MCD in SF

Fall 2008 Douglass Street Lab Starts 8/26

2008-07-19T16:56:58Z

Douglass Street Writing Laboratory Fall Session

On a roll with your writing? Need a shot in the arm? Have you been procrastinating? Need some structure? Fun?

Fiction, Creative Non, and Beyond
A Creative Writing Laboratory

When: 8 consecutive Tuesdays, starting August 26th, 2008.
What time: 7-9:30pm.
Where: A spacious private home near both the Castro and Noe Valley with easy parking and access to MUNI.
Cost: $375.00

Intimate writing laboratory (a place to research, experiment, measure, review, and revise) for all levels.

Experienced writers should expect to build upon their craft skills and deepen their characterizations.

"Beginners" should expect to learn a useful, creative writing vocabulary and to experience how precision, concreteness, expansiveness, and generosity work together to form compelling and scintillating prose.

All should expect to take their work, but not themselves, seriously (plan to have fun in an environment that will be at once focused and relaxed).

Non-writer-identified folks, avid readers, and creative artists (actors, dancers, musicians, etc.) are welcomed, encouraged to attend.

Class Size: 8-12 people.

Notes:

You will not be responsible to write written feedback for your peers. Reading/feedback will take place in "the lab" and there will be the option of posting and responding online in between sessions.

The Douglass Lab is also home to a cat, should that be relevant to you.

More about Douglass St. Lab.
Testimonials
Registration Form
Paypal
Join Douglass Street Lab Mailing List:

Fall 2008 Douglass Street Lab Registration Form

2008-07-19T07:49:14Z

Please Cut and Paste this into a Word Document or an email and email it to matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com

DATES OFPROGRAM: 8 consecutiveTuesdays, starting August 26^th 2008; 7-9:30pm. The last class isscheduled for 10/14/08*.

Cost:$375; $100 non-refundable administration fee, $275 workshop cost.

DATE:

YOUR INFO:

NAME:

ADDRESS:

TelephoneNumber:

Email:

EMERGENCY CONTACTINFORMATION:

NAME:

RELATIONSHIP:

TELEPHONE NUMBER:

Policies:

- Allfees are due and payable on or before August 26^th, 2008. Space isguaranteed after payment.

- Workshopfees ($275.00) are refundable if cancellation is made 2 weeks prior (by 8/12/08).

Half of the workshop fees ($137.50)are refundable if cancellation is made 1 week prior (by 8/19/08).

(With less than one weekcancellation refunds will be only be made at the discretion of thefacilitator.)

- *Anycancelled classes on the part of the facilitator due to illness oremergency will be made up for in the following two Tuesdays (10/21/08 and/or10/28/08).

- Noticeby email will be given in the event of cancel/reschedule. In the event that thefacilitator fails to hold a class or reschedule by email, participants will beentitled to a refund 1/8 of total fees, including administration fee ($47).

- Inthe unlikely event that the meeting place needs to change, participants will begiven 24-hour notice.

- Neitherfacilitator nor owner of the private residence where the classes take placewill assume any responsibility for any injury incurred.

NOTE: There is a cat at the residence. While it is alarge, airy space, and no interaction is necessary, please consider this priorto enrolling if you have allergies or other animal concerns.

Please email this form to matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com and pay using PAYPAL

account matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com.

By emailing this form, Named participant has accepted and agreed to the policies above.

Back In SF

2008-07-18T21:16:48Z

How quickly a month goes by! I had an incredible time in New York. I wrote and wrote and wrote, which was the point of the trip this year. Last year I was there to research. It was bit of a battle at times to stay in and write because it's New York. No matter how much The City called, I really needed to hunker down at the laptop. But do not feel sorry for me. I mean, look at my desk:

That's where I spent a lot of daytime this year. In NY I'm usually out from morning to night. I usually meet a friend for breakfast, then go to a museum, then grab a falafel and head to the park or the piers, then I meet another friend for dinner and a show and then dancing. This time I'd only socialize after I'd logged my four hours. Sometimes I'd do that at home (above) and sometimes at a cafe. It depended on my mood. And logging four hours on the stopwatch--of actually moving forward in the novel--sometimes took 10 hours! That's because every time I went back to find a previously written scene; or each time I went online to research something; or to grab a sandwich or pour an iced coffee or to stretch; the clock went off. Still, I managed to do and see a fair amount; almost achieving the four hours a day for thirty days I'd set as an ideal goal for myself. I was in bed most nights by midnight and up every morning at 7. Lots of these pictures are taken after 7pm, even the ones with great light. This small sampling should give you an idea of what it was like this year. And for that particular person who said I should have some pictures of myself on my blog, here you go:

(above) Yoga at midnight in SoHo after seeing Arias with a Twist. (More yoga in unlikely places later.)

