twi-ny talks

TWI-NY TALK: ELISSA LERNER

Elissa Lerner investigates religious differences in unique ways in ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERS, part of the 2010 Fringe Festival (photo by Kaija B. Braus)

ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERS
New York International Fringe Festival
SoHo Playhouse
15 Vandam St.
Sunday, August 15, 7:15; Tuesday, August 17, 5:45; Saturday, August 21, 4:45; Wednesday, August 25, 9:45; Saturday, August 28, 6:00
Tickets: $15-$18
866-468-7619
www.abrahamsdaughterstheplay.com
www.fringenyc.org

Forest Hills native Elissa Lerner headed south for college, graduating cum laude in religion and theater studies from Duke University. She put those disciplines together for her honors thesis, ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERS, a provocative play that has been selected to be part of the fourteenth annual New York International Fringe Festival. Produced by Lerner and directed by Niccolo Aeed, ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERS follows the changing personal and sexual relationships among a group of students at a southern university, including the Jewish Sara (Rebecca LaChance), the Muslim Ranya (Déa Julien), the Methodist Kate (Keely Flaherty), and the atheist Will (Ayreh Lappin). Earlier this week, Lerner, who is also a freelance journalist working on her master’s at NYU, took a break from her hectic production schedule to discuss Duke, religious politics, and being at the Fringe.

twi-ny: ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERS has been influenced by stops in Qatar and Israel, among other locations. Currently, in New York City, there is a debate going on about the potential building of a mosque near Ground Zero, and there are more and more protests against Israeli actions, especially on college campuses. Where does the play fit in the ongoing battle over religious freedom and interfaith dialogue?

Elissa Lerner: That’s a great question, and an important one. One of the things the director and I have talked about with regard to ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERS is that the play is about interfaith dialogue but it’s not a conversation full of buzzwords and catchphrases, ie., Muslims have lives that don’t have to circuitously relate to 9/11 just as Jews aren’t necessarily defined by Israel around the clock (and Christians have lives that are not reduced to fundamentalist caricatures). Where the play succeeds, I hope, is that it tells an honest story of individuals and their relationships to each other and how their faiths influence them in both conscious and unconscious ways. I think this is where the audience will be able to relate to the characters — not because of a shared religious ideology masquerading as politics (or vice versa) but because all of us have personal relationships to our religious (or irreligious or areligious) backgrounds, and hopefully this will be a welcome forum to turn a critical eye and sensitive ear.

twi-ny: What does it mean to you to be part of the New York Fringe Festival?

EL: It’s incredibly exciting to be a part of the Fringe. I had a few friends involved in the Fringe last year and I thought, wow, this seems like a great opportunity, I wonder if I could make it? So when I found out ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERS made it in this year, it was very gratifying to be considered among a pool of extremely talented artists from around the city, the country, and even the world. I’m just really proud and honored to have the chance to be a part of that.

twi-ny: What was a nice Jewish girl like you doing in a place like Duke? You seem to have shaken up both the religion and theater departments while you were there. What was that experience like?

EL: That’s funny! There is certainly a lingering perception among northern Jews about Duke, but I found it to be, well, unfounded. One of the things I loved most about my time there was that Duke brings together students from all over the country — Jews included. It was great meeting Jews from places like Texas and Alabama and comparing notes. But at the same time, for example, I relished getting to know grad students who had gone to bible colleges and were preparing for Christian ministry. It was just completely different exposure than what I had known growing up in New York City. And as for shaking up departments — one of the first things I was told as a freshman was that Duke is proud of its traditions but equally proud of creating new ones. With that in mind a few years later, I thought perhaps the religion and theater studies departments would be open to an unusual honors project proposal. It did take some convincing — but any viable honors project should take some convincing to prove to faculty that you’re serious. And at the end of the day, it was (and continues to be) extremely rewarding to see that this crazy idea really does have legs.

