I would be lying if I was not confused, but I will try to explain what they said happened as best as I can. Even the NYT article jumped around a bit, and I am sure it is one of those things you just have to see in person.

The Elevator Repair Service is a theater group that has been around since 1991. The shows they perform are based upon a range of subjects, but it is not necessarily their theater performances that have intrigued me. Recently they have begun quick readings and reenactments of literary classics. At a recent party-reenactment-thing at the New York Public Library, they had various actors sweep through The Sound and the Fury, The Sun Also Rises, and The Great Gatsby somehow meshed together within twenty-two minutes. The process sounds kind of messy, but really fun. There was a description of the three books being connected, perhaps by duct tape, as if to appear as one novel with various parts being interchanged.

It is definitely something I would like to experience, and it reminds me of a few weird things I do on my own. Certain books come into my hands and I am inspired to just sing what I am reading out loud, and as pretty as I can with my guitar. It is humorous especially with books on chemistry or mathematics. Other times I have found a book where the lines of text match up so perfectly when you fold the page in half that I can read a pleasing page of gibberish which makes certain serious novels very entertaining. So, I do not know if I will ever get to experience an event with the Elevator Repair Service, but this is definitely something I am thinking about doing with my friends.

The doors open at 7:00PM at Ladder 15 located at 1528 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, 19102. Tickets are available online, or at the door.

Now, I will focus on the first thing I saw this morning when I got onto the computer. My friend sent me the link to a hot sauce company. I LOVE HOT SAUCE and everything spicy (I heard the LDM tonight will be pretty hot)! BUT, this is not just a hot sauce company: it is home made, all natural and named after a few sweet dogs. Each dog has an online bio and each is paired with their own hot sauce based off of their personality. The company goes by the name of Ladybird & Friends, and 5% of their profits go to the ASPCA. There is a reel of recipes, and a blog attached to the website.

When I can afford it, I cannot wait to try some of these interesting, but delicious sounding hot sauces (Hot Pink Grapefruit). What is better than hot sauce and dogs?

In our current world “hipster” is a developing status term. Hipsters are cool, neat, fetch, and whatever else you want to call them. Even if you make fun of hipsters, you’re still talking about them. This new fashion and lifestyle has infiltrated many lives, especially those of young people. There are hubs for hipsters and products associated with this lifestyle. Hubs being certain restaurants, as well as clothing stores or internet sites. Products are toy fisheye cameras, Pabst Blue Ribbon, high waisted pants, and many other things. Certain products clash: while some hipsters go all leather and native others go with plastic rhinestone bra’s and shiny pants. Certain animals are popular on clothes like owls, and now foxes and back in the day it was cats. I’ll admit to wearing plenty of these things myself, because most of it is fun! Who doesn’t want to look like a shiny life-sized beta fish? I love it, and I am not being sarcastic.

What I do not get, is the arrogant personality associated with these haircuts with blunt bangs and feather earrings. So many people I meet often boast their intelligence, and maybe less these days with Madonna songs, and Diesel clothing advertisements about getting “stupid,” but when I was about 16 everyone I met boasted the Dostoevsky, Danielewski, Bukowski, Welsh, Burgess, or Salinger books they were reading. So I remember the first time I entered an often talked about store: Urban Outfitters. I expected cult classic books, books about up and coming movements or artists once I saw books at a distance, but I was wrong. They, to this day, carry a lot of picture books meant for coffee tables that I’m sure people look at once and then forget about. It isn’t that the contents are boring, some are very interesting, but they lack variety and find popularity out of suggesting that “this book is cool, you’ll really like it!”

I guess where my sadness comes from is that so many people spend time in clothing stores, and clearly many clothing stores sell books but they are mostly picture books and things that most can look at and retain while in the store. They aren’t even selling things that people necessarily want to buy. The books are interesting, yes. They show me things I didn’t know before, yes. They are often comedic and jokeful, which can be fun. However, I think they could use the space for some more writing filled pieces in addition to what they have, but I guess there needs to be a place for coffee table and bathroom books.

I recently had a friend tell me that John Cusack is playing Edgar Allan Poe in a movie. This seemed interesting, and I thought of John Cusack’s face and realized he was a good choice. Still, what was the movie about? I cannot find too many details about the film, but it is said to be released in March of 2012 under the title The Raven. One source said there may be an alternate title, The Untitled Raven Project.

The film will be entirely fictional, and seems like a fun, but unrealistic approach to exploring the life of Poe. It is a very Hollywood story complete with crime, and kidnapping. In the film, Poe will assist a detective in finding a serial killer that murders in scenarios based off of Poe’s published works. The serial killer has also kidnapped Poe’s fiancee. As long as there are no scenes of Poe doing back flips, or crazy Matrix moves, I think I may enjoy it.

It is being directed by James McTeigue, the director of V for Vendetta. We have awhile to wait, but hopefully it will do Edgar Allan Poe justice.

