Sam Cam #8 through 15 - New York and Boston

JT's out of office announcement while travelling to the East coast for Only Revolutions tour coverage.


US on the F train on the way to the KGB Bar Mark Z. Danielewski Only Revolutions reading.


A color wheel in a film reel. This is from the window of the Anthology Film Archive at 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue, on the east side of NYC. This footage was taken just a short walk from the KGB Bar, where MZD had just read to a packed house.


JT apologizes for the lack of video footage from the KGB Bar and the technical difficulties that make this the only Sam Cam footage to bookend the reading.


M complains about the speed limit while in search of a nonexistant White Castle on the road to Boston for the Brookline Booksmith Only Revolutions reading.


A Boston road sign on the way to the Brookline Booksmith Only Revolutions reading.


Dinner at Zaftig's deli was great while waiting to talk with Mark Z. Danielewski following the Brookline Booksmith reading.


Mark Z. Danielewski bids JT and M a fond farewell and says hi to all of you out on the internets as well, sort of... at the Brookline Booksmith.

 

MZD nyc/boston quick post

barnes and noble 6th and 22nd, chelsea, new york 9.25.06
for his last new york event in september, mark z. danielewski did a reading/q&a/signing at the barnes and noble in chelsea. the artist who did the cover artwork and mark's brother chris were in attendance, as were around 70 others. mzd did five readings, this time substituting S209-216 where the memphis rendevous was previously. he answered many of the same questions he is often asked, but added some interesting bits about the audiobook. the engineer he is working with as well as the composer he is working with both have vast libraries of sound effects. so there may be specific car sounds or other noises in the background. in the scene that takes place in the middle of the book where sam and hailey are talking to each other, the only background noise was to be a ceiling fan. his composer had a better idea though. lets use the rotors turning from the opening of apocalypse now, right before they play "the end". again the audiobook, hopefully with this collaboration intact, should be available this holiday season.

brookline booksmith boston, ma 9.26.06
exploration z's last tour date until a month from now happened tonight at the brookline booksmith in boston. mzd read to an incredibly packed house, and i have to hand it to the staff for being very well-organized and having a wonderful store to boot. mark changed things up a bit tonight, reading hailey's versions of the memphis rendevous and a new to the tour passage involving lots of killing post saint louis (1991). three hailey, also including h1-8, and two sam staples, the orgy and the mountain. we said our final farewells for the month and got a sam cam clip with the man himself, which we hope to post up after we return home sometime this week.

it has been a wonderful ride.

MZD at Columbia University 9.25.06

MZD did a reading and Q&A for the Writing Division of Columbia University this afternoon. Thanks to tips from fearful_syzygy, MZD and his publicist, and many thanks to the visitors center at Columbia, Exploration Z's crew of two was able to attend.

MZD read two passages, one Hailey and one Sam. He then went on to answer around thirty minutes worth of attendee's questions. Michele's request for "please read the part where Sam is mad at his boss and keeps changing the boss's name" was honored at this reading with around 20 in attendance.

We got video and audio from this event and will be sharing most if not all of it with you upon our return home later this week.

Non-Sam Cam report from the event... Someone asked about Poe and Tad's influence on House of Leaves but used Poe's given name. Later when he was getting his book signed, Mark corrected him and said "She goes by Poe" and when the same student asked Mark to sign under his name on the title page instead of on the dedication page, he was denied that request as well.

Michele says "He was 0wned twice" and wanted to share.

Thanks again to all involved in getting us there!

KGB Bar NYC

MZD read at the KGB Bar on the lower east side of New York City tonight. The bar was jam-packed and incredible warm. Mark was preceded by another author, Ken Kalfus, whose reading did not inspire US to buy a copy of his latest novel. The reading talked a lot about stock portfolios and 401(k) and how the male protagonist was pissed at his ex-wife for having more money saved than he did. Then they took a short break to allow the bar to make some money and for Ken to sign copies of his book.

Eventually Mark came out from behind the curtain (he was sitting in the window, probably the only cool place in the whole building) and read five passages from Only Revolutions. Michele had passed him the list of requests from all of you, but he did the same five passages that he had done at Booksmith in San Francisco.

