Summer is outdoor Shakespeare season with Will’s Words popping up all over the country, including many different performances in unusual venues all over the Los Angeles region including Topanga Canyon’s Will Geer Thetricum Botanicum.
The Kingsmen’s version of Macbeth opens tonight at 8pm on the campus of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, in east Ventura County followed by All’s Well That Ends Well. Bring a blanket and a picnic and come early –grounds open at 5:30pm–to enjoy the pre-show entertainment and stake out a good spot on the grass.
Macbeth
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday – June 26-28, 2009
- Thursday, Friday, Sunday – July 2-3, 5, 2009
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday – July 10-12, 2009
All’s Well That Ends Well
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday – July 17-19, 2009
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday – July 24-26, 2009
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday – July 31, August 1-2, 2009
If it’s less traditional means of the literary arts that fascinates you, here are three events worth checking out, two of which feature my dear friend Jen Hofer:
ONE: Jen Hofer will read in Hollywood tonight, Friday June 26 from few of her brand-new hand-made tiny books which will be exhibited as part of a group show curated by Jibade-Khalil Huffman at Eighth Veil Gallery. The show is titled Wrong: A Program of Text and Image: information on the Eighth Veil website. Jen will also have on hand a hand-sewn a quilt made of papers collected on recent cross-country travels and she’ll be setting up the escritorio público (public letter-writing desk) at the opening where she charges $2 for a letter, $3 for a love letter, and $5 for an illicit love letter. Read more…
Murphy-Goode announced the Top 50 for their Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent 24 hours early –and I’m not on the list.
What’s up with that? Not just that I didn’t make the list, but 24 hours early? Did they outsource the selection to AUS? Programming snafu? Their site was showing there was more than a whole day to vote when all of a sudden there was not! I know because I was on their site around midnight California time!
After all the goodwill and interest Murphy-Goode has generated with this campaign, how much of that will disappear because of disappointed losers? It’s one thing to be disappointed because you didn’t make the cut–another thing to find out you didn’t even get one more day to campaign!
Not that voting seemed to really have much of an impact. I was able to see the numbers of the Final 50 before they totaled them out. (I know you would have thought they would have done that BEFORE going live!) Some of the Final 50 had less than 100 total votes–some even under 50. An HR firm did the vetting–wish I could have been a fly on the wall there to see what they thought made a really goode job candidate.
VinTank had a good grasp on who would make the cut–7 of their 8 candidates made it.
But I didn’t. So I’m drowning my sorrows in some really good single malt, I’ve voted for some of the VinTank few like Todd Havens who will do a really goode job, I’m teaching myself how to spell good again (good not goode), and then I will take myself off to bed knowing that the really right job is just around the corner.
In the meantime, I’ve got my life back. I’m not chasing after that job. I am enjoying being back in the classroom again teaching lit this summer. In the fall I have two comp classes where we’re going to study Chris Carlsson’s book Nowtopia and put into practice ways to reinvent the future today.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to work in the wine industry doing social media. In particular, my goal is to work to support and promote local and regional wineries actively embracing the biodynamic/organic/sustainable spectrum. VinTank, are you listening? Learn more about me here –and find out why I am may be perfect for YOU!
In the meantime, life’s really good. Without that job where I put an e after that word.
Really.
And, if I took that really goode job, when would I have time to blog for YOU, my loyal readers?
Thank you for your votes, your kind words, and your support during the past few days as I drummed up last minute votes for my last minute campaign.
PS My beloved Macbook Pro is on the fritz–the power cord doesn’t want to take a charge. So if I disappear here for a few days, it’s because I’m wanting for Apple to send me a new one–FREE. Gotta love Apple. They take care of their peeps.
First Friday ArtRide: The Fossil Fuel Free Ride July 3
As you can see from many recent posts on this blog, I am hoping to relocate to Sonoma County in August as the Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent. (Watch my video here; please vote to put a poet in a vineyard!)
