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Daniel Handler and Colin Meloy Talk Books and Music

On Sunday I saw author Daniel Handler have a conversation with the Decemberists' Colin Meloy at Powell's to promote Daniel's quirky new novel for adults Adverbs dealing with the desperation that goes hand in hand with love. I took photos and recorded it, which follows below.

(INSANELY LONG) FOREWORD:
Sitting in Polly's flat in Glasgow with a group who were visiting from Munich for the weekend, I settled down to watch Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events without any knowledge of what it was about other than that it was a children's film. Imagine my surprise.
I sat there, staring at the screen in confusion, while the Germans both watched the action and read the English subtitles in a better attempt to understand what was going on.
This was a kids film?
He locks the three children in a car on train tracks with a train approaching in an attempt to kill them. He tries to kill their aunt and writes a fake suicide letter so that they'll believe she committed suicide rather than suspect him. And then they have to watch as she's eaten alive, but can do nothing to help her. And then when he realizes it's too hard to kill them, he forces the 14 year old to marry him to get their money.
And this is for kids?
We kind of sat there in shock once it finished.
Then this past summer I got serious about writing my children's book The Legend of Laurence Swindon. I went to the library to check out books and came across The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket. And again, I couldn't believe it was for kids, but in a much different way. Inside of the run on sentences was a humor so subtle and off-kilter I was sure it would go over the heads of the kids reading it and that was the best part. It was laugh out loud funny for the audacity of the humor! Seriously - it almost seems as though it was written for adults. I instantly recommended it to my mom and I'm recommending it here - you wouldn't think it'd be so appealing, but seriously - it will surprise you!
About a year and a half from my original encounter later it was time for the release of the final book in the series #13 titled The End on the very appropriate September Friday the 13th 2006. Since I had never gone to see the mania that accompanies the release of Harry Potter, I went to the party Powell's was throwing at 2pm. At 20, I was the oldest in attendance. The next oldest was a boy who was maybe 13 and that could be a stretch. Yeah. . . this is my life.
And it was so much fun! Maybe too much fun as I got swept up in the atmosphere of it all and ended up spending $10 that I really didn't have on the book.
There was a cake walk, parsley soda, treats from the Salmonella Cafe, stickers, and mask coloring.
So I then decided to go to the event Barnes and Noble was throwing later that night at 7pm. I ran into a lot of the kids that were at the Powell's party earlier. And again, yeah. . . this is my life. . .
B&N's wasn't as spectacular, but still a worthy distraction with a scavenger hunt and rice crispies treats.
So I read the book and I'm so glad I did. It mirrored a lot of what I was going through in my life right then. So then I NEEDED to see him when he came on his tour only I couldn't get to Seattle where the nearest reading was occurring. My mom tried to make me feel better by sending me a link to an article detailing that Lemony Snicket never showed and that Daniel Handler read in his place alongside a performance from Magnetic Fields. But that's the thing - Lemony Snicket would of course never show, for he does not exist. Lemony Snicket is Daniel Handler.
I love Daniel Handler. I love that he always finds ways to collaborate with musicians. The last tour he did was with the exceedingly prolific Domino Recording artist Magnetic Fields. He also participated in a benefit for Rouge Wave.
So when I saw he was coming to promote his latest adult novel and would be joined by Colin Meloy, I was as good as there.

THE PLOT:

The first chapter is insanely funny in an offbeat way. It totally sold me on the book.
If you hear faint swishing on the recording, it's the people that walked by periodically.

Listen: Daniel Handler reads the first chapter of his novel Adverbs entitled Immediately (MP3) (13:18)

What's the worst Decemberists song ever written? Well Colin had a pretty good idea so he announced at a show that he was about to play the worst song he's ever written. That's when the audience in attendance that night took it upon themselves unprompted to shout out their guesses what it could be. Can you imagine how humiliating that would be? And funny?
More ancedotes like this float on through out their conversation.
I love how un-PC Daniel is. You will too. No topic is left untouched - from terrorism, to dreaming of killing another well known author who recently died, to Daniel's Portland and it's laugh out loud funny, or at least snicker-out loud :)

Listen: Daniel Handler and Colin Meloy conversing (MP3) (24:44)

How did Daniel pick the name Lemony Snicket? Even if you don't think it'd be of interest, trust me -- it is! He reveals it's origin in the first few minutes of this segment. It involves letters of outrage to editors of neighborhood newspapers, but specifically picking the most harmless story. Who wants to form a club and do the same thing?!
And remember the shred-off the Decemberists had with my boyfriend Stephen Colbert (who I saw in New York!)? Well Colin reveals a lot about what went on behind the scenes.

