Wasted Continuum

Tonight I went to see David Sedaris, one of my favorite authors, read at the State Theater. It was amazing. I have read every one of his books including his latest, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. The stories he read today were much longer than his usual choices. I think he only read three full stories plus some entries from his diary. There was one point where I laughed so hard, I was literally tearing up and my stomach was starting to hurt. It was a story about his book tour and his trip to a local CostCo with his brother-in-law.

During his book tours, he usually recommends a book to the audience. This time around, he suggested The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. He read an excerpt from it and I think I may need to give it a try. If David Sedaris comes to your city for a reading, do yourself a favor and go see him. His stories are a breath of fresh air (heavily sarcastic, fresh air). You won’t regret. If anything, you should pick up one of his books. My personal favorite is Me Talk Pretty One Day. It was the first book I read by him.

Upcoming apperances

I got a request to make a wallpaper out of my photo of the David Sedaris tickets last week. Since things have been so crazy with work lately, I didn’t have time to. I’m slowly catching up with the things that I’ve neglecting. Today is the first time in five days where I worked less than 12 hours. It is good. It was getting depressing.

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David Sedaris, one of my favorite authors, is coming out with a new book on June 3 called When You Are Engulfed in Flames. This is actually the second time it changed titles. The other two titles were Indefinite Leave to Remain and All the Beauty You Will Ever Need. The second title, All the Beauty You Will Ever Need, was one of my favorite essays that he read live when I saw him at the State Theater last October. I believe that was the first story that he read. It was hilarious and had the sweetest and most touching ending. I really wish that the story is in there. I’ll be getting it as soon as it comes out in stores. You can preorder it now at Amazon.

I never hide the fact that This American Life is one of my favorite radio shows. If you ignore the fact that some of my favorite people (David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell) as guests at times, it is still one of the best produced, hilarious, topical, intriguing, and captivating show around.

Recently, I’ve been behind a few episodes. Today, I just listened to the episode, Act V, originally aired in 2002, reaired on October 12, 2007. This was a great episode that I think everyone should try to listen to. Reporter and TAL contributor Jack Hitt follows a group of inmates who stage a performance of the fifth act of Hamlet. 

It was amazing to see how powerful Shakespeare’s writing is. What was more interesting was listening to how these inmates were actually moved by the play and also how much the audiences are moved by their performance.

David
Originally uploaded by JavaJunky

I just came back from attending another reading with my favorite author, David Sedaris. Seeing him live shows me how great of a writer he is. Not only is his published writing stellar, he read some excerpts from his diary and those also sounded polished and very narrative. His reading lasted just under two hours. It all went by too quickly. His next book is not going to be released until June. This bummed me out. I was hoping that it would be sooner than that. He was talking about this book last time he was in town last year.