TWI-NY TALK: AMY GRIMM

WHATEVER BLOG PARTY
Glasslands Gallery
289 Kent Ave., Williamsburg
Thursday, July 29, $8, 8:00
http://wwwwhatever-amy.blogspot.com
www.glasslands.blogspot.com

You know you’re at the right show if indie music princess Amy Grimm is there. Three years ago Grimm started Whatever . . ., what she calls “ a simple and honest blog . . . bringing you an intellectual and rebellious musical point of view.” Grimm focuses on up-and-coming new bands, writing from a very personal first-person perspective, championing lesser-known groups while cutting through the hype. An avid tweeter whose pieces can be found on the Huffington Post, Grimm also holds monthly showcases at the Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn, featuring indie groups that you might not have heard of yet but you’re likely to soon. Grimm is passionate about her love of music and will do whatever it takes to share that love, even if it means having musicians sleep on the floor of her apartment in order to make sure they can play her showcase. She’ll be back at Glasslands this Thursday, July 29, with a lineup that includes Pretty Good Dance Moves, Rumanian Buck, Bambara, and Ego Puppets. Shortly after meeting the charming, exuberant Grimm at the recent Northside Festival in Williamsburg, we conducted an e-mail interview in which she discusses her favorite bands, the reaction to her blog, and, of all things, Woodstock.

twi-ny: Next month will mark your third year of blogging on Whatever. What has the experience been like overall? Do you have a favorite post/interview?

Amy Grimm: The whole Whatever blog experience has been a really great one. I’ve gotten lots of positive response from people in regards to the blog, so that makes me feel really good, that people are reading my words and taking what I have to say about the state of indie music into account. In terms of my favorite interviews that I have done, I have to say I have three and they were with Bottle Up and Go, Jesse Malin, and Ethan Gold. I just love love Bottle Up and Go’s music, and Keenan and Fareed are two such cool, unpredictable guys and their answers to my questions were the best part of the interview. And Jesse is just such a New York legend and he was so gracious and interesting and such a gentleman during that interview, it was a fantastic experience. Ethan Gold was the producer of Elvis Perkins’s debut album, ASH WEDNESDAY, and has some really awesome music of his own that he’s done and he is just an all-around fascinating guy who made my mundane typical e-mail interview questions jump off the page with his responses. And as for my favorite post it was something that wasn’t written by me; it was written by my dad and it was his memories of being at Woodstock for the fortieth anniversary last August. Growing up, my siblings and I would always ask him what it was like to be at Woodstock and he would always respond with “It was muddy,” so it was brilliant beyond belief to read a detailed account of his memories of Woodstock.

twi-ny: What does it take for a band to get invited to a Whatever showcase? What do you look for most in a band?

AG: A band gets invited to play a Whatever blog party one of two ways: 1) By word of mouth doing these parties for almost a year now, I’ve cultivated a nice little group of musician friends who play my parties on a regular basis (i.e., the Art of Shooting & Schocholautte), and those guys will let me know about a band or an artist that they think I should be booking for a party or be writing about in my blog. And also people like Rami [Haykai] from PopGun Booking will send me band and artist recommendations as well. All these guys have such stellar musical tastes, so I trust their recommendations completely! Without the recommendations of the Art of Shooting, Schocholautte and PopGun Booking, Savoir Adore, Drink Up Buttercup, Rumanian Buck, and J.A.C.K. would never have played any of the Whatever blog parties. 2) The second way is just basically me getting out there and going to shows and finding what I like. What I look for is how good the band is musically and what their buzz factor is, i.e., will they draw well on Wednesday or Thursday night.

twi-ny: Who are some of your favorites that have performed at one of your shows in the past? Who are you looking forward to booking in the future?

AG: Oooh, so many! But if I had to choose for a CD or a DVD (investors and indie labels . . . hint hint!), I would say Schocholautte, the Art of Shooting, Right on Dynamite, Rumanian Buck, Freshkills, Wizardry, North Highlands, deVries, Drink Up Buttercup, J.A.C.K. . . . that CD or DVD would be a double CD or DVD ’cause there have been so many good performances at the Whatever blog parties over the last year. Well, right now I’m totally obsessed with These United States and their new album, WHAT LASTS, and I’m also really obsessed with Elvis Perkins and AA Bondy at the moment. It would be a total dream for me to get Elvis, AA, and These United States to play a blog party. Besides indie folk country rock, I’m also quite into Shark? [who were originally scheduled for the July 29 show but had to postpone for personal reasons], the Darlings, and the Sundelles, and those bands may be playing a Whatever blog party really soon.

