Got to go to North Carolina for a cool, indie film fest.
At the Wilmington airport waiting for our ride...lovely picture, I know. I stayed up late the night before catching up on work...not that there is ANY excuse for going out in public with hair like this
And the film fest was great…but the best part? Hanging out with the Miami crew!
First there was my brother:
And his gorgeous AND brilliant (can you tell I like her?) girlfriend Cristina, who is an actress:
Cristina's hottie headshot
And the crazy adorable Nate:
Nate and Lili Hanging out
And the lovely Lili:
Lili is a professional bellydancer!
And of course Hot Danish Artist Thomas Warming, for that European edge:
Take this group…and a pretty sleep town with not much to do…
except for some...ahem...interesting shopping opportunities
...and people setting fire to their hats at the film fest after-parties
And you’ll understand that we kinda made a scene wherever we went…
yes, we found a place with live bellydancing...and Lili showed her moves!
….and you’ll get why I loved every minute! But most of all, I loved meeting Cristina and getting time to hang with my bro.
And, in case you wondered…nothing in the world makes me quite as happy as seeing Nate dance.
Well, I’ve had many fabulous star sightings lately…and by sightings, I mean I actively pursued these stars in a semi-stalkerish manner. In my defense, I have my reasons (re: HBH the movie) but have been reprimanded for speaking of this on the blog and sworn to secrecy for the time being …that said, I can still talk about the star sightings themselves. So here is Celebrity Sighting Number 1: James Franco.
Anyway…I went to see James Franco read from his new book. And this is how big an idiot I am…I actually thought I’d get in if I came half an hour before the 8 pm reading. What I didn’t count on was the rabid teenage girls in low-cut shirts and full prom makeup who’d been there since 8 a.m. I couldn’t even get a bracelet to enter the speaking engagement area…I’d have to stand outside a rope, behind a crowd of very tall people, and just luxuriate in the sound of Franco’s voice. But, with the urging of my friend Margaret, I got in anyway. In the PRESS AREA. WITH my “Press Photographer” Thomas and my “son” Adriann (actually the most amazing kid ever visiting from Denmark…I pulled him in later while loudly remarking “The nanny just dropped him off! It is so hard to find good help!”
As if Adriann needs a nanny...seriously, he's more mature than ME (not saying much, I guess)
Long story short, Franco came in, took press photos, and then read for AT LEAST an hour. I don’t blame him for that…when he asked the crowd if he should finish the story, of course the teenage girls shrieked “YES! WE LOVE YOU!” So he read… in fact, he read so long there wasn’t time for him to individually sign the books, which was really upsetting to some of the girls there…but what can you do? The whole thing was crazy and surreal.
Anyway, candid shots from my Hot Danish “press photographer” Thomas Warming:
There were a couple of, ahem, unique members of the audience. Like this guy with a teddy bear.
Franco signs books
And here is a short video of Franco reading…I love the shot of Adriann looking really bored and annoyed by the whole thing.
Who knew an innocent Halloween superhero float would end in tragedy? It started off just fine:
the float in happier times...that's me in the back next to Hot Danish Superman Thomas Warming...I'm hiding because I'm the only one WITHOUT a superhero costume
But later…
PIX News Reporter Arthur Chi’en Recovering After Run-In With Clown At NYC Village Halloween Parade
Yes, this was our float. And even though there were only 20 people on board, the whole scene was so crazy both Thomas and I missed the evil clown attack…
According to our sources…I guess the clown tried to crash the float, and the reporter tried to push him off, then the clown took the reporter down with him. Luckily, the reporter is going to be okay.
I don’t think I should say anything else about this. Well, except this: beware of clowns. Clowns are evil. Trust me…I know.
Yesterday I got to live out one of those secret fantasies I never knew I actually had…well, until I experienced it! I got to be on a float in the Halloween parade!
And it was one of those moments (it lasted hours, actually) when I just kept repeating, “Is this really happening?” And it was happening, and it was freaking awesome, and I will never forget the experience as long as I live.
