Zen and Now

Home at last, after the rain

2008-10-06T23:56:00.001-04:00

Made it back, after an estimated 10,000 kilometres, or 6,000 miles, on the two motorcycles in one month. The speedometer never did start working again since breaking at the final stop yesterday.
Read about the final day - and the rain and the cold and my watching peanut gallery - on my road trip blog here.
This has been quite the book tour. I'll take some time to get my thoughts together and then write about it, which will appear on the News page.

Water Street Books, Exeter, N.H.

2008-10-04T22:34:00.000-04:00

Another special night, thanks to this being the current home of Jim Landis, who was the original editor of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He came out to the bookstore (actually, just strolled a couple of blocks from his house) with his wife Denise, who had recently finished reading Zen and Now.

"It's a very big deal for Denise to come to a reading," he told me. "She must have really liked your book."

Again, Jackie New was welcomed inside by the bookstore owner, Dan Chartrand, whose son Anthony was helping out as well.

This time, I didn't need to refer to any notes for prompting or reminders - I just spoke from the heart and it was a terrific process. Afterwards, Dan offered me any book in the store as a gift for my visit, and I chose one by Jim himself. However, since Jim's books seem to be either children's poetry or loaded with sex, he thought it best I be given one of each, to better represent the novelist. I'm looking forward to reading them both.

That's Jim Landis with me and my motorcycle, and Dan and Anthony in the window of his wonderful store.

A strange thing, though: The speedometer stopped working on the few miles over to Exeter from where I'm staying in Hampton. This means the odometer has stopped working, too, and the mileage is locked at the final distance east. Is this another sign?

New York, New York (so good they named it twice)

2008-10-03T23:24:00.000-04:00

The event tonight at McNally Jackson Books in SoHo was great fun, thanks in no small part to the store manager letting me push Jackie New inside and add some perspective to the readings. It hasn't been the same with the Harley, since she wasn't part of the actual book, but it was good to have the Suzuki there.

Of course, more importantly, it wasn't just me - Marty Asher, the Knopf senior "editor-at-large" who read my book and bought it, plus Jeff Alexander, the editor who did much of the grunt work on preparing it for publication, were also though, making us a panel of three to talk about the book and the process of bringing it to fruition.

Readings like this are great, and they're the sort of thing that can only happen in New York City, because that's where the publisher is based. Kudos to McNally Jackson for enabling this.

Maintenance in New York

2008-10-03T12:09:00.000-04:00

It's a lot to expect to ride a dirt bike for hundreds of miles without pausing to maintain it, so I took some time this afternoon to tighten up Jackie New's drivechain here in New York.

The adjustment is easy enough, but typically, something always goes wrong. When I started spraying on the chain lube (with a newspaper underneath to catch the drips), the nozzle on the canister clogged up. Most of the lube ran down the can and onto the paper; only some found its way to the chain. Which explains why I used the rest of the can of lube and only oiled half the chain.

There's a Ducati dealership not far from the bookstore where I'll be talking tonight, and Ducatis have drivechains (no point in going to the Harley place, or the BMW place). I'll go in and get another can of lube, but why can't it just work properly the first time around?

Getting ready for the Apple

2008-10-01T23:46:00.002-04:00

My bike's been parked outside the hotel here in Montreal, looking forlorn. Her drive chain looked dry and needed lubrication, but this is not the sort of thing that's done easily on a city street. There's no centre stand and the bike needs to be pushed around to expose the entire chain, and without newspaper to catch the drips, it can be a bit messy. So I snuck out long after dark with a can of chain lube and oiled up her drive chain. Should be good now for the 400 miles to New York tomorrow.
But it seems a bit ridiculous, at 46 years, to be sneaking around after dark with chain lube.

Montreal

2008-10-01T19:43:00.002-04:00

Television, internet, radio, print and signings - they threw them all at me here today.

Everything from four minutes live with Mutsumi Takahashi on CFCF, seen in the top photo, who'd gone to all the trouble of reading my book so that she could spark those few minutes with some interesting questions, to half an hour or so on watchmojo.com (bottom photo) and RCI, again with the zinger questions that got me really thinking.

Of course, I can't remember any of the questions now. I can't remember anything I said, in fact. But I'll post the stories as I find them on the News and Reviews pages of this site.

My family is from Montreal - well, my grandparents settled here, and this is where my aunt lived, and where I first found that pink copy of Zen and the Art on her bookshelf. It's entirely fitting that I could come here for this.

Back on the (wet) road

2008-09-30T11:41:00.000-04:00

Off to Montreal today, after an interview on U of T campus radio. Read about the ride here.

