litcrawlnyc-blog

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LIT CRAWL 2015: COMING TO A STREET NEAR YOU

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ROAD TRIP! Lit Crawl NYC has chartered a bus to take fun-loving Crawlers to Edith Wharton's estate for a fabulous garden party with (FREE) cocktails and a reading celebrating the launch of Restless Women Travelers, a new series from Restless Books. 

It's going to be a fun day, and space is limited, so get your tickets ASAP! 

June 22, NYC to Lenox, MA. $55 includes transportation, free time in Lenox, a tour of The Mount, a free ebook, and the party. 

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These color photographs show the troops getting ready for the D-Day assault at an British port. Most of the color stills in the National Archives show the preparations rather than the invasion.

You can see more color photographs on the Media Matters blog.

Image:  111-C-1258, “These American troops have loaded their equipment onto an LCT and are waiting the signal for the assault against the Continent.”

Image: 111-SC-1237, “American troops at a British port descend into barges which will take them to troop ships from which they will launch the attack against Hitler’s Fortress Europe.”

Image: 111-SC-1248, “Medics and litter bearers going up the ramp of an LCT which will take them to France for the assault against Hitler’s Europe.”

Image: 111-SC-1232, “American troops at a British port descend into barges which will take them to troop ships from which they will launch the attack against Hitler’s Fortress Europe.  Note Barrage balloons in the background.”

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Don't know about you, but we're dog tired after Lit Crawl Brooklyn this weekend. Thanks for joining us!

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When I say "LIT" you say "CRAWL!"

LIT!

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Lit Crawl Brooklyn is this weekend! Come out for all of our amazing events (which can be found here). We can't wait to see you! #getlit

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Don’t miss Litcrawl NYC’s Reading Roulette this Wednesday. Keeping you on your toes like only literature can!

http://litcrawl.org/nyc/events/reading-roulette/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1463503030550654/

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A flower was blooming inside him, and soon, when all tight leaves unfurled, when the noon of youth burned whitest, he would turn and look, as others had, for the opening of another door.

Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms (via bookmania)

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Rafflecopter makes it crazy-simple to create, run, and enter online giveaways and sweepstakes.

Enter to win 2 tickets to the next Lit Crawl event! Reading Roulette at The Bell House.

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Reading Roulette is next week!

It's #FridayReads, and the only thing we're thinking about reading wise is our Reading Roulette event next week. Join us for a fun evening of wacky voices, literary lines, and author judges. Who know? You may be chosen for Reading Roulette.

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Reading Roulette is next week, and has so many great people. Be there!

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It's coming...

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We're accepting submissions for the third annual Lit Crawl Brooklyn! Apply by March 26th to be considered.

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The Lit Crawl — like a pub crawl, but with authors — returns to Manhattan this weekend, offering lesser-known New York writers a turn in the spotlight.

Oh what's that? Just our feature in the NEW YORK F'IN TIMES. No big deal.

Come to Lit Crawl on Saturday. The Gray Lady commands it.

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Some might say that Tattoos & Tequila, the 2010 memoir by Mötley Crüe yowler Vince Neil, is one of the most kick-ass collections of awesomeness ever set to paper....

TONY wants you to come out to Way Behind the Music on Friday.

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Come hear Erin and Tom (and Moses Gates from Hidden Cities) this weekend at Lit Crawl! 

GOD AND COUNTRY – CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND – STATION TO STATION

An American Legion abuts the Amtrak stop in Cumberland, Maryland. Veterans sit and drink beer on a deck they built to watch the trains: a morning and evening Capitol Limited between D.C and Pittsburgh, punctuated by the passing of freight cars.

“This is what we do in Cumberland,” said Kevin, an Air Force vet who spent eight years in Iraq. “We look at the trains go by. There’s a t-shirt we’ve got around here… ‘Allegany County – A good place to live if you don’t have to work.’”

It’s dollar Yuenglings at the Legion. Two-twenty-five pitchers. Kevin has a pitcher. Even in his middle age, he is cut like the Cumberland Narrows that surround him—severe hills shaping a low valley.

“I worked corporate intelligence for 25 years—a private eye. I was all over the place. But I got tired getting shot at,” he said.

How many times were you shot?

“Three times. I was born in Cumberland, now I’m hiding out in Cumberland.”

* * *

On the tracks below the deck is what the drinkers say is the only Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq wars memorial in the United States. (As it turns out, there’s also a similar memorial in Marseilles, Illinois—the “Middle East Conflicts Wall.”) Kim, with a rock as big as the Ritz on her ring finger, sitting on a picnic table next to Kevin, lost her stepson in Iraq. She and her husband, with support from the Legion and the locals, built a memorial to him surrounded by stark black granite tablets engraved with the names of soldiers dead in all these wars.

“Come back to Cumberland this October,” said an older woman smoking mentholated cigarettes in a red, white and blue embroidered sweatshirt. “We’re raising money to add more names and as sad as that is, with the money you give you have a one in 18 chance to win $500 in a raffle.” Telling it all with a smile, she goes on to say that she shared the pot the last time around.

* * *

The train pulls in, the Legion locals wave goodbye and you’re on your way. Looking back, the red brick Legion wall reads, “For God and Country.” And in the Narrows, it is God’s country: the train bends through land lined by creek, rock and homes; mobile homes look like mansions; families play town ball; and an old man in a shotgun house stands proud on display on his porch wearing only a blue Speedo.

Guide note: The Gulf War Memorial is in the form of four black books engraved with the names of all the fallen soldiers in the U.S.’s recent wars. It is located on Gulf Memorial Drive just next to Cumberland’s Amtrak station.   

Words: Tom McNamara; Images: Tom McNamara and Erin Chapman

* * *

Erin Chapman and Tom McNamara are co-editors of THE AMERICAN GUIDE.

* * *

THE AMERICAN GUIDE is joining STATION TO STATION for a cross-country train ride. Detour: Cumberland, Maryland.

Follow your guide along the rails and see America. [Track A/G’s trip here]  

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NPR’s Ask Me Another with Ophira Eisenberg at Professor Thom's! Host Ophira Eisenberg reads from Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy, followed by naughty trivia from the Ask Me Another game writers.