It was a bit of a smaller gathering for our West Coast salon on the 14th, and let’s blame it on “dry January.” This host did enjoy a Guinness Zero but looks forward to something stronger come February.
I shared that I was just back from a writing fellowship at Eugene O’Neill’s Tao House. The Travis Bogard Day-Use Fellowship is where artists who are local to the Danville, Calif., area can apply to spend five days on the grounds of O’Neill’s Tao House to write, create, paint or whatever their art is. I worked on a revision of my play “One Night at the Hellhole.”
Next, Patti Cary, film maker, director, writer, shared her memoir piece “War and Ashes.” With the portrait of James Joyce looking down, Patti read a poignant yet funny chronicle of her and her cousin’s walk around Dublin with the mission of spreading her sister Maureen’s ashes. Mishaps and Dublin characters observe her bumping her head on the Ha’ Penny bridge, then finding Oscar Wilde’s statue locked behind gates at Merrion Square and being outdone by President Zelinsky's visit to Trinity College. Nothing goes as planned, but everything works out for the best.
Singer-songwriter Doug Closson is best known as a performer with the many sea chantey groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Doug has a warm smooth voice that engages with his original and traditional sea chantey songs. He sang two Stan Rogers tunes along with an original. Doug can sing, tell a story mid-song, make people laugh and then seamlessly return to singing. His set included “Roll the Old Chariot,” “Catch Tiny Fish for Japan,” “High Barbary” and finished with “Mary Ellen Carter.” And true to the chantey tradition there were singalongs.
Next Salon is scheduled for Feb. 11 with Poets Kelsey Goeres and Cassandra Dalle,t Irish musician Torilena and writer Barbara McVeigh.
