Year: 2009

My friend Brian Eule will be speaking tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. He will be reading from his much-praised new nonfiction book, “Match Day.” http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

My oldest brother has just launched his blog, PawPrints. Stay tuned for regular postings. His first piece of writing is a lovely tribute to Zooknoone. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Reposting this image in memory of Zooknoone, who passed away on March 27, 2009. Thank you for your remembrances and messages, and feel free to send in again. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Thank you to everyone who paid tribute to my brother David, alias “Zooknoone,” in Carson City on Thursday and Friday (and also today — a drumming circle/life celebration has been scheduled in town.)”Zook,” my big brother, a musician, writer, and field adjuster by trade, passed away on March 27 after emergency open-heart surgery. All of us miss him terribly. (please see remembrances below, and thank you so much for your kind words about my brother. I will continue to update this and file your messages about him as they come in.) My brother Phil — who is a very gifted writer — read a tribute, I shared a few words of my own, and we spent time with UCSD pals of Zooknoone, including John and Youndy. My mother and father made the trip out from southern California. A storm blew up over the Sierra Nevada almost immediately after the gathering….

Looking forward to remembering with all of Zook’s family and friends in Carson City tomorrow. I’m bringing a DVD of a great Zook performance of a Randy Newman song from his rock opera, “Faust,’ along with a few words about him. Feel free to pitch in by email if there are any anecdotes you want me to include (but send in as soon as you see this email. I’m taking off for Nevada really soon.)By the way, I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone in the Cactus community and your kind words of support. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I am putting together some of David’s video clips and writings as a tribute to him. (I should have pointed out to his various fans that David is perhaps best known for his performing and songwriting nicknames, “Zook” or “Zooknoone,” which date back to his college years at UC San Diego. For the life of me, I can’t remember how he picked up those monikers. If you knew him from UCSD, you can set me straight on that.) If you send me an email in a couple of weeks or so, I will try to send you links to these things so you can enjoy them and share them. For various reasons, I don’t feel comfortable posting all of these materials directly on the blog. I want to thank everyone for your words of encouragement and support. That’s all for now. (P.S. — friends and family will probably recognize this…

I am planning an online celebration of my big brother, David, a humorist, excellent writer, folksinger and family man who died on Friday after open heart surgery. He was only 43. My family and I raced up Highway 50 toward Carson City to be by his side, but it was already too late by the time we got there. On Thursday, dozens of his friends and colleagues will be joining my family to celebrate the life of David. Many of you who check this blog on a regular basis already know about his hilarious YouTube and MySpace videos — and the stunning final video that he shot just before his surgery. All of us miss him terribly. There is so much more to say about him, but for now, I just want to send my prayers for David and good wishes to his family. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Wow. After asking the ‘lookie-loos’ to send in their bios to my “Cactuseaters readers in the news digest,” I received an absolute inundation of emailed submissions — so many of them that I am wondering how I’m going to squeeze them all into the next column. Thanks for stepping up, everyone. I’ve got at least enough material for two digest columns. I’ll start putting them together next week. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Yesterday, in the middle of my spring break, I revisited the Forest of Nisene Marks outside Santa Cruz with J., the newest family member. We saw three unicyclists, thousands of ferns, a dead star-nosed mole, dozens of dogs on leashes, and second-growth redwoods reaching to the sky. J. slept through about 90 percent of the outing, but she had her eyes wide open for about five minutes, taking it all in. (I am still technically hibernating. This entry doesn’t count.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Cactuseaters blog will be asleep for a very brief spell, but feel free to keep leaving emails etc. I will still check every couple of days or so. Thanks, by the way, for the great submissions to the “Cactuseaters readers in the news” digest. I need two more to achieve a critical mass so don’t be bashful. In other news, I saw this article about the fate of a Chappaqua, New York neighborhood bookstore in the Sunday Times. It’s a sad story — but I was inspired by that paragraph about a group of local residents in New Canaan, Conn., who put up money to extend the life of Elm Street Books, “more as a civic gesture than an entrepreneurial one.” (By the way, I wanted to include a photo credit and copywrite info on this photo but couldn’t find it in the web. If you took this picture, let…