What You Missed--Aaron Boyd and Wade Rouse Pictures

We had a wonderful event with Aaron Boyd on Saturday, thirty plus people (admittedly all Aaron fans, and how could you not be?) who got a multi-media sampling of Panda's Valentine's Day and his other works. We even got to see a sneak peak at a beautiful pop-up book that was produced as a corporate holiday gift in 2010. Apparently there's talk of selling the rights to a commercial publisher. Very exciting.

And look, we're using our projector again!

And Tuesday, it turned out that Wade Rouse's appearance (accompanied, of course, by his partner Gary) for It's All Relative was the kind of event where you must say "hilarity ensued." Really, there aren't many events where you can say that. One of the highlights was the holiday gift basket that was a fabulous drawing prize. The winner was picked by Barbie, if you can believe it. If you just hold her legs in the right position, she can do it. Apparently she can also double as oven mitts, but only if you keep the oven below 200˚F.

Tomorrow is our Chris Bohjalian lunch, Peter Hessler in the store, and Cesar Millan at the Riverside. Sunday is the Iron Cupcake Pro/Am at the Kern Center of MSOE. This event is probably going to sell out, so if you don't have tickets, I'd get there at 10 am.

More events on our calendar.

The Pan-Holiday Window, The Pez Case, Wade Rouse at 7 pm Today

Someone's going to have to explain to me how to get a good window of an outside display window. How did Lyle Oberwise do it? Have you ever looked at Milwaukee at Mid Century? It's just beautiful. The Milwaukee County Historical Society has promised us they are working on a second collection of his photographs.

So you can sort of get the goofy feel for our pan-celebration of Wade Rouse's It's All Relative. Winkie's is cosponsoring the event; we got all our holiday swag there. They sure do a good job with their Facebook connections. Lots of comments on Packer-iana. More on this in a separate post.

One last thing about Wade's event tonight (Tuesday, 2/8, 7 pm). It inspired me to put my Pez collection in the curio case for a while. Of course everyone sees Pez all over the place, but there are certainly some lines that they stopped offering and I have some rarities, like the outfits, the European lines (surprisingly, Tom and Jerry), General Mills promotional Pez, and Japanese vending machine Pez brought back by my niece and nephew.

And with all this chatter, you might want to know if Mr. Rouse is speaking in your town. You may have noticed that I love a tour schedule. Here's the one for It's All Relative:

Wednesday, February 9, 2011 6:00pm
Chicago, IL
Chicago Public Library
400 State Street
Chicago, IL 60605
Phone: 312-747-4252

Thursday, February 10, 2011 7:00pm
Chicago, IL
The Book Cellar
4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625

Sunday, February 13, 2011 12:30pm-6:30pm
St Louis, MO
Writing Seminar
Left Bank Books
321 N. 10th
St Louis, Mo 63101
$150.00

Monday, February 14, 2011 8:00pm
St Louis, MO
Left Bank Books
399 N. Euclid Ave.
St Louis, Mo 63108

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 7:00pm
Tulsa, OK
BookSmart Tulsa
Tulsa Central Library
400 Civic Center
Tulsa, OK 74103

Monday, February 21, 2011 7:00pm
Tempe, AZ
Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 S. McClintock Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85283

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 7:00pm
Los Angeles, CA
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Monday, May 2, 2011 7:00pm
Albuquerque, NM
Book Works
4022 Rio Grande
Albuquerque, NM 87107

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 7:30pm
Denver, CO
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
Denver, CO 80206

Thursday, May 5, 2011 TBD
Kansas City, MO
Rainy Day Books
Location TBD

Thursday, May 12-May 15, 2011 TBD
Saugatuck, MI
Words, Wade & Wine
Writers Retreat
Twin Gables Inn
900 Lake Street
Saugatuck, MI
http://www.wadeswriters.com

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 6:30pm
Petoskey, MI
McLean and Eakin
307 E. Lake St.
Petoskey, MI 49770

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 7:00pm-9:00pm
Traverse City, MI
Horizon Books
243 E. Front St.
Traverse City, MI 49684

Thursday, June 2, 2011 6:30pm-8:30pm
Gaylord, MI
Saturn Booksellers
133 W. Main St.
Gaylord, MI 49735

I just learned by rereading Mr. Rouse's website that he is editing an anthology for fall called I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship. He's got some pretty great (funnily great) people scheduled to contribute. Ah, something new to look forward to.

It's All Relative, Part II--We Head to Winkie's to Decorate Our Window

I love having a nice display window, though admittedly, it would probably work a little better if there were filled storefronts to the north of me. You're just not in the mood to look in windows if the ones next to you are empty.

That said, you've got to fill them with something interesting! Sadly, I came up with two ideas for events that are very close to each other. I've already mentioned the ballet window, which unfortunately doesn't photograph well, due to window glare. In its own way, that window for our Apollo's Angels event with Jennifer Homans on Thursday, February 3rd at 7 pm with the Milwaukee Ballet (plug) is as disturbing as "The Black Swan." The doll just stares at you, as she'll do whatever it takes to be the best ballet doll ever!

But on Tuesday, February 8th, we're celebrating every holiday with Wade Rouse for his new book, It's All Relative: Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and 50 Boxes of Wine (a Memoir). And we're cosponsoring with Winkie's, which is the store I thought of when I imagined where I would go for every single holiday imaginable. So that means a window.

Off to Winkie's Jocelyn and I went, in search of the most seasonal of seasonal decor. We did this in January, which meant that we found a nice assortment of Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, plus plenty of Christmas on clearance. I am a big fan of garland, which gave us strands of hearts and shamrocks and holly. Well, holly-like stuff. It turns out they weren't real shamrocks either.

