In Dubious Harvest

Because I'm working on three related writing projects, all dealing with the Great Depression Era in the U.S. (1920s-1930s), anything that reminds me of that period, or that has to do with labor issues, usually catches my eye. In fact, WARNING: For the next year or so, I'll probably be in Grapes of Wrath mode, and may unconsciously begin spouting Jazz Age & Depression Era slang and talking up the unions.

Anyway, I just came across this report, "Ripe Crops Languish..." in the San Francisco Chronicle, about an alarming lack of agricultural workers in the Central Valley, as harvest time approaches; we're talking 70,000 to 80,000 workers, and a possible $1 billion in losses. "Manuel Cunha Jr., president of Nisei Farmers League in Fresno, is getting 50 calls a day from growers asking where the workers are. "It's a disaster," Cunha said. "We have an immigration program that is broken."

So now I'm thinking about all those destitute, homeless and jobless natural disaster victims in the South. One is reminded of the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s, and the later migration of African American workers to the West during WWII, although drawing parallels with those events is certainly too simplistic. And Leny has noted to me that it's unlikely that the Katrina & Rita storm victims will want to opt for such work, unless there are sufficient incentives.

Still, I'm wondering -- who will work our crops, now? And for what kind of wage?

Chopped Liver, Rice & Shoyu

Josh Kornbluth's reply to my comment about Filipino rice aesthetics:

"Jean — I think you’re right: it comes down to aesthetics. Filipino-style sounds just right for me — especially if you add some nice chopped liver. …"

Chopped liver, onions and rice (and shoyu)! Now that would've warmed my Filipina mom's heart, for sure.

Bait & Switch

I've really been wanting to get Bait & Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich, especially after a recent bad experience with a white-collar, part-time, no-benefits, no union, downsizing employer. Here's an interview with Ms. Ehrenreich on the hard realities of the Bait & Switch nation.

Pozóle

Continuing to read Poppy Z. Brite's novel, Liquor, today. I'm recovering after a long but satisfying morning at the anti-war demonstration San Francisco. Not recovering from the demonstration, but from a hard, dehydrated trudge up several of SF's ubiquitous steep hills, in the hot sun. The operable word, here, is dehydrated.

Anyway, the Taquería La Cabaña's pozóle is like medicine to me: a hot pork broth, laced with hominy, chilis and lime, fresh grated cabbage and onions, hunks of meat. I am healed.

Mixing It Up

I'm thinking about food again. Maybe it's just anxiety, because Hurricane Rita has been upgraded to Category 4, and California has just received some unexpected thunder and rain.

But, regarding the food issue, Josh Kornbluth is trying to figure out why his wife's family has a problem with mixing shoyu and rice. No such problems for Filipinos! We like to mix it up.

In and Out of New Orleans

Poppy Z. Brite reports on her brief visit back to her house in N.O., where she rescues her cats, and retrieves a few of her most important things -- including a bottle of Vegemite and some T-Brud's Hot Sauce.

Congratulations to Barbara Jane!

Jeez, I've been holding this one in for a while: Barbara Jane Reyes has been selected as the recipient of the 2005 James Laughlin Award for her second collection of poems, Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press). The James Laughlin Award is given to commend and support a poet's second book of poetry. The award was established by a gift to the Academy from the Drue Heinz Trust in honor of the poet and publisher James Laughlin (1914-1997). Ms. Reyes will receive a cash prize of $5,000, and the Academy will purchase copies of Poeta en San Francisco for distribution to its members. This year's judges were James Longenbach, Mary Jo Bang, and Elizabeth Alexander.

Ms. Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her undergraduate education at the University of California Berkeley and her MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) at San Francisco State University.

Her work was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and appears or is forthcoming in Asian Pacific American Journal, Chain, Interlope, nocturnes (re)view, North American Review, Tinfish, Versal, in the anthologies Babaylan (Aunt Lute, 2000), Eros Pinoy (Anvil, 2001), Going Home to a Landscape (Calyx, 2003), Not Home But Here (Anvil, 2003), Pinoy Poetics (Meritage, 2004), and forthcoming in Red Light: Superheroes, Saints and Sluts (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2005), and Graphic Poetry (Hong Kong: Victionary, 2005). Her first book, Gravities of Center, was published by Arkipelago Books (San Francisco) in 2003. From the judges' citation for the James Laughlin Award:

"If William Blake were alive and well and sitting on a eucalyptus branch in the hills above the bay, this is the poetry he would aspire to write." James Longenbach

See also an interview with Barbara Jane & Paolo Javier, by Eileen Tabios on Tom Beckett's e=x=c=h=a=n=g=e=v=a=l=u=e=s.

