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You said, cousin, the gray graveyard, a faceless runner, alley dogs fog and no way home. I came to see the old man but his nets were to sea. He never lived on a hill, he was not born here. The wild one lost to a Chinatown lover beneath the

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Geoffrey Dunn: [Music] streets, his lantern burned too long burned out too soon. That is not the way. Seven ships for the homeland leave without him. The little fish-butcher cramped smaller than a fish box is

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buried with his knife, his stone. He died for the first time, they say, and then again each day. Let's toast to fish blood on the table, a song, a final climb to The Teacup. I don't think you're funny like that anymore. An old Indian

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woman in the corner is forgotten. No, cousin, that is not the way. I would trade all poetry for another beer with grandmother. Garlic drying in the cellar, beans in sacks, [Music]

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whiskers from the lonely one. The names of dead fishermen are not etched in salt. The stone of the young one is cracked, thieves have chipped away her picture. The beautiful one. She was blonde, wasn't she? So is mine. On another morning, I'm

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beginning to look forward to his funeral. We will all be together. We will ride in long black cars. Billy and I have a secret, I will show you where I am sitting. Grief might be a passion, but sorrow is another thing. There were no carnations,

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cousin. No tears in the white-marbled [unidentified] eyes. The fallen crucifix, a broken beer bottle, two daisies. Our mothers sleep alone at night. Morton Marcus: That was Geoff Dunn, dynamic poet, journalist,

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screenwriter and novelist, who has just come out with a book of his selected articles called, "Santa Cruz is in the Heart." And it is an amazing coincidence that I should have scheduled Geoff for this evening. A week after the quake because Geoff,

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really, in so many ways represents the old Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz that really goes back to the Italian fishermen and before. His family, he is well- who are you related to, Geoff? Why don't you tell us about yourself and where, your

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birth and where you came from and what your relationship is with Santa Cruz? Geoffrey Dunn: Well, just by chance, I happened to be born here and my family dates back to the 1870s here on my mother's

00:04:03.370 - 00:04:22.600

side. My great-grandfather, Cottardo Stagnaro, arrived here from Italy in the 1870s, liked what he saw and decided to make Santa Cruz his home. In the ensuing years, he wound up bringing his sister's families, and then another sixty to

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seventy families from a small village in Italy called Riva Trigoso, immigrated to Santa Cruz and San Francisco, with the vast majority settling on the Santa Cruz West Side, developing the region's fishing industry.

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Morton Marcus: I see. The book has many different voices from the past and actually portraits from the past. It really in its own ways is a miniature history of Santa Cruz. Many of the articles have appeared where?

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Geoffrey Dunn: Most recently they've appeared in the Santa Cruz Sun, Good Times. In the earlier days they appeared in newspapers like The Express, The Phoenix. They've appeared in some other regional journals as well. I write occasionally for

00:05:06.080 - 00:05:21.320

The Chronicle, Monterey Life, Pacific Monthly, etc. Morton Marcus: Geoff, and we are going to go a little far afield tonight because of the quake and everything. Many people are saying Santa Cruz will never be the same and that is after the

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quake last week. And with the destruction in the mall, of course, the terrible destruction down in Watsonville. How do you feel about this? What's your attitude and your thoughts on the matter?

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Geoffrey Dunn: Well, a number of national commentators and even some local ones have said that the heart of Santa Cruz has been ripped away. Another local bard said something to the effect that the soul of Santa Cruz is dead. In reality, the history of

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Santa Cruz has been a history of destruction; it's been a history of oppression in some levels. We survived the great fire in 1894, we survived the flood of 1955, we survived the great storms of this past decade. The destruction on the mall is

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immense and terrible, but it's it's really not the loss of buildings that's terrible, it's the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of the place for people to live, and the threat of losing our sort of unique human amalgamation down there

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that is the great threat. The heart of Santa Cruz is not in its architecture, it's in its people. And as long as we look toward rebuilding Santa Cruz with the idea of maintaining those who are already here, maintaining its human

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characteristic, I think we'll be okay. If we develop it with other ideas in mind, creating firm bars along the mall, developing a little Carmel-by-the-Sea, then we'll be in trouble.

