Girl Friday

Yikes

This photo scares me.

From today's Star Tribune article about a few local women who use coupons obsessively. I don't see a single thing there that I would actually put in my cart at the grocery store, let alone clear out a room in my house for storing all of that crap. Call me old fashioned, but I like to bake my own cookies, tend to avoid GMO foods and would never even consider buying cases of single-serving water in plastic bottles. 

This photo is much less scary.

A chance encounter with prolific blogger Johnny Northside at Donny Dirk's Zombie Den. It's true, Alexis on the Sexes really does hang out there. Pretty regularly. Not only does Donny Dirk's stock Strongbow and one of the most impressive spirits selections in the Twin Cities, but they also have a kickass staff. One particularly sweet young man that works the door at night gave me a cookbook last Thursday.

I love it. The recipes are pretty basic but there are several ingredient combinations that are new to me and have inspired me to riff on them in my own little way. Last night I made Middle Eastern-style zucchini stuffed with cheese, pine nuts, parsley and cumin. I'm also loving a simple Colombian egg salad with avocado and a splash of white vinegar, and a Malawian banana soup with cinnamon and orange zest.

The recipes are fresh, simple and almost all of the ingredients are regular produce and pantry staples. For most of us, anyway.

Pimp

IMPORTANT: My friend and part-time literary mentor Mark Pritchard has just published another book and you should read it. It's called How They Scored, and it's about "how straight men think and talk to each other about sex." 

From the book's website:

Set among a group of friends as they meet at the remote vacation lodge of a software tycoon to talk about a new business idea, the book also explores issues of privacy and surveillance in the 21st century.

Hap, who works in the periphery of the software industry as a technical writer, has a gorgeous girlfriend and a great apartment in San Francisco, but he's just learned that the owner of the building plans to sell, and it's unlikely he would be able to afford another apartment in the city. He's afraid that moving out of the city will mean the end of his love affair.

Called to a gathering of friends he's known from college and from jobs in Silicon Valley, he has to decide whether saving his apartment and his love affair is worth mortgaging his soul as the newest employee of Dreedle, a fiendish corporation devoted to selling out the privacy of every individual to the highest bidder. In the meantime, the seven men who convene in a posh mountain retreat fill the days trying to outdo each other's stories of sexual adventure.

How They Scored mixes speculation about the loss of privacy in the 21st century with a journey through the beds of the bohemians of San Francisco and Austin, Serbian fashion models, Las Vegas wheeler-dealers, and a "landscape artist" whose life work is a hole in the ground in the middle of the desert.

As Mark says, it's funny, it's sexy and you're probably in it. I might be in it. A couple of these people might be in it. Just read it.

Know what else is really awesome? My pal Robin is writing a book right now, with the help of his friends and collaborative blog readers. Check out the link below to get the gist of Robin's book and how he's funding the project with KickStarter.

From Robin's website:

The basic setup is: Imagine a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century. All the really good cases are on the internet. And Holmes is a woman, and Watson is an A.I., and San Francisco... oh, poor San Francisco...

To get a feel for the style and setting, check out a short story I published recently, Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store. Basically, if you enjoy it, and think "hmm, yes, I'd read more like this," this project is the way to make it happen.

Now, the goal of this project is to put a book in your hands. And the cool thing about books is that they enjoy tremendous economies of scale. So here's the opportunity: as more people reserve books, everybody's book gets better, because a bigger print run means everything is cheaper.

If I can get 300 backers, the book will be really nice: perfect-bound with a crisp color cover. If I can get 600 backers, suddenly we're talking better materials, more colors... maybe even hardcover?

And more than 600...? Why, it'll be made of PURE GOLD.

Very, very cool. (I mean, I realize the "pure gold" part is probably a slight exaggeration, but still-- how cool would that be?)

Sleep Number Bed: Night 1

God has a name, and it is... whoever invented the Sleep Number Bed.

The Mexican slept like a ba-by all night--no tossing and turning, minimal allergy-induced snoring--and woke up a full 20 minutes before his alarm clock went off.  I told him his sleep would be shorter and he'd wake up more refreshed with the Sleep Number Bed and he didn't believe me, so nyah-nyah, I'm right, he's wrong.

I didn't even feel him get out of bed this morning, meaning I didn't wake up when he did, which is the first time that's happened in the history of our coupling.  And that maddening shock wave, trampoline effect I'd been forced to grow accustomed to?  Totally gone.

I had a hard time crashing last night, but that has more to do with the big feature I'm working on for vita.mn than anything else.  Despite the snoozefest I'm reading every night (not sayin' I could do better, just sayin' it's not doing anything for me), I can't seem to lull my brain to sleep very well this week.

My Night With Chuck Palahniuk

I ticked another name off my list last night when I had the amazing opportunity to not only meet one of my favorite authors, but sit down and ask him a few questions, as well as help him throw blow-up dolls and canvas autograph hounds into a sold out crowd at the Triple Rock.

Chuck was incredibly gracious on and off stage, and thanked me profusely for taking part in the event and taking the time to come up with original questions he hasn't had to answer a million times before.  I was a little worried because he took such long pauses before answering a couple of my questions, thinking maybe I'd somehow managed to stump him or something, but the compliments from him and his publicist after the interview made me feel positively relieved.

The actual event seemed to fly by really fast, despite having short readings by both Chuck and Knockemstiff author, Don Pollock.  We also watched the trailer for the film adaptation of Choke, which will be out this September.  What didn't fly by was the personalized autograph portion of the evening, which happened both before and after the event.  Very long.  I decided to stick around 'til the end (it didn't run very late, so this was no big deal) and I'm glad I did because I had a chance to say a proper goodbye to Chuck instead of waving a "so long" at him from the side of the signing line.

Having been able to talk to him before, during and after the event, I have to say he's one of the warmest and most respectful people I've met in a long time, celebrity or not.  He's inquisitive and attentive, and either feigned interest very well or was actually engaged in me babbling about my jobs.  He was encouraging as well as kind; I'm apparently expecting a book in the mail soon that he wants me to read.

I'd never done any sort of event like that before, so it was really interesting to find out that everything was so well prearranged.  Chuck's publicist was a rock star, and I was happy to be "directed" by him from off stage.  I suppose things wouldn't go nearly as smoothly if you didn't have someone (who really knew their s**t) running the show.

All in all, a pretty exhilarating experience.  I'm glad I knew the subject matter so well and that everything was went so fluidly.  I think I would've been terrified to interview an author I wasn't familiar with and I certainly would not have wanted to be on stage any longer than I already was.