TWI-NY TALK: GRADY HENDRIX

Programmer Grady Hendrix points to film such as MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD as a different kind of summer fare

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
June 25 – July 8
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.subwaycinema.com

Since 2002, the New York Asian Film Festival has introduced city cineastes to more than 220 mainstream, avant-garde, and cutting-edge films from Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other Asian nations, many of the selections North American premieres. Initially shown at Anthology Film Archives, the festival moves uptown this year, holding screenings at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater from June 25 through July 8, in addition to weekend midnight screenings at the IFC Center and the overlapping Japan Cuts series at the Japan Society (July 1-16). The NYAFF was cofounded by Grady Hendrix, who runs Subway Cinema, a group dedicated to spreading the many wonders of Asian films, from low-budget bloodbaths to touching romantic comedies, from shoot-’em-up gangster movies to gory zombie tales, from campy musicals to martial arts and samurai epics.

This year’s festival includes a very special opening night, honoring Huang Bo (COW, CRAZY RACER) with the Rising Star of Asia Award, Simon Yam (ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW, STORM WARRIORS) with the Star Asia Award, and Sammo Hung (IP MAN 2, EASTERN CONDORS) with the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award. In the midst of a publicity blitz for the festival, Hendrix, who is well known for the colorful outfits he wears, chatted via email with twi-ny about the 2010 NYAFF.

twi-ny: What is it about Asian films that so drives you? Did you have a moment of epiphany watching a specific movie?

Grady Hendrix: This gets a two-part answer. The four of us who run the festival [Hendrix, Goran Topalovic, Daniel Craft, and Marc Walkow] come to Asian movies in different ways, but for me it was sitting in the Music Palace down in Chinatown back in 1993 taking in a double feature of ALWAYS BE THE WINNER and LOVE ON DELIVERY. It was while watching a man dressed as Garfield defeat a karate master with pure stupidity that I fell in love with Hong Kong movies, and that was the gateway drug that led me everywhere else.

But for all of us, the reason we’re so devoted to Asian movies is the same: We’re bored. This summer, the big movies coming out of Hollywood are movies like MARMADUKE, but if you’re willing to read subtitles, there are dozens of amazing movies from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. Folks complain that they have to watch endless sequels and disappointing remakes from Hollywood, but over at our festival summer viewing is all about giant pigs holding Korean villages in their porky grip of terror, flying kung fu masters beating each other up with ultimate weapons made of the spinal columns of dead gods, fizzy-as-champagne romantic comedies from China starring Zhang Ziyi, amazing new flicks from Jackie Chan, masked Mexican wrestler movies from Japan, and breakdancing action films from Thailand. If you’re happy watching Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz pretend to fall in love, then great. If you want something a little more fun than that, then you should try a little of what we’re smoking.

Jackie Chan gets all serious for New York Asian Film Festival at Lincoln Center

twi-ny: Five years ago you wrote in Slate, “If you’re thinking of running a film festival: don’t. It will ruin your life.” This year the NYAFF graduates to Lincoln Center, from its early days at Anthology Film Archives. Do you still feel that running a film festival will ruin your life? Did you handle anything different because the festival will be held at the prestigious Walter Reade Theater?

GH: Doing this festival still ruins my life. In fact, at this point I think it’s too late for me and my life has been ruined beyond repair. The fact is, the four of us who run the New York Asian Film Festival are intensely passionate about what we do, to the point of being deranged. Even when we outsource some of the work, we still wind up pushing our designers to do better, we bust our butts to make sure our fliers and programs get to absolutely everywhere possible even if we wind up having to do it ourselves, we really care about our audience, and we have to make sure that every screening is as fun as humanly possible. Being at the Walter Reade hasn’t changed that. It hasn’t changed our programming, either. Movies like DOMAN SEMAN and MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD are going to hurt the brains of people who are used to “A Pleasant Jaunt Through Lithuanian Cinema.”

twi-ny: You’re renowned for your choice of wardrobe at screenings. Will the move to Lincoln Center affect what you will wear in any way?

