Takoma Park and DC

At Nicole and Dirksens' we have a little supper and then crash. My first solid sleep since we started and now I think I don't have Lyme's Disease, just fatigue, because I wake up ready for a Girls' Day Off.
First, a class at Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park and then an excellent and overdue pedicure-manicure with Nicole. All of a sudden we realize the Busboys and Poets reading is at 6pm!
Luckily we can take the Metro

Busboys and Poets is a busy cafe restaurant with a small bookstore and a nice room for readings, sponsored by Teaching for Change. It's a nice change for me to have a beer while I listen to a good story, "Shave and a Haircut". Noah Grace and her friends are cool, and they enjoy it

John reads standing up, holding the notebook in which he has reprinted the stories in large type- no reading glasses necessary. Maureen O'Connor will be reading from her book about VISTA called "Knocking on Doors" at Busboys and Poets May 11. Maybe she'll ask for a podium.
After a few days on the tour, I look forward to seeing who might turn up.

Michael Sullivan! Michael-along with Betsy and Jay- defended John when he was falsely accused of plagiarism (for PASSION FISH, can you imagine) and he has been our friend ever since.

Fredricka and Robin Cramer!

And Teaching for Changes bookstore assistant LaTissa Mitchell looking like they sold a lot of books! Now back to Takoma Park for delicious lamb chops and fun around the table with Nicole, Dirksen, and their great kids. And another great night of sleep.
Moving out tomorrow for the long haul.

Below are some notes and links provided by Teaching for Changes/ Busboys and Poets. Take a look:

•You can hear John reading at Busboys and Poets:

http://bbpbooks.teachingforchange.org/book/9781936365180

•You can see their photo album from the event:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150247301470701.373802.141844305700

•The Zinn Education Project: http://www.facebook.com/ZinnEducationProject , http://zinnedproject.org/posts/10788

•Moment in the Sun will be a recommended resource in the summer issue of Rethinking Schools which goes to newsstands all over the country and online. It is rare to have a novel for adults featured in the journal. They do good things:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/25_04/25_04_bigelow2.shtml

Anchors Aweigh

Today we truly leave home. We have been enjoying 210 International House, with Art and Maritina in residence representing Manila and Alejandro with us from Mexico City. The backyard International Café is open at all hours, rain or shine.

Look for Keetin in the front. She is holding the fort while we're away.
I will show you the Prius as soon as we wash it. For now, meet Nicole and her daughter Noah Grace. We eat very, very well chez Salimbene/Bauman. We are here for two nights, which is already a luxury on this schedule.

Dirksen drove us through rush hour traffic to Falls Road in Baltimore, home of John Waters and Atomic Books.
John read "Black Bag" which features Dr. Lunceford, a good choice since we were nearby Johns Hopkins and there were medical people in the audience. Among the first time vistors were members of John's family, including Aunt Honey and her good neighbor Betty.

Aunt Honey's daughter Eileen wrote to say,, "None of us had every been to anything like that be and     it was a lot of fun." 

Here is Ben who owns Atomic Bookstore with Rachel Whang. They sold 30 copies! And if you stop by you can pick up one of the tomes signed by John Sayles.

Atomic Bookstore is not like most other stores, in so many ways. We were happy to see the room packed to standing room again, with locals and some people who had travelled a distance to a new store to hear a storyteller they admire.

Day Five, New York City

How do you get to the Gotham Center from Hoboken? You take the PATH.

Our friend Suzanne Wasserman is the director of the Gotham Center, located in the CUNY Graduate Center campus in the old B. Altman building. The Gotham Center sponsored a reading of A MOMENT IN THE SUN before McSweeney's took it on, and Suzanne is proud to have him back.

The generous honorarium will help us pay for gas for the tour. The event is well attended even on a rotten cold night (will Spring ever come to New York?) John read "Coney Island", about Brigid McCoole and Harry Manigault on their first date. He used an Irish brogue and a southern drawl, our man of many voices. We sold a lot of books!

