5-6 pm: “Joyride” bike ride with Mia from Bikestation in downtown Long Beach just a short trip to {open}  on 4th Street’s “Retro Row.”

6-6:30 pm Appetizers & Mingling

6:30-7:30 pm Mia’s talk followed by questions

7:30-8:00 pm – More mingling! Joyride will be available to purchase and Mia will sign your copy!

If it rains the event, the event will start at {open}.

This event is free for “basic” members of “Women On Bikes SoCal” or “basic” members of Bikeable Communities, and $10 for all others. To purchase ticket visit: www.womenonbikessocal.org/mia-birk-event-dec-2011

Bikestation is located at: 1st Street Transit Mall at Promenade Park 223 East 1st St Long Beach, CA 90802 Tel. (562) 436-2453 (there is a public parking lot immediately east of the building)

Bikestation is offering free bike valet at {open}!

The Southern California Book Release Party for AIM FOR THE HEAD is in full swing! Jeremy Radin, Brendan Constantine, Andy Buell, David Ohlsen, Raundi Moore, Daniel McGinn, Savanah Kondo, and Rick Lupert will be leading this zombie march.

Wear your Halloween costume or come as a zombie!

BRAAAAAAAAINSSSSS!

Join us in welcoming back our great friend and amazing artist, Mr. Blaine Fontana, for the book release event for…
AMALGAMATE

From ZERO+ Publishing:

AMALGAMATE surveys the richly detailed, highly imaginative world of Blaine Fontana. Imbuing his vision with the divine symbolism of religious myths, worldly folklore and current social dynamics, his works contain a kind of shamanic exploration of meaning that recognizes the totemic quality and power of the image.

Visit Blaine’s extensive website here:
www.thefontanastudios.com

Introducing WATCH THIS BOOK, a new series of free film screenings celebrating family-friendly classics that are adaptations of beloved literary works! This series – presented by Lola’s Mexican Cuisine , {open}, Laughing Stock Development – will also feature artists and exhibitors, and will take place on the Luther Burbank Elementary School playground as part of “Last Saturdays,” 4th Street Long Beach’s monthly neighborhood street event. Come early, enjoy 4th Street’s variety of independent restaurants and stores, visit our artists and exhibitors, and close your night out with a classic film!

The new series will kick off on Saturday, May 28 with a screening of 1962’s “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,” winner of three Academy Awards (Best Actor – Gregory Peck, Best Art Direction, and Best Adapted Screenplay), and widely considered to be the very best literary adaptation in cinema history. Guests are invited to bring their own chairs, blankets, picnic baskets – whatever you need to make yourself comfortable to enjoy this beloved classic!

Sorry: no pets, alcohol, or smoking will be permitted on school grounds. In the event of rain, this event will be rescheduled.

ATTENTION ARTISTS AND EXHIBITORS -
It’s not too late to participate in this event!
E-mail Angela at social.roman@gmail.com for information.

Sponsored by Lola’s Mexican Cuisine!
Come hungry – Lola’s will be on hand to keep you fed!

The trailer for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd7NFo9P-fg

If you haven’t made it out to a Patchwork yet, well, we’re giving you even more reason this time ’round, with the {open} room … a miniature {open} out in the open, featuring a lovely lil’ lineup of local musicians and authors! Hope to see you there!

Sunday, May 15 • 11am – 5pm
MARINE STADIUM BAYSHORE @ APPIAN WAY Long Beach, CA

the {open} room
featuring acoustic sets from

noon – TreeUnion
facebook.com/treeunion

1pm – Miniature Houses
facebook.com/miniaturehouses

130pm – Alyssandra Nighswonger

3pm – Alicia Murphy
aliciamurphymusic.com

and book readings/signings from

2pm – Cathy of California
Crafter, blogger and author Cathy Callahan will be talking about
and signing her new book, Vintage Craft Workshop.
vintagecraftworkshop.com
cathyofcalifornia.com

4pm – Greggory Moore
Local author Greggory Moore will be reading from
and discussing his debut novel, The Use of Regret. If you haven’t read it,
come hear some of it. If you have read it, come ask Greggory about it!
greggorymoore.com

Join us for the debut readings from the Write Bloody’s Dirty Dozen writing workshop.

