Normally I'd Have Been In Bed By Midnight...

There's a cacophony of sirens blaring outside my apartment right now. Either the Fire Department is doing its Toys For Tots collection drive up Union Avenue or there's a block of houses on fire across the alley that I'm simply indifferent toward. Ah, the ticks and quirks of Bridgeport.

First I'd like to extend a wonderful and heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it to Gunther Murphy's for the show last night, and to the talent- The Like Young, Dead Horse Hill, Devin Davis and his band, Paul Carray, and Marvin Tate- for volunteering their services. The Reader listed the show (well, The Like Young and Dead Horse Hill) on the front page of the music section, but it seemed as if Devin Davis brought a cult with him. He certainly had some new converts by the time he finished his set, including yours truly. A big thanks to the management and staff at Gunther Murphy's for donating the music room for this event.

So after paying the doorman, sound man, and bar tab, we still walked out with a good amount of money towards financing the first issue of Make. A hearty "big up" goes to Sarah Dodson for doing most of the heavy lifting and logistics. I was describing to her last night the total lack of nervousness I felt about doing this because it seemed like more of a team effort, unlike the "Speak Easy" series where I was corralling writers, music acts, finding the venue and doing p.r.

I wasn't feeling that way leading up to this. If anything I was feeling like I hadn't done my share to make this work, or had a feeling of being left out. I sat back and realized this was because I'm used to having the burden on my shoulders. That's why I think we have something special on our hands with Make. It's the result of two years of discussions and meetings with people who stayed with the concept after others dropped out because of disinterest or frustration with not seeing anything tangible for their time.

We've got a good droup of people involved here who are still learning to work together- people with different skill sets and approaches to literature with good ideas on how to make this work. It's democracy in action, essentially.

Besides, it's still nice to know that at 35 I can help throw a good party. I'm just not going to make it a habit- I like my sleep too much.