Friday, August 24, 2012

PERFORMANCE & READING IN ADOBE BOOKSTORE IN SAN FRANCISCO!

READING & PERFORMANCE in SAN FRANCISCO - ADOBE BOOKSTORE  in the Mission District at the 16th/Albion St. in San Francisco! 
 ADOBE- BOOKSTORE is so great a Secon-Hand Bookstore with wonderful people, I hope this bookstore survives the concurrency, I am sending to the people there great luck, I wish to come back there!!! http://www.sfbg.com/pixel_vision/2012/06/04/save-adobe-books
:::::  
This was my second reading at the ADOBE-BOOKSTORE in SAN FRANCISCO, now on August 16th 2012 with Evan Winchester. Evan is an actor, author and cool guy I met in Oakland, he is like my literary soulmate - he reads also German literature, and now he starts with Bohumil Hrabal, the Czech one, I gave him this present, the wonderful novel: "I served the English King". So far he should know where the inspirations comes. We had in the second part of the SHOW our show together: Performance: SERVANT & MASTER!
Evan played the Servant from my novel (parts already translated into English - read here:  http://milenaoda.blogspot.com/2011/11/english-excerpt-from-my-novel-please.html
Fotos from Marc Kockinos.
 Happy before & after reading with Evan!

The reading space at the Adobe-Bookstore.

WELCOME!!

READING OF THE POET´S MANIEFESTO, official first reading with Evan together. See the POET´S MANIFESTO:



OUR SAN FRANCISCO´S PERFORMANCE  WITH THE HAPPY END!!


Here you can see in German the BOOKTRAILER / Buchtrailer to the novel. Made by Orange Ear / Frank Nagel, Berlin 2011.
And my German publisher presents the novel here:  http://schumachergebler.de/buecher/milena-oda-nennen-sie-mich-diener 

And this was my last year (2011) reading at the Adobe-Bookstore "Ode about Oda and Odin" Poem written in English, translated into Portuguese already published in a anthology. 

Monday, August 20, 2012

POET´S PROTEST MANIFESTO of the 21st century - PEOPLE, WRITERS, POETS DON´T SLEEP - SPEAK UP!!






POETS´ PROTEST MANIFESTO: WRITERS, POETS, ARTISTS DON´T SLEEP - SPEAK UP!!

Authors: MILENA ODA & TOPALANTE

POETS´ PROTEST MANIFESTO FOR WRITERS, POETS, CREATIVE PEOPLE OF the 21st century. Manifesto for all people who are occupied with the future of human intelligence, creative spirit and abundance!

BE, MOVE, GIVE, PROTEST AND SPEAK UP!!

We call upon each of you, writer, poet - don´t sleep – see, the society has fallen into a deep, comfortable sleep!!

We call on you to:
SHAKE THINGS UP, YOU DON`T AGREE WITH, DON´T SLEEP!
DON´T BE AFRAID TO EXPRESS YOURSELF!!
DON´T BE FEARFUL TO DO!
We mean ourself too, we must be awaken!

We are the beaten generation!“ We are beaten by the massmedias,social medias, best sellers, superstars, and growing stupidity and ignorance of people around us.

TELL US: Are your worried about your message in your work for the world?
AS WRITERS WE SHOULD SPREAD OUR MESSAGE!  
We should express how we are able to spread our message, how we can move the world around us.
We speak to the writers, poets and creative people who are able to change the things in their suroundings, in their world. The small world means the big one.
WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE AND MISSION AS A WRITER IN THIS WORLD? Reflect, what are you writing about?!
Do you have to serve the publisher? Do you have to serve the policy?
Do you serve the degradation of the millions people?
Or do you want to serve the world´s humanity? The world´s change for better?
How are you worried about the word & world? How?
To be worried about the words & world but in fact be very sleepy!? It doesn´t work efficiently!!
WE THINK:
We are too focused on ourself, on our egos!! The world became more egositic and materialistic.

Call on to Bestsellers:
You are worried, if you get more interviews, if the important newspaper writes about your book (this is the real value!!), the publisher has already paid the reviewers to write about you, - this is evident – you are the best seller!! Bravo! You managed that, I respect your work, surely you love it as well!
Your ego is important, and the lust of the million people who read your erotic thriller – this is alright, people need fun, entertainment, - they need You!
Well, no! No!
Every writer must know – this is not the right, eligible literature, which keeps people awake in the brain!
Or do we allow the walk towards stupidity when we continue with such best sellers? I am afraid we already face the stupidity and ignorance... It is bad! But not bad for powerful people who like to move their direction the uneducated, dull people... Hm...
Writers, poets, artists our occupation, our goal is to change the thinking and change the spirit!
YOU MUST AWAKE people, because they have fallen assleep with the bestsellers like erotic thrillers etc...
POETS, WRITERS, KEEP THE 99% AWAKE!!

