Eugene, Oregon
October 26, 2000

Dear Readers,

Today’s letter is by Leanne Shapton, an artist and illustrator and designer who is currently the art director of Saturday Night, the magazine where I used to work, in Toronto.

Her missive is a new development for us – our first photographic letter. We have published illustrations before, as in Jorge Colombo’s full-color confession of his habit of sketching his neighbors without their knowledge, but photographs are different, as Leanne illustrates today.

(One way they’re different, unfortunately, is that they take a long time to load, especially if you’re using an older modem. So if today’s letter held you up, our apologies. I hope you’ll agree it was worth it.)

Tomorrow’s letter, the final letter of volume two of Open Letters, is from Chana Shvonne Williford, the author of the first letter in volume one: a bookends kind of thing. Let me recommend, if you’ve joined us late, that you read Chana’s first letter, about meeting Tattoo Guy, and her second one, about moving in with him. They remain two of our most popular letters; just last week, Dave Foremsky of Pittsburgh wrote to ask,

I was wondering if any more letters from Chana Williford are planned. I was curious as to how her relationship was going and how they have worked things out.

Tomorrow, Dave will get his answer: Chana’s third letter advances the tale, in a rather dramatic fashion.

Speaking of our archival past: I hope I’ve made it clear, in asking for nominations for next week’s journey through the past (a.k.a. re-run week) that I’m not looking for the “best” letters, or anything like that. I’m looking for letters that need reviving for one reason or another – because they’ve become newly relevant, because I never link to them, or just because they’ve stuck in your mind, like a Pepsi jingle, and you want help exorcising them. So: please send all suggestions for letters from the first two volumes that we should run next week toeditor@openletters.net.

And what, you ask, is going on with the Hot Club of Cowtown? Well, they set Eugene, Oregon, aflame last night, from the stage of Sam Bond’s Garage, first rocking the audience back on their collective heels with “Roly Poly,” and then finished them off with a particularly scorching “Draggin’ the Bow,” by the end of which fiddle-player Elana Fremerman’s bow was in ribbons. Tonight’s concert is at Lenore’s Ghost in the remote but stirringly named hamlet of Independence, Oregon; then it’s on to Portland and Seattle. Come on out, if you’re around; meanwhile, please enjoy the multimedia presentation that isLeanne’s letter, and catch up on your Williford history.

Yours truly,

Paul Tough