July 2011
1 post
Moving on
Hi, I’m finding it hard to keep updating different blogs, so if you have any Pill Head related questions, it’s best to reach me through the Contacts section on this site, or you can find updates about the book on Facebook.
Thank you so much for all the kind support I’ve gotten from people who have found me here. It’s impossible to communicate what it means to me. If you came here looking...
August 2010
1 post
My New Favorite Pill Boxes
Clover has been in retirement for years, but I’m getting sick of hauling around the few things I still need to take in an ugly, days-of-the-week plastic pill box. I can’t decide between these two I found on Etsy - kittens, or the random plushie sex scene from The Shining. There’s also a beautiful octopus one, shown below. Maybe I’ll just buy all three and rotate them...
July 2010
3 posts
New HuffPo piece up →
Why do the numbers keep rising?
HuffPo piece →
NYC's "largest" pill dealer busted
My question is, how do they KNOW these guys were the city’s largest distributors? It’s not like there’s been a shortage of product since this bust (from what I hear).
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General%20News/64966/DA-Hynes-Announces-Takedown-Of-NYC%27s-Largest-Distributor-Of-Prescription-Drugs.html
May 2010
1 post
Paperback!
Here’s the cover of the paperback, which will be out around June 23. That’s the brilliant Chris Garneau modeling. We tried a bunch of different shots, including some where he held various pills in his hand. Later that night, he discovered that a Suboxone had slipped inside his boot. Accidental drug traffic by foot!
April 2010
1 post
PharmVille →
Thanks to Erin for alerting me to this. You can get lost in dr-bob.org/babble for hours.
March 2010
3 posts
Truly Clueless. And sad.
Pharmacist owner Eddie Bubar said he cut off Brittany Murphy, her mother Sharon and husband Simon Monjack four months before Murphy’s death in December. “We thought there was going to be an accident there,” he told TMZ.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/03/21/2010-03-21_brittany_murphys_pharmacist_we_thought_there_was_going_to_be_an_accident.html#ixzz0iwNVeTzs
Jewelry Box (of Drugs!)
I’m torn about this ad. On the one hand, I think it’s a really smart way to get parents to look at things realistically, but I also hate how it could potentially breed suspicion and tempt parents to go rummaging through their kids’ stuff. The only time that’s ok in my book is if a parent already has some sort of other evidence that points to their child having a problem.
Gossip Girl!
Anyone else following Gossip Girl’s pill subplot? Little J started dealing, and turned the paillettes on this coat into tiny little pill boxes so that Serena could unknowingly smuggle the drugs into a state dinner. I heard LJ threw down a big bag of pills last night, but my cable has been out so I missed it.
December 2009
2 posts
Mother Jones named PH one of the best books of... →
2009
Jesus, it’s been months since I updated this. A lot has happened. I got a new job as a Senior Editor at Country Living magazine, and it’s taken up a lot more time than I thought it would. Plus I had to adjust to office life after a two year hiatus. I don’t mind the working late part, it’s the getting up on time that is killing me. It’s a cool job though - I research...
September 2009
4 posts
Martyrs
I watched Martyrs the other night, a French horror film that messed with my mind so badly that I’ve fallen into a severe depression for the past two days. It’s dark stuff and really hard to get through, particularly the last thirty minutes. But the end is worth it if you can stick with it. Above is the song from the end credits, played over footage from Anna And Lucie’s...
Powerhouse Arena party!
RSVP to this event I’m doing with Lesley Arfin and Benoit Denizet-Lewis! Info above.
August 2009
7 posts
Triple D
This is killing me. Especially the episode about Beatrice Inn. And weirdly, the day after I watched all the episodes in a row, I met two of the main girls at a show at Mercury Lounge. They’re friends with my friend Scottie, who is in Pill Head, but not by name. Tiny world!!
LA....Why Not?
I’ll tell you why. Trips to the desert turn into discoveries of crime scenes involving piles of women’s underwear half buried in the sand. You can almost kill a guy on a motorcycle when he suddenly cuts in front of you and flies through the air onto the concrete. Men on steroids threaten to beat you up because you walk by their house. You’ll only come in second place at a...
