Thanksgiving, Marshfield

November 26, 2010







Thanksgiving, Marshfield

Kathy & I have stayed in Key West for most major holidays for the past few years, traveling during such busy times can be a royal pain. This year, we decided to venture North once again and accepted an invitation from Kathy’s father Jim to come for the traditional Kilroy Thanksgiving feast at his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts.





Kathy actually headed up on Tuesday afternoon and I followed her to Logan in Boston the next day. Kathy met me at the airport and we headed South to Marshfield and almost immediately to the grocery store to help shop for the Thanksgiving Feast. After securing food and libations, we joined Kathy’s father Jim for dinner at the Mill Wharf in nearby Scituate.







Thanksgiving Day dawned sunny and (for us especially) cold and windy, but Kathy & I decided to take in a holiday tradition – high school football on Thanksgiving morning. We headed over to Marshfield High- where the hometown Marshfield Rams, were taking on their rivals from the next town over the Duxbury Dragons.





The place was packed as the teams faced off for the 26th straight year. After holding an early lead, Marshfield lost a heartbreaker 15 -10, evening the series with 12 wins a piece and two ties- a pretty even rivalry going back almost 30 years.





We headed back to the house to warm up and start getting ready for the big meal. Guests started arriving almost immediately. Kathy’s Aunt Kathy, Uncle Al and cousin Alex, her sister Julie with her husband Alan and daughter Bayla and family friends Betty & Phil. It was a full house of hungry family & friends.



Alex & Kathy



It was a great meal and everyone seemed to enjoy the day. Of course we missed those family members who couldn’t make it, but we ate enough food for them all. We had a great afternoon, enjoying the company, the football game featuring the local NFL favorite Patriots trouncing Detroit and all the other Thanksgiving traditions.



Kathy, Kathy & Betty

Bayla

Kathy & I have so much to be thankful for and we would like to wish all of our families and friends the happiest of holiday seasons. To our families in Colorado Springs, Indianapolis and North Carolina- we send you all love and good wishes. Thanks as well to our friend Carolyn who is house-sitting for us.



Phil & Al

Phil

Alan

Book Fair Sunday

November 23, 2010

Carl Hiassen





Book Fair Sunday

The final day of this edition of the Miami Book Fair began with another comedic gem of a presentation by two book fair standards. Carl Hiassen is a long-time columnist for The Miami Herald who is best known for his outrageously funny South Florida mystery books. Scott Turow is a regular at the book fair, performing in the Rock Bottom Remainders every time they appear who also is a working attorney and author of a number of thrillers based on his law experience. Together they presented a wildly amusing opener for the Sunday schedule.



Carl Hiassen & Scott Turow

Scott Turow

Kathy & I usually try and book a room at the Holiday Inn – Bayside in downtown Miami, which is literally on-site of the Miami Dade college campus where the fair is held which makes it really easy to walk across the street to Chapman Hall where most of the big names at the fair appear. We are able to grab a bite to eat and then still have time to get in the long Friends of the Fair line to secure a decent seat for the fair.





The crowds have multiplied in the years that I have been attending the fair and now there is a massive and convoluted process that involves three distinct (and long) lines awaiting entry to the large room at Chapman. The masses turned out early this year to see beloved local hero Carl Hiassen.





Hiassen read a little from his new book “Star Island” his first crack at exploring the absurdities of life on South Beach. Most of his talk involved he relating of hilarious yet true happenings that serve as a source of constant inspiration for his hilarious fiction. Turow read from his sequel to his first huge literary success “Presumed Innocent” which was written almost twenty years ago. The sequel. “Innocent” revisits the same characters after much time and sounds from his reading like another success.





There was really only one additional reading that I attended n Sunday one that featured three incredibly funny women who have each written hysterical memoirs and took turns reading from them; Julie Klam, “You Had Me At Woof”, Julie Klausner, “I Don’t Care About Your Band” and Sascha Rothchild, “How to Get Divorced by 30- My Misguided Attempt at a Starter Marriage”.

Julie Klausner, Julie Klam & Sascha Rothchild

Julie Klausner

Julie Klam

I had briefly met Julie Klam at the fair two years ago when she performed with the Rock Bottom Remainders and had through the magic of facebook “befriended” her and kept in loose touch in the past two years. Her new book is another winner as I suspected it would be, but the real fun surprise was how great the other two women were and how well the three of them meshed into a truly enjoyable reading. I ended up purchasing all three of their new books.