The Fairie Festival at Spoutwood Farm is the first one to become well-established, but there are now festivals in Maryland and other states. It was first introduced to me when I would help my mother work on their CSA farm. The festival was, I believe, intended to inform people about being sustainable and working for their food in communities. It turned into a festival of great food, fun, and dressing up with live music, poetry, and theater acts instead. There are still stands based on environmental awareness, and when the festival is not going on they still have a CSA farm and night sky observatory. There is also the Mother Earth Harvest Fair that still focuses on sustainability, and environmental ethics.

How does the Fairie Festival apply to literature, well I am going to make a big stretch with this topic. Fables are my favorite short stories, especially the Fox fables. Going to the Fairie Festival is like stepping into a fable or a mystical land. There are sometimes groups that reinact Shakespeare plays within five minutes as their specialty, and there are sometimes poetry readings. The live music is also great! Many people dress up as well known literary characters, or people from fairy tales, and will recite monologues. It is very entertaining, and I am very excited! Hopefully some of you will feel inspired to check it out!

Comics are not something I’m obsessed with, but after grabbing some free comics at an art exhibit a few weekends ago, I realized how fun they are! The walk through a comic shop is a little nostalgic, a little embarrassing (depending on who you are), but always a good time to discover something new and find a variety of stories. There are serious comics, funny comics, illustration-heavy comics, and word-heavy comics. I also feel like the graphic novel is becoming more and more popular while comics maintain the bizarre popularity they have always had. That is to say more graphic books with more dialogue are being printed than before, but that is just a personal observation.

My favorite comic shop is Locust Moon Comics. They have a great variety of comics, graphic novels, locally written pieces, random trinkets, and they rent and sell movies. Like Locust Moon, a lot of local bookstores and comic shops sell comics and zines made by Philadelphia residents and they are worth checking out.

The Musicworks 2011 contest has two parts. One contest is a music contest where participants submit original works in several specified genres including acoustic electric and glitch. The second part is a writing contest: describe your surroundings through sound. The deadline for both is May 16, 2011! Written submissions can only be 500 words. It also costs $20 to enter, but don’t let that stop you!

Subterrain magazine is now accepting submissions for their LUSH Triumphant Literary Awards Competition. Submissions can be fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction pieces. There is a submission fee of $25, but it includes a one-year submission to Subterrain. The average word limit is between 3,000 and 4,000 words. This seems very cool, and I encourage you all to get involved! The deadline is May 15, 2011.

Also, our very own Week of Writing contest will be closing on Monday, April 18, 2011. There are five categories for this contest and they include fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, humor, and op-ed/persuasion. The first place winner is given $125 and the second place winner receives a $25 gift card to the Drexel bookstore. The deadline is almost here, so submit, submit, submit!

Have fun, and prepare for the excitement of spring!

And the best part? Almost everything is low-cost or free! There is something for everyone with events ranging from film and video to food and fashion to… circus arts?? Yep. If you’ve ever wanted to be the “daring young man” (or woman) on the flying trapeze, your day has come! Fly City Circus School will take you up on a trapeze set up right on Broad Street (just a few blocks south of City Hall) for only $55 and you too can learn to swing through the air with the greatest of ease.

There will also be nightly events at the Kimmel Center where an 81-foot, 6100 light bulb-filled Eiffel Tower welcomes people to french food and wine tastings, performances and even a traditional crepe cart (and of course a full service bar to keep the festivities going…)

And if you’re an iPhone user, look in the app store for the PIFA app so you can search for events by location, type, day or cost.

For college-budget-friendly events, just click here

So, do you have any plans for the next three weeks?

I haven’t read any forums about KDP, but I did have a few conversations about it with people I know. My initial fear was that it is not a recognizable source for publishing therefore participants would look like they took the easy way out. I will choose to stick with the traditional way of doing things in order to build a stronger backbone: I’ve learned a lot from rejection letters. However, KDP seems like a grand induction ceremony to the world of literature and paid publishing, but anyone can self-publish now and the idea of quality work disappears. This process also distances writers from the complex process of publishing, and those submitting to KDP may only get that far. The problem is that Amazon gets a lot of traffic and the idea of money seems very exciting. Do writers choose instant publishing or work harder?

Broken Pencil’s Indie Writers’ Deathmatch is an annual writing competition that the magazine offers for a prize and publication. The magazine takes submissions over the course of a few months, and eventually eight stories are chosen to post on the website for reader votes. There are six voting rounds for the best story and the winner takes all! On March 14, 2011, Broken Pencil announced David Griffin Brown’s Brink as the winner for this year! Great Job!

The Literary Death Match is co-created by Todd Zuniga, the founder of Opium. It is a live literary competition split into multiple episodes. These episodes have occurred in New York City, Beijing, Toronto, and many other cities throughout the world. The live competitions include seven minute presentations from four famous and emerging writers. After two finalists are picked, the literary aspect of the competition is replaced by a comedic and action packed performance to determine the winner. Learn more at their website where there are tons of fun videos to watch!