The Angry Black White Boy

Haven't read this yet, but the "race" novel, Angry Black White Boy, by Adam Mansbach, sounds fascinating. And one reason I'm interested is because I've been editing a hip-hop memoir which involves some of the people in the hip-hop biz that Mansbach discusses. In the interview with Felicia Pride, Mansbach's perspective gives me a larger sense of what's possible in this genre. On the excellent Backlist website (see also the Backlist Blog in my links).

We’re still dealing right now with the mainstream press’ confusion in dealing with hip-hop as a cultural aesthetic, as something that can inform novels, not just manifest as music. There’s a critical old guard – some of whom are young – who are going to resist the ways in which writers of my generation draw on hip-hop to create a new literary paradigm. And at the same time, the notion of using hip-hop as a way to market literature had now dawned on the publishing industry, so we’ve also gotta contend with the half-assed notion of ‘hip-hop literature’ being put forward – the way the term is being used to describe any book where fat is spelled with a ‘ph’, or that contains characters who are young and urban and Black. To me, the terminology has to be reclaimed, and fast. We’ve gotta be rigorous in applying the term to work that embodies a deeper connection to hip-hop’s principles. In other words, a hip-hop novel should collage words and ideas and styles with the democratic, party-rocking attitude and dexterity of a Grandmaster Flash. It should reflect the audacious rebel-genius of taking over the transit system and turning it into a moving art gallery. It should seek to stake out community, and privilege the unheard and unrepresented like the parties Afrika Bambaataa and Kool Herc threw. It should tap into the power system like the cats that jacked open the lampposts. -- Adam Mansbach

POD -- getting clearer, except for the grayscales...

Eileen's further comment on my latest POD post reminds me that, although there are some technical restraints in POD, publishers who utilize the technology are still ultimately responsible for the editorial standards of the book. And on his blog, "Self Publishing," Morris Rosenthal takes us on a search through Amazon's listings of POD fiction self-marketed by the author, and published by subsidy presses, and reports on problems with greyscale photos in POD.

Track Them Changes

Frustrating morning, and now afternoon, dealing with the quirks of the MS Word Track Changes editing program. Arrrggghhhh!

The Pig Baby

As I wrote "author embedded in the mainstream publishing infrastructure" below (Sept. 16 post), a really bizarre image appeared in my head -- much in the same way one wakes up remembering one image from a dream -- It was the "Pig-Baby" illustration for Alice in Wonderland, by artist John Tennille. Now why on earth that picture? Might there be any relationship of various elements of the picture to my "author embedded in the mainstream..." phrase?


"The Pig-Baby," by John Tennille.

Calling all dream-interpreters...!

More on POD Technology

Eileen elucidated on the POD issue in my comments below, and I thought it worth posting here:

"POD is a technology. It's not the same as self-publishing or vanity publishing, but is often used by such because of its ease and relative cheapness. (It's POD's user-friendliness to self-publishers that's caused it to have a stigma in the past, as well as for POD companies to abuse authors desperate for publication.)

But POD is just a technology. Many publishers I know have switched, are switching and/or plan to switch to POD for economic reasons. Where their credibility is not hurt is because these publishers -- like Moria (and also like xPress(ed) as Jukka has used Lulu in the past for such respectable authors are Mark Young, Shin Yu Pai, etc -- maintain respected editorial standards. These standards are not a function of printing technology which, again, is all that POD is.

As for distribution and marketing, I don't see that POD harms the book except insofar as POD technology may cause poorer quality covers than usual printed covers. Many books printed via POD are sent by poetry publishers to the same review target list without the publishers ever raising the POD issue (or vice versa) because it is just a technology, not a means for relaxing editorial standards.

Hope that elucidates,
Eileen

p.s. Did you see Greg Delisle's post on this issue? It's on moi links... "

The fact that poet/editor/publisher and all 'round fantastic artist Jukka Pekka Kervinen (of xPress(ed)) also makes use of POD, makes me look even more favorably on this technology.

Eileen comments further on POD in the Buffalo Poetics Listserv, here.

And See Greg's comments here.

So I'm thinking, who out there is reviewing POD books? The whole thing is beginning to sound attractive to me -- the fact that the author is (more or less) in control of the whole publishing process, from text to editing, and determining the size & shape of the book (within the limitations of what's available through the POD of course, to the illustrations on the bookcover, and the marketing. So book reviews of POD books could and perhaps should also include the bookcover and all the front and back matter as part of the artistic concept of the whole book. One is so accustomed to thinking of the author's work as just primarily the text, embedded in the whole framework of the mainstream publishing infrastructure...

