Mike Scalise

After four months of solitude and whatnot, this January has me out among the herds in a way that makes me seem far more extroverted than is personally accurate. In the first two weeks of this month I read some new stuff with some pals at 826DC, and lectured a bunch of Hopkins pre-med geniuses about how to write about indelible ailments.

Now, this week, two more appearances. The first one is with my excellent poet buddy Gerald Maa (pictured here with the slick mohawk) at Joe Hall’s reading series, Cheryl’s Gone. It will be my second time taking part this thing. I read at the very first one back in October 2007, a long-winded essay about sink pissing that went over like a lead balloon.

This time I’ll be reading a chunk of stuff I worked on at Bucknell–topics covered: inappropriately-named doctors, obsolescence, shit for brains, and Andre the Giant–so I hope that mix of subject areas will work better this time around. (2/5 update after the jump.)

Then, two days later on 1/23, I’ll be one of about 16 different writers featured at Call + Response, which I wrote about here. The curators have expanded the website with bios and a statement, and put together a press release (PDF) that should be able to tell you all about the situation, which remains very exciting. I have not yet seen what Brian R. has made of my contribution, but when I do,  I’ll throw pics up here.

So, to be clear: come see me read Thursday, or come to this art thing on Saturday. Or both. Adios.

UPDATE: Here’s a pic from Cheryl’s Gone from buddy @adrian_parsons, in which there appears a weird orb of light where the podium top is. To me, it just looked like lackluster words.