Recap of April 3-10 2010

So in the last week I went to 7 events and missed at least 3 that I wanted to go to. The second week of every month is always a challenge to my health! Since this is going to be a longer entry I have tried my hand at some coding and you can click on the event you want to see right now! Below:

• West Coast Live
• Eleven Eleven release party
• Quiet Lightning
• Radar Productions
• Viracocha benefit for Poems Under the Dome
• Sister Spit
• Literary Death Match

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West Coast Live

For those of you who don't know, West Coast Live is a weekly variety show that enjoys national syndication. It's recorded live in front of an audience and usually features 2 author guests and at least 1 (if not 2) musical guests. The location moves around—although Freight and Salvage in Berkeley is a regular home and so is The Ferry Building. Last Saturday I caught WCL at the Ferry for the first time and it was just the best way to start a weekend morning. I took a few pictures but accidentally erased my entire camera earlier, so you'll have to believe me when I tell you the room from which they broadcast is on the upper level and looks out on the bay. As Mike Greensill plays a little warmup piano medley and guests enjoy complimentary coffee as they filter in, you can watch the sailboats go by and even do some great people watching. I saw some of the greatest family moments of all time from 1 story above. Let me dig into my notes …

Oh boy! The people arte filing in, the day is starting and it feels like X-mas only without the religion and everyone is family only you don't have to talk to them but you can if you want to, they are smiling, we are.

Morning sailboats—Filipino woman taking bottles out of the trash stops and smiles as 2 daughters stop to play with a nearby puppy.

Here are some hilarious questions/comments from the amazingly pro staff:

• Does anyone have any non-math-related questions?
• Did you rehearse their applause?
• I'm sending this email from my iPad. That's all the email said. (this was the release day)
• Children are awful people!

One of the guests was Anchee Min, who spoke about how as a child she was forced to denounce things she knew nothing about (specifically Pearl S. Buck, a topic she explores in her new nook Pearl of China). She said "To have an easy life you have to hide your broken arms inside your sleeves." When she was talking—it was so charming and powerful—I thought: all week I have all this information come my way, and I always think: What does this have to do with me? And then I thought Get a pleasant 2 hr dose of community; different arts in the Bay Area Right Now; a global reach! To hear her telling about Madam Mao engulfed me in the universal. She quotes her: "I was Mao's dog; he asked me to bite, I bit." I rebuked myself for my instinctual question with this one: What do other people's stories have to do with mine?

Then there was another very special guest, Olympia Dukakis, who I had just 2 days before seen in the current play at American Conservatory Theater: Vigil. Read my review here. This was quite the treat because Dukakis' character in Vigil has only 13 lines and it was interesting to hear her talk about preparing for a role like that. She said this of ACT: "… To hold in trust to the public good—and that's taken seriously at ACT, and it's nice to be associated with a theater like this."

Also, Meklit Hadero is an amazing musician and her band is sooo good. You should check them out if you can! You can! May 6 @ Fox Theater in Oakland and CD Release Party is May 13 @ Bimbo's 365 Club in SF. Check her site out and give it a listen. I was so pleased!

Also, Walter Mosely was there! And just about everything he said rang true. Here are just a couple of things:

• Doesn't matter if it gets published. If you write a novel, it will change your life. 
• Leonid never knows. Every door he walks through is different.
• Speaking of his father's generation: Blacks knew what would happen. They knew what to say, what would happen if they said certain things. Now it's time to talk about my generation [with his new series]. … That's the world I live in. Some people might like me because I'm black. Some people might not like me because I'm black. You never know.
• Novels are like short stories—no one ever holds the whole story.
• I think everything is true if you look deep enough.

He has a new book out, Known to Evil.

If you want an experience that is quintessential San Francisco but still feels hidden, I highly recommend West Coast Live. If you buy tix in advance they're $15, which I know is not free, but really: I can't recommend it too highly. If you want to do something different, feel a part of the community, learn things about national and international artists who are in the Bay Area right now, and still be out of there by noon, this is a sure bet. It will change your whole evening!

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Eleven Eleven

So I had never seen the beautifully square publication before that Saturday evening, the 3rd, but it's quite stunning. Check out their site online, where you can read excerpts and a lot of entire works. It'sgot a simple interface and is very pleasant to use.