John took this one. More SoHo photo fun. The best pic ever taken of me, I think. It seriously seems to capture something.

In this one I'm talking to Mark back home while taking a pic of my reflection in the window of KMart. Notice the Mud Truck behind me. YUM! I was on my way to DOMA to write that day, probably.

Jess, Anne-E, Me, and Tom. The Performing Arts Workshop crew one night at Greg and Michael's (in front of an incredible painting at the other end of "my desk" (which is Michael and Greg's dining room table)) before taking on the East Village and introducing the folks there to our improvisational dance moves.

That's Michael. We had so much fun that night with the folks from PAW. He's the world's best host and co-cook and friend. I miss him already.

That's me above in the bathroom at the Dance Theater Workshop where my friend John and I saw Dance by Neil Greenberg (incredible!) and later had dinner with Neil and his partner. They were a delight. I lost my favorite had that night (pictured above) after putting it in the sleeve of my sports coat while at dinner and then forgetting about it while carrying the jacket home. (You only need a jacket for air conditioned buildings in NY in June/July).

The light that night in Chelsea was breathtaking...

...so a lot of people were just hanging out...

... including John and me...(John is a brilliant fiction writer and poet. I heard him read one of the first nights I was there.)

I'm obsessed with taking pictures of graffiti. My computer's memory is full because of how many I have from everywhere I go.

...

...see?

and that one is me with graffiti (and a psychotic look on my face!).

I never wrote in or drank anything from Starbucks while in NY...how could I with the Mud Truck so nearby? But I did use the bathroom at Starbs once and saw this. I thought it was hilarious. Is that for when they say the price for an iced mochacino? (Whatever that is??)

I'll let you interpret the above picture as you will.

I love New York's aura. This was taken while waiting for Farhad at Waverly Place and 6th Ave...

Some would argue that New York is (above)...It's actually a building where a gallery show we were supposed to see was housed but for some reason it was closed. We looked at the show through the window.

Above is one show we did see. The New York Waterfalls, a grand exhibition by artist Olafur Eliasson. It was raining that night and it was magical to see the waterfalls through the waterfalls. It's worth clicking on the artist's statement. You can find it by clicking on that last link.

Above are Carmine, Michael, and my cuz Greg, who put together an unforgettable last night together in the city. We went to see Edward Albee's The Occupant with Mercedes Reuhl and then dinner at The Union Square Cafe.

As promised, more yoga at arguably innaporpriate places. I don't know what it is about a marble circle that makes me want to do a backbend, but it happens every time. This was at The Winter Garden, at the World Financial Center, completely rebuilt now after the damage on 9/11. It was the first time I'd been to ground zero.

So much space...That pic was taken my last day in the city. I had to catch a 7pm flight and wanted to get in as much as possible. The day included a walk through the West Village, the Piers, Battery Park City, SoHo, Tribeca, and then back to the East Village.

If you look above the tree in the background of this shot, you can see my girlfriend. :) I hope you enjoyed the pics. Stay tuned for an update on my upcoming private writing workshop back in SF.

Firefly and the Second Annual NY Trip

2008-06-27T06:01:44Z

Sometimes work feels like work. And sometimes it feels like this:

This is a photo of one of the locations where I've been absolutely blessed to be able to write this summer, thanks to the kindness and generosity of Greg and Michael. They've both worked incredibly hard, for years, and are now able to share their good fortune with their family and friends.

This is Firefly, Greg and Michael's place in Connecticut. I arrived in New York on a Thursday night. We had dinner together. I got up and got right to writing on Friday. When Greg returned from work, we headed to the West Village to their favorite butcher shop for chops and steaks to throw on the grill. Then we headed out of town.

The above picture shows one of the locations I used to write on Saturday and Sunday. The one below shows the view from the window where I sat until I finished my four hours.

