It was cold and rainy when I woke up Saturday morning. I never needed the umbrella I stashed in my backpack at the last minute, but I was very glad to be wearing my niece's eponymous NaomiNomi long sleeve oxford shirt and a nice warm sweater.
Sunday was bright and sunny and a shawl would have been more useful than the sweatshirt I started out in. But I'll never complain about a sunny day, surrounded by people buying books.
*****
I had a member's pass to two events. Guaranteed admission to Billy Collins and Maureen Dowd, one each day, the rest of the time free to wander the exhibits in the Science City, chatting with graduate students about their passions.
The philosopher and I discussed how many holes are there in a straw? for an exceptionally long time.
*****
Billy Collins read us poetry and told us stories for an hour. I wrote nothing down, though much was worth transcribing.
He frowned at someone recording the session. Don't share it. It's just for those of us in this room.
*****
Danez Smith is a young, queer, black, American poet and professor who came from the Spoken Word world of poetry.
His words were as lyrical as his poems he read.
WOKE: Whatever Offends Klansmen Every9amwhere
If you are porous enough and open enough you'll hear it... said with his head cocked to the side, his eyes searching for it...
Maybe we shouldn't make the work of being human so much more difficult.
The Great Human Question - How will we treat one another?
*****
Maureen Dowd filled a ballroom with old white people, promoting her book of celebrity profiles. Anyone looking for political commentary was disappointed. I asked what she thought of Jennifer Rubin's Contrarian platform. I haven't read it came out of her mouth without a beat. The look she gave me was cold as ice.
She had a lot to say about how close she got to Uma Thurman (a victim), Jane Fonda (a cultural icon), Kevin Costner (nasty), Bob Iger (took forever to get an interview), Robert Redford and Paul Newman (sex symbols, one accepting one amazed), and Trump-the-NY-Real Estate-Mogul.
She used both their names, just as she did with the tech bros she profiled. Peter Thiel predicted that Elon and The Orange Menace would be a natural pairing - two consummate salesmen. Elon got a lot of stage time. His kid with the unpronounceable name is FOTUS's favorite, Elon this and Elon that and she never once used his last name.
Am I being picky?
She was right about the confluence of politics, Hollywood, and Silicone Valley: illusion, power, winning, box office, ratings.
I've been thinking about that all afternoon.
*****
Brenda Starr, my favorite journalist, holds Leonard Pitts in the highest of high regards. His talk was under one of the open air tents, and when I arrived 20 minutes early I was lucky to find a chair. He's a delightful raconteur, who is having the best life - I get to do what I want to do and someone hands me a check for doing it.
His novels, set in places like Selma, Alabama and a Japanese internment camp, dump you right into the soup. Non-fiction is the facts. Fiction is the truth
And he demands the truth. On the attacks on DEI he finished his outrage with Just use the damn n word.
*****
There will be pictures tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Talk back to me! Word Verification is gone!