Random Reflections

A dog park review, publication in 2017, and a few basketball notes

There are two dog parks nearby: Jason Park and The Canine Corral.

This is a review of The Canine Corral.

Instead of grass, there’s shredded wood mulch. Sometimes thin pointy pieces of mulch get stuck in our dog’s paws. There are two park benches where people sit all day and spectate. They drink from flasks and make loud comments about other people’s dogs. I heard one of them call my dog Teddy “Eyebrows” because he has a beige dot above each eye. The canine corral attracts dog owners who let their dogs go wild. Every time we go to the canine corral a dog has either humped one of our legs or pissed upon them. You do not want to wear nice shoes to the canine corral. You might want to wear patriotic gear to blend in. You might want to have a drink beforehand too because the people at the canine corral have been drinking. No one here picks up their dog poop.

The Canine Corral: 3/5 stars

My new book, Afternoon Hours of a Hermit, comes out today.

I was at the LA Times Book Festival and it was fun. The best part was when a friend decided they wanted to lounge in the USC fountains so they took off their pants and sat in the water, only for a stressed-out security guard to come over and tell them that they were being “inappropriate”. He asked them to put their pants back on.

I’ll be at the Center for Fiction on April 22nd at 7pm with Jordy Rosenberg and Andrea Lawlor.

You can order my book here and I’d be so incredibly grateful. If you feel isolated from people, but also an abiding affection for them, this book is probably for you.

A photo I took on my first book tour in 2017, Milwaukee, WI

It’s been almost nine years since I published my first book, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, with McSweeney’s. My main memory from 2017 is the deep solitude I felt the week my book came out. I thought I had written an interesting book, but not much happened at first. The response was mostly silence.

It can take a long time for a book to feel as if it has its own life.

Over the years, there have been numerous issues (big & small) with my first book and its association with my former name. At the end of last year, McSweeney’s said they would reprint my book with my name on it. The day McSweeney’s told me this was one of the happiest days of my adult life. I’m not exaggerating. It was a huge huge relief. Anyway, I’m so thankful for McSweeney’s which is a small non-profit organization that has been hit with cuts to their funding. A few weeks ago I did an event with Scott Broker for his debut The Disappointment at Tattered Cover. That was the first time I saw copies of my reprinted book in person. It feels special to have Sorry… associated with my name; it has done so much for my well-being. Please support presses like McSweeney’s. They publish beautiful books, magazines, and objects. They do important work.

Lastly, the NBA playoffs are back. The Celtics may be a dark horse? Probably the Thunder will win it all but who knows, the Spurs look good, too. I’m more excited for the WNBA season anyway. The women are finally getting paid (it’s a start). I’ve also been watching the trainwreck that is the NCAA womens’ portal. The Lady Vols in particular have been hit hard by a mass player exodus due to the gimmick-y system Kim Caldwell runs and now they’ve signed way too many small guards for the SEC. It was cool to see UCLA win the championship with all their returning seniors. I actually like the Colorado Buffs and the program JR Payne runs. It’s a system that relies on defense and rebounding, pretty old school. She’s been able to navigate the portal without much NIL and yet the team remains competitive in the Big 12.

Thanks for reading this.