‘Stretch’ your imagination this Thursday

Every now and then we turn over this blog space to help promote some doings of Soapbox friends, and this is one I’m actually involved in:

Stretch issue #2 launch party, 7 pm this Thursday at Word bookstore in Greenpoint, celebrating the release of what we can safely call the most expansive, detailed, brimming-with-intrigue, handsome — and only — literary zine comprised entirely of contributions from Trader Joe’s Brooklyn employees. Dave Colon began self-publishing Stretch last year when — frustrated as we all are with the state of things for both the printed word and the printed-word-related job market —he decided to just make something happen himself. (DIY, do or die!) For this issue, he asked for contributions from similarly underemployed fellow grocery jockeys, who it turns out have lots of free brain time in between helping nannies wrap their three bananas in four plastic bags.

SEE words written by and HEAR readings read by coworkers (and yes, there will be FREE BOOZE):

Robert Tumas, an L Magazine contributor, whose beard and hair color often cause confusion as to whether he is me or vice versa among the older employees of our store;

Annie Horanyi, whose biting wit and editorial discretion keeps sanity amid a world of questions about where the end of the line is (HINT IT’S UNDER THE SIGN THAT SAYS IT)

Dan Wilner, who recently won the TJ’s contest for being the character most likely to resemble Bob-Omb in a TJ’s/Mario Bros. mashup world;

Conal Darcy, who you may remember from Brokelyn’s how-to-make-prison-wine and digging-through-the-trash-at-6am fame;

and me, or whatever.

But wait, there’s more! Thursday will also feature a dramatic reading of an honest-to-blog space adventure written by James Cunningham and Jeff Waite, the recorded version of which will be distributed with the issue of Stretch and features an all-star cavalcade of Trader Joe’s voices doing their best to replicate the allure of old tyme radio serials.

Then, the after party at Bar Matchless will feature DJ Dave Teller, aka DJ BirdDog, who will be spinning Rockabilly, Soul, R&B, Funk until you feel sufficiently Stretched.