March was a little ridiculous, but I’m looking forward to April as a sort of reprieve. I only have one reading on the docket, and it’s one that I’m really excited about. On Friday night, I’ll be a part of Chris Bower’s Fuck Storms: Imaginary Weather Phenomena, featuring stories/poems/monsoons inspired by made-up weather (I wrote a couple of “fact-sheets” for Miyagi’s Revenge and Suddenly Everything Turns to Glass). I had been working on a story about a guy who gets swept up into a tornado, only to discover an entire town living inside that tornado, but I think that’s been abandoned for something stranger. The show’s at a bar I’ve never heard of, Ray’s, at 3049 N. Kimball Ave. Here’s an awesome image by Susie Kirkwood to entice you:

Been away, largely because I’ve had loads of writing assignments over the past few weeks. One of them came to fruition last night at The Encyclopedia Show, a very cool show put on by Robbie Q. Telfer and Young Chicago Authors. I think it may be the first time I’ve read to someone in high school since the tour. A great night.

Monday night is the famed No Love for Love, which I’m hosting, and which Peter Sagal is headlining. A couple of years back, I performed there, and did a quiz show called “Guess the Context”, in which I recounted the many terrible things girls have said to me over my lifetime, and the audience had to guess the context of those statements. This time, it’ll likely just be a story, because now I’m married, and my wife is really nice.

After that, it’s all AWP, all the time. We have a big release party planned for AM/PM on Friday the 13th, and The Dollar Store will be a part of that. Here’s the poster, below (click (maybe twice) to make it bigger). Michael Renaud made it. It’s incredible. More soon!

Just a quick note to say that I’ve finally updated my linkage over on the right there to include old friends Marc Hogan and Roberto Scalese. Marc’s a music writer par excellence, and Berto’s a writer out in the old haunt of Boston, who has a keen eye for political absurdity. Plus, we once wuz roommates.

Also over in the right column, you’ll note that James Kennedy, once an apocryphal figure in cyberspace, now exists. He’s reading tomorrow night at Borders on Michigan at 7 pm, from his awesome new book The Order of Odd-Fish. I’ll be there, and recommend you attend, as well.

And if you haven’t heard already, old pal of John Huston, scourge of west suburban ne’er-do-wells, has a blog up at his newspaper, Oak Leaves. So far, John has accused an Oak Park trustee of looking a little too much like Crispin Glover, and pondered the town’s “thundering teenagers.” RSS that ish.

F’proof is headed down to the great (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest this weekend. If you’re there, or you know anyone there, tell ‘em to come out to the Slowdown tomorrow night. I’ll be reading alongside Starlee Kine, Amy Guth and m’boy Zach Plague.

Z and I are on a couple of panels as well, throughout the day on Saturday. Otherwise, we’ll just be hanging out with Nebraskans. Say hello!

Last year, The Dollar Store and the wonderful Third Coast International Audio Festival partnered up for Dollar Storeys, a short-form audio competition that asked professional producers and first-times to make pieces inspired by junk, just like we’ve done at the show for a few years.

Third Coast’s weekly show Re:Sound took a look back at the project this weekend, and you can hear it by clicking on that link. I had a blast going into the studio and hanging out with the public radio cool kids, and even recorded and old Dollar Store piece, “Aquapad,” for the show. It was such a great experience, and a real honor to be a part of Re:Sound, which I maintain is the most interesting show on ‘BEZ.

And for the record: I wish that every time I read something, I had one of the Third Coasters there to provide the outro music.