I venture to New York every summer. My friends John and Stephanie live in a Brooklyn loft big enough to hold prize fights. John is a musician. Check out TUFF SUNSHINE. Stephanie is a choreographer and the director of SLEEP DANCE. Steph's rehearsal space features a sprung floor and a view of Manhattan. John plays guitar on his bed next to a bottle of Dego Red (forgive the terrible rhyme). I love these guys, and, along with their roommates, they're exquisite hosts. Lots of laffs and good food.
This is the first time I've come back east for work. THE LAST SURVEY is coming out in 2014 and we start our campaign this November (cross your fingers). I've enlisted the aid of many talented friends. My old buddy, photographer David Rubin (based in Queens), has already treated my likeness many times. On this visit Dave helped me produce a few promo videos. YouTube is full of these weird little spots promoting books. Dave did a beautiful job (ie. I don't come off as a jackass).
Also hung with Joe Pan Brooklyn Arts Press (BAP). BAP publishes poetry and artists' monographs. A whirl-wind of ambition, talent, and what seems to be an endless "wick," he also write beautiful stories, novels, and poems. http://joepan.org/ Joe and his wife Wendy host parties that dive into wee hours I had come to believe no longer exist.
I'm in Pittsburgh at the moment taking care of my folks who are now in their winter years. It's tough work. But I set aside some time to delve further into the research material that started me on this project. Not that this work will influence the novel at such a late stage, but its illuminating none the less. My grandfather produced thousands of images now squirreled away in shoe boxes in my parents' attic. We found some beautiful negatives from Puerto Rico 'round 1928.
My friend Leo, a curator and photographer, is almost as excited by these pictures as I am. We're both interested in doing something with the photographs, maybe producing some kind of an exhibit. But there are challenges finding a coherent story behind the work beyond what seems to be simply a historical record. An academic might show an interest, but beyond that the work is rather mundane. That's not quite the right word, but these are not remarkable images in and of themselves. The Great Depression was a decade in which documentary photography thrived. Of course, I find his collection uncanny and beautiful. Opening the albums as a kid seeded my imagination in a way not easily translated. There are the pictures and then there's the novel. THE LAST SURVEY is fiction. The novel stands alone, but the pictures now seem connected to the book. A conundrum.
I love coming back to Pittsburgh. I can never get enough of the vibe here, the weather, the people, the architecture, and topography. It's all about trees and hills. I write about Western PA in my other blog, Where The Weather Suits My Clothes, so I won't waste your time here. But it's friggin' gorgeous. At times the air was so lovely, unlike anything anywhere else. Good enough to breathe.
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