Happy Ending Music and Reading Series featuring Richard Price & Matthew Caws (of Nada Surf)

Show Description

“The Happy Ending Reading Series promises to turn your notion of a staid, sit-down, hush-hush reading on its head...come find out what happens when writers do more than just paper.” – Flavorpill

"New York's most vital author's series….excellent.” – Time Out New York

“Amanda Stern…impresario helping to keep downtown, New York alive.” – The New York Times Magazine

The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series aims to renew a sense of excitement about conversation, ideas and culture in New York, to reactivate the nascent thrill of collaboration by presenting, in a pared down setting, the most exciting and interesting artistic and intellectual pairings.

THE READER: Richard Price is a novelist and screenwriter, was born and raised in the Bronx. From the early 1970’s, Price earned his reputation as one of New York’s preeminent writers with The Wanderers (1974); Blood Brothers (1976); Clockers (1992), which was nominated for the National Book Critic Circle Award; Freedomland (1998); and Samaritan (2003). In addition to his literary career, Price has also written numerous screenplays. Richard Price was the recipient of the 1999 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007, he shared an Edgar Award for his writing on the HBO mini-series The Wire.

THE MUSICAL GUEST: The three members of Nada Surf, singer-guitarist Matthew Caws, bassist Daniel Lorca and drummer Ira Elliott, have played together now for a dozen years. They've survived overnight major-label success and the inevitable morning-after bleariness, persevering past obstacles that would have sunk a less resilient combo to become one of America's most truly independent bands

Nada Surf's fifth album, Lucky is at once literal and ironic.  Lyrical bitter-sweetness is cut with a musical bouyancy. The emotional candor of Caws' vocals coupled with chiming guitars and propulsive rhythms transforms intimate songs into audience anthems.  Turn up the volume, hit the repeat button, and your troubles, for a blissful three minutes or so, will disappear. 

THE HOST: Amanda Stern is the author of three novels, the critically acclaimed novel, The Long Haul and two young adult books written under a pseudonym. She founded the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series out of the Happy Ending bar in 2003 and has been running, curating and hosting it ever since. The series has been voted the best in the city, the most “vital,” and “essential” authors’ series in town.