• Founded in 2004, Eleven Eleven is "a biannual journal of literature and art based at California College of the Arts. The aim of the publication is to provide a forum for risk and experimentation and to serve as an exchange between writers and artists." 

There were 3 readers: Oscar Bermeo, Charlie Anders, and Daphne Gottlieb. Check them out!

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Quiet Lightning

So I've already done a little recap of QL. You should check out all the videos here and go to the blog here to see my favorite quotes from and a picture of  each reader.

We are accepting submissions through this coming Thursday, the 15th, for our May 3 show @ Mina Dresden Gallery. More to come soon!

More Quiet Lightning

• December 14 @ Cantina
• January 25 @ Gestalt
• March 1 @ Elbo Room

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Radar Productions

 If you don't know, Michelle Tea runs and hosts  this program once a month in the main library—and it's free! She brings in these great writers from around the country to read for about 8-9 minutes apiece and then they sit in the front of the room, panel style, and answer questions from the crowd. Best feature! And to make things better, Michelle brings home-baked goods (this month was whoopie pie!) and each person who asks a question gets a treat! Show's over when the treats are gone!

Readers were: Cyd Nova,  Mattilda Bickers, Melissa Febos, Cheryl Klein, and I took some notes from the Q&A:

• What is the edgiest thing you've done in the last 3 weeks?

Answers to this question were comically tame.

• What is the edgiest thing you've done as a writer?

I liked Cheryl's answer: the passage she read, which you can see below, includes a rape scene. This was hard for her to do because she hasn't experienced it before and naturally felt a strong need to present a legitimate account, one that would be delicate and understanding enough of those who have experienced it. So to put yourself in a very hard situation that others have actually gone through and to try to really connect with it in a way that does it justice.

Melissa's was good too: "Memoir, because then your'e seen as public property and that's scary and amazing."'

• You all write from a very personal place but is there something that you want readers to take away, like some new idea?

Answers ranged from "I don't feel qualified" to the quoting of Lynda Barry: 

"... We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay."

"I believe there is something in these old stories that does what singing does to words. They have transformational capabilities, in the way melody can transform mood.

They can't transform your actual situation, but they can transform your experience of it. ..."

• Do you believe in love at first sight?

"I believe in so many kinds of love that are true" was a good answer, but so was "I believe I loved those whoopie pies at first site!" And so was "I believe in obsession at first sight that might lead to love."

• At what point when you're working on something do you feel comfortable sharing it?

"As you continue to work on something you share it with more and more people until your'e sharing it with people you don't know."
 

Another good quote:

• "I'm not trying to speak to anyone else's experience because I don't think they're universal ... It's an incredibly reductive attitude to assume that anyone can act as a spokesperson for a whole group of people" (Melissa).

So you can see how amazing it is not only to hear writers read their own work, but also to answer any questions about their work and their lives. I know this happens in bookstore readings and the like but I guess I don't go to too many and this is certainly not a bookstore reading! And there should be more author Q&A like this.

Radar is having a fundraiser on May 22. Support this awesome series!

Also, Ali Liebegott is putting together a poetry workshop, the first (I believe) in Radar's new series: Fast Times At Radar High: How to Turn Your Sad Life into Beautiful Poems with Ali Liebegott. It will be held on Sundays, starting May 16—June 13, 5-8 pm, and the cost is $175. If you don't know Ali, she's doing a chapbook a month this entire year (check them out here) and she is such an amazing poet. Watch her win LDM and also below! For more info or to register, send a note: info@radarproductions.org

For upcoming readers and dates: Radar Productions.

Mattilda Bickers

Cyd Nova

Cheryl Klein

Melissa Febos

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Viracocha benefit for Poems Under the Dome

Have you been to Viracocha yet? This place is just beautiful! Go to something there—anything—and see what's happening. Because it isn't just an event. It's a place that is happening, and beyond that, this particular place represents a larger movement in SF right now that demands venues for creative expression. 

I left Radar and went straight to Viracocha for the first time to catch this benefit show, which featured some poets and musicians. Enjoy!

M.G. Martin started it off with a little atmosphere:

A welcome and some announcements from Diamond Dave

Pam Benjamin

Amy Cruz

(I missed the first little bit—sorry!)