Due to the huge crowd and our position in the back of the bar, we don't have any video footage of the reading. We may have a couple of small Sam Cam clips to put up upon return, but the most we can offer as far as actual reading coverage is audio. The even better news is that there should be better audio than ours, officially available direct from the KGB Bar. Check out http://kgbbarlit.com for more details of the podcast, which should be available to download on Wednesday.

Our forum regular Sam Cam testimonial from tonight was from Pills23. Unfortunately, due to loud noise in the bar and bad lighting conditions, it is not usable. Thanks for being a willing participant, Pills23 and maybe we'll redo it tomorrow night at Barnes & Noble.

Sorry for all of you we didn't get the chance to meet. We're sight-seeing and such as well, being tourists in this fine city. That didn't leave enough time for food throughout the day and we were very hungry. Plus the heat was a pretty big factor as well. Either way, we walked a few blocks to Katz's Deli and split a pastrami on rye. Great sandwich, however if we never post again, it was because of the heart attack we just suffered.

MZD Booksmith San Francisco Event 9.22.06

MZD did a fantastic reading and Q&A at Booksmith in San Francisco. My early favorite of the tour thus far. He changed up the story to introduce his reading, this time focusing on first love, and never mentioning ghosts. However, he did mention that even though they didn't realize it, Sam and Hailey were going to die.

Tonight's reading consisted of five passages, two Hailey and three Sam.

Mark is also interested in your requests for future readings, so please respond here or on the houseofleaves.com book tour thread.

H1-8
S89-96
S137-144
H241-248
S313-320

Since we're about to embark on a cross-country journey and we don't want to keep you waiting until late next week, here are the video clips from San Francisco:


MZD's author escort for the San Francisco Bay Area says hello to MZD and his fans on the internet.


Sam Cam #7 - Allways...


Mark Z. Danielewski answers a question asked at the Booksmith reading about how he reacts to the houseofleaves.com forums when he's sitting at home reading them.


MZD reads pages H241-248 from Only Revolutions at Booksmith in San Francisco.

 

working for VIAFFIOPOPLIS

At work, viewing the timeclock that comes between me and my road trips...picture by Sam.

M is for Mystery signing

I just got back from the M is for Mystery signing in San Mateo. Small crowd of around 10 there for this one. The store had around 300 copies of various incarnations of all of Mark's books that they were expecting him to sign. By the time he got done with the line (which he politely invited to stick around and chat), it was already close to 3:00, and he needed to be done by 3:30 or so to get back to San Francisco. I wished him luck!

He offered some news about the audiobook. His intent at this time is to complete the recording when he returns from tour at the end of October, then hopefully release it electronically through cdbaby. Eventually this may lead to an official legitimate release through Random House, but they would almost definitely ask him to wait until the paperback release.

My photos and video are all extremely blurry from the event. I've put up a very small clip on youtube, but nothing turned out from this place. Not much to report outside of this news, and a very cool Hailey drawing that one of the fans had done.

(this message minus the video clip has been crossposted to http://houseofleaves.com)

MZD Event Clips - Santa Cruz 9.21.2006

Mark Z. Danielewski reads pages H233-240 from Only Revolutions, with a couple of interruptions from a very special fan at Bookshop Santa Cruz.


The sixth Sam Cam clip is brief on the way to Santa Cruz and an exterior shot of Bookshop Santa Cruz, the site of the September 21, 2006 reading. Soundtrack "Hey Pretty" Poe


Nick and Jeff at the Bookshop Santa Cruz MZD event
 

Bookshop Santa Cruz

Just got back from the Bookshop Santa Cruz reading/Q&A/signing. The reading was interrupted twice by a special guest, who seems to drift from place to place in Santa Cruz and had a guitar with him. Mark remarked later in the night that he was hoping he would play for him. The crowd was very enthusiastic to hear Mark and asked some questions that were different from the norm. Mark again read five passages from the book tonight, but this time read two from Hailey and three from Sam.

H1-8
S89-96
S137-144
H233-240
S313-320



Mark also did an interview on KUSF this afternoon. If we can obtain a copy, the audio may appear here on the blog. This was a testout for the Hailey passages. Mark still isn't sure he is comfortable reading the female side of the story. He also fears that fans will get confused if he reads passages from each. I suggested that as long as he didn't read the same 8 pages from each that it shouldn't be a problem.

There was a very cool crowd tonight and we will have more articles, Sam/Hailey Cam and event footage up soon.

So Hailey knew Johnny...

