The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series December 13, 2006

The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, chosen by New York Magazine and NY Press as the best reading series in NYC, and singled out by the New York Times Magazine for helping to “Keep downtown alive,” features the most interesting storytellers, writers, musicians, raconteurs and personalities, and requires the readers to take one public risk, while the the musicians, who perform two short sets with their original, lyric-driven music, are required to play one cover song and try to get the audience to sing along.

Please come visit us the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month.

Wednesday December 13th, 2006

Show Starts at 8pm sharp.

The doors open at 7:00.

Free

READERS:
Leanne Shapton is an artist, illustrator, art director and writer born in Toronto and living in New York. She has contributed to The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The Believer and The New Yorker, among other publications. Leanne is the "L" of J&L Books, a non-profit publishing company founded with photographer Jason Fulford, specializing in new photography, drawing and writing. Her first collection of drawings, titled "Toronto" was published in 2003. Her latest book, "Was She Pretty" was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in November 2006.

Chris Leo, the mythical troubador flaneur who scored higher on the New York City tour guide exam than anyone else in the city -- neither Philip Lopate nor Speed Levitch can claim this -- is also responsible for the novels White Pigeons and We Pulse in Pink, the children's book Coomoococklemungmung illustrated by Buenos Aires' Francesca Massai, and over ten albums over the past two decades with bands like The Van Pelt, The Lapse, and currently, Vague Angels. Though hailing from the Leo New Jersey art dynasty (brother of Ted, Dan, and Amy), when not on tour he divides his time between Manhattan and Cupra Marittima, Italy.

Marcellus Hall's illustrations have graced the pages of The New Yorker, Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times.  His first cover for The New Yorker was published in 2005.  He has won recognition from American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators, and Communication Arts. Marcellus Hall created the comic strip Bill Dogbreath for alternative weekly newspapers in the 1990s.  He contributed an 8-page illustrated narrative to the literary journal Open City #18 and has self-published booklets of writings and drawings including 2003’s "Legends of the Infinite City – Drawings of New York."  As a songwriter and singer Marcellus Hall has fronted bands Railroad Jerk and White Hassle, releasing albums and touring Europe, Japan, and North America.   An exhibit of his illustrations and sketches was held at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 and his illustrated tour diaries can be found on the web.  In 2004 he wrote and illustrated a weeklong journal for Slate.com.

MUSICIAN:

Jennifer O’ Connor’s third album, 'Over The Mountain…' has the immediacy of a debut. The past year saw many personal upheavals which informed it more than she expected. "It's been so tumultuous, I think that inevitably crept into my songs," she says. "I wouldn't say that I always write from experience, but I did a lot of it on this record." For her most emotional songs yet, she self-produced and got rid of reverb and extraneous sounds, giving them an urgency that her other records didn't always have. She explains, "There's a lot of space; we purposefully pared everything down to what was necessary for the song." Her self-released, self-titled debut came out in 2002. 'The Color And The Light' followed in May 2005. jenniferoconnor.net and matadorrecords.com/jennifer_oconnor

HOST:

Amanda Stern is the author of the novel, The Long Haul (Soft Skull Press). Her stories, poetry and essays have been published in St. Ann’s Review, Swink, Salt Hill, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Spinning Jenny, The New York Times Magazine, the Believer, Paste and many others. She founded Happy Ending in 2003 and has been hosting and curating it ever since. She has held residencies at Macdowell and Yaddo. She is currently working on her second novel and teaching third through eighth graders at The School at Columbia University. She can be scoured at amandastern.com

BOOKS:

Provided by the amazing Mobile Libris

HAPPY ENDING IS ON HIATUS UNTIL JANUARY 10TH, 2007. Gear up for some of these amazing readers in 2007: ADAM RAPP, WILL ENO, MATTHEW SHARPE, DAVID EVANIER, MAGGIE NELSON, THISBE NISSEN, SAM MICHEL, NOY HOLLAND and AMY FUSSELMAN among many others.

Happy Ending Bar
302 Broome Street
Between Forsyth and Eldridge
212-334-9676

Look for a hot pink awning with the words Health Club on it

J,M,Z,F to Delancey
B,D to Grand Street

Official Website: http://www.amandastern.com/happyending.html