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Morton Marcus: How do you see this characteristic of people? What is the Santa Cruz that you see now that has been in existence, say for the last decade or more? Geoffrey Dunn: Well, I'll go back before a decade. I see

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Santa Cruz as being a collective of diverse people, people with very different cultures, different backgrounds. It's really always been a meeting place of people. There's been this constant influx and exodus. New peoples have always come.

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Rob Edwards, who teaches archaeology and anthropology at Cabrillo College, has told the story about how the first natives here, really who preceded the Ohlone were driven out by a second group of indigenous people, and who are

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in turn, of course, met by the Spaniards who came here in the 15th and 16th and 17th centuries. So, Santa Cruz has always been an amalgamation. It's always been a diverse collective, there's no one mainstream here. I think that's

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what the book is about and I really think that's what Santa Cruz is about. Some people might like to pretend otherwise. There have been some histories and stories written about Santa Cruz past which emphasize only the white Anglo history here. It

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really was not solely an Anglo town ever, it's always had diverse people, and hopefully it always will. Morton Marcus: Well, it's one of the reasons why I say that it is sort of a miniature history of Santa Cruz because so much of it

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really is concerned with the oppression of minority groups, the Chinese, the Indians, and Hispanics as well. What I'd like to do now, moving into the literature, which is still, of course, enormously relevant, is have you read a selection from

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the book, which is open on your lap with your finger on the page. So, why don't you read what you would like to read there and tell us about it? Geoffrey Dunn: I'll read another poem, since this is a Poetry

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Show, and I don't want you to get in trouble with your partner Joe Stroud about not having poetry on here. So, this poem is written about a woman, Lee Gue Shee, who immigrated to the United States from China. She's a grandmother of a number of

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Santa Cruzans. She lives just off Pacific Avenue in the old Santa Cruz Chinatown, called Birkinseer's Chinatown, and her home was destroyed by the flood in 1955. I actually first encountered Mrs. Lee, as a young boy, in my early teens on the

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Santa Cruz's East Side. She used to frequent a drug store where I worked at and where my father worked and she was a character who I knew very little about, but who I felt a close association with, because she reminded me of my own

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grandmother, kept the garden like my own grandmother, and had the sturdiness and also the distance of an immigrant woman in this country. So, this poem is entitled LEE GUE SHEE, and it was written for

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Luella Lee Churchill. Into the photograph I stare and the beauty is unyielding. The dark eyes, the gentle lips, the curving of the cheekbones. Ten thousand miles you have traveled for a life of the soil, a hot

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stove, the cannery and seven children whose lives will always be blessed by the journey. You will make a history not even you can foresee. Blood is more powerful than the past, love more powerful than the future, that is the wisdom of the old

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country. You will not remember me, the gypsy boy on the sidewalk with the fish-scale hands who followed you up the hill to your garden. I watched you there among the sunflowers and the giant squash leaves, your gray hair shining in the

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summer sun, your strong hands still moving quickly, and the lines on your face all leading home. When you smiled, a thousand butterfly sang Chinese hymns. I watched your dark eyes disappear into your memories. Gone are the seasons by the

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river when the fish gathered in the shallows and the pears grew fat and sweet for the children. One hundred years is a snap of the fingers. Death is a mystery only to those who cannot wait. I think what's important about this poem and what I tried to do

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and honoring Lee Gue Shee was honor someone who really had not been paid much attention to by historians in the past with, of course, the exception being Sandy Lydon. But it was very important for me to pick people out who had gone unrecognized,

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whose lives were just as important as the people who built the mall, who built the early industry in Santa Cruz, and who contributed in their own way to the city's history and well-being.

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Morton Marcus: You know, you said that you want to read poetry. One of the reasons I asked you on the show was not only because of the content of the book, but because I think that the quality of magazine writing that goes on in a lot of

00:11:49.440 - 00:12:02.130

these pieces, really approaches a prose poetry that really sings and it certainly is historical writing at its highest as far as I'm concerned. You also won an award for one of these pieces, didn't you?

