More Cafe Gratitude pics

Ok, this is the enchilada dish my friend Angela had. All of the plates (and the sign out front) ask..."What are you grateful for?" I love it!

Cafe Gratitude

One of my absolute favorite places to eat is Cafe Gratitude. These pictures, taken with a new camera from my parents, speak for themselves....It is a delightful place (raw, organic) with the BOMB desserts. I swear I've had almost every one on the menu!

Hate Mail part 2

Can you believe I have gotten more hate mail???? Check it out, this time with threats! Please pray for this person.


Dear Aliona:

You are a fraud and an opportunist. You are being forewarned to REMOVE
MY
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL EMAIL FROM YOUR WEBSITE. The following was
attached to the e-mail and it indicated that it is "NOT TO BE USED FOR
DISTRIBUTION, DISSEMINATION (ELECTRONIC OR WRITTEN)...WITHOUT THE
WRITTEN
CONSENT OF THE WRITER." What part of that did you NOT UNDERSTAND? If
you
do not remove it, I will pursue legal action against you for not
complying with my request. This was written to you personally. It figures that
you
are a two-faced, Janus-faced GERMini. Like germs, you spread your
hypocritical, infectuous, toxic waste in South Africa and now, in
AmeriKKKa.
Shame on you. But, people like you (i.e., those without a
conscience)
don't experience the emotion of "shame." In your criticism of South
Africans, I think Tupac's song "Wonda Why We Call You B***ch" aptly
applies
to black Americans like you!! If he had any consciousness, he should
have
entitled it: "Wonda Why We Call You N**ggas!" Why? Because you will
DO
ANYTHING TO MAKE A DOLLAR! [Even refer to your women/mothers, etc. as
"B**ches! With Marcus, Malcolm and Martin preaching to black
Americans, it
still has not helped them develop a conscious--they still have a
culture of
BETRAYAL. Kudos to MANDELA--he had a better group of Africans to work
with.
Even your scathing HATE MAIL cannot take away his glory!! I believe
your
anger is directed at South Africans because they did NOT accept your
lewd,
homosexual lifestyle as "normal." I cannot believe that you read the
book,
"Volunteer Slavery"--you are the female version of Juan Williams (a
snake
among sheep).

Govern yourself accordingly. I will check your webiste within 10 days.
If
it is not REMOVED, I will contact legal authorities.

Vehemently,
Rose


NOTE: PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL: THE CONTENTS OF THIS RESPONSE IS NOT
TO
BE USED FOR DISTRIBUTION, DISSEMINATION (ELECTRONIC OR WRITTEN) OR FOR
PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE WRITER. IT IS NOT TO BE
USED
FOR REPRINT OR PUBLICATION BY THE GLOBE NEWSPAPERS OR ALIONA GIBSON OR
ANY
OF ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AGENTS OR ASSIGNS WITH THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT
OF
THE AUTHOR.

Rewrites

Everything that I have written to date needs to be rewritten, several times, so really I haven't even scratched the surface! Check it out...

Deep in the shed (four months later!)

Back in 1989 or 1990 jazz pianist Marcus Roberts released an album called Deep in the Shed. Before going out on his own, he played with Wynton Marsalis. I never owned the album the title rings true for me-some 17 years later. I did own his inaugural album The Truth is Spoken Here which was amazing.

I am deep in the shed. It means to be deeply involved or engrossed in study or practice. For the past month I have been re-writing my travelogue on South Africa. I was in denial about having to re-do it. I should know better. Not only that, I am truly committed to becoming a better writer. If that means re-writing my 279 first draft (started in June 2005) then so be it. I actually faked on three people last weekend. I was in the zone. I hate doing that and didn’t’ do it on purpose but when it’s flowing like that, I need to take advantage.

That draft will serve as the way to get the book out of my head and onto paper. The version I am working on now is being crafted. Big difference. My editor introduced me to putting things in scene and told me to think of the book as a movie when I write. As a result, an incident that I wrote about in two or three paragraphs is now five pages. It’s a much more involved process and requires more skill and imagination. It is my attempt at putting the reader in the experience instead of just telling them about it. It’s a challenge and different from how I am used to writing but I believe it will make for a better book. I also realize that not everything that I am writing will end up in the book, its part of the process (like the first draft) of getting to the ones that will be used.

So far I have written thirty-five scenes ranging from two or three pages to ten. I knew I was nowhere near being done but didn’t know exactly how much more I have to write until last night. I am a list keeper so I had a bunch of pieces of paper with lists of things that need to be re-done in scene. I put them all on one piece of paper and its forty-one incidents/events. It sounds overwhelming but not only can I do it, I WILL do it. I am committed.

I now realize that I must have been smoking crack to think I would be able to make my initial deadline. For now, I am just going to write my heart out. Of course everything I have written thus far (approx. a hundred and sixty pages) is a first draft and will need to be revised many times over.

