Atomic on the Smart Set

We're listed on The Smart Set on Maud Newton's Blog. Much thanks to Lauren Cerand for putting us up there.

I have a good feeling about this upcoming Atomic. Be there or be square.

bookstores are the new singles bars

Had a good Sunday. Stomach problems seem to have subsided. Spent the early morning writing then at the gym. In the afternoon I went to the lovely Girly's brunch where I got to hang out with some of my favorite ladies and gorge myself on tasty foods.

I had a birthday party to go to that evening so I spent the hours in between at a cafe doing something I haven't done in a long time - writing a poem with pen and paper. It sounds so silly, but it felt really good to write the old fashioned way. I got about 3/4 of what I wanted to say down in an hour or so.

Recently I decided I need a "scent." I've never been big on perfumes but I thought it was time to experiment. So I headed over to a store on E. 7th called Sniff and picked up a new oil called Ranee.

On the way up to the party, I ducked into St. Marks Books to get a card for my friend. I picked out the card and started perusing the new releases. I had my headphones on blasting a station playing '80's freestyle - don't ask - completely oblivious to the world around me. Suddenly this guy is standing next to me. I look at him, take off my headphones and try to figure out if I know him.

He says, "I just saw you and wanted to say the dark colors you're wearing really bring out your features."

I just look at him.

"So I think I'll just leave aside all the pick up lines and introduce myself. I'm _________ (I can't remember his name)."

I continue to look at him. I don't know what to say.

He extends his hand for me to shake. I feel rude, but I just turn away and say "sorry I have to go."

Ugh! Perhaps, my new "scent" was to blame.

happy saturday

Just a short post. I'm up with the crows (chickens, roosters?). Feeling better and determined to get some work done.

Today I would really like to finish this short piece I've been working on for a while. Then work on part of the book. The gym, grocery shopping and house cleaning are also on the menu. I'm a really boring person.

recap

I'm back from the reading at Cornelia Street Cafe. I didn't realize I got a free dinner since I was the feature. I ordered the mushroom ravioli, which seemed spectacular but I couldn't really enjoy the meal because my stomach was still a little jumpy.

The reading went well. Nice audience. I enjoyed some of the readers in the open mike, although two hours of open mike can be a little brain-scrambling. At the end some guy proposed to his girlfriend on stage after reading a poem about "sliding his ship into her waters" or some such. The proposal itself was kind of cute, but I could have done without the poetry. I think we all could have.

I was able to hand out a bunch of flyers for next month's Atomic.

During my reading I mentioned I was sober 4 years. On the way out, some guy was like "I'm sober 8 years, does it turn you on?" He said it like five times in a row. "Good for you." I answered. "But does it turn you on?" Not really dude...

Afterwards I walked over to the Strand, bought some books and picked up a cute beaded choker at a girly store on 8th Street.

I'm looking forward to a hearty and healthy Saturday.

i want Spring already

It's nice to have a Friday off. Unfortunately, I'm feeling sick again. Ugh - when will this end!? I have a little bit of a sore throat and I'm sort of stomach ill. I hate being sick on days off, even on sick days...

Anyway, I've got my gym clothes on so I may head over there for a little while.

readings, readings everywhere

Tonight, I went to a reading at a lovely little bookstore called Freebird Books which I guess is in Boerum Hill although it is quite a hike from the subway, close to the water. Felicia Sullivan and Krista Madsen read and they rocked.

Then afterwards we headed over to Smith St. where I had my favorite french meal of green salad and pommes frites. I'd been craving the frites for a while so I indulged myself.

My site meter account alerted me to the fact that the Village Voice had linked to my blog! Looks like my reading at Cornelia Street is a Book Event Pick. What a cool thing to come home to.

hands

I'm pretty sure I have carpal tunnel syndrome or something close to it. It's sort of been happening on and off for the last few years and the last couple of months have been particularly bad. So I went to the doctor today and after checking out the situation, he thought my hands were damaged enough to refer me to a physical therapist. And this guy never gives referrals. I'm going to call tomorrow and make an appointment. Carpal Tunnel runs in my family - my mom's had a bunch of surgeries so I'm trying to avoid that.

On the bright side, I got to leave work early, had vietnamese food for lunch and got to the gym before the evening rush.

