Art for Race Fans

Wednesday I received an announcement from industry buzz builder Lauren Cerand about the Min Jin Lee and Mike Doughty event last night at B&N's "Upstairs at the Square", the monthly series pairing music and lit by Steven Sorrentino. While I was unable to attend, Cerand was good enough to send me this report on the evening:

"Over 400 people showed up for the April edition of "Upstairs at the Square" featuring nationally bestselling debut novelist Min Jin Lee (Free Food for Millionaires) and hot, hot singer-songwriter Mike Doughty (Golden Delicious) discussing and performing their work in conversation with host Katherine Lanpher. Both talked about success, failure, hitting the road, the realities of "overnight" success, and the myriad twists, turns and ups-and-downs they encountered on the path to where they are today (including regular shrink appointments). Doughty chatted about his "dude theory" (as in, "Dude, come over and let's make a record"), studying poetry with Sekou Sundiata as an undergrad, his pre-Soul Coughing days as a doorman at the Knitting Factory, and did stripped-down acoustic versions of his radio-ready ode to common first names, "27 Jennifers," the Age of Aquarius-infused anti-war weeper, "Fort Drum," and smash hit "Looking", inspired by a Murakami novel and recently featured on Grey's Anatomy. Lee talked about anguish, longing, class, religion, race, and other themes that have made her first book a darling of critics and readers alike, earning her comparisons to masters of the kind of 19th Century novel that tackled it all.

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