Congratulations are in order — Santa Cruz author Elizabeth McKenzie and the Gail Rich Awards

I returned to the Rio Theatre on Wednesday for the first time since that historic Lucinda gig. The big event was the Gail Rich Awards, honoring outstanding community builders and artists. For me, the standout moment was the fine speech/short story excerpt by my friend Elizabeth McKenzie, a fantastic writer whose fiction has appeared recently in the Atlantic Monthly and who has a piece up in the Saturday Evening Post (did you know that was still being published?? I’m very glad to hear it.) She read an excerpt from her story cycle, Stop That Girl, which should be on your reading list along with McGregor Tells the World. I was unfamiliar with most of the other award recipients except for the talented sign maker Steve Hosmer of Stokes Signs, whose funny and profane acceptance speech was one of the evening’s real highlights. He explains that his parents told him he…

Corroboration from hard-core Lucinda Williams fans — and some words about the best shows ever in Santa Cruz

Looks like I’m not the only one who thinks it may well have been Lucinda’s best show ever. I’m hearing from lots of folks who have seen her upwards of 26 times and think that Rio show blew all the others away. Anyhow, let’s hope she rolls this way again very soon, and let’s hope she keeps on drinking that vitamin-fortified tangerine juice. Meanwhile, here are some of the other greatest shows ever in the Santa Cruz general area: Neil Young and Crazy Horse: 1996, the Catalyst. You should have been there. Neil didn’t say one freaking word for the entire set, but what a set it was, starting off with “Cowgirls in the Sand.” My sister kept telling me, you’d never even know he was famous. Neil and the band seemed like they were trying out for something. And it was so punk, and so damned loud. All that…

Lucinda Williams’s best concert ever? Live in Santa Cruz at the Rio Theatre

Best Lucinda Williams concert? Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz, 1/18/12 (sorry, I keep updating this danged thing. Little details keep incorporating themselves into the story. Scroll to the bottom for complete set list if you’re into that sort of thing.) Nothing against the Catalyst Club in downtown Santa Cruz but every time I go there’s some 250-pound, 7-foot tall drunk guy standing right in front of me, swaying to the music and stepping on my feet, while blocking my views of whatever band is playing that night. That’s why it was a special treat to see Lucinda Williams“in full soaring voice” (my sister’s description) at the historic Rio Theatre on Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz. Imagine — seeing Lucinda in a place with crisp, clean acoustics, and being able to sit down. I’ve never seen Lucinda this good or this candid, and I’ve been going to her concerts since the days…

Tea Obhreht at Bookshop Santa Cruz: Advice for young writers (and a few words about headaches, heartaches, pitchforks and false starts)

Tea Obreht on failing better and growing a novel “Any advice for young writers?” Tea Obreht handled that musty old question with grace at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Her response is good enough to clip and save. “You’re writing for a reason: you love it,” she said. “It gives you something. Your family may not be pleased with you for doing it but you have a need to write so write. Don’t write anything just because it’s trendy.Write what you love to read. If it fails, who cares! If it fails, learn from it and write the next one. It’s a lonely process but continue doing it because you love it.” During her talk, she spoke about the role of circumstance, having her early drafts shredded in a writer’s workshop, and the chance viewing of a television documentary. In her estimation, her book started out as a “very bad” short story…

Music, books and shrooms: Lucinda Williams, Tea Obreht, and great glowing globs of flaming fungus

Well, I just went and purchased a ticket to see Lucinda Williams live at the Rio Theater next week in Santa Cruz. I think she’s a songwriting genius, so we should all indulge her a little bit, even if she sometimes gets grumpy, and even if she sometimes chooses to perform her own songs while reading the lyrics and chord progressions off a music stand set up near the front of the stage. The best Lucinda concert I’ve ever seen was at the Warfield, just after Car Wheels on a Gravel Road came out. Pure bliss. Another time I saw her, she had some kind of loud on-stage tiff with the bass player at the Fillmore. They worked it out, but it was a little dodgy there for a while. By the way, Tea Obreht, author of The Tiger’s Wife, is coming to Bookshop Santa Cruz this Friday, while the…

My Q and A with Nikki Giovanni

Here it is. I wrote this up to spread the word about the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Convocation in Santa Cruz. I hope you enjoy this. By the way, I have a few more Q and A’s set up with various nonfiction and fiction writers so stay tuned. I’ll write and post those when I can. Poets and grandmothers in outer space: A Q&A with Nikki Giovanni Nikki Giovanni, acclaimed poet, bestselling author, creative writing professor, and living connection to Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, is this year’s keynote speaker for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Convocation in downtown Santa Cruz. King’s assassination, and his memorial service, which she attended, inspired some of her earliest published works. She has the authority and credibility of a ’60s activist from the front lines of the civil rights movement. Giovanni also has an insurgent sense of humor and…

Read along with me … if you dare.

OK, both of you. First of all, it was nice to see you last week, and second of all, here are some good books to read. Get your hands on Elif Batuman’s hilarious, startling and clever book The Possessed, about freaks like me who can’t get enough of Russian literature. She is always so funny and surprising. I once sent her a fan letter and got a nice response. You’re 11 years too late to celebrate the book’s sesquicentennial; still, this is as good a time as any to conquer Moby Dick if you haven’t already, and if you can, get your hands on the Arion version, which is beautifully illustrated and has a nice big font size for nearsighted folks like me. Don’t listen to all those people who make it seem as if reading this book is like taking a daily dose of codfish liver oil. The book…