Second Sunday Stories and Songs residency to begin January 9th, 2011

Hello Folks:

After the holidays, we will begin a yearlong residency of writers and musicians at The Living Room. It's the continuation of the series we started at Googies (upstairs from The Living Room) in September. We'll be appearing every second Sunday of the month, beginning with January 9th. The format will be similar. A wordsmith will kick off the night, followed by yours truly (that's a dumb expression) with The Liars Club, followed by a musical act. The first week, we have a very special show featuring three terrific poets, Liz Axelrod, Mario Alberto Zambrano and Rebecca Melnyk. Their bios are below.

We hope to see you throughout the year. I'll be in touch after the new year. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Thanks again to everyone who made the release of Gadfly and Declaration of Us such a success. You can buy the book (and eventually the EP) and get updates about future residency performers at dannylanzetta.com.

Toodaloo!

Danny

Liz Axelrod: A former DJ, Music Industry Promoter and Publicist with four gold records under her belt, Liz is well into her third life as a creative writing student. Liz has been making the rounds of the NYC Poetry Circuit for over a decade and has been both reader and judge at the Bowery College Poetry Slam, a regular at Smalls Jazz Club’s Saturday Open Mic Poetry Readings, and a featured poet at the Phoenix Poetry Series and the Yippie Museum’s Monday Night Poet’s Café. She is currently working on her first collection of poems, entitled “Flash Upon My Grid,” an eighties DJ girl collection of short stories, finishing her novel, and rearranging the Earth’s gravitational pull to make the day at least three hours longer. 

Mario Alberto Zambrano: Mario was a contemporary ballet dancer for fifteen years. He has danced for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Nederlands Dans Theater, Batsheva Dance Company and Ballett Frankfurt, and has lived in Holland, Germany, Spain, Israel, Japan, and Chicago. His writing has been published in Dance Europe Magazine, Skive, Thieves Jargon and The Brooklyn Rail. Currently, he is working on his first novel, a collection of fifty-four vignettes.

Rebecca Melnyk: Rebecca was born in Canada during a snow storm. She has lived in New York for awhile, enough that she can’t shake the city off her bones.  She dedicates her time to studying literature, writing poems and stories, and is currently kicking around in the cacophony of the East Village by interning at the Poetry Project.

The Release of Danny Lanzetta's Gadfly and Declaration of Us on December 10th at The Living Room

Allo ladies and gents!

Well, the date has been set and we’re raring to go. On Friday, December 10^th, I will release both my novel Gadfly and the EP Declaration of Us at The Living Room at 10 PM. We’ll be rockin’ and rollin’ all night long, I can promise you that. My good friends Emily Easterly and J. Seger will also be releasing their new EP, VA/MD, that evening at 9 pm. Chris Cubeta and The Liars Club will play at 11.

Please allow me this opportunity to share a little about how we finally got to this night. I started Gadfly more than four years ago as an MFA student at the New School and am indebted to so many people for their help, support and critiques, both solicited and unsolicited.  I don’t know if Gadfly will end up resonating with a lot of people (I think my dad liked it, but he might be biased), but I do know that the process has been worth it no matter what happens next. I believe in it and am grateful to all the people who have helped get me through this thing. Even Dale Peck.

For those of you who don’t know, Gadfly is a self-published novel. But that decision was far from a last resort. In fact, self-publishing this book became a choice I felt I had to make, not only for my own satisfaction, but as an acknowledgement to the numerous writers, far better and more worthy than me, forced to toil in obscurity because of the whims of the marketplace and the lack of vision of some folks in the literary game. But this is not meant to be a screed against publishing houses. We all know the problem of trying to mix art and commerce, and I’m not going to waste space with that old debate. But I do want to make it known that even writers who have book deals spend years waiting to see their words in print, to say nothing of those who can’t get an agent, can’t find a publisher, etc. etc. It can be pretty demoralizing. And I simply didn’t want to wait around for the approval of someone who probably wasn’t that interested in my artistic goals in the first place. That’s not a knock on those folks, just a fact.

