Mini Tour, Part Three

Next, Rauan and I traveled to Cincinnati. Having completely romanticized this town for months, I was a little nervous on the ride down, but we kept ourselves busy by starting some collaborative poems.

Here Michael and Rauan dive right into the debate:

Here are Kristi and Amy setting up:

Michael, Amy, and Kristi were our gracious, generous hosts.

Here is some pre-reading kitchen chat:

Then the good gathering:

And our wonderful co-reader, Ruth Dickey:

I think I've posted enough photos of what Rauan and I look like reading. What I wish I could have captured were the lightning bugs which were by the hundreds lighting up all over the yard during the reading! It was only the second time I'd ever seen them!

We stayed up late!

To sum up, Cincinnati was even more glamorous than I had imagined. I cannot wait for another excuse to visit. Maybe even to stay more than 19 hours.

I guess the next post will be my last Mini Tour post. But my part of the readings are done and my mini-vacation started some time between the last two photographs above, so the remaining pictures will be miscellaneous puppy, skyscraper, and adorable toddler shots. Just sayin'.

Midwest Tour, Part Two

Some Possible Tour Names:*

The Eagle or Crow Tour**
Do Not Sit on the Monument Tour
The No Spitting Tour
The Baby Bird Tour
So Loud It'll Wake the Dead! Tour
The Hare and Noodle Tour
The Dalai Lama Hoppin' Mad Goose Tour
The Three Million Candle Tour
The Cheese and Wind Tour***
The Puritan Doves Tour
Is The Score 0-0? Tour
The Second Cousins Tour



June 23rd: K, A, M, and I had some pre-reading tapas at People in Wicker Park before heading to:

Afterwards at Rodan:

Blurry guys. For some reason I refuse to use the flash on my camera.

*Now that a few days have passed, it's clear that some of these tour names may have only been funny in context of random tour sitings and on-bus discussions. We are probably open to suggestions.

**This is a highly flawed game we tried to perfect which involves deciding if a person is an eagle or a crow. I like it because the birds are such false opposites, like you might find on a professional development quiz you might take at work (Are you always upbeat or have you once been angry?) or a bloggy quiz that tells you what spice you are (Do you like jabanero peppers or chalk?) Rauan and I, by the way, are both crows, but we feel differently about being so.

***Wisconsin has a lot of cheese, and Chicago is windy...

Midwest Mini-Tour, Part One

Rauan Klassnik and I joined forces for a few days to tour parts of the midwest in support of our Black Ocean books. It was great! I'll be posting about that week in pieces over the course of this week.
June 21st. Here is Rauan as we are about to reboard our first Megabus en route to Madison for our reading at Avol's Books.


Rauan peruses my new manny, Ghost Fargo.

June 22nd. Over coffee before our Avol's reading, I try to warm up to the idea of being in some of the trip photos too by including my shoe in this shot. Rauan looks collected, ready to knock 'em dead.

Rauan of Holy Land chats with Ron of Avol's.


Our first reading done!

Aside from the reading, checking out the neighborhood around the capitol building and the occassional bite to eat, Rauan spent most of his time in his room watching Animal Cops, and because we don't have cable at home, I glutted on light-ish movies, the best of which was Bend it Like Beckham. I watched this just in time to get excited about the Spain/Italy and Spain/Russia matches. Between the movie and some explanations from Rauan who is a big soccer fan, I am pretty much a soccer expert now (says the girl who can't figure out which team is which when they switch uniform colors...).

Tomorrow I'll post about the first parts of Chicago and some of our possible tour titles...

Talking Image Connection at the Soap Factory...

...was so fun!

June 14th Ekphrastic Bonanza

Writers Alison Morse, Tammy Wenberg and I and musicians Peter Schimke and Bill Mike have all been collaborating in response to a collaborative art installation at the Soap Factory Gallery, and we're going to present our work on Saturday at 8:00. I'm really excited about it. Please come.

Ms. Asylum to you

Oh it's storming, and I kept rereading the same damn paragraph in my John D'Agata book. Behold the fruits of all my poor wittle brain could handle this evening.

You Are Punk Music

You've thought long and hard about what mainstream society has to offer... And you've pretty much decided that most normal things aren't for you. You're creative, expressive, and likely to do things yourself. You are a rebel and a fighter. You'll defend your point of view to anyone.

What Kind of Music Are You?

You Are a Question Mark

You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don't act like a know it all. You're open to learning you're wrong. You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You're naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises. Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they're not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!) You excel in: Higher education You get along best with: The Comma

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Your Goth Name is:

Amethyst Asylum

What's Your Goth Name?

You Are Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?