Book contents are still being finalized, but I am working with my esteemed colleague and co-editor Megan Stielstra and our publisher Jotham Borello at Elephant Rock on getting all of that together. More details and a full outline of the campaign are here, and I’ll post more information as it becomes available.

Thanks you as always for reading,
AMR
Chicago, IL / April 20, 2012

January 8 & 9 @ Webster’s: Up The Ladder, Down The Rabbit Hole

There are few moments in life with more opportunity to terrify, amaze, or entertain than when we find ourselves wildly out of our element, our safe place, our home. (As someone who has been to Memphis and back, you’ll have to trust me on this.) I’ve been working with Susan, Maria, JC and Eric for some months on this show and now, finally, their words will see the light of day. Check it out.

February 12 & 13 @ Webster’s: Just Love Me Already

Autumn, 1992. Joanna Harper had the kind of face people write songs about. Young Andrew had nowhere to turn for guidance but to a complete set of Led Zeppelin tapes. Eighth grade can be a confusing place sometimes.

I promise either will be nothing less than the most well-spent evenings of your life.

Thank you as always for reading,
AMR
Chicago, IL / January 3, 2012

“Oh, that’s easy,” they said. “West Nashville for sure.”

I nodded, thanking them and making a mental note. It was a nice city; this seemed like a good idea.

So what does one encounter in this awful, mystical monsterscape of West Nashville? What horror? What injustice? What monument to human suffering?

Vanderbilt University. And then you realize what they mean: it’s not that west Nashville is really bad in the way one might think of the bad part of St. Louis or Chicago; they mean west Nashville, you know, that’s the part of town where those people live. Kids, hippies, minorities, democrats: whoever they are, that’s where they’re hiding. Talk about a disappointment.

I later retold this to a bartender somewhere else across town, and she just nodded, almost laughing as I spoke. “That’s not what you meant, was it?” she asked.

No, I said.

“You mean like the nasty part of town?” she asked.

Yes, I said.

“Oh, you want the dirty south.”

Yes, again.

“Yeah, you gotta go to Memphis for that.” And now, finally, three years later, I am happy to report she was right.

+++

Anyone in the Chicago area, I’ll be back at Essay Fiesta on Monday, November 21, 7pm at the Book Cellar. The show is free; I promise my words will be worth at least twice that.

Thank you as always for reading,
AMR
Memphis, TN & Chicago, IL / October 1 & 21, 2011

1. Asking people in Denver about the “bad part of town” will either confuse or entertain the people being asked.

Because there isn’t one, or at least none that I could find. To be sure, there are plenty of strange things, plenty of crime, plenty of weirdos, and plenty of the general unease that comes with any major American city. But Denver, for whatever reason, does not compartmentalize things like “rich” and “poor” and “I, tourist, really ought to get back to where I came from,” instead building the kind of city in which a person walking down a major street—let’s say Colfax—on any given day—let’s say a Friday—may pass, in order: new condominium building, famous restaurant, dive bar, crack house, upscale grocery store, liquor store, and a bar that looks like the kind of place pro athletes go to get arrested. And then a park because, you know, they like that kind of outdoorsy thing. Which, if you think about it, is kind of a cool way to live.

2. Boulder may contain the least self-aware population on Earth.

Boulderite: “Chicago? What are you doing in Boulder of all places?”
Me: “Are you kidding? This place is paradise. More like ‘what took me so long?’.”
Boulderian: “Well, don’t tell anyone back in Chicago about this place.”
Me: “Everyone already knows. How do you think I ended up here?”
Boulderer: “You’ve heard of this place even all the way in Chicago?”
Me: “Why wouldn’t we have? Or anyone?”
Boulderander: “Well, I mean, when I was growing up in Texas I knew about this place, but that’s different.”

3. When given a chance, always climb the mountain.

And make sure to drink plenty of water. Seriously.

Thank you as always for reading,
AMR
Denver, CO, Boulder, CO, & Chicago, IL / July 31 – August 18, 2011

Thank you as always for listening.
AMR
Chicago, IL / July 7, 2011