May 17!!!

Saturday, May 17
A Special Literary Benefit To
SAVE RENT CONTROL

Featuring Authors: Rachel Howard, Pam Houston, Adam Mansbach, David West, Mark Pritchard

Plus: Sticky Notes from This American Life's Starlee Kine
Josh Bearman's Multi-Media Extravaganza
Comedian Nato Green
and The Progressive Reading Series All-Star Minstrels

Hosted by Stephen Elliott
7pm At The Makeout Room
3225 22nd Street 415 647 2888 $10-20 sliding scale

You're Not in Kansas (yet)

It’s been a busy week since we last convened at the Makeout Room, at least for me. I don’t know about the boys, but I suspect they’re always busy. You know, saving rent control, wrestling gladiators, whatever. So I offer you here a twitter-like version of the events with help from the talented and lovely Michelle Richmond who wrote the unputdownable Year of Fog.

* Laura Fraser planted a Redwood in the Haight (How cool is that?) and does not want to be wearing her Save Rent Control T-shirt next year when she’s living in Kansas.
* Jeff O’Keefe: Thank you for making us feel okay for wanting to have an ice cream sundae in lieu of sex.
* Stephen Elliott does dishes! Hello Stephen, my house?
* Ross Mirkarini has a deep and sexy voice and is the kind of pol we like in SF. That is, one who is in a bar on a Saturday night for a cause he believes in. Thanks for coming out and showing your support, Supervisor.
*Michelle has been hearing strange noises in her house lately and wonders if it’s Charlie’s fault.
* Regarding the All-Star Minstrels: Adam Krefman looks like Joaquin Phoenix and sometimes a young Woody Harrelson. Which movie star does Dan Weiss most resemble? I will be putting up a survey, probably on Facebook, soon. Soon Dan, I promise. In the meantime, check out the song he wrote to save rent control. (Hey, every little bit helps.)
* Message to Yiyun: Just keep writing fiction. Keep it coming. Okay? Thanks.
* Andrew Altschul's book, Lady Lazarus is out now, on the shelves of finer bookstores everywhere and Stephen loves him (in a bromantic way) 9 days out of 10.

Next month is the last chance you’ll have to combine good literature and saving your roof, which reminds me June 3rd: Vote No on 98, Yes on 99, which is the real eminent domain issue. I learned a slogan: it may be silly, (okay, it is silly) 98 we hate, 99 is fine. But if that’ll help you remember, chant it all the way to the voting booth. We’ll see you next month for Mary Roach, David West, Pam Houston, Adam Mansbach, Mark Pritchard, and from This American Life, Josh Bearman and Starlee Kine. Same deal: buy your tickets here and when you’re not living in Kansas this summer you’ll be glad you did.

Poetry For Water

Straight from friends of the Progressive Reading Series . . .

POETRY FOR WATER

THURSDAY, MAY 1ST, 7:00 PM

An incredible evening with Dave Eggers, Maxine Hong Kingston, Roger Housden, Elizabeth Rosner, Nina Wise, and great music to Bring Clean Water to the Samburu People of Northern Kenya

COWELL THEATRE, FORT MASON
$30 tickets at Fortmason.org/boxoffice
Phone: 415–345–7575

Dave Eggers, best-selling author of What is the What, reading by acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston, poetry readings by Roger Housden (author of the Ten Poems series) and poet-novelist Elizabeth Rosner, live music, and performance artist extraordinaire, Nina Wise.

Host/MC: Beth Lisick, author of Helping Me Help Myself

All money raised goes toward building the second of a series of water catchment areas along the migration route of the Samburu people of Northern Kenya, near the border with Ethiopia. The water will save their children from the fatal diseases of polluted water sources, and will also help to sustain the Samburu's fragile nomadic way of life. The groundwork is administered by a global charity, Wherever The Need. David Crosweller, the founder, will be here from London to give a brief talk and slide show on the project.

Photos From March

Check out these amazing photos from the March Progressive Reading, taken by Alex JB.

Coming Up!

Saturday, May 17
A Special Literary Benefit To
SAVE RENT CONTROL

THE PROGRESSIVE READING SERIES

Featuring Authors: Mary Roach, Pam Houston, Adam Mansbach, David West, Mark Pritchard

Plus: Sticky Notes from This American Life's Starlee Kine
Josh Bearman's Multi-Media Extravaganza
Comedian Nato Green
and The Progressive Reading Series All-Star Minstrels

Hosted by Stephen Elliott
7pm At The Makeout Room
3225 22nd Street 415 647 2888 $10-20 sliding scale

www.progressivereadingseries.org

The Progressive Reading, April 19

Announcing: The April 19 Progressive Reading

When: Saturday, April 19, 7pm

Where: The Makeout Room- 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco, (415) 647 2888

Price: $10 - $20 sliding scale

Advance Tickets: $20. Paypal to 'tribe AT stephenelliott.com'

All Funds Go To Saving Rent Control!

Readers:

• Jane Smiley author of Ten Days In The Hills
  
• Yiyun Li author of A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers
  
• Charlie Anders author of Choir Boy
  
• Michelle Richmond author of The Year Of Fog
  
• Laura Fraser author of An Italian Affair
• And Jeff O'Keefe
  

With special guests- The Progressive Reading Series All Star Minstrels!

And Extra Extra special Guest- Board Of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin!!

Hosted by Stephen Elliott author of Happy Baby 

The progressive reading series happens on the third Saturday of every month though the 2008 election at 7pm at the Makeout Room in San Francisco. 