As you can see from the adjacent poster, it sure looks like Sonoma County has a happening BIKE CULTURE! Yay! They even have a Fourth of July Bike Festival! (at least they did last year!)
Our First Friday ArtRide: The Fossil Fuel Free Ride may not be as big of an event as the one up north, but I swear we will be three times as crazy and have two times as much fun next Friday if the past six rides are any indication! (I tell ya, I am still recovering from the Santa Convention!)
For the ride next Friday, we’ll meet as usual on the Promenade outside the Artists Union Gallery. You can check out the art or duck into Aloha for a quick drink before we hit the Bike Path at 6pm. We’ll ride up the River Trail awhile then travel in a pack around downtown, stopping at various galleries. Follow us to the after party where we will enjoy beer from Anacapa Brewery, food, live music, art installations, film and more for a small donation to cover the festivities with any extra money being donated to the Ventura Bicycle Union.
Saturday July 4 is the annual downtown Ventura Push’em Pull’em Parade which is an amazing spectacle. The first year, when we pulled our 8 month old in a wagon, and rolled down Main Street in a mile long 4 lane wide stream, I realized that by becoming a mom I had joined something huge, that while I often felt in a minority, there were many many many of us hidden behind our suburban doors. And if we mobilized, we could truly have an impact.
The research bears this out: the research claims that if the “soccer” moms adopt a practice, the world (at least US consumer culture) will follow.
That’s one of the reason that we moms are really reaching out to other families on these bike rides. Most rides and political actions are taken by adults, and often young adults at that. We want to show that bike riding is multi-generational, fun and SAFE. And we are!
Please join us! If not in person, in your heart, or by organizing your own fun art rides. And if not this ride, maybe the next: The Animal Fair Ride in August, The Full Moon Critical Manners Rides in September, the Mustache Ride in October…
Send a note to FirstFridayArtRide (AT) gmail DOT and let us know you want to join up!
The Autry National Center this summer presents a stunning exhibition, Granite Frontiers: A Century of Yosemite Climbing. For more information on The Autry, click here.
Granite Frontiers chronicles the history of modern rock climbing in Yosemite, where the towering granite walls of Yosemite Valley are the ultimate proving ground for climbers from around the globe. Included are amazing artifacts, stunning photographs, historic video footage and interactive displays, giving you a sense of the rich history of over 100 years of climbing in Yosemite.
from Granite Frontiers: A Century of Yosemite Climbing |
KCRW members like me receive free admission plus a guest by showing a KCRW Fringe Benefits Card, Saturday, September 5, 2009 only. No Fringe Benefits Card? Subscribe to KCRW at the $50 level or higher and start saving at nearly 1000 businesses. Click here.
Closing this weekend at the Autry: 
Why Art Predator Should Get A Really Goode Job
Why am I going for a “Goode” job? Why do I think I’ve got what it takes to convey the Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle to a broad audience using social media? This is what I wrote on the application form when I uploaded my video and which I posted on my page “Getting a Really Goode Job” along with a resume.
Poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge defines the aesthetic as that which engages the whole soul. In life, I seek and find “that which engages the soul.” Then I write and speak about these aesthetic experiences for print, television, radio, and now through social media outlets such as WordPress blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
My eclectic subjects range from literary, visual, musical, and dramatic arts to culinary arts like
food and wine, from encouraging my readers to be engaged with their worlds by attending festivals like Burning Man and Coachella to environmental activism such as participating in group bike rides like the First Friday ArtRides I organize or joining a Grow Food Party Crew.
I moved to the Bay Area from Southern California as a poet, dancer, and performer at the Renaissance Faire. My enthusiasm Read more…
PUT A POET TO WORK IN A VINEYARD!Soooooo Goode: watch my video & vote, please!
Here’s a screen shot of my application video for the position of Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent!
Please click on the link above to watch the video on their site and to vote for me, please! Thank YOU!!