I love Halloween…and New York is the best place to celebrate such a whacked-out holiday. I mean, the whole thing is surreal…New Yorkers love any excuse to go crazy…and free license to dress up as their subconscious fantasy and roam the streets unrestrained…well, to be honest, that isn’t much different than an average day in the City…except, in this case, EVERYONE is doing it and not just a few freaks you pretend not to notice on the subway for fear you are just like them somewhere deep inside.
see those freaks on the right side of the photo? I know those guys.
And of all the parades in the world, the Halloween Parade in New York is one of the best…not to mention the biggest Halloween parade in the US. And yes, it is utter and complete fabulous chaos. And all those years of watching it from the sidelines (which I loved), I’d never in a million years thought I’d be PART of the whole thing.
Total Halloween Chaos
So gifted Danish DJ Peter Munch, who was kind enough to play my book release party (and did an improvisational F— The Police as the party being busted by Brooklyn’s finest) has a yearly float…people pay to be on it, and rightfully so. But luckily, Thomas helped Peter with some concept design and a kickass poster, and Peter invited us on for the ride…and we had NO IDEA what was in store.
Check out Peter’s stuff:
Art by Thomas Warming
Peter’s float was fifth, moved up from last year because he rocks so hard. And even though I’m not a huge techno fan…well, Peter is so damn good he makes you LOVE techno despite yourself…he can read a crowd, play just what they need…his choices are funny, surprising, dark…and his mixes are utterly appropriate and unexpected at the same time…in other words, I’m a huge fan. And he’s just cool shit, as is his lovely wife Liat.
So the theme was Superheroes, but I was too late…I’d already gotten my Uhura costume (as a shout-out to my geek-fabulous boyfriend, Hot Danish Artist Thomas Warming…and I was the retro Uhura, not the cheesy updated version sans beehive)…and Thomas was gonna be Kirk, and of course Amazon f-cked up his costume delivery, so we spent the morning running around the city to find him something to wear, which involved braving the desperate crowd at the Halloween store ON Halloween (utterly horrifying), getting the wrong size, his having to endure an odd employee who used the guise of “professional Costume Designer” to grab his crotch several times to show us what we already knew (that the costume indeed did not fit)….the whole thing culminating with us in the restroom of a diner 15 minutes before we were supposed to be at the parade spraying his hair black and then busting ass through crazy throngs of costumed crowds to Soho before float liftoff…
Did I mention the float theme was Superhero? And everyone had amazing Superhero costumes? And I was dressed as a Star Trek character? Well…whattaya gonna do? I went with it.
I can’t really explain the feeling of being up there with utter insanity below, thousands of people packed together, dancing, every costume you can imagine…waving at us, taking pictures, wanting to high five us, all of us heading down 6th Avenue to crazy Techno music right behind a pro-marijuana float run by a former male pornstar (now in his 70’s) known as Captain and flocked by young hot scantily clad chicks in Sailor outfits (P.S. Of course I snuck on his float to see what was going on, and his much younger girlfriend introduced herself then lifted Captain’s shirt to show me his hairy g-stringed butt…an image I will unfortunately never be able to fully erase from my mind)
The Captain
A completely insane night, people dancing and screaming and cops everywhere. And, of course, the costumes!
And literally floating down that street…well, it was complete and perfect madness… like that scene in Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise runs through an empty Times Square…for a minute, you feel like you own the city…and in New York – the wildest, most exhausting, most exhilarating place on earth – well, to feel like you own it, even just for pretend, even just for a second…is kinda great.
Thomas has been working really hard on illustrating a 60-page graphic novel…hence, New York ComicCon, one of the biggest comic book conventions in America.
And seriously, it was SURREAL. I mean, this was the first thing I saw:
This is either ComicCon or a sign of the Apocolypse
The place was packed…it was sold out, too. But being the awesome kæreste I am, I sweet-talked the people in the Press Room into giving us passes. And I felt pretty cool, with my undeserved Press Pass…I also felt totally underdressed.
