April 22, 2005
inappropriate touching
Well, kids, I think I've done it this time. We're in the middle of our literary festival, Get Lit. It's a huge ordeal, the centerpiece being readings by big-name writers. This year, among others, we got Salman Rushdie and David Sedaris. Tonight, I managed to snag a volunteer pass and get into Sedaris for free.
(Sorry for the poor quality of the photos; I was using my digital video camera. I did videotape the Q&A, during which someone asked what he thought about blogs. If I can find server space, I'll try to post that this weekend). Sedaris did a book-signing session after the readings. These signs were posted all around the table.
I have a feeling those signs were a personal request of Mr. Sedaris, who also did a brief signing session before the evening for the volunteers and those who came early. I considered getting his signature, which would have amounted to about 10 words, but why settle for 10 when I could get 1000? So I asked whether I could take a picture with him, and he hesitated a bit, not expecting a photo-op, but, probably not wanting to embarrass me, he obliged. That's when I think I might have taken it a little too far for his comfort, grabbing his hand and telling him to smile.
I thumb-wrestled David Sedaris. Posted by ghetto monk at April 22, 2005 12:40 AM | TrackBack
totally jealous.
Posted by: emily at April 22, 2005 06:55 AMI just would love to see him impersonate Ella Fitzgerald.
Posted by: barlow at April 22, 2005 08:17 AMI think I meant Billie Holiday.
Posted by: barlow at April 22, 2005 08:18 AMdid you let him win?
Posted by: judah at April 22, 2005 09:21 AMThat's so rad.
Posted by: Nat at April 22, 2005 10:03 AMDon't leave us hanging! Who won?
Posted by: Retc. at April 22, 2005 11:59 AMDouble to nothing you can't do it to Rushdie.
Posted by: daniel silliman at April 22, 2005 12:24 PMshut up.
Posted by: natalie at April 22, 2005 02:40 PMI was reading our campus newsmagazine today and saw that DS will be reading on campus this Tuesday. I would be excited. Except. It's #&!%^@ sold out! Obviously. Luckily he comes here amost every year. Hopefully I'll catch him next time. dang.
Posted by: justin at April 22, 2005 04:16 PM* he makes raleigh look good.
Posted by: jane. at April 22, 2005 04:48 PMthat's unbelievable -- you deserve fame as well as fortune.
Well—so it's a festival of literary lights. . . . Then this has got to be the place to put this:
One of Graham Greene’s characters in THE END OF THE AFFAIR (which I'm currently reading) says, “. . . strange to me, and how infinitely dreary, the serenity of innocence.”
Greene was a twentieth-century Catholic novelist of great power and depth. And well do I know, myself, the “dreary. . . serenity of innocence.” Has anyone else felt this exact ambivalence? I think I recognize it sometimes, here and there, on this very blogspot.
One must become an atheist to truly get over it, and that's an old man's non-religion.
Posted by: Geo at April 22, 2005 07:04 PMGeorge, yes, I'm very familiar with Graham Greene. And I'd like to think you know me well enough by now to know that I don't believe in innocence. To the degree that you've seen that on this blog, either I've lied or I've tried to express yearning alongside my groaning. And you know by now that I'm not gonna let you get away with calling yourself "non-religio[us]."
Posted by: jeremy at April 22, 2005 11:04 PMjudah, retc., he was so obviously painfull uncomfortable with my holding his hand that when he started to move his thumb, i told him he didn't actually have to wrestle, that we could just pose. he seemed grateful.
daniel, do you want me to die?
adam, you really gotta quit plagiarizing fortune cookies.
Posted by: jeremy at April 22, 2005 11:16 PMFor someone as supposedly self-conscious as yourself, I can't believe you actually did this. The awkwardness I felt from just reading it was almost too much to bear.
Posted by: Matthew at April 24, 2005 11:13 AMkick ass.
Posted by: steph at April 24, 2005 05:06 PMNot at all jealous, but I can't think of something cooler you could do than get a picture of you thumb-wrestling with him.
Posted by: Austin at April 25, 2005 11:30 AMthanks, austin. i admit that i was rather pleased with myself for coming up with thumb-wrestling, and while waiting in line.
Posted by: jeremy at April 26, 2005 12:26 AMlooks like someone from the onion was lurking in on your photo shoot.
Posted by: judah at April 26, 2005 02:38 PMha. no thumb war is ever senseless. silly onion.
Posted by: jeremy at April 26, 2005 03:03 PM