And here's where I got to cool off after exercising:

And on last pic. This one is in memory of Jupiter, whose company and intensely joyful spirit is deeply missed.

Next update will include some photos from The City. Now time to get back to the writing.

Summer is Here

2008-06-13T05:03:58Z

Summer is Here.

It's been quite an incredible (academic) year.

Greetings from New York City!

This academic year has been so jam packed with two very busy semesters of teaching at SFSU where the vast majority of the students I worked with inspired me and each other into writing deeper and more interesting fiction. Then there were two runs of the Douglass Street Lab (see posts), the 1-Day Characterization Lab, an incredible year as Artist Mentor at Performing Arts Workshop, and work on the novel! I was also lucky enough to get out on the town this year, see theater, symphony, live music, art shows, and literary readings. With all that, I haven't had time to blog about all of what I've seen/heard/read. I miss using the blog to reflect on what stimulates me artistically, but something has to give, right?

After two splendid weeks of house/cat/garden-sitting for my friend Douglass St. Lab Host Marc, I spent 24 hours in my apartment, essentially unloading my bag from his house into my suitcase. Now I'm back with Greg and Michael and the dogs in New York to work on my novel. I know for sure that I'm the luckiest person alive. When I finish Letters to the Dead it will feel like a collaboration because of their generosity and hospitality...not only in giving me a place to live in The East Village, but for their kind nurturing and availing themselves endlessly for my research.

I know from experience that it's not necessary to get away from your day-to-day life in order to write. Having the opportunity, however, is a gift. When I get away to write, something shifts, I'm able to land in the world of my stories. This is true even when I go to a library, a park, a cafe.

This weekend I'm headed to Connecticut, where Greg and Michael have a house in the country. I'm not promising that I'll be able to blog like I did last year, because I'm on such a strict writing schedule while I'm here. I'm using a stopwatch to write, turning it off each time I go outside of the novel for any reason. While writing, everything is off: cell phone, email, and internet. I'm on a 4-hour a day 7-day per week writing schedule. If you're curious, you can read the July and August 2007 entries on the blog. Here's a link to the pictures of their apartment in Manhattan.

More soon!

The Lab

2008-05-28T17:10:20Z

Fiction, Creative-Non, and Beyond...

Private writing labs with Matthew Clark Davison

ABOUT MY PRIVATE WRITING LABS:

Over the course of nearly 10 years of teaching Creative Writing at SF State and consulting one-on-one with authors, I've often been asked, "When are you going to teach a private writing class?"

Former students who had finished their formal study of creative writing still yearned for writing prompts and reading assignments to keep their writing going for the long haul. They wanted a casual place where they could commune with other writerly types without being bogged down with the traditional commitment of reading and critiquing dozens of pages in a traditional workshop.

People I knew with families and/or 9-5 jobs and artists in other disciplines also expressed interest in a private class. Not for the goal of publishing a book, necessarily, but to explore creative writing as a form of artistic expression.

Once I started working as an Artist Mentor at Performing Arts Workshop, I paid attention to how electric the group dynamic can be when creative people of multiple disciplines and backgrounds come together to talk about art.

So "The Lab" is "a place to experiment with prose" targeted to "people who love words." This turns out to be a much broader and dynamic category than those who consider themselves writers. The work and conversations generated in the first two 8-week sessions of "The Douglass Street Lab" have been exhilarating and inspiring.

email me to sign up for the 8-week lab starting early in September. matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com

Here's a link to a previous entry on Douglass Street & here are some of the quotes we considered on week 1 of the most recent session:

“Fear is not your enemy, it’s your energy—let it make you freer, bigger. Let them see your hand shake as you reach out.” –Amy Freed

“I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side.” —Audre Lorde

Pictures of The Douglass Street Lab:

AFTER I STARTED DOUGLASS STREET IN CAME A NEW REQUEST:

Lots of people were interested in this concept of The Labs, but not all could commit to 8-weeks. "Why not teach 1-day mini-Labs in addition to the 8-week-sessions?"

So I took the suggestion and tried it out. The first one was a lot of fun and GREAT writing came out of the prompts.

Here's the info on 1-Day-1, the first Min-Lab. It should give you an idea of the tone of the day:

"It is my belief that all good prose starts with compelling characters. Everything: plot, setting, and point-of-view springs forth from the particular fears, wants, needs, and desires of our characters."

