There always seems to be one weekend in the fall when there’s just too much going on. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, this weekend boasts not only Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free music festival in Golden Gate Park founded by the late philanthropist and financier Warren Hellman, but also Fleet Week. And it’s the first weekend of Litquake, the city’s rocking literary festival. Not to mention this Saturday night is the annual party for Adopt-a-Family of Marin, a wonderful non-profit organization that supports local families in need. As an Irish friend once said to my husband Charlie and I when we lived in London, “You’re just spoiled for choice!”
The late Warren Hellman playing his banjo at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
I’ll be celebrating Litquake on Saturday from 2-3 p.m. by taking part in the opening “Off the Richter Scale” series. The panel I’m on is called “Around the World, On the Page,” and I’m looking forward to catching up with fellow authors Tamim Ansary, Carolina De Robertis, Zoe Ferraris, and Aimee Phan. But I’m also a bit disappointed because Scott James (whose pen name is Kemble Scott) will be emceeing the “Litquake in the Castro” event – a series of provocative outdoor readings held at Jane Warner Plaza, at the corner of Castro and Market Street, starting at 1:00 p.m. that day. There’s no way for me to make it from the Castro readings to the Variety Preview Room, which is in the financial district, in time to attend both fun events.
After work tonight, I’m headed after work today to exhibit of the BayWood Artists at the Bay Model in Sausalito. The opening reception is this Friday, October 5th, from 5-8 p.m. and the show runs Tuesdays through Saturdays, from October 5th through the 26th. One of the Baywood Artists is our dear family friend Zenaida “Zee Zee” Mott. It is truly a reflection of the generous character for Zee Zee and her fellow plein air painters to arrange to donate fifty percent of the sales from this show to support our open space district and the Point Reyes National Seashore. I’ll be there to support her and to also support one of our fabulous nearby park. Join us in Sausalito on Friday night for what will surely be a great evening! (And in another example of the “spoiled for choice” phenomenon, Zee Zee’s grandson Ian Mott will be one of the teens playing in a band at nearby Proof Lab surf shop in Mill Valley tonight. It’s a benefit to raise financial aid funds for less advantage kids to attend the Branson School. I’m hoping to stop in for that, as well!) Sunday, it’s Hardly Strictly and an open house for the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. It’ll take all week to recover…
