"Well we all shine on/ like the moon and the stars and the sun!"

For an upcoming feature, I need sources who remember where they were when John Lennon was killed. Particularly, but not exclusively, New Yorkers.

Feel free to share. Thanks!

Photographic evidence!

TNBLE Seattle Edition, shot by super-talented Emergency Press photographer, Kymberlee della Luce:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unbridled_expression/sets/72157624914530461/

Rocky Votolato's "White Daisy Passing":

Especially resonates tonight.

"Please slow it down
there's a secret magic past world that you only notice when you're looking back at it
all I wanna do is turn around
I'm going down to sleep on the bottom of the ocean
because I couldn't let go when the water hit the setting sun
passing white daisies taking turns
close the door walk into the street
catching raindrops on your tongue
and for a minute it all stops but it won't last man
it's just a passing moment gone
please slow it down
there's a secret place that I know where I could dig a grave out and climb underground for good
all I want to do is turn around
I'm going down to sleep on the bottom of the ocean
because I couldn't let go when the water hit the setting sun
passing white daisies taking turns
all those evenings on the back deck of our first apartment
they meant everything but the wind just carried em off
and you can't go back now just a passing moment gone"

Sports metaphor!

Grand slam, touchdown, three-pointer, all that: last night's The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience (TNBLE), Seattle Edition was a rousing success! Capacity house filled with a delightfully kinetic audience and a roster of deeply talented authors who brought it. In addition to overseeing the event and emceeing, I read part of my upcoming novel, Antifreeze. I'm so fucking sick today it actually hurts to move but under the circumstances, it was totally worth it. Also, a wonderful on-air talent volunteered to emcee our next round, a gallery owner asked me to hold the next TNBLE at her venue and a publisher is taking me to lunch next week. So, you know, mazel tov.

Or whatever they'd say on ESPN.

KOMO4.com calls The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience, Seattle Edition "Seattle's best authors" and, also...

..."a half dozen of the city's most lauded authors":

http://downtownseattle.komonews.com/content/seattles-best-authors-come-together-literary-event

Deeply flattering!

If we let you down, we'll do your laundry.

Because so much of life is a geographic lottery:

I never pontificate to readers because I trust you're smart and informed. You don't need me to tell you what's occurring the world.

I know everyone's lives are brimming with good and with chaos, i.e we've all got a whole lot going on, but if you get a chance, please consider donating to the relief and rebuilding efforts in Pakistan. Its floods have received little attention, but two million people are currently homeless as a result of the water sweeping away huge swaths of the nation's infrastructure. The U.N. estimates the humanitarian crisis is worse than that in Haiti. (Not that it's a contest, but you get the point.) I posted a link earlier this week to an interview I conducted with my friend who is on the ground distributing food and water and helping to build new homes. He posted new photos today. They are indelible and heart-wrenching. Through chance, my puppy has a better existence than the people depicted.

Something is askew.

Mercy Corp's Pakistan donation page:

https://donate.mercycorps.org/donation.htm?DonorIntent=Pakistan%20Emergency&Custom15=wm&Custom18=628aa0a91a17cc4e91f71fd43d9503de

The Stranger gives The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience, Seattle Edition a fantastic write-up:

Quoth:

"This is a big goddamned reading of local authors that serves as a west-coast franchise of the popular online magazine for writers. Sean Beaudoin, Aaron Dietz, Litsa Dremousis, Tom Hansen, Lauren Hoffman, and Matthew Simmons."

More:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Event?event=4882845

Thank you, humanity:

This merits a much longer post, or perhaps it's best served by simplicity, but for the past 48 hours, I've encountered utterly delightful humans and I'm grateful and then grateful some more.

Plus, I've got a puppy curled up next to me and for now, at least, a welcome stillness prevails.

My friend is doing relief work in the devastating aftermath of Pakistan's recent floods:

I interviewed him for The Nervous Breakdown:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/ldremousis/2010/09/pakistan-drowned-in-the-waters-of-the-lion-river/

Also, TNB's editor-in-chief and founder, the estimable Brad Listi (Attention. Deficit. Disorder.) was just interviewed by the National Book Critics Circle:

http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/conversations_with_literary_websites_the_nervous_breakdown/

"They called the people they loved--many of them...

...giving comfort instead of seeking it, explaining they were taking action, and that everything would be O.K. And then they rose as one, they acted as one, and together they changed history's course."
--Michelle Obama at the tribute to Flight 93 passengers

My new piece for The Nervous Breakdown is here:

Goddamnit, we just might pull this off:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/ldremousis/2010/09/announcing-the-nervous-breakdown-literary-experience-seattle-edition/#comment-99898

Six months old today:

It's strange I brought Thomas home only three weeks ago because we bonded instantly and I've been astounded how rapidly the little guy has changed everything for the better. It's not that I'm no longer grieving, but that sense of being pummeled by a 2' x 4' throughout each day has been staved. Thomas is preternaturally intelligent and sweet tempered--he loves observing seagulls and squirrels but doesn't chase them--and his stealth rivals the CIA's. (I watch him closely and we've had few food mishaps so far, but the one time he snuck a strand of spaghetti from me it was with split-second timing.) And when he puts his head on my shoulder when I lie down to watch Netflix on my laptop, the world is several shades brighter.

From top to bottom: at Cal Anderson Park, at Thomas Street Park, at Thomas Street Park, at Cal Anderson Park, at an outside table at the Vivace on the north part of Broadway, at Cal Anderson Park.

The smartest piece on Courtney Love and Seattle maybe ever

From Ma'chell Duma LaVassar at the Seattle Weekly:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-09-01/music/in-defense-of-courtney/

My new feature for Nerve is here:

My new feature for Nerve on how Mom and Dad met and overcame my iron-willed grandmother's opposition is up:

http://nerve.com/before-you-were-born/the-dremousis

They've got the front page now. High five, parents!