So, went to the Samuel Delany Leon Forrest Lecture yesterday at Northwestern. If you get a chance to see the man doing a reading, drop everything and go. Yes, it was That Damned Good. A few of the sentences in the (thus far unpublished) piece he read were clearly meant for the page rather than being spoken aloud, as by the time he arrived at the end there was no way in hell anyone could possibly still remember what the beginning was, but perhaps this is just my damaged brain talking, and that caveat shouldn't deter you in the slightest.
No, I have no idea why I'm writing like that either.
And I realized after the reception which followed the reading that, perhaps paradoxically, it's much easier to have a decent conversation with strangers in what's quaintly referred to as "Real Life" than it is online, at least if you're dealing with people with a minimal level of social skills. Had to delete two comments from some random, anonymous right-winger yesterday because they just weren't worth responding to, something I possibly wouldn't have done if I hadn't come to expect better behavior from folks. I expect this is what comes of getting out more.
Which Heather used to tell me I needed to do, but since it's a fundamental Law of the Universe that one's ex is never, ever right about anything, I can safely go without mentioning this. Which I just did, but in a sarcastic, self-referential post-modern sort of a way, so it doesn't count. Ha!
Also, see from the news (is this news?) that the brother ain't win on Trump's show. The guy from Loyola did. Meaning The GhettoFabulous Jessica is going to be even more insufferable than usual. Damnation.
Possibly going to "The Politics of the Paraliterary: A Symposium of Afro Diasporic Speculative Fiction and Theory" this afternoon, definitely going to The 2nd Annual Gapers' Block Party this evening (8pm upstairs at Ann Sather, 929 W. Belmont, only $7 if you BYOB!). Perhaps mimi smartypants will bring puppets again.
Which reminds me, thought during the lecture that Henson, Inc. should have hired Delany to voice Kermit after Jim passed away. But resisted the urge, at the reception, to ask him to say quote any lines from The Muppet Show, just to check.
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