What James Franco, Neko Case and Malcolm Gladwell Had in Common
Two of my favorite events at the New Yorker Festival, which took place this weekend, were Neko Case (she performed "That Teenage Feeling" among other songs, and talked about being a "cougar") and Malcolm Gladwell who told a story about a couple of WASP anthropologists who got drunk, ritualistically, in Bolivia in the fifties, and NOT Michael Vick, as he said he would. James Franco, who spoke very slowly, was asked what it felt like to be a stoner icon. He also talked about the art project he's involved with, Erased James Franco. And his audience wore much less clothing than any other audience of the six total events I had been to. George Saunders said "Pas de Chat" 73 times, Gary Shteyngart said he was bribed with cheese in Leningrad and Jonathan Franzen was asked a "personal" question by a young woman currently attending his alma mater, Swarthmore. I'll be posting something about all of the events I saw for The Rumpus later this week.
