Friday, June 19, 2009

Happens Every Day: Mad Sq Park Reading

So I don't really like to put up photos of myself on this here bloggy, but I am making an exception today to illustrate a few points.

1. Isabel Gillies was amazing. She arrived in a rain coat and wellies, toting a little boy Nascar umbrella and warm, appreciative smile. She was wearing comfortable jeans, an over sized cardigan, and hardly a stitch of makeup. She had tears in her eyes from the touching, funny story read by Deborah Copaken Kogan prior to her turn and then proceeded to read each word of her own text purposefully and directly from her heart. We all fell instantly in love.

2. Remember my 'tilt and lean' theory illustrated by Michelle Obama a few weeks ago? Well, it is again demonstrated here-- by me. As quoted by yours truly, 'It's a stance specifically reserved for occasions when you find yourself around really short people who are more important than you are. (Otherwise you of course would stand tall and proud!) ' This could not be a better example of said posture: she is clearly more important that I am and I obviously felt the need to honor her accomplishment by altering my posture proportionately.

3. As relayed yesterday, thunderstorms were crashing all day in New York-- and even though the skies showed nothing but a 'light and bubbling mist' (as E.B. so eloquently stated in her opening remarks) by the time the readers stepped up to the podium, the crowd was lacking to say the least. Including myself, the park staff, and the readers' husbands and friends, the crowd reached about 15 listeners. This meant more face time with the authors and their fans (me.) Which brings me to my next point...

4. Because I am of the I-can't-stand-seeing-people-squirm school of thought, I jumped right in line as the ONLY active and participating member of the meet-and-greet portion of the evening (my three friends stood at the other end of the tent, pushing me towards the table, but staying far away as to not actually have to participate the interaction). The conversation started off with both authors offering ME compliments (SEE, its good to be the only fan in attendance) and ended with more juice than I could handle about Isabel's divorce, ex-husband, and future book writing plans. Her new husband was in tote-- a lovely Matthew Broderick lookalike-- who is indeed the main subject of her next book. We are obviously BFF's now, as shown from the photo above. (For you, Annie. It was only slightly embarrassing to ask for that photo, but we wouldn't have done it otherwise. That's love right there.)

5. My dear friend (and best plus-one you could ask for) Alison Hughes planned, hosted, and catered the event, of which we were all grateful and extremely impressed. She made a smashing lemon pound cake with lime icing (you KNOW that citrus is my favorite flavor) that will one day be sold at her little Brooklyn bakery. We are currently looking for both names and investors-- if anyone is interested, I'll pass along your info to the girl herself. I will be serving as both publicist and artistic director. (Vintage floral wallpaper, brown paper with twine, and shocking contemporary photography, don't you think?)

Happy weekend, all :)

No comments: