Everyone’s invited to the second semiannual Synchronized Chaos contributor’s and reader’s reception – Friday, January 22nd. Five to nine in the evening, drop-in as you like.

San Francisco’s Caffe Trieste North Beach, 601 Vallejo Street. Trieste stays open till midnight and is near the Beat Museum, which is open till seven and which we may also visit while we’re there.
 
Come on out and network and meet our contributors! Trieste’s accessible via BART to Montgomery Station, then the 8X Muni to Columbus St/North Beach. Come on out and honor the memory of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, Diane di Prima, etc. European style cafe with sandwiches, pastries, wine/beer, sparkling cider, and plenty of coffee drinks!

Please email cedeptula@sbcglobal.net to RSVP (nice, but not necessary) or for more info/directions.

Many of you found Synchronized Chaos Magazine along the journey towards publication of your book or articles. We kicked off this virtual publication intending to create a virtual writers’ conference, a place where people can network and mentor each other concerning the craft of writing and the ins and outs of publication. Where people can put in good words for each other and locate other writers to endorse and talk up their work.

So far, that’s happened here and there in spurts and trickles – which excites us, since flesh and blood, bricks and mortar conferences, classes, degree programs, etc are out of reach for many talented authors due to cost, time and distance. We at Synchronized Chaos seek to make that experience possible for all interested writers, to strengthen and promote the future of these art forms.

However, if you can attend one offline writers’ conference this coming year, as your Creative Facilitator, I strongly encourage you to choose the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, once again hosted over President’s Day Weekend (February 12-14) in the historic Mark Hopkins Hotel.

Last year, when I attended, the variety of personalities and workshop offerings most impressed me. One can choose among intellectual discussions of world cultural history, high-minded talks about the nature and future of writing, workshops on aspects of craft (character development, pacing, sentence craft, etc), specific marketing and proposal-writing/editor and publisher-finding advice from businesspeople in the writing field.

There’s something for everyone, fiction and nonfiction writers, book and article authors, beginners and more experienced people, the old and the young, the well-connected and those just learning their way around. And there are the presenters who offer information which many other folks don’t realize writers need…for example, last year I heard a woman speak on nonverbal communication in networking – how to project confidence and friendliness through body language and better connect with others. Other speakers shared wisdom on interviewing from their years of journalistic experience covering the Chinese Cultural Revolution, tracking down serendipitously discovered Indonesian painters, and explaining the rest of the world to the United States. Interview skills can prove useful to novelists seeking authentic material, as well as journalists…and the seminar attracted a diverse crowd.

This phrase has become cliche for writers’ conferences – but for the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, the best and most professionally important moments likely will be the connections you make with others. Not just editors and agents and famous published writers, although plenty plan to attend and share expertise, including Kevin Smokler, Frances Dinkelspiel, Jerry Cimino of the SF Beat Museum, and a large assortment of representatives from major agencies in New York and elsewhere.

The conference offers ‘Speed Dating’ with literary agents – a session where for an extra $50 you can share your book idea with a whole variety of agents of your choice, and become inspired by everyone else’s book ideas around your table.

But you’ll likely benefit most from the random connections – ordinary people similar to yourself, who might take an interest in your project and write a foreword, coach you on your proposal, direct you to a writers’ group in your area or add you on LinkedIn and introduce you to contacts at publications where you might want to work. The conference includes a cocktail reception, book signings, and sometimes special discussions hosted by conference founders and agents Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen. Last year we discussed what any professional writers can learn from Greg Mortenson’s memoir of climbing mountains and building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan…courage, creativity, resilience, determination, finding a cause greater than oneself around which to focus one’s life. 

The founders and speakers worked to take the conference’s emphasis off of simply promoting oneself for fame and success and to encourage us to invest time and thought into how best to competently communicate worthwhile messages, and to preserve and continue our world literary and cultural heritage. The SFWC resolutely remains educational, cultural, and professional – never a personality-cult or namedropping event. As a journalist, reviewer, and art writer, the experience challenged me to develop my skills and also to locate people and stories worth describing to a larger audience, such as Mortenson’s community-based efforts to help educate poor Central Asian children. Larsen and Pomada also collected donations for the school-building foundation, allowing our community of writers to reach out to those possibly learning to read and write for the first time.

Everyone at the SFWC, famous or not, has a story, and one could write a novel synthesized from the experiences of the attendees. I remember meeting a lady writing a memoir of her experiences as a Vietnam War nurse, an aspiring Egyptian scholar and poet who thought perhaps she knew one of Synchronized Chaos’ contributors, an Australian herpetologist creating a virtual library of natural history, and a couple of professors from my alma mater (UC Davis) creating formal poetry based on their past lives as rock musicians. And the people’s stories stayed with me even longer than some of the educational material – although I purchased CD’s of the workshops I couldn’t attend, along with some I participated in but wanted to review. I still have, and still occasionally listen to, the speakers from the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, and strongly believe the material has improved my craft.

