Courtesy of BoingBoing. This is a great depiction of why I avoid the news at all costs, and why I argue my pride in avoiding it with other creatives who rely on the news for inspiration. There is plenty of darkness within our minds and everyday lives to inspire me that I simply don’t need the constant inundation of worldly destruction that the news offers, and which is depicted so wonderfully and whimsically here. Same shit, different day. We  humans love the end of the world.

Upcoming 826 Valencia workshop: Conversations With The World

Eric Myers and I will be hosting/teaching an upcoming 4-day workshop on creative writing at 826 Valencia in San Francisco. The main purpose behind this workshop is the art of the process: teaching children (and eventually adults) the value of a process for capturing creativity and honing it into a sharp blade. Enjoy!

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Conversations with the World

Taught by Scott Lambridis and Eric Myers
Limited to 12 students, ages 11–14
September 4, 11, 18, & 25
Tuesdays, 6:00–8:00 PM

What do you think about what’s important in the world? Writing is not only a dialogue between yourself and the reader; it is a dialogue between yourself and the world. Taking regular headlines as our starting point, we will draw inspiration from the comic, tragic, complex world we inhabit. Working collaboratively, we will use everything from Web 2.0 software to scrapbooks to capture the building blocks of stories that are both entertaining and socially relevant. We will then use this mixed media collage to create stories that communicate our thoughts and concerns about life in the twenty-first century. The creative process will be archived in a digital journal for future use. Completed stories will be submitted for inclusion in 826’s Quarterly, published online in OLOGY magazine.

Cerrito Speakeasy artist-of-the-month, August ’08

The Cerrito Speakeasy contacted me about 8 months ago to be their August Artist-of-the-Month, based on the God’s Acre artwork (which features 3 artists and a musician). Twas a challenging hang, but with a few bits of fishing line and some big fat nuts to hang at the end, it came out pretty damn cool.

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Kevin Lottes - Dylan Days winner

He also suggested some lit journals to check out:

Shouting Fire interview

Shouting Fire radio invited yours truly to co-host a radio show hosted by Eric Myers. We played some tunes, and talked about all things Omnibucket and publishing and multimedia, and of course, the upcoming Book of CLAV. The show aired Friday 4/4 at 10am PST, 2PM PST, and 6PM PST.

Which does you no good because that is in the past. Damn Euclidian time.

However, Eric assured me that there will be a re-run (time unknown) and that he’s going to get me the recording of the show to post here. I’ll update when I available.

About Shouting Fire:

“Shouting Fire is a year-round platform for sound and vision that engages and amplifies the ethos of Black Rock City. Art, politics, and activism. Music, news, and interviews. Intentional noise from our enclaves around the world, noise to connect you to those you already know—and to those you didn’t know you were waiting to meet.” More >

Stream >

Creative Nonfiction seminar at 826 Valencia

I always enjoy an excuse to visit 826 Valencia, and this event was no different. The panel talked with and entertained questions by about 50 attendees. No ravishingly new information, which was actually nice. 

The panel of speakers, all being quite interesting characters:

Stephen Elliott, author of the memoir My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up, named best book of 2006 by The San Francisco Chronicle. Elliott was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford and is currently 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.

Po Bronson, author of five books, including the social documentary What Should I Do With My Life? His work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, and The Wall Street Journal. Bronson is also a founder of The San Francisco Writer’s Grotto, a cooperative workspace for writers and filmmakers.

Steve Almond, author of a novel, two collections of short stories, and two works of nonfiction, including the soon-to-be-released Not That You Asked, self-described as a collection of “rants, exploits, and obsessions.”
Mary Roach, author of Stiff:The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, a New York Times bestseller. Roach has also published many articles in GQ, Vogue, and The New York Times Magazine. She currently writes a humor column in Reader’s Digest and is a contributing editor for Discover magazine.

Beth Lisick, author of several stories, poems, and essays, including the New York Times nonfiction bestseller Everybody Into The Pool. She has also written, directed, and starred in a number of short films, including the internationally acclaimed Diving for Pearls. Lisick co-organizes the Porchlight Storytelling Series in San Francisco.

Alex Vernon is the author of two memoirs, most succinctly bred (2006) and The Eyes of Orion: Five Tank Lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War (1999; Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award), and two books of literary criticism, Soldiers Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O’Brien (2004) and the edited collection Arms and the Self: War, the Military, and Autobiographical Writing (2005). He teaches a variety of 20th century American literature courses, writing courses, and Creative Nonfiction at Hendrix College.