GH: This year it’s more about what we won’t be wearing rather than what we will. Right now I’m sizing bodystockings in order to pick the one that will induce maximum discomfort in the audience, and expect more bare butts than ever during MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD screenings.

TWI-NY TALK: BARBARA POLLACK

Barbara Pollack will be discussing her new book about the Chinese art market at Pace Gallery in Chelsea on June 1 (photo by Joe Gaffney)

THE WILD, WILD EAST: AN AMERICAN ART CRITIC’S ADVENTURES IN CHINA (Timezone 8, May 2010, $24.95)
Tuesday, June 1, the Pace Gallery, 545 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., free, 6:00
Thursday, June 10, China Institute, 125 East 65th St., $15, 6:30
www.barbarapollack.com

Barbara Pollack is not your average art critic. The brash, funny, opinionated New Yorker has a law degree from Northeastern University, has been a professor at SVA for more than ten years, has worked in public relations, is a contributing editor for ARTnews, has written for such publications as Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and knows how to throw a New Year’s Eve party. In addition, she is a visual artist with photography and video work in the collections of such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the New York Public Library.

Pollack is also one of the world’s leading authorities on Chinese art, covering the burgeoning scene since 1997. She’s traveled to the mainland numerous times over the years, meeting with artists, collectors, dealers, and others involved in the exploding Asian art market as research for her just-published book, THE WILD, WILD EAST: AN AMERICAN ART CRITIC’S ADVENTURES IN CHINA. We recently accompanied Pollack on a walk through Chelsea, where gallery owners rushed out of their offices to hug her and share stories about art and life. She’ll be back in Chelsea on June 1 for the official New York City launch of her book, taking place at the Pace Gallery at 6:00. The event is free and open to the public. And on June 10 she’ll be giving a lecture at the China Institute. In between various other speaking engagements, Pollack took the time to answer a few of our questions via e-mail for our latest twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: You’ve traveled to China many times in researching this book and over the course of your career. How does the Chinese art world respond to you specifically, both in person and to the book itself, now that it’s published?

Barbara Pollack: In New York, I am just another person trying to make a living by writing about art. But in China, I get treated like a star critic with a certain degree of power. This is because for a long time there were very few people really writing about the art. That is changing now. Generally, my book was met with excitement but a certain degree of surprise. The Chinese artists — always size queens — expected a bigger book. They are used to publishing these mammoth catalogues, too large to lift, and are not accustomed to this Calvin Tomkins style of reportage. Others, particularly some of the westerners portrayed in the book, thought I did not make them out to be important enough.

twi-ny: In the last twenty years, the Sixth Generation of Chinese filmmakers — Jia Zhangke, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan, and others — have gained international renown for their work, including making films that are at times critical of mainland China. Is there a similar type of group when it comes to the art world in China? Are they heavily censored, or do they have an evolving freedom of expression as compared with past decades?

BP: As opposed to Chinese filmmakers, Chinese artists are able to produce without the interference of the Ministry of Culture. Not all of their work gets shown in China, though most of it does, but they also are now international art stars producing for galleries and museums all around the world, so restrictions rarely impede their output. The youngest generation, those born after the Open Door Policy and new market economy were in effect, are not taking advantage of their freedom to make political work. Mostly, they reflect a global outlook, heavily influenced by Japanese animation and American pop culture, in what is often called the Me Generation or Spoiled Brat art.

twi-ny: Is the art market’s current obsession with Asian art a fad, or do you think the work warrants it and is here to stay?

