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Burning Man 2022: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” from “Home” to “Secretly Abandoned Spaces” While “On Fire”

September 14, 2022

 

Burning Man 2022: Secretly Abandoned Spaces by Valerie Mallory as photographed by Elain Prager

For the Chumash, the people who lived here first along the Ventura County coast, who lived here near where Ventura College is today in a village named Shishilop, and who live in the region today, autumn is the new year: it’s the time of harvest, the closure and finish of one cycle and the beginning of the next. 

For people who go to Burning Man, the night the Man burns on the first Saturday of September during Labor Day weekend it’s the start of a new year as well. 

And so the school year, which starts up each fall, is a new beginning, a fresh start, a new year.

I like to start off each semester with a book by Dr Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go!  which first came out in 1990, and quickly became a beloved best seller. The narrative takes the reader on a journey through life — the good and the bad, the challenges and the pleasures. While recognizably a book by Dr Seuss from the writing and illustrative style, it’s  different also: it’s written in second person and in future tense. 

You probably already know this Dr Seuss book– but do you know this version of it? Read more…

Diversity and Burning Man’s Principle of Radical Inclusion

September 5, 2018

photo by Leori Gill of Black Rock Citizens gathered around the Man on Burn Night 2018

Just like any city in America, Black Rock City is made up of a wide range of people. Sometimes people are surprised to find that there are even families and children at Burning Man: in fact there are over 600 residents each year in KIdsville, the largest camp at Burning Man, and BRC is full of people of all genders, sexual orientations, and colors.

 

But while one of the 10 Principles is Radical Inclusion,  Black Rock City is remarkably white. Read more…

“Past Lives” Explores “In-yun”— Providence or Fate: A Review by Ron Wells

June 30, 2023

Past Lives

For those not interested in blockbuster summer films, Past Lives is the best new film of the year and will certainly be recognized at the end of the year when awards season comes around. Past Lives, written and directed by Celine Song, is a deeply felt contemplation of love and the hold it has on people over a long period of time. The story begins with two former childhood friends in Korea, Nora (Greta Lee) and Teo Yoo (Hae Sung), and then moves on through the years as Nora continues on her quest of excellence as a writer in America even when she meets another writer, Arthur (John Magaro), while Teo Yoo becomes an engineer in Korea. Read more…

ZOOM “Straight Up Our Alley” — Poetry Reading Tonight May 11, 2023 6:30pm

May 11, 2023

Straight Up Our Alley cover by Karen Aranha

Join  me tonight as we ZOOM “Straight Up Our Alley” at a Poetry Reading tonight, Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 6:30pm.  While the plan was to have both a ZOOM and “room” Read more…

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023)

May 2, 2023

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) by Ron Wells

Gordon Lightfoot songs came to me the same way so many singer/songwriter’s songs came when I was young: through Peter, Paul and Mary who just had a knack for picking great songs written by great songwriters, and I always looked at their albums to see who the writers were. 

I was late getting to Gordon Lightfoot, but when I heard “Early Morning Rain” and “For Lovin’ Me,” I was hooked. Read more…

Celebrate Earth and Invest in Our Planet

April 22, 2023

Earth Day 2023″ Invest in our planet

Rachel Carson noted in 1964 that humanity’s “attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves” (as quoted here).  Her words actions, and books make her one of the midwives of the modern environmental movement. Read more…

Anne Lamott: Why Write–A Writing Workshop May 13, 2023

April 21, 2023

Rather randomly on a friend’s recommendation, I first heard Anne Lamott speak at a Santa Cruz area book store reading from Bird by Bird. And then I found her again reading from Operating Instructions at Book Passage in Corte Madera. In the time of COVID  of course she’s taken the show on the road and online with “Why Write, What to Write, and How to Write” Saturday, May 13th 2023 Online from 1:00-4:00pm PT for $75.  If you can’t attend live on zoom, a recording will be available for all who have purchased this class.

JIC you don’t know, Anne Lamott is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Hallelujah Anyway; Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; Bird by Bird; and Operating Instructions. She is also the author of seven novels, including Hard Laughter, Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, they report that Anne is a longtime friend of the Book Passage family.

Read more…

Watch Wild Life this Earth Day and Be Inspired By South America’s Conservationists, Kris and Doug Tompkins

April 19, 2023


Wild Life, a brand new feature length documentary  from National Geographic and Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin traces the extraordinary career and life of Kris Tomkins, former CEO of Patagonia, and her husband, former CEO of The North Face and Esprit. Along the way, you’ll hear from Yvon Chouinard and others important to their journey. Read more…

Happy Earth Month!

April 17, 2023

April is Earth Month, Earth Day is Saturday April 22, and this is Earth Week. Lots of great activities going on  all over the world — and in your community this week and the rest of the month. Are you organizing something that you want us to join you in? Share in the comments any activities you know about that might be fun and for the earth! Read more…

VC’s Diversity in Culture Festival: ZOOM with Music Journalist Tony Fletcher, drum with Professional Latin Percussionists

April 11, 2023

Drums Circle and Tony Fletcher at Ventura College’s Diversity in Culture Festival

It’s the Boy About Town! As part of Ventura College’s Diversity in Culture Festival this week, tomorrow Wednesday 4/12/23 at 1pm via ZOOM is my Burning Man, skiing, and Kilimanjaro climbing buddy Tony Fletcher who is also the rather famous and important music journalist Tony Fletcher, author of Boy About Town (which is also the name of a song by The Jam which may or may not be written about Tony!)
 

Boy About Town



On Thursday April 13 at 330pm, join us at Ventura College for a free drum circle organized by my students Chis Knox and Dawson Gaynor and sponsored by DW (founded in 1972 by Don Lombardi and John Good). Located in Oxnard, CA,  its family of brands include PDP, Latin Percussion, Gretsch, and Slingerland (with Latin Percussion founded in 1964 in New York, New York by Martin Cohen).

Featured artist Randal Adams has played hand percussion for over 30 years and  plays with numerous local bands as percussion backbone. Led by professional musicians Joshua Trask of Oxnard’s DW Latin Percussion division and hand percussionist Randal Adams aka DJ Hunter, along with Ventura College students and professional musicians Chris Knoxley and Dawson Gaynor, the “We are Rhythm” drum workshops includes interactive instruction, a stomp clap basic rhythm to get brains primed to follow a rhythm lead by someone else, then with loaned instruments in hand, we will learn more about a few different rhythms including 3 or 4 different grandfather beats. Special thanks to Don Lombardi, John Good, Chris Lombardi, and Rich Sikra, and all the people in the DW family of brands that made this possible through all of their hard work. 

Read more…

Stephen Levine: Forget enlightenment…are you facing in the right direction?

April 10, 2023

forget enlightenment

 

Happy Earth Month! “Forget enlightenment…are you facing in the right direction?” says Steven Levine in the film Meditate and Destroy. Sometimes it can be that easy. Turn around. Change the channel. Read more…

Lucidity Lucid Dreaming Workshops

April 8, 2023

Lucidity Synthesis

Two more days of Lucidity Festival! Plus the Lucid Dreaming Panel Discussion is today!

Lucidity Festival takes place at Live Oak Camp located in the beautiful green Santa Barbara hills where joyous sound reverberate all day– and into the nigh– during three days of workshops, music, and activities for all ages Read more…

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