Post-Humanist. Post-Colonial. Post-Modern. Post-Industrial. Post-Traumatic. Post-Punk. Post-Mortem. Post-Moral. Post-Vegan. Post-Feminist. Post-Pagan. Post-Coital. Post-Structural. Post-Rational. Post-Ideology. Post-Apocalypse. Post-Millennial. Post-Bicentennial. Post-Bipartisan. Post-Partem. Post-Pragmatic. Post-Didactic. Post-Reactive. Post-Creative. Post-Outdated. Post-Carl Sagan. Post-Post-Pagan. Post-Degraded. Post-Unstated. Post-Untreated. Post-Defeated. Post-Preen. Post-Toasties. Post-Luck. Post-Plot. Post-Pattycake. Post-Plummet. Post-Teal.

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UPCOMING EVENTS  ::  Okay! Got a few things comin ups… Foist: Workshops! I’ll be doing these every month or two under my new Praxis Fix moniker. There will be two, each for all levels and all genres, despite the scary descriptions you’re about to read. The first, on Sunday, July 13, is ULTRA-GENERATIVE, three hours of focused and challenging language generation utilizing my patented, um, intimidation? The second is a week later on Sunday, July 20, and will focus on CONCENTRIC CRITIQUE, designed to elicit incisive and effective comments on your work. I’d tell you more but it’s patented (hahahaha).  ::  Then a couple of readings. I’m hosting one called I Need A New Pledge (guess what that’s about) at Beast Aid, the fundraising weekend for Oakland’s own Beast Crawl Literary Festival on July 26-27. Click on the link for lots of info on that mini-fest.  ::  And finally a real, live reading at Live Worms Gallery in North Beach on Saturday, August 9 with Keith Gaboury, Kazue Watanabe, and Natasha Dennerstein. Word!  ::  As always, deets for all this and more on the Events page.

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Once everything is gone, deleted, retracted, diminished, eliminated, deconstructed, disregarded, and disenchanted, what do we have left? Ourselves, whatever that is. Our glass-bottom selves. And what do we do then? You tell me. All right, how bout we start with a party, just to loosen things up a bit. A camp fire. A dance floor. A bunch of pots to bang on. That ought to get us started. Afterward we can get some sleep, get up, get our shit together, and build a new world, from scratch if we have to. But wait a minute – do we have to? Build a new world, that is. I know some people say we’re the builders of the world, but others say we’re the gazers of the stars. Which is it? You know, it’s a nice day. We have some time. Maybe before we start digging things up again, we should ask the grass what they think.

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REFLECT  ::  NAGOSHI NO HARAE, Pinole, CA, June 30, 2025

On the last day of June I attended a marvelous ceremony at Bayfront Park in Pinole, CA. This was Nagoshi No Harae, a Shinto half-year cleansing ceremony, and though I’m sure there’s more to it than that, I certainly got that much from it and more. I was invited by my friend Ko Ueda of Sakura Ren Dance Company (check them out). This event was organized and led by Tomi Nagai-Rothe, pictured stepping through the wreath, and included several members of Sakura Ren and friends. We met in the parking lot and each received three pieces of colored tissue paper on which we could write things that we would like to let go of. We walked onto a footbridge that spanned Pinole Creek just before it emptied into the SF Bay. Then, convivially with everyone chatting, we tossed our unwanted facets into the creek, said goodbye, and watched them drift toward the open bay. To exit the bridge and the ceremony, we were asked to step through a leafy wreath and into the rest of the year. Reading about this after, I learned that the wreath is traditionally crafted of hay, and that there is a certain way that one steps through it. Whether anyone did in fact employ those steps, and I’m sure some did, I didn’t notice at the time and simply ducked through with a little hop and a coo of pleasure. I’ve posted a couple of very short videos of the experience; you can see the drifting papers here, and the egress from the bridge here. Afterward I was invited to a splendid potluck at the home of Flora Ninomiya, a gracious and fascinating woman who grows all the roses in the world.

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And what’s so bad about starting from scratch, starting from nothing, even when it’s forced on you? You might say, I worked hard for what I had, and that’s true. And how the mind struggles with change, with loss, so many tumbles, so many blind corners, and at times one just wants to stop. Okay! So stop. But chances are you’ll want to start up again sometime soon. In which case you might want to have a nice carafe of water on hand that you can sip from frequently, because water moves things and water is you. Go on, try it. Have a sip. Because eventually that frontal lobe will get to sparking, thinking your way into the next world, and you want to be loosey-goosey when it does. There’s rarely been a better time in the United States for the Brit prescription “Keep Calm & Carry On” from the good old days of World War II. To that I might add, if I may, Keep Calm and Drink Water.

REFLECT  ::  GARDEN OF MEMORY AT CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES, Oakland, CA, June 21, 2025

Had a terrific and often mesmerizing four hours at the Garden of Memory, the annual show of new music at Chapel of the Chimes columbarium in Oakland. Garden of Memory happens every year on the Summer Solstice, and presents dozens of unique musical acts scattered through the gorgeous and labyrinthine architecture of Chapel of the Chimes. It’s easily one of my favorite Bay Area events and I always leave changed in one way or another. This year I caught the magic of Sidney Chen with his music box performing a variety of sounds, including, among others,  Björk and Bach (you can watch some of the Bach here); Randy Porter and Friends (watch here); Duo B: Lisa Mezzacappa & Jason Levis jamming drums and double bass; ROVA Saxophone Quartet (watch here); and the other- and very-worldly Kitka, among others. One of the highlights each year is that everyone in this amazingly acoustic space, which would be a couple thousand people, rings bells through the nine minutes of sunset. Levitational! Recommended to check out if you’re ever near Oakland on the Summer Solstice (and be sure to buy tickets in advance). 

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And who says we have to build, build, build like hopped-up beavers? Some part of our dumb beaver brain? Not exactly, since beavers build what they need – extravagantly, at times, as they create ingenious and elaborate lodges which provide comfortable living space while protecting them from predators. On top of that, their dams generally expand the wetland ecosystem in which they thrive. Do humans do that? Maybe, if you consider surviving in crowded, polluted urbania dense with stress and madness to be a manner of thriving. Some may argue that we do only build what we need, assuming of course that everyone who possibly can will need their own mansions (and we really can’t have enough blowdryers, can we). The fundamental question is, will humanity ever be broken enough to flip us into a post-gluttonous mentality? One in which our needs are redesigned around, say, trust, commonality, and cooperation, or are we too well-trained to slaver for more, more, more? Have we become too rigid as a species to bend? The thing is, our brains are all about bending – it’s a matter of survival – it’s how we invented beaver dams and lodges, and coral reefs, and whale song, and beehives, and the Lyceum. So maybe we only need things to be broken enough for a majority to realize that capitalism and our current way of life is in fact a threat to our survival. To take that one step further and help things along, maybe, just maybe, after that nice cool drink of water, we should go out and break some things. Just a thought.

Sincerely,
Richard

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