(LITERARY) LION KINGS

It's been two and a half years since Jim Houston lost his battle with cancer, and Santa Cruz lost one of its most treasured icons (as well as one of its most beloved favorite sons). So it's quite an unexpected pleasure to hear that a new Houston book is coming out, complete with a star-studded launch party and reading this Sunday at Cabrillo College.

"A Queen's Journey" is the historical novel on the life of Hawa'ii's last sovereign queen, Lili'uokalani, that Jim was working on at the time of his death. The book is unfinished, but the 120 pages of solid storytelling left behind will see publication via Heyday Books, an independent publisher in Berkeley, as a gift to Houston fans everywhere.

Sunday's kickoff event begins at 2:30 p.m. at the Cabrillo College Music Recital Hall. Among Jim's friends and colleagues who will be reading from his work are Alan Cheuse, Maxine Hong Kingston, Al Young, Karen Joy Fowler, Wallace Baine, Geoffrey Dunn and Stephen Kessler. Jeannie Houston will also speak, and live Hawa'iian music will be provided by Braddah Timmy.

Admission is free, but advance tickets are required. Go here and print yours out right now. I'll see you there!

Speaking of lost literary lions, this month also marks the second anniversary of the passing of Morton Marcus. Although, in Mort's case, I'm sure he'd rather be remembered as a brown bear, his totem animal.

(Here he is, looking very debonair, on the road in France. The first time we went to France with Mort, his wife, Donna, and our pals Bruce and Marcia McDougal, Art Boy and I took the train to Switzerland for a couple of days and brought Mort back a Swiss chocolate bear from Bern, whose city mascot is the bear. The next time we went to France, we all went to Bern together, which became Mort's favorite medieval city—until he and Donna discovered Prague a couple of years later. That we never had a chance to all visit Prague together is one of the great regrets of my life.)

Anyway, it's ironic that we lost both Mort and Jim Houston in the same year, two very different men with different sensibilities, but longtime friends whose lives and careers were entwined for some 50 years. And as Jim has been memorialized by the annual James D. Houston Award established by Houston's family and Heyday Books, Mort is remembered in the annual Morton Marcus Poetry Reading established in his honor by Poetry Santa Cruz, Cabrillo College, UCSC, and Ow Family Properties.

Last year's inaugural poetry event with Robert Hass at the Cabrillo Recital Hall was a sellout. This year's 2nd Annual Morton Marcus Poetry Reading will spotlight Kay Ryan, Pulitzer Prize-winner and U.S. Poet Laureate, 2008-2010. Gary Young, Shirley Ancheta, and Jeff Tagami will also be on the program. But take note: this year the venue has changed to the UCSC campus, at the Music Recital Hall, 3 pm, Sunday, November 20. Admission is free, but seating is limited, so plan to get there early. As a special incentive, selected items from the new Morton Marcus Archive will be open for viewing at Special Collections in the newly refurbished McHenry Library from 1-3 p.m. on the day of the reading.

SPIRIT GUIDES

Hey, kids, let's hop into the Wayback Machine for a jaunt back in time to Santa Cruz in the early 1970s. If you've seen the Big Creek Pottery ceramics and photo exhibit at the MAH, you may have enjoyed the quaint glimpse into commune life of that era, but the fact is, in those days, the same arty Bohemian vibe spread across all aspects of local culture. And perhaps nowhere was this more evident than up on the hill, where the spirit guides of the Santa Cruz arts community were shepherding UCSC through it's first decade of existence.

I was reminded of all this last week when, in the process of searching for something or other online, I stumbled upon an exceptional collection of vintage Santa Cruz images from photographer and former Cruzan Jim Hair. Like me, Jim was a student at the UCSC entity formerly known as College V (now Porter) in the very early '70s. But while I spent most of my time trying to navigate around the campus and get to my (pre-noon) classes on time and awake, Jim was doing something far more useful—documenting life in Santa Cruz, on and off campus, with his trusty Rolleiflex.

The set of 91 SC images on Jim's Flickr site contains some lovely shots of the wild, natural world in places like Pebble Beach, Point Lobos, and the redwoods of UCSC. But it's his collection of stunning portraits that will really melt your heart, especially those of the cultural icons and assorted Godmothers and Godfathers who created and shaped the Santa Cruz arts community that still exists today.

I fell in love with this portrait of Mary Holmes, busily painting angels for her own enjoyment up in her magical hilltop retreat. You'll find the inimitable Jasper Rose, in a natty bow tie, precariously posed on a rustic wooden bench in his art-bedecked hallway, Page Smith and Paul Lee on a picnic, George Hitchcock at work on his printing press, William K. Everson hugging a tree, Wavy Gravy debarking from his bus at the UCSC Quarry, a forthright Angela Davis, Gregory Bateson, screenwriter-to-be Charlie Haas, Futzie Nutzle, and some wonderfully evocative portraits of Jim Houston up in his workroom aerie. And that's just to name a scant few.

These photos aren't about nostalgia. Rather, they represent a kind of alchemy of time, place, spirit, and sensibility, captured by a gifted observer. Take a look, and enjoy!