Make It Stop Midwest Tour Part II

Midwest tour is in the books, Corporate Rock Sucks paperback is coming...

Greetings from San Diego! I’m finally home after three weeks of book events in Arizona and the Midwest. I’ve got some more events to tell you about soon, including a conversation with Kid Congo Powers, but first a recap of last week’s fun.

My companion for the second part of the Midwest Tour was Aaron Burch but there was just one problem: when I arrived in Ann Arbor Aaron was in New Orleans with his girlfriend. Matt Kirkpatrick came to the rescue, delivering the keys to Aaron’s apartment, taking me to the airport to drop off my rental car, and then accompanying me to Small’s Bar in Hamtramck. It quickly became apparent that my Michigan geography is sorely lacking and for the first 24 hours or so I was never really sure if I was in Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti or where we were in relation to the airport. Matt helped me keep my head straight. I met Matt at a conference a long time ago and remember liking him and his work and it was great to reconnect with him.

To say I had no idea what to expect from our event at Small’s would be an understatement. Small’s is the kingdom of its beloved bartender

Jimmy Doom

. Jimmy is a character. Irrepressible, larger than life, raconteur. He’s played in hardcore bands, acted in films, and is a storytelling machine. He’s sober but is a bartender and when he’s pouring drinks he wears a tiara.

When he got word that I was coming out to the Midwest he told me to come to Small’s and I said I’d be there. We never really got around to hammering out the details. When I told Aaron about the gig I said I thought it was going to be more like a hang out than a reading or a book signing. Well, I was wrong.

In the days leading up to the event Jimmy suggested we add a few readers and move the event to the stage in the legendary performance space where Total Chaos and the Exploited are going to be playing in September. I made a poster and suddenly we had a show with me, Aaron, Jimmy and a local writer named Gabriel Cassidy on the bill

Eventually Aaron showed up and patrons started buying books before the show, which is odd as usually people like to sample the merchandise before they buy it. Some readers were already familiar with our work, like our old friend Dan Wickett, but most were not. They said, “Jimmy told us to buy your books so here we are!” One patron bought one of everything. This is not something I’ve ever experienced at a bookstore reading. The funny thing is Jimmy told me he'd get all the local punks to come out for the event but from what I could tell the bulk of the attendees were bookish types, including a large number from the Book Suey Co-op down the street. I sold every one of the books I brought with me from California, which was a relief because booksellers would be providing books for the remainder of the tour.

At Small’s Aaron read a short essay that discusses two pandemic purchases: the couch I was sleeping on and the TV that dominates the view from that couch. It’s a tender piece about things not going according to plan. It’s from an essay collection coming out later this summer called A Kind of In-between and I can’t wait to read it.

Aaron Burch, Dan Wickett, Matthew Kirkpatrick at Small’s

The next day we headed to Columbus, Ohio, for a reading at the Two Dollar Radio HQ. This may sound strange since I’m not a Two Dollar Radio author but I can’t think of a small press that has shaped my literary life more than Two Dollar Radio. I think it’s because so many TDR authors read at Vermin on the Mount over the years: Trinie Dalton, D. Foy, Grace Krilanovich, Anne Marie Kinney, Scott McClanahan, Kevin Maloney, Josh Mohr, Karolin Waclawiak, Colin Winnette. I’ve also reviewed a ton of TDR authors and some have become close friends. Seeing all the books on display was like walking into an extension of my brain.

I also got to meet Melissa Faliveno, who wrote one of the all-time great music essays that completely changed the way I think about Everclear’s “Santa Monica.” We also had the pleasure of reading with David E. Yee, a fascinating writer who took us out to dinner afterwards even though it was very late and then drove us back to our hotel.

Two Dollar Rodeo

The following morning we established our road routine: eat the free breakfast at the hotel, do a little work, post photos from the previous evening, and hit the road. Next stop: Indianapolis.

