THE SWAYZAUR

In a tribute to Patrick Swayze, somehow the piece that Entertainment Weekly did on my book last summer ended up on Gawker today. Check it out:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE SWAYZAUR

So I spent a year and a half stalking people with crazy tattoos- interviewing them, hunting them down for photos and stories- and this was by far my favorite. There is also a nice story behind it.

The guy who got this tattoo is a huge fan of Patrick Swayze and thought his skit with Chris Farley in SNL as a Chippendale was one of the best comedic sketches ever performed (which it was). So he took his love of the Swayze, made him into a Centaur and plopped his iconic, feather-headed image onto a bed of rainbows. So what's the problem? Guy is not only a fucking comedy genius but he has an eternal joke tattooed on his leg that his friends (and the rest of us) will never get sick of.

Anyhow, somebody in Patrick's camp showed it to him and apparently he loved it. He saw it just after being diagnosed with his pancreatic cancer and apparently it cracked him up. So that's nice.

And now I'm seaaaad. I loved him as much as the next guy. Like, little-girl-special-feelings-down-there-when-I-saw-him-in-The-Outsiders loved him. We'll miss you, you nice old man. Thanks for teaching Jennifer Grey how to get butt nekkid in the Catskills and for wearing that sleeveless flannel when you beat everyone up in Roadhouse.

Thing is, The Swayzar was ALMOST the cover of my book, but I nixed it for the alien abduction scene; a backpiece that took 120 hours to do. I wish now I'd paid more tribute to the man, given that he gave me my first tingles along with Ponyboy and Johnny Cade.


I guess once every 6 months I have to plug my book to make sure it doesn't die a slow death in the Barnes & Noble sale bins. You can check it out HERE . David Cross wrote the Foreword and it was blurbed by your favorite comedy darlings Michael Showalter, Demetri Martin, Eugene Mirman and Nick Ackerman of The Virgins.

Speaking of books, David is on tour promoting HIS NEW BOOK right now and will be in LA on Monday night at The Wiltern. I'm going to be there and so will you. Buy tickets! He's also doing a signing at Book Soup on the 17th in LA. I'll be there for that and would like you to come. His book is, as expected, hilarious. I plan to give signed copies to the people I love for their birthdays and Christmases this year (surprise MZ!)

We love you Mr. Swayze. There are no corners in heaven!

xo
Aviva