The New York Blade‘s Jonathon Warman reviews the show at the Algonquin:

While “Talk” includes generous helpings of the quips and barbs the group was known for, I was surprised to find that at heart it’s really an exploration of the profound friendship between Parker (Kristin Maloney) and Benchley (Chris Weikel). Maloney is quite good at modulating between Parker’s public brittleness and her private vulnerability—the magnetic poles that made her such a good writer.

Plus, it’s a great pleasure to see Weikel—who has cut a figure on the gay theater scene as a very visible playwright and actor in the TOSOS II troupe—playing such a plum role (essentially the male lead) in such an “uptown” setting. He displays all the effervescence and comic timing I’ve know him for and also proves himself every bit Maloney’s equal in delving into his character’s more tender side.

I may review this myself at some point. You can buy tickets for the show here. The Algonquin still hasn’t brought back its extremely good, and inexplicably absent, steak sandwich, but oh, those coconut martinis. Trust me, really.

Good news from Lauren Cerand: Starting Wednesday, June 21, there’s a new series at the Union Square B&N, in which Katherine Lanpher interviews writers and musicians who’ll also perform. (Free!) The best thing about this so far, for me, is the presence of Elizabeth Gilbert, whose book Pilgrims hooked me way back in ’97; Stern Men, from ’00, has permanently (though not fatally) cracked my carapace. Here’s the New Yorker review of Eat, Pray, Love. More (some links mine):

“Upstairs at the Square” kicks off on Wednesday, June 21, at 7PM with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia and singer-songwriter Jen Chapin, whose new album, Ready, will be released next month as a follow-up to Linger, which National Public Radio called “a brilliant debut album.”
…
Katherine Lanpher is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press will publish her first book, Leap Days: Chronicle of a Midlife Move, this October.

The next two events in “Upstairs at the Square” will be held at the Union Square Barnes & Noble on Wednesday, July 19, at 7PM, and Wednesday, August 16, also at 7PM.

Audio downloads of all three events will be available on Barnes & Noble.com (bn.com/writers).

From our friends at The Dorothy Parker Society (a few links are mine):

June looks to be one of the most jam-packed months of the calendar for the Dorothy Parker Society. We hope you can make it out to one of our events. All are open to the public.

Wednesday, June 7, 8 p.m. is the 39th anniversary of Dorothy Parker’s death. We have been toasting her passing with a cocktail party for eight years straight. This year we are moving the party to Elaine’s, 1703 2nd Ave. (between 88th and 89th streets). This classic and well-known New York saloon is around the corner from Mrs. Parker’s former apartment, as well as Frank Campbell’s, where her funeral was held. Elaine’s has a book about the place, Everyone Comes to Elaine’s. It is a pop-culture Mecca…. Meet us in the bar area, maybe we will have a table too. (Must be 21.)

Friday, June 9, Parker Talk — Marion Meade and Kevin Fitzpatrick are appearing at the West Side YMCA, 5 West 63rd Street (between Central Park West & Broadway), 8 p.m. to talk about Dorothy Parker. Meade edited the newly revised The Portable Dorothy Parker and will be signing copies. She also wrote the foreword to Kevin’s book, A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York. Both books will be available. The event is FREE and open to the public. The West Side YMCA is the largest of 20 branches of the YMCA of Greater New York, and is the largest free-standing YMCA in the United States. See you there! (Cocktails to follow, of course, location TBD.)

[Here’s Kevin’s interview with Portable Dorothy Parker editor Marion Meade and with cover genius Seth: “This other cartoonist, Chris Ware, they got to do the cover for Candide. He did it in a comic strip format. I think they were just so excited by what he had done with it that they decided to approach some other cartoonists to see if they could extend it into a small line approach to the (Penguin) Classics stuff…. I have a long-standing interest in the old New Yorker. I think that’s why he picked me to work with Dorothy.”]

Algonquin Evening: Have you heard about the ongoing Vicious Circle lecture series at the Algonquin Hotel? This Monday night series is monthly until the fall. The next one is Monday, June 26, 7 p.m. and it features Kevin Fitzpatrick and his talk “Beyond the Round Table.” There were more than 24 members of the Round Table, tonight we will take a step back 80 years and explore who they all were. Find out about the myths, legends and tall tales surrounding them. See rare photos and hear from long-lost letters and memoirs about the most well-known group of New Yorkers that ever assembled. Special Guest is Anthony Adams, the oldest son of Round Table member Franklin P. Adams (F.P.A.). Anthony will participate in the talk. If you want to attend, tickets are $25 each, and all information is here.

Parker News: What’s Happening in Baltimore?