Listen: The audience inquisition of Daniel Handler and Colin Meloy (MP3) (14:08)

Then they signed things. Colin was presented with a pack of hand-made Decemberists cards, so a card playing break/photo-op was taken:

Here is Daniel asking among another question:
"Is this your husband?"
To an eight year old girl and her 50+ year old father.

"No - it's my dad!"
"You married your father? That's gross."

My alliterated inscription!

He didn't "want to be seen endorsing" my personality, hence the word "allegedly", but he could "tell" I was neurotic.

And the jacket art for Adverbs is by Dan Clowes!!! In related/unrelated, Nick Swardson who played my favorite character in Dan Clowes' Art School Confidential is currently on tour. I'm hoping to see him at the Crystal Ballroom on June 16th.

AFTERWORD:

So basically I now have the intention to harass Colin Meloy into participating in a new photography project I have dreamed up with him in mind. His use of his hands as he speaks is notable, so I'm thinking of doing a sign language chart of certain words in Decemberists songs and using him as the model. If I ever had a reason to go to Edgefield, this is it. . . And no, there is absolutely no point to the project - which has become the point itself.

'The Landlord's Daughter' The Decemberists MP3

The Raw Shark Texts

aka why I missed Coco Rosie (thank you though Aaron!!!)

Last year I saw Jeff Chang and Toure of Rollingstone speak at Powell's when they stopped into Portland on a joint book tour to promote Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop and Never Drank the Kool-Aid respectively. Here's a pic.
Later in the year I saw Aesop Rock do a signing of his book at Upper Playground.
So how does me going to hear Steven Hall speak about his book The Raw Shark Texts fit into music, no one asks? Well, I'm still going to tell you.
I wouldn't have heard of the book had it not been for a post on Largehearted Boy of Steven's musical playlist to his book.
And then, when I went searching for info about it, I wondered how was it possible that I hadn't?
It is EVERYWHERE!
New York Times did a huge feature on it, Nicole Kidman is in love with it, 31(!) different foreign rights have been sold, as well as the film rights - to Channel 4 films, and the guy who wrote the Full Monty is writing the script.
The general jist of the book is that it's an adventure story, a love story, a mystery - basically it's everything to everyone. The main character has no idea who he is and in the midst of it all, he's being chased by a shark -- in his mind!
But wait! - it's not as out there as you'd think. Apparently there are very few descriptions of the shark, and the idea behind it is really smart. He got the idea for that from the way water works it's way into our speech - "flow of conversation", "stream of conscious". . .
It was a fairly small crowd. He read three passages. He said Portland reminded him of Manchester.
I asked him how, and he said the greenery and rain.
"Good - I was scared you were going to say it was like Shameless."
and we laughed. Apparently it's one of his favorite shows. It doesn't air over here to my knowledge, but seriously it is the most funny depressing show EVER! WATCH IT however possible! That is what living in the East End of Glasgow is really like.
When he was taking questions I asked him about his current project(s) and what he was listening to. There was only one track of yet, which was the Dandy Warhol's ACDC cover and he had no idea they were from here until I told him. He promised the crowd he wasn't trying to suck up by having them be the only band he name-dropped. He said he was open to suggestions.
So I probably would have made it in time for Coco Rosie, but still missed Busdriver had we not talked about music again after he was done signing.
He wanted me to write my suggestions down in his copy of his book from which he reads and where he has people write down the suggestions he wants to remember no matter their topic. I had this whole list fully realized in my head, but it all disappeared when I found out HE HAS NEVER HEARD OF TV ON THE RADIO! I mean seriously - how do you react to a person like that? It was a little overwhelming haha
And he's a BIG fan of David Shrigley, but didn't know that he did music too (alongside his drawings), so I recommended 'The Jist' and clued him into the fact that David has an album coming out on Tomlab later in the year (on which Grizzly Bear are guesting).
He hadn't heard of Patrick Wolf either, which I find near impossible as his latest album was everywhere upon release in the UK - I think even at Tesco's and he was on the Charlotte Church show too (though Steven has been away from the telly I assume due to his nonstop book tour).
So here is my list. It's not what I was originally envisioning.

(Click to enlarge. Upper right hand corner of left page)

When we got to the TV on the Radio thing, I told him I had forgotten everything because of his lack of Young Liars knowledge (and eveything else) so he told me to send him a message on myspace a little bit later once I was able to recollect it - that he was really excited for it. Then we talked a little Stuart Murdoch.

'True Affection' The Blow MP3

I'm definitely going to pass along the Blow's 'True Affection' - I think the pop of song would really suit his tastes, but especially the water references :)

Interesting item: The book's title is actually a pun off of the ink blot test, a lot in the sense that those ink blots can be interpreted in so many ways, as can his book.

PS Largehearted Boy also has a playlist from crazy author Ned Vizzini as well as him interviewing Harlem Shakes. I finished his book Be More Chill about a week and half ago. No one seems to have his collection of essays in stock.