Bio Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1973, Lee Bob Black is an emerging writer who has lived on four continents. He interviews authors and writes book reviews for fun, however his serious work consists of novels, short stories, essays, short plays, business writing, and IT writing. He’s currently editing for Big Think (BigThink.com) and consulting for Canteen Magazine (CanteenMag.com). Previously he's worked with One Story (One-Story.com) and other literary magazines. He's based in Brooklyn, NYC, and virtually at LeeBobBlack.com. Now I'll switch back to first person. Click the menu links to read some of my stories, interviews, etc. Check me out at Shelfari.com/LeeBobBlack and Facebook.com/LeeBobBlack and YouTube.com/LeeBobBlack. Or just continue reading my "Lee's Literary Life: News, Events, Propaganda, and Shameless Self-Promotion." Embarrassing Poetic Video Experiments [Dec 2009]Reading some of my own poems:    Reading poems and songs written by wordsmiths such as Corey Taylor, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, and Ani DiFranco:  Literary Criticism! Bookslut published my Paul Hoffman book review [Dec 2009]December 4, 2009Read my book review of Hoffman's King's Gambit: A Son, A Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game, which was published by Bookslut.com.  Continue reading at bookslut.com/nonfiction/2009_12_015461.php. Five stars? One star? Books I read in 2009 that I rated five out of five, or one out of five [Dec 31, 2009]Lee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Lee's Shit List! One out of five stars:
Video by Jireh [Nov 2009]Our magical friend, Jireh Hinton (aka Grover Watts), filmed Tara DePorte and I in our Brooklyn home . . .More from this artist: YouTube.com/JirehHinton and MyPoresAreReallySmall.com and GroverWatts.tumblr.com Tango Mano-A-Mano [Aug 2009]I wrote an article, Tango Mano-A-Mano: How Dancing With Other Men Challenged My Heterosexuality, for Big Think (BigThink.com). Here's the first paragraph:In
the late nineteenth century, large-scale immigration dramatically
increased the population of Buenos Aires. Most migrants were men; one
figure even suggests a ratio of ten men for every woman. Continue reading. How Greene is Gelb? [June 2009]I wrote an article for Big Think (BigThink.com) about power and:
  Canteen and StreetSquash Creative Writing Workshops [June 2009]June 5, 2009Who knew that using the power of creativity to motivate and educate children would be so much fun? My friends and I have just finished our second creative writing workshops, as organized by Canteen Magazine (CanteenMag.com) and StreetSquash (StreetSquash.org), an after-school youth enrichment program. Our second issue of canTeen: Youth On The Page: Writing And Art By Seventh Graders is now viewable and downloadable from issuu.com/CanteenMag/docs/canteen_student_writing_and_art_spring2009_issue_2. A million thanks to the writers/teachers/photographers who volunteered for this: Stephen Pierson, Amy Braunschweiger, Daniel Christensen, Cezara Russo, Garth Risk Hallberg, JJ Sulin, Marion Duvet, Molly A. Rosen, and Porochista Khakpour. A billion thanks to our students for this group: Alejandro C, Alvin H, Barbara H, Chamoy G, Chrishtian B, Christina M, Daniel R, Ebbria J, Gabrielle T, Hawa B, Oluwaseun D, Richard S, Sunen D, Taina P, Taylor C, and Travone W.          P.S. After our last class this semester, Laura of StreetSquash had this to say ... "I
want to say thank you so much for all of your hard with the students
this year. I can tell you really enjoy working with children, and that
makes all the difference in the world. I truly believe that because of
you and all of your amazingly talented friends, the students will
approach writing with more curiousity and creativity...which is the
