Weird things that land in my in-box

An in-vite to a lit reading. Uh-huh... It IS the Styrian Autumn Arts Festival, and all, but whaaaa? I haven't been in years, wasn't even on the site, or anything, how in the wurrrld?

This makes no sense.... I've been to some stellar symposien in my life. I think the most impressive was one with the late Susan Sonntag. SHE... was a star, and she KNEW it, and so impressive I got writers block. The organisers did away with those many years ago, and I regretted it. Hervé Guibert, for instance, blew me away.

The devilish and charming Manuel Puig was amazing. 'Kiss of the Spider Woman', but he read something new, and could melt you away.

That was all in the late Seventies and Eighties, and I wanted to become a published author, except everything was so hectic and crazy, and if you didn't have an 'in'... well forget it.

But it was always heady stuff, those symposien... They usually had up to five authors, they would read from works in progress, and then there would be a discussion. And every year the authors were from a different continent.

It was pretty amazing.

So today I got an avviso that there will be a reading on Saturday up the street from the Square... by a local, I guess. The book is about a gay prostitute and a banker. In Graz, or something.

What surprises me is that I haven't the foggiest idea how I got on their list.

I don't do much on the Austrian net, certainly not in the thematic area, don't order books, other than Amazon in Germany, and Harry Potter certainly doesn't fall into the category of me being interested, and that has been over...

I just think it is weird.

(And no, I don't visit porn sites...BORING....or anything in that sort of category of interest... so WHY please?)

I live like a hermit, consume news, look at Soaps in order to give the Ven a chuckle, and have Peter as a millstone around my neck.

It just didn't make sense, you know?

Sigh... Who knows? Maybe I'll stop by and take a listen. But it's weird, believe me.