The news came out a few weeks ago that the NAACP may vote to move from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. What this could mean for the Dorothy Parker Memorial Garden, and her ashes that are buried there, is unclear. The first newspaper to break the story was the Baltimore Sun. Read the story [by the fine repeat New Yorker chronicler Rob Hiaasen—E.G.] here. We will keep you posted about this developing story, keep checking the News Page. By coincidence, 2007 is the 40th anniversary of Mrs. Parker’s death.

Parkerfest September 15-17: Bathtub Gin Ball in the Woolworth Building

The date of our next Parkerfest is Sept. 15-17, 2006. This will be our 8th annual affair, and it promises to be the best one yet. We can now tell you more of the plans, as the special Advance Team has explored the party spot and given it the thumbs-up signal. We’re not taking the boat cruise; we will be on dry land in the historic Woolworth Building, the world’s first skyscraper and at one time the tallest building in the world. We are having the 8th annual Dorothy Parker Bathtub Gin Ball in the Woolworth Tower Kitchen on Saturday, Sept. 16. More details to follow! And, for the first time ever, on Sunday, Sept. 17, come out with your four-legged friends to the inaugural Dorothy Parker New York Dog Walk, on the Upper West Side’s Riverside Park! Open to all Parker fans and their pups! If you want to be on the organizing committee, drop Kevin a line [at kevin AT dorothyparker DOT com]. Here are photos and info of past Parkerfests (be sure to see the photos)…

The necessary book by Dorothy Parker Society founder Kevin Fitzpatrick.

News from my employer—jump on this; it’s going to be fun!

Call for Volunteers

PEN World Voices Festival:
The New York Festival of International Literature

April 25-30, 2006

All about the festival.

PEN American Center needs event volunteers to work front of house, back of house and other related posts for their annual Festival of International Literature. Volunteers are asked to spend one full day with PEN working three to four events centered around some the world’s most famous writers.

If you are interested please e-mail Andrew Proctor at aproctor@pen.org and list your availability, contact information (e-mail address, postal address and phone numbers) and any foreign languages you speak.

Deadline for responses: April 14, 2006.

But after having sat through the lengthy preview for Brick three or four times now in different theaters, I think there are actually two trailers with a minute difference. In one, a code word (“brick”? I don’t know, the stars are all so absurdly young all I can do is smile auntily as they strike noir poses, though they’re super-cute in their costumes) might, says the narrator, mean “milk and…something”; in the other version, he says “milk and vodka.” The first, heard during a showing of teen-friendly (I guess) The Libertine; the second, during the slightly racier (I guess) Thank You for Smoking. If you see this preview, and you will, please note which phrase you hear and what you were there to see; I assume it’s “vodka” in the film itself. Keep up with me now.

Just googled this and this Brick fan, anyway—who correctly identifies the code word as “tug”—quotes it as “milk and vodka.” This kid, too. (That’s about it in googleland.) But I swear I heard “…and something” as well. “Tug” isn’t defined in the (gorgeous) movie site’s glossary, unfortunately. Funny choice, if I’m right, which I think I am. I’m bound to see this preview half a dozen more times, so this is becoming important to me.

The hilarious, winsomely enterprising, and soon to be caption-contest-contributing cartoonist Matt Diffee will be jokin’ and playin’ at Pete’s Candy Store Friday (as in tomorrow) at 9, along with Andy Friedman and the Other Failures. It’s hard to go wrong at Pete’s, and if you didn’t get to hear Diffee and friends’ jaunty, tuneful Dougless Trio at the New Yorker Festival, why, I hope you’re feeling lucky now. For free, yet! As Diffee noted at the festival, “We figure that among New Yorker cartoonist bluegrass bands, we’re in the top five.” At least.

Here’s an interview with Diffee that I’m not sure I ever posted, but meant to; it’s very entertaining.

It’s been postponed. Now neither you nor I will have to miss it! Since I’m going to Cynthia Hopkins’ Must Don’t Whip ‘Um tonight, if I possibly can. It is guaranteed to rock your soul. The new cartoon-talkin’ info:

Conversations with Cartoonists at Dixon Place, a panel with Gahan Wilson, Sam Gross, Victoria Roberts, and Barbara Smaller discussing their favorite cartoons, scheduled for December 7th, has been postponed. The new date is Thursday evening, January 12th, at 8 pm.

‘Cause they’re on a panel, haw. The details (which are here; click for tickets):

Tuesday, December 6, 7:00 p.m.:
The Art of Online Criticism

Maud Newton, Sasha Frere-Jones and Terry Teachout with Bryan Keefer, moderator

“Everyone’s a critic,” as the saying goes, but it’s true now more than ever. Cultural critics find themselves in the same predicament as other members of traditional media who now must play a new game. Hear three influential critics who write both online and for print discuss how the cultural conversation is evolving and what the future holds. MAUD NEWTON is the founder/editor of prominent literary blog maudnewton.com. TERRY TEACHOUT contributes arts criticism to the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, among others. SASHA FRERE-JONES is the popular music critic for the New Yorker. The panel will be moderated by BRYAN KEEFER of CJR Daily.

