David and Amy Sedaris have got to be the most brilliant and funniest siblings in history.

I re-read David's book of essays "Me Talk Pretty One Day" on the plane this week and was again in awe and laughing out loud the whole time.

It is a real and rare literary occasion when a humourist can reach "funny" and "pathos" at the same time, and can make you pause, reflect, and empathize with the human condition.

David wrote "The Santaland Diaries"...possibly the funniest piece of work I have ever read. The reading of it he did for NPR is available at Barnes and Noble. Hearing him read it is priceless....and will have you bent over laughing and crying.

David Sedaris, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, James Thurber, and Kurt Vonnegut...these are the crazy men that still inspire me to attempt to actually write one day.

That's what a good southern humourist can do with brutal honesty. A slightly askance view of things...humour wrought from pain. When I read good contemporary southern writers like David Sedaris, Amy Sedaris, or Hollis Gillespie, I don't always know when to laugh and when to cry. Their writing and performances are magic, spell-binding, shocking, all all too real, and ultimately some of the most brilliant humour today.

So anyway...Amy Sedaris's new book is climbing the charts like crazy. David Sedaris's books always strike a chord and hit the best seller lists. So...here's some videos with these insane southerners.

The first one is Amy Sedaris...just being her original and unique self on a talk show and eventually doing her infamous "Piglet" character. (Oh shit...I grew up with girls like that)

The second one is David Sedaris doing a reading on Letterman that is in the true Sedaris style. I think he is brilliant, original, and funny in such a human and timeless way.

They both may be a bit long for a blog attention span, but check them out for a few laughs. Enjoy.



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I mean really... when you can attend the Gift Show in NY and find a jewel like the Kim Jong-il Dog Toy, I'd say it was time well worth spent.

We had fun. It was Marc's first buying trip and I loved seeing him experience for the first time what I have lived for years. We found tons of great stuff that will be in the store soon...but first and foremost...a Kim Jong-il Dog Toy?!...how fucking random and awesome is THAT?

Ok..here's my memory about this tune...

Bebel sang at Jazzfest here in Piedmont Park in the summer of 2003. She was one of the last performers that night. We had a blanket and wine and candles. A warm Atlanta night under the stars listening to that SEXY voice and music. It was sublime and awesome.

Bebel comes with a heritage of Bossa Nova royalty. Her dad was Joao Gilberto and her mom was Astrud Gilberto. With parents like that, it's no wonder she's great. I put a cool remix of her song "August Day Song" in the comment section.

Enjoy...I thought I'd put up a slow one this week and bring back Sexy.

***Marc and I are headed for NYC in the morning. I'll catch you guys next week. T

I read somewhere a few years ago that the human brain can only retain a certain amount of digits. The article said that there is a finite event of associated number sequences we can log into memory. I guess that's why I refuse to remember new phone numbers and passwords. I figure that if I remember another new phone number, my brain will flush out the old digits and I will forget my ATM code.

I suppose that applies to writing and blogging as well. Lucky Magazine and Atlanta Magazine are going to do features on the store for the April issues, and I've been trying to come up with clever shit for them all week, so I haven't been keeping up with the blog. We are also officially launching the website at the party tomorrow night, and I've been trying to come up with clever copy...ok, granted I've been stealing most of that from vendors, but it's still all too much for my little brain.

WARNING: BLATANT AND SHAMELESS PLUG FOLLOWS

We are officially launching our website,

www.heliotropehome.com

at 7PM Friday. Hey...we've been working on this puppy for months, and not getting a hell of a lot of sleep for the past few days finishing and tweaking it. I've still got some furniture entries to add and some copy to write...that's the kind of stuff Marc and I have been doing at 1AM lately. We are both pretty raw and exhausted right now.

So we are going to party like Spartans tonight at the store from 7 til ? to celebrate. We sent out invitations to all our customers to come get jiggy with us. It's gonna be a big "exhale" for me and Marc. By 10PM, I envision Marc, Jessica, John, Jesse, and myself...dancing half naked on the dining tables. I'm just sayin'.

T

I posted my first entry here on January 21st last year. Hey...it's my anniversay on Blogstream!

I started it as just a journal and thought maybe I could hone some writing skills. I never expected to get to know so many talented, intelligent, kind, moving, and funny friends. Thank you, sincerely for the fellowship, my friends. And thank you, Pioneer!