Selling Poetry at the Beach

Jeffery Martin at Venice Beach

On my run down to Venice Beach yesterday (we flew home last night, so no beach run today), I ran across poet Jeffery Martin peddling poetry among the Venice Beach kitsch.  It was one of those classic cartoon moments as I slowly jogged by and then my head swiveled back as the words "poetry sold here" finally registered in my consciousness.  I circled back for a long chat with Jeffrey.

He had a list of awards he'd won so for the blog I looked up the first one, but I couldn't find anything on the New Jersey Beach Book Festival (well, I did find it on Jeffery's website) which got me to thinking, hey, Steve, where's your crap detector?  Maybe this is like the Alaska International Film Awards - but they at least have a website.  But he was there on the London Book Festival (2008 Honorable Mention Poetry) website and the New York Book Festival (2008 Honorable Mention Poetry) and the San Francisco Book Festival 2011 (Honorable Mention Poetry AND Children's Lit).  Relief.  I couldn't have been fooled that badly.  His awards are real. 

Another page on his website listed it as just the Beach Book Festival and that one found him (2008 Winner Poetry.  It's all one url, so go to past festivals - 2008)


He also writes children's books - as the San Francisco award suggests.  The inspiration for that is his other job - working with autistic children in the LA School District.  The funding was cut, he said, for the summer program this year, which freed him to spend his summer at Venice Beach selling some books and much more important, he said, meeting interesting people from all over the world.

I didn't buy anything because I don't usually have money with me when I'm running.  So I asked if he had a poem on racism.  (Does that make me a racist because I assumed a black poet would write about racism?  In this case, we had talked a little about the topic already.)  He had to think before asking if Epithets, from Weapons of Choice, would fit. 

As I read it more carefully, I'm thinking this probably isn't about racism as much as greed and capitalism gone bad.

Final note: My style is generally to be understated and to hope that the reader catches the irony or outrage under my matter of fact statements. But here I hope nobody missed the point that California's unwillingness to deal with the 30 year bleeding caused by Prop. 13, means that this year, among other things, LA's autistic kids and their parents, are on their own this summer.

Sazón

"There isn’t a word like Sazon in the English language. In its romantic, dual meaning in Spanish, Sazon is both: “just the right taste”, and “the perfect moment” . . ."

This definition comes from the Sazón Light who delivers meal plans to people in Chicago.


I mentioned the LA restaurant Sazón in an earlier post, but I hadn't brought my camera.  We went back last night with friends from Juneau who've moved down to the LA area.  


Here's part of the front room before it got more crowded. (Sorry about the fuzziness. It was fairly dark, but I think the mood comes across better without the flash.)

Claudia is the owner and server and a wonderful host.  (For my readers back home, her sister has worked quite a few years in Dutch Harbor.)  She can tell you about the food, about the decor, and we felt, on our second visit, like she was an old friend.  Though when she sees this picture, who knows how she'll treat me next time?

The chef peeks out of the window when he has a plate ready to be served.

And this Pescado Tropical was, hands down, the most photogenic dish of the evening. 




I think my regular readers know that I do posts on places I like (or less often I think deserve to be called on their poor quality) and that I don't get free meals or other special favors.  I don't even have an editor gives me an expense account.  But I like to let people know so they can enjoy it too.  And keep it in business so I can go back. 

Sazón is on Washington Blvd, just west of Centinela (we're in LA).  There's parking in the back and our dinner for five which included a wine and some fruit drinks, empanadas for all and a dessert was under $20 each. 

Industrial Revolutions - Wow!

It takes a really amazing video for me to just post someone else's video here.  But Bicycles and Icicles put up this video Monday that's too good not to post.  The subject is amazing enough, and the videography and the music make it even more so. Bicycles and Icicles just wrote:

"There are no words  (except go to full screen.)"

Dep. Commissioner of Natural Resources Says Climate Change Regulations are Biggest Danger of Climate Change to Alaska

Joe Balash is Deputy Commissioner for the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources.  At the Classrooms for Climate Conference at UAA on May 5, 2011, he talked about the consequences of global warming for Alaskans.  I posted his and the other opening panelists' talks as they gave them.

I got two videos up of that first morning panel, but just didn't manage to get this one up as well.  But I did get rough notes of his talk up (along with the other speakers) here.  So I'm finally getting the Balash video up now.

He began by mentioning that climate change means the ice roads on the north slope are melting earlier and freezing later, so they may need to be rebuilt as gravel roads. 

Then he started talking about how federal regulations to control global warming were a serious threat to Alaska. I only caught a bit of his speech on video, but you get the drift. I didn't edit anything out.  This is just the only video I got. But if you've ever tried to live blog, putting up text of what the speakers are saying, photos, and video as it's all happening, you'll understand that you can only keep up so long. 





 My notes, from the earlier post, have him ending discussing the use of science.

We try to make our decisions as often as possible on the best science.  We also rely on scientists.  Will continue to manage those resources with ever changing climate in mind.

[The more recent developments where state scientists were required to espouse state policy contrary to the science, suggests that what he meant by "as often as possible" was 'only when the science supports the administration's policy.']

Larry Hartig, the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation followed Balash.  Hartig seems to take a related stance, but he was much more sophisticated about it.  He said there were two paths for dealing with Global Warming:  mitigation (trying to slow it down) and adaptation (trying to live with the consequences.)  He strongly defended the Palin administration's work on Climate Change.  My notes on his address are in that same post of the conference.

The fact that we will have to do a lot on adaptation comes from, as I see it, the very strong campaign of the global warming deniers.  They staved off changes that might have minimized the damage by taking stands like Balash who says the regulations to mitigate climate change, not climate change itself, are the problem.  And now that they've done all  they could to prevent mitigation, they blithely jump to adaptation as though they had nothing to do with why the adaptation is going to be so difficult and costly. 

