.to the hudson's swells.

I went on Wednesday to see David Sedaris speak at Barnes & Noble Union Square. The man couldn’t have gotten better publicity. His book came out Tuesday, every publication in New York promoted it and he was on the Daily Show the night before. He talked about it appearing on the show and how nice Jon Stewart was but he had never seen the show before – it doesn’t air in France - and sorta had no idea what was going on. I just find it assuming that a writer who has essentially the same sense of humor as this show doesn’t watch it. Anyway, the place was packed. I thought I got there early, he spoke at 7 and I got there directly from work at 5:40. I bought my book (squeeze, dance) got to the 4^th floor and it was insane. All the seats (maybe 100, I’m really bad at that sort of thing) were taken and people were waiting in the isles and the line to get books signed snaked around the entire floor (and it’s a big store). The people sitting had their books signed before his talk and he signed every single one. Every person had something to say to him and he conversed with them and stayed after the talk to the sign the books of the hundred of people in line who had to watch him via TV (TV! In a book store for an essay writer). I was lucky to be in a spot that I could actually see him.

After waiting over an hour, in heals, in a place where I couldn’t lean and the security wasn’t allowing people to sit (WTF?) my feet burned and I had finished the book I was reading, he spoke. He read an piece from the book and shared some diary entries, probably the same format he’ll do in every city he visits, but he is so light-hearted and funny that it felt like you were in a room with no more than 12 people (even though ev-er-y gay man and NPR listener in Manhattan was in attendance).

The only problem was the two woman gabbing behind me toward the end of the talk who just didn’t understand the glare and the guy next to me talking about his job at Nylon and how poorly run it is – good to know, I guess (?). He was talking about living in Astoria and all the "super cool" beer gardens there and he proudly stated that Astoria is the first place in New York City to have a Panera bread; no lie and I wish I was exaggerating. I just thought, one day beer gardens, the next day Whole Foods – for some reason I have a feeling that the people of Queens will not give up their neighborhood lightly.

Anywho, David Sedaris was amazing and we should be friends and go to Australian zoos and have dinner parties in France. If I can’t have that, I’ll read When You Are Engulfed in Flames on the subway and keep away from flaming mice and Astoria.