Grapes of Irony

I've been slowly, slowly working on a novel of my own, set in Depression Era San Francisco, and dealing to some extent with labor issues. I know, I know. Not exactly A-list content right now. And there's always the possibility of ending up with a bad imitation of the Grapes of Wrath. What can I say. I need to do it. What I've been thinking about, though, is humor. Not rip-roaring humor, but maybe more in the vein of Jim Jarmusch; his irony of various cultures stumbling into each other at odd points in history. Why are the working class always depicted so humorlessly? Most of the working class and poor people I've known have had plenty of humor to spare, and lots of irony.

Editing & Booty

Editing has not been great in regards to the size of my booty. Not that there's anything wrong with big booty. But it's all relative to other things, you know. And it doesn't help that I've been thinking/blogging about food a lot lately. Because somehow food and books seem to go together. You read, you eat. You edit, you eat. Something like that.

I wonder if other editors have this problem? If so, I'd like to know how they deal with it, especially considering the inordinate amount of time one must spend just sitting and reading, and writing, in this biz.

So I've been trying to figure out how to continue to enjoy food, and still stay healthy, and still lose a certain amount of weight. I may have to go back on the "Chocolate Truffle Diet," with which I lost 15 pounds, way back when I was working for Intel.

More on that later.

PODS and Poetry

I've been thinking about the Print/Publish-on-Demand "revolution", lately, just trying to understand what it's about, and how far-reaching are its implications. Been reading through the Lulu (see PoeWar.com's review) and PageFree websites, which of the up and coming PODs seem to be some of the more reliable, seem to offer the better opportunities. Online reviewers warn of the "POD stigma," questionable contracts, lack of reviews for books they publish, etc. To be honest, all the possible permutations of all the possible PODs have been confusing.

However.

The fact that one of my favorite online poetry journals, Moria, (edited by Bill Allegrezza) has taken up with Lulu.com, to publish some of my favorite writers (see for example, Jordan Stempleman, Donna Kuhn, and Eileen Tabios) in conjunction with its e-book offerings, is nudging me more towards thinking favorably about PODs.

Elixers

So anyway, speaking of various elixers, including the, uh, textual kind, Judd Finkelstein of Judd's Hill Winery has a blog, and a poetry page. Via the Chatelaine. He's also a ukelele-playing winemaker, as a member of the Maikai Gents which is significant to me, for reasons I explain on my Enchanting Melodies blog.

Mayhem and Murder in New Orleans

My son just lent me his copy of Poppy Z. Brite's. Liquor. The first in a series of at least three "liquor" novels, it is a murder mystery set in the kitchens of New Orleans, "A manic, spicy romp through the kitchens, back alleys, dive bars, and drug deals of the country's most sublimely ridiculous city..." as the back matter reads. It's hard to read about the heady, highlife (or even the lowlife) in New Orleans nowadays, without a twinge of irony and sadness. Still, what could be more timely, or perfect, after an entire day spent trying to fathom the cosmic complexities of APA bibliographic format?

Ms. Brite has a blog. She has been in Louisiana during the Hurricane.

The Reading in Vallejo

This is a report from last Friday, reproduced from my other blog, Okir:

It's about midnight, and I just got back from my reading with Janet Stickmon & Annabelle Udo at the Listen & Be Heard Cafe, which is a very nice venue in Vallejo. I enjoyed the reading a lot; Maiana Minahal unfortunately was not able to read, but Annabelle & Janet did some great spoken word, and then Janet took the podium and read from her memoir, Crushing Soft Rubies, a book that I've taught in my classes, and which sounds even better when read aloud by Janet. For some reason I hadn't connected the gas-price monitoring Filipina Veritas with Annabelle, but now I know it's her, and I have also learned that the gas-price-monitoring is not just something she happened to start doing when she moved into her apartment -- it's an activity that she inherited, so to speak, from her father! Annabelle, as always is an excellent host.

Afterwards, Kawika Alfiche sang and chanted Hawaiian songs from his CD, Nalei, accompanied by his multi-talented students, one of whom was A Thousand Words!. Kawika has a beautiful voice (even more so when he chanted the opening blessing), and his students were a perfect complement. There's a resurgence of Hawaiian arts going on in the Bay Area, and Alfiche seems to be one of the lights behind this.

The Venue, Listen and Be Heard, is very cool. Which is to say, warm and inviting, in a neighborhood sitting-around-listening-to-Al-Green-and-Bobby-Blue-Bland kind of way. But to really understand what I mean, you have to either go there (818 Marina in Vallejo), or go to their website, dial their number, and listen to the message. See what I mean?