BP: Many Chinese artists, such as MacArthur award winner Xu Bing, Guggenheim star Cai Guo-Qiang, and outspoken renegade Ai Weiwei, have proven that they are worthy of international attention, even if there are Chinese artists who have been overhyped. Until the late 1990s, the art world was extremely narrow-minded and unwilling to think that a major talent could come from somewhere other than Europe or North America. That has changed forever, good riddance. So Asian art is not just a fad but the result of a growing awareness of art production throughout the world. Another reason Asian art, especially Chinese art, is not going to go away is that influx of Asian collectors into the international art market. They wield a lot of power and are willing to back artists from their home countries. In the end, they will boost careers of many artists even if we in the West disagree with their taste.

twi-ny: What is America’s greatest misconception about China, especially following the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

BP: I can’t even begin to answer this question. Sometimes, I don’t recognize the China I know from news coverage of the country. Of course, the China that I have come to know is the one packed with new millionaires — both collectors and artists — who have definitely benefited from China’s booming economy. I would have an entirely different understanding if I spent time away from Beijing and Shanghai, looking at the China that exists beyond its art world.

Barbara Pollack will be signing books on June 1 at the Pace Gallery in Chelsea, followed by a lecture at the China Institute on June 10.

TWI-NY TALK: JOSH WILKER

Josh Wilker has been experiencing breakout success with CARDBOARD GODS (photo by Abby Theuring)

CARDBOARD GODS by Josh Wilker (Seven Footer Press, April 2010, $24.95)
Thursday, May 13, Nike Store, 255 Elizabeth St., with bubblegum-blowing contest, 7:30
Monday, May 17, Book Revue, 313 New York Ave., Huntington, 7:00
Tuesday, May 18, Two Boots, Grand Central Terminal, 7:00
www.cardboardgods.net

Back in the 1990s, we spent many a late night at such dive bars as the International, the Idiot, and Rudy’s discussing life, literature, and sports with Josh Wilker, his older brother, Ian, and their inner circle of trusted friends. Josh has always been the most introspective of the crew, and he has now turned that penchant for self-examination into the compelling, extremely entertaining memoir CARDBOARD GODS: AN ALL-AMERICAN TALE TOLD THROUGH BASEBALL CARDS, adapted and expanded from his popular blog, which has been delighting readers since 2006.

In short chapters that begin with an image of a baseball card from his personal collection, Wilker relates his unusual, fascinating story growing up in Vermont in the 1970s with his brother, his mother, his father, and his mother’s lover, Tom, as well as his current life in Chicago with his wife, Abby. Wilker doesn’t just include such obvious Cardboard Gods as Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Nolan Ryan, and Rickey Henderson; in fact, it is most often the lesser-known mediocrities, from Rowland Office and Rudy Meoli to Carmen Fanzone and bubblegum-blowing champion Kurt Bevacqua, that bring out the best of his natural talent, finding some aspect of the player’s history or physical appearance to tie in with his life. Wilker gets most excited when talking about his beloved Boston Red Sox, but you don’t have to be a BoSox fan, or even know a thing about baseball, to be amazed by Wilker’s impressive skills as a chronicler of the ups and, mostly, downs of daily existence.

We caught up with Wilker via e-mail as he set out on his whirlwind book tour, which brings him to New York City and Long Island this week and next and then to Fenway Park for an event with the Spaceman himself, Cardboard God Bill Lee.

twi-ny: On your blog, you have described yourself as “socially anxious” and suffering from “self-mortification.” What’s it been like for you getting out in the world, meeting and greeting strangers and fans who either already know or are about to find out so much about your personal life?

Josh Wilker: I’ve only had one reading so far, and it was pretty low-key. Not exactly the Beatles at Shea Stadium. I did get a chance to talk to a few people who had been reading the blog, and that was fun because we just ended up talking about baseball cards. The anxiety comes during the lead-up to these things. Right now I’m getting ready to go off on a road trip to do several readings, and I’m getting nervous again, just like I was in the lead-up to the first reading. It definitely helps that I have the cards themselves to hide behind. I get nervous about being in any kind of a spotlight, but the spotlight is really on my old cards, not me, and even more importantly there’s really not much of a spotlight anyway. I realized this as I was walking to my first reading with a feeling in my stomach like I was going to be stripped naked in front of a packed stadium. I kept walking by all these people who weren’t going to my reading, who had no idea about my reading. All but a fraction of the population so tiny as to be nonexistent don’t know or care one iota about my book. I find this comforting, and also depressing.

twi-ny: You’ve been doing interviews and writing pieces for dozens of websites, including espn.com, GQ, and the Huffington Post, while also working on your next book, which again will meld childhood with baseball by taking on THE BAD NEWS BEARS. What’s your writing schedule like, since you also have a full-time job?

