Yay! I can blog again!
I've been away from my computer a lot lately; once I returned, itching to blog, blogger locked me out of my account because I had been tagged as a "spam blog" for some reason. The verification process took awhile, but happily I can get back in the blogging saddle now (or at least I can when I have some time. I'm between two events today and have to scramble to get ready for the one posted below. I hope you'll come--I'm very excited about it; Diane Lefer and I both spoke at an impeachment rally last night and I'm eager for more time with her, plus all the amazing people of CODEPINK. And another person has been added to the line-up: Tom Hayden! Pretty amazing!) If you can't come tonight, perhaps I'll see you tomorrow at 2pm at the Corona Public Library (sorry I didn't post this info sooner.)
More to come, barring any chaos (this has been a week of much chaos, so we shall see...)
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
My sister and her family are in town (they drove from Toronto!) so I probably won't have much chance to blog for a while, but I wanted to be sure to let you know about an upcoming event at Beyond Baroque that I'm very excited about:
Hope to see you there...
28 July, Saturday - 7:30 PMDiane was one of my MFA mentors, and helped guide me through a radical revision of The Book of Dead Birds. She is a true force of nature, and a real model for weaving together art and social responsibility. I am so honored to be able to read with her. And I just found out that Jill Sobule is going to be playing!
Code Pink WOMEN FOR PEACE Presents: Art & Activism: Writers on Politics Now, with GAYLE BRANDEIS and DIANE LEFER
Join us in exploring "Art & Activism: Writers on Politics Now," with GAYLE BRANDEIS - winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change. Her novel is Self Storage (Ballantine/Random House), a post-9/11 story of a woman buying and reselling of storage unit contents, launched on a path of self-discovery. DIANE LEFER's California Transit (Sarabande) examines the difference between justice and law in Southern California, "land of dislocation and assimilation." Oscar Hijuelos praised Lefer as "one of the most gifted and witty writers around."
Hope to see you there...
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Friday, July 06, 2007
To anyone who found your way here via the San Diego Union-Tribune, please note that I'm actually not going to be present at the Oceanside Museum of Art's book club event tomorrow, as the article states. My mom, however, will be there, as will other lovely people, and I may make a brief appearance via speaker phone, so please do still consider going. You can check out some cool art while you're there!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
I've been tagged by the fabulous Jordan Rosenfeld to share 8 random facts about myself. Here are the rules:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Here are 8 things that may make me look insane (some of them I've mentioned before in my blog; others are things few people know):
1. I am a salt-o-holic. In fact, I often lick my palm, shake salt on it, and lick it off.
2. As a girl, I regularly wrote letters to Jimmy Carter, asking what I could do to stop pollution.
3. I like to read digital clocks upside down because they often spell words. For instance, I'm always happy when I see the clock at 2:17 because it looks like LIZ upside down and my sister is Elizabeth. I don't like looking at the clock at 11:34 because it looks like HELL (and even though I don't believe in hell, it somehow seems like a bad omen to look at that time.)
4. Speaking of numbers, the number 47 keeps showing up everywhere in my life--I'm usually driving behind a car with 47 in its license plate, etc. I used to think it meant I would die when I was 47, but I've taken it to mean that when I see 47, it means I'm on the right path.
5. When I turn off the radio or close a book, I try not to end on a word that has negative connotations, like war or murder (or hell!) Somehow I worry the energy of that word will hang around me, like a dark cloud. The word doesn't have to be positive--it can be neutral, like "and" or "the" (although positive is nice!)
6. I posed nude for a series of photos in college (it was my friend Christine's senior art project). At the opening of the exhibit, I sat in silence and stillness on a pedestal in the corner of an L-shaped hallway Christine had installed inside the gallery, the walls lined with masks she had created. I was wrapped in a dark cloak so only my face showed, and many people thought I was just another mask. It felt much safer sitting there stoically than milling around the gallery watching people stare at my naked body!
7. When I take my daughter to auditions, things happen. I took her to an audition for a CODEPINK play and ended up on the national CODEPINK staff. I took her to an audition for Annie Get Your Gun, was asked to audition too, and, much to my shock, ended up with the lead role!
8. I was a competitive figure skater when I was young, and have decided that my next book project is going to be a memoirish chronicle of learning to skate all over again. Hopefully my old joints are up to it!
TAG, you're it:
Barbara Card Atkinson
Martha O'Connor
Erasmo Guerra
Greg Walloch
Rachel K. So
Susan Ito
Cati Porter
Hasty Teen Flick
Have fun!
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Here are 8 things that may make me look insane (some of them I've mentioned before in my blog; others are things few people know):
1. I am a salt-o-holic. In fact, I often lick my palm, shake salt on it, and lick it off.
2. As a girl, I regularly wrote letters to Jimmy Carter, asking what I could do to stop pollution.
3. I like to read digital clocks upside down because they often spell words. For instance, I'm always happy when I see the clock at 2:17 because it looks like LIZ upside down and my sister is Elizabeth. I don't like looking at the clock at 11:34 because it looks like HELL (and even though I don't believe in hell, it somehow seems like a bad omen to look at that time.)
4. Speaking of numbers, the number 47 keeps showing up everywhere in my life--I'm usually driving behind a car with 47 in its license plate, etc. I used to think it meant I would die when I was 47, but I've taken it to mean that when I see 47, it means I'm on the right path.
5. When I turn off the radio or close a book, I try not to end on a word that has negative connotations, like war or murder (or hell!) Somehow I worry the energy of that word will hang around me, like a dark cloud. The word doesn't have to be positive--it can be neutral, like "and" or "the" (although positive is nice!)
6. I posed nude for a series of photos in college (it was my friend Christine's senior art project). At the opening of the exhibit, I sat in silence and stillness on a pedestal in the corner of an L-shaped hallway Christine had installed inside the gallery, the walls lined with masks she had created. I was wrapped in a dark cloak so only my face showed, and many people thought I was just another mask. It felt much safer sitting there stoically than milling around the gallery watching people stare at my naked body!
7. When I take my daughter to auditions, things happen. I took her to an audition for a CODEPINK play and ended up on the national CODEPINK staff. I took her to an audition for Annie Get Your Gun, was asked to audition too, and, much to my shock, ended up with the lead role!
8. I was a competitive figure skater when I was young, and have decided that my next book project is going to be a memoirish chronicle of learning to skate all over again. Hopefully my old joints are up to it!
TAG, you're it:
Barbara Card Atkinson
Martha O'Connor
Erasmo Guerra
Greg Walloch
Rachel K. So
Susan Ito
Cati Porter
Hasty Teen Flick
Have fun!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Britt Bravo of Have Fun*Do Good just posted a fabulous piece about Writing to Change the World. She's assembled a great collection of resources--links to conferences, books, authors and organizations, many of which I had been surprisingly unaware of until now, that foster writing as a tool for social change. Beautiful!
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