The Man of Our Dreams

Last night Emily and I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Eggers at an 826 Boston benefit. He was hilarious when he spoke and so excited about the work that goes on at 826, a.k.a. The Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Center, which is just a five minute bike ride from the Green Corps Commune, our lovely abode in Jamaica Plain. 826 recently released 2% of 2% of All the World's Stories, a collection of stories written by the kiddos that go to the center. Several of the kids read their stories aloud at the event and ran all around afterwards, eagerly seeking out books to sign. I bought a copy for my cousins, Henry and Isabel Janka, and was promptly bombarded by a throng of beaming ball point wielding authors, all under 5 feet tall. It was pretty rad.

Emily and I made sure to get a bit of our literary idol's time. We learned that You Shall Know Our Velocity is almost entirely truth, that Dave Eggers likes potatoes and beer, and that 826 National has never received an application from a group in Nashville. Its a shame really. There are lots of kiddos, big deal southern writers, college students and crazy old singer song writers that, when thrown together, might come up with some pretty great stories about cowboy boots, magnolia trees, debutante balls, giant Jesi* and Johnny Cash.

Lately Dave's been writing screenplays, including a collaboration with Spike Jones on Where the Wild Things Are, scheduled to come out in theatres in October. Mark Ruffalo is in the cast. It can't be bad. The trailer is neat, with an Arcade Fire soundtrack.

I feel like a new person after getting a hug from Dave, mostly because he just does what he wants, in his writing and his other projects. He's unapologetically edgy without being pretentious about it. How do you pull that off? (Check out his beat up brown shoes.)

He's the only author I've ever read that I feel truly and consistently connects with our generation. And he likes potatoes. What more can you ask for, really?

More Dave Eggers things:
The Believer
McSweeney's
Wolphin


* Jesi is the plural of Jesus, specifcally giant statues of our Saviour, i.e. Jesus of the Ozarks. See Kyla Achard, et. al 2007.