JW: That next project you mention is actually THE BAD NEWS BEARS IN BREAKING TRAINING, not THE BAD NEWS BEARS. (The difference? More Kelly Leak.) I was supposed to have a manuscript wrapped up by now but I had to get an extension because of the other writing you mention. It’s been hectic, especially with the paying job and the unpaying job of keeping up the chatter on my blog. I get up early every morning and get to it as soon as I can pry myself away from Howard Stern, and I go until I have to run for the train to work. I still find time, heroically, to practice my religion, which is glaze-eyed laziness borne atop sitcom reruns and huge piles of pasta washed down with beer.

twi-ny: You hold nothing back when writing about your family situation in Vermont back in the ’70s as well as today. How has your family reacted to the book’s powerful honesty?

JW: Everyone has given me the thumbs-up in one way or another. They have always been very supportive of me and of attempting to be creative and expressive in general. I think various parts of the book may not be exactly pleasant for one or another family member to relive. I think that they see that they are the heroes of the book. I hope so.

twi-ny: On May 17, you’ll be appearing at the forty-sixth vernal assemblage of the Blohards, a luncheon meeting of the Benevolent and Loyal Order of Honorable Ancient Red Sox Die Hard Sufferers of New York. What goes on behind those secretive closed doors? Is there such a thing in Chicago, where you now live, or do you root for the Sox in lonely obscurity?

JW: Ha! I really don’t know much about the Blohards, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Secret handshakes and planning to make Steve Guttenberg a star (again), hopefully, capped with a keg party and Ping-Pong. As for Chicago, I mostly do my rooting alone, which suits me, but in the 2004 playoffs I did learn of a bar that transplanted Red Sox fans had started gravitating to in droves. It had always been my dream to be in a screaming crowd if the Red Sox ever finally did it, and so I went to that bar and was able to flail around in a packed room with tears in my eyes for the moment of victory. I went back to the bar for a playoff game in 2007 (not the clincher) and it had devolved into a near-empty dump with a couple of decidedly anti–Red Sox grumblers leaning over their drinks.

TWI-NY TALK: CHUCK PALAHNIUK

: Chuck Palahniuk will be celebrating the release of TELL-ALL at the Great Hall at the Cooper Union on May 6 (photo by Shawn Grant)

CHUCK PALAHNIUK: TELL-ALL (Doubleday, May 4, 2010, $24.95)
The Great Hall at the Cooper Union
7 East Seventh St. at Third Ave.
Thursday, May 6, $30, 6:00
www.chuckpalahniuk.net
www.strandbooks.com
www.randomhouse.com

There’s a critical moment in every Chuck Palahniuk book when readers have to decide whether to forge ahead or return it disgustedly to the shelf, perhaps never to be opened again. In such bestselling novels as FIGHT CLUB, CHOKE, HAUNTED, RANT, and PYGMY, Palahniuk describes, in great detail, gut-twisting (literally) scenes of intense, brutal sex and/or violence, often told in a complex narrative style that takes some getting used to. Stick with it and you’re rewarded with some of the most intelligent, darkest satirical writing of the last fifteen years that’s as fun as it is challenging.

His latest work, TELL-ALL, is told from the point of view of Hazie Coogan, the longtime caretaker and protector of former Hollywood starlet Katherine Kenton. It’s a wry mash-up of SUNSET BOULEVARD and THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, with Palahniuk bold-facing a vast array of celebrity characters centered around Lillian Hellman, from George Cukor and Adolph Zukor to Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, from Rita Hayworth and Lucille Ball to Peter Lorre and Clifton Webb, and, perhaps most appropriately, famous gossip columnists Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper, and Louella Parsons.