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Geoffrey Dunn: Right, it was the local Wilson Essay Award for Historical Writing, which I won last year for the piece on Erne t Otto. Morton Marcus: Who is the old reporter here in Santa Cruz?

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Geoffrey Dunn: Right. He was a waterfront reporter here, dating from the late 19th century. Actually much of what we know about old Santa Cruz, we know because of his memory, and because of his keen interest in the diversity of this town.

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Morton Marcus: I would like you to read some of that, "Old Chepa." That's the way you pronounce that? Geoffrey Dunn: Old Chepa. Morton Marcus: Yeah, which is a beautiful piece throughout, the

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writing throughout. And what you do is something, and we were talking about this earlier, magazine writing, newspaper writing, and the freedom that you are allowed, or not allowed. And the lead to many of these pieces is just- it really soars.

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And I hope that you're going to read several beginnings and in fact, the new piece that is going to be out this week in The Sun, you did bring that, I hope? Geoffrey Dunn: Yes, I did.

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Morton Marcus: What are your feelings about that? You said, well, it's not as much freedom as I thought. So, what are your feelings about how you were limited in these pieces? Geoffrey Dunn: Well, let me tell you about an influence I had.

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And I don't know if it generates from the region, but certainly it generates from one of the region's great writers and that's Steinbeck. His beginning to the novel, "Cannery Row," of course, is a little poem. In fact, it begins, "Monterey in

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California, is a little poem, a stink, a grating noise, the quality of the light," etc. I was always captivated by his introductions to his novels, all the novels have very tight poetic introductions. It struck me that what moves people, what

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draws people into stories are how you begin them, and to give them a human component. I think one of the great flaws of journalism as well as one of the great flaws of academic writing is that they don't carry a human component, they don't bring life

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into the stories they're telling. So, what I like to do with my introductions is to create life immediately, to draw the readers into the people I'm talking about. This story that leads off the book, which I call, "The Confessions of Old

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Chepa," is about a woman whose life spanned the 19th century here in Santa Cruz, who many people, including historians, thought was an Indian. In fact, she was the daughter of one of Santa Cruz's wealthy Spanish families, and who lived out the

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rest of her life in destitute in the last eighty, in the last years of her life. What I did was, I went to her grave one night, which is still on Mission Hill where she was buried, and I tried to get in touch with her spirit. And what I did was- come

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up with, came up with the idea of her telling me her story. In fact, as a kid, I used to go up to that cemetery on Mission Hill, I spent a lot of time up there fascinated by graves, and then wrote the story as though she were saying it. And this is

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an excerpt from the beginning of that chapter. Listen to me, hijo, I have a story to tell. The spirits of the wind and the sun are singing to me, hijo, and the coyote's spirit is dancing. Oh, such a joyous world but now it lives

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only in my heart. It is getting late, hijo, and I have such a long story to tell. It is the story of Santa Cruz before the estrangheros, the people of an evil spirit came. Such a sacred place, this land of rivers, mountains, and the sea. I am an

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old woman, hijo, with skin of leather and breath of fire, but I am also very wise, over eighty summers I have seen. The people of the town laugh at me now and the little children call me names. They do not see the spirit of the coyote dancing on

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my shoulder. We're dancing on the brink of the world, hijo, do not laugh at me. Such a long story to tell. Morton Marcus: Why don't you just continue that because the prose also in between those italicized poetic musings of the

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ghost voice, if you will, really is just great solid writing. Geoffrey Dunn: The year is 1889, a hundred years ago from today, on the sloping East Side banks of the San Lorenzo river, near the juncture of Branciforte and Water Street, an old woman with

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a cane and satchel is beginning her daily journey through Santa Cruz. She's dressed in a tattered green wool sweater, a faded full-length skirt and leather sandals. Around her head is a red bandana, holding back her long gray strands of hair.

