Welcome to the latest incarnation of the epic Rapture Cafe and Books topic, part 4.

I've booted in a few recent posts, and catch up on earlier doings at
Rapture Cafe and Books Part 3

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Moved Reply:

I reserve the restroom.

Moved Reply:

Good Luck Mr. Skiff..I wish I could be there for this one.

Moved Reply:

I figured if a used compound sentences it would elude some corporate savior figure who demands I subordinate to their commercial level of understandability.

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Moved Reply:

Tonight! Dean Johnson's Reading for Filth.

A J Goodrich
Dee Finley
Joe Birdsong
Paul Skiff

Music: baby K

I invite everyone to come out tonight, as I've just completed the first original piece that I've been able to crank out in ages. It's also my first stab at "true fiction" (or as I like to call it, "faction").

Sponsored, of course, by NEXT and Christiania Vodka (of which plenty will flow).

Moved Reply:

Thanks Mr. Joe and Hattie for the slammin feast of words last night. It was hilarious and intense in all the best ways. I so seldom get to perform for such a welcoming crowd and superunderstanding hosts.

Long Live Dean Johnson

Moved Reply:

Seven, you were spot on briliant the other night. All of that cunt talk - well, Ms. Fonda certainly picked up on it the very next morning, now didn't she?

Jumping the gun, perhaps, but this is the ad that NEXT refused to run.

Late February/Early March 2008 At Rapture Cafe & Books


Wednesday February 20th, 8PM
Rapture Café Presents
Dean Johnson's Reading For Filth: Queer Writers Look At Queer Sex
Tonight: Readings From BEST GAY EROTICA 2008
Free admission

Featuring a reading/book signing by contributors to Best Gay Erotica 2008 (Cleis Press):
Sam J. Miller (a community organizer from the Bronx,) Lee Houk (longtime Circus Amok mainstay,)Taylor Siluwe (Out IN Jersey, FlavaLife Magazine, Tom Cardamone (Werewolves Of Central Park,)
Charlie Vasquez (Diamanda Galas' PA) Andrew McCarthy ( the multidisciplinary artist aka Jennifuh Leather & editor of High Heel News.)

Emanuel Xavier hosts.

In 1996, Emanuel Xavier took the New York City spoken word scene by storm, quickly becoming one of the most significant voices to emerge from the neo-Nuyorican poetry movement. Following in the tradition of writers/performers like Miguel Piñero, Xavier captivated audiences with a fresh and poignant brand of art that celebrated sexuality, Latino heritage, and the often brutal streets of New York.
A painful past of sexual abuse at the hands of an older cousin, rejection by a devoutly religious mother, homelessness, and a life of prostitution and drug-dealing, are among some of the experiences that served as inspiration for the vibrant and emotionally raw poems for which Xavier became famous.
Pier Queen, released in 1997, was Emanuel’s debut anthology, which included many of the poems that earned him the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe Grand Slam Championship.
In 1998, he founded The House of Xavier, a collective of poets, and created the annual Glam Slam which fuses the excitement of the ballroom scene with the energy of the spoken word movement.
In 1999, Xavier released the semi-autobiographical novel Christlike, which garnered a Lambda Literary Award nomination. A year later, these achievements prompted PAPER magazine to choose Emanuel Xavier as one of its “50 Most Beautiful People.”
In 2002, six years after he first graced the stages of smoky cafes and independent theaters that made up New York’s underground poetry scene, Suspect Thoughts Press released his second collection of work, Americano. With Americano, the self-proclaimed Pier Queen grew up. With thirty-five new poems, Emanuel Xavier considered what it means to be American- but Latino; Latino- but gay; Nuyorican- but Ecuadorian; revolutionary- but not an activist. In essence, it was the next chapter in the life of a native son surviving the contradictions of his homeland.

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Saturday, February 23rd, 8PM-11PM
Fat and Queer Cabaret Party
Admission by Donation

Fat and Queer is a New York City based social & political group hoping to unite radical fat queers & have fun. As part of their "Fat Is Contagious" Conference at University Settlement House, they will be presenting this evening of big fun at Rapture. Starring Cookie Woolner, burlesque (from the Original Fat Bottom Revue), Axon Damien Luxe, high femme performance artist, Kelli Dunham, comedian, Dave End, music for people who unironically talk to dogs. , Megan Beene, ukelele n' Roll, with Bevin Branlandingham, Flamboyant Femcee.

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Monday February 25th, 8:30-11PM
Monday Nite Bingo
with Linda Simpson & Mr. Murray Hill
Free Admission

Who knew Bingo could be so kooky? Since debuting at Rapture this fall, the weekly game night hosted by wisecracking (and bickering) duo Linda Simpson and Murray Hill has become quite the fun-filled event. There are plenty of prizes to be won—some silly, some superb—as well as added attractions like ridiculous dares (many involving a triple-D bra), “friendship rounds,” a brightly-colored mystery bag (no, not Linda-- it's no mystery that she's a bag) and fab spokemodels such as that lovely screwball Shequanda. Stay until the end of the night for the climatic cash round (often over $100) or just pop in for a few games. You’re sure to have a riot at this very unique affair!

