It's Wednesday, which means the Silent Reading Party is tonight at 6 pm PST. Get your ticket here.
The New York Times has been attending The Stranger's Zoom reading party, and today in the NYT, Gal Beckerman, an editor for the New York Times Book Review, describes what it's like: "Like the windows of a New York City apartment building at night, other boxes soon come to life... One week, I counted five cats, nine dogs and 22 glasses of wine... It’s mesmerizing, found performance art."
The illustrator Julien Posture, who created the clever, gorgeous piece of art for the New York Times, shows close-ups of some of the frames, as well as what looks like a rough draft of the whole piece, on Instagram:
Tonight's party is one you don't want to miss, especially if you knew Lynn or her work, because...
Our resident pianist Paul Matthew Moore will be playing music in her honor, including themes from Vinny Smith's score for Your Sister's Sister, as well as Lynn's all-time favorite song, which is by Neutral Milk Hotel.
In keeping with our tribute to a brilliant filmmaker taken too soon, Paul will also be playing some of his own compositions for film scores.
Lynn attended one of the early reading parties at the Sorrento. The date was February 2, 2011, which I only remember because she sent me an email about it the next day, calling it "ridiculously charming," and praising our musician at the time, Kyle O'Quin (who's now in the band Portugal. The Man).
As for what Lynn brought to read to that 2011 party, she wrote to me in that email:
I dug into The Meaning of Smekday, a selection of "Young Adult" fiction that I had recently had the pleasure of observing my 12-year-old son chortling his way through. He's got a great sense of humor so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I found myself hoping that my occasional giggles were not disturbing the beautiful peace too much... Luckily Kyle's lovely piano playing generally covered my tracks.
Of course, on Zoom, you can chortle all you want and no one will be able to hear you, because you'll be muted.
As for what Lynn ate at that party... according to our email exchange, she ate shrimp cocktail and "very dry" white wine.
Last night, I went to the store and bought myself some shrimp cocktail for tonight's party.
And you? What are you reading tonight? What will you be snacking on?
