In this November issue, Opposing Concepts, we present to you a mixture of poetry, photography, fiction, book reviews, and more! Many of these works present interesting antagonistic ideas or influences.

Dave Douglas’s poem is a flowing analysis of engrams:  waking life, sleeping life, memory, and reality.

Blanca Jones’ piece represents light and dark in terms of faith. Jones seeks to answer, How Can There Possibly Be a God?

We are excited to publish the work of new contributor Joseph Johnson. Johnson’s fictional work is appealing, and is as diabolical as it is suspenseful.

Liz Caruana’s photo series, She’s Leaving Home, is delicate yet bold in a quietly eager sort of way.

Whose Brain Is It? Presented as a mystery with fictional characters and clues, this is a monthly column with a journalist’s (Leena Prasad’s) perspective on brain research.

Book reviews this month include:

• Deborah Fruchey on City of Stairways: A Poet’s Field Guide to San Francisco, edited by Milta Ortiz
• Bruce Roberts on The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story, by Alfred J. Garrotto
• Christopher Bernard on You Deserve Nothing: A novel, by Alexander Maksik
• Marla Porter on A Dreamer in Egypt – The Poetry of Jaylan Salman

Bruce Roberts also reviewed the fabric and quilt art show at the Cinema Place Gallery in Hayward, California. Suzanne Birrell reviewed the gaming science lecture by Colin Milburn, which was held on Tuesday, October 4, 2011, in conjunction with the Northern California Science Writers Association.

Last month, we featured an article about Sarah Katherine Lewis’ new book, My Boring-Ass Rehab Diary. This month, Tapati McDaniels’ conversation with Lewis continues in Part II: self-publishing.

We also have a timely piece on the Occupy Wall Street movement, by Christopher Bernard.

Lastly, we recently announced ways that you can help support the flood relief effort in Southeast Asia. We would also like to mention the recent 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Turkey.  It is estimated that the death toll is now over 600 people. Click any of the following links to see how you can help: jdc.org, shelterbox.org, ifrc.org.

Engram (a pantoum)

“A hypothetical change in neural tissue postulated in order to account for persistence of memory-called also memory trace.” – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

amid the tunnel of yesterday and tomorrow
under pressure from wait and scurry
between sleep and wake, images borrow
and collapse under the weight of memory

under pressure from wait and scurry,
times past; built with a shifting foundation
and collapse under the weight of memory –
an awry mnemonic missing base isolation

times past built with a shifting foundation
face moments of persistent efface;
the mnemonic awry, missing base isolation
within the void – without a trace

face moments of persistent efface
as engrams are stacked to the sky
within the void, without a trace,
which oddly shifts the mnemonic awry

as engrams are stacked to the sky,
with numerous pathways of inception,
which shifts even the mnemonic awry
with levels of change and recollection

with numerous pathways of inception
from room-to-room evanescence,
with levels of change and recollection
who is the builder of reminiscence?

from room-to-room evanescence
between sleep and wake, images borrow;
who then is the builder of reminiscence
amid the tunnel of yesterday and tomorrow?

You can reach Dave Douglas at carpevelo@gmail.com.

She’s Leaving Home

Artist Statement:

Liz Caruana is a San Francisco based fashion, editorial, beauty, and portrait photographer.  Her work draws strongly on themes from cinema and she creates a full story by shooting several images.  Caruana’s work has been depicted as delicate, elegant and melancholic.

This particular photo series, She’s Leaving Home, is based on the 1967 song from The Beatles.

Email liz@lizcaruana.com for more info.

Blind Redemption

By Joseph Johnson

Adam Price woke once again from a fitful night of sleep. He looked over at the clock by his bedside and saw it was two o’clock in the morning. His head ached mercilessly, a throb that pounded on his temple, so he got up to wash his face. A picture of his wife caught his eye, the moonlight streamed in a single ray that rested on her picture. Adam was by no means a romantic, but he couldn’t help feeling butterflies in his stomach when he saw her with that gleaming smile on her face. He could even remember the first time he met her; Adam was a volcano of passion and Tiffany was a cyclone of emotion. The event that ensued afterward cannot be seen as anything less than disastrous. They were a true terror of nature; although on the outside they were a normal couple, inside they were writhing in a beautiful pain. Life, however, would never be worth living without that pain.

His house was quiet other than the heavy rain that pelted the roof, and he still found that calming and serene. He could barely open his eyes when he climbed into bed and felt for his wife Tiffany. His hand sliced through the air and Adam came back to consciousness. He found the light switch and turned it on. The room was empty besides him and two bedside tables with lamps and a book on each. Immediately he began calling her name, but heard nothing in return. Adam ran to the window and saw Tiffany’s car sitting on the street corner beside their apartment.