Taken from page 151 of House of Leaves (thanks to Pshairyn for the scans).

Only Revolutions Tour MZD Event Videos #1-3

Skylight Books, Los Feliz, CA September 16, 2006:

Mark Z. Danielewski introduces his first public reading from Only Revolutions and reads pages S1-8.



A brief look at Mark Z. Danielewski signing following his reading of Only Revolutions at Skylight Books. This is followed by shout outs from houseofleaves.com forum members Desplain and Heartbreak.

West Hollywood Book Fair, West Hollywood, CA September 17, 2006:

During a panel titled "HISTORY REPEATING: On Writing Historical Fiction," Mark Z. Danielewski describes how he integrates history within Only Revolutions.
 

OR - LA Alternative interview - September 15, 2006

Sam Cam #1-5

Sam Cam #1 - The OR Symbol behind the Powerhouse Bar


Sam Cam #2 - Poe says something for Onlyrevolutions.blogspot.com


Sam Cam #3 - Outside Skylight Books


Sam Cam #4 - Skylight Books Window Display


Sam Cam #5 - Entering Hollywood
soundtrack: "Jack The Ripper" by Error
 

More pics

To get to LA from SF, you have to go up and down through a mountain range. This picture was taken a few days before our trip. From our view on the highway, this fire was burned out, but still smoking when we entered LA. The next day, a huge cloud of smoke loomed over the mountain as we drove back. AP Photo/Dave Waters

Michele, Poe, and Erik. Pic thanks to Trigger

This is the OR symbol found in Hollywood, behind the Powerhouse Bar, referenced in the LA Times interview. Sorry about the shadows, but my flash wouldn't go off, and the parking lot attendant was coming over
 

MZD at the West Hollywood Book Fair

This afternoon, Mark Z Danielewski was a part of the HISTORY REPEATING: On Writing Historical Fiction panel at the West Hollywood Book Fair. He was joined by Aimee Liu, who writes stories that deal with characters historical times from China and India, Janis Cooke Newman, who has written a novel about Mary Todd Lincoln told in the first person from Mary's point of view, Denise Nicholas, who has written a book about a voter registration worker in 1964 Mississippi, and the panel was moderated by Leslie Schwartz, who has not yet published any historical fiction.

What was strange was that they considered Only Revolutions to even be a part of the category Historical Fiction. All of the "rules of writing historical fiction" discussed seemed to be ones that Mark had either deconstructed, broken, or ignored in all of his works. The most appropriate response from Mark came when a fan asked him why the historical information in the margins is blank starting in 2006. It was a bit ironic, because this fan was asking Mark to create future historical fiction.

As mentioned yesterday, Exploration Z will be updating this very blog with video tidbits, including some things captured from the "sam cam" that were not a part of the two MZD appearances. Stay tuned!

MZD Book Tour Coverage Begins

The first public readings from Only Revolutions took place this evening at Skylight Books in Los Feliz. Exploration Z was proud to be there and have plenty of video highlights coming your way when we get back to our homebase later in the week.

For now, a brief review of some of the highlights.

MZD did five readings from Only Revolutions. He only read from Sam.
Whether or not this is a ghost story, I will leave up to you...

S1-8
S89-96
S137-144
S281-288
S313-320

Mark answered about his writing process that he uses the Jane Goodall method. He sits in the same place in the jungle and waits for the gorillas to approach and finally they do. He writes everyday. His process starts at 5:30AM with meditation and goes on for at least ten hours. He answered a bit about the deliberate colors for the book to help you not lose your place. Someone remarked that the layout of the book reminded them of the bible. Mark thinks it looks like a road.

Poe and several members of different incarnations of the Poe band were in attendance, as were several of Poe's Angry Psychos and several houseofleaves.com forum regulars.

It was a great turnout, a good crowd, and a hot debut for Danielewski's sophomore effort.

More soon!

Expanded Books interview

Expanded Books video interview.

OR - Los Angeles Times interview - September 13, 2006

OR - Los Angeles Times Book Review - September 3, 2006

Updated content at Exploration Z

The Only Revolutions section of Exploration Z has been updated with new content!

OR - San Francisco Bay Guardian Booksmith Ad

OR - Entertainment Weekly Review

OR - Details September 2006 Review

Please note, this is exactly how it was printed in the magazine and the review is actually under "The Echo Maker" cover.