I'm reading this Friday at Cornelia Street Cafe - I'm the evening's feature so I hope some of my FRIENDS who were (ahem) absent from last night's gig turn out.

okay, i've finally read from the memoir

The reading went well tonight. There was a great turnout - a really fabulous audience. And the other readers were all top drawer! Please check out Katy Brennan, Merdith Philips and Allison Weaver. I'll search for weblinks tomorrow. Also, much thanks to Felicia Sullivan for putting it all together.

It felt good to finally put some of the memoir out there. I feel like I've been hiding it away for so long. I think I just need to finish it and get it out there. I'm on top of this with everything else I write like my poetry and spoken word. I think I need to start thinking of my nonfiction writing in the same terms.

Anyway, that's all the artistic analysis I can offer at the moment.

funny things cats do

I thought this picture on Gothamist today was really cute. My cat often winds up in similar positions, although I've never seen her work the remote or drink a beer. And that's probably a good thing.

Speaking of cats, I haven't checked my Catster account in a while.

happy spring

Not a very good start though. It's gloomy out and not even 50 degrees. But I'm hopeful we'll have more of my favorite season soon. I got up early this morning to do some work, trying to make up for my laziness this weekend. Didn't get much done. But it felt good to make the effort and it was nice to watch the sun rise.

Right now, I'm looking over the piece I'm going to read tomorrow. Trying to cut 12 pages down to about 7 or 8 for the allotted time.

song you should be listening to

My friend Laura Comerford has a great song on DD Pesh called the "Hardest Thing." So check it out. We are convinced she is the American Kylie Minogue.

the magical world outside my apartment

Tonight I made a rare Saturday night outing. And I had a blast.

Brooklyn is really alive on the weekends. I have to get out more. I ran into some really cool people; old friends, recent acquaintances and I think I may have even made a few new ones.

Despite a subway mishap on the way home it was a really good night.

kgb this coming tuesday - BE THERE

I'll be reading from my memoir-in-progress which has alternately been a novel-in-progress, then a memoir, then a novel, then, well, you get the picture.

I've been working on it for a while now (oh about 4 years...) and I don't think I've read any part of it in public! So come see me shake in my boots.

from our lovely curator Felicia Sullivan:
Join us for an exciting night of non fiction from New York's premiere emerging writers who will share their works in progress!

Cheryl B. is a poet, essayist. Her writing appears in over two dozen anthologies and literary magazines. She is the recipient of a 2003 poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Cheryl has performed her work throughout NYC, the U.S., London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A native New Yorker, she lives in Brooklyn wehre she hosts the monthly Atomic Reading Series. Her website is www.cherylb.com.

Meredith Phillips has written for publications including the Believer, Time Out New York, the Columbia Journal, and Texas Monthly, and she is the reading series coordinator for One Story Magazine. Meredith lives in Brooklyn with one cat and hopefully no rodents.

Katy Brennan is a freelance writer. Her work-in-progress, Our Proudest Moments: A Memoir of Sisterhood, is a sort of modern day Pride and Prejudice where questions of "the socially constructed self" become issues of post-Feminist ambition, post-Freudian psychology, and many forms of addiction. In the aftermath of her eldest sister's death from an overdose of heroin and cocaine, she and her surviving sisters discover that the key to surviving this "family disease" may be something to which they are not genetically predisposed—pride.

Alison Weaver recently graduated from the New School University with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She is the co-editor of the literary journal Pindeldyboz and volunteers as a mentor at The PEN American Center Prison Writing Program. She is currently at work on a memoir titled, Talking Out Of Turn, and lives in New York City.

March 22
KGB Bar 85 E. 4th Street 2nd Avenue.
FREE
7pm
KGBbar.com
Cheers, Felicia C. Sullivan, Literary Director

feeling sucks

Today, I am celebrating my Irish heritage by AVOIDING the St. Patrick's Day Parade and it's accompanying drunken festivities. Despite my efforts, I wound up sitting next to some fool in a giant, plush, green top hat on the subway. And two girls passed me on the street decked out in green. One of the girls had the phrase "Feeling Sucks" emblazoned accross her butt, one word on each cheek. I don't know what it means, but I am intrigued. Oh, and someone had already puked on the subway at 9:30 am.