Palahniuk, a journalism major and former movie projectionist who splits his time between his home state of Washington and Oregon, will be making his sole New York City appearance in support of TELL-ALL on May 6 at the Great Hall at the Cooper Union, a much-anticipated event that will include Julie Halson performing selections from the book as Katherine Kenton and Hazie Coogan; tickets are $30, and all attendees get a poster and a signed hardcover. Palahniuk took a break from his schedule, which will also take him to Portsmouth, Boston, Asheville, Chicago, and other cities, to answer a few questions we had for him over e-mail.

twi-ny: Your rabid fan base, known as the Cult, has a habit of coming to your readings and signings dressed up as characters from your books, tying Christmas trees to the tops of their cars, and mimicking other elements from you stories. What do you think it is about you and your books that attract this kind of worship? When we attend readings by the likes of Paul Auster, Haruki Murakami, and Tom Robbins, things tend to be a bit more subdued, which in no way are we implying is preferable, of course.

Chuck Palahniuk: After twenty years as part of the Cacophony Society, I see that people love events which allow them to act out and participate in consensual ways. No one wants to be the lone fool, but if everyone is dressed as Santa Claus it’s safe and communal and still fun. As the person onstage I’m especially aware of being a lonely idiot so I stage book events to include games and costumes and prizes and activities, each linked to either the book I’m pimping or to the piece I’ve written specifically to read at that event. Yes, this extra effort takes me all winter to orchestrate — even at this moment, my props and prizes are already shipped to each venue, including the Cooper Union — but this structure and preparation also allows me to relax and have a good time. Once I’m traveling and bone-tired and starving I still have the assurance of my structured insanity to keep me sane.

twi-ny: Your new book, TELL-ALL, deals with Hollywood celebrity. Who are some of your favorite old-timers? Bette Davis or Joan Crawford? Clara Bow or Theda Bara? Marilyn, Mamie, or Mansfield?

CP: No one will ever be as bitter and lovely as Geraldine Fitzgerald — I’ll sit through all of WUTHERING HEIGHTS just to hear her say, “Ïf Cathy dies . . . perhaps then I might live.” That’s a guesstimate of the quote. However, I burn a perpetual candle beside a shrine to Gloria Grahame; nobody played more or better floozies and bitches. You know she was polishing Jim Stewart’s apple in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE or why else would he give her all that money?

twi-ny: Your only New York City appearance will be on May 6 at the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, where presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln gave one of his most memorable speeches, 150 years ago this past February. How do you think Lincoln would do if he were to run in 2012? How do you think he might respond to TELL-ALL and Julie Halston?

CP: Now you’ve lost me — you’re SUCH a name-dropper! I have no idea who Julie Halston is. Or Abraham Lincoln, I can’t even find him on IMDB. Are you referring to the character on the old MOD SQUAD? Wasn’t Peggy Lipton cool . . . sigh.

twi-ny: In your introduction to David Mack’s KABUKI: THE ALCHEMY, you write, “Art is the lie that tells the truth better than the truth. . . . [David Mack builds] a metaphor that allows people to see and explore their own experience.” The same can be said for your writing, which is also very visual and cinematic. Do you have any interest in perhaps collaborating with an artist such as David Mack, or writing a graphic novel or comic book? Your website features Kissgzs’s adaptations of INVISIBLE MONSTERS and LULLABY; might there be more of those in the future?

CP: Frankly, I won’t rule out anything except suicide.

TWI-NY TALK: LENORE SKENAZY

Writer and mom Lenore Skenazy has a novel idea for May 22

TAKE OUR CHILDREN TO THE PARK . . . AND LEAVE THEM THERE DAY
Saturday, May 22, free
www.freerangekids.com

On May 22, Lenore Skenazy wants you to take your kids to the park — and leave them there. Alternately referred to as America’s Worst Mom and a national hero, Skenazy, a longtime New York City-based newspaper columnist, is the creator of the website and growing movement Free-Range Kids, which she considers “a commonsense approach to parenting in these overprotective times.” The married mother of two boys launched the site, freerangekids.com, in April 2008 after getting attacked for her New York Sun column “Why I Let My Nine-Year-Old Take the Subway Alone.” A year later, her book FREE-RANGE KIDS: HOW TO RAISE SAFE, SELF-RELIANT CHILDREN (WITHOUT GOING NUTS WITH WORRY) was published in hardcover; it has just been released in paperback as well.

