Community Matters

(Community Matters) Reports from Barnes/Keller Reading Week. Paul Talley cooking tonite – 5 ways to prepare beef tenderloin. You gotta understand the competitiveness of cooking at Reading Week.  Tana Christie and I are headed there Tuesday and we’re cooking Wed nite.  We’ve imported from Mexico a special, custom mole for the entree – still need to find fresh epazote for our black beans.

(Community Matters) Harvard Business Review on what motivates workers http://bit.ly/aQWNSr

(Community Matters) Wonderful dinner with Lily & Yigal Saad tonight.  Steven is shameless; he loves Lily’s cooking and even asked for the leftovers.  So unlike him but those two are warmth personified.

(Community Matters) Our dear friend Tim Johnson, proprietor of Marfa Book Co. – really a curator of literature – has put together a Small Press Show – he’s added two small prose presses (Archipelago Books and Dalkey Archive), while retaining the best of the poetry presses (Ugly Duckling Presse, Post-Apollo Press, Flood Editions, BookThug, and Effing Press).  He’s even chosen five great titles from each of these seven presses, including great translations from modern and contemporary authors from all over the world (Akutagawa, Mahmoud Darwish, Elena Fanailova), new translations of world classics (Sophocles, Rumi), plus many great contemporary works in English.

Of course we’re purchasing this collection.  If you’re interested, feel free to contact Tim directly or let me know and I’ll put you in touch.

(Community Matters) We’ll after a disappointing dinner Saturday before last, thought I’d give it another try.  Met Martha Smiley for an 8am breakfast and it was good.  Stephen Walls joined me for a second breakfast when Martha left.  Guess that was just too much.  A second waitress got involved and couldn’t remember a thing.  Seriously, she was so incompetent, she had us looking at each other . . .  first perplexed, then breaking out laughing (discretely, not at her).  The first waitress was great, but she got mad that a second waitress got involved.  We bore the brunt of the incompetent waitress, then the mad one.  Then neither were taking care of us.  Finally, first waitress to the rescue.  This is unacceptable for a restaurant with so much potential.  Sorry I gave it a second try.

Sullivans Steakhouse – had a late afternoon meeting there – outstanding service and appetizers.  Julio’s with Katie Pearl and Michael Mitchell for dinner – ah, sometimes wonder why go anywhere else – always outstanding and superb service.

oh yeah, Greg Rickels was there this morning.  What a treat to run into him unexpectedly – a man of so much love

(Community Matters) Steven’s performing at next Thursday’s Pecha Kucha evening – 416 W. Cesar Chavez, doors open at 7:30, presentations start at 8:20.  Tana & I will be driving back from a couple of nights at Kip Keller’s & Michael Barnes’ reading week; we’ll likely go straight there.  I may be violating some pecha kucha/steven tomlinson rule by posting one of the pics from his 20 slides – alas, I haven’t broken any rules this week so what can I say? (by the way, a topic for another blog – WASP’s fascination with rules.  I’m just realizing this is a very cultural thing.)

Others presenting that evening: Jett Butler (Designer), Sam Douglas (Filmmaker),  Jack Sanders (Designer), Sarah Gamble (Architect), Jace Graf (Book Designer), Jean Goehring (Designer), Austin Kleon (Writer/poet), Chris Krager (Architect), Magda Sayeg (Textile art), and Erin Trieb (Photographer)

(Community Matters) Just sent my 100th tweet – the Elie Wiesel quote:  the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.

Please don’t be indifferent

(Community Matters) a 1967 Mike Wallace report , “The Homosexuals”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Community Matters) Welcome to my world . . . .

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Community Matters) Intrigued by Scott Collier’s latest initiative http://www.slowmoneyaustin.org

Also, I can’t believe I haven’t been following Kala Philo’s blog – it’s quite enlightening

(Community Matters) We celebrated Robert Torian’s 49th birthday yesterday at the Cactus Cafe, listening to In Heritage.

In Heritage

Friends who gathered to celebrate Robert included Larry Don Shaw, Milinda Mitchell, Michael Mitchell, Janet Maykus & Mark Smith, Tana & Joe Christie and, of course, his lover of 25 years, Jim Fraser.

(Community Matters) “The most difficult part about living here is knowing that the rains are coming and we don’t have a roof over our heads.” – Magdala Teracine (in the picture, now living with her parents, three sisters, two brothers, two nephews and two daughters in a space that measures about three meters by two meters).  http://bit.ly/bAgBkt

HelpHaiti -we’ll match contributions dollar for dollar

photo Ed Kinney (Concern Worldwide)