enter at your own risk

I was sat on the bus on my way to work earlier this week when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a cute young girl sat behind me, smiling.

"I'm sorry, but have you ever heard of a band called Elliot Minor?" (she had an American twang to her accent.)

"Er, no."

"Well you really look like the lead singer."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Yeah, it's a very good thing!"

"Oh, well thank you!"

So a few days later I took the bus again, and there she was sat near the back giving me another big smile. There were two teenage boys sat at the very back, discussing various rock bands I'd never heard of.

One of them ventured the opinion that Elliot Minor 'suck'. "Excuse me, I don't think so!" she interjected, despite not being party to their conversation. She walked down the bus and sat opposite me, shuffling through my papers for the new magazine. We got talking, she told me her name, she enjoys writing and she is studying English and drama at college.

"So did you check out Elliot Minor?"

"Oh no, well I don't really like rock music. Have you heard of a writer called Dennis Cooper?"

"No."

"You'd probably enjoy him, he is an American writer of transgressive gay fiction. He is very into cute dark-haired punk boys, like you maybe are."

Not many people I know are into Dennis Cooper, whose blog I regularly post links to and whose books Frisk and The Sluts I highly recommend. Anyway, for fans (or not-yet-fans) there is a Google Books version of a rare collection of essays called Enter at Your Own Risk that is well worth a look.

Despite its heterosexual nature, there was definitely something Cooperesque about that encounter on the bus. Although having finally seen a picture of the band, none of them are what you'd call attractive: LINK