This kid told me that they have wireless remotes for video games now, which is great, because it was pretty inconvenient not to be able to play video game standing anywhere in the goddamn house when I was a kid!

Last Tuesday, three New Jersey writers, Jackie Corley, Jeff Somers and Caren Lissner read summer camp stories at Ned Vizzini's reading series at Barbes in Brooklyn.

"Barbes is a great venue for readings. You have the bar there to get yourself ripe and ready before hand, but at the same time, the room in the back provides a quiet intimate setting which is essential to any literary event," says Jackie, editor of wordriot.com "For me, teenage Jersey summers seemed to revolve around swilling natty lights in some dude's basement when his mommy and daddy are gone, or furtively smoking cloves behind 7-11."

After each story, audience members receive free books and drinks for answering questions about the piece, and the readers keep the atmosphere fun

"This is a true story, so there is no sex in it," says Caren, author of Carrie Pilby and Starting from Square Two, as she steps up to the podium. She looks around sheepishly and adds "I was in fifth grade!" setting the record straight.

People came from as far as Manhattan and New Jersey for the reading.

"I had a good time at the reading," says Jody from Manhattan. "It was my kind of bar, not some pretentious place. It was cool."

After the reading, Matt, a publicist for The Week magazine steps up to the bar and orders a glass of Grey Goose Vodka. On Wednesday, he's helping to run a screening of "The Hunting of the President: The 10-year Campaign to Destroy Bill Clinton," (based on the book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons) at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

All sorts of shady characters attended the event, including Al Franken, Kurt Vonnegut, Moby, Salman Rushdie (what a left wing name- "Rush die"!) and the guy who plays the dad on Everybody Loves Raymond. The movie was basically a reiteration of the news from the 90s- we had enough of that back then!

After the movie, this guy, Bill Clinton, walks out on stage and says that the left will win back the country through the use of reason- things were better when there was a Democrat in charge. Then he said that he made it through the ordeal, and so everything turned out OK. So, what you're saying, Bill is that we shouldn't worry about unemployment and war because you made it out unscathed? Well that's just great! As long as things turned out well for YOU, Mr. President!

After the movie, everybody moved over to Marquee on 26th street for the after party. Bill wasn't there, which was disappointing, because I was hoping to use him as a wing man. They say he's pretty smooth.

The Whiskey Café in Lyndhurst is a great place to hang out. In addition to the usual dancing and drinks, they have a happy hour buffet. Debbie from Clifton drinks an amaretto sour from what she considers a large plastic cup.

"I think this glass is bigger than the one they use at Dingo's Den," says Debbie, a Dingo's regular. In all honesty, it probably was the same size- how many sizes of cups are there, anyway? But that's why you don't want your girl getting around, because even if everything is the same size, she might think it's bigger. This Friday, Dropbox will be playing at Dingo's live venue counterpart, Dingbatz. Check them out while they're in town.

Write Dave...