Why I Love Josh Kilmer-Purcell

In what feels like a lifetime ago, I stumbled upon a book called "I Am Not Myself These Days," a memoir by Josh Kilmer-Purcell.  I could relate to the title.  The distance between "Who I am" and "Who I want to be" seemed to be growing exponentially and there was no GPS to guide my way.  I was so out of sorts, I needed a new word for "lost."  Lost Deluxe?  Lost Supreme?  Lost with cheese and bacon, hold the tomato?  I was spinning.  Then somehow, not really sure how I found it.  I stumbled upon this book.  It had a funky 60's reminiscent aqua spiral with a somewhat morose and lost-looking, little orange goldfish/koi type fish on the cover.  Why was the goldfish sad?  Why was there a fish on the cover anyway?  Is this some sort of Austin Powers as a fish book?  There are questions to be answered.  This was a book that demanded to be read.

The goldfish might have looked lost, but it certainly did not lead me astray.  Josh Kilmer-Purcell's memoir was not similar to my own life history at all.  I'm not a tall drag queen with plastic dome breasts with goldfish swimming in them (A-ha! Goldfish reference understood!).  I only occasionally appear to be a raging alcoholic, but it's not my usual costume du jour.  No, I definitely did not relate to most of Kilmer-Purcell's life.  But I have felt down.  I have made the wrong call on a guy (more than once!).  I had had similar thoughts, emotions and chutzpah.  And it was this common chord that melted my heart.  Kilmer-Purcell's memoir was naked - sassy attitude without pretense, wry humor without wallowing bitterness, truth slowly earned through painful humiliation.  It was like watching someone put together a jagged puzzle.  With each page, the pieces were coming together and the picture created was beautiful, real and unashamed.  All of our experiences, good and bad, make us the person we are today.  I enjoyed traveling the bumpy road of Mr. Kilmer-Purcell's youth and feeling a bond in both his hurts and his success.  "I Am Not Myself These Days" was a wonderful journey.

From time to time, I would look to see if Josh Kilmer-Purcell had written anything new.  I wanted to step back into his world of truth with blemishes and all.   He had written a fiction book called "Candy Everybody Wants" but I am primarily a non-fiction reader.  I wanted reality, not made-up drama.

Then years later, I find myself in the Portland, Oregon airport.  I had a belly full of tater tots from Rogue Public Ale House and still had time to kill before my flight to Tampa, Florida.  I was traveling on my birthday.  The same date my driver's license expires.  I was scared that the TSA would argue that it was not a valid form of ID, so I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to argue and beg, if necessary.  Luckily, it was not an issue and now I was poking around the shops.  I spent a small fortune at Made In Oregon.  Had a decent meal at Rogue and now I was heading over to Powell's Books.  I had not had time in my journey to hit my favorite - the downtown Portland Powell's Books, so a small library annex location would have to do.  Sitting on a table near the front were two smiling Gentlemen Farmers.  What was this?  Then I saw the author's name ... Josh Kilmer-Purcell.  I grabbed it like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic.  WHAT?  When did he write a new book?  And this is a paperback.  Evidently I had been out of touch for awhile.  The book was called "The Bucolic Plague: An Unconventional Memoir."  The cover said "How two Manhattanites became Gentlemen Farmers."  Now that, my friends, is a story.

I devoured the book in a little over a day.  I fell asleep with it in my hands and finished the book when I woke up.  My review on GoodReads.com reads as follows:    

Josh Kilmer-Purcell has done it again. His 2nd memoir rips my beating heart from my chest, squeezes it, then wraps it in a microfiber baby blanket, lovingly kisses it and then places it gently back into my gaping, bloody chest cavity. Someone please lock this man in a room and force him to write 24-7. I can't get enough of his quirky, fantastic, imperfectly perfect sense of humor and "sparkle." Excellent book.

I wonder why Hallmark never calls me to write greeting cards?

I'm not going to tell you what the 2nd memoir is about - you should just read it.  Or read about it at the http://www.beekman1802.com/ website.  Or watch Planet Green's "The Fabulous Beekman Boys."  But really you should just read the book.  It is peaches and cream with a shot of tequila. 

Josh Kilmer-Purcell's day job is as an Advertising Executive.  I love cold hard reality with blemishes and love of self, but I also love merchandise - shopping opportunities.  Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner Dr. Brent Ridge have turned a second home away from the city into not only a working farm, but also a re-energizing movement not only for themselves, but their fellow townspeople.  Their website http://www.beekman1802.com/ shares their adventures and more importantly for my tastes, things to buy.  In homage to Josh Kilmer-Purcell, I have ordered their Beekman 1802 Habanero Cajeta goats' milk caramel sauce.  Think dulce de leche sauce infused with Beekman Farm-grown habanero peppers.  In "The Bucolic Plague," Kilmer-Purcell wrote about how life can throw you a line drive to the groin.  The Beekman 1802 Habanero Cajeta sounds like a perfect metaphor for Kilmer-Purcell's life - smooth, silky with alternate layers of sweet and hot.  I look forward to its arrival.  But just in case the Habanero Cajeta is too much of a line drive to the groin versus a spicy sweet treat, I also ordered their Beekman 1802 Cajeta - Original - goat's milk caramel sauce sans habanero. 

Great book + great merchandise = I'm in heaven.

If nothing I have written makes you want to read "The Bucolic Plague," I have two words for you.

Bionic Cat.

You heard me.  Bionic Cat.  There's a bionic cat in "The Bucolic Plague."  I can't say "no" to a bionic cat.  Can you?