New flash: DiFilippo attacked by Black Toad!

[Michael McAulay]

"Welcome to San Francisco, Mr. DiFilippo.  Have an exploding beer."

Caught Paul's reading Sat. night at the New College here in SF, along
with an assortment of dubious personages.  Heard "Mason & Dixon"
muttered once, but no "post-horn."  SOMEBODY musta missed a cue or
something.

The evening began with an unexpected surprise: Rudy Rucker read from a
forthcoming work.  I've been a fan of RR ever since his Geometry,
Relativity, and the Fourth Dimension gave a taffy-stretch to my poor
little brain back in high school.  From the short bit he read, his new
book struck me as kind of a cyberpunk take on Whitley Strieber's
Communion - it's presented as non-fiction with the authorial character
"Rudy Rucker" meeting a slightly off-kilter fellow who claims he can
contact aliens by setting up fractal feedback loops between video
cameras and television screens.  It was both funny and eerie - a good
combination.

After a brief intermission Paul stepped to the podium fortified by a
bottle of Black Toad brand dark ale.  He talked for a bit about Ciphers
and its roots in the fictional "lens" employed by TP in Gravity's
Rainbow.  Then he launched into a spirited and highly entertaining
reading.  The passage he selected comprised 64 Big Questions compiled by
the paranoid protagonist of Ciphers.  Things were going swimmingly until
- somewhere around question 32 - Paul paused to wet his whistle.  He
downed a mouthful of Black Toad and returned the bottle to its resting
place on the podium but before he could continue the agitated beverage
ejaculated with an effusiveness that was an inspiration to all
assembled.  And this happened not once, but twice!  It was - as they say
- "classic."

The unflappable DiFilippo sailed through these mishaps with verve and
self-deprecating good humor.  He finished up in fine style with a second
reading from an unpublished work (spaced the title Paul, sorry) - a
hysterically funny passage that had the audience in stitches.

I can't comment on Ciphers itself yet since I just picked up my copy
that night.  But I can say without reservation that Paul gives good
Reading and if he comes to yer town, you should definitely check it out.
Just be sure to mind the carbonated beverage blast radius.

ps: Funnily enough, I went from a Ciphers reading to a concert by one of
my favorite bands....Zero.

========
Mike McAulay
Sr. Engineer
3DO