This and That

Manuel Ramos



TRINIDAD SÁNCHEZ, JR. MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
Regina Chávez y Sánchez has established a foundation in the name of the late poet, Trinidad Sánchez, Jr. A promotional flyer announces that several of Sánchez's books are available including Why Am I So Brown?, Jalapeño Blues, Poems by Father & Son, Compartiendo de la Nada, and Authentic Mexican Food is HOT! She notes that she is working on several unpublished manuscripts, developing a scholarship in Trinidad's name, and that she wants everyone to know her husband's "words and wisdom." You can get on her mailing list by contacting her at rchavezysanchez@hotmail.com, or writing to her at 827 Park Avenue West, Suite 203, Denver, CO 80205.


WORDS & MUSIC: A LITERARY FEAST IN NEW ORLEANS
Words & Music, 2007, opens November 14 and runs through November 18. The overall theme for 2007 is When Cultures Collide: The Fallout for Life and Literature. This event always features a stellar list of writers and on that list this year are Loida Maritza Pérez and Marie Arana. Pérez, a native of the Dominican Republic, is author of Geographies of Home (Viking, 1999). Arana, originally from Peru, is Editor of The Washington Post's review section Book World, and author of the novel Cellophane (Dial Press, 2006 ) and the memoir American Chica (Dial Press, 2001). For more about this event, click here.


MARTIN LIMÓN
Martin Limón continues his appearances in support of his latest Sueño and Bascom military whodunit, The Wandering Ghost (Soho Crime, 2007). He will read and sign at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ (James Doss is also on the program), on November 14 at 7:00 P.M., 4014 N. Goldwater Blvd., Suite 101; Murder by the Book, 2342 Bissonnet, Houston, TX, on November 15 at 6:30 P.M.; The Mystery Bookstore, 1036-C Broxton Avenue, Los Angeles, November 16 at 7:00 P.M.; and M is for Mystery, November 17, 1:30 P.M., 86 East Third Ave., San Mateo, CA.


Here's an announcement about a new book:
"FOCUS ON THE FABULOUS ... features 33 GLBT people as they write about life, love and living in Colorado. Edited by established author Matt Kailey and published by Johnson Books, the anthology was among the Denver area's top five of the September 2007 best seller list of nonfiction paperback books. Titled Two Militants Who Just Wouldn't Shut Up, the essay by Donaciano Martinez is partly about growing up in an anti-Chicano and anti-gay town and partly about the Colorado Springs Gay Liberation Front that was co-founded by Martinez and Truman Harris shortly after the 1969 Stonewall riots that marked the second wave of the battle against gay oppression."

Another press blurb:
"TINY TIM IS DEAD will be staged at 7:30 p.m. every Friday and Saturday from November 23 through January 5 at the nonprofit Theatre Group's Phoenix Theater, 1124 Santa Fe Drive in Denver. Written by Barbara Lebow, the play is described as wickedly amusing and delicately poignant as it ventures into the world of urban street people whose shelter is made of cardboard boxes and trash-can hearths. Among the homeless characters are: Otis Pope, an Army veteran who decides who can stay and who must leave the shelter; Verna, a disoriented and sometimes child-like woman; Verna's nameless and mute young son; Charlie, an unemployed blue collar worker; Azalee Hodge, an outspoken woman trying to climb back up; and, Filomeno Cordero, an immigrant from Central America. Discovering a worn-out copy of Charles Dickens' book A Christmas Carol, the group responds to Verna's pleas to re-enact the old story as a gift for her son. Verna cannot wait to play the part of Tiny Tim, while Pope is cast in the Scrooge role. In a revisionist inspiration, Pope becomes MC of the Tiny Tim Telethon. Unfamiliar with the Dickens' story, Filomeno mistakes the book's Marley character for reggae music star Bob Marley. The role of Verna is played by Shelly Bordas. Tickets are $22 per person, with $17 discount tickets for seniors, students and groups of ten or more."

STORIES ON STAGE presents Masterpieces of Science Fiction on November 15, 7:00 P.M., Jones Theater, DCPA. Among the featured authors are Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Neil Gaiman. Presenters include Gabriella Cavallero.

A movie note: I was lucky enough to see the opening film at the Denver Starz Film Festival last night. The Savages was directed by Tamara Jenkins and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco. This is an excellent movie. Hoffman and Linney are thoroughly convincing as the siblings who are forced to deal with their dying, demented father, whom they have avoided for years. And Bosco's take on the father is unsettling because his character is all too-familiar, too close for comfort. The story avoids easy sentimentality and glib moralizing but it does deal with core issues: the "inconvenience" of death; responsibility to family, regardless of past history; and rediscovering the solid comfort of our own life's potential at the same time that we recognize its fleeting nature. The main characters are writers: Linney (Wendy) is an unsuccessful playwright filled with guilt, some of which centers around the stories she tries to tell, stories that she herself labels as self-absorbed and middle-class; while her brother, Jon, who has achieved a certain amount of respectability as a drama professor and critic, is unable to commit to the idea of love. They are very different human beings who eventually must recognize their commonalities. Although this is not a happy movie, we get a glimpse of the spark of humanity that we all want to see in one another. There isn't a Latino in sight, which always makes me shake my head, but I still recommend the film.

That's all for a very busy week.

Later.