whole point, isn't it? So, thank you, and please extend our gratitude
to all of the volunteers who made this work!" I interviewed Amy Braunschweiger! [May, 2009]Amy Braunschweiger’s book, Taxi Confidential: Life, Death and 3 a.m. Revelations in New York City Cabs, is coming out in September. In this interview, Amy discusses pothead speed demon cabbies, learning journalism by being one of the few women in a room filled with men, learning how to write a nonfiction book by accepting a book deal rather than doing an MFA, assuaging her flirtatious nature while working, renting a cubicle to get out of her apartment, erring on the side of too much information, and vomiting ideas onto the page. Amy's booksite is www.TaxiConfidentialBook.com Her blog is NYCTaxiConfidential.blogspot.com I interviewed Alberto Ferraras! [Mar, 2009]An extensive and amazing (if I do say so myself) interview I did with Alberto Ferreras, author of B as in Beauty (2009), is viewable at AlbertoFerreras.com (and here on my site). In this interview, Alberto Ferreras talks about overemphasizing the future, unglamorous jobs and happiness, sexy obese women, how Borges’s Aleph is Google Earth, café culture, vampires, how he was born a New Yorker even though he was born in Madrid, and his novel, B as in Beauty.   Photo: Alberto Ferreras. Photo credit: Michael Wakefield. Canteen and StreetSquash Creative Writing Workshops [Feb 2009]Feb 13, 2009. For the past five months, I've had the privilege of teaching creative writing each week to seventh graders (11-13 years old) in Harlem. It was the first time I'd ever taught kids (though, come to think of it, I have taught numerous classes and topics for corproations ....), and I have Stephen Pierson to thank--he asked me to join the program and believed in me even when I doubted myself. More importantly: Our students were so awesome! And we've got poems and presidential acceptance speeches and six-word memoirs and stories about superheroes to prove how inventive our students were! To read a professionally-bound anthology of their work, canTeen: Youth On The Page: Writing And Art By Seventh Graders, go to issuu.com/CanteenMag/docs/canteen_student_writing_and_art_issue_1 Our creative writing workshops were made possible by Stephen Pierson of Canteen Magazine (CanteenMag.com) and our dedicated friends at StreetSquash (StreetSquash.org), an after-school youth enrichment program that combines academic tutoring, squash instruction, college preparation, community service, and mentoring. Massive personal thanks to the following brilliant and generous writers/teachers/photographers who volunteered for these workshops: Stephen Pierson, Daniel Christensen, Garth Risk Hallberg, James J. Williams III, JJ Sulin, Mia Lipman, Porochista Khakpour, and Todd Zuniga. If you're keen to volunteer for our next group, write to info@canteenmag.com. And of course thanks to our students: Angel F, Armando A, Darquell C, Divine W, Elhadji M, Lamont P, Marcus C, Mawa B, Nasean C, Oumar T, Ronnie G, Tosin E, and Wandy V. You all rock. Five stars? One star? Books I read in 2008 that I rated five out of five, or one out of five [Dec 31, 2008]Lee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Barack Obama wins, Brooklyn ignites, Lee Bob Black gives strangers shoulder rides [Nov 04, 2008]After Barack Obama won, hundreds of us spontaneously started dancing and yelling and celebrating on the corner of Bedford Avenue and North 7th Street, Williamsburg. During the euphoria, I gave people shoulder-rides, including the flag guy in the following photo taken by Ryan Muir (www.RyanMuir.com) The photo also appeared on the front cover of the printed edition of The Brooklyn Paper (www.BrooklynPaper.com). The riot police watched for an hour or two, then shut our euphoria down.  