Craig Finn. Eric Spitznagel. Vanity Fair. Blessed.

We know, we know, we are so interview this week, but what can we do, they keep coming, and they keep changing lives. Today, we have TBWCYL, Inc. favorite and author of Fast Forward: Confessions of a Porn Screenwriter Eric Spitznagel talking Catholicism, KISS and Goldman Sachs none other than Craig Finn the lead singer of The Hold Steady in Vanity Fair. Blessed indeed and excerpt below.

You also do a lot of finger pointing at the crowd during your live shows. But somehow it never seems as stupid as when some rock stars do it.

I think it’s about acknowledging that people are there, and we’re all in the same room together. When you go to a concert, you often don’t know if the performer can see you. So it’s like, “Yeah, I know you’re out there! I see you! You’re rocking!” It’s a respectful acknowledgement that they’re part of it.

So it’s not like when somebody from Mötley Crüe or Poison does it, and they’re just picking out the girls to be given backstage passes?

I don’t know if you’ve been to one of our shows, but there aren’t many women there. (Laughs.)

That’s probably not the best way to promote your tour. “The Hold Steady in Concert: No Chicks, Nothin’ But Dudes!”

I probably shouldn’t keep joking about it and putting that idea out there. It could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s actually been getting better. I think the percentage is changing in a good way.

We're back. And what did we bring you? The new edition of This Book Will Change Your Life. Nice, right?

We travel, we read, we're back. And we have two entries for this edition of This Book Will Change Your Life. First, Fast Forward >>Confessions of a Porn Screenwriter by Eric Spitznagel. Now we should begin by saying that it is most definitely true that we are big fans of the Spitznagel, hence way biased, but Fast Forward is a great read regardless, all breezy and Spitznagellian, which is to say, funny, crude and sweaty, sort of furry and always verging on nudity. And second, Big World by Mary Miller. As we read these stories, or more accurately, as we vacuumed them down, we were initially thinking, Faulkneresque, well, maybe, how about Carveresque, for sure, but then we thought, whatever, this collection is just fucking great, and quite Milleresque, a descriptor we expect we will be hearing more and more as time goes by.

Vacation. Reading. Vacation. Some writing. Vacation. No blogging. For real. We think. And happy holidays.

It's true we're heading off on vacation for the next week, we're shutting down the office and we don't really plan to blog, sorry, much less go on-line much at all, which we think we look forward to, it means less RedTube sadly, but it also means less time compulsively visiting ourselves on Goodreads which can only be a good thing. We will write, we have to write, right, of course, and we definitely plan to read, especially the novel Talking Heads: 77 by new friend and wonderful writer John Domini. It did occur to us, however, that if you, our devoted fans and customer base, don't have This Blog Will Change Your Life to read during the week, you may require some kind of additional options or outlets, other than RedTube, and so we have taken it upon ourselves to offer you the following literary possibilities, all of which are pieces by writers we love and we think you could love to. So, happy holidays, have a good week, we will miss you terribly, and enjoy some writing we think just might change your life: Stick by S. Craig Renfroe, Jr. at 3:AM MAGAZINE, who we believe has been grading papers, but we could be wrong; Holy Crap: The Unhappiest Place on Earth by Eric Spitznagel at Vanity Fair, yes that Vanity Fair; Alleys are the Footnotes of the Avenues by Pete Anderson at Shoots and Vines, and we know, we've been name-dropping Pete all week, what are you going to do; Iron Lung by the nicely bearded Jason Jordan at Red Peter; Sand #1 by J.A. Tyler at Word Riot, the J.A. Tyler; and last, but far from least, Brothers by Nick Ostdick at VerbSap, and big props to Nick for finishing his penultimate semester at school, nice work sir.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is tricked-out, multi-photoed and way, way live.

Yo, check it out the new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is so awesomely live with a new story called Excerpts from a Woman's History of Dunholt by the most rocking Jill Summers, photos, yes, we went with the multi-photage this time, by Adam Lawrence, music selected by Jason Behrends and spiritual guidance and prose love by Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy it, link to us, provide mass shout-outs, submit and let us know what you think. We also want to thank you for your support, monetary, physical, yes we're talking to you Eric Spitznagel, and otherwise.