Consider the following quotes:

“There is no crime of which I cannot conceive myself guilty.” –Goethe

"The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented. It is that crossed border (the border beyond which my own “I” ends) which attracts me most. For beyond that border begins the secret the novel asks about. This novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become."-Milan Kundera

"Unless we are willing to escape into sentimentality or fantasy, often the best we can do with catastrophes, even our own, is to find out exactly what happened and restore some of the missing parts" –Norman Maclean

"Sometimes the smallest details of another person’s daily struggle threaten to destroy us. We avert our gaze because sympathy forces us to recognize the fragility of our human bodies and our human spirits." –Melanie Rae Thon

This Lab will help us begin to find our own "unrealized possibilities" to "restore some of the missing parts" and focus "our gaze" on that process without averting our eyes.

STRUCTURE:

After coffees and hellos (starting at 9:30) we'll work for 3 hours.

Half-hour Lecture/Discussion on Topic
Half-hour write.
15 minute Break.
Half-hour continuation of Lecture/Discussion
Half-Hour Write.
45 minutes: Read. Discuss. Brainstorm for development.

The first 1-Day Lab was at Performing Arts Workshop. Check out the space:

Now imagine the same space with 10 people sitting around a huge table in uber-comfortable chairs for our discussions...and then wondering off to a plush sectional couch or into a mini-office to respond to writing prompts.

Hopefully, I will be doing another 1-day lab at PAW in August and the next 8-week Lab on Douglass St. will happen in September. Please email me for early-registration information. matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Matthew

Upcoming Events

2008-05-27T09:35:22Z

“DOUGLASS READS 2”
TUESDAY MAY 27th
6:30-8:00 pm
Last Laugh Cafe
1551 Dolores St. between 29th St. and Valley
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 824-5524

Members of the Spring Session of “Douglass St. Lab,” the intimate private writing laboratory I facilitate, invite you to an evening of discoveries at The Last Laugh Café in The Mission/Noe Valley.

"The Lab" which focuses on the prose experiment, is named after the street where the group meets. "Douglass Reads 2" will feature short shots from the works-in-progress of:

Steve Dershimer
Diane Glazman
Jennifer Hasegawa
Rick Richman
Anne Trickey
Mark Rubnitz
Brad Straw &
John Yi of Dublit

Please come by. The Last Laugh offers food, caffeine, beer and wine. The vibe will be more sunny than somber. We are people who take our work—but not ourselves—seriously.

Fourteen Hills Spring 2008 Release Party
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Bollyhood Café
3372 19th Street
Additional info
hills@sfsu.edu
Free event!

Join us for the spring release of Fourteen Hills vol. 14.2, an international literary magazine that publishes innovative poetry, fiction, short plays, and literary nonfiction. Fourteen Hills is committed to presenting a diversity of experimental and progressive work by emerging and cross-genre writers, as well as award-winning and established writers.

Readers include: Randall Mann, Mira Pasikov, and Laura Schadler . More artists to be announced!

There will be many one-of-a-kind raffle prizes, including tickets to a Giants baseball game. Raffle tickets will be available at the door.

Please come support your local literary journal as we celebrate with excellent food, tasty drinks and talented writers!

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MY PRIVATE WORKSHOPS, INCLUDING MY May 24th 1-day CHARARACTER LAB, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN....

Spring Check In and Upcoming Workshops

2008-05-27T09:56:19Z

Greetings from the life of a working writer in San Francisco.

Seems like just yesterday I was blogging from New York and here it is time for me to buy my tickets to go back this summer! A full year later?

About my novel: SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS! The Fall Semester made the day-to-day writing a challenge...but the books and stories I read and what I learned from my students ended up proving invaluable yet again.

Is the novel going to be finished according to the schedule I proposed for the grant? No. But it is simmering at its own pace. All I need to keep truckin' is a bit of progress.

The reading series also ended up being such an effective way to keep working and revising. I made sure never to read the same thing twice--and I also tried, when possible, to pull from the novel scenes set in the neighborhoods where I read. It's odd to read from a work-in-progress, but I recommend it. It takes the often-heard suggestion of reading aloud to a whole new level. I was really able to hear the places that need work (reading in front of an audience is a great way to experience what needs to be cut!). I was also able to see in their faces when they were connecting.

