Barry Yourgrau writes, performs & attempts humor in multimedia. His early works A Man Jumps Out of An Airplane & Wearing Dad's Head are considered surreal classics. His book Haunted Traveller plays with imaginary travels. Fans know him too from MTV, NPR & the film The Sadness of Sex in which he starred. For kids (?) there's recent NASTYbooks series. South African-born BY lives in NYC, travels a lot. Has great nostalgia for years in LA. More info @ www.yourgrau.com & www.nastybook.com.
Neo-Classical Drawing from a St. Petersburg palace
THE FIRE
Some friends of mine start a fire outside my door. I open the door, the dining room is in flames. They are sitting at the table, pounding their glasses of beer and cheering me. My only thought is that my CD’s will warp in the heat, and I mutter, “What asses, they don’t even know how to give a party!”
Then there isn’t any fire, the dining room is covered with sooty drifts of chemical foam. Firemen in black raincoats and slickers and yellow-soled hip boots are standing around with their enormous axes. One of my friends is kneeling on the table, he is naked, giving a massage to a naked girl who is stretched out on her belly. The girl moans and squirms extravagantly.
The firemen joke about these two, then they get red-faced and angry and they wade over to the table and start chopping at its legs. A rope ladder drops down, the naked couple escape through the ceiling. The firemen cheer when they have gone. They look relieved, and they take off their hats. They are all bald.
