Emily Reads!

After photographing D today–blue and belly–I swept Emily away to the movies. Nervous about what was to be her first public reading, she asked if I would see Garden State with her and then have dinner at Alma before, to get her mind off of her nervousness. I seem to be good for that, perhaps because we spend so much time talking about our boyfriends. Emily and I share a kind of depression fetish, so there’s always much to discuss: T’s new SSRI, C’s anger and transsexual dad, D’s shock treatment. BC, my own sweet sad one joined us at Alma, and then we headed over to Adobe Books for the reading. First let me back up and say that Garden State didn’t leave much of an impression. Fine performances, yes, and Peter Saarsgaard is just a sheer tortured pleasure to watch, but the story was only as moving as the central character was captivating, which wasn’t very. I didn’t even want to project onto him. So back to the reading… Emily was last–after R’s mock sound installation for 2 voices and M’s science-fiction stroll through post-something bad San Francisco–and a good thing, because her reading was a knockout. She read from a story about her debt, hilariously chronicling her mother’s encouragement in its accumulation and mismanagement. She’s like David Sedaris, only complex and screwed up.