About The Lab: The Winter Session of Douglass Street Lab was a sheer delight. These ten writers/artists/word-nerds created a camaraderie that fostered risk-taking (and therefore growth). The reading at Bollyhood was a blast. The Spring Lab just met for the first session of 8 Sessions this last Tuesday. We dug right into the writing--using the concept of fear as the opening topic.

These were a couple of the quotes we considered:

“Fear is not your enemy, it’s your energy—let it make you freer, bigger. Let them see your hand shake as you reach out.” –Amy Freed

“I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side.” —Audre Lorde

If you're interested in my Fall 2008 Lab, it will be starting in September. Email me at matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com with Lab List as the subject of the email and I'll keep you informed as it develops.

May first ever 1-day Drop-In Lab is upcoming. lt will focus on Characterization--imagining believable AND interesting characters. (So many books about prose concentrate on Believability as if it's the only goal in effective characterization. Boring can be believable. I don't want mere believability. I want fascinating, complicated, irresistible characters, don't you?)

We'll meet for 3 hours on a Saturday late morning.

Half-hour Lecture/Discussion on Topic
Half hour write.
15 minute Break.
Half hour continuation of Lecture/Discussion
Half Hour Write.
45 minutes: Read. Discuss. Brainstorm for development.

Email me if this seems interesting to you.

UPCOMING DATES: Please save May 21st for The Upcoming Reading for Fourteen Hills Issue 14.2. I'm so excited that one of my favorite poets, Randall Mann, whose next book is coming out from University of Chicago Press, is going to be featured in the issue--and he's scheduled to read.

The reading will also be at Bollyhood Cafe in the Mission at 7pm.

More later!

Here Comes Everybody, A Reading at Adobe Books March 7th

2008-02-15T09:20:50Z

Here Comes Everybody
A reading with writers
Matthew Clark Davison & Stephen Elliott
with musical guest Pocket Shelley

Friday March 7th
7pm-8pm
Adobe Books
3166 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

I'm excited about this one because the LitQuake version of this reading (see pics here:End of the Year Approaching) was really fun and I've never read with Stephen Elliot. I sometimes teach one of stories. It's called "Long Distance." It appeared in Vol. 7 No. 2 of Fourteen Hills and in new standards the first decade of fiction at 14 Hills anthology, both available at Small Press Distribution. I recently heard Stephen read at The Sex Workers Art Show, which was a great night of storytelling entertainment. Also, my character Janis from my NIP (novel-in-progress) is surprisingly moved by a song by Pocket Shelly and says so in the book. The song is Half Moon Bay. Check it out with the links below. Hope to see you there.

Stephen Elliott is a former stripper and the author of six books including Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lion Award as well as a best book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, the Journal News, and the Village Voice. In addition to writing fiction he frequently writes on politics. In 2004 he wrote Looking Forward To It, about the quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination. His most recent book is an almost all true sexual memoir called My Girlfriend Comes To The City And Beats Me Up. Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and is a member of the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. He is also the founder of The Progressive Reading Series which helps authors raise money and participate on behalf of progressive candidates across the country. www.stephenelliott.com

Pocket Shelley is an ongoing project of songwriter Michael C. Mullen. His latest CD, "Small Illuminations in a Darkening Sky" (2006) was produced by Tim Mooney of American Music Club. Among his current projects, Michael has been creating and recording musical adaptions of works by his favorite poets (Ashbery, O'Hara, Pound, etc.), which he hopes to release as "Pocket Shelley's Golden Treasury of Well-Thumbed Poems." His next CD, "Glockenspiel and Other Love Songs, Part I: Glockenspiel" has been completed and will be released in 2008, with "Part II: Ukulele" due in 2009. With novelist Adam Klein, Michael has written songs for the bands Glasstown, Roman Evening and The Size Queens, who were recently chosen to provide music for the "pedagogical concept album" Our Literal Speed (http://www.ourliteralspeed.com), a series of art criticism conferences being held in Karlsruhe (Germany), Chicago and Los Angeles, sponsored by the University of Chicago and the Getty Research Institute. http://cdbaby.com/cd/pocketshelley and http://www.myspace.com/pocketshelley.

