Hear Poems from Guantanamo: April 13 7-9pm
EVEN IF THE PAIN by Siddiq Turkestani
Even if the pain of the wound increases,
There must be a remedy to treat it.
Even if the days in prison endure,
There must be a day when we will get out.
Please join us for Poems from Guantanamo: the detainees speak presented by poets and peace activists Monday April 13 from 7-9pm at a Place for Peace, 896 E. Main, Ventura.
The program will open with background information from Vincent Warren from the Center for Constitutional Rights, continue with readings of many poems from the book with introductions by event organizer Grant Marcus, include an intermission with music from the Place of Peace Choir, and conclude with a Q and A. A donation of $10 per person is requested; funds will be divided equally between Place of Peace, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Veterans for Peace.
For more poems, ride the Poetry Train.
LA Times on Bruce Springsteen: It’s no dream
“There are a lot of ghosts in this place,” Bruce Springsteen told the LA Times Geoff Boucher
as his boots clomped on an ancient staircase at the Asbury Park Convention Hall. It was here in this old seaside venue that Springsteen, as a teenager, watched Jim Morrison prowl the stage and Keith Moon thunder away on drums for the Who. It was also in the corridors here that he brushed past a wild-child named Janis Joplin. “Our elbows, they came this close,” said Springsteen, somehow still amazed that a Jersey kid could come within arm’s reach of rock history.
LA Time’s reporter Geoff Boucher traveled to the land of Bruce to land an in-depth interview with Bruce Springsteen. The article in last Sunday’s LA Times (April 5, 2009) features hometown, homegrown stories and a number of photos of Bruce, including an intimate photo of Bruce working on his set list, sitting on a leather couch strumming a guitar, his hair still dark but thinning, his bifocals casually laying across sheets of paper with familiar titles, even in shorthand. As Bruce puts it at the end of the article,
“Patti told me there was something about getting into your 50s, that people get very focused and busy in their 50s, and that maybe it’s because an oncoming train focuses the mind,” he said. “There may be some element of that involved with me right now. I
hear a whistle in the distance somewhere — maybe I’d better start to writing.”
You can read the whole article here. But you can only see those photos in the print version unless I scan them!
Bruce Springsteen comes to LA next Wednesday and Thursday, April 15 and 16 (and then on to Coachella for the weekend to play with Paul McCartney or Leonard Cohen or Conor Oberst??) Meet you back here for more news from the streets–and backstage as I am sure the Big Monkey will be hanging around to get Bruce to sign a photo of them together from their younger days.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-springsteen5-2009apr05,0,7079301,full.story
Allegra Huston: “Love Child” tour of America
Jim Nave, a poet friend of mine, encourages me to go hear Allegra Huston on her national book tour from Los Angeles to Asheville, which starts tomorrow, (and moves to Santa Barbara Tuesday night where I plan to hear her) and I’m encouraging you to go too. The schedule is below.
I met Nave at the Taos Poetry Circus in 2000; he was the host of the slam where I competed for the first time (and placed 7th out of 40!). After we practiced yoga together, he invited me to teach yoga at the creativity camp he was facilitating with Julia Cameron, author of the Artists Way. While I didn’t get paid, I did get to participate in the week’s workshops, enjoy excellent meals, and meet many wonderful people.
Creativity Camp evolved into Nave’s latest projects, the Writing Salon and the Imaginative Storm, creativity workshops he leads around the world, often with Allegra Huston, author of Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found. 
The book jacket states:
When Allegra Huston was four years old, her mother was killed in a car crash. Soon afterwards, she was introduced to an intimidating man wreathed in cigar smoke—the legendary film director John Huston—with the words, “This is your father.”
Nave writes: Read more…
We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say—and to feel—”Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.”–John Steinbeck
“Out here the nights are long, the days are lonely
I think of you and I’m working on a dream”–Bruce Springsteen
Ron Wells, a friend of ours and a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, provided the quotes above. He traveled from LA to Arizona to see Bruce’s “Working on A Dream” tour stop Friday night, April 3 in Glendale and wrote the review of the show which follows. We’ll likely see him (as well as Bruce!) at the LA Sports Arena for the Springsteen shows April 15 and 16. Didn’t know we were Bruce Springsteen fans? Go here for more. Go here for more about the LA shows and an LA Times interview with Springsteen. Here’s Ron’s review of the Magic show last year in San Jose. Now for Ron’s review of the Glendale AZ show:
The wind in Phoenix on Friday was blowing like some erstwhile Oklahoma dustbowl, dirt and debris like dashed hopes whipping against people struggling to stand upright. It was appropriate that at a time in America when the screendoors have come off of their hinges, dresses are tattered and torn, and tents pop up housing humans who could pass for ghosts, that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band blow in to try and build a little fortress in your heart that can hold something like hope.
