A long time between readings

Eighteen months.

The last time I went out to an event of any sort was Saturday, February 22, 2020. That was the final edition of the Writers' Showcase, held at the Olde Brick Theatre (a.k.a. the Diva Theater) in Scranton, PA. It was an unusual event, to say the least: the founder and co-host of the event was not there; neither, apparently, were the owners/operators of the venue, since the doors were locked and the lights were out. But the other host was there, as were the readers, and a small audience. So we held the event anyway, in the back parking lot of the theater, lit by a sodium vapor light and the stars glowing in a clear, crisp Winter sky, including a recently-dimmed Betelgeuse. (Betelgeuse, an irregularly variable star, had plunged to a dimness never before observed, leading some to speculate that it was about to undergo the supernova explosion waiting at the end of its life. We didn't realize it at the time, but Betelgeuse was already brightening that night; analysis suggests that the dimming was caused by the alignment of an orbiting dust cloud.) The night was cold, the crowd was small, and the threat of the incursion of the COVID-19 virus, which at that point had been spreading rapidly through New York City and Philadelphia and major port cities on the West coast, hung over us - had anyone been to New York or Philadelphia lately? But it was a successful and very enjoyable event.

Eighteen months. One election, one insurrection, over 600,000 people in the U.S. dead of COVID-19 later.

The Blackwatch Cafe was supposed to open before the pandemic hit, but COVID-19 has had a way of messing up everybody's plans. Instead it opened in late April 2021. It is on the grounds of Nay Aug Park in Scranton, in a beautiful stone structure that looks like it might once have served as a guard house of some sort - but was in fact originally the women's lavatory. The poetry reading was conceived just a few weeks before it was held there, after a chance visit to the new coffee shop by poets Michael Czarnecki and Tamar Samuel-Siegel.

Michael and Tamar were the featured poets, and nine additional poets read as well. The event was held on June 19, 2021 - Juneteenth, the first officially recognized Juneteenth in the United States. But it also happened to be the last day of Spring. I read "Springtime by the Numbers," which I had originally written (and read) on the last day of Spring in 2013.

 

Michael Czarnecki

Tamar Samuel-Siegel

Event flyer

In contrast to the February 22, 2020 event - cold, possibly below freezing, though no one seemed particularly uncomfortable during the hour-and-change that we all stood outside under the stars - the weather for the June 19, 2021 event was absolutely beautiful, with lots of sunshine and cool breezes, some possibly brought on by the helicopter which flew over us several times and landed in the park about a hundred yards away. After the event was over but while a few stragglers were still hanging out at the now-closed coffeeshop, a gentle rain began to fall.

It was the first reading at the Blackwatch Cafe, but perhaps just the first of many more to come. Gradually, other venues will reopen and re-establish their regular readings and open mics. 

The last Writers' Showcase in the parking lot of the
Olde Brick Theatre, Scranton, February 22, 2020

**************

New cases of COVID-19 in the United States continue to fall. They have actually fallen to such a level that a linear y-axis is becoming less and less useful. Switching to a logarithmic scale for the y-axis makes the current downward trend more visible. Cases are now at a level not seen since the fourth week of March 2020.

The Writers' Showcase event mentioned above took place on February 22, 2020 - a date that doesn't even show up on the graphs here, which I have chosen to start on March 1, 2020. At that point the disease was spreading rapidly, but the mass dying hadn't started yet. Things would get very bad very quickly, and then get worse, and worse, and worse. 

Summer in October

I attended the Fall 2018 edition of The Writers Showcase at the Olde Brick Theater in Scranton last night. It was a good turnout, and I got to catch up with some old friends. The readings ran until a little after 8:30, but I wound up hanging out and talking with my friends until nearly 10:00. Some of the things I heard - stories told to me in confidence - left me feeling like Hamlet's father's ghost.

But that I am forbid 
To tell the secrets of my prison house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, 
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, 
Thy knotted and combined locks to part, 
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. 

Speaking of which, there's a dead porcupine in front of my house, hit by a car. Poor woodland critter was probably forced out of its normal territory by the almost-complete local road project. It's been many years since I've seen a porcupine of any sort, alive or dead. There are quills blowing all over the street adjacent to the one with the dead fellow. I've never seen quills before, either. I picked a few up out of the road - they're clean, and I figured nobody else needed them right now.

Porcupine quills, approximately 3-5 cm (1.25 - 2 inches) long

It was a warmish night last night, no jacket required, which is unusual from the end of the first week of October in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Today is unseasonably warm, in the 80s with high humidity - weather more like summer than fall. This is apparently the new normal, and conditions are expected to get much worse as time goes by.

See full article here (Washington Post, October 8, 2018)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: 

Global Warming of 1.5 °C

an IPCC special report on the impacts of 
global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels
 and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways,
 in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change,
 sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty

Writers' Showcase Summer Edition is Saturday, June 16!

The Writers' Showcase Summer Edition is tomorrow! If you can make it, I'd love to see you there!

WHAT: The Writers' Showcase, an evening of stories, poems, and surprises from Grant Clauser, Harold Jenkins, Vicki Mayk, and Curtis Smith, hosted by Brian Fanelli and Dawn Leas, all for the low, low price of $4.00! Refreshments will be provided!

WHERE: The Olde Brick Theatre, rear 126 West Market Street, Scranton, PA.

WHEN: 7:00 - 9:00 PM on Saturday, June 16

HOW:  Take North Main Avenue to West Market Street and go uphill. Park on Market Street or in the parking lot behind the theatre. The entrance is from the back and on an upper story - you'll be climbing a hill and crossing a bridge. Admission is $4.00 - that works out to a dollar a reader!

Please come if you can! You won't be disappointed!

Story seeds

I mentioned in a previous post that I have some story ideas bouncing around that I have never really worked on. I decided to sketch them out in a post on my secret writing blog, just one- or two-sentence summaries that will help me remember the stories in case I forget. At this moment I have seven of these story summaries jotted down - I keep remembering stories that have been on the back burner for months, or even years. Now that I am thinking about these stories again, ideas for fleshing them out are coming to me. Best of all: ideas and details that don't quite fit one story can possibly be made to fit another! Some of these stories may even get combined, or may be made to fit into a single, unified story world, with consistent details of society, politics, and the state of the economy.

Remember, you have two chances to hear me read some of my stories and poems in the next few weeks! On Thursday, May 31 I'll be reading at the release party for the Spring/Summer 2016 edition of the literary magazine Word Fountain at the Osterhout Library, 71 South Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre, PA starting at 6:00 PM.

Then on Saturday, June 16 I will be one of the featured readers at the Writers' Showcase Summer Edition, held from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM at the Olde Brick Theatre at 126 West Market Street (rear entrance, over the bridge) in Scranton, PA. Admission is $4.00, and refreshments will be provided.

I hope to see you at either or both of these events!