Marriage is a Civil Right... DAMN Right.

Because everyone has the right to feel like this. Especially dear Johnny. Infinite congratz to him and his hubby, Vitya, and thank you to the great state of New York.

Actress Hanna Cheek to Perform a Chapter of My Novel!

See you in New York! Hanna is reading a chapter from my novel-in-progress, Blue Guitar. Here's the press release:

Join us on Friday, January 20^th
at 7:30
for a free prize-winning reading!

Each year, a panel of New River writers awards the Donna Jo Davis Discovery Prize to honor a gifted emerging writer – emerging being defined as a writer whose work has been recorded on the New River Radio Show (on Art International Radio, http://artonair.org/series/new-river-dramatists) but who has yet to publish a book in the genre representing their work. The reward for winning is a reading of their work at The Players.

This year’s Fiction Donna is awarded to Daleth Hall. Please join us at The Players (16 Gramercy Park South on East 20^th Street) at 7:30 on Friday, January 20^th, where Hanna Cheek will read a chapter from Daleth’s new novel-in-progress Blue Guitar. This reading is completely free, and will be held in the Hampden-Booth Library at The Players (16 Gramercy Park, on East 20^th Street east of Park Avenue). We hope to see you there.

"Daleth Hall is a wryly funny, wise, wonderful writer.”
–Sharon Pomerantz, author of Rich Boy

Past Winners of the Donna Jo Davis Discovery Prize:
2010 Fiction: Alethea Black, for her story "I Knew You'd Be Lovely"
2010 Poetry: Reena Ribalow, for "Desert Light" and "Jerusalem of Heaven, Jerusalem of Earth," and Matthew Wells for "Manhattan Sonnets"

"Antmusic for Sexpeople"

I'm rediscovering Adam and the Ants. Blasting songs and watching videos from Kings of the Wild Frontier. Conclusion: with his energy and theater, his camp, his wit without irony, Adam is the Ant-idote to the shoegazers who shuffle onstage in a ratty cardigan and stand there emoting while the audience grooves on how deep they are. But he's also the antidote to the over-choreographed plastic perfection of so much mainstream pop, the performances without soul and with barely even a body, just an airbrushed liposuctioned image of a body. In other words he's got the theater down, but it still feels raw enough--and playful enough--to be interesting.

For instance, "Antmusic":


"Dog Eat Dog":


Just to be clear, I own music by most of the shoegazers and have seen several of them live. How far gone am I on their music? Adore it. Once I even drove two hours (one way) to see Sigur Ros. It's great music, but... stage presence? No. Engaging performance? No. Theater? No, unless dry ice smoke swirling about the ankles counts as theater. Like the rest of the audience, I spent the whole Sigur Ros concert sitting down. Enjoying it, sure--it's great music to sit around listening to while [insert low-energy activity here: writing in your diary, thinking about things, daydreaming, hanging out with a couple of friends...]. But the shoegazers have never made me dance, or for that matter laugh. By way of contrast, I saw Adam Ant live three times and at no point during any concert was I sitting down.

And how is it that Adam and the Ants came up with some of the most original percussion rock music has ever seen--a cross between Burundi tribal music and 18th-century British military drumming, layered and complex enough that the band needed two drummers to perform--but nobody imitated them?* This should have been a MOVEMENT! I want to start a band! Does anyone know two drummers in need of a gig?

* Bow Wow Wow don't count, because their musicians were Adam's original Ants until Malcolm McLaren stole them.