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FIRST TIME
The first time I interacted with Justin Taylor in real life was at a
reading at NYU sometime in 2010. I don't remember what reading it
was, maybe Jonathan Lethem. I remember I went to the reading alone
and arrived twenty to thirty minutes early. I was the first one
there. An old lady came in and smiled at me sympathetically.
After the reading I saw Matthew Rohrer, my former professor, talking
to a person with glasses and a beard. I walked to them and stood
there until Matthew Rohrer acknowledged me. He introduced me to
Justin Taylor and said "Justin did this." He handed me Justin's book
of short stories and I held it briefly, looked at the back cover once
or twice, then handed it back to Matthew. I said "oh, wow" in an
abrupt and unthinking manner. Matthew looked at Justin and said
"Andrew is, uh...a poet." We stood in a corner and talked about Rain by
Jon Woodward, Tao Lin's Twitter account, and other things related to
those things. Justin said he had lived with Tao at one point and I
remember thinking he was lying.
SECOND TIME
The second time I interacted with Justin Taylor in real life was at an
NYU alumni reading featuring Tao Lin and two other people. I arrived
early and sat alone waiting for the reading to happen. Tao sat next
to me at one point and we talked briefly. Justin Taylor came and sat
next to Tao. I said hello to Justin then reminded him we had met a
few weeks earlier through Matthew Rohrer. He remembered me after I
said that and we shook hands gingerly.
After the reading we went to a bar. This was during the Winter
Olympics and the TVs in the bar were silently replaying that thing
where the luger crashed and died during warm-ups. Earlier that day
the New York Times had positively reviewed Justin's book of short
stories and I remember Justin said he was "glowing" or "pumped," or
something, because of the review. He sarcastically made fun of a girl
we were with for not hanging out with him more often. I remember I
ordered a coffee and the coffee tasted like soap. Justin had a beer,
I think. He said something about Donald Barthelme and I replied in a
way that assumed Donald Barthelme was alive. Justin told me Donald
Barthelme was dead.
THIRD TIME
The third time I interacted with Justin Taylor in real life was
several months later at a party hosted by Zachary German and Jamie
Sterns. I remember feeling pretty drunk. I walked to Justin and
stood in front of him for a moment. I said hello. He looked at me
and said hello in a way that suggested he didn't know who I was. I
stood there for another moment then walked away.
FOURTH TIME
The fourth time I interacted with Justin Taylor in real life was at an
art gallery in Brooklyn. Tao Lin had art on display. Justin Taylor
was there when I arrived. I remember feeling very social. I remember
sitting in a small room with a low ceiling that had a spinning light
sculpture in the middle of it. I sat in this room with Justin, Tao,
and David Fishkind. The person who made the sculpture came and sat
with us at one point and I said something sarcastic about the
sculpture while maintaining a serious facial expression. Justin
laughed. The guy who made the sculpture responded to what I said in a
manner that indicated he didn't realize I was being sarcastic, unless
he was also being sarcastic and I didn't realize it.
Later I was on the roof of the art gallery where there was a grill, a
trampoline, and some uncooked food. I stood around the grill with
Justin, Tao, David, and some other people. I said I would cook the
uncooked food if people wanted to eat it. Nearly everyone expressed
interest in this. I put several hotdogs on the grill. I told Justin
that I enjoyed something he posted on HTMLGIANT and we talked about
the thing he posted. I'm not sure if he knew who I was or not. I
gave him a hot dog. David put an uncooked piece of chicken on the
grill, but got tired of waiting for it and tried to eat it raw. I
told him not to eat the raw piece of chicken and he threw it on the
ground and ran away. Justin told him to "settle down" in the same way
my dad told me to "settle down" once when I was too drunk at a Mexican
restaurant in Colorado.
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