M.G. Martin

J. Brandon Loberg

Monica Storss

D.W. Lichtenberg

my tape ran out of ink so here's some other times I've seen Dan

My review of his book is up at Bookslut: The Ancient Book of Hip

For more info: Viracocha's list of events

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Sister Spit kickoff show

Oh my goodness! Started 13 years ago, Sister Spit is going strong! I caught the kickoff show this past Thursday as the troupe prepared to embark at 6:30 the following morning for a more than 20-city nationwide tour, wait—they're going through Canada—it's international! Check the tour and tell your friends!

The show was kind of crazy and I didn't really have a chance to take notes, but I was able to get consent forms from a few of the performers so enjoy the following videos! If you want to see the rest …

So Sara Seinberg takes some incredible photos, and I missed the first 2 slides I think, but here is the Sister Spit slideshow!

Ben McCoy teaches us how a lady eats a burrito

Ali Liebegott writes such beautiful pomes

Beth Lisick with the performance of a lifetime (for most people!—she's just clockin' in)

This is from her novel-in-progress

Lynn Breedlove, from her new book One Freak Show from Manic D Press

Michelle Tea reads a "fake poem"

Silas Howard reads an excerpt from his work in progress (you should watch this)

Nicole J. Georges reads from her superfun graphic novel (with slides)

Which is better: the above, or her dress?!

Elisha Lim, who is just so sweet and endearing, reads excerpts from the clever 100 Butches

I didn't have permission to film the powerful performance of Lenelle Moise, but you should check her out ASAP (I"m serious and so is she), the great coming-of-age underdog hero story of Len Plass, or the raucous feelgood comedic stylings of Annie Danger—but they are all so worth checking out, and I see that Len will be a guest of RADAR in the coming months so keep a lookout for that!

Also, read these great interviews by Sona Avakian:

• Nicole Georges
• Lenelle Moise
• Silas Howard
• Michelle Tea

For more info and a tour calendar: Sister Spit

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Literary Death Match

I know you know about the death match. Talk to me about international! This Friday was the 28th episode of SF LDM, and it was a purty good one. I won't spend time on the writeup here, because my pal Andrew O. Dugas has done that officially, but I do have the videos and hope you enjoy them!

Producer Elissa Bassist and co-host Justin Carder welcome everyone to LDM SF 28

Jake Swearingen

Ransom Stephens

The judges (Tracy Clark-Flory, Mark Morford, and Mac McClelland) weigh in

Alexa Dooseman

Alanna Nemzoff Coby

The judges weigh in on round 2

And … the death match … red light arbitrary

For more info, check out the site: Literary Death Match

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Can you believe there were 3 events I missed that I really wanted to go to?!

• Speakeasy: A Quarterly Literary Saloon (impossible workload + beginning of illness)
• Why There Are Words (illness. but will i ever get to see Sister Spit again? i dunno!)
• Writers With Drinks (illness. better now, thanks!)

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Have you seen my calendar for the rest of April yet?

I love this: every time I post it, someone sends me something I didn't know about!

Keep sending! 

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<<< Announcements >>>

• Open call for submissions: Portugese Artists Colony
• Open call for submissions: Quiet Lightning (thru Thurs the 15th!)
• Get hip to publicity and events of all kinds here.
• Check out The Grotto's classes here.
• Open call for submissions: Bang Out. ENDS APR 20!!!
• Like bookstore readings? Check out Booksmith | Books Inc. | Book Passage. There's something going on tonite, I promise!
• Check out Tony DuShane's new novel Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk @ City Lights now!
• Have you your own copy of Ransom Stephens' The God Patent yet? For what doth thou wait?!
• Have you read The Ancient Book of Hip? Have you read my review @ Bookslut?
• Have you checked out the radical Friday noon writing sessions at Cafe La Boheme? 

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That's all, yall.

UNLESS!

I will happily add any announcement you wish: calls for subs, reading series, zine parties, etc. Also:

NEW FEATURE

I will be happy to provide a copy of your reading(s) on a disc for $10

(includes shipping and a fancy sleeve and a sample of my handwriting and maybe a poem)

  email me about anything.

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