Back From the Fray

I can only speak to my perspective, naturally, but as far as I’m concerned, last night was a great time. I’ve got too much work to do today to go into any level of detail, but there were some really phenomenal performances — and it was nice to rub elbows with ’net celebrity.

Tiff, Tom, and Julia did a fantastic job of organizing things, and all had some wonderful stories (Julia told two of my favorites from her repertoire, “open mouth. insert leg. repeat.” and “lester,” both very different in tone but both stunning).

The open-mic performers — including Fray Day 8 Fredericksburg organizer Dan Guy Fowlkes and CakeLove owner Warren Brown — also demonstrated some mad storytelling skills; we even managed to snag a few remarkable performances from folks active in the larger live-storytelling community. I can’t wait for the audio to become available.

For my part, I actually ended up relating two stories last night. One, “Plausible Deniability,” was the one I’d prepared, and the other, tentatively titled “The Father-in-Law Who Would Not Leave,” was largely improvised on the spot. I’m thinking I might post print versions of my Fray Day stories (along with my “Immortality” story from Inkblots) over along the left there, by the links. Maybe I’ll put in links to my essays, movies, and even memorable Prometheus Unleashed posts as well. (Seeing as how I don’t really use the Coughlan.us site at all, this might be a better option.)

On a side note, I also ran into Annette Jones of A3 Productions, which has just received a grant to finish postproduction work on their short film Toxic; she happened to have a “fine cut” screener disc of the film, and I can’t wait to give it a look.

Thanks to all who showed up at the Love Café last night, and sincerest congratulations to all of the participants. I’m already looking forward to next year.