The Monotony of Work: Justin Sirois
Do you know this guy?
If you don’t, you should. His name is Justin Sirois and he is number one. (I stole “X is number one” from Noah Cicero.) If you asked me, I’d say: Justin Sirois is ace.
Ace Justin Sirois has an app. Who the fuck has their own app?!! Check it out. 4.99 never seemed so attractive. What can you get for 4.99? Not a pack of smokes, but you can get this app. Booms.
Author Spotlight & I Like __ A Lot & Massive People & Technology / 2 Comments
September 10th, 2013 / 12:42 pm
September 10th, 2013 / 12:42 pm
25 Points: So Say the Waiters
So Say The Waiters/book1/episodes 1-5
by Justin Sirois
Severed Books, 2012
293 pages / $13.99 (print) $6.99 (eBook) buy from sosaythewaiters.com or Amazon
1. This book reminds me also of the 90s Michael Douglas movie The Game in which a rich guy’s brother signs him up for a role play service which makes his life more interesting via nearly killing him such as in multiple car chase scenes as well as I think he rolls down a mountain wearing a suit at one point.
2. Justin Sirois has written a book about nicely done realistic people who are bartenders and in bands but this book is not annoying about that at all because it’s elegantly self-aware and spot on like every two seconds you let out an out loud Ha because yes everyone is exactly like how he depicts them but kinda lovingly actually I feel like he should write some epic movie about indie culture.
3. So the people in this book are called Waiters in a way because they are I think waiting for their lives to get going already but it’s not cheesy it’s good.
4. What it is is that they sign up for a service that kidnaps them and it’s got that “now you will appreciate your life more” thing going on but also it’s kinda Fight Club-ish but more cyberpunk.
5. “Cyberpunk is a postmodern science fiction genre noted for its focus on “high tech and low life.” The name was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story “Cyberpunk,” published in 1983. It features advanced science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.” “”Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body.” – Lawrence Person” -this is according to Wikipedia.
6. I cannot believe these Wikipedia bastards forgot to talk about William Gibson here. Did you ever read any William Gibson in middle school and then go home and wait five and a half hours for a Nine Inch Nails song to download through your parents dial-up modem in the basement at all?
7. That girl from the Dragon Tattoo books movies looks like she could be cyberpunk. What do you think she smells like?
8. Also Henry the main guy in Sirois’ book has just been dumped by his fiancee and every time he thinks about her it’s so effing sad and done well.
9. “At the cabinet, he reached for an upside-down glass in the highest shelf to find a hair tie somehow trapped like a bug inside it. The hair tie fell onto the counter…He stared at the hair tie…Screw your hair ties, Meghan. All of them…At least it was Friday.”
10. Guy needs a change in his life, enter friend who founded the escapism game, which btw is an app specifically for an iPhone is how you sign up for it. READ MORE >
6 Comments
November 29th, 2012 / 11:59 am
November 29th, 2012 / 11:59 am
So Say the Waiters
I hope Justin Sirois gets back to work soon. He’s written five installments of a really fun serial novel called So Say the Waiters. It’s as gripping as 24 or whatever your favorite TV show is these days. Each episode, which takes like an hour to read, ends with a cliffhanger.
I hope he gets back to work because I really want know what happens in episode 6.
Since the beginning of autumn, Justin has been releasing the episodes separately as eBooks for like $.99. Now he’s bundled what I guess would be the “first season” in a printed book, and he’s doing a contest to promote it. To win the contest, you have to send in a kidnapping scenario. The best idea, as judged by Michael Kimball and Ken Baumann, will have their submission written into a future section of the book. That’s neat.
It might seem weird that the contest is based on writing a kidnapping situation, but it wouldn’t if you’re familiar with So Say the Waiters. It’s all about this smartphone app/social network through which people can sign up to be kidnapped. It’s actually not that farfetched, the way Justin handles it. The characters seem like real people. They just want to escape for a while.
When I want to escape, I read a book like this one. I read it on my iPhone.
The Understanding Campaign: Who Cares?
"Fhm" for Halloween as drawn by Tai Turner
This post is about the ad you’ve been seeing here lately.
And okay, full disclosure for the blog cops:
Recently, Justin Sirois and I and a couple other bros from way back lit up the Baltimore streets with a big plastic owl that Justin had kept buckled into his backseat for years. The owl was called BSO, as in, “Back Seat Owl.” We took the BSO to play pool at Club Phoenix. We took him dancing and everyone hooted when he did a backspin. We even bought him beers at H.L. Mencken’s old hangout, the Owl Bar. Then we took him to play football in the street where, sadly, the BSO perished.
Which is meant to confess two things: one, Justin is my friend. Two, my man knows party fowl. READ MORE >
Understanding Campaign
The wonderful Justin Sirois of Narrow House and his MLKNG SCKLS co-author Haneen Alshujairy have created a campaign to teach the world one word of Arabic. I think this is a great idea. Buy a button, some stickers, share the image here!
Secret Santa closes Dec. 15
Sign up here by next Tuesday (more than 100 in so far). More info here.
[Big thanks to the excellent and wise-eyed Justin Sirois (Editor at Narrow House, author of the wonderful MLKNG SICKLS) for the Santa Image Magic.]
Thanksgiving 2009
(thanks Justin Sirois)
Listen to a story today at noon
If you go here today at noon (EST, 25 minutes from right . . . now) you will be able to listen to The Signal, which is a really cool radio program hosted by my friend Aaron Henkin (an excellent poker player, great radio voice). On the program you will be able to hear my other friend Justin Sirois (terrible poker player, terrible radio voice, awesome writer) read from MLKNG SCKLS, his book about Iraq, as well as some other good literary thingses.