San Francisco Saturday Night

[susanstinson]

I'm going to miss Friday of the Femme Conference, but I'll be there most of the day on Saturday, and I think, some of Sunday.

beccawrites, I sent you an email last night, but got a message that delivery was delayed, so if you didn't get it, let me know! I was thinking, maybe lunch Saturday, if you're free?

I'm scheduled to be up second at the Saturday Evening Cabaret, which is at (correction) 9 pm at 12 Galaxies (free if you're at the conference; $15 if not).

I had a great big beat influence when I was first forming an identity as a writer, mainly because I was studying in Boulder, where the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics was run by Allen Ginsberg (among a bunch of other folks, I'm sure), and went to things like their conference for the 30th anniversary of the publication of On The Road. So many wild folks were there: Anne Waldman, Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, of course, Diane DiPrima, Gregory Corso, and Herbert Huncke, who the internet is snotty about, but whose stories made me cry. Oh, I think Robert Creeley was there, and I know Tom Clark was, well or he, sponsored by the university writing department and Ed Dorn, did a "this is not that conference" reading about Jack Kerouac, too.

Anyway, I know that most of those people aren't femmes, but part of what those influences gave me was a reverence for (but no direct knowledge of) San Francisco poetry cultures. It definitely influenced my reading style -- whether I'm reading poetry or fiction (I'll be reading from Venus of Chalk Saturday night) -- and my sense of reading as this vulnerable, alive and profound moment of connection with the people who are there, listening -- it feels kind of like an altered state to me -- but bookstores are much more home territory for me than bars are. And, there is, there is something about the context of a femme conference that, for me, anyway, seems to bring up traditional connotations of beauty, flashiness and struggles around that, for all that it's very clear that the organizers have critical analyses of those forces. Plus the mix of media -- literary fiction with burlesque performances. It's a lovely challenge, just frightening enough to be interesting, and when it's done, I want to drop back deeply into eighteenth century New England for a concentrated writing push. That might be hard, but it's very important to me.

All that by way of saying that I will very delighted to see you if come to the performance or if we run into each other at the conference.

Right now, though, I have trike to the laundromat to wash clothes for the trip. And, once I'm gone, I'll be away from lj until September or so.

PS And, does anybody have suggestion for a good, inexpensive place to swim laps near 24th and Guerrero in the Mission?

Comments

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I can't remember what it says (maybe Van Ness?) but it will go North on decreasing street numbers. 24th, 23rd, 22nd etc. You'll catch it on the east side of the street which is also the odd number address side.

hmmmmm, 20 minute ride once you catch it? something like that. It runs about every 12 minutes in the middle of the day.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

That's what I needed to know -- thanks a lot. I tried googling and never found the right site with bus schedules.