Tag Archives: Lower Manhattan

Quiz, kids: Free e-book if you can answer me this.

I was having a discussion with my better half about Spalding Gray, the late great storyteller/performance artist. There was a story about him in this week’s New York Times Magazine even though he died in 2003.    There was also a documentary about his work made in 2010.

Back in the 1980′s and until the early 90′s I saw him perform many times in lower Manhattan, and once after I moved to Vermont when he was “on tour.”  His death hit me hard, in fact it seemed like it hit the whole City hard.  He disappeared one night, and was thought to have jumped off the Staten Island ferry.  His body wasn’t found for a while, so one could imagine him off on another adventure, the soon-to-be subject of a monologue. Sometimes, I still daydream that it was a mis-identification.  Spalding Gray is alive and well, in hiding, gathering some new material.

There’s a reference to him within the first 10% (the Kindle sample) of my novel Loisaida — A New York Story, which is set in the late 1980’s. He isn’t named, but there are several clues that it’s him.

Here’s the quiz, kids:  The first 5 people who can correctly (1) pinpoint the reference and (2) tell me which of his performance pieces it is referencing will get a free e-book copy of Loisaida in any e-book format, gifted to them or the person of their choice.

I’m figuring if you can get the reference or are even interested in trying, you probably are the audience I’m seeking and will enjoy the read.

DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWER as that will ruin it for everyone, but leave me a comment below letting me know you know. I will then email you giving you my email address and you can send me the answer.