Plus... 2-4-1 Well Drinks from 7:30-8:30PM, so you can stake out the perfect bingo table in style!

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Tuesday February 26th, 8PM
'Night Of A Thousand Stevies 18: Nightbirds' First-Time Performer Auditions
Free Admission

This year's edition of Night Of A Thousand Stevies (the annual Stevie Nicks fan event, now in its 18th year) is scheduled to take place on Friday May 9th, at the Highline Ballroom on 16th Street and its producers have, as usual, been inundated by fledgling performers seeking a slot. Rapture will be turning over its stage this evening to these lace-trimmed lovelies, so feel free to pull up a chair, get a cup of our Zhena's Gypsy Love tea, and watch these nightbirds vie for an opportunity to twirl onstage for thousands of Stevie-philes in May.

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Wednesday February 27th, 8PM
Rapture Café Presents
Dean Johnson's Reading For Filth: Queer Writers Look At Queer Sex
Free Admission

Tonight: Eve Ensler, move over... it's RFF'S "Anal Monologues". With literary assmasters Tim Doody, Dominick, Jonny Tingle and Mother Flawless Sabrina.

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Thursday February 28th, 8PM
"86'd" Curated By Jennifer Blowdryer
Free Admission

And action packed evening of readings, for and by those "who have been unceremoniously kicked out on their ass." Curated by legendary author and literary mover-and-shaker Jennifer Blowdryer, and featuring Moonshine Shorey, Jonny Tingle, Drunk Jeff, Malcolm Scott Hamilton, Ben Lerman and Mike Amado.

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Saturday March, 1st, 7PM
'Zine Release: alL uP IN IT
Free Admission

Co-edited by Rafael Sanchez and Kathleen White, the alL uP IN IT Winter 08 edition includes contributions by Neke Carson, Billy Erb, Hattie Hathaway, Sibyl Kempson, Luther Price, Linda Simpson, Gail Thacker, Michael Waugh, ZZ Top & more!

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Monday March 3rd, 8:30-11PM
Monday Nite Bingo
with Linda Simpson & Mr. Murray Hill
Free Admission

"B-1... B-1... when will this game be won?" Since the rather sudden closing of that East Village entertainment mainstay Mo Pitkin's House Of Satisfaction, Murray Hill (Mr. Showbiz himself), and Linda Simpson (truly a New York legend,) have brought their wildly popular bingo-fest here to Rapture every Monday night. Expect things to be exactly the same as they were a Mo's, with a cash jackpot, scads of great prizes, and plenty of caffeine available so you can work 10 bingo cards at once!

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Wednesday March 5th, 8PM
Rapture Café Presents
Dean Johnson's Reading For Filth: Queer Writers Look At Queer Sex
Free Admission

Tonight: Lucy Sexton (who was one-half of the legendary 20th Century performance troupe Dancenoise) curates the evening ...with readings by Joe Westmoreland (author of Tramps Like Us), Gina Varla Vetro (former Art School Girls Of Doom and Pete Burns bandmate), Eileen Myles (author of School Of Fish and much more) & Lori E. Side (avant-garde producer)...

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Thursday March 6th, 8PM
Tom Ragú's Comedy Revue
Free Admission

The return of Gotham's funniest plus-size Kirstie Alley-hater from the Gotham Comedy Club, Tom Ragú, and also starring Brad Loekle (Out-Q Radio In The Morning) and Pat Galante (HA! Comedy Club). With Joe Powers, Sean Donnelly and Colin Dempsey. And featuring very special guest Michelle Buteau (Last Comic Standing and Comedy Central's Premium Blend). Hosted by the riot-a-minute Doug Adler.
 
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Sunday March 9th, 10PM
Pinups Magazine Release Party
Free Admission

Everyone's fave queer 'zine which can be assembled into a wall-sized nekkid picture of a hot and scruffy lad, presents its latest issue #5. Sponsored by HX & Christiania Vodka.

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Monday March 10th, 8:30-11PM
Monday Nite Bingo
with Linda Simpson & Mr. Murray Hill
Free Admission

This ain't your grandma's Bingo! Rapture Café is delighted to be the new home of Monday Night Bingo, the rollicking game show hosted by high-profile drag queen Linda Simpson and downtown It boy Murray Hill. 

For the past year-and-a-half, the wisecracking celebrity duo has enjoyed a smash run at Mo Pitkin’s.  Now it’s time for Rapture to be filled with joyous cries of “Bingo!” as ecstatic players win prizes galore—some silly, some superb—including theatre tickets, booze, all sorts of whatchamacallits and good ol’ American cash. Adding to the fun is a dazzling array of downtown-celebrity guest spokesmodels and surprise performances.

Your heart will race! Your palms will sweat! But all in a good way, as you vie to be the triumphant winner of everyone’s favorite game of chance!

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Wednesday March 12th, 8PM
Rapture Café Presents
Dean Johnson's Reading For Filth: Queer Writers Look At Queer Sex
Free Admission

TBA

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Thursday March 13th, 8 PM
Book Release Party: The End Of the World Book by Alistair McCartney
Free Admission

Rapture celebrates the release of Alistair McCartney's new book, The End Of the World Book, which will be available for signing and purchase after the reading.