In the meantime, check out Flowers of the Nation by Sandile Memela. Fred Khumalo’s novel Bitches Brew is supposed to be available on April 1st. If his fiction is as good as his nonfiction, you are in for a treat. His memoir Touch My Blood was off the hook. Loved it. I don’t think you can get it here but try, you won’t regret it.

My new stuff

Just today I have started working, seriously on my book. But before today I started doing collages. I like it. Fun but really me procrastinating. I was inspired by a profile of someone for black history month. The profile included a wall filled with old family photos...well, that was my summer project...to organize, digitize and frame my old family photos. It never happened. I am still going to do it. This is a picture circa 1945 of my Uncle Buddy and Toot. He was my grandmothers younger brother and she was the daughter of my grandmothers older sister Aunt O.T. I have a fabulous picture of her too. I pasted colored tissue paper to this photo. I am not finished with it...it needs something else but I haven't figured out what yet....

Update...

Well folks I am in the thick of it, sort of...I have this really great editor, Lea Aschkenas, going thru my first draft of the travelogue on South Africa. She is very thorough and I consider her a good writer (I read her book Es Cuba, loved it!). I guess I won't REALLY be in the "thick of it" until I get it back from her and start re-writing based on her editorial input. In the meantime, you all can be looking for Touch My Blood by Fred Khumalo (published by Umuzi, a division of Random House). It is an awesome book. HIGHLY recommend that you get your hands on a copy. Please try and find this book, it will be SO worth it. When I have time to figure it out. I will post the cover of both of these books. They are great.

Aliona, Woody and Shiree at Pro Arts-Nov. 2006

Getting serious!

O.k. now I am getting serious about my writing. I have been lagging for months and making up excuses but now it's time, finally. Writing is hard and scary. Hard because I think I tend to be so critical and hard on myself. Scary in that telling the truth and being really honest is always a difficult thing. I am really ready to dive in...actually I have been working on it for about six weeks now. I mean, seriously working on it. My laptop was about to die, of course, right when I decide to get serious. I freaked out and took it to Ray who is fixing it for me. I nearly had a panic attack when I thought I was going to have to buy a new one. Here is an interesting story about the way things work out. For those who don't know, this book I am working on is a travelogue about my time in South Africa. I have never written a travel anything, how I came up with the idea to do a travelogue is still a mystery to me...I was contemplating paying six hundred and thirty five dollars to go to a Travel Writers conference in Corte Madera. It looked like exactly what I need but the classes were only two or three hours long. Corte Madera is far and hard to get to so I would have had to stay in a hotel for three or four nights. Anyway, I couldn't decide whether or not I should go....I decided not to but wasn't sure I had made the right decision...I was like "hell, I have a two hundred and fifty page manuscript to work with, a two hour course won't even scratch the surface". So I decided not to go but the same day I decided not to go I got an email from my writing mentor/role model Evelyn C. White asking if I wanted to attend a writing retreat she's doing at Mills College in Oakland! I told her yes and she emailed me back that it will be free. So I held out and got something that was more along the lines of what I should be looking for...something small and that focuses on the writing, not a wine and cheese social event like what was going to be taking place in Corte Madera. If I wasn't planning to self publish my book maybe it would have been in my best interest to go to Book Passages Travel Writing Conference. I saw a testemonial from Elliott Hester on the site. He is a flight attendant turned travel writer who has a couple of books out. Check him out at www.elliotthester.com

So, anyway, wish me luck. I am about to really, for real, get busy on my book. I have a Sept. 15th deadline to have a first draft to a new editor whose book on Cuba I really, really loved. I will post more on her when I am sure we will be working together. I have been saving diligently for this book and it's going to be the BOMB-diggity!!!!!!! I am very excited about it. Ok, that's it for now.

Award nomination!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that I am a work in progress. I have a good idea of some of my issues and what I need to work on in order to become a better person. I was reminded of one of them when I got an email from the San Francisco Black Film Festival a few weeks ago about the award finalists. I submitted my short documentary Head Designs for the festival. Several months later when I got this email about finalists for the Melvin Van Peebles Awards I almost deleted it. Something inside told me to look at the email. I was SO molded when my name was on it under the Best Short Documentary catagory. What a trip. It's my first effort making a video and I LOVE my video and am very proud of it but somehow didn't think I could be nominated for an award. Negative thinking. It's a shame. I need to work on having a more positive attitude. Or at least looking at the big picture. Hell, I just wanted to get into the festival...the award part never even entered my mind....and just like that, I am an award-nominated director! My first short is a competition finalist!

Seeing the video on a large screen and with a few people I didn't know was fun and exiciting. I look forward to more festivals. I have submitted to Oakland International, Mad Cat Women's and the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festivals. Will keep you posted. For now though, I am trying REALLY hard to work on my travelogue. I want to be going to press sometime late this summer....will keep you posted.