In many ways, which many people don’t realize until they take their craft to a professional level, writing for publication is a team sport. And the San Francisco Writers’ Conference presents an incredible opportunity to strategize, prepare, and hone craft and marketing skills with your teammates!

You may sign up for the San Francisco Writers’ Conference through their website, www.sfwriters.org – the event takes place in San Francisco’s Mark Hopkins Hotel February 12-14th, with a theme of “Building Bridges to Better Tomorrows.”

Welcome to the January 2010 issue of Synchronized Chaos! Our editorial team hopes this magazine release date finds you warm and dry, or cool and happy, depending on wherever you live.

This month our contributors worked with different aspects of communication and connection despite the obstacles of our time – hence, the monthly theme, from the soundtrack to the musical RENT, where frustrated young artists express their hopes for bringing people together through their work and in their own lives.

In some ways, technology connects people much more effectively than ever before. One can call or email people one likely never would have met back in the days of small medieval village life. Yet, as communication becomes faster and faster, we can become so used to immediate updates on the news and on others’ lives that we neglect to invest time and attention in the people around us. William Brixton highlights this contrast in his two short pieces involving highly connected, yet highly confused and distracted, characters, “Text Message” and “The Two Week Solution.” Relationship building takes time and occurs in a context of mutual familiarity and trust, rather than the brevity and immediacy technology can facilitate. Small talk often goes beyond 140 Twitter characters and can run up one’s text-messaging bill – yet this prelude to a deeper connection builds the trust which eventually makes greater levels of intimacy possible.

Joseph Urso introduces a bit of postmodern philosophical fancy, reminiscent of Saint-Exupery, with a fly on the wall who becomes a prophet in order to awaken and distract humans from vain schemes to conquer the world. Here we look into what lengths people (or flies) will go to in order to communicate with each other, and what that connection might look like from another perspective.

Javier Clorio’s documentary Road to Nowhere allows Mexican immigrants working in the United States a chance to share their stories and directly address native-born Americans. Clorio crosses cultural barriers, and literally translates the narrative from Spanish to English, so people may have a chance to connect with each other. We are able to see the commonalities and connections among seemingly disparate people – Americans, and Mexicans, attempting to live the American Dream of material progress and success.

Returning poet Dee Allen bears witness to the fallout when inter-cultural communication breaks down. His contributions this month express his rage at the effects of generations of racism, and at feeling alienated from the Olympics and from mainstream culture in general. Yet, we also see his pride, and defiant assertion through writing that he will continue to exist in his own right and stand for what he believes.

Aerosol paint artist Max Ehrman asserts his vision through a medium which positions his artwork directly in people’s path: spraypaint on walls. Through legal graffiti outlets and eventually art galleries, he connects with others by placing outsized seahorses, palm trees, and other organically inspired images out for public discussion. In Ehrman’s vision, nature comes into the depths of the city, and bright color adorns plain brick and concrete.

Claudine Naganuma, and the rest of danceNaganuma and Peace about Life: Dancing With Parkinson’s cast, crew and ensemble also communicate through contrasts. They cast dancers of a mixture of ages, ethnicities, and physical abilities to metaphorically and literally express how to cope and keep one’s life beautiful even through age and disease.

Cynthia Lamanna’s son Elijah’s poem, recently rediscovered after his passing, also deals with loss and inevitable life change. In honor of a cousin who became like a little sister to him, the piece celebrates their relationship by describing how the sight of their special garden causes him to miss her. Her absence becomes all the more poignant, as he does not describe all that he has lost, but all the beauty which still surrounds him in the garden, but how even that cannot compensate.

Elijah Lamanna’s work illustrates our perennial need for connection and the beauty of communicating and building relationships with others, despite the very real challenges our busy lives and economic uncertainty throw our way. Through this issue, our contributors celebrate and honor this need, and we invite you to connect with the stories they share.

Happy New Year to all those who observe it this January!

Javier Clorio’s video documentary profiles undocumented Mexican immigrant Gabriel Hernandez’ unsuccessful attempt to make a better life for himself and his family in the United States.

Road to Nowhere poses a memorable question to its international audience: would you risk your life for the chance to earn ten to thirty times your current salary?

Many Mexican nationals considering legal or illegal migration north to the United States face that dilemma. Through profiling the Hernandez family and focusing in on the economic conditions where they live, filmmaker Javier Clorio presents immigration as more of a pragmatic than a cultural or societal issue. People, whether immigrants or native born Americans, tend to seek out the best available work to support themselves and their families.

For Gabriel Hernandez, that meant choosing the difficult life of a California day laborer rather than staying in Mexico and selling flowers to passersby. Told in his own words, with Clorio filming the family and their simple home, the story contains some surprising, powerful moments. How Hernandez appreciated the food, shelter, and educational opportunities he found while incarcerated in the USA for a crime he swears he did not commit. The fragile solace praying to occult icon Santa Muerte provides him, and the resigned desperation behind his requests. The tension prolonged separation causes for marriages and families when men travel north alone to work, which Clorio presents with compassion and sensitivity.