I'm judging at a Literary Death Match, NYC [Sep 27, 2008]As part of Lit Crawl NYC (co-curated by Opium's Todd Zuniga), the Literary Death Match will feature its first-ever Lightning Edition on September 27 at 8:30 p.m. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You’ll see Ben Greenman (New Yorker) judging literary merit, Cicily Janus judging performance, and me judging intangibles--we'll be judging writers reading from various literary publications. Litquake's Lit Crawl is a massive, one night literary extravaganza in NYC on September 27. The madcap concept, created in 2004 in San Francisco, will kick-off in the Lower East Side at 6 p.m., wander up to the East Village for 7:15 readings (with Canteen Magazine and NY Tyrant starring) then over the bridge to Williamsburg for delights at 8:30 p.m. (where Opium's Literary Death Match and BOMB Magazine will be in the spotlight). This Google map has all the venues.  Photo: Tim Mucci reading, Bob Greenman judging literary merit, Cicily Janus judging performance, Lee Bob Black judging intangibles. Photo credit: Tim Mucci.  Photo: Ben Greenman, Timmy Waldren, Jensen Whelen, Todd Zuniga, Lee Bob Black, Cicily Janus.I interviewed Hannah Tinti! [Aug 2008]Aug 7th, 2009. Brooklyn, NYC. Today I interviewed Hannah Tinti (HannahTinti.com), author of The Good Thief. It was a wild interview--she discussed approaching writing her novel as a short story writer, using her emotions and spirituality to write, the un-holiness of the Vatican, how her agent stealthily confirmed that she wasn’t crazy before representing her, and how as a writer you have to stop fighting your characters on the page and accept them as they are. (This interview will be published in the future.) The Good Thief is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, recipient of the American Library Association's Alex Award, and winner of the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. Animal Crackers, Tinti’s short story collection, was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. Tinti is co-founder and editor-in-chief of One Story (One-Story.com), for which she won the 2009 PEN/Nora Magid award.  Photo: Lee Bob Black and Hannah Tinti at the One Story offices, Brooklyn.   Photos: Hannah Tinti. I'm reading at an Opium Magazine and Envoy Gallery "Litstravaganza", NYC [Aug 2008]Where: a bar called Home Sweet Home. 131 Chrystie St, between Broome St and Delancy St, Manhattan, NY; map. 212.226.4555 office@envoygallery.com Subway: B D train to Grand St. F train to 2nd Ave or Delancey St. J M Z to Bowery. When: Sunday Aug 3, 2008; 6:30 pm to 9 pm. Here's the official write up about the event: In conjunction with Envoy Gallery and the Thorstein Foundation, Opium's thrilled to present a Sunday evening litstravaganza. Hosted via satellite (aka iChat) by Opium founding editor and Literary Death Match co-creator Todd Zuniga, onlooker will hear Americans Greg Sanders and Amy Lemmon live from NYC, Lee Bob Black, an Australian, tape delayed from NYC, and Nick Royle taped delayed one second via iChat (aka satellite) from Manchester, UK. Plus, everyone who reads will be interviewed in lightning fashion. Excitements galore!Update: At the event, I read a short fiction piece called "Sexpot Vignette #4: Racecars Crash" to about 25 people in the audience. What are six of my top short story collections? [July 2008]I'm glad you asked . . . well on One Story's blog, I read two “my top ten short story” lists, one by Chris (one-story.com/blog/?p=389) and another by Elliot Holt (one-story.com/blog/?p=390). I've never thought about maintaining such a list for myself. But it intrigued me, so I racked my brain and came up with my top six story collections. They're in no particular order.