"This is no ordinary novel. An encyclopedia of memory—from A to Z—The End of the World Book deftly intertwines fiction, memoir, and cultural history, reimagining the story of the world and one man’s life as they both hurtle toward a frightening future. Alistair McCartney’s alphabetical guide to the apocalypse layers images like a prose poem, building from Aristotle to da Vinci, hip-hop to lederhosen, plagues to zippers, while barreling from antiquity to the present.
In this profound book about mortality, McCartney composes an irreverent archive of philosophical obsessions and homoerotic fixations, demonstrating the difficulty of separating what is real from what is imagined."

Alistair McCartney was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1971.  His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Fence, Bloom, James White Review, and other literary journals, as well as in a number of fiction and creative nonfiction anthologies, including Wonderlands: Good Gay Travel Writing (University of Wisconsin Press) and Between Men (Carroll and Graf.) He lives in Los Angeles with his partner, Tim Miller, and teaches creative writing and literature in the BA Program at Antioch University Los Angeles and Antioch Santa Barbara.

I love the invite that Next refused to run. But Tom Doody? He stinks.

Well, you won't be smelling his rose this week, Pickles! He had a scheduling conflict, so the lineup for this week's Filth is:

Oh boy..Rami. What did you do to deserve this, have to take him in order to get Flawless Sabrina?

Bah!bby - werk.

Rami is actually quite the prolific writer; he's read from his book Train to Pokipse here before. Flawless, of course, is the cherry on top of us all.

An Update On Two Outstanding Events At Rapture Cafe & Books...


Wednesday  March 5th, 8PM
Rapture Café Presents
Dean Johnson's Reading For Filth: Queer Writers Look At Queer Sex
Free Admission

Tonight: Lucy Sexton (who was one-half of the legendary 20th Century performance troupe Dancenoise) curates the evening ...with readings by  Joe Westmoreland (author of Tramps Like Us), Gina Varla Vetro (former Art School Girls Of Doom and Pete Burns bandmate), Eileen Myles (author of School Of Fish and much more), Ishmael Houston-Jones (dance curator and author), Mike Albo (performance artist and author of The Underminer) & Lori E. Side (avant-garde producer)

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Thursday March 13th, 8 PM
Book Release Party: The End Of the World Book by Alistair McCartney with Tim Miller
Free Admission

Rapture Cafe & Books celebrates the publication of Alistair McCartney's stunning new novel, The End Of the World Book, this evening, with a reading by the author. as well as a performance by the controversial author/performer Tim Miller (one of the legendary NEA 4). Since both McCartney and Miller currently reside in the City Of Angels, and don't come East too often, this performance/reading is a definite must-see!


Alistair McCartney is the author of THE END OF THE WORLD BOOK  published by University of Wisconson Press. This is no ordinary novel. An encyclopedia of memory—from A to Z—The End of the World Book deftly intertwines fiction, memoir, and cultural history. Born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1971, his writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Fence, Bloom, James White Review, and other literary journals, as well as in a number of fiction and creative nonfiction anthologies, including Wonderlands: Good Gay Travel Writing (University of Wisconsin Press) and Between Men (Carroll and Graf.) He lives in Los Angeles with his partner Tim Miller and teaches creative writing and literature in the BA  Program at Antioch University Los Angeles and Antioch Santa Barbara.

“If I’ve read a more deeply impressive, beautiful, sweeping, mindful, and innovative first novel than Alistair McCartney’s The End of the World Book, I have no memory of it. McCartney is a writer of peerless, brilliant originality and pure, giant talent.”
—Dennis Cooper, author of The Sluts and God Jr.

Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed performance artist, whose creative work as a performer and writer explores the artistic, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man. Miller has received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1990, Miller was awarded a NEA Solo Performer Fellowship, which was overturned under political pressure from the Bush White House because of the gay themes of Miller's work. Miller and three other artists, the so-called NEA 4, successfully sued the federal government with the help of the ACLU for violation of their First Amendment rights and won a settlement where the government paid them the amount of the defunded grants and all court costs. . Though the Supreme Court of the United States decided in 1998 to overturn part of Miller's case and determined that "standards of decency" are constitutional criterion for federal funding of the arts,  Miller vows "to continue fighting for freedom of expression for fierce diverse voices."

Since 1990, Miller has taught performance in the theater department at UCLA and the dance program at Cal State L. A. He is a co-founder of the two most influential performance spaces in the United States: PS 122 on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA.

Miller is the author of Body Blows, Shirts & Skins, and, most recently, 1001 Beds: Performances, Essays, and Travels.

Tonight: Bingo! Followed by Tommy G's Macho Monday...my favorite night of the week.

And the hits keep coming...

WOW!

That's a different cafe, Bobby.

Whoa. Tonight's readings were MAJOR. All of them. Thanks to everyone who came out. Eileen Myles and Joe Westmoreland are our national treasures.

All hail...