Our favorite holiday is coming up this week: Mother's Day. Admittedly, we are pretty easy to shop for; everyone knows how much we love our iPod. Hmm..could we be getting a solar powered swim suit or perhaps a romantic "Sounds of the Sea" iPod dining experience? We'll just have to wait until Sunday to find out.
For now, we're catering to our iPod-centered universe and offering one of our favorite features: If I only had an iPod. Today's guest DJ is Alex Mindt, author of the new story collection Male of the Species (check out the "trailer" for the book here).
Just in time for Mother's Day, Mindt gives us a book about… Fathers —okay, so it might work better as an early Father's Day gift. In the 1990s, Mindt set off on a journey to discover America. He went to every corner of the country, driving the back roads and freeways. Male of the Species chronicles of the fathers he met on his journey—fathers of every race and class–heroic fathers, pathetic, abusive fathers, comical, desperate and brave fathers.
Catch Mindt read tonight at Olssons Dupont Circle, 7pm.
Guest DJ Alex Mindt:
Music means everything to me. In fact, I always listen to music when I write. Many of the stories in Male of the Species were either directly influenced by specific songs, or were affected tonally by what I was listening to at the time.
"Sabor A Mi" is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and it's the title of the first story in the collection. Juan, the old Mexican immigrant spends much of the story reminiscing (sentimentalizing, really) about dancing with his wife to that song. But he's never truly heard the song, never really listened to it, not until he hitchhikes to protest his daughter's lesbian wedding and watches her dance to it with her new lesbian partner. "I gave you so much life," the song says. "I do not pretend to be your owner. I am not in control." Through the song, Juan comes to a deeper understanding of himself, and his relationship with his wife and daughter.
"Gypsy in My Soul" is an old, lesser known jazz standard, and one of my favorites. The song winds its way through the story called "The Gypsy," about a young man burdened by too much responsibility at too young an age. Dressed in a Gorilla costume, he entertains a an old retiree at his retirement party. "If I am fancy free," he sings, "and love to wander, it's just the gypsy in my soul."
"My Sweet Carolina." I saw Ryan Adams debut this song one night in Seattle. He literally said, "I wrote this one last night in my hotel room." After he was through, silence lingered for five seconds or so, before people started clapping. The entire room was shocked by the song's beauty. I went home that night and wrote a response to Ryan's song, my own love letter in story form to my former home of North Carolina. That's how the story "Reception" was born.
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