Clorio presents the desperation of Mexico City’s working classes with the sensibility of a citizen-journalist. Many scenes come across as if he simply walked through town carrying his camera, viewing the cityscape on any random day, stopping whenever he encountered police, street vendors, or any illustrative moment. And it is those panoramic shots of the metropolis which best drive home the points he expresses through statistics – the sense of just how many people live in Mexico, and what it means for high percentages of them to go without adequate education or employment.

Tighter, more attentive filmmaking would strengthen the piece, as sometimes the statistics seem off-center on the screen and at one point the camera shakes, making viewing difficult. Also, organizing the documentary around the emerging themes of faith, family, intercultural communication, and the American/human dream for a better life, with a nod at the middle and the end to what gets discussed at the beginning would make the piece more cohesive.

Road to Nowhere explores root causes for poverty in Mexico through interviews on the street: widespread illiteracy, an inadequate educational system, government corruption and inefficiency. Many impoverished adults never finished elementary school, dropping out to work and help support their families. And the focus on the Hernandez family brought together the personal and the sociological aspects of the piece, showing how statistics affect real people.

Javier Clorio’s documentary left me wondering how we could raise the standard of living for Mexico’s poorest residents, and pointed towards education as a large part of that answer. Clorio’s cityscape pulses with people, many carrying babies and small children. Perhaps if we can teach those children to read and write, and prepare them for the emerging job market, the Road to Nowhere might lead somewhere worthwhile, for immigrants and those who remain in Mexico.

YouTube hosts a trailer for Road to Nowhere – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDeXX5deqLc

You may also order the film directly from Clorio by emailing him at j_clorio@hotmail.com

Text Message

I sat staring vacantly at May Yong as she spoke, while I sipped vodka and tried to appear interested. Across the table from me were my hosts at one of the largest law firms in New York. They had rolled out the red carpet for me this week. A town car picked me up, they catered food and liquor, and their conference table was large enough to land an airplane on. Four partners were spending their Friday night sitting in this office welcoming me to New York, and all I could do right now was stare vacantly at May Xu as she delivered her pitch.

My phone was on the table, directly between me and May. I had not checked my texts in a while. I wondered if Diana had texted me. I missed her when I traveled. Text messages were a proxy for “being there” for two people who were so busy that they desperately needed technical proxies. I wanted her to be here.

An art lawyer in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, William Brixton enjoys chatting, writing, and text messaging in his spare time. He may be reached through comments to this post.  

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The Two Week Solution

Her name was Diana, and I had not stopped thinking about her since the moment I saw her. I am not one to believe in love at first sight, or at all for that matter, and I cannot say what force gripped me those first few moments and refused to let go. I cannot say what attracted me or what held my interest. It was not her beauty since I had long ago steeled myself against such things. I cannot identify in any detail any one quality that held me prisoner. If I could, I would have isolated and exorcised the offending demon. Her attraction held its power in the fact that it was so indefinable.

I still remember the first time I saw her. She strode (not walked) into the conference room as if she owned it. We had a very serious discussion about … what, I do not recall and did not pay attention to in the first instance.  I was focused on the intensity of her gaze, the outline of her face, the fullness of her lips, and the thousands of thoughts she could convey without saying a word. I knew right then that I was looking at perfection and when I asked her at the first opportunity to lunch with me, I hoped like hell that she would say no. I knew then that one meeting would be too many, and a thousand would not be enough.

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      “A Prophet is not popular in the home town.  A Doctor does not heal family and friends.”

     Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  Can’t quite place it though right?  Neither can I and I should, since I meditate on its meanings everyday.    I know this –  and take it from a creature of experience – this is a warning and don’t think it comes from The Creator.  Do you really think The Creator has time to issue warnings like some cosmic Mr. Chips?  No.  No of course not.  This warning  comes from a creature of experience too, one who’s bled, and there’s the problem.  Who wants to be told what to do, especially by someone who gets his ass kicked on the front line because you’re hiding in the rear.  Better to know, not to speak, and watch those who think they know get their asses kicked instead.  He should have stopped to think the bell isn’t  tolling for him.  It’s just a bell making noise. 

     Now if you’re really knowledgeable you probably have an inkling I haven’t a thought of my own, but who does.  Flies never worry about being knowledgeable or popular.  Like the rest of my kind, you might say I’m an observer of the human race.  I’m well qualified for the job since Flies have been buzzing around Earth much longer than you mere Humans.  Try not to be too mystified about my ability to communicate with other Life Forms.Don’t waste your time hiring Ph d’s to figure this out.  Besides isn’t it written all things are possible?

Joseph Urso has been writing for many years and lives with his wife in upstate New York. He may be reached via e-mail: ribera.14@hotmail.com

Read the rest of Joseph Urso’s Fly By Night (3400 words) here: http://community.livejournal.com/chaos_zine/7313.html