In June I, Art Predator aka Wine Predator, attended the 2010 Wine Bloggers conference in Walla Walla Washington where I was interviewed for a documentary. Here’s a “teaser” video that features my slightly controversial insights on writing and blogging.
via Wine Predator
“Yes! Yes! Yes! He would create proudly out of the freedom and power of his soul, as the great artificer whose name he bore, a living thing new and soaring and beautiful, impalpable, imperishable.”—-James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Just Kids is Patti Smith’s portrait of the artist as a young woman. It is written with style and grace, but most of all, it is written with love.Love for Robert Mapplethorpe, and a love of life that digs deeply into the flame that lights her soul as an artist and a human being.
The book is a celebration, and an eulogy, for a time and place in which she and Robert transcended their surroundings to fly into the golden sphere of art. A time and place that seems centuries old and never to return. A time and place where trinkets and polaroid snapshots were as important as Van Gogh’s paints. Read more…
Events + Rides Build a Better Bike Culture
Around the country, cyclists are growing rides that are just for fun. This video showcases some of the events of May 2010’s CycloMAYnia and shows some of the ways that Santa Barbara, California is building a better bike culture.
Here in Ventura, we ride every First Friday. Join us next month for “Western Nights & Carnival Lights”! We’ll be holding at least one “Paint Yr Pony” Party beforehand so you can pimp out your ride with a personalized pony and light up your bike for the ArtRide Friday August 6 and the Fair Parade ArtRide down Main Street Saturday August 7.
The Ventura Book Festival 2010 Edition takes place TOMORROW Saturday July 17, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located on the Ventura Beach.
This year the festival has expanded to add more educational seminars with many award-winning authors, literary experts and even a couple of Hollywood agents. These sessions are $10.
The Book Expo is FREE to all attendees and they will validate parking at the beach parking garage.
The weather has been simply gorgeous this week and I expect tomorrow to have more of the same making it a great day to feed your head and catch some rays and waves! I have a pile of student midterms and papers to read but I plan to take a break and ride my bikergo over there for a quick look see.
How about more SHAKESPEARE? Ojai’s Theater 150 Presents…
It seems like there’s Shakespeare production around every corner and under every rock this summer and Ojai certainly isn’t left out.
In fact, Theater 150 is producing two of Shakespeare’s plays this summer, The Winter’s Tale and –although I am not sure whether he would recognize the second…
Theater 150’s 2010 Summer Shakespeare Festival is being held under the stars in a newly constructed outdoor amphitheater at Chaparral High school which offers both tiered and lawn seating. All chairs for the lawn must be very low to the ground and have low backs. While Ojai is warm in the summer, the evenings cool off so come prepared with bringing jackets and blankets.
The Winter’s Tale, directed by Jessica Kubzansky, asks: “Is destiny doomed to repeat itself? Is it possible a pair of low-born clowns have the means of salvation for two kingdoms in their hot little hands? What happens to a queen when her entire family has been destroyed? Can there ever be redemption and reparation of grave misdeeds? Or should what’s past help also be past grief… ?”
“It is required that you do awake your faith,” suggests Theater 150, and join them “for this perilous, passionate, hilarious, heartbreaking, breathtaking tale of love and loss and laughter and sorrow and consequence. You will laugh and suffer with these beautifully flawed human beings every step of their treacherous way, and on the journey will discover new tenderness, joy, pain, and wonder. “
While the Bard would likely recognize the above production, he probably wouldn’t have a clue that this production of Love’s Labour’s LOST had much in common with his play of the same name as this is a campy MUSICAL mash-up of Shakespeare and the hit TV show, LOST!
Written by Niki Blumberg and directed by Bari Newport, Theater 150 describes it:
Follow Jack Shepherd and all your favorite LOST characters as they battle time travel, daddy issues, and the trials of love on an island where nothing is as it seems and so many questions are never answered. Written by Niki Blumberg. Directed by Bari Newport.
Ventura’s Rubicon Theater Does Macbeth This Weekend
This summer, a group of teens explored a classic play and the results will hit the boards this weekend. 
Veteran actor Joseph Fuqua directs this year’s Rubicon Acting Intensive class of 17 young actors in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and they promise to illuminate this classic tragedy in a modern context. The show runs this weekend Thursday July 15- Saturday July 17 at 8pm plus Sunday, July 18 at 2:00pm. 
Pre-sale Tickets are $10 and it’s $15 at the door. If you can afford to give more, they would sure appreciate it as they are going through some difficulties financially.
For more information about the Rubicon, this program, and its upcoming shows, go to http://www.rubicontheatre.org You can also reserve your tickets there or call The Rubicon Box Office: the phone number is 805-667-2900.
Photos of Director Joseph Fuqua and his crew by Jeanne Tanner.
A Review of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: In Verse!
Since I’ve been writing about outdoor Shakespeare performances and since a friend of mine in Ireland posted on Facebook that he was attending a Shakespeare by the Sea performance of Julius Caesar, I asked him if he wanted to write about it for publication here. He agreed and what follows is his account. (Please excuse any formatting difficulties!) For more poetry, catch a ride on the Poetry Train!
What Tidings
Of Emperors and Games
By Greg Patrick
Bardspell:
“He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass”.
-William Shakespeare
As I waited for the cordon to open I pondered the book
I brought and shook my head at the headlines by comparison.
Some things do not change but that is why I am here
Why others are drawn.
