Who?

Several years ago Dannatt and I attended a party for Interview Magazine in hopes of speaking with their managing editor. Glenn was an old timer like myself. I had once threw him out of a nightclub.

This evening's soiree was held at an unfinished hotel.

Very unfinished.

The crowd before the entrance of the construction site was 10 deep. I slid through the expectant entrees and said I was on the list as Johnny Justice.

"We were wondering who you were." The black-clad press secretary pointed me out to her friends.

"That's me. International man of mystery."

Two steps into the work site I was forgotten. My friend Dannatt and I whisked up to the top floor for sushi, champagne, and conversation. Glenn was surrounded by his coterie. I got a wave and went to the bar. After an hour I heard the call of my pumpkin truck.

I shared the service elevator down with a beautiful blonde in jeans. She was in a panic about claustrophobia.

"I hate elevators."

"They were very terrifying in TOWERING INFERNO." I had sat in the second row of the Ziegfield Theater for that film. The inferno was very towering at that distance from the screen.

"I hate that film." She rushed into the corner elevator, face buried in the padding.

"This one is okay."

"How do you know?"

"Because empty elevator never crash>"

She shddered upon hearing my say 'crash, but on the ground floor she regained her composure. I held the door open with my hand. Afterwards Adrian said, "That's Stephanie Seymour."

"Who?" The name meant something.

"The Victoria Secrets model." Dannatt rolled his eyes at my ignorance.

Five years out of the country does wonders to your celebrity antennae.

"Her boyfriend is building the hotel."

"Fabulous." It sounded like the right thing to say.

I shook hands with Dannatt and took the subway to Brooklyn. No top models on my arm. No limo. No penthouse. Just the A train heading to Lafayette Street.

KGB READING January 23, 2017

KGB: Unplugged Yellow

KGB Bar - 85 E 4th St, New York, NY

RICHARD DAILEY is an American writer, artist, and independent filmmaker based in Paris, where he currently hosts a bi-monthly reading and performance series. His poetry, prose, and art criticism have appeared internationally in numerous journals. Unplugged Yellow is his first published novel.

ADRIAN DANNATT is an English writer living in New York City. In 1976 he starred in the children’s show, Just William. He contributes regularly to Flash Art, The Art Newspaper and other publications. Most recently he wrote Jean Claude Abreu for lacanian ink 28. Gossip by Adrian Dannatt can be found in Perfume.

PETER NOLAN SMITH is an underground punk legend, diamond salesman, world traveller and most recently unofficial writer-in-residence to an embassy in Mittel Europa. Much more at www.mangozeen.com.

CATHERINE DESPONT is a writer/artist, editor and educator. She has an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and her writing and teaching focus on the role of observation in way we teach, learn and create. As Co-Director of Education at Pioneer Works she founded the annual Summit on Pedagogy, as well as the Alternative Art School Fair, and runs a popular program called the School of Apocalypse. She also oversees PW’s publishing projects including the bookstore, Pioneer Books, and the Groundworks book series.

I will be reading DOWN THE COAST

Here's the opening three paragraphs.

Skyline Drive crested a hill and Sean tramped along the breakdown lane with his thumb stretched out to the traffic. A steep cliff descended to the ocean. Cormorants skimmed over the water. Huge swells fanned into the crescent bay and surfers in black wetsuits skated the face of monstrous waves. He dropped his bag at junction of Route 35 and the PCH, however over two hundred cars passed him without one slowing down.

The stares of female drivers convicted him of rape and hostile male motorists glared at Sean, as if he had betrayed America, while passing high school students shouted, “Get a hair cut, you fucking hippie.”

He answered with the peace sign.