I Never Liked You

Tonight, we meet at Frazier's at 7pm for our monthly Reading Club. We shall discuss I Never Liked You.

June's selection is Buddy Does Seattle. And as always it's 15% off for the month.

Happy 20th Heavy Metal Parking Lot!

Today was the day, 20 years ago, in a parking lot in Maryland, that some kids were VERY excited about seeing Judas Priest. Not so crazy about Madonna. Or punk rock.

Best Burlesque Duo 2006

Congrats to Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey for winning the title of Best Burlesque Duo at the Miss Exotic World Pageant in Las Vegas this past weekend!

You can see them, as well as the Pontani Sisters, at the upcoming Burlesque-a-capes at the Ottobar, July 1st.

Books By The Numbers

There are 1702 independent bookstores left in the US.

There are over 1800 comic book stores left in the US.

There are over 850 Barnes & Noble stores and 462 Borders (700 Waldenbooks and Borders Express). I don't know if the B&N numbers include their university bookstores or B.Dalton. These are wikipedia numbers so who knows.

Over 172,000 books were published in the US last year. That's at least 471 books coming out every day.

There are 3 bookstores on our street (Breathe Books, Salamander Books and us), and 2 other stores that carry books and have readings and author signings (Hometown Girl, Minas) and other stores that carry some books (In Watermelon Sugar, various antique stores).

The average American reads one book a year.

Reading? Get In On It!

That last post I did? It was post number 666.

How Ordering Works

I made a chart for our intern. But I'll show you how the world works, too.

Enroning The Shit Out Of This Place

We have an intern, Simone, who started today.

First thing's first - meet the shredder!

Bits and Pieces

We will be closed this Monday the 29th, Memorial Day.

Neil Gaiman will be atBalticon, which starts tomorrow.

We may be in for a hotter than average June. Just a way to ease in to BGE's 72% rate hike. Awesome.

I'm done with Lost. I don't care if they're stuck on that island forever.

Found Vs Postsecret

Ah, the calm before the storm. Davy and Frank get a chance to have a quiet chat before the reading starts.

Thanks to everyone who came last night! It was a great show. People were hugging and tearing up when Frank was reading some secrets and Davy and Peter killed the room with their great finds and of course, the "Booty Don't Stop" singalong.

These two very similar projects, one confessional ("I don't love my husband") the other absurdist ("Unauthorized people are not allowed to defecate in the dryer"), are both about the curiosity of people and life and the connection to all of it - the heartbreak, the joy, the anger and the thrill of catching a glimpse through a peephole.

Like this photo. And there's more.

Go Teams!

photo by furcafe

The Night Terrors beat the Junkyard Dolls last night, 57 to 40. Go Maggie!

And Team Atomic finished their 140 mile bike ride for Ride the Feast yesterday, too, raising over $5400 for Moveable Feast!

Roller Derby Tickets Are Sold Out!

photo by Bukutgirl

BUT, if you get to the rink as the doors open (5pm) they may have a few left.

Why do you always wait until the last minute?

Bloggers

So last night, at one point Markos asked the crowd, "So how many of you watched the White House Correspondents' dinner live that night?"

A pretty good percentage of us had and raised our hands.

Then he called us losers.

Burn!

One woman yelled out, "I watched it AFTER!" Oooo, who's the loser now?

So Many Things To Do

So let's review the coming week's events:

Tonight! - Shocked & Amazed presents the Yard Dogs at the Ottobar, doors open at 8pm

Thursday - Crashing the Gate Book Party here at Atomic, 7pm

Friday - doubledutch boutique Grand Opening Party - 7pm-9pm (10% off purchases!)

Friday thru Sunday is BEA down in DC. See all you publishers and writers down there! Writers are drinkers (Or at least they should be. Have you thought about the future of books??)

Sunday - Roller Derby! We still have tickets.

Tuesday - We are hosting Found vs Postsecret at the Golden West Cafe, across the street, 7pm

And of course there are SO MANY new books, comics, magazines and zines right now. (Monday is a good night to go through those.)

We Are Paragons Of Virtue

Indie vs chains, a la Slate.

"The indies themselves aren't always paragons of cultural virtue, either. ...Many of the smaller indies have financed themselves by selling, in a separate part of the store, pornography..."

Holy moly! You mean...they dare to sell something that is for...adults? You mean books that contain words and images you can't show on network tv? That's just...I don't know...I don't see stuff like that at Wal-Mart.

Tickets!

We have Yard Dog tickets for sale ($10 in advance, $12 at the door - Benn will be busting some bricks on top of James Taylor with a sledgehammer!).

And Roller Derby tickets for May 21st ($12 - Maggie's going to be busting ass on the rink)!

"Is The World Ready For Lost Girls?"

Being touted as "literary pornography" Alan Moore's latest Lost Girls seems to have some folks in a tizzy.

Sexy graphic novels are hardly new to us. The real question: is the world ready for a $75 comic?

Activity Page

by featherbed

Check out the rest of Laura Park's Moleskine! Fuckin' awesome shit.

Moleskine recently came out with a storyboarding journal which is perfect for mini comics.

Cookout Season Begins

photo by bunchofpants

This is what I plan to bring to every cookout I'm invited to this Summer.

Need more ideas?

Mommy Drinks

You can mix and match any of the elixirs with any books, but we have some suggestions:

Bloody Marys with Baltimore Noir.
Wild Blueberry Martinis (with pie crust Rimmers! yes, I said rimmer) with Found II.
Pomegranate Martinis with Year in Japan.
Mango Margaritas with Confessions of a Naughty Mommy.

And more!

Countdown

For That Special Zombie In Your Life

The Ultimate Zombie Mix Tape from David Wellington.

Girls Girls Girls

Pullips!

And in other Gal news:

Frances McDormand has optioned Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing! I hope they shoot it in Baltimore!

And of course Mother's Day is coming up. We plan to have some booze paired with books here at Atomic next week. Yes, who needs a good drink besides mom? And some time to herself with some good books??

Speaking of hip moms, Ariel Gore's Traveling Death and Resurrection Show is here! And we're mentioned in it, which I think is a first for us. Look mom, we're fictional now!

Found Vs Postsecret

Aw, I Got A Dell

Have you seen the new Mac tv ads where John Hodgman plays the PC?

They may backfire. I feel so bad for the PC. He's so loveable.

Plus he's John Hodgman and the other dude is from Galaxy Quest.

Books Books Books

I know it's just Spring for most of you, but the past couple of weeks have been more like Xmas for us. There are SO many great books coming out right now it's making our heads spin.

So come lighten our load, this Saturday, when EVERYTHING in the store will be 10% off if you have a Big Spender Card. Come say hi! Get a free comic book. You'll find us under the stack of books.


And remember, this month's Reading Club selection is I Never Liked You. 15% off for the month!

Political Bloggers!

May 18th is our book party for Crashing the Gate with
authors Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and Jerome Armstrong! Starts at 7pm!

46 Crab Cakes In 10 Minutes

The Black Widow Strikes Again!

And when you see her go crab cake-to-crab cake with 250-pound weightlifters and 275-pound bouncers, bopping to the beat of the music, a serene study in concentration and willpower, you see how she got her nickname.

"Like the female black widow spider, it is my desire to eliminate the males," is how she delicately puts it.