NOT TO BE DENIED DEPT.: Joan Bigwood King is a font of creativity who lives in Palo Alto. She runs the website www.rhymingtributes.com, where she writes poems, songs and other fun stuff for people, by commission.
She is also the author of “Co-opted,” a book about motherhood in the modern age which is set largely in Palo Alto.
Her book draws on her own experiences with school co-ops, such as Parents Nursery School in Palo Alto, which her son Peter, now 10, attended. Peter is now at Duveneck Elementary School. His sister, Caroline, 13, attends Castilleja School, but will tranfer to Paly in the fall. “One’s in heaven,” said King. Her first daughter, Katharine, succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome. “Her name is all through my book,” King said.
“Co-opted” tells the story of Francesa Wilson, who transitions from being a stressed-out Manhattan mommie to being an at-home mom and, and being satisfied with that. Co-op schooling, explained King, is the change agent — what helps Francesca over that particular hump in her life. The book is about “growing up alongside your children.”
The book, which is fun and amusing and has plenty of good dialogue, is also about “the lighter side of infidelity, bankruptcy and dementia,” King said Thursday during a phone interview.
King had shopped the book around to agents, which is a challenging task these days. The publishing industry itself is in plenty of trouble, and more authors are either starting their own publishing companies, as did East Bay author Deborah Grabien, or self-publishing, which is what King did, paying a publisher to print the book.
“Co-opted” came out just at the end of 2009, and King has already made her money back and is now into profit city. It is available locally at Books Inc. in Palo Alto and Kepler’s in Menlo Park, and on Amazon.com.
King had unearthed an agent who was interested, someone in Los Angeles, but that person wanted “more soap and sex,” King said, plus that entire process would have taken too long. Her mom, who has terminal cancer, might not have lived long enough to see it on a shelf.
As it is, her mom, looking great, attends all of King’s book readings. King is marketing the book, in part, by going to co-op schools all over the state.
And hounding arts and entertainment editors by e-mail.
No, really, I am fine with that.
Her site, www.rhymingtributes.com, is doing well, with plenty of repeat business. Customers send King 15 facts about someone, and King writes something clever about them. “Our motto is, ‘We’re not happy unless your’re crying,'” King said. Which is to say, what she writes leads to tears of appreciation.
King is also coordinator of Coordinator of Children and Family Ministries at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto.
“It’s all about building community,” King said. “The book, the website, the ministries, it’s all about building community.”
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY DEPT.: In my fantasy life, I have a lot of money. One of my daydream topics is what good on this planet I would want to do with my money, if I had any.
A frequent thought, in those dreams, is that I would give some money to TheatreWorks, because it is a theater company that does a lot of good in the world of creativity, and should be encouraged.
Happily, there are people in this area who do have some money, and some of those people give some of their money to TheatreWorks.
One of the best things those people get to do is go to “TheatreWorks Gala 40: Celebrating 40 Years,” a black-tie dinner on May 8.
During this dinner, Robert Kelley, founding artistic director of TheatreWorks, will be honored for innovation in the arts. Frank Quattrone, CEO of Qatalyst Group, will be honored for innovation in technology.
Kelley, of course, is the genius behind TheatreWorks and an all-around great guy. Quattrone has been the banking brains behind some of the biggest tech IPOs ever.
The fancy-schmancy fete for these guys will start with cocktails and dinner on the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, then will transfer to the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, where a one-night performance will be held.
Playwright David Henry Hwang, who wrote the most excellent and hilarious “Yellow Face,” staged by TheatreWorks last year, will be host. Performers will include Paul Gordon, who wrote “Daddy Long Legs,” which was wonderful; composer Jeanine Tesori; Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda who wrote and performed the fabulous “Sleeping Beauty Wakes”; and pianist and singer/singwriter Vienna Teng, who has also performed for TheatreWorks.
Really, a pretty fabulous night.
Them what has the wherewithal are encouraged to buy tickets for this thing. It will be fun, and the money will help TheatreWorks. Word is there are still some tickets left for the dinner and for the show.
For the dinner and show, individual tickets are $750; tables range from $5,000 to $20,000. For the show only, tickets are $125. If you want to go, make contact with the TheatreWorks Special Events Department at 650-463-7125 or events@theatreworks.org. More info at www.theatreworks.org.
STAY AT HOME DEPT.: Some interesting DVDs are out now, including “Eyes on the Prize,” a documentary that was first broadcast on PBS in 1987.
It was entangled in rights issues over archival news footage, photographs and music, and the death of its creator, Henry Hampton, in 1998, so hasn’t been widely available on DVD until now.
PBS and Blackside (Hampton’s production company) are releasing the documentary’s first six episodes, subtitled “America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965.” (“Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads,” which carried the story through 1985 and was broadcast on PBS in 1990, is not yet available on DVD.)
“Eyes on the Prize” tells the stories of the fight for civil rights in the United States in the 1950s and ’60s. It was no walk in the park.
Today there is still plenty of racism, poverty and inequality in this nation, but things are much better now than, say, in 1960. And it’s because brave people stood up to be counted, or sat down on a bus, or died in the struggle.
“Eyes on the Prize” is a fine piece of work.
• Another DVD expected to fly off the shelves and into DVD and BluRay players is “Avatar.”
Sure, the film release already pretty much sucked up every loose dollar on the planet, but if there are any left, they will go to this DVD.
It’s a fun movie, sort of a science-fiction version of “Dances With Wolves,” with 9-feet-blue people instead of American Indians. As I type this, my wife is at Fry’s, buying a copy.
(Speaking of blue people, do you remember the line from “Yellow Submarine”? “Are you, er… blueish? You don’t LOOK blueish.”)
• Other new DVDs this week include Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning turn in “Crazy Heart” (he smokes too much in that movie; gross) and “The Lovely Bones,” which is based on the bazillion-selling book by Alice Sebold, and directed by Peter Jackson, who made the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
E-mail John Orr at jorr@dailynewsgroup.com.