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Her eyes are as dark as polished ebony and her skin is as rough as the bark of an oak. It is mid-morning as she descends the path to the footbridge, which crosses the San Lorenzo and leads into town. The old woman's real name is Josefa Perez-Soto,

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but the people of Santa Cruz call her Old Chepa, the hunched one, or they simply call her Mother. She is as familiar to the townspeople as the summer fog as she greets each passerby with the friendliest time wary, "buenos dias." To see her on her

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daily journey is to see a woman in dire poverty, bent and shriveled, but the merchants of Pacific Avenue have taken kindly to her plight. Each day they give to her freely meats and vegetables, cornmeal and tobacco and perhaps a shot of whiskey.

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With her satchel full, she makes her way back up the path to her small rustic cabin in the Villa de Branciforte or what the whites in Santa Cruz call simply, Spanish Town. There she rolls her tobacco in small strips of old newspaper and

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basks in the summer sun on the south side of her cabin. Perhaps one of her grandchildren will visit her, or maybe an old friend. If not, she's content to be alone. Down the path and across the river, the people of white Santa Cruz tell stories

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about Old Chepa and shake their heads. Many believe her to be an Indian, little do they know that Josefa Perez-Soto was once the bell of old Santa Cruz, born into one of its oldest and most prominent Spanish families. In her 90s, she is nearly as old as

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the city itself, and she has lived here under four flags: those of Spain, Mexico, the California-Republic and the United States. In many ways, her life and the history of 19th century Santa Cruz are one in the same. As the sun begins to

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set over the barren bluffs to the west, Josefa slowly finds her way into her cabin. Soon, a small fire is crackling, and some beans, salted meat and tortillas are ready to eat. Morton Marcus: Yes and it's sort of a real good thing to begin to

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read along with the poems to a sense of a Santa Cruz now long-gone, and yet so much with us. So, certainly brought back to us in this book. And I think if people jammed on the Capitola Book Cafe the night of your book signing, it may be even more

00:19:21.520 - 00:19:39.040

important to get a hold of this book now and really ruminate on the place that you, that is the listener, live because this really is the history in your hand along with Sandy Lydon's "Chinese Gold," this and I guess, Margaret Koch's, "History

00:19:39.040 - 00:19:56.080

of Santa Cruz," and a few others. But this one, it's in short takes and it really goes through such a span of time and different people that- and they come alive in so many ways that I would really urge everyone to go out and get the book. Now,

00:19:56.110 - 00:20:06.790

there was supposed to be a book signing coming up, but then obviously is not going to happen now. But on November 7th, you are going to be at the Public Library. Why don't you tell us a little about that?

00:20:07.080 - 00:20:22.200

Geoffrey Dunn: Well, each month, the Santa Cruz Public Library System, and their organization Friends of the Public Library, sponsor a book talk during a lunch hour, bringing in local authors, and sometimes outside authors, talking about writing

00:20:22.200 - 00:20:37.020

books, talking about what it takes to put a book out. I plan to talk about not only this book, but also some screenwriting that I do, and other types of writing that I do that don't go into this book. So, that will be on Tuesday,

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November 7th at the Santa Cruz Public Library, you bring a sack lunch, from twelve to one. Morton Marcus: That's upstairs right? Geoffrey Dunn: Upstairs, I believe, yeah.

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Morton Marcus: Yes, now you hit on something else, that's going to be a very big week for you. You are also a good half of Gold Mountain Films. And why don't you tell us some of the films you've done up to now and what's going to happen in a week?

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Geoffrey Dunn: Well, I'm probably the bad half of Gold Mountain Films. My partner, Mark Schwartz, is the other half, he's probably the good half. We have a film entitled, "Maddalena Z," which in fact is drawn in part from some of the stories in

00:21:11.620 - 00:21:26.770

"Santa Cruz Is in the Heart," which will be opening at the Nickelodeon Theater on Thursday, November 9th. We're planning a benefit opening screening, it'll be the big Santa Cruz premiere for that event, which I believe is also being sponsored by KUSP,

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and a couple other organizations, and then it will have a regular run at the Nickelodeon we hope for a long, long time. The film tells the story of an old Italian fisherman in his late 60s, who meets a young woman from UCSC,

00:21:43.270 - 00:22:02.380

and- both of whom are affected by their time spent together. The film features a number of fine local actors: Dunya Djordjevic plays the lead, she's a UCSC graduate; and also features in the lead role, Bill Ackridge, a well-known character

