Beast Crawl

We had a great time at Beast Crawl. The writers shared a wide diversity of ideas, feelings, opinions, beliefs and humor. I heard slam champions, writers with quiet yet powerful voices, and writers of a wide range of ages and experience(s). I was able to re-connect with old writer friends and scored an invitation to read next month. I'm looking forward to it.

We rolled from a reading sponsored by Pandemonium Press at Spice Monkey, to "Sexy Beasts" at Bench and Bar, and ended the evening at "Hella Soulful" at Cafe Randevu.  The MC at Cafe Randevu even led the crowd in a sing along, asking us to prove that we really were hella soulful. I think we made the cut.

The writers were impressive, Spice Monkey's sangria was sublime and the funniest things that I saw were the expressions on the faces of Bench and Bar patrons who couldn't quite figure out what the hell was going on when they wandered into the room and saw folks standing on a stage holding a mike in one hand and paper in the other. A giant disco ball hung overhead. I had a few 70's disco dancing flashbacks but managed to stop my urge to take a few hustle steps and I eventually found my bearings in 2012 once again. One guy asked me "What is this?" and the look on his face was priceless as he attempted to process my shorthand explanation: "Beast Crawl - a literary pub crawl." He shook his head up and down looked a little confused then sidled back to the bar in the front room. One of the beasts organizers nodded and waved to let me know I'd done a good job with the impromptu promo.

I look forward to next year's crawl of the beast. Given the richness of the experience I think that there will be many more to come.

The Beast With Three Legs Hits Oakland - Saturday July 7 at 5pm

I just received an invitation to a truly exciting event - Beast Crawl!

On Saturday July 7th from 5pm - 9pm readings and performances at East Bay restaurants, bars, galleries plus an After Party.

Words, drinks, eats and more words at venues in the Uptown district of Oakland. Writers I've read with in the past, writers whose books I own, writers whose CD's I've listened to, writers whose poetry and prose I've taught to my students, writers whose work I'm not familiar with but will get a taste of. Michelle Serros, Samuel Sattin, Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, James Cagney, Nazealah Jeffries, Kim Shuck name a few.

Themes such as: "The Naked Bulb," "Lyrics and Dirges," "The Layover," are tempting. Just think where a writer could go when prompted with those ideas.

A shout out to Kiala Kivehand, editor of Generations Journal and curator of the leg two event at PHOTO Gallery, beginning at 6:30 pm.

As a writer, I think this comes pretty close to an evening of nirvana. What better way to spend a Saturday evening in the East Bay?

Check out the details:

http://beastcrawl.tumblr.com/

Early Morning Quake of March 5, 2012

I wrote the following post on Monday March 5, 2012, when I couldn't go back to sleep after two successive earthquakes, a short and sharp 3.5 and a rattling and shaking 4.0 with an epicenter in El Cerrito, a town just northeast of my home:

 

I got up at about 4:30 am to go to the bathroom and then I couldn’t get back to sleep. I can almost always go back to sleep so I wondered what the problem was. 20 minutes later, I heard rumbling coming from the east. I knew it was an earthquake, and a wave passed through the building from my bedroom windows to the living room, parking lot, next building and on toward the bay.

And then there was more when the shaking began and I heard rattling windows, and tinkling wine glasses in the cabinet. I sat up in bed, and knew that this was not just a light roll of the earth. I got out of bed, and tried to slip my feet into my slippers but it was dark and everything was moving around me. I’m sure that my legs were shaking, too. I wished I had left my Crocs by the bed since they are sturdier than my slippers. I will start doing that again. Supposed I had to step over glass and debris? I couldn’t get under my bed because it’s too low, so I went to stand in the doorway until the shaking stopped. I’m not sure I made it to the doorway before the shaking stopped. It’s hard to make decisions when you’ve been somewhere between sleep and awake for an hour.

When it seemed that the coast was clear, I went into the next room and turned on the computer. I went to the U. C. Berkeley Seismological Center and clicked on the link to the USGS Earthquake site for Northern California. I love this site because it has maps with little colored squares that tell me where in the state the quakes have occurred. I can choose to look at quakes that have happened within the past 7 days, past month, past year, etc. Lots of choices for a mind like mine. I click on a square and I get another page, which provides more details on each quake, such as the time the quake occurred, how deep in the earth it originated, the location of the epicenter from several major towns or cities, latitude, and more geologist friendly details.

Turns out, this one was a 4.0 centered in East Richmond Hills. There is no such town on the map, but I figured that it meant the hills east of Richmond. Perhaps it’s a real estate created term like Hudson Terrace, which is really the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, where I lived when it was still referred to as Washington Heights. My instincts had told me that I couldn’t take this quake lying down. This one made me get out of bed. This one wasn’t over in a few seconds. My instincts were right.

SFGate reported that the epicenter was at a country club in El Cerrito. Is there a relationship between class and earthquakes? I’m not going there. I’m getting ready for work.

Fear of an Already Diverse Planet?

Boy, the fear of an already diverse world is spreading faster than an epidemic. Or perhaps it is an epidemic.

Smith alum Anne Spurzem '84 of Westchester County (her admission) wrote a letter to "The Sophian" (campus newspaper) in which she claims that the quality of a Smith education has decreased dramatically due to the increase in diversity of the student body. She links the college's decision to allow applicants to choose to not have their SAT scores considered during the admission process to unqualified people of diverse backgrounds being granted admission. And so on.

Here is a link to the letter:

Letters to the Editor - Opinions - The Sophian - Smith College's student newspaper since 1910

As a result, Smithies have created both a Facebook page and a Tumblr blog to allow response to Ms. Spurzem's 'letter. "Let's work together Smithies, let's send a message."

Here's the link to the blog:

http://pearlsandcashmere.tumblr.com/

The organized forum for response makes me even prouder to be a Smith alum. Go Smith women with your intelligence and your grit!

Looking for Poetry By JOYCE E. YOUNG. Category: Columns from The Berkeley Daily Planet

I decided to post the link to one of my poems that was published in the Berkeley Daily Planet in 2004. It seems that the themes it addresses have not disappeared from our collective landscape.

Looking for Poetry By JOYCE E. YOUNG. Category: Columns from The Berkeley Daily Planet