There was a moment of beautiful solitude, a bard’s moment under the whispering canopies of trees
While others reluctantly began to leave their televisions
and search for their keys.
When I stood overlooking the azure gleam
of sea at the beginnings of dusk and sunlight’s crimson dwindling.
Newly metamorphosised dragonflies swarmed
around me as if proud of their new wings
in an aerial revel. Swarming unhindered, oblivious to my presence.
It was a special moment as I anticipated a fine play.
Midsummer’s had past and with it many dreams..
Night falls, darkness lengthens ..there will be more dreams..new dreams.
..Right..?
Too lingering the question mark. That why is we
gather.
II
What Tidings
Shakespeare by the Sea 2010
“But, for my own part, it was Greek to me”.
– William Shakespeare
“Julius Caesar” (Act I, Scene II).
“Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings”.
–- William Shakespeare
“Julius Caesar” (Act I, Scene II).
“Lend me your ears..” Read more…
More Summertime Shakespeare: LA Bicycle Ride to Othello
Thanks to support from REI, CICLE LA Urban Expeditions offers regular family friendly rides in LA to events.
Next up is a Shakespeare Ride Sunday, July 18th, 2010 meeting at 4:00 pm at the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round parking lot just inside the Los Feliz/Riverside entrance to Griffith Park. And it’s all free, free, free, free!
The ride begins at 4:30pm and meanders through Los Feliz to the Shakespeare Bridge to arrive just before 7:00 pm at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park in time to watch the acclaimed Independent Shakespeare Co.’s production of Othello at their new summer stage. Free
What to Bring: A bicycle, in good running order. (Please have bike inspected and tuned at least once a year at a bike shop.) All participants under 18 must wear a helmet and be escorted by a parent or guardian. Children under age 8 should be on a tag-a-long, bike trailer, tandem, or other safe child-carrying device to participate in the ride. It will get cool so bring some warm cover and please make sure any period costumes will not get caught in bikes!
As mentioned above, C.I.C.L.E.’s Urban Expeditions program is made possible with support from REI. Visit www.CICLE.org or call 323.478.0060 for more information.
Of course you don’t have to ride your bike there and Othello plays on other days throughout the month of July: Thursday – Sunday, July 8 – August 1 at 7:00 p.m. Independent Shakespeare Co. Festival Stage
Griffith Park Old Zoo near 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, 90027 (next to the Merry-Go-Round and the Wilson Harding Golf Course) Much Ado About Nothing opens August 5. While events are free, donations are gratefully accepted.
A great LA day to me this summer sounds like a day at the nearby Autry Museum with a play in the evening!
Summertime is Shakespeare time as festivals and performances sprout in parks and on outdoor stages across the country and around the world.
Watching one of Shakespeare’s plays under the stars or in the shade of a tree, listening to birds or crickets and frogs, relaxing with a picnic and a bottle of wine, is one of my favorite ways to celebrate summer. I’ve enjoyed Shakespeare outdoors at Ashland Oregon, in Colorado, and more recently, in California in Thousand Oaks at CLU, in Ojai at Libbey Bowl, at Grand Performances in downtown LA, and more.
This weekend and next, catch CLU’s 14th Annual Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival lighthearted, family-friendly staging of one of Shakespeare’s shorter plays, “The Comedy of Errors.” Presented in the style of commedia dell’arte, the fast-paced show is full of physical comedy sure to produce belly laughs. According to the Kingsmen,
“The Comedy of Errors” is a tale of mistaken identity involving two sets of identical twins separated at birth. Egeon, the father of one of the sets of twins, is condemned to death but is given a day to raise the ransom required to save him from execution. Laurie Walters, who played daughter Joanie Bradford on the television show “Eight is Enough,” portrays the Abbess, who helps bring about a resolution in the end.
Upcoming performances will be held at 8 p.m. Sunday July 11, 16, 17 and 18. The following weekend, “The Winter’s Tale” opens and will run Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from July 23 through Aug. 8 in scenic Kingsmen Park. They say,
“The Winter’s Tale” is a dream-like story that explores the themes of jealousy, love, honor and rebirth. Convinced that his pregnant wife has been unfaithful to him with his childhood friend, King Leontes of Sicilia orders that his friend be killed and his wife imprisoned. Time brings reflection and repentance. The story is tragic and comic, solemn and irreverent.
The festival grounds open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking and for pre-show entertainment featuring Renaissance music, comic Shakespearean improvisations and wandering performers.
Tickets are $15 and free for those under 18. Parking is available at the corner of Mountclef Boulevard and Olsen Road. For more information and details about the plays, visit http://www.kingsmenshakespeare.org or call (805) 493-3455.
I’ll be posting about about more opportunities to experience Shakespeare and other theater performances this summer as often as possible!
I am so pleased that the new poet laureate of the United States is one of my favorite poets, the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award, W.S. Merwin, who follows Kay Ryan as the nation’s 17th laureate and will be paid $35,000. He’s a brilliant choice and a brilliant poet who will do a great job bringing poetry to the populace.
Merwin, 82, attended Princeton University where he studied with poet John Berryman. In 1976, he moved to Hawaii in 1976 to study Zen Buddhism. One of the reasons I love his writing is because it is full of spirituality and nature; this is also why I am looking forward to his programming as poet laureate.
And since I’ve written about Merwin a few times on this blog, and posted some of his poems and youtubes of him reading, I am going to simply post two links for you to enjoy.
art predator 