00:22:02.380 - 00:22:20.620

actor from Hollywood, who gives a marvelous performance in this film. I think and hope that the film captures a quality about Santa Cruz that I discussed before. This give and take, this intermingling of different cultures, this vortex really of

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the human spirit that makes it so unique and which really feeds all of us and allows us to grow and spawns so much of the great art, poetry, literature that comes out of this region. Morton Marcus: Geoff, you didn't say where this was going to

00:22:34.330 - 00:22:45.400

happen, where the gala event is going to happen? Geoffrey Dunn: At the Nickelodeon Theater, which is sturdy and survived the quake. They're showing films right now. Morton Marcus: I've been there twice already. It's fine folks.

00:22:45.430 - 00:22:58.990

And they have been showing films nobody's seen coming and they got some great films this week also, and last week. What time, what time? Geoffrey Dunn: The screenings are 7 and 8:30, those of course

00:22:58.990 - 00:23:14.230

vary from week to week, but they'll be in the local papers, what papers are left. And I hope that it runs through Thanksgiving, but hopefully you'll get to see it early. Beautiful cinematography by Santa Cruz area cinematographer,

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Gene Evans, who of course has shot a number of Hollywood films and television shows. It really shows off Santa Cruz and Moss Landing in Monterey like they've never been shown before on film. Morton Marcus: Okay, I want to get the times out. The 7 and

00:23:28.950 - 00:23:36.960

8:30, those are going to be the two showings that night, the first night. Geoffrey Dunn: Those are the first night and probably following after that. There will be a champagne reception for

00:23:36.960 - 00:23:45.880

both screenings after each film. Morton Marcus: Okay and that is on Friday, the- Geoffrey Dunn: Thursday, November 9th. Morton Marcus: Okay, Thursday, November 9th, remember that,

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folks. Geoffrey Dunn: Coming up in a couple of weeks. Morton Marcus: Okay and that will be two days after your appearance at the library. Now, what Geoff is also not saying is

00:23:52.830 - 00:24:05.070

this is the first fiction fil of Gold Mountain Films. Befor this, they had done a number o very fine documentaries, jus refresh the listeners' memory o some of them Geoffrey Dunn: We started off with, "A Day on the Bay," which

00:24:05.070 - 00:24:17.730

was about the Italians here in Santa Cruz, "Dollar A Day, 10 Cents A Dance," about the Filipinos who worked here in the 30s and 40s and many of whom still live here today. We did, "Miss...Or Myth?" about the controversy surrounding the Miss

00:24:17.730 - 00:24:32.130

California beauty pageant. "Chinese Gold," which was a spin-off of Sandy's book on the Chinese here, and, "Mi Vida," which was about a you g woman from Mexico, who wou d up at the University of Cal fornia via the fields of the San

00:24:32.130 - 00:24:50.400

Joaquin Valley. All those dea with Santa Cruz culture in con lict, the various ethnic gro ps that have come and made the r mark on this community, and they were all documentaries. Thi one being a feature films dra s on some of those works, tho

00:24:50.880 - 00:25:04.950

e earlier works, but really tak s our own personal fil making quite a large step for ard in that it was shot in 35 illimeter, features pro essional actors and such, and re lly is a quite a beautiful fi m.

00:25:04.590 - 00:25:19.810

Morton Marcus: And it has just been up at the Marin Film Geoffrey Dunn: Right, the Mill Valley Film Festival, screened up there earlier this month to a full house and was very well-received up there.

00:25:21.100 - 00:25:34.600

Morton Marcus: So, there are not many films that are made by local film companies. I think there are only two of them, Shire and Gold Mountain. And this is the attempt or the chance to see the first fiction film and of course, he has not

00:25:34.600 - 00:25:48.520

said it, written by Geoff Dunn. Anyway, Geoff, to take us out of here in this half-hour, and we will be back. Why don't you choose either a poem or a beginning to take us into the half hour?

