Assorted News & Notes

I'm feeling much better today. I didn't go to work yesterday because when I woke up I felt terrible and there was plenty of running back and forth to the bathroom. I'll spare you the details. By mid-afternoon, the sicky feeling had passed over, so maybe it was something I ate. What I discovered while lying on the couch eating soft foods and channel surfing was that there are way too many courtroom TV shows -- Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex, Divorce Court, The People's Court and Judge Judy. How much justice do we really need? The shows are so scripted it's almost comical. Only Judge Judy seems real, and I love her prickly, bitchy attitude. I also caught Kathie Lee Gifford's fourth hour on Today, and she's still a total loon. Other things I learned: Whoopi Goldberg wears a giant onesie to hold in her gut and push up her tits on The View and Erica Kane is back in jail on All My Children and trying to organize a break. The things you learn while you're sick.

My reading at the Saints and Sinners Lit Fest in New Orleans next month will take place in St. Mary's Parlor at the Bourbon Orleans hotel in the French Quarter. Luckily, I'm also staying in the hotel so it should be easy to roll out of bed and downstairs. The reading is May 10 at 11:30 a.m. (a little early for my liking, but I can't bitch too much) and I'll be joined by Megan Volpert, David Matthew Barnes, Z. Engloff, Jeremy Halinen an Jenny Lowery. Besides the reading, I'm also taking a "master class" with Dorothy Allison and sitting in on some other panels. I'm taking the MacBook with me, so there will be some live blogging going on from New Orleans. I'm excited about this trip.

My essay on French actress Jeanne Moreau will be included in the anthology Diva Complex, which is being edited by the wonderful poet, Michael Montlack. It will be published in Spring 2009 by the University of Wisconsin Press. Michael said the press is very excited about the anthology, so expect to hear plenty more about this. We've talked about setting up some readings, and hope we can do one here in Atlanta. Moreau, just turned 80, still looks fabulous and continues to act in movies and on TV in Europe.