My other posts from the Classrooms for Climate conference are here.

Sam: Johnson's Bookshop (Why the colon?) [UPDATED May 1, 2019]

[UPDATE May 1, 2019:  An LA Times article today tells us this store is closing:

"Hernandez knows well the Darwinian map of gentrification, commerce, parking battles and changing lifestyles that are altering the geography and spirit of neighborhoods across the city."

Lots more history in the article.]



As soon as I walked into this bookshop, just down the street on Venice from the Mar Vista Farmer's Market on Sunday, I knew this was not your average used book store.

There was a small group of people sitting there talking (one chose not to be in the photo.)


There was an unusual, casual intensity.  I was asked what sort of book I was interested in.  I really hadn't come in with anything in mind and asked about their specialties.  I hadn't paid good attention to what it said outside.

Their website, which confirms my initial reaction (well, maybe all private book shops are unusual in their own way), offers this history:

"Sometime in the `50’s two kids from Westchester High School found joy in ransacking Los Angeles’ second-hand bookshops together

Larry Myers, the precocious kid who knew all about everything.

Bob Klein, the unprecocious kid who didn’t.

Fired by fantasy, they’d root up whole bookshops hunting rarities by H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood—the list goes on. And what bookshops the city boasted in the 1950’s. Particularly in Hollywood. Pickwick Bookshop had a huge used book section upstairs; Cherokee Bookshop specialized in fantasy; Larson’s, in the ghostly and occult. The magic of THE BOOKSHOP cast a glamour that has not faded.

Some years later Bob went on to become a teacher.

Larry went on to become—but no one quite knows what he went on to become. Probably he is still becoming it.

Years later still, in 1976, in order to augment his meager academic earnings Bob decided to become a bookseller. His girlfriend of the time—the lovely Sheryl (whose hips stopped traffic)—backed him all the way. Otherwise he might have ended up selling aluminum siding. Not anxious to fail alone, Bob browbeat Larry into becoming his partner. For opening stock, each was responsible for amassing 5,000 books—exclusive naturally from the sacrosanctity of their own private libraries."

There were lots of interesting books in a variety of areas.  It would be a good place to hide out now and then.  I even bought a book because it raised issues in 1951 or so, that sound very current.  A philosophy book that I might post about later. 

I didn't ask about the name or the colon in the name.  That's for the next visit I guess.  But, of course, I have to check more on their website before I go on.  It turns out they address this on their website.

"Why the colon? It’s a little like asking Durante who Mrs. Calabash is."

They warn it takes a bit of the mystery out of life to know.  But if you must, it's here.

Mar Vista Sunday Market

We had a request from my mom for Walnut Raisin bread from the Sunday market at Venice and Grand View, near the Mar Vista post office.  Here are some pictures.

Chocolate and Strawberry Crepe

We ate here, at Nana's

Health rules, I guess, mean plastic wrapping

Clean That Window, Better Yet . . .

I saw this rear window before leaving Anchorage.  I wasn't sure how to post it, until I found this on a post on dirt art. There are more examples at the link.

Image from lowki.com

 

Every mess is an opportunity to be creative.

Benefits of Privatization - LA Style

From Friday's LA Times:

These days, bus riders at stops around Los Angeles may find themselves without a bench to rest on.

City officials say the company that provides and manages roughly 6,000 bus benches began removing them last week because it was not awarded a new contract.

Norman Bench Advertising, which for more than a decade has maintained the benches in exchange for advertising revenue, has recently come under fire from officials for failing to disclose how many benches it has and how much money it reaps from displaying ads on them.

Board of Public Works Commissioner Andrea Alarcon said Thursday that the company has been "a difficult partner" and that benches have been removed from stops in at least three City Council districts.

Calls to William Giamela, the owner of the Canoga Park-based company, were not returned Thursday.

It continues.

It says the company 'provides and manages' the benches, so it would be interesting to know whether the benches they provided were supposed to be owned by the city or the company.  And how many benches existed before they got the contract?  Presumably most stops had benches before the contract.  Is this sour grapes for losing the contract or is there more to this story? 

New Router Arrived and Is Working For Now

Not having easy internet access is not a bad thing. I've been doing a lot of reading and today we took my mom on a number of errands she needed to do: the doctor, lunch, smog test, bank, and the library.

The router came after 5pm. I'd given up on seeing it today. It still had quirks to work out, but eventually got it working, both on my mom's computer and me via wifi.

Got to run down to the beach this morning. Also stopped at the 99¢ store where I bought four pair of sunglasses for 99¢ each plus tax. I lose sunglasses regularly and four pair in Anchorage would cost at least $30 and probably more. And I can't tell that the more expensive ones are any better.

Voting Rights Consultant's Report Says Redistricting Board's Plan OK

The the Voting Rights Act consultant the Alaska Redistricting Board, Dr. Lisa Handley's, report, basically says the board's plan meets the requirements of the Voting Rights Act.  At their July 18 meeting the Board's attorney said they were expecting the VRA report in 7-10 days and then they would complete their plan.

Here's the summary of the report (the whole consultant report is available here):

The report basically explains why the board is in compliance with the Voting Rights Act.  It has tables and tables showing the voting trends of Native and non-Native voters in all the elections since 2001 in which a Native candidate was running and also showing the Native districts and whether the non-Native voters voted for the same candidate as the Native voters. 

All this is required by Alaska because of earlier challenges which found that there was discrimination against Native voters in previous redistricting.

I don't have time now to do this in more detail, but I did want to get this up while I have internet access here in LA.