London Cringe details

LONDON CRINGE
Tuesday, 28 October, 7 pm
Bardens Boudoir, 38-44 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XJ

Map

The nearest overground is Dalston-Kingsland (two stops from Highbury & Islington tube), Bardens is then a five minute walk up Kingsland Road.

Buses 67, 76, 149 and 243 stop on our doorstep. Buses 149, 243 and 76 operate all night.

Buses 242, 30, 38, 56 all go to Dalston Junction which is a five minute walk up to Bardens. Buses 38 and 242 operate all night.

It’s also a 5/10 minute walk from Stoke Newington station or Rectory Road station which in on the Overground from Liverpool Street Station (towards Enfield Town or Cheshunt). (10 minutes by train.)

Ireland!

Our flight for Dublin leaves Tuesday at 5 pm, and we land there at 5 am Wednesday. We go from the airport to our hotel, and then I might have time to wash my face and have some coffee before I go for an interview on the Tubridy radio show on Radio 1 at 9 am. I will most definitely be jetlagged, caffeinated, and about two minutes into this brand-new-to-me country, so that should be a good time.

We are flying Aer Lingus and staying in Ballsbridge. I have not yet been able to say this out loud without snickering a few seconds later. Shades of Cockfosters. I never said I was a grown up.

Cringe is at O’Neills Bar on Suffolk Street on Thursday the 23rd. We’ll probably get started at 7:30 pm. Please come up and say hello! Unless your last name is Buttford.

Trick or treat

X: So, are you ready for Halloween?
O: Oh man… I’m spending my Halloween this year on a flight back from London.
X: Oh no! You love Halloween! You get so into Halloween!
O: I know!
X: Always with the zombie thing!
O: And I’ve had my costume since April! I just have to hope some people will throw parties on Saturday night too.
X: Wait, why don’t you just wear your costume on the plane? That would be funny.
O: That probably wouldn’t go over too well.
X: Why not?
O: Well, with the zombie makeup and all. All the fake blood.
X: Oh, right. What if you just wear the costume clothes, and then put the zombie makeup on in the airplane bathroom, once you’re in the air?
O: Yeah… I was going to go as a 1960s airline stewardess zombie. I don’t think they’d appreciate that, on an international flight.
X: Oh, wow.
O: Yeah.
X: So at first they’d just think you were crazy, dressed like a filght attendant, and then you’d come back from the bathroom with blood all over your face—
O: And they’d put me in airplane jail.
X: You’d be on the No Fly list forever!
O: At least the person in the seat next to me would have a good story to tell.
X: “Any meal requirements, miss? Vegetarian, kosher, gluten-free, braaaaaains?”

Dublin Cringe

Next week, I’m going to Ireland and hosting Dublin Cringe at O’Neills Bar on Suffolk Street. The following week, I’ll be in London for the third London Cringe at Bardens Boudoir. I’m taking this trip to drum up submissions for a UK/Ireland Cringe book that I’m doing with a British publisher, available Christmas 2009.

I’ve never been to Ireland before, and I’m really excited. However, I still need some readers for this Cringe, so if you or anyone you know lives or will be in Dublin on Thursday, October 23, and would like to read, please email me.

Ways I Have Been Procrastinating Lately

• Dear Old Love: Brief, anonymous notes to old loves. My favorite: I love how you always chewed gum when we had sex. It was like doing it with a 50’s carhop.
• Wiretap Follies: Josh Allen writes like Ray Smuckles dreams.
• Anders Loves Maria: I don’t watch soap operas, daytime or nighttime, but this webcomic is funny and sweet and dirty and full of more drama than anything I could handle on television. Start at the beginning.
• Tales of Mere Existence: By Lev Yilmaz. "Subtext" is great. So is "How We Didn't Date Each Other"
• katebeaton.com: I want Kate Beaton to be my friend.

Come On Pilgrim

Tomorrow night is Boston Cringe. I’ve booked some great readers and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m also looking forward to going to Boston for the first time ever, which is a little ridiculous since I’ve lived up here for five years now. I wish I was going to a game at Fenway, but I’ll save that for the next trip.

Come out to the Midway Cafe tomorrow night and say hi and have a beer! You don’t have to read your diary. But I’ll be so happy if you do.

BOSTON CRINGE
8pm, Tuesday, October 7
Midway Cafe
3496 Washington Street, Jamaica Plain, MA

There will be Cringe books for sale at the event.

Ten (nine) years gone

Last night at the Bob Pollard show at the Highline Ballroom (where I literally bumped into Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl while leaving the ladies’ room) (all nouns that should never appear in the same sentence), I texted Joey what I always text Joey when I’m at a Bob Pollard show: “I’m at Bob Pollard! Let’s break up!” And he texted back the traditional response: “Just bring me a goddamn sandwich.”