satire of George Saunders.
 
About the author: Matthew Sharpe is the author of the novels The Sleeping Father (Soft Skull, 2003, translated into nine languages) and Nothing Is Terrible (Villard, 2000) as well as the short-story collection Stories from the Tube (Villard, 1998). He teaches creative writing at Wesleyean University. His stories and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Zoetrope, BOMB, McSweeney’s, American Letters & Commentary, Southwest Review, and Teachers & Writers magazine. He lives in New York City.
 
Local Authors Elizabeth Crane and Anne Elizabeth Moore will also read at this event.
Elizabeth Crane is the author of the upcoming YOU MUST BE THIS HAPPY TO ENTER (coming this fall from Punk Planet Books) and two collections of short stories from Little, Brown, WHEN THE MESSENGER IS HOT and ALL THIS HEAVENLY GLORY. www.elizabethcrane.com
 
Anne Elizabeth Moore is the co-editor of PUNK PLANET, the editor of the BEST AMERICAN COMICS, and the authoress of HEY KIDZ, BUY THIS BOOK and the upcoming UNMARKETABLE: BRANDALISM, COPYFIGHTING, MOCKETING, AND THE EROSION OF INTEGRITY. www.anneelizabethmoore.com

“That didn’t take long”

V-Tech Rampage
via
metafilter

Not coming soon to a Wii near you… V-TECH RAMPAGE, the latest in a long line of bizarre, mayhem-inspired games. Commenting on the game, MagmaDragoonX2000 writes, “Well the game was kinda short but consideing what its based on I guess thats expected. The gameplay was okay although it did seem shoddy but over all not that bad.”

If you’re jonesing for a some less topical 2-D videogame mayhem, you can’t do much better than the awesome zombie-themed Boxhead: The Rooms.

Michael Kupperman cartoon on SNL

Sitting at home alone on a Saturday night. Watching SNL and feeling sorry for myself. And then a lightening bolt of laffs crashed through the TV screen. No, it wasn’t the Musical Guests Linkin Park. Something else entirely…

Meet the locals, part one

The Return of Kebab
The Return of Kebab, by Dan Gleason – $8.95

Professional news clipper and writer Dan Gleason has been bringing his short story zines to Quimby’s since the Hannah regime. He’s back again with The Return of Kebab, his second collection of short stories, and he’s got a disgusting/delicious gyro sandwich in tow. And that’s just the cover! Inside, you’ll find deliciously disgusting tales of wonder, woe, drunkenness and sexual depravity so grossly compelling as to make all that shredded meat seem a distant, savory memory.

Here’s your sweet taste:

In the whisper game she revealed to me that the
darkly-packed black man’s testicles, smashed together
as they were in the pornographic video, looked just
like a large avocado. And I responded to her that
this was obvious- not unlike the difference between
the meditative sort versus the over-emotional open
book, or the ever-present look of death in the eyes of
the once Quixotic gent who got a job trivializing the
marginalized with perfunctory kindness.

Support Chicago zinesters and pick up a copy already.