The absolutely raddest night EVER

Okay, so tonight Jodi and I braved tornadoes, hail, and general death-causing weather to go to the Loft to see Josh Furst read from his book The Sabotage Cafe. I promised I'd let Jodi write about it first, but I just can't contain myself.

This was, hands down, the most fucking fabulous night ever. EVER.

Josh's reading was kick ass. I haven't finished the book yet (y'all know how I am with the finishing of things), but I had read two of the three parts he read, including the part he read just for Jodi. The other reading was, well, horrifically bad. On multiple levels. The writing was terrible, and the author read like she was bored to tears with her own work.

After the reading, we did the book buying/author signing thing, and Jags' husband, David, asked Josh if he wanted to go hang with us at Grumpy's after he was done doing his writer thing.

He said yes.

So we're sitting there at Grumpy's, at our usual table, except instead of shooting the shit with the likes of our fellow classmates, we're shooting the shit with Josh Fucking Furst. And his entourage, all of whom were quite personable and cool. We talked about the book, Grumpy's tots, and a lot of punk music chat that totally went over my head (at one point I told Jodi how over my head I was...I could have been sitting around with a batch of nuclear physicists discussing the square root of pi and I would have had more to contribute).

Josh was kind enough to bum me a smoke, and while we were out smoking I was able to tell him what my favorite part of the book was, such a human moment of pity and of just plain, simple, ugly *truth* that I didn't feel totally comfortable saying at the whole table and had planned to email him about, because I didn't imagine I'd get to talk with him alone.

Anyway, suffice to say, tonight was the absolute best night at the Loft ever. Jodi and I were like little kids on the way home, talking about how awesome it was that we got to hang with the author after his reading, and we discussed how he picked part of his reading for her, and what a star fucker I am because of course I think he's totally hot.

Buy Josh's book. Especially if you live in the twin cities, because you'll recognize it. I'm sure if you've ever associated with the punk scene on any level you'll recognize it too, but I can't speak to that. You'll like it. Good characters and good solid writing, and it's always good to support writers who are really good, smart people, like Josh is.