FIGHT AGAINST THE SPREADING STUPIDITY, CONFORMITY, AGONY AND LETHARGY!!
Take care about our world, take care about the world around you!!
Use the power of your words!!
Express yourself!
Express the pain, express the loss of the lost people, of the 99%!
We show the light out of the tunnel, we are here for the 99%, to show them how to wake up!!
Don´t serve daily the 1%!
Be awake! Be here! Be more!
PROTEST!
Our words, writers, poets, must quake people!!
Our words, writers, poets, must shake the dead cells of the brain!
Our words must be more powerful than the power of the powerful people, the 1%.
Our words must motivate, not to fall asleep into ignorance and agony, again, or forever!
Writer, poet we call upon you, do more for people, not only for your ego!
Do more for our planet!
Do more for your selfconciousness, you are not alone here!
Move your ass!
Move your brain!
Move sleepy people – the right direction to change the world for better!!
Give people power through your words!!
Give people a new hope!
Give people your education!
Give people the clarity about our world!
Writers, poets, be more than the best seller!!
Writers, poets, creative people start now to manifest the new change for our planet, for our world!
It is our – maybe last – chance to change the old, outworn, bored society, don´t slack off, don´t fall asleep !


NOTICE – REFLECT – DO NOT COMPROMISE – HOLD ONTO THE INNER STRENGtH - EMPOWER YOURSELF AND THE OTHERS AND TAKE THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS THE CHANGE!!
Do it now!
Manifest!
PROSTEST!
I am a writer not a fucking best seller and I want to create and care about our world!
Be a writer, not a fucking best seller - who counts money, „likes“, „friends“ and fame and be a creative mind who loves to spread the message!!
We must care about our world, planet and our life here!
NOW!!
This is our protest manifesto and you who agree with us, please send it further, spread the word and give us a sign, you agree…
We must move, shake up the world!!
We want to manifest the world NOW - and YOU?

SHARE WITH US THIS MANIFESTO!

Yours,
Milena Oda // http://www.MilenaOda.com
& Topalante // http://topalante.es

San Francisco, August 9th, 2012

 

San Francisco, August 9th, 2012

LISTEN TO THE MANIFESTO ON RADIO: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/odamilena/2012/08/22/poets-manifesto-dont-sleep--speak-up

OTHERS SIGNATURES from the Aug.16 2012 during & after the FIRST OFFICIAL READING OF THE MANIFESTO in THE ADOBE BOOKSTORE IN SAN FRANCISCO:

Evan Winchester, Laury Meyrs, Marc Kockinos, Jim Byron, Oliver Toajes, Mark Hoffmeier, Jaan Schenberger Mcuelle Brown, Rosi Sofi, Csaba Polony, Steve Brandwein, Tony Ryan, Joe Lee Parker, Richardo Felix Rodriguez, Khaled Mekawy, Mohamed Tayaa, Olaf Trunschke, Norbert Hahn, Thomas Heilman, Jiri Travnicek, Peter Zach, Joe Kidd, Boù Chrà, Dmitry Golynko, Martin, Barbara Stang, Corinna Bethge,Elina Fedorkova, Marcel Gapa, Jeanette Webb, Jeff Ray, Lenka Kropačová, Hironori Minematsu, Laura Nadine Luzardo, Milos Cech, Rhett Stoner, Lorenzo Horvat, Paul Heinrich, Lipova Alej.

This Manifesto has been already translated and will be published in Arabic, Spanish, German, Czech etc. See for the ARABIC Version on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oda.milena#!/events/375583232535784/

Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oda.milena#!/events/396961640357692/?notif_t=plan_user_joined
 

 


 


 


Sunday, August 19, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO: MEETING LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI!

