The Scrambler- Bloggystyle

muito legal

2008-03-01T20:20:00.001-08:00

This interview with Arnaldo Antunes- a Brazilian poet/musician/performer is a must read in Bomb magazine. Also listen to 2 of his sound poems.

Amazing.

March Issue 16

2008-02-28T22:52:00.001-08:00

A few days early, but the March Issue 16 is online featuring poetry, audio and an interview with Sandra Beasley, art and an interview with Patricia Deese, a poem by Aaron Dailey, art by Valado Mori and our monthly Playlist.

Use this link: http://thescrambler.com/mar08.html

Enjoy.

t-shirt sighting...

2008-02-24T10:04:00.001-08:00

T-Mo (third from right) wearing a Scrambler t-shirt at the Sacramento Poetry Center reading on Monday, February 18, 2008.

good news

2008-02-12T08:29:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update as The Scrambler has some good news to share. One of our contributors, Ada Limón and her poem "The First" from our May 2007 Issue 10 was a finalist in the second annual
Best of the Net 2007 competition just released today (scroll down a bit after opening that link).

Congrats Ada, you deserve it.

February Issue 15 of The Scrambler magazine now online

2008-02-02T20:27:00.000-08:00

The new issue of The Scrambler with a few new features is out. We have started an audio archive of some of our writers reading their poems and stories. We have only added 1 author so far, but be on the lookout as each month now we will be adding the files as MP3's so that means you can not only read their stories and poems, but now you can listen to or download the files to playback on your I-Pod or MP3 player.

The February Issue features poetry and audio by Trevor Calvert, a movie review of The Great Debaters by Heather Craig, ruminations by Stuart Napshaw, artwork by Aaron Dailey and our Playlist of recommended songs by Melanie Uyeda.

Thanks and enjoy.

Click on this link for the issue: http://www.thescrambler.com/feb08.html

The blog is back...

2008-01-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

Even though it has always been here, now I am back in the blogosphere. I will not be blogging all of the time but will be enough so that there will be a new post often, at least weekly. So add us to your RSS feeder or bookmark the page because new content is coming soon. Also The Scrambler zine has many new issues since last time you probably checked. Also for 2008, we will be adding many new features to the magazine.

New Scrambler Issue featuring Ada Limón

2007-05-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

Go to www.thescrambler.com to check out the new May issue featuring an interview with and the poetry of Ada Limón. Also a drawing by Chris Wilson.

Gilberto Gil

2007-03-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

Last night we saw Brazilian musician and Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil. The show was outstanding, he played for almost 2 hours. He mainly sang in Portuguese and played music from Brazil including his famous Aquele Abraco. But he also played a Beatles song and 2 Bob Marley songs. At least half of the audience was Brazilian and had very good energy. He encouraged everyone to sing and Gil interacted well with the crowd. It was a great time and I highly recommend seeing this legend in person for yourself if you have the chance. Enjoy the 2 pics.

The Bristlecone Pine

2007-03-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to a lecture at McKinley Park in Sacramento on the Bristlecone Pine tree. This tree is pretty much the oldest living organism on the Earth. It is native to California, Nevada and Utah. It is mainly found in the eastern Sierra, down south more in what is known as the White mountains. The oldest known Bristlecone is about 4,700 years old which is almost as long as humans have been writing things down. The lecture was given by Jim Bishop and covered from its habitat to some specifics about how it lives so long. As you can see from the pictures above, the Bristlecone is very gnarly.

New Scrambler Issue Out

2007-02-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

This month The Scrambler is featuring poet Reb Livingston who was featured in the 2006 Best American Poetry Anthology last year. So check it out at: www.thescrambler.com and enjoy.

When the word gets ahold of ya

2007-02-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

The following passage is the best I have read in a long time about what it is like when you have the urge:

"Last night, I woke up at 4. I woke up at 5. I woke up at 6:08. Each time, the sound of ice beating against the windows of my bedroom. I couldn't sleep. I wasn't hungry, and I wasn't (that) cold, and if there had been nightmares I couldn't recall them. What was it? Why was the phrase "small kingdom" bouncing about in my head? Why was I picturing the many types and colors of basil, and my mother's hands as she cut the rosemary bush down to twigs? Why was I logging on Wikipedia to read about seasnails and chambered shells, when the sun hadn't even come up yet? And then I realized...I was ready to write."

This was taken from a Valentine's Day post from the blog of Sandra Beasley. I highly recommend that you read her blog on a weekly basis at http://sbeasley.blogspot.com/

Seu Jorge - Tive Razao (ao vivo dvd)

2007-02-12T21:48:00.001-08:00

Here is a Seu Jorge performance from his DVD. In it he is singing my favorite song of his- Tive Razao (in English it means "I was right").

Regina Spektor - Fidelity

2007-02-06T19:15:00.001-08:00

As many of you have already found out, she is a very good singer. This video shows good contrast between the black and white, and then at the end when she finds her guy, he brings color to her world. The same old, but at least the song is nice.

Latest Scrambler Issue

2007-01-31T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here is the new issue of The Scrambler: http://www.thescrambler.com/Febissuehome.html

Sao Paulo, Brasil

2007-01-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

Just returned from Brasil. Aside from all of the family stuff, I did have time to visit some museums, see a little Brazilian culture in Sao Paulo. I went to the Museu do Ipiranga (second image above). Originally, it was a palace for Dom Pedro I, who proclaimed Brazil's independence from Portugal in 1822 and became Brazil's first Emperor. Today it is filled with artifacts ranging from statutes to kitchenware to early twentieth century firetrucks.