So, in addition to my own aspirations, I am willing to throw down the gauntlet to show there are possibilities available to us. That doesn’t mean I’m the only one who can do it; it just means I like gauntlet-throwing.  I know other people have self-published before me. Independent musicians have been doing this kind of thing for years, after all. But we are on the cusp of an era where artists will have more control over the ability to cultivate an audience. And that is truly something to celebrate. I am also extremely lucky to have a rock and roll band to help bring my words off the page in an exciting way. I take very little credit for that, by the way. Most of that belongs to Chris Cubeta, my co-writer, and the band.

Over the next few weeks leading up to the release, I’ll be sending out email reminders about the show, my blog updates and anything else I might want to share. (The Knicks might not be terrible!) You can now access my blog, as well as some music and videos through my new website dannylanzetta.com. I’d appreciate all of you spreading the word about December 10^th and hope many of you can make it out to share the evening with us. The book and EP will be available together for 15 dollars that night, which is cheaper than they will be separately or online. So you’re getting a deal too! (Because you know what America’s real pastime is? It’s not baseball. It’s saving money. So says the weird looking State Farm pitchman in this strangely disturbing commercial. But I digress.)

Thanks again to everyone who has been a part of this . . . well, I want to say “journey,” but I’m tired of that metaphor. Let’s call it an extended trance that has included, but wasn’t limited-to, ecstasy, suffering and boredom. That probably doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well, does it? Oh well.

Pertinent details below. See ya soon.

Danny

Danny Lanzetta – The Release of Gadfly and Declaration of Us

With Chris Cubeta and The Liars Club and VA/MD featuring Emily Easterly and J. Seger

Friday, December 10th

9 PM

The Living Room

154 Ludlow Street

NYC

Free

Stories and Songs Residency Update

Just want to send a quick thank you to everyone who has been involved and attended the Stories and Songs residency all month at Googies. We've had some terrific readings and performances and I'm grateful to everyone who has come out to support this little endeavor. This week, we're going out with a bang. New York Times book reviewer Joseph Salvatore, whose new collection of short stories, To Assume a Pleasing Shape, will be published by BOA Editions in 2011, will be reading. Word is he's bringing a pretty good crowd. In addition, Emily Easterly, J. Seger and Chris Cubeta, three of the best songwriters I've had the pleasure to know, have a few tricks up their sleeves to put an exclamation point on our month-long jamboree. I don't know what those "tricks" are, but I'm sure none involve a lady being sawed in half. Pretty sure, anyway. Just come out and take a chance.

Thanks again to everyone who has been involved. I'll be posting regularly in October and November as we get ready for the release of Gadfly and the as-of-now untitled EP (any suggestions?). As soon as we know that date, we'll get you all the pertinent info.

That's all for now. Oh, check out this blog entry from my friend Matt Singer who performed at the Stories and Songs residency. He's an amazing writer and I am humbled by his far too effusive praise.

See ya' reeeeeeaaaaal soon!

http://www.mattsingermusic.com/blog 

Stories and Songs: A Residency of Writers

Here is the schedule for the Stories and Songs residency at Googies Lounge - 154 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side - I will be hosting every Sunday in September. Hope to see you there.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

8 – 8:15: Minju Pak

8:30 – 9:10: Danny Lanzetta

9:20 – 10:00: Paul Basile


Sunday, September 12, 2010

8 – 8:15: Andrew Cotto

8:30 – 9:10: Danny Lanzetta

9:20 – 10:00: Clyde featuring Misty Boyce and Nick Africano


Sunday, September 19, 2010

8 – 8:15: Andrew Zornoza

8:30 – 9:10: Danny Lanzetta

9:20 – 10:00 Matt Singer and Bryan Dunn


Sunday, September 26, 21010

8 – 8:15: Joseph Salvatore

8:30 – 9:10: Danny Lanzetta

9:20 – 10:00: Chris Cubeta, Emily Easterly and J. Seger