MEETING Mr. Lawrence Ferlinghetti in San Francisco, in North Beach Café Triest!   
I had a great luck, I could meet Mr. Lawrence Ferlinghetti!!
He was born 24.3. 1919 in France.
We met in his favorite - since many many years Café Trieste. Not only him comes here, also other writers, poets, as you can see below also Jack Hirschman, the poet, activist and wonderful person came here to drink coffee and read some news... We know each other, so it was a nice encounter here!! I had an interview with Mr. Ferlinghetti!!
I prepared for the interview... I had many many questions, there is so much to ask him, to write about him, to show about him, there are books, some documentary film, facts pictures etc.. 
I didnt know where to start. Surely he answered to some of my questions already hundred times, repeat the history is nice but also exhausting, and I didn´t want to exhaust him, but I wished to hear from him all what is today legendary: the Beat Generation... and I told him, the publisher is the basement for all the writers, poets in other case without any publisher the poets, writers are despearate, the great luck is to be published, no worries where is the other book published! - And Lawrence Ferlinghetti made this happen, he created the space for the genearation of writers who were against conformity, as himself, I could still feel his spirit, his revolutionary spirit, I respected still in his age. Respect to his endevour! He is the spark, the spirit for the Beat Generation!! Doubtless...  
I was reading one of his many interviews and he said: Many authors become a fellowship, awards from the state, they have their freedom, they have a time, space to create - but they don´t say in fact nothing!! - and with this I AGREE - this is what we wrote in our POET´S MANIFESTO, I told him: People writer poets don´t sleep - speak up!!! READ here on my blog. http://milenaoda.blogspot.com/2012/08/our-manifesto-people-writers-poets-dont.html - I told him that this is absolute true, and he smiled, he smiles gently, but he is also very critical... it was a dialog!
He was very nice, but he didnt allow me to be curious about him, he was about me... I wasn´t prepared for it! Well, he asked me what I do... as a writer?
If I have some poems, texts in English with me, he said, he would like to see it! Yeah, I had some, I had the MANIFESTO with me, it was very important for me he reads it... But I didn´t expect the questions and his curiosity..., how nice, well, this is a real publisher!! When I was desperate, this won´t be any classical interview for the radio, I asked him: "Can you tell me something about the Beat Generation?"
And he said: "What is the Beat Generation?"
And he smiled about his funny question, because he told me immediatly: When he was in Paris and accidently he met Jean Paul Sartre, he came to him and said: "Oh, Mr. Sartre, is it you?" - And J.P. Sartre answered: Je n´existe pas." How cute! I laughed! - 
Well, this is the right answer, alright, me as a writer should tell him, what is for me the Beat Generation! For me: inspiration!! My road, my way through the USA with a lot of adventures, surely I write about it more than only here! And: 
I saw two performances as a student in the Czech Republic of Allen Ginsberg. - Upon this time I expressed my wish to go to the USA!! It took 15 years to realize it. 
I am happy to be here! With all the Beats now! I also met a woman Martini, by accident, a friend of my friend she was "on the road" with the Beats, Allen Ginsberg, with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder etc... amazing to feel this generation of LSD, drugs, I don´t think this is a big dealt to take drugs, no, just to meet them today, they are still alive...  
Actually all the time our interview was a talk... a dialog... he put me some more questions... about my essays - Dog´s Freedom, about the POET´S MANIFESTO I wrote with Topalante in SAN FRANCISCO - were are the BEATEN GENERATION, he asked me - why - beaten? Well, beaten by all the "Best of" "be perfect" be "all in one" but we are all human beings, not perfect, we just fake the "best of" etc... 
I gave him to read it properly and my poetry aswell...and then I filmed him with Jack, I was a bit shy to film, but this is soo unique time, he is about 93 years old, a great respect Mr. Ferlinghetti!  


 And here is the City Lights Boostore: I guide through the City Lights...




Café Trieste in North Beach in San Francisco....
  





And here is Jack Hirchmann, the poet, translator, activist with both men I could speak in four languages, in French, Italian, German and Russia (the last both with Jack)
Jack, Lawrence - please one nice foto all together!!
 

-- What is the Beat Generation for you??

--- AND WHAT IS THE BEATEN GENERATION (OURS) FOR YOU??


SAN FRANCISCO: THE LEGENDARY CITY LIGHTS BOOSTORE / THE BEATS

I GUIDE YOU THROUGHT THE LEGENDARY CITY LIGHTS BOOSTORE and THE BEAT GENERATION!!

I AM THE BEATEN GENEARATION!! BEATEN BY MONEY....


I am standing in front of the famous, still independent bookstore City Lights in San Francisco, in North Beach.  This is the one of the founder of City Lights Bookstore and press City Lights Books. Founded 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin.
City Lights is an important landmark of Beat generation history. Several of the surrounding streets have been renamed after Beat poets as well, commemorating their important contribution to the cultural landscape of San Francisco.
Me and Lawrence Ferlinghetti in Café Trieste. 


I met Mr. Ferlinghetti and we had a very nice conversation, about our talk you can read in another part of this BLOG. here: http://milenaoda.blogspot.com/2012/08/san-francisco-meeting-lawrence.html



Here you can see My and Topalantes VIDEO-GUIDE through the City Lights:



Jack Kerouac in Chinese. The small, narrow Jack Kerouac Alley connects the North Beach with the Chinatown, so far his name in Chinese, well, now he / it is absolut modern, everything is going to be in Chinese translated!





"Poetry Room" for Readings with other Authors and for reading poetry...



DAY & NIGHT (open till the Midnight!) direct from the highway, from my ROAD on the U.S. Freeways& Highways I went to the Bookstore, my destination (besides my other FAVORITE bookstore - ADOBE Bookstore in the MISSION District/ 16th St. see my Link to my performance in ADOBE bookstore.