Sascha Rothchild





Most of the remainder of the day I spent working with Arlo in the Key West Literary Seminar booth. Hundreds of people stopped by to inquire about the seminar including past participants Russell Banks and Aimee Bender and one angry author who shall remain nameless came by to complain bitterly about not being invited to this year’s seminar. That is probably not the best way to score any invitation for future seminars.





All in all it was another fantastic year at the Book Fair. We are already looking forward to next year. On the way home, we had to stop at a Target store to stock up on Holiday lights as Kathy is keen on getting ready for the Holiday season and wants to top last year’s cavalcade of holiday lights.

Miami Book Fair 2010

November 22, 2010







Miami Book Fair 2010

Salman Rushdie

The 27th annual Miami Book Fair International was held this week and as I have been for the past 15 years, I once again made the journey to participate in what is arguably one of the largest and best literary events of its kind. In the years that I have been attending, the fair has enjoyed staggering growth and yet managed to maintain an enjoyable atmosphere in spite of the ever larger crowds.



Rock Bottom Remainders

This year, Kathy & I headed up on Friday evening bringing along our friend Ashley who was to meet her boyfriend Arlo who was already there manning the first ever street fair booth of The Key West Literary Seminar. For various reasons, the seminar had never been involved directly with the book fair, but in many ways it makes a great deal of sense to expose ourselves to a much larger and hopefully interested audience.





Arlo had worked the fair all day Sunday, then attended the final “Evenings With…” session which are held each evening during the week preceding the street festival. This year featured another stellar line-up at the evening sessions that included President George W. Bush, Nora Ephron, Robert Goorick, Pat Conroy, E.O. Wilson and the incomparable rocker Patti Smith who was appearing on Friday evening.





Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, Stacy Wakefield and Zachary Lipez- authors of “Please Take Me Off the Guest List”

Smith had just been awarded the prestigious National Book Award for her memoir of her life and involvement in New York with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, “Just Kids”. After the reading there was a party for Patti at the Swanky South Beach hotel the Standard, where we got to hang out with literary types under a nearly full moon with the ocean breeze rolling in to the waterfront deck where the party was held.

Patti Smith- “Because the Night”

Saturday was our first full day at the book fair and we started off first thing in the morning with a hilarious presentation by satirists Dave Barry and Willie Geist. Barry has a perfectly titled new book called, “I’ll Mature When I’m Dead” and as always he provided an opening session that had the crowd laughing out loud at the absurdity of the true events that inspire his writing. South Florida is as he suggests a target-rich environment for a satirist.

Dave Barry

Dave Eggers

Next up was an amazing presentation by the amazing Dave Eggers. Easily my favorite of the weekend, Eggers spoke on both his recent book, “Zeitoun” as well as a long discussion of the amazing work he and the publishing house he founded, “McSweeney’s” are involved in. At once hip, literate, inspiring and funny, Eggers delivered a talk as diverse and interesting as the typical issue of McSweeney’s quarterly, which if you are unfamiliar, I’d suggest checking out the link below.

Ashley, Erin & Nancy



After Eggers, we split up and covered more ground (and were able to see our own favorites). The afternoon found Kathy & I catching presentations by authors that included Sebastian Junger, Karl Marlantes, Edwidge Danticat, Carlos Eire, Ngugi Wa Thiong, Emilio Estefan, Vendela Vida, Jennifer Egan and Julie Orringer,

Ashley, Gecko, & Kathy

Sebastian Junger



The list of authors that we missed was easily as impressive as those we saw, with 14 venues presenting readings and presentations simultaneously it is impossible not to miss some that we would have loved to see. We also have to leave time to peruse the incredible street fair with the amazing and diverse collection of vendors. The final author presentation that we saw was by the amazingly talented and interesting Salman Rushdie who spoke and read from on his new adventure book for children, “Luka and the Fire of Life”.

Salman Rushdie

Emilio Estefan

Edwidge Danticat



We wrapped up our day at the book fair by joining our group of friends who made the drive from Key West at the evening concert by the band made up of writers, The Rock Bottom Remainders. Fronted by Dave Barry and with a cast made up this year of the likes of Scott Turow, Ridley Pearson, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry, Les Standiford and Miami radio personality Paul Castronovo, the band is delightfully terrible and we enjoyed a few beers watching them butcher rock classics with delight.



Rock Bottom Remainders

McSweeney's Store

Miami Book Fair