The interesting thing about doing poetry readings with and for other Filipinos, or Hawaiians, especially those younger than me, is that I often get designated "Tita," (Auntie) which is what happened the other night, for the Sigaw reading. In other words, I go from being just another poet, to becoming an unofficial member of an extended family: Tita, or Tia Jean. Similarly, when visiting my relatives in Mindanao, I became "Tcha" Jean. Here in the States, does this have to do with me being older than some of the audience and/or poets, or does it have to do with being older AND being a poet?

Anyway, I'm trying to get comfortable with this designation. I kind of like it, but at the same time it makes me feel kinda..old. Would they feel weird if they knew that Tita Jean occasionally listens to PJ Harvey?

Comparative Grief

Pronoia writes about her Comparative Grief, and it made me realize something -- that with all the disappointment and bitterness I've felt about the U.S. in recent years; I do still love this country, and its people and cultures.

Back to Normal

Whoever they are, they've obviously found me out, because the "Boobs 'n Tubes" caption is no longer pulling in hits. I guess this site will just have depend on the, uh, "brilliance" of its webmistress (zzzzz).

Dylan + Weldon Kees

Gary Lucas, in his inimitable post-post Joycean fashion, holds forth on the connection between poet, Weldon Kees, and Bob Dylan. And there's a little contest and a prize thrown in there, too, somewhere (towards the end of the post).

My first exposure to "real poetry" was in high school, when my wonderful writing teacher assigned the whole class to read the entire Naked Poetry anthology, edited by Robert Mezey and Stephen Berg; keep in mind that the only poetry I had read up to that point was -- well, I can't remember any poetry prior to that, except for a really awful poem about Robinson Crusoe that I had to memorize for a reading in 7th grade. Suddenly in high school, I was reading Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Weldon Kees, Denise Levertov, and Robert Creeley, for godssake. The book "blew my mind," as it were (people said such things back in the day).

MORE Boobs! HARD CORE!

Oh gawd, I've been getting maybe two or three hits a day on this site, from some hard-core loyalists (that's loyal friends, not boobs, until today -- when I posted the title "Boobs n' Tubes" in reference to the new cover of Fence. Suddenly, I have a slew of new browsers...Sheesh. I admit it's bait -- just to see what happens. I wonder how long it takes people to get past the cover, and figure out that it's a hardcore literary mag?

And along with more visitors comes more comment spam. So I hereby join the ranks of bloggers who make you jump through a little hoop in order comment on my blog.

Boobs n' Tubes

Somewhat related to the latest efforts to make poetry more, er, commercial (Fence's current boob issue -- the Chat. has something to say about that too...), why not do a poet reality TV show? Who would be a good candidate? A couple months ago I edited a treatment for a couple of writers, for a reality TV show. Amazing the extent to which those shows are scripted. Oh sorry -- didn't mean to ruin it for you... heheh

Donate

All sales proceeds for the Chatelaine's books at her next poetry reading (next weekend in Napa Valley -- take note) will be donated to Hurricane Katrina victims. She makes it easy for you.

The Other Voodoo Queen of N. Orleans (BesidesMarie Laveau)

Gothic novelist Anne Rice: "But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs. Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you." Via Ray in Austin.

Emotion

Tonight on Fox News: I actually appreciate the emotions expressed by news commentators Shephard Smith and Geraldo Rivera: outraged, without answers; close to tears, even, and arguing with Sean Hannity, when he tries to spin a more positive outlook on the situation. This, as they try to report on the state of the refugees who are "stuck" in the convention center and stranded on I-10. When Hannity questions him about why the refugees can't leave the "filthy" convention center, with its dead bodies, Smith angrily reports that they can't, because they are "locked in" (I assume he's referring to the curfew?). [Later I found out he was referring to the fact that those who wanted to leave the area of the "Hell on earth" (according to Geraldo) Convention Center, by the only route out, where turned back "by the government." Smith was also upset because he claimed that the Mayor had allowed a large group of tourists to be evacuated from a hotel out of the City, while completely ignoring the poor, mostly Black refugees -- many ill, and some dying -- stranded on nearby I-10, where they are still waiting.] Blue or Red, I'm tired of spin. I want to hear & see some honest emotion about all this.


Geraldo I've seen emotional on TV before, but it's weird to see Smith in this state, who is usually composed, and even rather smug.

Mayor Ray Nagin, however, is starting to sound a little more hopeful, as he is beginning to see the troops coming in with supplies.