Contact Information: www.makor.org

Brought to you by: Makor/Steinhardt Center

Cost: $12/advance $15/door

Check out the photo—I suspect foul play. I liked Frere-Jones’ piece on Houston rappers this week; it’s winsomely written, in his newish, freer, more relaxed style. If you haven’t read John Lahr’s Profile of Steve Buscemi yet, by the way, get ready for reading heaven. Lahr is anti-dish, all poetic precision (“He is pale, almost pallid—as if he’d been reared in a mushroom cellar…. His boniness carries with it a hint of negativity, a kind of rejection of the world”), and makes even Martin Schoeller’s thoughtful (and a little roguish, as if Buscemi were crashing a J. Crew shoot) photo redundant. Lahr’s prose and reportage, which achieve the rarity of being almost indistinguishable, add colors to the spectrum of human experience.

“The Art of Online Criticism” has or less the same premise as the panel I was just on (or was not on, depending whom you ask). I have a feeling this bunch will be a little more lighthearted than we were, since I doubt they’ll be fussing over the already musty canard “Will manic, unqualified loons with God complexes eat the children of nice, hardworking old print jourrnalists?” Hi, world: Blogger and journalist are not mutually exclusive (see: panelists above), and most of the people you probably read are both. Some of them can even spell, a good number of them are trained fact-checkers, and many of them contribute simultaneously and respectfully to print media. Read the resumes, check the clips, then judge away!

FYI, another Makor NYer-related event: November 16, the premiere of As Smart As They Are: The Author Project. Bet it’ll sell out—Dave Eggers, Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem, and Rick Moody are in it, and, well, you know. Auster and Moody (as well as the noble Edward Albee, Sandra Cisneros, Philip Gourevitch, Emma Reverter, and Colson Whitehead) were especially excellent readers at the sometimes shocking, sometimes heart-choking, sometimes darkly amusing PEN event against torture the other night.

I’m particularly jazzed about this Sunday’s Feast, which is free and features four super-talented poets: Kazim Ali, Paula Bohince, Katherine Dimma, and Robin Beth Schaer. This Sunday, November 13, 5-7 p.m., at CAMAJE bistro, 85 MacDougal St. betweeen Bleecker and Houston. Eats—by beloved chef Abby Hitchcock—are inexpensive, optional, and delicious. The special Feast menu includes popular favorites from the bistro’s dinner and dessert menus. Listen, eat, enjoy!

More about the readers:

Kazim Ali is the author of two books, The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award, and Quinn’s Passage, named by Chronogram as one of The Best Books of 2005. He’s the publisher of Nightboat Books and assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Shippensburg University. Here are some poems.

Paula Bohince received an MFA from New York University. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Agni, Field, Shenandoah, Beloit Poetry Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets 2005. She has won the Grolier Poetry Prize, held a residency at the MacDowell Colony, and received an artist’s grant from the Puffin Foundation. She is completing her first book. Here are two of her poems.

Born in Toronto, Katherine Dimma holds degrees in literature, photography, and creative writing from McGill University, The School of Visual Arts, and NYU, respectively. Her poems have appeared in several journals including Barrow Street, Hejira, Redactions, and Thin Air. Nightboat Books published her chapbook Wind in the Trees in the spring of 2004.

Robin Beth Schaer works at the Academy of American Poets and has taught writing at Columbia University and Cooper Union. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and have appeared in Rattapallax, Small Spiral Notebook, Denver Quarterly, and Guernica, and are forthcoming in Spinning Jenny. Here’s a poem.

and

CONVERSATIONS WITH CARTOONISTS at the MARQUEE

DAVID SIPRESS with GEORGE BOOTH
Wed., Nov. 2, 2005, 7:30pm

Panel Discussion, “WHAT’S SO FUNNY?”
DAVID SIPRESS talks to SAM GROSS, VICTORIA ROBERTS, BARBARA SMALLER, and GAHAN WILSON about their favorite cartoons of all time.
Wed., Dec 7, 2005, 7:30 pm

LOCATION CHANGE: DIXON PLACE, 258 BOWERY (BET. HOUSTON AND PRINCE).

Price: $15 suggested donation or TDF
For reservations, call 212 219-0736 x106

Note: While this is not an advertisement in that no one is paying me, I’m glad to post it because I think New Yorker fans should know about it. So if I’m the publisher and this is a comp ad, how do you think I should label it? In a blog, is everything by definition editorial except what’s specifically designated advertising? Is this even a quandary or has Lewis Lazare gotten to me in my sleep somehow?