Within moments of each new post on the site, which examines child-related news stories, court cases, school dilemmas, and other parental topics, dozens and dozens either cheer her on or lambast this decidedly non-helicopter mom. As one would expect, her latest venture, Take Our Children to the Park . . . and Leave Them There Day, is stirring up its fair share of controversy, which promises to only get more heated as May 22 approaches.

twi-ny: Again and again on your website, you cite statistics that are either misinterpreted or ignored by the media and government bodies about children’s safety. Why is it so hard for news and community organizations to get their facts straight?

Lenore Skenazy: Here’s the amazing news: We are currently enjoying a historic thirty-seven-year drop in crime, nationwide. In New York, the 2009 murder rate was the lowest in nearly fifty years! We are on par with the early ’60s, crime-wise. That was still the sweater set and college-boys-with-pipes era!

These statistics are hard to believe because on TV, it’s all crime all the time — from CNN to CSI. One woman once said, “How dare you say children are as safe as we were when we see abductions on TV every day!” The thing is: We see the same abductions on TV every day. We’ve been seeing the sad story of Etan Patz for thirty years, for example, and people still cite it as a reason they won’t let their kids walk to school. This, despite the tens of millions of children who have been born, gone to school, graduated and had their own kids since then — who were not abducted at the bus stop. And whose stories we don’t see on TV.

Tragic stories sear themselves on our brains. Then, when we ask ourselves a question like, “Is it safe for my kid to wait at the bus stop?” up pops the most graphic image: Etan. Then our brains act like Google: We assume the first thing that pops up is the most common. “Abductions are happening all the time!” Long story short: That is why it is so hard for us to keep the good news in perspective.

twi-ny: Your book FREE-RANGE KIDS is now out in paperback; what kind of effect do you think it and the website have had? What kind of response do you expect to get from your creation of Take Our Children to the Park . . . and Leave Them There Day?

LS: What’s great is that helicopter parents have existed for a while. So have Free-Range parents — folks who suspect we don’t have to be quite so worried about quite so much — but we didn’t have a name. Now we do, and a place to gather for moral support, and a book with tips, hard facts, and jokes!

Sometimes it’s hard to let your third grader stay at home while you go pick up some groceries or have your fifth grader walk home after school. The blog is a place to open up about these newly “radical” acts, and the book is a way to gain perspective: In my chapter “Why Other Countries Are Laughing at Zee Scaredy-Cat Americans,” I point out children walk to school starting in kindergarten or first grade everywhere else in the world. In my chapter “Relax! Not Every Little Thing You Do Has THAT Much Impact on Your Child’s Development,” I remind parents that we are not the only influence on our children’s lives. And, ultimately, we cannot control them or the world. (Darn!)

The response to Take Our Children to the Park . . . and Leave Them There Day has been wild. Other sites blogging about it have gotten big-time blowback: “The predators will have a field day!” “What happens if someone gets hurt?” On freerangekids.com, meanwhile, folks are psyched to have a day to start giving our kids the freedom and fun that helps them grow up happy, healthy, and maybe even a little sunburnt.

And remember: This is for kids starting at about age seven or eight. I’m not saying we should abandon our toddlers.

twi-ny: If the trend of the widespread overprotection of kids continues, including their spending less and less time outdoors and more and more time in front of their computers as well as the limiting of what they are allowed to bring to school and eat there, what do you foresee for future generations?

LS: Well, I never like to imagine the very worst — that’s too easy. “Oh, they’ll all be fat and diabetic and slurping their meals like the people in WALL-E!” I just assume that the kids who do some of what we did as kids — hang out in nature, make up games, learn to settle their own disputes, and entertain themselves — will rule.

What’s kind of funny is that all the new studies about child development point to the importance of play. That’s why every human generation — until this one — just did it automatically. It’s the preprogrammed way kids learn to create, communicate, compromise. The way they learn to grow up. We can’t do it for them, even though lately that’s what it seems like we’re trying to do. We take them to play classes and enroll them in programs, or sit them in front of a screen that plays with them.

I’m all for enrichment. My kids have done a number of extracurriculars, from piano to football. But children need some down time, too. Say, a day at the playground — without us.