Next, I went to the Museu da Lingua Portugeusa (Portuguese Language Museum). It is housed in a building that was the first train station in Brazil (last image above) and explores the origins of the Portuguese language. The highlight was an exhibit on the first floor based on the classic Brazilian novel by Joao Guimaraes Rosa called Grande Sertao. Within the exhibit hangs enlarged canvas pages from Rosa's original manuscript that are on a pulley system with bags of sand tied to the other end. You pull on the string and the bag goes up while the page comes down so you can read it. There are also passages from the book on piles of bricks, drums of water and the floor. The exhibit is interactive, actually letting the visitor touch, pull, look and climb.

Lastly, I went to the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP). This is strictly an art museum and one of the best I have visited. Not only did it have considerable Brazilian art, it also had works from Van Gough, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Rembrandt, etc... One of my favorites was Italian painter Amadeo Modigliani's "Lunia Czechowska" from 1919 (first image above). I also got to see the Pirelli Collection which consists of photographs of Brazil from many different Brazilian photographers. Check out the museum's website at: http://masp.uol.com.br/ and Wikipedia's page about the Portuguese Language Museum at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Portuguese_Language

Ginsberg photos at the Crocker

2006-12-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

Tonight, we just got back from the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA. This month they are featuring 2 very good exhibits: "Allen Ginsberg: Beat Generation Photographer" and "Dark Metropolis: Irving Norman's Social Surrealism." Both are outstanding. The above pics are photos that I took of the actual Ginsberg photos. Showing are the most famous images from the Beat period which include Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, Neal Cassidy, Ferlinghetti, Corso, Herbert Hunche, Peter Orlovsky, Robert Creeley, Robert Frank and many more. It is pretty cool to see these photos all together with many of them having Ginsberg's scribblings about what is in each photo underneath (as you can barely see in the ones above).

Irving Norman's paintings are unbelievable. If you look at them long enough it makes you feel like you have just taken a 3 pound shit and are ready to run a mile in 5 minutes flat. Yes, they are that good. Check out the Crocker's website at: http://www.crockerartmuseum.org/

Paintings by Deladier Almeida and Alejandro Rubio

2006-12-03T17:07:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to an art show opening at the John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis, CA. It featured 3 painters: Deladier Almeida, Roy DeForest and Alejandro Rubio. Almeida is from Santos, Brazil and Rubio from Montevideo, Uruguay but each artist currently lives in Northern California. The above painting is by Almeida and the bottom painting by Rubio. I am not an art critic so I am not going to even attempt to describe the painters. These were 2 of my favorite paintings from last night. To see more artist bio and info, go here:http://www.natsoulas.com/html/press.html

Both pictures taken by J. Spencer. All images courtesy of John Natsoulas Gallery.

Sac Poetry Slam- T-Mo, Queen D and Ike

2006-11-11T23:15:00.000-08:00

Tonight, we went to a poetry slam at the Java Cafe in Fair Oaks, CA. It was actually 2 slams in one, and was called The Final Cut, The Road to Victory. It was the final rounds of a slam that has been ongoing. The main event featured Terry Moore (T-Mo) vs. Queen D.
In a previous post on this blog, I reviewed a T-Mo show where he was the feature performer and I was very impressed with him and his performance. Tonight, he proved that it was not a fluke and I was right about everything I previously wrote. He opened with what I thought was the best poem of the night. It was about a girl going to an open mic night and finally getting up the nerve to perform a poem she had been writing for a long time. She got there early, was third on the list, but kept getting bumped by other poets. I won't tell you how it ends, I am working on getting the video of it online soon so you can check it out.
Queen D was the eventual winner of this battle. I have never seen or heard her before. She spoke with much emotion and fire and is a very persuasive and powerful performer. Like T-Mo, her poetry involves issues within society that are many times brushed aside and forgotten about, or simply just not much discussed.
Ike was in the second slam and surprised everyone watching. He arguably gave the best performances of the night and was definitely the crowd favorite.
This was probably the best slam I have seen. I have been to a few others in Boston, Kansas City, and northern California. Sacramento definitely has the talent to compete with the best slam performers in the nation.

2005 Poet Laureate Ted Kooser

2006-10-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Last night, October 26, 2006 Ted Kooser (pictured above) the 2005 Poet Laureate of the United States gave a reading and answered audience questions at the Wyatt Pavilion on the UC Davis campus. Kooser the 13th Poet Laureate hails from Nebraska where he was for over 30 years an insurance agent and is currently a professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Most of his poems are easily accessible to the general public and he read poems that ranged from his early, middle and late career. Many of his poems were written from his personal experiences and most are observational in nature. He was actually pretty funny, telling stories to set up each poem and explaining about the inspiration for his poetry. His most memorable poem was inspired by a certain kind of moth that lives off of tears which included the line: "rubbing the dust from his wings from your eyes."

spoken word poet Terry Moore

2006-10-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we saw spoken word poet Terry Moore (pictured on the left) at the Bistro 33 in Davis. He was every bit as good as his resume claims (click here to see it). He did 4 poems and an encore and it was easy to understand why he is definitely one of Sacramento's finest. His poems are uplifting and positive. He has range as well, he performed poems for the ladies and the men in the audience with both styles going over well. His last poem, a "self esteem poem for the women" was about married women or women with children who do not necessarily feel pretty or beautiful anymore. Maybe his best line of the night came from that poem (and reading this quote certainly does not do it justice): "Even if you stretch out over here, know that your heart is still tight."

For more, Check out his website at: http://www.terrymoore.info/

An Introduction

2006-10-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

What's up...I am the creator/editor of an e-zine called The Scrambler. We are interested in exposing more people to literature and the arts. If you haven't yet, check out the website and submit something if you write, draw, paint, can snap a picture, or even if you think about doing any of those, do it and send us the results. We publish online, and we publish established as well as new writers/artists. I hope you enjoy these posts, of which there will hopefully be at least a new one each week.