Save The Dates

2008-02-15T09:29:41Z

Here are some upcoming events. I hope you'll join me.

March 4th, Tuesday:

“DOUGLASS READS”

7-8:30 pm
Bollyhood Cafe
3372 19th Street @ Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

“Douglass,” a private writing laboratory, focusing on the prose experiment, invites you to an evening of discoveries at Bollywood Café in the Mission.

Named after the street where the group meets, "Douglass" will feature short shots from the works-in-progress of:

Laura Camp

Candyce Choi

Steve Deshimer

Donna Duffy

Mollie Kazan

Mark Rubnitz

Stephanie Schenkel

Don Simms

Anne Trickey

Please come by. Bollyhood offers great food and drinks. The vibe will be more sunny than somber. We are people who take our work—but not ourselves—seriously.

ALSO:

DOUGLASS is now taking reservations for its Spring Session. 8 consecutive Tuesdays Starting April 1st 7-9:30 pm. Email me if you'd like details.

***

Wednesday March 5th

14 Hills Spring Fundraiser
7pm The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University
Humanities Building, 5th Floor
1600 Holloway Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94132

featuring an evening of Creative Non Fiction with:
Terese Svoboda and
Toni Mirosevich

10 dollars (all proceeds benefit the longevity of one of SF's most treasured national literary magazines) or FREE WITH SUBSCRIPTION.

Stormy Weather

2008-02-13T10:59:26Z

Happy New Year.

Look at the San Francisco Sky on the last day of 2007:

I took those shots walking home from Wallgreens after giving up on a search for the "right" black shoelaces for my New Year's Eve sneakers. Aren't they incredible? (The color of the sky, not black shoelaces). The church in the one pic appears in LETTERS TO THE DEAD.

My getaway writing weekend plans have been thwarted by Mother Nature. My Guerneville trip will have to wait. I'd planned on going in the rain, but the cabin I rented called. No electricity or hot water and falling branches in the woods. At first I thought, well, I'm into "Setting as Kinetic Landscape" (which is how Michelle Carter talks about "place" in fiction), and I thought I'll just make the storm work for Janis. But I can't make anything work if I'm knocked out by a redwood branch. I'd really wanted to do some serious hiking and pay visits to the ocean as well...so it's best that I wait.

Meanwhile, mark your calander for the event below, it's the last of my scheduled readings in association with The Cultural Equities Grant:

JANUARY 16, 2008

SMACK DAB

Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 7:30 pm signup, 8 pm show

SMACK DAB : an open stage hosted by Kirk Read and Larry-bob Roberts.

Featured: Matthew Davison and Allen Young (showing a film on Butterworth Farm, the 35-year old rural gay community where he lives.)

All ages, all genders, all the time.

If you'd like to perform at the open mic, please bring five minutes or less of your unsolicited advice, writing, music, dance, performance, cooking suggestions or whatever it is you want to share. Musicians, one song. Prose writers: that's about two and a half double spaced pages of prose.

At Magnet, the queer neighborhood health center, 4122 18th Street between Castro and Collingwood.
magnetsf.org

Free.

Allen Young, gay author and journalist, who holds a masters degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, left a reporter's position at the Washington Post in 1967 at age 26 to become involved in the anti-war "underground press." He later became a gay activist/journalist, part of the post-Stonewall gay liberation movement launched by the New York Gay Liberation Front in 1969. With fellow GLFer Karla Jay, he wrote and edited four books, including "Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation." He then moved to North Central Massachusetts as part of the "back-to-the-land" movement, taking a job as reporter for a local daily newspaper. His most recent book -- his 13th -- is a collection of articles written for that newspaper and the Valley Advocate, entitled "Make Hay While the Sun Shines: Farms, Forests and People of the North Quabbin." Now retired, he remains involved in the gay movement on a local level, cultivates a large vegetable and flower garden, and participates in a regional land trust dedicated to protecting farms and forests.

