29 Comments

I love Studs Terkel.

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Hope the penguin accessory doll survived your tour. As well as the zine you inspired my partner to finally commit to paper. It was awesome seeing you in Austin again and we hope the road treated you well.

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Didn’t know Elisa Lam had been a fan of yours. Such a crazy and tragic story.

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I remember hearing about this back in high school.

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Suggest a few glasses of tap water for the interview. It's the little details.

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author

Not tap water from the Hotel, no way.

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I wonder if guests at The Hotel Cecil have reservations about drinking the water to this day.

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I would. Holy hell.

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But would you play the elevator game there?

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I’d have to check which floor the blood gets off at first, then, secondly, try and forget what happened to the daughter in ‘The Invention of Sound’.

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Those petulant eyes can get him anything he wants.

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founding

I'm so excited!!! Aaaaaaa!

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It's for real this time! Hahaha!

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founding

I just picked up a few of Terkel’s books (Working and The Good War) yesterday! Looking forward to your Soft White Underbelly interview!

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The Cecil is in the midst of a terrible rebranding. They painted over thar beautiful building art with just a blue heart.

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author

The CBS folks said it might be going condo. In that neighborhood? Condo?

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The gifts were all Karin K and Eric I’d ideas. Shout out to two of the biggest supporters of and performers at New York Story Night!

On a different note, Elisa Lam was such a horror story for me when I was a kid! It’s a staple of the weird corners of the Chinese internet.

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Also, Elisa Lam has an extremely pretty Chinese name. Lam means blue. And her first name means adorable son 🥺 (but in a poetically beautiful way

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founding

I’m reminded of a line, one I read and remembered during undergrad, from a Turkel interview with Kid Pharaoh while in Chicago.

Studs had asked, upon seeing Kid at a hot dog stand he operated, if he thought it looked like rain was coming.

“I’m looking at them high-rises. Wish they were mine.”

And that was Kid’s mindset, owning a high-rise.

The ambition. The chutzpah. It stuck with me throughout school and came to me with a twist when I first read about space monkeys and napalm.

Have a great trip.

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Soft White Underbelly is amazing. See the Whitaker episodes, and the Manchester episodes. Mark beat me to a few county stories, but theres plenty more to be had.

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Oct 9, 2023·edited Oct 10, 2023

I love Soft White Underbelly. Not sure why they decided to get you on there. Do you have a history of violent street crime or a fentanyl addiction we didn't know about it?

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Chuck crafted Guts. And in the writer world, that's gotta be akin to murder because it works too damn well lol

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author

All those years of sex work have finally caught up with me.

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founding

Whaaat?! The Hotel Cecil?! That’s a lot to unpack. Great interview last night!! You cruised through that like a hot knife through butter! Be safe in LA!

I love everything in this post!! The New York Story Night is extremely classy! Miss Egg loves prezzies and you at home!!

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Alas, the CBS interview has been moved to The Last Bookstore, the very big independent in downtown LA.

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founding

Well— more photos to hide in books!

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