Jason Mulgrew’s book is filled with his self-deprecating observations.
(Nicole Goddard)
Spoken word
His own worst critic
Jason Mulgrew’s book is filled with his self-deprecating observations.
(Nicole Goddard)
Jason Mulgrew started a blog in 2004 after hearing a co-worker complain about a former lover who had been posting details about their relationship online. At the time, he only saw it as a way to develop material for a stand-up act.
But the Boston College graduate soon carved out his comedic niche in cyberspace, filling his “Everything Is Wrong With Me’’ blog with self-deprecating observations, a style Mulgrew said inspired his agent to dub him “the straight David Sedaris, but much less talented.’’
He brings that snarky mindset to a memoir of the same name, taking aim at subjects he hasn’t tackled on the Web: his eccentric working-class family and awkward childhood in his tough South Philly world of dive bars, bookies, and street violence.
“The blog is about how I suck now, but the book is how I sucked as a kid,’’ said Mulgrew.
Mulgrew will discuss “Everything Is Wrong With Me’’ at
INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
On a more global scale, two international issues — China and Iran — are ripe for debate.Amid all the hand-wringing about China’s rise to global economic supremacy, Stanford professor Ian Morris analyzed nearly 15,000 years of history to understand why the West had dominated for so long and why its reign may be nearing an end.
“History really isn’t a very good guide to the future, but it’s the best guide we’ve got,’’ he said.
Morris, the author of “Why the West Rules for Now,’’ will discuss his book at the Harvard Book Store Friday at 3 p.m.
On the Iran front, as last year’s postelection unrest gripped that country, a cadre of journalists covered the events — with often tenuous government permission. Today, an all-day conference at Boston University, “Covering Iran: Journalism and Truth Under Siege,’’ features four authors and journalists who will share their eyewitness accounts in an effort to make sense of what happened and to demystify Iran for a US audience.
BU professor Stephen Kinzer, a former foreign correspondent for The New York Times and the author of the recent book “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future,’’ will moderate two panels. “There’s a natural impulse to associate the Iranian people with the statements of Iranian leaders,’’ he said by phone. The Iranian populace is actually “perhaps the most pro-American of any nation of the Muslim world, or perhaps any nation anywhere in the world.’’
The conference begins at 9:30 a.m. and also features two films shot during the crisis and a photo exhibition. It’s all held at Boston University Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary’s Street, and is free and open to the public.
WRITING ON DEADLINE
Following the unexpected paperback success of her debut novel, “Those Who Save Us,’’ Jenna Blum was able to sell her sophomore effort, “The Stormchasers,’’ before it was even written. That victory came with a steep price.“For the first time in my life, I was writing fiction on a deadline,’’ said Blum, who sequestered herself in a Minnesota motel room to churn out chapters, a process she compared to running away from home.
In the book, the extreme weather that has fascinated her since childhood becomes a metaphor for the bipolar disorder that ravaged her family. “For a couple of decades, I watched beloved family members suffer with severe mood swings,’’ said Blum.
Her protagonist follows tornadoes to find her estranged twin brother, a bipolar man who chases storms during his manic episodes.
Blum will discuss her new novel at Paul Pratt Memorial Library, 35 Ripley Road, Cohasset, Friday at 11 a.m.
ALEX SPANKO AND TAYLOR ADAMS 
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