For me one of the best parts of the tour so far is seeing friends. I can't possibly take photos of everyone but here are Paula and her beautiful daughter Madeleine

and old friends from some of our movies including Nora Chavooshian who designed THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET and MATEWAN and Jaqui Pine, Script Supervisor on EIGHT MEN OUT.

Our faithful distributor Dylan Marchetti was working too hard on AMIGO to attend the reading but he stopped by to meet John. They are joined by Arthur Acuña (the assassin Locsin from AMIGO) and Maritina Romulo who has joined the AMIGO distribution outreach team.

Heading back to Hoboken with Art and Maritina and filmmaker Alejandro Springall (MY MEXICAN SHIVAH). Alejandro jumped in the car with us for the Philadelphia and Boston legs of the tour. No room for him when we haul anchor on Thursday and head off to points South.

We have been International House in Hoboken and I'll miss them.

Day Four, Porter Square Books

It's like coming home.
John and I lived in East Boston in the '70's and many of our friends turned out to see him. Holly Hesslop hosted a drop-in at Christopher's where we had a chance to catch up before the reading.
Porter Square is a real independent bookstore with local support . The reading was standing room only.

John read "Our Boys at Camp", using baseball (again) to show us America. He reads very well and his fans were proud. They included

Austin de Besche, cinematographer of RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN, and Chris Cooper who has been with us in so many movies, including AMIGO.

This was a chance for longtime fans to meet John Sayles and have him sign not only A MOMENT IN THE SUN but also the "mother" books (the ones that spawned this big one) and their copies of the movies too. Even on laser disc! That's how far we go back.

 Nathan ran the show. He says in this economy selling 20 books was  outstanding.

Day Three Free Library of Philadelphia

Don't give up hope, go see a reading at the Philadelphia Free Library. 200-250 smart Americans who love books. Here are two of them including Concha Alborg, a John Sayles fan.

John read "Gold Fever" chapter. Now I know from his reading that Hod is very young. And Joe Raven! I haven't heard John act with a Native American accent since he played the Indian in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in North Conway NH in 1975.
Joseph Fox Bookshop must be pleased:  John signed 120 copies of the  book (only $29.00 which isn't bad for a cat-squasher). 45 were copies that were ordered through James Fox by people who did not attend the event and the rest were like the nice family here.

Fun for me to see friends along the way. Marty and Mimi's sister Tina, meeting over A MOMENT.

 the Free Library of Philadelphia series is well attended, with many regulars. Perfect lighting, perfect sound, starts right on time, and the signing is set up efficiently in the beautiful stone lobby. Laura and Andy Kahan do a great job. Teamwork: JS with Andy.

Goodbye, House

Sunday, our last day at home till we return from the tour. John mowed, sad to behead all the wildflowers. Friends will stay in the house and enjoy the rest of Spring as it comes to Dutchess Co. NY. John and I will discover it all around the country.

Day Two Oblong Books, Rhinebeck NY

This is a special stop for us because Oblong is our local bookstore. Rhinebeck is just 20 minutes from where we live so was no surprise that the reading was filled with friends and neighbors,

Logan Goodman, David Strathairn, Aki Busch, and Brian Johnston among them.


Lots has been written about the death of the independent bookstore. There are no signs of it here. Oblong Books added a second store in Rhinebeck after many years of success at their mother store in Millerton. Now there are two generations running the business. Suzanna Hermans runs Rhinebeck and her noble Dad Dick Hermans runs the Oblong store. This year the second store EXPANDED by taking over the adjacent storefront to enlarge the children's section and provide a spacious area for readings.

Here is Suzanna with friend Anna and Michael Meerepol. She looks proud and happy, as she should.

And John is  happy too. He read "Eastman Bullet" last night, which is the chapter where Diosdado witnesses an execution in the Intramuros, Manila. This is the chapter he read years ago at BAM. Afterward in the Q&A he amazed the audience with his grasp of the history of our engagement in Cuba and the Philippines. John loves to share what he knows, so there was satisfaction all around.