Literary Death Match

Literary Death Match, a performance that "marries the literary and performative aspects of Def Poetry Jam, rapier-witted quips of American Idol’s judging (without any meanness), and the ridiculousness and hilarity of Double Dare," turned 40 episodes old tonight, and I, along with my creative writing classmates, was there to celebrate.

The all-stars of the evening included New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, Moth StorySlam champ Angela Lovell, along with Rick Meyerowitz, co-illustrator of the New Yorkistan New Yorker cover, Sean Kelly, former National Lampoon editor and Heavy Metal magazine founder, Danny Abelson, author of The Muppets Take Manhattan, comedian Jena Friedman, who writes for Late Show with David Letterman, Teddy Wayne, author of the novel Kapitoil — a 2011 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize runner-up, and Jillian Lauren, author of New York Times best-selling Some Girls.  Said participants read their work, recited lists, described encounters with Jesus, and ultimately competed in a Cyrillic-Off,  in which they fought to de-code the names of Pulitzer Prize-winning authors that had been phonetically "cyrillic-ized."

For a detailed account of the energetic match, visit the Literary Death Match Website.

Photo c/o Literarydeathmatch.com

Stay classy in Orlando, LDM. Until then, we'll be keeping Drom warm for you here in NYC.

It's Raining in the Bronx Tonight

Let me make a long story short.
When I was in middle and high school, my friends and I used to LOVE listing stuff. Now that I'm older, I realize that humans in general love listing. So, in true pre-teen style, I've made a nifty list.

Things that I've done/learned in the past two weeks:
1. Off-beat museums in NYC are great
The Museum of Sex seemed to be popular for Valentine's Day. Also, check out this list of Niche museums!
2. Fordham does a killer Mardi Gras dessert
Indeed, they must be expecting students (myself included) to fast for forty days. They're right. They're right to serve double chocolate cake AND a cupcake bar. I'll skip the Cajun, thank you.
3. Fordham is a Catholic University (and I like it that way!)
I was invited to Queen's Court for midnight Ash Wednesday mass (that's right, this is after gorging on dessert for dinner- what a day!) I've never been to a Catholic school before, so I've never known the pleasure of gathering with a small group of people to celebrate faith. Even though the start of lent is unavoidably dreadful, I wouldn't have wanted to start it any other way.
4. Going home is so, so nice
Even when college life seems great. There's no place like home, and you never appreciate college more than when you're coming back to it.

I'm taking the rest of the night to catch up on some music reading and to enjoy the sweet sound of Bronx rain. It's still too chilly to leave my window completely open, but I've left it open enough- I'll sleep with a sweatshirt and extra blankets tonight.