Emma Straub's Blog, page 6

The above photo was taken at the 5 Under 35 shindig thrown by the National Book Foundation, and shows me talking to the brilliant and currently Parisian writer Dinaw Mengestu. BUT REALLY it shows my sparkly and wonderful Ban.do, which got me thinking, perhaps I should tell you what to buy for other people.

1. Hair Accessories

I am physically incapable of doing anything zippy with my hair itself, so I am forced to rely on outfits like Ban.do, which make glorious and funny little jobbies for you to clip into your hair. They always make me feel glamorous, and people love to talk about them, and when Maira Kalman came to BookCourt, she took a picture of me wearing one, so there's that.

2. Books

This is an obvious one, but here are some books I've read recently that are perfect gifts for anyone with a sense of joie de vivre: Rosamond Bernier's Some of My Lives, Grace Bonney's Design Sponge at Home, or maybe just the first 300 books published by NYRB classics, if you're feeling flush.

3. Sweets

Madison, Wisconsin's premier chocolatier (yes, there are several, and she really is the best) Gail Ambrosius ships anywhere.

4. Hope for the Next Generation

A donation to Girls Write Now in the name of someone you love is always chic, always fits, and will make you look both erudite and philanthropic.

That should get you started. More as the month progresses, and I spend more and more time fantasy-shopping online.

love and presents,

Emma

It's been a busy couple of weeks in my memory banks. An essay I wrote about the incredible founding headmaster of my high school went up on the Paris Review Daily, and an essay I wrote about girl gangs at said high school just went up on Rookie. So, if you're wondering how I feel about being a teenager, have at it.

Yours,

Emma

Question: what do you do when Wesley Stace invites to read with Rosanne Cash, John Hodgman, Eugene Mirman, Hamilton Leithauser, Craig Finn, Paul Harding and John Darnielle?

Answer: you say yes. You wear heels. You double up on the hair poufs. And then, when everyone else is somewhere else, coating their golden throats with whiskey or tea or mini hamburgers, you take a picture of yourself alone in the dressing room, wicked stoked.

Everyone was amazing. And, I must say, though Paul Harding was indeed Pulitzer-worthy, and John Hodgman and Eugene Mirman were both hilarious (HILARIOUS), I was most blown away by my compatriots who opened their mouths and let songs fly out. It is impossible to listen to Rosanne Cash sing 'Seven Year Ache' and not feel like you are in the presence of a truly otherworldly talent. Plus, her cowboy boots were the platonic ideal of cowboy boots, which helps on the otherworldly plane, I am told.

Should you not previously have had the pleasure, allow me.

Yours, still swooning,

Emma

I think my problems with dance began when I was about three. My dance class had a performance, and we little ones were all supposed to be flowers that grew out of small garbage cans. I assume I was wearing a leotard. The only thing I really remember is the older girl, whose job it was to wheel us out onto the stage, remarked on my heaviness. I climbed out of the can, walked off the stage, and watched the rest of the performance from my mother's lap. Thus ended my career as a dancer.

BUT. This pathetic story aside, there is nothing that I love more than a dance movie. Below is my guide to the best of the best.

IF YOU LOVE BALLET:

Center Stage is a classic. I love it when they hire dancers instead of actors and then we are forced to deal with wooden line-readings but really killer dance sequences. It's like that time you slept with that guy who was a total moron but could make risotto like nobody's business. (Note: this never happened to me, but I like to imagine that it could.) Extra points for including Russians AND Donna Murphy.

IF YOU LOVE BREAKDANCING:

Do I know the answer to the age-old question, why is Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo so much more famous than the original? I do not. But if you have no love for Turbo and Ozone, than you are dead to me. This time with headbands, and dancing on the ceiling!

More recently, the Step Up franchise has been doing phenomenal work in the breakdancing genre. Step Up featured Channing Tatum (worth the price of admission all by himself) and Jenna Dewan, who is now Jenna Dewan-Tatum, so dance movies can make marriages happen, people.  The subsequent movies (the wonderfully named Step Up: 2 The Streets and Step Up 3D) starred people no one has heard of but look really good without their shirts on. Still worth the price of admission. In his review of Footloose (see below), AO Scott called the Step Up movies "mighty." So there's that.

