All and sundry are invited to attend Little Gray Book Lecture #13, How To Seek Your Fortune, on Wednesday, Oct. 2nd at 8:00 p.m. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where I will be one of several entrepreneurs pitching my Million Dollar Idea to an actual venture capitalist with $100 in seed money burning a hole in his pocket (and to you, the supportive, slightly tipsy audience).

In addition, there will be no-doubt amusing lectures by Mike Daisey, Dorothy Gambrell and Brendan Greeley.

This event takes place at: Galapagos Art Space, 70 North 6th Street between Kent and Wythe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (L train to Bedford Avenue).
718-782-5188.
A $5 donation is requested.

5:54 PM

If you missed Kissing Jessica Stein in theaters, it's a small, sweet and very smart comedy that makes an ideal rental. And if you have seen it, you know you want to check out the DVD commentary tracks and the deleted scenes, featuring a big emotional moment that Heather was very sad couldn't make the final cut.

11:14 AM

"Incremental attempts at building trust have reached an impasse. The only alternative to endless war is a comprehensive settlement based on simple but radical principles:
-Israeli and Palestinian lives are equally precious.
-The Israeli and Palestinian peoples have equal rights to national self-determination and to live in peace and security.
-The Israeli and Palestinian peoples have equal rights to a fair share of the land and resources of historic Palestine."

Read and sign the Open Letter from American Jews for Peace in the Middle East.

10:56 AM

In the article U.S. Company to Take Over Karzai Safety, James Dao writes that a former employee of DynCorp, one company being considered for the job, has charged that "DynCorp employees frequented brothels in Bosnia." That's one way to put it. Another way is, "DynCorp employees owned preteen sex slaves in Bosnia."

12:19 PM

For the second time in recent months I only learned that People had published one of my book reviews because Anne saw a copy at her doctor's office (she says). So, sorry. Although I know you're dying to read what I thought of Carl Hiaasen's Hoot, the issue is off the stands and not online. Try your doctor's office.

I gave it a good review. Unless it was severely edited. Actually, these things almost never are. Kyle does a fine job compressing my prose without ruining it, which is why I don't particularly care if he doesn't tell me when something comes out. (The creaky payroll dept. is another story.) Also, he's agreed to only offer me really short books, since I hate to spend two weeks reading a book I'm not very interested in just so I can spend half an hour writing about it. Next up: the reissue of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. 240 pages

6:13 PM

Q: How do you rank yourself among writers (living) and of the immediate past?

Vladimir Nabokov: I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile — some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question.

6:10 PM

Like action/adventure fairy tales about God, greed, physics and psychedelic drugs? Well, you're in luck. String Theory (written & co-directed by my good friend Jake) is having it's New York City premiere at the IndieVision Film Fest on Friday, Sept. 20 at 7pm. The screening takes place at the Tribeca Film Center. Watch the trailer (10MB), then buy tickets (search this site for String Theory).

11:47 AM

Finally got around to looking at something in that issue of Glamour other than the piece I contributed to. It was, naturally, Kari Wuhrer's article about her boobs. (Memo to Glamour editors: "What's the deal with guys and boobs? Men tell all!"). Anyway, this quote made me chuckle:

"Last night I went to a screening of Eight Legged Freaks, although thanks to the painkillers, I don't remember much."

Why do I get the feeling she really does mean "thanks to," not just "because of"?

11:21 AM

Update. On the off chance anybody's been checking this blog every day (or every ten minutes) wondering why I'd start a blog I have no intention of posting to, here's the deal: I work long hours Monday through Wednesday. Sure I could probably sneak a few minutes on the clock to post, but everyone at the office knows about Radosh.net, and the time signature would give my goldbricking away (ah, technology, blessing and curse). Bottom line, this is definitely a blog you can safely check once a week. Or once a month. Or, you know, never.

11:01 AM

Music Club met last weekend. The very fruitful theme was murder, and we ended up with our usual eclectic mix. Sure there were two songs written by Nick Cave, one of which was one of two songs performed by Johnny Cash, but there were also some surprises. Jill's pick, a swingin' rendition of Ding Dong The Witch is Dead, was a big hit, though I still contend that technically that's an involuntary manslaughter song, not a murder song. The wild card was Anthony's choice of Alison, which almost none of the rest of us, in all these years, had ever realized is (maybe) about murder.

Here's the complete list:

1. Kim - Eminem
2. Alison - Elvis Costello
3. Somebody Got Murdered - The Clash
4. The Curse of Millhaven - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
5. The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash
6. L.A. County - Lyle Lovett
7. Matty Groves - Fairport Convention
8. Long Black Veil - The Band
9. Sweet And Tender Hooligan - The Smiths
10. Splatter Splatter - Moxy FrŸvous
11. Joe Bean - Johnny Cash
12. Hurricane - Ani Difranco
13. Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead - Kermit Ruffins

Our next theme is a little more tricky: English-language songs with foreign words. I have a few ideas but I'm definitely open to suggestions.

10:53 AM

For the past year I've been carrying my camera around NYC trying hard to feel like a photographer, not a tourist. Seeing my photos in today's New York Times helps (not available on the Times' site, but here is an expanded color version). I began working on this project about six months ago, after taking a photography course at SVA with Steven Hirsch that began on Sept. 10, 2001. I'm still taking pictures. In another six months, maybe I'll put up a second page.

8:18 AM

Bathroom reading of the year... St. Martin's has just published 101 Damnations: The Humorists' Tour of Personal Hells, a very funny collection of essays about little things that piss people off. Lots of my former Modern Humorist colleagues have their say, including Francis Heaney, Tim Carvell, Martha Keavney, Beth Sherman, Kevin Guilfoile, and Alysia Gray Painter, along with folks like Randy Cohen, Kurt Andersen, Henry Alford, Merrill Markoe, Calvin Trillin, Stephen Sherrill, Christopher Buckley, Roy Blount, Jr. I'm serious, folks, this is a damn good book. And each piece is only, like, two pages long. My own contribution is a partly-improved, partly-fouled up reworking of a column I wrote ages ago for the late webzine Stim. Go 'head. treat yourself.

5:51 PM

What's up with guys and air guitar? And what do they have against chick flicks? Yes, it sounds like something out of a Martha Keavney comic, but these questions — with my answers — actually do appear in the September issue of Glamour. Considering what usually happens to my copy when I write for women's magazines, this came out pretty well. The piece also features other guys explaining other "guy mysteries." Some of them are famous hotties. One of them is my pal Steve Zimet.

5:27 PM

If you're reading this, you probably already know what's going on here. Yeah, I'll be doing some traditional random-thoughts-poorly-spelled blogging, but for the most part this will be a place to alert friends and other interested parties when I have something published in the old-school professionally edited and fact-checked fashion. I'll also be posting or linking to various stuff I've written over the past ten years, including old favorites, alternate versions of published works and previously unpublished (i.e., unsalable) pieces. Meantime, here's a list of the 50 or so publications I've appeared in to date.

Radosh.net is a work in progress. If you poke around a bit, you'll find that some of the links don't work. Check back later. And feel free to e-mail me about the site, or anything else. (If you already have my radosh.net e-mail address, use that.)

4:29 PM