Just Observing

Just Observing

Take any citizen of this United States, make them mad enough about something that's going on, and they WILL do something about it. Next thing you know, your ass is grass and they're the lawnmower. Key words there are "mad enough". Here in San Diego, there are three things in the city that officials know not to fool with: Balboa Park which includes the Old Globe Theater and the San Diego Zoo, Presidio Park, and the ceremonial entrance to the city, 163 as it passes Balboa Park. 163 is a freeway...two lanes on each side, center median has grass and trees as do both sides, and it passes under the old arches of the Laurel Street bridge. Laurel Street starts down at Harbor Drive. Land at the airport--which is downtown--drive up Harbor Drive, bear left and you're on Laurel St which is a dead straight uphill run into Balboa Park, where it ends. On the way, the first main intersection is Pacific Highway. Turn right, stay with it, and you run straight into the entrance of Seaport Village. Turn left, stay with it and you'll pass on your right Old Town where San Diego began, and continue on Pac Hwy where you'll cross Seaworld Drive and you're on Mission Bay Drive. Very cool. Anyway....

People get mad and they act. This can lead to very interesting results. In my own case, there was a book on the art and craft of writing reviewed in the LA Times that I wanted. No bookstore in this city carried them and I knew it. Made me mad. Said to myself, "The only way you can get a book like that in this town is if you own the bookstore." That did it. I opened a bookstore for writers. What I thought I'd do is get those books, set in my office and read them, and if a writer should wander in and want one, I'd just sell it to them. Simple.

Next thing I knew the writers took over, and suddenly there were poetry readings and workshops and the store was too small. So moved up the street, and that store wasn't big enough. Moved next door to a bigger storefront and stayed there. A SDSU professor/publisher took the back half and the writers took the front half. Before selling it to a poet/screenwriter guy because I had no time to write and had just decided to co-author a novel with a former Navy SEAL who wandered in one day (St Martin's Press in NYC published it), between us, we had launched a literary magazine, workshops galore, potluck dinners with readings of all kinds, author's parties/signings, a writers conference (San Diego Writers' Conference--look it up at www.writersconference.com-- and had one hell of a good time for ourselves. All because I got mad as hell one afternoon because I couldn't get a book on writing.

The first author who spoke at Marsh Cassidy's workshop in the first bookstore was David Brin, the S/F writer. That man loves to talk about computers. :)

We'd barely gotten settled in the 3rd bookstore when David Brin and Greg Bear took the top S/F Hugo Awards nationally. The LA Times sent a reporter and a photographer to interview the pair of them. The Union and Tribune here ignored the whole thing. The artist, Ken Goldman, brought in a gorgeous painting of a field of yellow flowers for that occassion. We hung it above the bookshelves at the front. I took a photo of it. Next thing we had original paintings hung here and there, as well as the two gold records Don Dunn, a Motown songwriter who'd traveled the world with Elton John on tour, was awarded. Don ran a songwriting workshop at the bookstore. He wrote "Baby, It's Me" for Diana Ross, among a whole lot of other pieces. Will never forget the first time he walked in. He looked around, saw a mess of writers smoking, drinking coffe and carrying on around a table in the back part of the store we called The Haven, looked at me, and said, "What the hell kind of bookstore is this?!!!" He soon found out.

And because of the bookstore, the writers found out just how big a writing community there is here. The LA Times did articles about us, as did the television stations. Was interesting to note that our local papers, the San Diego Union and Evening Tribune did not. Took the first guy who looked in the window of the first store--a reporter from the Evening Tribune to discover us. Shortly another reporter from the ET came and wrote an article. A year later, the ET published it and by that time we were at the 3rd bookstore!

Writers can get books now. There's not a single bookstore in San Diego that doesn't have a large section on writing, agents, publishers and all, and that includes the chain bookstores.

The point is this: When offended by the corruption we're seeing in government...case in point, Ohio elections, Iraq and the mistreatment of our military, our taxes used for propaganda--Armstrong paid $250,000 to push No Child Left Behind for the administration when he's supposed to be a pundit--citizens will act. Just a matter of them getting fed up enough to get mad as hell. Don't ever think one person can't make a difference.

That's a wrap for Saturday...