Former blog about Please Take Me Off the Guest List is below. Please check it out. In the meantime, frontman for the Freshkills and author Zachary Lipez answers some questions:
1. What are you writing now?
I do a weekly (or so) opinion (or something) piece for Noisey.com, where I use the discussion of whatever young, hip band I’m profiling as a thin cover to air my many grievances with the world.
I’m also working on a novel. Working title :”Too Many Creeps”. It’s about creeps.
2. Is the pay decent at The Strand? Do you think that’s where your character got his strep throat all the time?
The pay at the Strand is surprisingly decent. Or, at least it was when I worked there. They’re unionized (under the umbrella of the UAW) and, though the union is not terribly strong, that at least provides basic protections. I should not that I always got along with management, but I worked in the basement where, at the time, things were a bit more loosey goosey.
3. Please Tell Me Something Good To Read (preferably indie)
Sure! I just finished The Known World by Edward P.Jones. It’s hardly indie (it won a Pulitzer) but it’s a fantastic book about black slave owners in Virgina, before the Civil War. On the indie front, I mainly read what’s given to me. I don’t really run in literary circles so I’m always a bit late. I’m reading No Space For Further Burials by Feryal Ali Gauhar. Saying I “love” it sounds weird as it’s a pretty harrowing, but even in its catalog of horrors it’s beautifully written. So read that.
4. Please describe your household growing up (in two words) And now?
Two words? Jeez. Um. Fuck. That’s hard. OK.
Growing up- “mow grass”
Now- “pay rent”