IF YOU LOVE JOY AND FEEL NOSTALGIA FOR THE 1980s:

I have been waiting for MONTHS to see the updated Footloose directed by Craig Brewer (he of the non-dance films Blake Snake Moan and Hustle and Flow), and we finally went this weekend. I was nearly weeping with joy throughout. Loads of dance moves and lines of dialogue are lifted directly from the original, which made me feel like A Dance Professional. As with Center Stage, Footloose features two dancers as the leads, and their abilities wax and wane throughout the movie, giving it a wonderfully earnest feel. These kids are trying! They're learning! I loved every second of it. And they live in the only town in the south that has banned dancing AND YET has a school full of kids who are profession break dancers AND line-dancers. I'm moving there tomorrow. If anyone can teach me how to dance, it's them.

My husband just came into my office, where I am listening to the new Footloose soundtrack, and he said about Blake's cover of the title song, "That makes Kenny Loggins sound like he was recorded by Motown." I think that's a diss, Blake, and I'm sorry. I love you.

And you, too.

Yours,

Emma

P.S. Yes, there are more. No, I didn't forget about Dirty Dancing, or your other favorite. This is a small and incomplete list.

I arrived home to find this gorgeous box of Gail Ambrosius chocolates waiting for me, care of my dear, darling Rae Meadows. Now that's what I can a pick-me-up.

And in case you're wondering, yes, those are my toes, and the color is Essie's California Coral.

love and chocolate,

Emma

It's simple math, really.

One pair leopard print tights.

One lunch date (includes fried fish sandwich).

One hair accessory.

Some California dreaming.

love

Emma

One of the greatest pleasures in having a website is having Google Analytics. This means I get to see what people search in order to find my page. If the copyedits on my story collection were a Rorshach test (see my last post), then looking at other people's search queries is like eavesdropping on a conversation about yourself at a cocktail party. Juicy!

One of the things people often search is 'Emma Straub Wedding Poems.' I suppose they're looking to find out what poems we had at our wedding, and not which poems of mine would be wedding appropriate (answer: very few). The answer is Frank O'Hara's 'Having a Coke With You,' which you can hear him read here.

Another thing people often search is 'Emma Straub brownies,' the recipe for which you can find here.

Sometimes people stumble onto my pages after searching for something else entirely. Some of my favorite examples: Bianca Jagger, Oberlin College Womb Chair, Future Bible Heroes Vacationland, Did Lucille Ball Live in Metuchen New Jersey. I hope they were as happy to find me as I was to find them.

Of course, most people just search for my name, or the name of one of my books, and that's lovely, too.

In the interest of fairness, here are some things I've googled recently: 5 Under 35, Park Slope Yoga Center Schedule, Upstairs at the Square, Mindy Kaling.

Yours, with googly eyes,

Emma

I am thrilled to announce that Riverhead Books is going to rerelease Other People We Married in February. This is exciting for many reasons, chief among them being a much wider distribution. Though I live in a city with a number of wonderful independent bookstores, many of which I frequent regularly, I know that's not true for everyone. Now people will be able to buy the book anywhere, easily, even at Barnes and Noble, and on Amazon.

One of the other joys of having the book rereleased is the opportunity to work with a Real Live Copyeditor, which means that I got a list of every proper noun in the entire book. It struck me that this list was like a little Rorschach test of my personality. To wit:

Joan of Arc

John Keats

John Travolta

Joshua Tree

Katharine Hepburn

Leaves of Grass

Leonard Cohen

L.L.Bean

Marlene Dietrich

Marmaduke

Marshmallow Fluff

That tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the collection, I think. Please pre-order the book wherever you would normally do so. I've set up exactly ONE event for the rerelease, and it's a doozy. Details to follow…

Yours, breathless with gratitude and excitement and, fine, some potato chips,

Emma

It can be a dangerous thing, to interact with one's heroes. People can be weird and awkward and frosty and rude and humorless and cruel and snobbish and otherwise totally bogus.

Or, they can be Jennifer Egan, the total opposite of that.

She really is this nice. This photo, and the ones below, were all taken at our joint reading at Pete's Candy Store.

Of course, Jenny Egan is not my only hero.

It took me almost a decade to convince Megan Lynch to go steady with me.

And then of course, there's Miss America.

And poor Clint Eastwood, seen here getting his brain sucked out by my fingernails.

Excellent heroes, all.

So this is just to say: sometimes people exceed your expectations, and are pure, pure gold.

love

Emma

Tomorrow is our 3rd wedding anniversary, and in celebration, my parents sent us a present with this photograph of Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, taken by Herb Ritts. We're headed out of town for a few days, so when you think of me, think of Wino and Johnny in 1991, his claws from Edward Scissorhands still sharp, Reality Bites still a few years off, Heathers only a few years behind. Sure, we all know it didn't last, but god, look at them.