October 18, 2009
85_TxtFile: Writers, the New Rockstars
_It’s a dream of all serious writers to be, in some ways, famous. It’s a nice level of fame, because people tend to know your name, but not your face, so you can still go out to your favorite restaurants without being swamped. Still, there’s a hankering in a lot of us to attain the same level of panties-being-thrown-on-stage fame as rockstars.
_So when my brother, Lee Future of Literature Is Not Deadheaded out to the Left Coast for San Fransisco’s Lit Quake, I did not know that I would end up as an accomplice to the idea that writers can be as cool as rockstars.
_It started around 2:30 in the morning when Lee called me. I was still awake, even though I had to work at 7:15 AM, and I was very confused as to why my brother was on the other end. It turns out that he was out in a bar in San Francisco getting drunk with none other than Craig Cleveneger, author of The Contortionist’s Handbook and Dermaphoria. I was instantly jealous. Which is why I probably hung up on my brother, but honestly, I wanted to be out at cool bars in sunny San Fransisco drinking with my favorite underground(ish) authors. How rockstar is that? And I know they’re weren’t sitting around some stuffy parlor talking droll about literature. Why? Because Lee told me the next day (when I attempted to call him while he was destroyed hungover to make up for calling me at 2:30 in the morning) that they were talking about kittens and bacon.
_Yes, Craig Clevenger loves kittens. He also loves bacon. At some point during the night that he and my brother got drunk together, and after an undisclosed amount of alcohol, he was reported saying that the best thing in the world would be a bacon-wrapped kitten. Not necessarily to eat, but just to have.
_So, if any of you out there are going to do as I’m doing and start hording facts about Craig Clevenger the same way that teenage girls horde facts about the Jonas brothers, start with these two intense loves of his:
_ _ Kittens
_ _ Bacon
And work from there.
- Kid
