Thoughts on DIT Fest in Kent, Ohio

Everyone left to DIT Fest. I went upstairs and laid in bed for awhile trying to calm down. It was all a bit overwhelming.

We went back to DIT Fest and there were even more people than the night before. Jordan Castro was really nervous. I felt nervous. I hadn’t eaten since the morning and kept going to the bathroom to emotionally check myself. Sam Pink kept telling me not to worry. Tao Lin said to use my nervousness. Jordan Castro was too nervous to give me advice so I gave Jordan Castro advice. Tao Lin gives a reading every three days and felt fine.

Jordan Castro went up and read about his penis and a short story. He did really well. Everyone was happy. Another band went on and I read. I acted really fucked up on stage and tried to put on a good show. I knew most of the kids there would never even Google me, let alone buy one of my books, so I at least tried to be entertaining. And all my friends in Kent showed, and I wanted to impress them.

Tao Lin went on after another band. The people in the band were being dicks and started to set up. They had to be told to get off the stage. Tao Lin read well. I had seen him read four years ago and he seemed nervous and read in a blank monotone. This time he put inflection in his reading and did a lot better.

Later there was a strange white guy following Tao and I around saying things about his uncle’s smoking habits and interjecting things into our conversations. The next day, when I sat with Tao Lin and Megan Boyle at Whole Foods in Cleveland, we discussed the guy following us around and we all assumed that someone knew the guy, but it turned out none of us knew him. It was funny.

After the readings were over we went outside and there were a lot of Kent people there that came to meet Sam Pink and Tao Lin. I’m not sure if they came to see celebrities or to see the circus freaks that came to town.

Then we back to The Alamo. We drank a beer together and talked for a half an hour and Jordan Castro, Megan Boyle, Tao Lin, and Mallory Whitten went back to Cleveland. I sat there with Brittany Wallace, Shannon Neale and Alexis Carek.