Back home, sort of

2008-09-29T19:20:00.000-04:00

I flew home on Saturday and it's good to be back, not packing up my cases every morning, strapping them down to the bike and moving on to the next city.

Yesterday, I rode in to town to talk to George Strombolopoulos on his Edge radio show, then today I spoke with the CBC and a couple of other radio shows. Really interesting conversations, actually. The CBC guy came down to the street to see the bike and record the sound of her exhaust, which is a pretty cool sound when she's running well. You should be able to find those interviews from links on my News or Reviews pages, which I'll post once they're ready.

As well, I dropped into some bookstores to sign books. "Always sign books!" they tell me. "Signed books will be displayed at the front of the store." But more to the point, signed books give you the chance to meet the store staff, who will then read your book and recommend it to people if they like it. Apparently.

Saying goodbye

2008-09-26T19:22:00.001-04:00

Dropped off Lucy the Low Rider at the end of the day. That's her, waiting to be pushed into the Harley dealership to be drained and crated, then come home on a truck. I'll be happier when I see her again, in one piece...

Media in Vancouver

2008-09-26T17:23:00.001-04:00

Boy, this city is booming. Construction everywhere, and still it seems nobody with less than a million dollars can find a place to live.

Started the day with a live TV interview, which meant makeup and stuff. Fanny Kiefer - that's her at the table with me - is a very smart woman who was familiar with both books, which is always a nice surprise. Then an in studio radio chat, a coffee chat, another live radio interview and a live by phone radio interview. I messed that one up right at the end by saying "Thank you Landon," and realized immediately that the guy I'd been chatting with was named Murray Langdon. It was on a 7-second delay, so perhaps that was edited out.

It's strange to talk about my book so much - with people who are interested to hear about it - after so many years of writing it in the solitude of a quiet room. It's anot a vindication at all of all that effort, but it is rewarding to know that it did all come to something.

Every interview seems to have a zinger question that I never quite expect, which is welcome to get me thinking. But when Christy Clark, in the studio at the top picture, asked me on live radio why Pirsig chose the name Phaedrus for his pre-shock personality, I started explaining about how it had come from the Dialogue of Phaedrus and then stalled before mentioning its author. It was Plato, right? Surely? Yes, of course it was Plato, but on live radio you wonder about your own name, let alone some old Greek guy.

Authorspotting at the Elliot Bay Book Company

2008-09-24T21:43:00.000-04:00

No, this isn't me suddenly with no hair. I turned up for the 6pm reading at this great independent book store and found that Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting, Porno, Filth and a few others would be there at 8pm to read from his new book Crime.

My own reading went well - or at least I thought it went well until I saw just how full Welsh could pack the room! He read from his book and took some questions - some of them thoughtful, some of them dumb, but all of them answered with grace and consideration - and then signed stacks and stacks of books.

I hung around to hear him because I think he's a wonderful writer who can truly describe a scene and give life to characters, even the depressing losers that he relishes. His audience loved him too, and there were a lot more piercings and tattoos and shag hair cuts than among those who come to listen to me...

The Ron and Don Show on KIRO

2008-09-24T17:36:00.000-04:00

Spent the morning here in Seattle catching up, then whisked off into town for a half-hour live spot in studio on the Ron and Don Show on AM radio. It's very popular, apparently, but pretty much as it sounds. Ron and Don took time out from traffic reports and the weather to ask about my road trip, and Robert Pirsig's road trip, and we never bothered much with the philosophy or the zen or the intellectual analysis - just the Yeah! It was a hoot...

Down and out in Eugene, Oregon

2008-09-23T17:15:00.000-04:00

Lost my frickin' wallet. Read all about it here on the road trip blog, under the "6,657 km." entry.

Touching the ocean at last

2008-09-22T12:43:00.004-04:00

My route's held to the coast all the way since Santa Monica, but I wanted to leave the actual touching of the water until here in Crescent City, where I first reached the coast in 2004. Unlike back then, the weather is lovely, though cool now in the wind.

I parked the bike and walked down to the lighthouse and dipped my fingers in the Pacific, then wandered around a while. Now I'm at a Starbucks, putting on a sweater and trying to get motivated. I'll be out of California within the hour, and it's not letting go easily.

Miranda, California - Scene of the Voice

2008-09-21T19:06:00.002-04:00

It's getting late and it's gloomy here among the redwoods. At this time of the early evening, they're majestic but I find them claustrophobic and foreboding.

I rode past the site of my front tire blowout - no flat this time - and brought Lucy into Miranda, and now find myself sitting on the very same stoop where I spent so long back in 2004, waiting for the tow truck. It's still quiet here, though there's no buzz of insects. More houses than I remember off to the south, but then, I wasn't looking for houses before. I shot a segment of the short movie I've been creating and just called my wife, Wendy, to let her know where I am. I have a new cell phone that's held a signal so far everywhere I've been. We talked for a while and I kept expecting to see/hear a Tracker coming through the trees from the north, but it stayed away. It didn't need to drive past this time.

