What stunning scaffolding

Links + recs + say hi this weekend

The best part about seeing my gynecologist — don’t worry, we’ll just whiz right by that word — is that her office is located way uptown by Central Park, so afterward I can stroll in the sunshine and pretend I’m Rhoda Morgenstern.

The other day I paused to visit the Little Prince sculpture when a petite lady in birding binoculars insisted on taking my picture with my phone, so here it is:

Thank you, anonymous photographer! Thank you, Antoine de St. Exupéry!

Spring weather only lasts three shakes, so step outside anytime you can. (And also get your annual checkup).

saturday + sunday

Reminder: I’ll spend this weekend at the Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase (BICS), which takes place at the super-fun Industry City complex and features many, many indie comics/art creators. It’s free, come on down.

At my table you can pick up my new book, THE FEELING. It contains 23 short prose stories and is designed to fit into your bag/pocket for long commutes or walks to the park:

(Photo by Dean Haspiel)

I’ll also appear on a panel about self-publishing Saturday at 1 p.m. Hope to see your face.

what i’m reading

I just spent a week in the Outer Banks with my family, which means I read a bunch of books and picked up enough shells to make a 1:1 scale sculpture of Elliott Gould.

Highlights included What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez — about one-third though, I realized it inspired the recent Tilda Swinton/Julianne Moore film, The Room Next Door. It says a lot when both the book and movie are worth experiencing (and they’re quite different from each other).

I also enjoyed “Woman from Khao Lak,” a short story by Randy F. Nelson that I received from One Story. (For $20/year, they’ll mail one short story to you each month.) I need to read more of his work, which includes an award-winning collection called The Imaginary Lives of Mechanical Men. And I had to buy Scorched Earth by Tiana Clark, an incredible Tennessee poet who just knocks me over again and again.

As a semi-joke, Dean gave me Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery for my birthday, but I admit the first couple pages are quite compelling. Have I found my new vocation? Maybe I’d have better luck pitching Oh, My Potsie: A Happy Days Romance than the finished memoir on my desk.

Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage. I wanna turn the page!

Personal horror story: Finding a long-desired book at The Strand, only to realize it’s shelved so high I’d have to climb a ladder to retrieve it.

click click click

• Here’s the trailer for the Paul Reubens doc Pee-Wee As Himself. It airs next month:

• John Waters celebrated his 79th birthday this week. He shares his thoughts on style and trash in this new 12-minute video:

• A David Lynch-themed bar just opened in Portland.

• A ‘90s-themed bar just opened in New York.

• Elton John and I both like tomato and cheese sandwiches. (I’ll also take tomato + mayo on white bread, provided the tomato is garden-fresh and tastes like a tomato.)

• The New Yorker’s Amanda Petrusich talks to Jeff Bridges about why he decided to release some songs he wrote/recorded in the ‘70s.

• The great Ayun Halliday shares info about what a “flow state” means and how to sidle into it.

• The timely documentary Free for All: The Public Library premieres April 29 on PBS’ Independent Lens.

• The sleek-looking film Bonjour Tristesse is based on the 1954 novel and co-stars Chloë Sevigny:

Thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes this week, and I’ll see ya soon!

always in action,
mirelle + robert
words | pictures | dreamachine