A Brief Guide to the Beat Poets

 
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical
     naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry
     dynamo in the machinery of night . . .
     --Allen Ginsberg, "Howl"
I heard this poem directly from Allen Ginsberg, who visited many times Czechoslowakia / the Czech Republic. I was fortnunate to hear him twice!! It was an amazing performance!!

http://www.wussu.com/poems/agh.htm - here is the whole HOWL from Allen Ginsberg, book banned for its obscenity, 1956 by reading in San Francisco in a Art Gallery.  
Allen Ginsberg's first book, Howl and Other Poems, is often considered representative of the Beat poets. In 1956 Lawrence Ferlinghetti's press City Lights published Howl and Ferlinghetti was brought to trial the next year on charges of obscenity. In a hugely publicized case, the judge ruled that Howl was not obscene and brought national attention to Ginsberg and the Beat poets.

Beat poetry evolved during the 1940s in both New York City and on the west coast, although San Francisco became the heart of the movement in the early 1950s. The end of World War II left poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso questioning mainstream politics and culture. These poets would become known as the Beat generation, a group of writers interested in changing consciousness and defying conventional writing. The Beats were also closely intertwined with poets of the San Francisco Renaissance movement, such as Kenneth Rexroth and Robert Duncan.
The battle against social conformity and literary tradition was central to the work of the Beats. Among this group of poets, hallucinogenic drugs were used to achieve higher consciousness, as was meditation and Eastern religion. Buddhism especially was important to many of the Beat poets; Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg both intensely studied this religion and it figured into much of their work.
Other Beat poets included Diane di Prima, Neal Cassady, Anne Waldman and Michael McClure. Although William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac are often best remembered for works of fiction such as Naked Lunch and On the Road, respectively, they also wrote poetry and were very much part of the Beats as well; Kerouac is said to have coined the term "Beat generation," describing the down-and-out status of himself and his peers during the post-war years. / This comment I copied from: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646
 
And these are some of the many books about the Beat Generation.



Tuesday, August 7, 2012

VISIT WITH ME LOS ANGELES .... HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD and more...!

LOS ANGELES!!! - VISIT IN HOLLYWOOD...? 2010 and 2012!!

I show you now (just) the Hollywood Boulevard ...
This is a video from 2010, my first time in L.A. - in the Hollywood Hills, with Jonathan Slater - you can hear & see him, my great guide in L.A. - also this year he showed me streets, corners, areas in L.A.! I changed my mind now: I like L.A. - especially the architecture of the houses!! Rich people have amazing beautiful houses, I wish I had one like that... I show you in the next blog some of them...
Well, I would never see all in one as a newcomer so fast :-) - amazing, he knows pretty lot about L.A.! You can envy me, I had such a guide!


Here with his girlfriend and me.......girls in pink want to buy the small house posed in the trees of the Hollywood Hills!!!
I THANK HIM FOR taking time for me and guiding me through Los Angeles!!!  

And this is a typical Hollywood poster, what you MUST VISIT! Let´s go!!
This is everywhere... Behind me the Capitol Records, is major American record label, a wholly owned by EMI.
 And famous The PANTAGES (movie) theater in Art Deco style, opened 1930.... upon the time very famous!! Now thanks to the interesting historical decoration / architecture The Pantages Theatre is also a popular location for the filming of movies, TV shows, and music videos.  
STARS!! LIKE ....here...
 Just round around are streets with the stars... on the Earth...





 SATURDAY NIGHT IN HOLLYWOOD!! With a singer Pray Harper... at the big pool party at the famous Roosevelt Hotel!! Yeah, we rock!!

 And this is Hollywood Blvd. - one long famous street... I compare it like the Charles Bridge in Prague!! Full of people & kitch & simple attractions!!! There you can earn money like a robot, like a vampir, like ... well, everything counts there!! 

 And what a poor Hotel Mark Twain!! In comparison to the Roosevelt Hotel, this seems like a very shaby hotel, called unlikely Mark Twain... what a shame!!

And other poor hotel, this is also near to the Hollywood Boulevard, so not everything is fancy!! 
And a Post Office!! How important for me still though the internet prevails... Well, It took me a while to identify in the USA any post office, it is almost invisible any post everywhere...blue fade calour... not like in Germany BIG letters and yellow color; I had always really a trouble to find a post... And voilà now I had to take this picture! This post office, huge building cannot be ignored by anybody!!


In the L.A. subway - very clean subway!! So clean in contrary to New York Subway: see my poetry video from NYC subway:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiDd2adGIIU! Here is the entrance into the Hollywood Boullevard: you can see a camera! 


Almost empty on sunday... yes people in L.A. move (almost live) in the cars... so far, subway is a good option to come among people... and safe
 
AND almost everywhere in the streets were shooting some comercial film... and how interesting it was... almost all teams needed a RAIN! Apparently the rain isn´t very common experience in L.A. so far, good to put it in the film... mostly comercial. 

CNN do we get always the truths on TV?