Consider submitting to Opium Magazine's "Network of Writers Experiment" [July 2008]Opium Magazine (OpiumMagazine.com), a print and online journal of "literary humor for the deliriously captivated," rocks, straight up. Todd Zuniga is seeking submissions to a "What I Learned" network that'll be in the mag's next print edition, Opium7. So, if you're keen, read the following, which I sourced from opiummagazine.com/Index.aspx?storyid=1731, and submit. We're putting together a series of quotes about what authors have learned from other authors (or other sources)—something another writer once said to you that's really stuck in your head and encouraged or influenced your work. Mine, for instance is: "I write one story at a time. It's my way, it's not the only way." --Tobias Wolff. While my quote came from an e-mail exchange nine years ago, yours could be something that occurred while reading an author's work, from having a verbal exchange, or from something they said while teaching at an MFA program. Anything really. The first three chapters of a novel I was working on .... [July 2008]Between 2001 and 2003, I wrote a novel called In Lieu Of Lovability. Click here for the first three chapters, slightly updated in 2008. Fair and honest appraisal of your appearance .... [June 2008]Gill Bumby (myspace.com/gillbumby) had a few things to say about me. Click the image to read what he typed onto the card.   I posted another short play of mine . . . [April 2008]I posted a new short play: Tsunami Survivor Conserves Energy Via Escapism, Or, Between God And A Hard Place. My first poetry reading in years . . . [March 2008]When: March 08, 2008. Where: Ponta Negra, Natal, Brasil. Tonight I read the following five poems at Tara DePorte's art exhibition Sonhos Intensivos (Intense Dreams):
More info about Tara's art: www.TaraDePorte.com  Benjamin Kunkel! I met another one of my Lit Gods! [March 2008]March 31st, 2008. Manhattan, NYC. Today I met Benjamin Kunkel at a reading for the second issue of Canteen Magazine (CanteenMag.com) at Housing Works Café in SoHo, Manhattan. I read Kunkel's novel Indecision in 2006 and rated it 4 out of 5 stars.  Photo: Lee Bob Black and Benjamin Kunkel. I also met writer Todd Zuniga. He's not one of my lit gods (I haven't read any of his stuff, yet), but he read a hilarious piece, so here's a photo of us being dorks:  Photo: Todd Zuniga Lee Bob Black.Five stars? One star? Books I read in 2007 that I rated five out of five, or one out of five [Dec 31, 2007]Lee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Lee's Shit List! One out of five stars:
Prodigious? Talented? Moi? [Nov 2007]November 23, 2007. NYC. Today a friend of mine, a published novelist no less, emailed me to tell me that he'd read some of my stories on LeeBobBlack.com, and that he thought I was "prodigiously talented." It's just his opinion, but I'm all for it! Who are my favorite writers, spoken word artists, and performance poets (so far)? [Nov 2007]This is a tremendously difficult question to ask. Here's my tentative answer .... My Favorite Writers:
My Favorite Spoken Word Artists, Performance Poets:
Two of my articles were included in the “Grassroots Academy” newsletter/blog for the 2007 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (CSD-15) [Apr 2007]What? Huh? That's right--two short articles of mine were published by the Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC; www.LESEcologyCenter.org): “Climate, Energy & Air Pollution Panel & Networking Session” “Grassroots Experiences: Sharing Our Knowledge” These were published in a newsletter, "Grassroots Academy, Volume 1, Issue 1; for the 2007 United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development (CSD-15)." Mama Gena and Sister Goddesses and Lee Bob Black [Jan 2007]Jan 13th, 2007. Manhattan, NYC. Last night I attended an event called, “Mama Gena Gives It Up To Your Men,” which was part of Mama Gena's Womanly Arts Mastery Program. All I’ll say is that it was wild (check MamaGenas.com for more details or this YouTube bit). Okay, I’ll say one more thing. There were 100+ women (“Sister Goddesses”), the majority of who were wearing just lingerie. Today I was as a discussion panelist for Mama Gena's Womanly Arts Mastery Program, held at the Roosevelt Hotel, Manhattan. There were ~10 men on the stage (including actor Roy Scheider, incidentally), and 100+ women in the audience. There’s no way I can accurately summarize what we talked about for over an hour, but I’ll politely say that we discussed sensuality and sexuality. Update: Check out this YouTube clip of Mama Gena: Five stars? One star? Books I read in 2006 that I rated five out of five, or one out of five [Dec 31, 2006]Lee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Lee's Shit List! One out of five stars:
