Another delightful Alimentum launch at the Merc

I was at the Merc, The Mercantile Library, last night celebrating the 7th issue of Alimentum, the literary journal where food is muse. (Disclaimer: I am co-designer of this rag.) I love the Merc, in the comfortable yet elegant space one feels rather important just sitting there along with flaking plaster busts regarding the room with interest. In fact, one Restoration era gentleman looked just like Keifer Sutherland, with cravat.

I hear the private library is going to move, ah, sigh...more change. New places are nice but it takes many a decade to acquire that old New York club feel.

Here are my drawings, sketched from the second row, hopefully not making them too nervous, with autographs, of the performers:




Kristen Aiken, Leslie McGrath, Steven Sher, Carly Sachs read poems, creative non-fiction, and short stories and then the snarky literary band, One Ring Zero, represented by Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp, played an assortment of instruments, some of which I'd never seen before, with lyrics, written by notable authors as well as recipes set to music. They even set a rejection letter to music. I loved them.

I have borrowed their description of this odd instrument, equal parts penny whistle, harmonica and keyboard, one of only 50 in the world:
Claviola: This focal point of One Ring Zero was designed by Ernst Zacharias in the 1960s. Similar to a melodica, air is blown into a mouthpiece and then directed toward the reeds by pressing on piano-like keys. Pipe lengths then shape the pitch.