Month: October 2012

Here is a brief excerpt from a wonderful essay that Ben Lerner wrote about his days as a smash-mouth high-school debater. As you will see, most of the text is behind the paywall. To read the whole thing, you will need to head off to your friendly indie bookstore and buy this issue of Harper’s.  While this analytical and personal essay is not explicitly about the latest round of debates, you might wish that Lerner was up on the podium, giving grief to everyone involved,  including the moderator.  This essay is not short, but if you get in your car or cinch up your sneakers right now,  you will have time to reach your neighborhood bookstore, buy the magazine and a cup of coffee,  read and re-read this essay before Obama and Romney mix it up this evening.  If you remember from a couple of weeks ago, Ben Lerner is…

I noticed that Andrew Goldman has a Q and A with T.C. Boyle in this week’s New York Times Sunday Magazine. I spoke with T.C. Boyle a couple of months ago about his exploration of mankind’s turbulent and strange relationship with the natural world. In light of the publicity for Boyle’s new novel, San Miguel, and the launching of Catamaran this week, I am posting a brand-new edit of my previously posted podcast interview with Boyle. And here it is. You will find the podcast image and link about halfway down the page, which also includes detailed info about Catamaran’s inaugural issue. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

What does it take to publish a literary magazine? A group of hard-working editors, a whole bunch of talented contributors, lots of brainstorming sessions at the Salz Tannery in Santa Cruz, and a group of determined printers working with an enormous and complicated piece of machinery. In case you are curious, here is what it looked like when the first batch of them got printed up. Enjoy. Every time I watch this video and all those whirring, sorting, printing contraptions, Rube Goldberg comes to mind. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

… if you’re a subscriber to Catamaran or if you are getting, for one reason or another, a complimentary issue. Your copy or copies should be arriving in the mail any day now. So if it doesn’t arrive today, check again tomorrow. If not, Catamaran will be available in bookstores nationwide. And speaking of check again, I know that some of you weren’t able to attend our reading last week. If that is the case, I just wanted to let you know that someone filmed the entire thing including the Q and A session at the end, and it should be uploaded at some point soon; I will let you know and will probably post the link here. Also, do me a favor and drive over to your local indie bookstore or to your Barnes & Noble or whatever you have in town and pick up the latest issue of…

Martin Rees, the United Kingdom’s Astronomer, gave a fascinating presentation incorporating billion years of cosmic history. This was truly one of the highlights of the fall season for me. Here’s a little story I put together about it. Photos by Steve Kurtz. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

hi everyone — just wanted to let you all know that the reading went really well, and it was very heartening to see loved ones and pals who braved an unexpected, awful rainstorm and went up and over ‘the hill’ just to be there. Thank you so much for that. It means a lot to both of us. Also, it was great to see some SJSU undergrads from Kate Evans’s writing class. This was Amy’s first reading — ever — and it went over extremely well. As for me, this is the first time I’ve aired out any aspect of a new project that I’m working on. It has no title, and every piece of the project relates in some way to a physical artifact that I’ve either found or kept over the years or, in some cases, made from scratch. I’m envisioning this project as a kind of living…

Here is one last reminder for this event. Mostly I wanted you to see what they did with the poster; thanks, Nick Taylor, for putting this together. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Close to 100 percent of the people who read this blog will be going to my reading with Amy Ettinger so I’d better step up and give you better directions. First of all, the basics: Amy Ettinger and I will both read personal essays that will most likely be incorporated into longer nonfiction projects. The reading starts at 7 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library on 150 East San Fernando Street in San Jose. Once you arrive at the MLK library, proceed to the fifth floor. We will be speaking at Room 550 — the Schiro Program Room. Refreshments will be served including wine and cheese but you already know that. You’re here for the directions. You’re sick of being reminded about the wine and cheese.  So here goes. DIRECTIONS FROM THE SILICON VALLEY AREA  If you just so happen to be traveling from Cupertino, here’s what you…

Thank you, Sam Autman, for posting this WSJ article on Facebook. This made my whole week (month, year, epoch.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

My friendly neighborhood yarn bomber has turned a perfectly ordinary magnolia tree into a high-kicking, long-legged go-go dancer. If you want to see this in person, drive out to Santa Cruz and head out to Cayuga Street in the Seabright neighborhood. It is impossible to miss. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default