The Red Room, Old Theaters, and Writing

2007-12-31T14:59:08Z

I was staring at the ceiling of my gym yesterday after an hour of jump rope and yoga. I took even took a picture of the ceiling from where I was lying on my back:

My gym is at the old Alhambra movie theater, which opened in 1926. It used to look like this:

Not only am I inspired by the flamboyant Moorish architecture, but in the late 80s when I moved to San Francisco, you could smoke in the balcony while watching art house movies (such bliss!). At first I was disgusted that a gym (A GYM!) was going into one of San Francisco's historical art landmarks...one of the last of its kind...but in fact, the place has been completely preserved (unlike many of the other beautiful art house theaters that once existed in San Francisco). In fact, they've done maintenance on it, improving its beauty while insuring its longevity without changing its structure or original details. At least in the building itself. The movie seats are gone. In their place are treadmills and barbells. And the old projection room is a yoga studio. And, truth is, a yoga studio and cardio equipment is much more in line with my current lifestyle. As much of a match for me now as the smoking section in the balcony was in the late 80s.

I love finishing my workout and then lying on my back, breathing, getting lost in the ceiling's design. Often I gaze at the stars and get ideas about new directions for my novel or other creative projects.

My job after that is to actually get home and write. It doesn't always happen. The demands of being a lover-of-life and organic food means I need to make a living. It requires discipline and determination I sometimes lack to make sure I work on my own writing as much as I take care of students, clients, the blog, or any number of other things. To that end, a friend sent me a link to The Red Room. I've been hearing about it for a long time. They offer a bunch of different services, so check out the site. They seem to share my philosophy that the number one block writers have isn't something about their childhood or their first teacher who told them they sucked. It's that they don't actually sit down to write. In my private classes, I always make sure writers have time to write, not just polish their bull-she-ite about what they think about writing.

Apparently so does The Red Room. I might just go and do one of their intensives when I get back from my self-imposed Russian River writing exile. This is from their site. I think it's brilliant:

A class or instruction on writing…is not writing.

Group therapy for blocked writers…good, but isn’t writing.

Attending interesting lectures about writing…is not writing.

Reading books, about writing or anything else…is not writing.

Networking with editors or publishers…is not writing.

Making friends with other writers…is not writing.

Completing writing "exercises"…is not writing.

Discussing published or unpublished work…is not writing.

Learning about writers, writing, the industry…is not writing.

Attending a peer critique writing group…is not writing.

Getting feedback on your unfinished work…is not writing.

Talking about your writing or writing ideas…definitely not writing.

Feeling guilty all week for not writing…is not writing.

Attending a Red Room Writers Studio…is you actually writing.

And if one historical theater wasn't enough for me to write about today, tonight I'm going to see Sandra Bernhard at The Castro Theater to ring in The New Year. I hope it's fun.

Winter Wonderland

2007-12-31T12:53:17Z

Brrr...

It's freezing in San Francisco right now. At least for San Francisco. I used to live at the base of The Swiss Alps. It was warmer there in February than it is riding on my motorcycle past sundown in San Francisco.

Still, I love it. Yesterday I hung out in Hayes Valley. The picture above is the corner of Hayes and Octavia.

This one from a parking lot off Hayes closer to Gough.

After looking at cool shoes and eighty dollar tee shirts for a while, I settled at Cafe La Vie where I stayed for hours reading and commenting on manuscripts. The young woman there was very kind to me as I struggled to figure out how to get online with my handheld Windows device. Now I'm half way through my pile of finals that I'm reading from last semester. Some of my students blew me away with their creativity. It's amazing how the careful consideration of craft can enable a writer to bridge that gap between what they love to read and what they're able to write. Today I start on the Characterization finals.

I'm getting ready to head up north for a couple of days to visit the coastline and spend some time in The Russian River valley. Janis, the protagonist in my novel, who looks something like this:

(I've been seeing this graffiti artist around town a lot...and this one almost always stops me in my tracks)

...(continued from above:) spent part of many summers there as a kid (as did I...and I have barely been back since). I need to do some research. I'm also really looking forward to being in a little cabin with a desk and a fireplace and no cell phone reception for four days and three nights.

I've spent the morning preparing for Start Your New Year Off Write. A Creative Writing Laboratory and trying to decide where to send excerpts of the novel for publication while I work on it. I finally decided to send one piece to a place where one of my favorite writers, Terese Svoboda, often places her work. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Happy Holidays and More Soon.

Start Your New Year Off Write. A Creative Writing Laboratory

2008-02-16T14:57:39Z

Start Your New Year Off Write

Questions? email me: matthew@matthewclarkdavison.com