Stay tuned for details!

A Write Bloody Book Release Party for

Sunset at the Temple of Olives
by Paul Suntup

Featuring performances from
Paul Suntup
and Mindy Nettifee

PLUS … Free olive oil to the first 25 guests!!

About Sunset at the Temple of Olives
Sunset at the Temple of Olives is the first full-length collection of poetry from admired Southern California poet and South African native Paul Suntup. Most of the poems in this book were written between 2005 and 2010 and are appearing here for the first time. Poets and reviewers have called the book an “imaginative tour de force,” with poems that “mix the delight and imagination of Brautigan with the stark, absurdist humor of Kafka and Donald Barthelme.” This debut collection is sure to establish Suntup as one of the most gifted and original voices of our generation.

Paul Suntup’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Rattle, Spillway, Artlife, Cider Press Review, ISM and the anthology 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day. After years of being active in the writing community and editing three books of poetry, he is finally releasing his first full-length book of poetry. Originally a native of South Africa, Suntup currently resides in Southern California.

Launch party for AIOP (Ashes in Orange Peels) magazine issue one and special edition hom[ep]rairie EP

• featuring Joy Shannon and Will Morrison, performing the EP in its entirety

• copies of AIOP and the EP will be available for sale ($15)

Book-release party for Greggory Moore’s The Use of Regret

Saturday, March 19 // 7 pm // FREE

The novel is complicated, but the event is simple. Come hang out for a bit, then listen to Greggory’s first-ever reading of a few selections from the 100+ sections of The Use of Regret, afterwhich DJ Bill Child will take to the turntables.

…
About The Use of Regret
The sudden death of Perry Gregson’s chronically ill little sister impels him to return from a semester abroad in Amsterdam to Southern California, his newfound emotional growth stunted by guilt and the parental modeling from which he had just begun to break free. Years later at the University of Washington, he reconnects with his Amsterdam girlfriend, though his failure to have developed a capacity for true intimacy dooms their love. Eventually obtaining a Ph.D. in philosophy and a history professorship, he enters into a relationship with a student, wherein the insidious patterns of Perry’s life continue to play out, even as her adoration of Pink Floyd and ways of coping with his existential doubt offer him escape from his cell of self.

The intricately interconnected 100+ sections of The Use of Regret are a (re)collection of Perry’s life formed by Perry himself as truths and fictions and fantasies in (to quote a seminal mind theorist within the novel) “an imaginative reconstruction, or construction, built out of the relation of our attitude towards a whole active mass of organized past reactions or experience.” With a substratum of meditations on the paradoxical unions of singularity and plurality, separateness and togetherness, language and the non-linguistic, The Use of Regret is Perry’s attempt to find within a life already lived, a life in which (as The Cure sang during his childhood) “no one ever knows or loves another,” a means to connect with the already-lost, “to atone, to make amends, pay tribute to your failures, you can’t really make restitution but you do your best, put in the effort anyway, willingly, that’s how you want to be now, no regrets, no regrets.”

About Greggory Moore
You might have seen his work in The District Weekly, the OC Weekly, L.A. Record, LBReport, the Gazette newspapers or the Los Angeles Times. You can read his theatre reviews on GreaterLongBeach.com and his column “No Destination” on LBPost.com. Sometimes you can find him at {open} helping out on either side of the counter. He’s probably at Portfolio right now.

For novel samples and more, greggorymoore.com.

Release party for

Jason Bowe’s poetry book “All the Pennies Wishes Bring”

and

Eminent Ruth’s EP “Live at the Dark Room”

With performances by

Michael Roberts, Jeremy Radin
Jason Bowe (accompanied on piano and synth by Brenda Carsey)
Eminent Ruth