LeBoBla [sic] does his first NaNoWriMo [Nov 2006]NYC. I just finished "competing" ("participating"?) in the 2006 National Novel Writing Month (www.NaNoWriMo.org). It was my first year, and it kicked my ass. Fuck knows if I'm going to do it next year, or ever again for that matter.  Also, a photo of me appears in Phyllis Korkki's article, "Cherishing words, just for words' sake," about National Novel Writing Month; International Herald Tribune; Dec 5, 2006.  Here's the first two paragraphs of Korkki's article: The secret to writing a novel in a month is just to do it - and it's a good idea to accept from the start that, barring miracles, it will be very, very bad. Read the full article at the International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/05/features/amateur.php The Impeachables: About Our Campaign [Aug 2006]Press Release: Aug 2006. The Impeachables (www.impeachables.org) is a political awareness campaign associated with the movements to impeach politicians George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, and John Howard.  It consists of mock personal profiles of these political leaders, each written in first person, highlighting information such as ... ... how Bush, Cheney, Blair, Howard, and the US, UK, and Australian governments:
... how George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Bush administration:
... how Tony Blair:
... how John Howard:
The mock personal profiles also ‘poke fun’ at the politicians. For
example, according to the ‘More About What I Am Looking For’ section of
Bush’s profile,
he wants a woman to talk dirty in bed, saying things such as “Who’s the
champion of freedom and democracy? You are Bushy! Who squandered the
largest federal surplus in history and created the largest national
debt in history? Who’s the War President? You are Bushy!” Another
example is Blair’s profile.
In the ‘Fill in the blank: _____ is sexy; _____ is sexier’ part of the
profile, the Prime Minister wrote, ‘Government-by-cabinet is sexy;
government-by-cabal is sexier!” Another example is a reference in Howard's profile to how he admits to employing the “Sergeant Shultz defense.”
SyBaRa: About Us
SyBaRa created The Impeachables (www.impeachables.org). We are a group of activists, cyberguerillas, artists, alienated voters, and peacemongers. We feel that claims that a “war on terror” will lessen the risks of terrorist attacks are unwise, and that prevailing in the global fight against terrorism by embarking upon pre-emptive wars in 'defense' of freedom surely leads to a destruction of freedom. Human values cannot be defended by unprovoked violence. War only leads to war, more war, and more war. We feel that many of the actions and policies of the Bush, Blair, and Howard governments since 9/11 to be repressive, unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We not only believe that the three men leading these governments, and several of their principal officials in Washington, London, and Canberra, should be held accountable for their actions in order to restore faith in the democratic process, but we also believe that they are threats to world peace, human rights, and economic justice. Too many questions remain unanswered, and we have been deceived and betrayed time and time again--this conduct cannot continue to go unchecked. Those who lead us cannot mislead us and then remain in office. With our hearts and minds, we are taking a stand against criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the violation of human rights, detentions without trial, contempt for international law, and labeling whole countries as ‘evil.’ We have drawn inspiration from Americans working to bring the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to the floor of the House of Representatives (which has the sole power to vote for impeachment), and then on to the Senate (which would determine guilt or innocence). We have drawn inspiration from British Members of Parliament who in November 2004 tabled a motion to impeach Tony Blair, and who, considering the potential lack of it’s viability, redrafted the motion in favor of a parliamentary enquiry to examine the conduct of ministers before and after the Iraq war. We have drawn inspiration from Australians working towards holding John Howard accountable for his war crimes, the children overboard affair, the AWB Ltd controversy, and his manipulation of the Australian electorate. Each of the members of SyBaRa acted on his or her own accord. We did not receive support or endorsement from other individuals or organizations working towards the impeachment of Bush, Cheney, Blair, or Howard. In fact, before launching The Impeachables, we only discussed the campaign with our boyfriends and girlfriends (and in one case, a mother). Our name SyBaRa is a portmanteau of Sybil, Banksy, and Rainbow. It’s homage to:
