It's Raining Back Up at Broadway Books

Please join us Tuesday, April 26th, at 7pm for a free performance of poetry and music entitled Raining Back Up.  Local poet John Sibley Williams has coordinated a multi-media blend of contemporary poetry and experimental music that includes Anatoly Molotkov, David Cooke, Ragon Linde, and Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk.

John Sibley Williams is a poet and agent/publicist in Portland. He has two Master’s Degrees (Creative Writing and Book Publishing) and has served as Acquisitions Manager of Ooligan Press and as freelance agent/publicist for Three Muses Press, Carpe Articulum Literary Review, HoboEye, and individual authors. He has also worked with organizations, such as the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Williams’ poetry was nominated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize and won the 2011 Heart Poetry Award.  His debut chapbook, A Pure River, was published in 2010 by The Last Automat Press.  Anatoly Molotkov is a writer, composer and co-founder of the Inflectionist poetry movement (Inflecionism.com).  He is the author of several novels and short story and poetry collections and won the 2010 New Millennium Writings and the 2008 E.M. Koeppel Awards for fiction.  Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk has recently finished her second book, Only Ghosts, about the clash of the mystic and the modern in Nepal.  David Cooke’s debut poem, Edges, won the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize and was nominated for the 2010 Pushcart prize.  Ragon Linde is a musician specializing in eclectic jazz and has played in a wide range of musical groups over the last 35 years.

Decemberists Frontman to Pen Kids Series

Colin Meloy, lead singer and songwriter for the Portland-based indie rock band The Decemberists, has just signed a contract with Harper Collins for a three-book illustrated adventure series for kids, illustrated by his wife, the acclaimed illustrator Carson Ellis. The first book in the series is scheduled to be published in Fall 2011.

The series, Wildwood, will be a "classic tale of adventure, magic and danger set in an alternate version of modern-day Portland." Meloy says, "I grew up on a steady diet of Lloyd Alexander, Roald Dahl, and Tolkein; this is our humble paean to that grand tradition of epic adventure stories." Ellis adds that this collaboration is something she and Meloy "have been dreaming about for years." In signing the book, Donna Bray, co-publisher of Harper imprint Balzer & Bray said, "Storytelling and rich imagry are hallmarks of Colin's songs, so writing a novel seems like a perfect next step for him."

Meloy was born in Helena, Montana, and attended the University of Oregon before switching to the University of Montana in Missoula to major in creative writing. His sister, Maile Meloy, has published several books including her most recent, Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, a collection of short stories named one of the top ten books of 2009 by the New York Times Book Review. Meloy formed the band The Decemberists in 2000. The band's most recent album is 'The Hazards of Love."

Carson Ellis was born in Vancouver, Canada, was raised in suburban New York, and earned a BFA in painting at the University of Montana. According to her website, she has been a nanny, a hot dog vendor, a chairlift operator, an artist's model, and a cocktail waitress, among other occupations. She is the illustrator-in-residence for The Decemberists, creating album covers, posters, websites, t-shirts, and stage sets. She illustrated the bestselling children's book The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart -- one of the most popular kid's series at Broadway Books -- as well as The Beautiful Stories of Life: Six Greek Myths, Retold, by local author Cynthia Rylant, along with other books.

The Decemberists are playing a benefit tonight with Michael Hurley at the Liberty Theater in Astoria (8 pm) to help offset the medical debt for local artist Jessica Shleif. As Ellis says on her website: "One day we'll look back and laugh at a health care system so dysfunctional that we had to organize benefits to help our friends pay their emergency hospital bills. ha ha." Ha ha is right! That is such a ridiculous concept, and I hope this country is on its way to correcting that. But I digress....

I don't typically have high hopes for books written by "celebrities," but I have a good feeling about this series. And in fact there is a good parallel precedent in the books by local (ok, Scappoose) writer -- and singer/songwriter -- Willy Vlautin. Vlautin, frontman for the alt-country band Richmond Fontaine, has written three terrific novels: The Motel Life, Northline, and his newest, Lean on Pete. [One of my favorite quotes about Vlautin is another author saying that he "writes like the secret love child of Raymond Carver and Flannery O’Connor." What a great recommendation! But again, I digress....] So good songwriting and good fiction writing can go hand in hand.

Suffice it to say that I'm excited about Wildwood, and I look forward to a great series from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. I hope they raise tons of money in the benefit tonight, even though it sucks that that's what we have to do to pay medical bills these days.

A Musical Adventure

I have a dirty little secret to get off my chest: I went through a seriously intense iTunes infatuation. You know, it's midnight and suddenly you just HAVE to hear an old Johnny Cash song, and you realize you don't have it amid all your musical collection, so you fire up the ol' Mac and bingo -- one credit card charge later there it is. You don't even have to put on shoes! But then there's the hangover: the credit card bill arrives, and you have nothing tangible to show for it. No cd, no case, no liner notes. Nothing to feel and hold and show your friends.

Then I started thinking what if everyone bought their music that way. What would happen to all of the (few remaining) record stores? (And yes, I still think of them as record stores, which I know dates me, and I don't count the little music alcoves in the major electronics or variety stores.) Unfortunately, we know what would happen to them: they would go away. And I know I don't want to see Music Millenium go away. (Or, for that matter, Hot Poop, Walla Walla's only bing bang record store. But I'll save that post for another day....)

Music Millenium -- "A place where the music and the people still matter," according to the tag line -- is a local treasure. The store opened on March 15, 1969. Started by Don MacLeod, his wife Loreen, and brother-in-law Dan Lissey, it is -- I believe -- the oldest record store in existence in the Pacific Northwest. It began as 800 square feet on the corner of 32nd and East Burnside, then added the Classical Millenium annex and the 23rd Avenue store (the latter recently closed).

The store offers new and used CDs, records, and DVDs, along with various music and movie related paraphernalia such as posters and some not-so-related extras. There is just nothing like giving yourself an hour -- or more -- to browse through all of the various sections, finding bargains, discovering old friends, and, best of all, happening upon new treasures. Browsing on line just isn't satisfying and doesn't lend itself to the same kind of serendipity that you get in person. So yesterday I treated myself to just that kind of ill-afforded but immensely satisfying serendipitous trip through the store. This is what I came home with (and yes, I realize it's ridiculously eclectic, but that's how I like my music): some early Josh Ritter, a Lily Allen sampler, The Be Good Tanyas, Cat Power, the latest from Amy Ray and Marcia Ball, the Portland Cello Project, and a blues CD from Joan Armatrading. Now that's what I call satisfying! Amost as thrilling as a spontaneous stroll through an independent bookstore. : ) If you haven't been music shopping for a while -- or even if you have -- treat yourself to a visit to Music Millenium!