The Cooking Show con Karimi y Castro @ SomArts Cultural Center

Sharing smells with the Community “I’m sharing smells with the community, sister.”
• Mero Cocinero Karimi

Though the show was billed to start at 7:00pm, Mero Cocinero Karimi—aka Guatemalan-Iranian performance artist Robert Karimi—wasted no time in serving up his blend of nutritious locally grown produce, subversive common sense politics, and engaging thought provoking theatre to the hungry audience who arrived early at the SomArts Cultural Center.

A half-hour before show time a lucky mom, randomly pulled from the audience, played sous-chef on stage helping Mero Cocinero prepare a preliminary appetizer. In return, Mero Cocinero gave her tips on how she could find inner calm and balance through the act of cross-dicing white onions: a fitting start to “The Cooking Show con Karimi y Castro.”

The actual start of the show brought Mero Cocinero and Comrade Cocinero Castro, played by Filipino writer/director/master chef John Manal Castro, out to welcome the audience and break down how we can seek to combat rice-ism and the diabetes of democracy afflicting our world through locally grown and lovingly prepared fresh meals shared with friends and family.

I would love to tell you more but it would be giving away too much; plus, it wouldn’t do any good to write about the flavors and textures of the appetizers when they should be enjoyed live.

The lure of free delicious food is not lost on Karimi y Castro who are able to exchange a refreshing Mast-o Khiyar for some great audience participation, some hummus bi tahini con chile de arbol for an impromptu Q&A, and lumpia campesina for a group tour of SomArts’ gallery. (Recipes from the show are here on the Cooking Show’s blog.)

A shout out to John Manal Castro for being the perfect fall-guy: self-deprecating but well meaning with the right comeback line and bounce back attitude that keeps the show moving. And mad props to Robert Karimi for putting on another wonderful theater experience (his last show in the Bay, a one-man exploration of his Iranian heritage, man/mardaan: farid to freddie mercury, was a highlight of the ’06 USAAF) that lives up to its promise of “serving up stories (and) healthy political discussion combined with delicious culinary samples, guaranteeing every audience member their own satisfying taste.”

More Cooking Show
Robert Karimi’s website
John Manal Castro’s MySpace
The Cooking Show website

The Newness: Pinecones- A Podcast of Young Poets

Pinecones is a podcast designed to showcase the work and talents of young poets. It is run by university students, so much of the work one will find on this website will be from poets writing in a university environment. However, we are looking to promote the fine work of any and all young poets— in other words: university-trained or not, if you are interested, please send us your work and we will get back to you as soon as we can about the possible inclusion of some of it in a future show.

Pinecones also features readings and interviews with older, more established poets, poets who have taught creative writing for many years and who, in recounting their own development as young poets, may be able to offer insight into the individual pursuits of mastery this generation of young poets is beginning upon.

Pinecones are defined here as gifts to humanity—a pinecone may be a toy sheep, a bottle of beer, or, in the case, a poem or an interview committed to disc and hard drive and made available on this website for anyone to take and keep or share with others.

The first Pinecones podcast features Andrew Cooper, Franzi Roesner, Patrick Rosal, Donika Ross, Michael Swellander, and Thomas Whitbread.

You can download the premiere episode here.

Sample a look back you look and find/ Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check

Edwards Endorses Obama
The timing on this is so right that it feels like a good turn in a poem. We all knew it was coming (Did anyone think Edwards would back the Clintons?) but it still feels like a surprise. This would also explain Obama’s calm demeanor post-West Virginia.

For the record: I don’t blame Clinton for sticking through to the very end. If the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Obama who was mathematically in the red, I wouldn’t want him to give it up. Take it all the way to the convention and plan to go out in some kinds glory.

Of War and Golf
Not gulf, but golf. Keith Olbermann goes buckwild on the Administration again. I’m digging the turn of the phrase and the build up.

Is it poetic? Well, at least it makes a stand, mirrors the ridiculous with the tragic, and brandishes language like a fine sword.

Vibe.com Adds Jeff Chang As Political Blogger
I’ve been diggin Chang’s take on the primaries and look forward to his views on the rest of this critical political year.

Fight the Power
Has it really been almost 20 years since PE brought the noise? Damn, I’m old.

Luckily, Chuck’s message is alive as ever and if there was ever a year to come on and get down. This is it.

I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped/ Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps

Palabra.

X-Post: No Thonx for the Bronx

Bronx Journal
Borough Gets Scant Notice for Hospitality
By DAVID GONZALEZ

The people who published AAA’s 2008 New York tour book had a hard time recommending any hotels in the Bronx. They could find only one, in fact.

§
“The more things are supposed to change, the more it stays the same,” (says Julio Pabon, a local businessman and community advocate.) “People think the Bronx is still a no man’s land so nobody wants to stay here. So there’s no place to stay.”

More here.

Contest: Poets Eleven

[Props to Creative Writers Opportunities List for the heads up on this.]

Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, the San Francisco Public Library and Former San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman are pleased to announce Poets Eleven, a citywide poetry contest that will include poetry readings at branch libraries throughout San Francisco. Submissions will be made by residents of each of the City’s 11 districts.

Local poets are encouraged to submit up to three poems for review. Mr. Hirschman is particularly interested in submissions which reflect San Francisco’s diversity of language and culture. He encourages poets who write in languages other than English to submit works. Presenting poets will be selected by the former Poet Laureate and all poets whose work is chosen will receive fifty dollars for their readings.

Poets can submit work by email to bspoonerbookevents@friendssfpl.org or by regular mail to:

Poets Eleven
Book Bay Fort Mason
Fort Mason Center, Bldg. C
San Francisco, Ca 94123

Submissions must include a return address, email or phone number and district for a response, but poets may also bring their work to any branch library and then arrange to return to that same branch for a response.

The deadline for all submissions has been extended to June 1, 2008.

Click here to download entry form (pdf).