Miranda July goes to church

-by Abe
Yesterday I joined the thronging masses in the First Congregational Church to catch some of that distinctive Miranda-ness. She read a few stories from her new book No One Belongs Here More Than You, including “It Was Romance,”a great story that she read on this American Life a while back*, and before that, her friend Becky, from the band Lavender Diamond**, played some songs, her voice was beautiful and amazingly clear over her acoustic guitar. After all that, Miranda took questions, awkwardly taking pleasure in humiliating several audience members by either refusing to answer their questions about where she drew inspiration, or in one case, chiding a woman that “gyp” is a racial slur. It is, btw. Oh, and she doesn’t miss Portland.
My favorite moment in the whole show though, came at the very beginning, when Miranda told an anecdote about losing her luggage at PDX, and how she didn’t like the shoes she was forced to wear by default. She said she was thinking maybe she would just come out on stage barefoot, and ask if she could borrow a pair of size 9’s from somebody, and maybe do something with that. For me that pretty much answers where she gets her inspiration, and why we like her so damn much.
–hollaback?
* I tried searching their site and couldn’t locate the episode-not to gripe, but their old site would’ve found it.
**playing the Doug Fir on May 21st