But we were hungry for more. Tom (who runs the part of Winkie's we were dealing with) was at the Atlanta gift show (where I guess I should have been to, as Winter Institute was scheduled during the Chicago gift show I attend) so worked with a couple of other fine folks in the department. Of course they were a bit confused when we skipped into the store with a poster and a copy of It's All Relative. Who wouldn't be? We came in to the store to spread the gospel of Rousiness, which is sort of a religion/cult where you make fun of a lot of things and Barbie is the High Priestess and your religious holiday is the Oscars.

So we convinced the Winkites to go into the back room and find us some juicy out-of-season tinsel. Alas, I couldn't convince them to let me go back with them and document the journey with my camera. Errol Morris, I am not.

Success! Our Winkite returned with some swag that made my head spin, including Fourth of July stars and yes, Easter garland with bunnies. It's suitably pastel, and I was excited as when I was perusing one of our favorite gift catalogs and spotted the baby chick mug (from the same people who brought us the autumnal owl and Christmas moose mugs that proved to be so popular). Yes, I ordered it for the store, but they run out of things fast, and sadly, I'm considered to be buying a bit late for Easter in the home business. Hope they have the carrot tapers!

It turns out that even Winkie's doesn't sell Father's Day garland. It's the next frontier, I suppose. Perhaps there's a class where I can learn to make my own.

So we came back and Jocelyn decorated one of our flat windows, perfect It's all Relative, and it's funny friends, At Least in the City Someone Would Hear me Scream and Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler. Rouse's first memoir, America's Boy, is sadly no longer easily available, but I might still have my copy. What the heck? I linked to it anyway so you could see the book jacket of the paperback.

And yes, it is the perfect backdrop for a photo with the author. Come for the photo op, stay for the funny. Event reminder--it's Tuesday, February 8th, at 7 pm. We're hoping that Mother Nature is too exhausted to snow anymore.

***

Weather-dendum. It's possible we will close a bit early both tonight (Tuesday, 2/1) and tomorrow (Wednesday, 2/2), depending on the weather. Jennifer Homans is flying into Milwaukee late Wednesday. That gives her some time for plane delays, 24 hours in fact. Let's hope everything goes as smooth as it can go on a February in Wisconsin.

Celebrating Holidays Wade Rouse Style--by Laughing with Food in Your Mouth (Event is Tuesday, Feb. 8th, 7 PM)

My holiday stories are boring. One of my sisters won the Thanksgiving sweepstakes but the other sister certainly wishes it was at her house. Merrill simultaneous wants to host but sort of complains about it. But she can’t complain too much, or she’d have to give it up, right?

There are some turkey-appropriate table settings. The dishes don’t vary much from year to year, like most folk’s holidays. Some guests will bring a dish, and either it will be liked or not. If it’s liked, we will genuinely compliment it. If not, we will ingenuously compliment it and complain later.

But laughs? Not likely.

Similarly, there’s not much to be said for other holiday rituals. Being Jewish, many of my family memories revolve around Passover. When my maternal grandfather was alive, he would do a complete service. People paid some attention before the meal, but afterwards, not so much. Other variations involved a little editing. My father liked to play a Richard Tucker album. Sometimes we’d take a very, very long journey to my aunt and uncle’s.

What could be said? You liked the food and complimented or you didn’t like the food and complimented it.

And birthdays? My mother invited kids over. When I was young my sisters helped out. On a good year, there was Ebinger’s Chocolate Blackout Cake. Back then, my compliments on the food would be genuine, but not I’d probably prefer a butter cream frosting to that fudge. One year my neighbor Carol didn’t go. She was too old to attend, but I didn’t get it at the time. I saw her playing outside. I was sad. Not much of a story, really.

That’s just one of the many reasons why I didn’t write It’s All Relative: Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and 50 Boxes of Wine, and Wade Rouse did.

Here are just ten of the reasons why Rouse’s holiday stories are better than anything I could tell you.

1. Admits to buying bad presents. Discovers repercussions. Two traps to watch out for are Valentine’s Day and your anniversary, though Swedish Day also can be a problem.

2. Admits to tipping badly on Chinese New Year’s. Discovers repercussions.

3. Drinks a lot to hide his shame on St. Patrick’s Day. Discovers repercussions.

4. Mardi Gras? Same.

5. Discovers that boyfriend Gary’s Easter rituals are even stranger than his own, but not as disturbing.

6. It is best to check out the nightlife (or at least the average age of the inhabitants) of a town before planning a spring break getaway.

7. A good way to celebrate Secretary’s Day is with a very creepy job memory. See, I have blocked all those out and the amount of therapy it would cost to unlock them is beyond my means.

8. While a group of openly gay men might not mind their baseball team being sponsored by the local Mary Kay Cosmetics salesman, it might be an issue to young boys, whether straight or closeted gay.

9. There are probably a lot of good Halloween stories out there, but I’m not willing to dress up in costume to find them. When you live outside of Saugatuck, however, you might not have a choice.

10. Barbie’s birthday is a holiday in many cultures and should be celebrated as such.

And what did I learn about myself, besides that I can’t spell “repercussions”? It’s that I’m really looking forward to Wade Rouse’s talk on Tuesday, February 8th, at 7 PM. As funny as the book is to read, I’m guessing that he’s even funnier in person.

So we celebrate tomorrow, a wonderful occasion--the publication of Wade Rouse's new book, It's All Relative: Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and 50 Boxes of Wine. A toast to Wade, or at least a new outfit for Barbie (and I haven't even mentioned our shared interest in Pez dispensers).

Rouse will be speaking at Boswell on Tuesday, February 8th, co-sponsored by Winkie's of Whitefish Bay. After having read two of his books and spoken to folks who've heard him at Next Chapter, I know it's going to be a very, very funny event.

Tomorrow: Jocelyn and I head to Winkie's to buy decorations!