I swear, the whole thing was exhilarating. Whatever scene you are drawn to…whether it be the classic Superhero or underground comic arts or some obscure Manga character or (god forbid) you dig on Furries….you’ll feel right at home. I mean, some people didn’t seem to have a specific character at all…I saw a few slutty nuns and more than one chick wearing a g-string and wig just ‘cause they felt like it…and I loved every minute.
The D&D Room
That's right...the original Hulk
I had so much fun.
Thomas meets one of his favorite comic book artists...my man is such a fanboy. I had no idea the extent of his geekdom until this moment. Look at his face, he's so happy!
And to tell you the truth…there was something really poignant and uplifting about the whole thing. All these self-proclaimed geeks, many who probably feel out-casted or strange or mocked in the “real world”, find their voice in these fantasy universes. As a writer I can relate to that…probably more than I’d like to admit. And there really was this great sense of belonging and camaraderie at ComicCon…and, of course, a totally exciting anything-goes quality…and LOTS of hook-ups. I mean, it was practically a comic book orgy.
When I told this to one of the publishers how great the sense of community was, he agreed, saying “We all know each other within this world. Unlike the real world, there isn’t judgment here.” He also told me the reason people don’t shake hands but do the fist pump greeting – I got it FOUR times – was the common knowledge that a lot of the geeks at ComicCon “… don’t wash their hands.” Well, no one is perfect.
"Reading this book was similar to watching a horror movie through my fingers: it terrified me, but I couldn’t just walk away." -- Cafe Saturday
"This book was interesting. It has language and lots of references to a certain boy's body part, but all in all a good read." -- Dana, Goodreads
"Last Word: When the time comes, grab a copy STAT. This is a book unlike anything you've ever read before."
-- Reading Between The Lines
Praise for High Before Homeroom
"Here's a confession: I like Doug Schaffer more than I ever liked his idol Dean Moriarty, and I had much more fun reading Maya Sloan's High Before Homeroom than I ever had reading its literary progenitor, On the Road."
-Ayelet Waldman, author of Red Hook Road and Bad Mother
“I love this book. Doug Schaffer – sixteen years old and in an almost-constant state of arousal, as only a sixteen-year-old boy can be – is everything you'd hope for in a narrator: disarmingly honest and irreverent and affable and funny – very funny. Maya Sloan is a mad scientist of a novelist, filling her Petri dish with the cells of J. D. Salinger, William Burroughs, and Mark Twain, but ultimately this novel is her own glorious creation: a smart and wholly original take on what it means to yearn, in all its manifestations, in the 21st century.” --John McNally, author of After the Workshop
"Maya Sloan's characters could be deemed purely comic if they weren't so realistic, tender if they weren't so jaded, and heartwarming if their lives weren't so heart-wrenching. All of which makes this a darkly compelling -- possibly controversial -- coming-of-age novel. High Before Homeroom is a wild debut from a brilliant new novelist."
-- Julianna Baggott, author of The Miss America Family and co-author of Which Brings Me to You
No matter how profane it may seem at times, High Before Homeroom, like Youth in Revolt, is ultimately a charming take on one nerd's coming of age. In this assured debut, Maya Sloan clears the gender barrier, giving us the hapless Doug Schaffer, sixteen and obsessed with sex, love and Kerouac.
--Stewart O'Nan, author of Snow Angels and The Speed Queen
"Searing one moment, laugh-out-loud funny the next, Maya Sloan's High Before Homeroom is an honest, surprising, and dazzling debut."
-- Davy Rothbart, FOUND Magazine and This American Life
"Funny, poignant, and profane, this energetic coming-of-age novel about a young outsider who takes a radical path to coolness marks Maya Sloan as an engaging new young novelist to watch."
--Rilla Askew, author of Fire in Beulah and Harpsong, winner of the 2009 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