It's getting late. I have to press on to Eureka. I won't get there until after dark, but I'm not afraid.

Point Cabrillo - Scene of the resolution

2008-09-21T13:54:00.000-04:00

Rode up here all along the coast, crossing over the range at the Russian River. It's always a gamble to predict the weather by the shoreline, but today was a winning roll - the sun was warm and the sky blue. This is a more dramatic coastline than south of Monterey, with the smooth road literally held to the cliffside by stakes and pillars, with curving bridges over the inlets.

The site of the resolution itself was easy enough to find again, and I was surprised that the empty field was still empty. Houses all along the shore of the promontory, except for that half-acre or so of golden brown grass that I discovered in 2004. There's another house just to the west, separated by a thick hedge, and five deer were lying there in the shade, watching me.

The cliff drops a long way down to the water, where the surf crashes against rocks. Just to the east, surfers were enjoying the whitecaps rolling onto Caspar Beach - one guy was out there in the water with his dog, which was balancing on the board more successfully than him.

I don't know if there really was a resolution scene or not in 1968; it makes sense to have been completely fictionalized by Robert Pirsig to suit his literary purpose of tying up the loose ends and providing a showdown between the Narrator and Phaedrus. After all, Chris said later that he enjoyed his trip, and it seems unlikely that he would really have been sitting there, rocking with his head in his hands and crying, on a trip he enjoyed. But I also don't think I want to know. Pirsig would prefer that his book be left to stand on its own rather than be eroded by fact-finding enquiry, and this is one of the secrets that should be left to the imagination.

But true or not, the site is a splendid and fitting one. Works for me.

As I was about to leave, I took a longer look at the house to the west. It's not especially large but clearly expensive, surrounded by garden, electric fence and a secure iron gate. I wondered if its owner knew of the relevance of the site, then I noticed the house's name on the gate: Sea Ghost. The owner was not at home to ask (I pressed the buzzer a couple of times), but I think the importance has not been lost.

Copperfield's Books, Petaluma

2008-09-20T17:50:00.000-04:00

Today at Copperfields was my only afternoon reading - I turned up a half-hour beforehand and parked the bike right out front of the store, and went inside to meet Ray, who works there and who read and enjoyed my book. He sat in on the reading and was keen to ask the first question, about the freaky bronze statue that was in the yurt in Montana. Well, that was a new one!

I changed around the readings this time and offered some new passages that I've not read before, touching on Zen and its life lessons (well, this is California). I don't know if they were any more appealing, but I know that I like to read different things, so it made it better for me. And most people bought a book and stuck around for a chat.

Ray is a real fan of my book and he reminds a great deal of my friend Dan, in both looks and mannerisms - Dan's also a guy who has read Zen and the Art multiple times. I'm attaching a photo of Ray here taken after the signing so that if Dan reads this, he might see the resemblance. Dan, you've got a doppelganger in California.

I see that Kathleen Norris is coming to Copperfield's on Oct. 3. I'd love to hear her read. Her book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography is probably the only other book ever published that centres around Lemmon, South Dakota - well, the only one I know of, anyway. I read it after I visited and found its beautiful text put Lemmon and its challenges into a proper context, as a positive but realistic description of the appeal of the prairie.

Live TV, early morning!

2008-09-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

Got up super early to go to San Carlos, a half-hour south of San Francisco, to shoot a five minute live TV spot on KRON with Henry Tenenbaum. Talk about seat-of-the-pants! The studio was set up in a UV television store, since Henry was also pitching special deals on flat screen televisions, with a free Blu-Ray player thrown in.

I used to work in TV, but this was something else. I drove in with Alex, who was put in charge of looking after me, and we found the San Carlos suburban wilderness with all quiet everywhere except for this TV crew of a half-dozen people, all talking to a woman named Leila in the real studio, which they pronounced "Lila", then turning to talk to me and halfway through, switching gears to talk to the studio again.

Henry admitted he hadn't read the book, not even more than a page of the book, but sat me down anyway and we hurtled into the five-minute spot. I have no idea what it looked like or how it sounded - I can't remember a thing we talked about. Probably nor can anyone else. Then I was done and Henry grabbed a Blu-Ray player and thrust it at the camera, with the cameraman calling out "More cow bell! More cow bell!!"

What a way to wake up.

Afterwards, Henry interviewed another author, a guy who's just written a book called "The 3 big questions for a frantic family." This is a guy with four boys under 10 who was rushing off to coach his twins' soccer practice.