We strongly recommend getting tickets in advance as these events sometimes sellout. Advance tickets get priority seating. 

On June 3 there will be an initiative on the state ballot disguised as a proposition for eminent domain reform. Hidden inside this bill is a ban on all rent control in the state of California. All funds from the March, April, and May readings will be going to efforts to save rent control.

get on the Progressive Reading email list by sending an email to:  

steves_list-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Sacto + Nicole Rivera

Even in Sacramento, Prop 98 is no good.

On another note, The Progressive Reading Series endorses Progressive Reading volunteer Nicole Rivera for Democratic County Central Committee.

Click here for a high res pdf version of our new poster you can print out. If you would like a full color 11x17 poster to hang in your store or window please send an email to tribe AT stephenelliott.com.

Amy Tan is my new BFF

What a great time at the Makeout room last Saturday night. Amy Tan rocked the house and apparently gets free clothes just like any other great rock star. Oh wait. She is a rock star. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The event started with Rabih Alemeddine reading from his forthcoming novel, The Hakawati. I can tell you the high praise it’s receiving is no hype. It is some seriously good writing. Rabih read about Osama and his gay uncle, Jihad. I’m not making this up. Only Rabih could. Also in the literary mix were pigeons, the sky of Beirut, magic, locusts, sorcery, Shiites, and an old building with no elevator. Like all cities, Beirut has many layers and Rabih read to us about the Beirut of its people. Which reminds me: Rent control. Let’s keep San Francisco of the people as much as we can. Rabih will be on tour (like any good rock star) in April to support the publication of The Hakawati. Keep your eyes open.

Peter Plate was up next, reciting Chapter 18 from his latest novel, Soon the Rest Will Fall from memory. We cracked up at Peter’s story. Santa, in a stolen suit, three days out of San Quentin and fresh off a tiff with a hooker on Geary, robs a medical marijuana club at Seventh and Market. Only in San Francisco, folks.

Stephen introduced the next writer, Jerry Stahl, by saying it was his book Permanent Midnight that made him want to be a writer and isn’t sure he’ll ever forgive him for that. Jerry read us a love story (despite the “hardass intro”) because sometimes "you have to show your heart a little." The first sentence of that love story is, “I did not mean to sodomize Dick Cheney.” It is the opening story in Sex for America. If you want to find out how it unfolds, pick up a copy. Apparently it only took him six hours to write. Six hours well spent. Also, kudos to Jerry for braving the dizzying lights of the Makeout room. He gave the front row (I was one) a vomit alert. Thanks Jerry, for not getting sick on us and I’m sorry you’ve been audited every year since that story came out. You deserve better. Then Peter Plate came back and gave a brief history of rent control in San Francisco. I swear, that man is a walking library. Basically what it boils down to is, San Francisco adopted rent control in the 70s and money-grubbers have been trying to overrule it in this overpriced city ever since. If any of you happened to be at the meeting hosted in part by the SF Tenants Union at the library that afternoon, you noticed that more than half the people in the room were elderly. And I’m not talking about elderly who are hobnobbing with Barbara Bush either.

Next up was your friend and mine, Bucky Sinister. Poor Bucky took some heckling from the crowd when he read his first piece off his iphone. He defended himself by saying he no longer had the brain cells he used to and certainly not ever as many as Peter Plate. He also set it up for those born in the eighties, “There used to be this thing called the Berlin Wall.” For his next piece he returned to paper and read from his most recent book All Blacked Out And Nowhere to Go, a poem called Elegy for the Old Hunts, about the donut shop in the Mission that used to stay open twenty-five hours and it was a tear jerker. If that seems like a contradiction, you just haven’t read it.

One half of the All Star Minstrels, otherwise known as Dan Weiss, sang to us about missing his dog, his cat, everything. Next month, both halves of the All Star Minstrels. Then Justin Chin hit the stage. I'm embarrassed to admit I had a scuffle with Stephen which caused me to miss the first few minutes of Justin's reading. I had to hide my head in shame and laughter. Sorry Justin, we’ll try to be better behaved next time. It’s hard to fix a mike and a rug at the same time. What I did hear though, I loved. What I learned: you shouldn’t ask Gertrude Stein for directions because eventually you will need to get there. Wise words.

And then came Amy Tan, the only Progressive author (so far) who has also been on the Simpsons. Amy gave us insight into her mind via her closet— things that she wouldn’t normally disclose unless under hypnosis (her words—not mine). Upon the straightening of her clothes she realized “I buy the same things over and over again,” and suddenly my mind flashed on the three black cardigans in my own closet. Later at the Uptown, it was revealed to me (by Rabih) that Amy Tan carries a whole medical kit in her fancy evening bag and if someone came up (theoretically) and stabbed me, Amy could suture me up in a second. I asked Amy if that was true, “Well, I’d snap a quick picture first,” she quipped. Let it be known that Amy Tan has many skills, writing being only one of them, but I hope she never has to stitch me up.

Stephen Elliott closed the evening by saying, “You all just participated in democracy. Wasn’t that easy?” It was, so we’ll see you next month when we’ll welcome Jane Smiley, Michelle Richmond, Yiyun Li, Charlie Anders, Jeff O’Keefe and don’t forget, both halves of the All Star Minstrels.

In closing, I’d like to take a moment concerning the rumors that a certain reclusive and perhaps curmudgeonly author from New England will be gracing the Progressive stage this season. At this point I can neither confirm nor deny, but you are well advised to stay tuned to this station for more information.