Sunday, January 28, 2007

See 'Spring Awakening.'

I really think that everyone should see Duncan Sheik's "Spring Awakening.'' (or maybe my real motive is to put something really popular in Cactuseaters so someone reads my blog; this happened some time ago when I mentioned Guillermo Del Toro! No, really, the play was startling, smart, funny, tragic, with a demographic that skewed really young without giving you that sleazy feeling that it's an old-person creation masquerading as youth entertainment. I think it captured the rapturous misery of adolescence very well, and the songs were great. The one reservation: the male lead is great but he is kind of an expectorator, if you know what I mean. What I'm trying to say is, he spat lots and lots of times, and with pretty impressive range, during some of the songs -- foooooooo, saliva just raining down all over the place. I'd think twice about buying front-row seats unless you dose up with Airborne.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Article about cactuseaters

My first-ever press mention appeared last week in a Santa Cruz Sentinel article, and the column also appeared on Posthole.com, which is cool because i'm a fan of Posthole. My friends in Santa Cruz threw a 'pre-launch' party featuring theme food from the book, including salsa made from a prickly pear.

Anyhow, this is the article as it appeared in the paper:


"Success dogs Sentinel reporter

Former Sentinel reporter Dan White, now at Columbia University, sent word he's sold a book to Harper Collins Publisher.

With the working title of "The Cactus Eaters," White's book tells about his trip along the Pacific Crest Trail with a former girlfriend, both of them wilderness neophytes.

But this is no tragic piece of literature.

Instead, says White's good friend and Sentinel feature writer Peggy Townsend, think Bill Bryson on the Appalachian Trail in "A Walk in the Woods"

Like Bryson, White's not exactly a Daniel Boone type.

Consider, for example, the title of White's book — taken from an experience he had when his trail wound through the desert.

His backpack much too heavy, White has already dumped his water when, in the desert, his thirst gets the better of him.

Thankfully, he's read somewhere that cactii hold liquid refreshment.

But for White, the cactus holds only a mouthful of needles.

So, is Dan White's autograph worth big bucks now?

"My autograph at this point is worth about five Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum wrappers," he e-mailed me recently.

Don't know the publication date yet, but when I do, you'll be the first to know.''

P.S. -- my review of Slanted Door take-out was probably a little harsh; I've been hearing from a couple of Slanted Door fans who think I ordered badly and should have just waited to get seated in the main building.