Year: 2011

Halfway through Robert Earl Keen’s two-hour show at the Rio, he stopped to reflect on his days as a college student and country music fan. “We only played the good stuff,” he said. “Carrie Underwood! Rascal Flatts! The fragile harmonies of Sugarland!” He was being sarcastic, of course. Keen is a favorite of fans and critics, but he’s never been a Nashville insider or had much affection for mainstream country radio. His songs about outlaws, oil workers, aspiring losers and faded border towns are edgier than most anything you’ll hear on 99.5 F.M. Judging from his between-the-songs banter, he’s proud of the dues he’s still paying: they’re a clear sign of character. At one point, he talked about the box of moldering doughnuts that remains on the tour bus after three straight months, and his band’s willingness to play a gig just about anywhere, including a festival with 4,000 fans…

Heading to the concert now Wondering if he’ll mention the boring new Toby Keith song that rips off “The Road Goes On Forever.” Will post something within the next week or so. I thought it was just my overactive imagination, but apparently the Courtyard Hounds agree with me. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Oh man. I should have seen this coming. I post one lousy photo of a beer-drinking cat, and the cat photo avalanche begins in earnest. Here is a photo taken by another reader, Carolyn L, who reports that her cat flies — and she has photographic evidence to back this up. I’ve got to say, this is a pretty amazing shot. And there’s no trick photography in it. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

My apologies for being a lazy blogger over the past couple of months. Lots and lots going on. And I sure do appreciate my blog readers (both of you.) Incidentally, my own cat is just as fat and lazy as the one pictured here. But I don’t think he drinks beer unless he sneaks it behind my back. By the way, my cat happens to be named after the great singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen, who will be performing at the Rio Theatre this Thursday. I am so there. Forgot to mention that I sent an email to Robert Earl Keen’s concert promoter about 10 years ago informing him of my decision to name the cat Robert Earl. To my surprise, I got an email response just a few minutes later, saying “Robert Earl is standing right here while I write this — and he thinks that’s a very bad idea.”…

Read the story here http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Here are the blogs Here are my favorite book blogs. This is mostly for me so I don’t have to keep searching for them individually. However, I think you’ll enjoy them, and if you’re an aspiring author, reading these sites is so much healthier than self-Googling or checking your infernal Amazon stats. In no particular order, here they are. The Millions. Maud Newton. Rumpus. Bookslut. Paper Cuts. Levi Stahl’s I’ve Been Reading Lately. Koreanish. American Fiction Notes. The New Yorker’s Book Bench. Jacket Copy. Coveted books: Paul Murray, Skippy Dies Karen Russell, Swamplandia (put this at the top of your reading list; it’s great) Benjamin Percy, The Wilding Leo Tolstoy, Childhood, Boyhood and Youth, Michael Scammell translation Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies Good books: Brock Clarke: An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes In New England. (I give this book seven stars out of five. No, make that eight…

(Photo by Tory Anderson/Alliance for Retired Americans / Associated Press) Gabriel Zimmerman, community outreach director for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was computer-savvy from an early age, but he also understood that technology was only the means to an end. Zimmerman, 30, graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2002 with a degree in sociology. He was one of six people fatally wounded Saturday in Tucson, Ariz., in the shooting rampage that left his boss critically wounded. This week, friends and colleagues remembered Zimmerman as a seasoned community organizer with a strong sense of social justice and conflict resolution. “People have to engage,’’ said sociology professor Paul Lubeck, who vividly remembers Zimmerman’s eager presence in three of his classes. “They have to get out there on the ground, get out into the community, go out and get their hands dirty. He exemplified that.” Read the rest of the story here. For me,…

You won’t believe this. A woman from Ben Lomond is trying to scalp the $10 tickets to tonight’s sold-out Bookshop Santa Cruz event for $40 a piece. Can you believe that? In Santa Cruz, of all places? Great author and public speaker, and it’s always nice to see that much interest in a literary event. But do scalpers have to wreck everything? http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I’m posting this one especially for one reader, MGW. This is a photo of “Big Skull II”, bronze, 29.5 in. high, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. And here is my story about an enduring artistic friendship that lasts to this day. I was glad to see that the Hirshhorn Tweeted (is that a verb?) a link to this story so I’ve got a lot of art fans reading this. Couple of other things: thank you to Travis who rescued my five bucks off the ground at Shopper’s Corner (and who somehow knew my name). Also, a reader just sent me a movie about hiking the Continental Divide Trail! Looking forward to seeing it. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Here is the link to a slide show that accompanies my 36 Hours column. I know one of the people featured in this photo tour of Santa Cruz. Somehow, the fabled River Street sign did not make it into the slide show. Maybe next time? http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default