LA Magazine Debut! And a round of applause

Thank all of you for attending my final reading/public performance at the Annenberg Community Beach House last night.

It's very scary to read work-in-progress.  It can feel like indecent exposure.  Like you're being judged.  All sorts of butterflies jumping in your stomach.

Pulitzer prize winner Jennifer Egan said she writes as many as 50-60 drafts per novel.  Ethan Canin once shared he wrote so many drafts he couldn't remember if his character was still epileptic, or not.  Philip Roth said he often has to write a hundred pages or more before there's a paragraph that's alive.

It takes a special community to go on this journey with you.  Thank you, Beach Culture.  Annnenberg Beach House & Marion Davies Guest House Supporters.  Thank you, Dear Husband.  Thank you, Santa Monica.

A friend who hasn't seen me in a long time found the LA Magazine article, and sent me an email.  "Is this you?"

"It is."

Enjoy.

xoxo

A Chapter at the Annenberg Beach House

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!  Then join me at the Marion Davies Guest House Monday March 19th!


It'll be a perfect day for bananafishing!


David Colgan, Staff Assistant to L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, writes:


://zev.lacounty.gov/communities/westside/writing-a-new-chapter-at-the-beach.

Press Release! Online Version!

For those of you who asked when the feature was going to appear....
the online version is here....
March April 2012 issue
Career change | The University of Chicago Magazine

Dance Ten, Looks Too....

One of my visitors to the Annenberg brought the following article to my attention:


http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/advocates-ask-why-do-asian-americans-go-uncast-in-new-york-theater/?smid=tw-nytimesarts&seid=auto

BrickBat Revue

We spend so much time at our computers, online, social media that sometimes we forget how wonderful it is to read/perform live.  To unplug, and be present.  With people.

Tuesday night was Mardi Gras.  The evening of 99% Guerrilla Literature at BrickBat Revue in the wonderful Brewery Art Colony.  What a cool space, cool place to read.  The Brewery Art Colony now provides loft housing to artists, but it was once the home of Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery.

Bronwyn Mauldin, a talented writer and founder of Guerrilla Reads, kicked the evening off with stellar footage from the Occupy LA Movement.  Robert Stuart Lowden's photographs are stunning and transports you there.  Mathew Timmons chorale work will change the way you read your junk mail forever.  Thank you, Tika, for inviting us into BrickBat Revue.

I's important to support your independent publishers, independent voices.   Support works that provoke, inspire, entertain, push, pull, stretch.  It's the only way we grow, change, evolve.

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Power of Stories

In case you missed me, I've been blogging at the Annenberg Beach House as their writer in residence.  I can't believe how busy I've been, how fast time flies, and how powerful story circles are.

Feel blessed for all the press requests.  I was thrilled when Jason Kehe, a journalist from LA Magazine, came down Saturday to interview me before my second story circle, a tribute to Marion Davies, her gift of comedy, "Be Revolutionary:  Stand Up and Laugh."

There were about 25 people, with a few latecomers, occupying the Sand & Surf room over the pool.  It was so much fun, bursting with love and laughter.  We shared embarrassing moments, worst dates/Valentines, favorite comics, and stories of how humor enabled us to overcome.  

Is comedy = tragedy + time?

Comedy that left turn?  That kink in your plans?

Participants thanked me for creating a safe space where we can connect, remember who we were, who we are, and where we want to be.

Sharing stories is like swapping spit, kissing.  Creates an intimacy and a longing that you never want to end.  So, as the clock struck 4, R & R invited everyone to their home in Topanga Canyon at a future date to be determined to continue our love and laughter.  Just like the first story circle, history repeated itself.  Independently, too.  R & R did not know that after the first story circle, E & S invited us to their home.

Behold the power of your stories.  Our stories.

Be there, Tuesday night, for 99% Guerrilla Literature, 100% Fun
 http://youtu.be/Da_8c2OVHt4

Hi, My Name is Lucy, I Live on the Second Floor

Couldn't help humming to Suzanne Vega when I saw this photograph of me, writing on the second floor of the Marion Davies Guest House.