Monday, May 20, 2013

Black Attack

Here's a little taste of what you, the hell, missed at N@B the other night. 

That's Matt Kindt performing one of the coolest live-reading pieces I've ever seen. His latest graphic novel, Red Handed, contains a story-line about an art thief and insurance fraud artist who slices up art works and sells the individual pieces.

The audio content was a pre-recorded bit of Matt reading from the book's script while re-creating the accompanying page of the book live in watercolor - which he then cut into many pieces and gave to audience members. It was a tightly choreographed performance and I'm not making a hyperbolic claim when I refer to it as mesmerizing.

He closed out the evening with the performance piece because nooooobody wanted to follow that. But hell, he had to follow David James Keaton reading Life Expectancy in a Trunk (Depends on Traffic) from his brand new book Fish Bites Cop, and when you're following Keats, you'd best bring something fresh. If you're listening, Keaton, this here's a formal request for more stories about CAT The Skip Tracer and his unknown rival and homicidal bounty hunter.

'Course the evening was kicked off hard by Fred Venturini's excruciatingly precise letter from a stalker to his target he plans to torture and kill. If N@B ever does a Valentine's Day themed anthology, I'll want this story. Got a chance to talk with Fred about the current status of his no longer available debut novel, The Samaritan, and it sounds like exciting things are happening. Looking forward to the next incarnation of that one.

If you're in or around Denver, Philadelphia, Los Angeles or New York this week, check out the N@B event nearest you (and if you're hitting Denver or New York - I will see you there!)

And if you're in Austin - I want to see you at N@B June 16. I'll be reading with Scott Phillips and Jesse Sublett - how bout those bad muthas on Father's Day? BTW - Phillips' latest wrongest book Rake is available now. You haven't picked it up yet? Jackass.

2 comments:

david james keaton said...

I still have my vandalized art square! Oh, man, look at that family picture, too. AAAAAH! But giving your question some thought - I think CAT's "unknown rival" could very well be... DOG. Down the rabbit hole here. Let me out!

jedidiah ayres said...

CAT and DOG as DeNiro and Asher in Midnight Run