Sobriety For Misfits

Bucky Sinister doesn't like group hugs. He's not big on God. And he spent his childhood in more church basements than "shitty green paint," he says, so he thought he'd had enough of that. But when Sinister, a San Francisco author and comedian, decided to get sober, he found himself forced to spend a lot of time with people. Praying. In church basements. In his new book, Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos, Sinister writes honestly about how he dealt with the culture of addiction recovery, and how he found his own 12-step group, one made up of punk rockers and misfits. A self-described loner, Sinister gradually accepted that community was where recovery was at. In Get Up, he recasts the 12-step philosophy in terms that make more sense to him -- addictive personalities as characters from The A-Team, for example -- and in the process he shows remarkable insight into his own motivations for drinking. Alcohol had propped up Sinister's social interaction, his self-image as an artist, and even his poetry performance. Through 12-step, he got clean, and he got over his own bullshit. Tonight, Sinister celebrates the book release with a stand-up comedy show and ice cream social. Get there before 8 p.m. and you may get a milkshake.
Sun., Oct. 26, 7 p.m., 2008