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* What's ))<>((? Well, it's from her movie.
Author/artist/director/performer/etc Miranda July came by Modern Times Bookstore in The Mission last night to read from her new collection of short stories, and the arty-coiffed standing-room-only crowd of fans spilled out the door onto the sidewalk.
Ms. July's artistic forte is in observing things which we take for granted in the everyday and peering at them from guileless angles until some surprise or (dis)comfort or wonder is revealed. An open sappy-less question of "sure, what-if?" asked seemingly without artifice or a second-thought. And what is found? Sometimes awe, sometimes regret, but always a bright gleam of humanity.
The stories in July's new book, No One Belongs Here More Than You, were written just before and just after she made her heart-warming/rending 2005 film Me And You And Everyone We Know.
Flattered by the packed house, July scaled a ladder (while wearing heels, to her mother's chagrin, she imagined) to the top of Modern Times' sideroom so as to provide better vantage rather than the floor-level lectern. More pictures after the jump.
* The new stories were charming.
* July has both a new film and a new book in the works. The book will be based on the best entries from her web-based learningtoloveyoumore.com participatory project.
* She was raised in a publishing family, and consequently was very sensitive to announcing how much longer each story would last so the audience wouldn't tire.
* July's skirt and socks were specifically worn to match the two colors of dust jacket printed for the book.
* Raised in Berkeley, and her fam was in attendance.
* July was very gracious and self-deprecatingly funny, just as one would imagine she would be.
* The audience was enrapt. The audience was about 85% female. The audience ate it up. The audience was very supportive. The audience:
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Steve Rhodes has some more pictures of the event in the SFist Flickr stream and in his own Flickr account too:
FYI, you've got a picture showing up as html but no image...
An unintentional July-esque moment was when she described the heat way up where she was standing, so the bookstore employee moved a fan to point at her and it shot a huge amount of visible dust on her.
Miranda handled the whole thing - getting up there, the heat, her own nervousness, the semi-indignity of the climb, the dust, etc. - with really amazing grace and humor.