I got back to the hotel just in time to check out, exhausted...

Mrs. Dalloway's, Berkeley

2008-09-19T22:16:00.000-04:00

Got here literally just a couple of minutes before the event was due to begin, after falling asleep in the hotel room in San Francisco. I rode over the Bay Bridge on the bike, splitting lanes to catch up time, into the fog and impending rain of the mainland, but the weather held and I didn't seem like too much of a drowned rat when I arrived.

Once again, different questions from a different audience. I like to mix up the readings, reading different passages depending on why people tell me they wanted to come listen. I probably didn't get it right on this one, since only a minority actually bought my book at the end of the event. Somewhere like Berkeley, I should probably have concentrated on the Zen side of things.

I'd have liked to have stayed out and explored, but it's late and I have to be up early in the morning to go shoot a TV spot. So with a Friday night to kill in San Francisco, right at Fisherman's Wharf, I'm straight back to the room and bed. Ann Patchett wrote recently about going on book tour in The Atlantic, and so far, this whole experience is pretty bang on what she describes.

Capitola Book Cafe

2008-09-19T02:34:00.002-04:00

What a great book store!

I just gave a reading that was both well attended and enthusiastically received. I like to ask at the outset for some feedback of who in the audience has read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (and who's read it all the way through), and usually most people have. And usually, most everybody is very curious about it and interested to hear about the context in which it was created.

Tonight was no different, and once again the questions afterwards were varied and thoughtful. Thanks, Gena, for helping to arrange such an enjoyable evening!

Now, go over to my road trip blog to find out why I love the Santa Cruz area so much. I'll start moving the blog from wheels.ca over to this site soon, but for now, you'll read it first there.

Closing some circles

2008-09-17T02:03:00.002-04:00

Ian Glendinning has just posted a sensitive and perceptive commentary on his psybertron blog about coming to Minneapolis and attending my book launch. Read it here.

Signing in LA

2008-09-17T01:33:00.006-04:00

I went to a bunch of bookstores today, including Barnes and Noble, Borders, Vroman's in Pasadena and Book Soup in West Hollywood, to sign books. Fortunately, I was driven around by Ann Binney, who took great care of me and made sure we didn't get lost. This city is a labyrinth of highways!

There was time in the evening to go to a nearby bookstore and take in a reading by another author, which I was curious to attend, both for the author experience and the book. But I won't name the author, because he didn't turn up. Big posters advertising it, and a number of best-selling books to his name, and he just didn't arrive. They kicked us out - all five of us - at 10 minutes past the start time, without even an apology.

I reckon he'd sent an accomplice ahead, who'd seen the feeble turnout, and he decided that his time wasn't worth it. Well, you know what, Mr. Big Time Author? That was my time too.

Fortunately, I've had great turnouts so far, and very good feedback from the three readings I've given. But even if there was only one person in the room, I don't think you can decide that your time is worth more than their's.

Or maybe he really was late. Doubt it, though.

Pacific Coast at last

2008-09-15T23:53:00.002-04:00

Made it late this afternoon to Santa Monica, where the Best Western people were happy to offer safe parking for Lucy and the air conditioning works. After the high-90s temperatures of the Nevada and California deserts (it's 97 in this photo at Baker. Calif., on "the world's largest thermometer,") it's a gorgeous day here by the ocean.

I'll be signing books at Barnes and Noble stores here, but there are no public events. That's okay - it's tiring riding across the country, and I could do with an evening to rest up.

Zion National Park, and coincidences

2008-09-15T18:05:00.000-04:00

The bike's back on the road and running well, and I've taken the side road down through Utah, Hwy. 89, which parallels the interstate. I came through Zion national park on my way home from the '04 trip and it was wonderful, so I wanted to see how it still is. And of course, it's inspirational. Makes you know that there has to be a god.

On the way here, I've been thinking about the flat tire in Colorado, which you'll know about if you read my wheels.ca roadtrip blog. I've only ever had a couple of flats in my 30 years of riding, and then this one happens just as I'm going over and over in my head that this will be the most perfect day of riding for me ever. As if to stress that my life is easily shaped by experience, and never predictable. Like the coincidence in the redwoods in the California chapter of Zen and Now. Or in the Rockies on the way home, when my odometer read 88,888.8 at the exact time that the altimeter on the GPS read 8,888. Don't believe me? Look at the photo on the "Moments of Zen" gallery.

And then, just outside this park, at a church, a sign that read: "Coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous." I can't get that out of my head. Maybe I should get to a church...

Busted flat beside the interstate

2008-09-14T11:25:00.002-04:00

Check out the fuss around my flat tire at the road trip side of this blog, at wheels.ca