There are a lot of destitute souls wandering this bankrupt landscape tonight, and Bruce comes bearing nothing more than a chance to make some connections with his own brand of faith and redemption. Read more…
FFArtRide May 1: Prom Ride to the Promenade
Last night’s First Friday’s ArtRide: Bunny Hop was a blast! Along the way and especially along the Avenue people honked and waved.
It was really great to have 2 kids on TRAILABIKES–
we’re really inspiring people! Jason Ward took some photos and did a collage for his facebook page which I stole and put on my blog–go see!
Jenessa Nye sent me these photos taken by her or with her camera–can you tell we’re having fun??
When we started talking about doing the FFArtRides, Jason Ward shared that he’d love to see a ride go from the Govt Center all the way down Main Street.
Helen O’Neil and I talked about having dj dancing & drinks at the end of a ride and the Prom Ride having a Prom at the end–with music and dancing and photos and ??
City Council member Brian Brennan pointed out the best place for a prom is the Promenade…
So for the next FFArtRide, the Prom Ride May 1, Read more…
FFArtRide: And away we go!
The wind is windy but we’re getting our bikes ready to roll! Jason has on his bunny ears and a green fuzzy sweater and green flowers to share. We have marshmallow bunnies and fuzzy bunny ears!
Let’s go ride a bike!
BURNING MAN 2008 PHOTOGRAPHY FROM JOSH EDELSON: 99% safe for work. It’s that last 1% you need to worry about: http://tinyurl.com/cckdt8
Somehow I missed last month’s grant deadline from the Black Rock Arts Foundation to bring a little Playa excitement home to Ventucky, but just as I hit the regret button big time, I find out there’s another opportunity thanks to the BURNERS WITHOUT BORDERS $5K STIMULUS PACKAGE! You and I and any other interested parties Read more…
April Fools :: What’s Up Wrap Up
Another month gone–and now it’s April! About time to get some tomatoes going and growing–and hopefully not exploding like in this high speed photo by my friend Alan Sailer!
So here’s a quick March Wrap Up and April What’s Up with links to March’s MOST POPULAR POSTS, April’s astronomical highlights and astrological outlook, and more.
I closed March out with skiing at Bear Valley, just an hour into the mountains an hour or so from the Calaveras County wine growing region (where I tasted some fine wines at Twisted Oak, Lavender Ridge, Frogs Tooth and Hatcher–and even bought a few! more on that later…), and about three hours away from Yosemite Valley where we camped three nights and rode the snow at Badger Pass for two days.
And I closed March out with almost 11,000 page views and 43 posts–a record in both departments–with nearly 70,000 total views since I started this blog November 2008! (Unfortunately those numbers also means ads put on the blog by WordPress, not me!)
In March, over 25 posts had 50 or more page views. The Top 12 Posts were:
And here are the Top 21 Art Predator Posts of All Time (Nov. 08-March 09): Read more…
Some Spring & Summer Poetry Workshops: in LA 4/4 Gail Wronsky–Poems of Vision & Ecstasy
A good writing workshop makes you feel like a Christmas ornament exploding with ideas, colors, textures–just like this high speed photograph by my friend Alan Sailer. To produce his art, he uses pellets shot from an air rifle. This image really is a Christmas ornament filled with small objects. Writers should be grateful that we traffic in paper, not paintballs!
While I’m here in Yosemite, where the days are warm (60s) and the nights are cold (30s), and the waterfalls are roaring along while the grass is zooming in green, I’m remembering Read more…
Alan Sailer’s High-Speed Photographic Experiments: air rifle pellet explosions caught!
My friend Alan Sailer is experiencing well deserved celebrity: a few of his high speed photography experiments caught the attention of the UK Telegraph. His art work is no stranger to notoriety: a few years ago one of his Burning Man walking art creations (as in he’s wearing the art!) made the front page of the NY Times website I think it was.
He’s been working on this series for quite a while and I’m happy that his work is getting some attention! Read a bit about his process and check out more of his work here:
art predator 