Lately I've been feeling like "feeling sucks" maybe it's loneliness, career bumps, mood swings or general ennui. I don't know but I've been down in the dumps...

cramps and cupcakes

The dinner party went well. It was great to see those gals again. I had the cramps on and off throughout the meal and got pretty sick later last night which lasted until the wee hours of the morning. So I just I dragged out ye olde heating pad, cracked open the Advil and ducked under the covers.

I'm feeling better now and hope to take a walk to the park during lunch - it's chilly, but almost Spring-like which makes me happy.

Also, my friends at Cupcakes Take the Cake were in the Metro paper yesterday complete with a cute little haiku. Yay!

the dinner party

Tonight I'm having some friends over for dinner. I went on a reading tour called Jezebelle2000: The Glam Lit Tour with two of them five years ago and the other designed our tour website. We have been having dinner 3-4 times a year ever since and I always look forward to seeing them. I'm making vegetarian chili and they said they'd bring something chocalatey for desert. We all love the chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate, I'm on the females. Ugh! I was just thinking earlier today that I got my first period in March, when I was 11, right after my family moved to New Jersey. That may be why I have so many bad associations with NJ. Or it could just be that NJ sucks. So I guess this month is an anniversay of sorts, a bloody anniversary.

i am my own housewife

Gee, could that be the next NYT Bestselling Self-Help/Inspirational title? Or is it just how I feel today after painting the empty bedroom last night, scrubbing the floors, doing three loads of laundry, cleaning the fridge and bathroom, and waiting for my new kitchen table to arrive? When the delivery guys got here they assumed what most delivery guys assume when they bring me stuff and called me "Mrs. Burke."

This is an increasing trend I've noticed since I bought my apartment last December. Many people assume a single woman can't possibly own her own apartment never mind purchase her own furniture, pay to have flooring installed or the plumbing fixed. Some have gone as far as to ask, "this is a nice place, how much does your husband pay for it?" Or "your husband payin' for all this stuff? Sign here Mrs. Burke." Too which I've said, "it's Ms.! Mrs. Burke is my mother!" It's annoying on two levels; not only am I assumed to be married, I am assumed to be heterosexual as well.

In other news, I am back on the NYT weekend home delivery. I feel informed.

atomic - april 3rd

I just sent out the PR for Atomic on April 3rd. Thought I'd share it with y'all.

Atomic: The Reading Series with Something for Everyone
Curated and Hosted by Cheryl B.

Sunday April 3, 7p.m.
April's Features:
* Janice Erlbaum
* Sara Seinberg
* Elizabeth Whitney
* Steve Caratzas

NO COVER
Lucky 13 Saloon
273 13th St. (at 5th Ave.)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
www.lucky13saloon.com

Reader Bios:

STEVE CARATZAS is a writer, musician, and visual artist living in Park Slope, Brooklyn. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Unlikely Stories, Can We Have Our Ball Back?, The Fifth Street Review, Surgery of Modern Warfare, sidereality and the tiny. He is the editor of the online journal Narcolepsyarms.com, and is currently completing an MFA at the New School

JANICE ERLBAUM has been writing for BUST magazine for the past ten years, and now
she's written a book called either CRASH or GIRLBOMB, her publisher hasn't decided
yet. Either way, the subtitle is, "A Halfway Homeless Memoir," and it's coming out next January from Villard. You can find her online at www.girlbomb.com.

SARA SEINBERG is an artist and writer living in brooklyn with a handsome dog called
gus. She has performed with legendary spoken word circus sister spit, been published
in lots of anthologies, quit smoking on several occasions, and has always held Sabrina up as the most important of Charlie's Angels. Her next solo art show, I Am Willing to Leave You, will debut in Providence, RI in 2005.

ELIZABETH WHITNEY should have been cast as the original wonder girl, but she didn't
have an agent at the time. So she got busy making performance commentary on gender,
popular culture, and the importance of honing one's amazonian abilities. Her new
show "Wonder Woman The Musical" will be produced at The Duplex Cabaret every Wednesday this April at 7 p.m. by the fabulous TOSOS II. More information is available at www.elizabethwhitney.com.

pretty good mood

I am in a really good mood today. Perhaps this is because the ice melted and it almost sorta looks like Spring.