This was the event I was least looking forward to even though it seemed highly organized and well promoted. I don’t have great memories of Indiana. A few years back my mother has a health scare in Indianapolis and I spent an anxious week walking between my hotel and the hospital consumed with worry before she was pronounced well enough for me to drive her back to Virginia. The night before we hit the road I learned that an old acquaintance from the LA punk rock scene took her own life. There was a lightning storm that night and it kept lighting up the water tower that loomed over town like a horror movie and I thought, “Fuck Indiana.”

Well those thoughts drifted away as soon as I sat down to dinner with Brian Allen Carr, who (I think) helped put the reading in motion and then Taylor Lewandowski who made the event happen. Brian is a writer I’ve been reading forever but have spent very little time with in person. Let’s just say that I’m glad we didn’t know each other before we got sober and leave it at that. The reading was a star-studded line-up of talent from all over: Natalie Lima from Miami, Sam Berman and Parker Young from Chicago, Bree Jo’ann representing Indianapolis. The readers were excellent. Taylor was a great host. The vibe was very Vermin.

Brandywine Falls at Cuyahoga State Park

Saturday was an off day and we had a long drive to Cleveland ahead of us. We decided to break it up with some outdoor experiences. We visited Mounds State Park in Indiana in the morning and Brandywine Falls at Cuyahoga National Park later in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and we had long talks about books we’d read, books we’d written, book we are going to write. We also talked about life. We’ve both been through some big life events during the pandemic and having known each other for so long combined with the long drives and long walks gave us the space to lay it all out in a way that felt wholesomely clarifying.

We also talked about our hotel. The Quality Inn in Richfield, Ohio was one of the stranger hotels I’ve ever been in. The rooms were arranged around a massive atrium with a pool, hot tub, putt-putt golf course, playground, and who knows what else. As soon as we walked in we were hit with a wave of chlorine. Each room had an inner and an outer door, one to the hallway that led to the rest of the hotel and one that led to the atrium. There were usually about thirty people or so in the pool and from 9am to 11pm the sounds of shrieking children could be heard echoing from the atrium to the rooms. We were barely there during those hours but it was intense. Also, there was almost a fight in the waffle line the following morning (“Over a mother fucking waffle? Go ahead.”) and the wi-fi password was safe. Aaron and I are now in a race to see who can make use of the place in a story first.

Quality Inn at Richfield, Ohio

Our final event of the tour was at Blue Arrow Books in the Waterloo district in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon. The event was a panel discussion with two very cool music writers Annie Zaleski and Jen B. Larson whose book Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA, 1975-1983 was recently published by Feral House Press. Before the event we had lunch with Danny Caine whose book How to Resist Amazon and Why has made a huge splash in indie book circles and then we took a walk to Euclid Beach to gaze across the lake before heading back to Blue Arrow.

We didn’t stay in Cleveland and opted to drive back to Ann Arbor. Aaron and I split driving duties to stay fresh and alert and considering how much ground we covered it was a remarkably relaxing tour. I slept well and never worried about arriving to the venue/hotel/meet-up on time. Ironically, as soon as the last event was over I immediately started to think about all the things I needed to do when I got home like write this newsletter for you lovely people.

Today, when I think about all the people I met on our journey—many of them strangers—and how generous they were with their time and energy, I’m struck by their goodness. In the past my book tours have been isolated events, a weekend here, a weekend there, and strung together to make a “tour.” This was different. This was the real thing. It required sleeping on couches and driving long distances and getting along to go along for the greater good and having events in non-traditional spaces. To be honest, I get a little emotional when I think how good people were to me in Madison, St. Paul, Chicago, Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Cleveland, many of which I was visiting for the first time.

And for those of you I met on person on the road, thank you for your support. It wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Next week Message from the Underworld will be a little different but that’s all I’m going to say about that right now. For more photos from these stops, check out my Instagram page. Later this week I’ll be posting pics of some of the treasures I picked up during my travels. Remember, it’s never too late to grab a copy of Make It Stop.