The small boy woke me as he climbed into our bed this morning too early. We snuggled, letting the Big Monkey sleep in, and then the boy and I decided to get up and make breakfast. He flipped through the Better Homes and Garden Junior Cookbook finding lots of recipes for breakfast treats that looked good to him then he dialed in that he was looking for good stuff for DAD!
Together we decided on and began to make “Masterpiece Muffins” with some variations–and they came out great! We served them on the deck outside under the umbrellas with sauteed mushrooms, scrambled eggs, creamy goat’s milk cheese, OJ, and Peet’s coffee. Mmmnnn good!
Here’s the recipe, more or less!
Streusel Topping: combine the following with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly
3 T flour (I used 1 each of wheat, almond and flax)
3 T brown sugar
2 T butter/margerine
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves (bonus!)
Muffins: Makes 1 dozen
preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine wet with wet and dry with dry then add wet to dry with a few quick strokes
2 C flour (I use 1/2 wheat, 1/2 almond and flax meal)
1/3 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 milk
1/4 oil or melted butter
1 ripe banana (BONUS!)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (BONUS!)
1-2 cups nutmeats & dried fruits (BONUS! I like walnuts & cranberries)
Divide batter in 12 buttered or papered muffin tins. Sprinkle each with 1 tsp streusel topping. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and tins to cool on racks. Approximately 200 calories each. Serve as is or split while warm and serve with butter and honey.
Oh, and you want to know what’s in the presents? The one from me includes a bottle of Lavender Ridge Rhone blend to go with a Rhone cookbook, some ylang, ylang soap, a foot scrub, a foot massage oil, shampoo and conditioner (yes, there’s a theme there!) The boy gave him a hand decorated mug: Bruce Springsteen and band on one side, our family on the other, a book about Bruce Springsteen and a book by Elizabeth Gilbert about the last man on earth.
Now it’s bedtime, and the Big Monkey is putting the small boy to bed in his new baseball jammies. His first tooth is loose. It seems only yesterday we celebrated our first Father’s day, while the boy was in my womb. And now he sings along with Bruce, can write the words on the cards he chooses, and can hit a t-ball with the best. I love being part of our family.
Happy Father’s Day everyone!
In the Pink Drink for Pre-Dad’s Day Celebration
Here’s MY SuperHero, sneaking in a nap between chapters of Melvin Beederman, Super Hero, one of their favorite chapter books to read and reread. And reread again. We couldn’t recommend Melvin more. The Dad comes highly recommended too.
For the Big Monkey, aka Dad to the Small Boy, catching some extra shut-eye is a favorite weekend pastime.
So is putting some sockeye salmon on the grill! 
Thank goodness for us! That’s another reason why he’s my Superhero–the man knows how to grill and grill it good!
Saturday night we went pink: pink salmon, pink sparking Codiniu pinot noir cava, pink beet salad with goat cheese and walnuts on greens from our garden, even a pink lobster! Plus some homemade basil-arugala pesto for some colorful contrast. The dry, pink sparkler made for a beautiful table as well as a festive occasion; bonus was it went well with the meal. What a treat! Yummy!
Now you can see why we’re celebrating Father’s Day all weekend!
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads! Today and every day! Cheers!
My campaign to be the Murphy-Goode Wine Country Lifestyle correspondent has required me to find, buy and drink Murphy-Goode wine. I know, I know, it’s a tough challenge, but I’m up for it!
When I first heard about the Murphy-Goode wine blogging job, I had just bought a bottle of 2005 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at my favorite wine store, Ventura Wine Company.
Say what you will for the advantages of on-line retailing, and the energy and enthusiasm of Gary Vaynerchuk, but I like going into a brick and mortar store.
I like feeling the heft of the bottle, fingering the labels, readng them over front and back. I love talking with Nick, the owner, or his daughter Nicole, and getting into conversations with other customers, exchanging tips and recipes. Read more…
art predator 