 SyBaRa welcomes all comments, criticisms, etc., regarding The Impeachables. Please contact us at leegolit [at] gmail.com I interviewed Julia Guez! [July 2006]July 30, 2006. Check out: "Verisimilove in Buenos Aires? Lee Bob Black Interviews Writer Julia Guez."  Photo: Julia Guez writing her book, in a cafe in Buenos Aires, May 2006. I've posted a new essay [June 2006]Check out my new essay, "Without Words: An Australian-American in Argentina." I interviewed T. M. Rives! [June 2006]June 12, 2006. Manhattan, NYC. Today I interviewed T. M. Rives, author of the novel Le Serpent des blés. I interviewed him in my West Village apartment. Here's a photo of Rives typing in my bedroom!  Photo: T.M. Rives. Update: Read the interview "If Warriors Had iPods: Lee Bob Black Interviews T. M. Rives". Five stars? One star? Books I read in 2005 that I rated five out of five, or one out of five [Dec 31, 2005]Lee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Lee's Shit List! One out of five stars:
Bookslut published my Edwin John Wintle interview! [July 2005]Read my interview of Ed Wintle (www.EdwinJohnWintle.com), author of Breakfast With Tiffany: An Uncle’s Memoir. Malcolm Gladwell! I met another one of my Lit Gods! [July 2005]July 8th, 2005. Manhattan, NYC. Today I randomly ran into Malcolm Gladwell (www.Gladwell.com), author of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000) and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), at Snice Cafe in the West Village. He was laptopping two tables to my side while I edited a huge printout of my second novel (see the stalker photo below). As he was leaving, I approached him, thanked him for his SUV article ("Big and Bad: How the SUV ran over automotive safety"), and shared how it was instrumental in helping me form my ideas about the perception of safety versus actual safety. He asked me my name. I said if I published my novel, I’ll send him a copy.   I interviewed Bhagavan Das! [May 2005]May 18th, 2005. Manhattan, NYC. Today at my home in the West Village, I interviewed Bhagavan Das (www.BhagavanDas.com), a performer of Indian bhajans and kirtans, a counter-cultural icon, a yogi, and the author of It's Here Now (Are You?): A Spiritual Memoir.   After the interview, I stood on an old fire-notification thingy, and took this photo of Bhagavan Das on the corner of Washington Street and Charles Street:  Then Bhagavan Das took this one of me:  Update: Read the interview: The Dharma and Cult of Bhagavan Das: Lee Bob Black interviews Bhagavan Das. I interviewed Edwin John Wintle! [March and April 2005]Manhattan, New York City March 17th and April 2nd, 2005 I just completed a marathon interview (in two parts) of Ed Wintle (www.EdwinJohnWintle.com), author of Breakfast With Tiffany: An Uncle’s Memoir. Photos of Ed and I from the first half of the interview, at Ed's West Village apartment, March 17th, 2005: Photos: Lee Bob Black and Edwin John Wintle.  Photos of Ed and I from the second half of the interview, at Ed's West Village apartment, April 2nd, 2005:   Update: Read my interview of Edwin John Wintle here. I interviewed Max Barry! [Feb 2005]Kensington, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. February 24, 2005. I interviewed Max Barry (www.MaxBarry.com), author of novels Syrup (1999), Jennifer Government (2003), and Company (forthcoming in 2006). I conducted the interview at a café called The Corner on Bellair, near Max's house in Melbourne. Here's a photo of Max and I just after the interview:  Photo: Lee Bob Black and Max Barry.Update: Read the interview "To Finish Writing A Novel, You Need To Be Delusional: Lee Bob Black Interviews Max Barry". Five stars? One star? Books I read in 2003 and 2004 that I rated five out of five, or one out of five [Dec 31, 2004]Lee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Lee's Shit List! One out of five stars:
I interviewed Toby Thompkins! [Sep 2004]September 11, 2004. Manhattan, New York City. Today I interviewed Toby Thompkins, author of The Real Lives Of Strong Black Women: Transcending Myths, Reclaiming Joy (2004).