LA Literary Death Match!!!!
Come on up and see me!
The Literary Death Match is coming to Hollywood! Starring: Joshua Lyon (author of the recently out memoir Pill Head), Melinda Hill (actress, comedian, writer, triple-threat representing Whatsup Tiger Lily comedy show) Rich Ferguson (representing TheNervousBreakdown.com), and Chris “Whitey” Erickson (representing Flatmancrooked), all judged by brillianteurs Mark Sarvas...
July 2009
21 posts
Suboxone
In case you’re wondering what it looks like, it’s the second pill from the left, above. The orange one. I didn’t mean to come out publicly on NPR that I’m still taking Suboxone. Very few people in my life knew that I was back on it. But when that caller asked me about it, I remembered how desperate I used to be for real information about recovery and medications, and I felt...
Hmm
Ok, that picture is much less terrifying than I remember. But trust me, he is a giant.
Gator's Gwanna Git Eyu!
Casey kept repeating that phrase after overhearing a mom say it to her three year-old daughter at Alligator Adventure in South Carolina. Alligators are creepy but I’m terrified of crocodiles and their goddamned “death rolls.” And that is why the above photo is the Scariest Photo I’ve Ever Taken. If you squint you can see the massive outline of the jaws of Utan, the...
Back from Vacation
I just returned from a few days on the beach at Ocean Isle in North Carolina. My family has been going there every summer since the 70s, but there’s been a ten-year break since the last time we all met up. Things were just getting too tense for reasons I’ll probably write about in a book someday. This trip was lovely though. The family members who always made it painful stayed away,...
Official Launch Party
Last night was the official launch party for Pill Head, hosted by The Corner Bookstore. It was the happiest night of my life - a room full of people who I love all being so supportive and generous. I read the prologue, did a Q&A and there was a wine and cheese reception afterwards. Everything you dream of as an author. The store even made a blow-up of the cover and filled the front windows...
New Press, ETC
Wow, I was really feeling it in that last post. Things are much better.
I didn’t realize that doing publicity was going to be such a full-time job. Every day has been full of phone interviews and deadlines for essays. There are a bunch of new press items out like this New York Post piece, an interview I did with a former Jane co-worker at The Frisky and a new Huffington Post op-ed....
Fights
Ok, so getting into verbal fights with someone sucks. Right? But it’s ten thousand times worse when that fight is with the ex of someone you are currently dating and the person you are with is nowhere near to jump in and make it cool. The fight from tonight was about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. I’ve never met a gay guy who believed this was a good idea, but tonight I did. So we fought, loudly and...
June 2009
18 posts
GMA and Pride!!!
This weekend has been insane, I’m barely standing. Good Morning America called me Saturday AFternoon and asked if I could go on live the next morning. It was total baptism by fire, it’s terrifying to have your first TV appearance be live on GMA. I think it went well, I just need to remember to relax my shoulders. You can can watch it here, click on the video for Prescription Drug...
Huffington Post!
It’s been a busy day. Started with an interview with a very cool reporter who is doing a Q&A about PH for AOL Health. Then my PH stickers arrived (will post pics soon), went to my drug counselor, found out an op-ed I’d written got published on The Huffington Post, picked up blow-ups of the book cover (Thanks Johnny!), continued an epic email fight with my sister that I’m...
My Father
Today my father told me I’ve cut his heart in half and then he hung up on me. He’s referring to a part in the book where we had a drunk conversation and he said something that freaked me out. While I was writing the book I told him I was going to write what he had said, and I even repeated it word for word to him to make sure I was getting it right, and he said he was ok with it. What...
Watch
Pill Head: The Trailer!
Book trailers are a weird thing. I guess they make sense from a marketing standpoint but it’s hard to figure out how to make one that isn’t just a person looking at the camera and talking about their book. Casey and I decided to try and evoke a mood instead, sort of the comfortable-slowness-with-dread-trickling-around-the-edges you feel when you’re high on pills.