What's NAZ you ask? It's short for Northern Arizona, sucka! And it's where I'll be the weekend of April 22 and 23, 2006, for the Northern Arizona Book Festival in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona. One of my favorite people in Flagstaff is another classmate, a burly poet named James Jay who I've blogged about before. Jay used to work as a doorman at a place called Uptown Billiards. Then he started tending bar. Now, nearly ten years later, he owns the place and has invited Todd Taylor, Sean Carswell and myself for a reading. Bad, bad move. James should do us all a favor and call the police now.
So why “V. L.A.?” The Northern Arizona Book Festival takes place the week before the L.A. Times Festival of Books, the lollapalooza of book festivals and I'm going to be there, too. Once again Vermin on the Mount will be partnering with Swink Magazine to present the Second Annual Swink/Vermin Tag-Team: A Night of No-Holds-Barred Readings in the Heart of Chinatown where you'll get to see writers like Ben Ehrenreich, Cecil Castellucci, Salvador Plascencia, Steve Rinella and many, many more, but that's really not what I want to talk about today.
While perusing the sites above, I noticed an odd similarity in the artwork promoting the festivals. We like cool artwork, especially if it's scary or offensive, but we realize that book festivals with big budgets and big sponsors have to keep things mellow, especially since there are children involved, which is why I was surprised by the artwork these festivals selected. First, the NAZ:
The first thing that comes to mind when I look at this illustration is, “What are these people on?” Ted Kooser looks appropriately dreamy, like he's composing lines. But these children look positively miserable, particularly the blond girl. Can her eyes get any puffier? There's a little “I can make butterflies float out of my hands, so fucking what?” in Ismael Reed's demeanor and he's got this serious Samuel Taylor Colerige vibe going. But what are we to make of this:
First of all, what is it? I don't know if it's a rabbit or a squirrel, but whatever it is, it seriously needs some sleep. Not to get all Donnie Darko on you, but this feral-looking squabbit is downright dangerous-looking. I think the message here is: “Reading is a serious buzz kill.”
On the surface, the L.A. artwork radiates wholesomeness. Here we have a young boy, laying in the grass, reading a book. What could be more innocent, right? Wrong.
The second image puts the first in context. This boy isn't in a field, he's in a room in the basement of a castle. I don't know what the neighborhoods were like in your fairy tales, but where I'm from this is called a dungeon. A dungeon made out of books. What's more this fetid hellhole is presided over by a dragon. A well-rested dragon, but a dragon is a dragon. I think it's pretty clear that this boy has been GITMOized. Also, who approved this castle? FEMA? The whole freaking thing is on the verge of collapse. I think the message of this poster is: come to the L.A. Times Festival of Books and get buried in an avalanche of books.
Sounds good to me.
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