Here's some photos of Toby and I in his West Village apartment, taken straight after the interview:   Photo: Toby Thompkins and Lee Bob Black.Update: Read the interview "What you resist will persist, unless you know it was all a myth in the first place: Lee Bob Black interviews Toby Thompkins." Literary Criticism! My Alex Garland book review was published on Bookslut [Aug 2004]August 10, 2004. Read my book review of Alex Garland's The Coma, which was published on Bookslut (www.bookslut.com).  Continue reading. Alex Garland! I met another one of my Lit Gods! [June 2004]June 24th, 2004. Manhattan, NYC. I met Alex Garland, author of novels The Beach, The Tesseract, and The Coma. He was reading from his new novel, The Coma, which was published this month. We were at Housing Works Café in SoHo.  Photo: Alex Garland and Lee Bob Black.Death essay [April 2004]My essay, “This Is Not A Death Experience” was published on EmbraceDeathNow.com. Letter to The Believer [Feb 2004]I wrote a letter to The Believer (believermag.com). They didn't publish it. But I did. Craig Clevenger! I met another one of my Lit Gods! [Oct 2003]Oct 2003. Brooklyn, NYC. I attended a reading by Craig Clevenger (www.CraigClevenger.com), author of The Contortionist’s Handbook, at a reading in Brooklyn. Afterward, we went out for some drinks.  Photo: Lee Bob Black and Craig Clevenger.Chuck Palahniuk! I met another one of my Lit Gods! [Sep 2003]Sep 12, 2003. Manhattan, NYC. I met Chuck Palahniuk (www.ChuckPalahniuk.net) at a book signing!  Photo: Lee Bob Black and Chuck Palahniuk.Civilians as shields! The audacity! [Mar 2003]March 26, 2003. Manhattan, New York City. Okay, it's been almost a week since the US-led invasion of Iraq ... here are some thoughts ... How dare the Iraqis defend themselves! Who do they think they are! A sovereign nation! They’ve sunken to a new low! The audacity! Putting civilians in Baghdad--that’s despicable! Civilians--can you imagine how horrible the military leaders are by having civilians in their major cities! Human shields! What could they be thinking! That we--Americans, British, Aussies, the Coalition of the Willing--don’t know how extraordinarily inhuman that is! How dare they rise up! How dare they want to live under their own terms! Don’t they know we’re in Iraq to help! To free them! Humanitarian aid is right behind us! We’re not just mopping up, we’re liberating! And they’re treating us like the enemy! They’re calling us the aggressors! They piss and moan that we don’t have international legitimacy or UN endorsement! Like that matters! Peace Rally [Mar 2003]March 22, 2003. Manhattan, New York City. Today, along with ~250,000 activists, I marched through the streets of Manhattan, singing and crying and protesting against the US-led invasions of Afghanistan (October 7th, 2001; Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (March 20, 2003; Operation Iraqi Freedom). I saw the following signs or t-shirts:
Five stars? One star? Books I read between 2000 and 2002 that I rated five out of five, or one out of five [Dec 31, 2002]Lee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Lee's Shit List! One out of five stars:
Jim Dodge! I met another one of my Lit Gods! [Sep 2000]Sep 10th, 2000. Berkeley, California. I met Jim Dodge! I met him the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival in Berkeley, California. While chit-chatting, Jim mentioned his love of poetry. I couldn’t bring myself to say how I’d love to dedicate my life to writing kooky, trippy novels like his novel Stone Junction. And get this, a few months ago, I wrote a poem called "A Lesson In Invincibility" which was based on (plagiarized?) pages 215-227 of Stone Junction--my poem's about the character named Volta, who teaches his pupil how to become invisible/dematerialize. And as it turned out, I had a printed copy of my poem in my back pocket while I was talking with Jim. But did I give it to him? Nope. I wimped out. When Jim Dodge got up to the microphone, he told a story that was completely unrelated to the Festival. The story was about how his brother’s dog’s nuts got sucked into the drain plug of a bath tub! Five stars? One star? Books I read in the 1990s that I rated five out of five, or one out of fiveLee's Hit List! Five out of five stars:
Lee's Shit List! One out of five stars:
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