I was asked to contribute to a MAJOR poetry anthology yesterday and that made me happy, I sent my pieces by the end of the day and I found out this morning that a bunch of them will appear in the publication. More news when I have it. I also finally finished that erotica story I'd been working on for a while and submitted that to a different anthology. So I'm productive as well as happy.

Got the photos back from the shoot and GirlyNyc took some great shots! I hope to have them scanned and up soon.

Tonight I'm going to try to make it to that East Village USA exhibit. It's closing soon and I don't want to miss it.

tuesday's tiny triumphs

1. Just handed in an invoice at my job for some extra copywriting work I did. Should cover my couch, etc. expenses.

2. Uploaded a new pic on the home page of my website. It's my new favorite candid photo from that crazy fun party a few weeks ago. Pic was taken by the one and only Girly. I'm going to get our posed shots developed tomorrow!

3. Also recently heard third-hand that I am good in bed. Which is always good to hear. Nice to know I still got it even though I don't get it as much as I used to.

new couch city

There is new furniture in my living room. A couch, big chair and matching ottoman, all in a neutral sage green. I purchased the pieces in NJ last weekend and they were just delivered today. They look odd, probably because they're brand new and I've never purchased brand new furniture before. In the past I've gotten my stuff in a variety of different ways: refuse off the street, hand-me-downs, inherited furniture from dead relatives, stuff hanging out in my mother's garage for years, flea markets and if purchased from a store, it was of the "slightly abused" floor model variety. This is true of all things I've owned except for one futon mattress and an unfortunate vinyl couch purchased from IKEA 5 years ago.

On top of all the living room excitement, I ordered a new kitchen table and chairs today and went food shopping. I feel like a grown up.

Now I just have to figure out how to keep the cats from turning all this stuff into yet another abstract art project.

photo shoot, manicure, two trips to the diner

Had another great time at Atomic last night! It's so much fun being able to present all these fabulous readers month after month. The audience was a bit smaller than usual, but they were warm and attentive nonetheless.

Earlier in the day, Girly and I took three rolls of B&W film both in my apartment and in Sunset Park. I can't wait to get them developed! Then we headed over to the salon for manicures, then to Daisey's diner for a litte pre-Atomic dinner. After the reading a larger group of us, including readers Avra, Kelli Dunham and Sarah Schulman headed back to Daisey's for desert. Overall, it was a really fun day.

In other reading news:
Lauren Sanders be reading with Meg Wolitzer at KGB on Sunday, March 13, at 7pm. I don't think I can make this one, but it should be great.

sunday

Today, I am doing a photo shoot with Girly who is back from her trip. We're taking B&W photos here in my apartment. I just realized I still haven't figured out what to wear, haven't tweezed the eyebrows, shaved the legs or polished the nails. I'm gonna go to the gym and figure out a beauty game plan while I'm on the cross trainer. Girly gets here at 2, so I have a few hours to pull it together.

Don't forget, tonight is ATOMIC! Yay. I'm looking forward to seeing these ladies do their thing - check out the link at right to see who's up.

bizarre exchange overheard on the way home from the subway

A mother and little girl walk toward me. On their way they pass a house with an open door. The girl looks in the open doorway and says, "ooh, look a cute doggie." A woman comes out the open door and is sweeping the area around it. The mother looks in the doorway and says, "that's not a doggie, that's a meow." Then the woman sweeping, who I'm assuming is the animal's mistress says, "that's not a meow, it's a banjo. Oh, I mean it's not a banjo, it's a cat." By this time I am in front of the doorway and notice a small black and white cat rubbing itself on the door frame seemingly unmoved despite being called both a dog and a banjo.

new issue of Scene360 up now

My friend Bette has five poems up on Scene360.com. Also, on Bette's page I was pleasantly surprised to find a link to my story Strange Hands in a Familiar Place which appeared a few issues ago. I'm not sure if the Editor new we were friends, but it's a pretty cool coincidence either way!

right back at ya babes

A visit to my sitemeter account has brightend this otherwise dreary day. Looks like two totally awesome people have linked The B List on their blogs. Caroylyn Castiglia is a very funny comedienne who gave a STELLAR performance at January's WYSIWYG and Kate Fox whom I don't know but judging by her site looks pretty damn cool. So thank you ladies for putting a smile on my face.