A Colorful Moon Image Credit & Copyright: László Francsics
Tonight’s marvelous moon, full at 8:42pm PST, inspires this week’s interesting fact about the Number 53: the Moon’s Tycho Crater is about 53 miles in diameter.
Ozomatli Hits Ventura During Music Fest
Let the party rock the house this weekend!
In Ventura, Grammy award winning band Ozomatli performs at Ventura College on Sunday May 3, at 3pm as part of the 21st Ventura Music Festival which runs from May 1-9 at various venues around town.
Ozomatli is a Los Angeles based band and their music reflects our very multicultural multi-ethnic region with dance music that has a lot of funk, soul, cumbias, salsa, hiphop, great lyrics, catchy songs, and a whole lot more. Read more…
RIP Ben E. King “No I Won’t Be Afraid”
Another giant in music has left us only with memories that linger within us like melodic timelines in our own lives.
Because water is on a lot of people’s minds, what with the drought and climate change–it even made the President’s speech at the White House Correspondent’s dinner last night and I met today with a group of poets and performers to work on a piece on what we are thirsty for– this week’s interesting fact about the number 53 is that 53% of the human body by mass is made up of water.
And because this is Earth Month and National Poetry Month, I’m going to throw in a segment of a poem on water and 6 easy conservation tips (with more to come). Read more…
Alley Presents Poetry: VC Faculty Event 4/23
Tonight Thurs. April 23, I will be presenting a short set of poetry as part of the Second Ventura College Faculty and Staff Professional Colloquium.
In addition, several students from one of my classes were interviewed by Jaclyn Walker for her presentation which examines student voice in the college classroom. So I am excited (and a little nervous!) about what is said in that one! I may post the video here when I can access it.
Also in the program are Business Professor Jim Spencer, English Professor Deborah Pollock, Political Science Professor Robert Porter, and District Marketing expert Dina Pielaet.
The free event starts at 6pm in Guthrie Hall near the gym. The college is located at 4667 Telegraph Rd, Ventura, 93003. A reception sponsored by the Ventura College Foundation follows. Hope to see you there!
PS Need more poetry? Every Thursday there’s poetry from 730-9pm at EP Foster Library located on Main in downtown Ventura. Usually there’s a feature followed by an open mic; as always students of mine can get extra credit by attending and writing about it and we may even be showing up with work of our own in the coming weeks! Future features are:
Get Wild For Earth Day
Today April 22, 2015 is Earth Day. People all over the planet are celebrating the earth, our earth, our one only home planet, in myriad ways.
Myself? I loaded up on vegetables from the Farmers Market (thanks to Lucas!) and I am preparing to speak at Ventura College at 3:30pm today about my experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail thirty years ago. Then from 6-9pm, Luis Rodriguez will speak in Guthrie Hall. All in all, it should be a great Earth Day (and a lot easier on me than last year’s event at Ventura College that I organized!)
Thirty years ago, this is how my day started:
“Hold still, there’s a tick on your cheek!”
That was my greeting the first morning backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada: April 22, 1985.
Getting water from the gutter of the interstate, climbing Mt Whitney a few weeks later, hiking 12 miles on a cough drop and half a bar, wrestling food from a bear in Yosemite, crossing blue-white glacial streams in Oregon, hiding from rain in pit toilets in Oregon and rest areas in Washington: these memories from completing all 2600 miles of the PCT are etched permanently into my synapses to make it an adventure that informs every day of my life.
Believe it or not, I hiked some 2000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail in these Asolo Yukon boots which I am bringing to the talk.
You would not believe how heavy they are! After 1600 or so miles, we had them resoled. And then after another 400 or so miles, we gave up the heavy leather boots for good. These days PCt hikers, for the most part, wear trail runners; many of them specifically love the Brooks Cascadia for their comfort level –especially if they are a nice roomy half or full size larger than usual and worn with “toe” socks to reduce friction.
And next to the boots is the backpack I used to hike Oregon and Washington in 1987; for California in 1985, I wore a Kelty external frame pack. That pack was really comfortable and easy to stay organized but it didn’t stay as close to my body as the internal frame pack which was better for really moving fast and for crossing creeks and other situations.
Each night on the trail, my former husband Ken and I took turns writing down what happened that day in a journal. I used those journals extensively when I wrote a 300 page novel based on my experience hiking the PCT. Pictured is a copy of the novel –this is the one that was mu mom’s and still has her handwritten notes suggesting changes for the revision I never did. I had several editors of major publishing houses interested in the book –but I never sent it off to them because I wanted to revise it first. Big mistake.
I am considering posted the novel here on the blog–what do you think? Are you curious? Interested? Would you subscribe so you could stay on the trail with the narrator? Let me know in the comments!
In the meantime, you watch someone who took a selfie every mile or read about my 30th anniversary hike PCT here and here. Have a wonderful Earth Day!
On Earth Day April 22, 2015 and during April’s National Poetry Month, Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis Rodriquez will speak and read from 6-9pm at Ventura College, 4667 Telegraph Road, Ventura CA 93003 as part of a free One Book One Campus Celebration from 6-9pm in Guthrie Hall located on the west side of campus. Parking by the gym is $2; Guthrie Hall is the octogonal shaped building almost directly east from the gym.
This semester, a number of my students in both classes chose to read his memoir about gang life, Always Running. Students then gave presentations about their books and had the option to make a trailer or to create a blog. The point of their presentations was to convince their classmates to read their book, and in the case of Rodriguez, to be enthused and interested in attending this event. Which they are!
Here’s a trailer students made for Always Running which does a wonderful job of catching the spirit of the book and shows a lot of creativity:
Here’s the review of Always Running this group wrote.
I will add links to the other students’ websites they created ASAP; each group took a different approach, but they were all great and I am proud of the work they did as groups as well as individually.
As you can imagine, we are very pleased to have Luis Rodriguez visit us, read, speak, and sign books on Earth Day!
We expect a full house so overflow will be in the library classroom for a live feed.
Here’s a pdf of the Luis Rodriguez flyer.
Get “Wild” with Gwendolyn Earth Day 2015
On April 21, 1985, at 23 years old, Ken Alley and I set off to backpack from Mexico to Canada. In 1987, we completed the trail and I became one of the first 20 women to hike the 2700 mile long Pacific Crest Trail. On my 30th anniversary, I am on the trail again; from March 28-31 I did the first 53 miles from the border to Pioneer Mail Picnic area.
Join me on Earth Day to hear stories from my adventure and watch the R rated film Wild based on Cheryl Strayed’s 1995 1100 mile journey on the trail. The event is free and open to the public. Find us in the Ventura College library classroom from 3:30-6pm Weds. April 22, 2015.
Ventura College is located at 4667 Telegraph Road, Ventura CA 93003. From the 101, take the Victoria exit and head for the hills; turn left on Telegraph. The library is the tall imposing building in the middle of campus and the library is on the second floor with the classroom in the back. Parking is $2.
This week’s Interesting Fact About the Number 53 is inspired by Ringo Starr’s induction last night April 18, 2015 as a solo artist to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
- Ringo Starr’s 2003 book Postcards From the Boys contains 53 postcards from fellow Beatles
It’s our 12 wedding anniversary and we’re going to Santa Barbara’s Earth Day! Read on to read why!
As the weather warms, wine predators everywhere are headed to outdoor wine festivals, tastings, and activities as well as picnics in the park on the beach.
As luck would have it, today is a Saturday and my 12th wedding anniversary –which means silk, linens, and pearls! Oysters anyone? Plus it’s Earth and Poetry month. So how should a wine predator poet celebrate?
Fortunately, I have several wonderful wine options!
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art predator 