As he looked out into the darkness a figure appeared on the roof of the building across the street, and just as quickly it vanished. He played it off as a trick of the darkness and resumed his search. The only place left for her to be was in her office. When he entered the room he fell to his knees. Papers were scattered about the room and her work lamp lit up a symbol on the wall; a massive beast sat within a circle that bore a language Adam had never seen, it was a grotesque sight. He saw this symbol once before in an installment of five articles Tiffany was writing on a very violent and aggressive satanic cult. She was in the process of writing her last article the night before. In previous articles she explained in detail the victims, place, and consistency of the rituals. As Adam picked up the only paper left on her desk he discovered a rough draft of the final installment, where she actually pinpointed the time and place of the next ritual by using her other installments as a formula. The place was a catholic church just outside of the city roughly fifteen miles away, the time was five o’clock this morning. A knot filled his throat and tears formed in his eyes.

Joseph Johnson is currently attending Georgia Southern University, majoring in English with a minor in writing. He previously attended East Georgia College, where he published works for a literary journal called the Wiregrass. You can contact Johnson at forgivenjj@gmail.com.

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[Article by Suzanne Birrell]

Who is Colin Milburn?

Down deep he is appears happy kid-at-heart who gets paid for playing video games.   How exactly does one get a job playing video games? First go to school and get lots and lots of education.  Colin’s education (for example) includes a Ph.D. /Ph.D. from Harvard University, 2005; M.A. from Stanford University, 1999; B.S. from Stanford University, 1999; and B.A. from Stanford University, 1998.

Sounds like the penultimate nerd?  Let’s add: Colin Milburn joined the UC Davis faculty in 2005 as an Associate Professor of English.  His research focuses on the cultural relations between literature, science, and technology. His interests include science fiction; gothic horror; the history of biology; the history of physics; nanotechnology; video games; and post humanism.

Wow, what a guy.   And I was lucky enough to be able to catch his lecture on Tuesday, October 4, 2011, before the NCSWA.  (That’s Northern California Science Writers Association–I didn’t know before now either).

The subject of the lecture promised to be fascinating:  Does science fiction feed on the outer edges of scientific discovery, or does it actually lead the way – pointing the direction for researchers to follow?

You can reach Suzanne Birrell at Suzanne@thisoldhippy.com.

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[Reviewed by Deborah Fruchey]

The first thing I noticed about this book was the good production values. It is pleasing to look at, to flip through, and to hold: the photos (taken by the students) are good, the artwork is fresh with great colors, the fonts are clear, the shiny, heavy paper is nice to turn in your hands. The 7 x 7 inch format is just the size and heft to be a bit more than a pocket book, but not too much. This is not a book that takes itself terribly seriously. It is meant to be a fun read.

City of Stairways is a brainchild of the WritersCorps Apprentice Program, which takes poetry to the high schools and offers an after school curriculum for advanced young writers, and the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Public Library, who sponsor WritersCorps. As such, it is as much  a tour guide to interesting San Francisco neighborhoods as it is a poetry book, and this serves the volume well.

The writers are each represented by little cartoon icons (by Hong Truong), which are engaging and add interest to the maps (uncluttered and attractive, by Adrienne Aquino). The book is organized around City field trips taken by the group, each with its own area map marked with stops and points of interest (given that these are teenagers, it’s no surprise that many of these spots are eateries!). For each trip, there is about one page of well-written description of what the group saw, did, and liked, and another page listing nearby public transport and “fun facts” about that part of the City. There are also a few source references and a quote or two about that locality by luminaries, such as Lemony Snicket, or some local notable.

The poems are generally no more than pleasant, good enough for relatives and friends to treasure, which is enough to expect out of high school students of any generation. There are two striking exceptions. Indiana Pehlivanova is vivid, insightful, surprising, and surprisingly sophisticated in both viewpoint and technique. She will clearly be a fine poet some day, and I will frankly be watching for her on the SF poetry scene in the next few years. The other winner is Robin Black, who tends a little toward the slam style, with an immediacy to his work which is refreshing.

All in all, a book to enjoy, and worth buying if you want to support the youth art programs of San Francisco. Some of their field trips unearthed city treasures I have overlooked; you may catch me poking around the SF neighborhoods sometime soon.

You can contact the reviewer, Deborah Fruchey, at lastlaughpro@gmail.com.