00:25:48.990 - 00:26:04.960

Festival where it had sell-ou crowds. Geoffrey Dunn: I think what I'll do as I look through the book is read the introduction to the story I wrote about Victor Ghio, an old Italian fisherman, who's actually my uncle who the film,

00:26:04.960 - 00:26:24.160

"Maddalena Z," is based on and whom I wrote I've written a couple of stories about. The story is called FIFTY SEASONS ON THE SEA. It's four AM and not even the birds are out. A drizzly shroud

00:26:24.160 - 00:26:39.220

of fog blankets the California coast, leaving the nocturnal world chilled, wet and inhospitable. For Santa Cruz fisherman Victor Ghio, a veteran of more than fifty seasons on the sea, this is the hour of his beckoning, his moment of truth.

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Victor climbs into the engine room of a cedar-hulled boat, the Catherina G, checks the water, then the oil and fuel, slips back out as though he were a third his age, ducks back into his cabin, starts his engine. There is a slow rumble, then a

00:26:54.880 - 00:27:09.670

roar as the engine takes and Victor guides his cluttered boat through the jetties of the small craft harbor into the waters of Monterey Bay. Fishing according to Victor hasn't been all that good lately. "It's been absolutely lousy out there," he

00:27:09.670 - 00:27:25.660

says with the bitterness of a man who has been robbed of his livelihood, "I'll be lucky if I catch enough to pay for the fuel." On the eve of the 70th birthday, Victor Cottardo Ghio is truly the old man of the sea, his face lined by a lifetime of

00:27:25.660 - 00:27:42.640

sun and wind and salty spray. In spite of his years and nearly a dozen major operations, Victor's sea legs remains solid and sturdy. His leathery hands and sinewy arms are strong and sure, there's a sparkle in his eyes and an Italian [unidentified] to

00:27:42.640 - 00:28:02.140

his disposition, his broad smile is full of life. "I don't feel old at all," he says emphatically, "no way." The old Santa Cruz Chinatown was populated by these old folks, so here's the story.

00:28:04.070 - 00:28:17.630

In the spring when the willows and chickens grew fat again and the plum trees blossom pink and white in the Chinatown yards near the river, the old man with a scruffy beard and tobacco breath, sat back in the quiet splendor of the warm April sun

00:28:17.810 - 00:28:30.860

and watched with great delight the group of young children playing in his feet. Far off in the distance he could hear the children's grandmother, Lee Gue Shee turning over the soil of her garden, and the San Lorenzo river tumbling gently through

00:28:30.860 - 00:28:45.350

the town. He could smell the fish drying on the porches and the herbs from the kitchens and the faint, sweet wisps of Chinese tobacco in the air. The world had changed many times in his life, he thought, and it would change many more times

00:28:45.350 - 00:29:00.530

after he was gone. Qin Lai(?) closed his eyes and felt the sun on his face. Another old Chinese man, Ah Fook(?), hurried by carrying a gunny-sack full of fish he had just caught on his daily journey to the wharf. Still another, Mun Lai Bak(?)

00:29:00.740 - 00:29:17.150

carried a load of stove wood on his back. The children watched the old men amble along the gravel road as they played. One of them, four year old George Ow Jr. climbed up into the warm comfort of Qin Lai's lap. He always felt safe there, far away

00:29:17.150 - 00:29:31.940

from the outside world where his people were still all too often called, "chinks," and, "slant eyes." The old man always protected him and showered him with love, and he reserved for them his greatest respect and admiration. For nearly a century

00:29:31.940 - 00:29:47.570

before in the days of the Manchu Dynasty, the old men had left their villages and had come to America, Gum Shan, the Land of the Golden Mountain, in pursuit of wealth and riches, they'd found instead poverty and racism. Anti-miscegenation laws

00:29:47.570 - 00:30:01.910

prevented them from marrying white women and immigration restrictions prevented Chinese women from joining them in the states. Young George Ow Jr. didn't know this history as he sat and Qin Lai's lap. What he didn't know was that the old men

00:30:01.910 - 00:30:15.950

were his unofficial uncles, who gave him candy and firecrackers and told him funny stories in their native Cantonese dialect. He knew that most of them lived together in the dark, musty, cheap Hong Kong temple, with its sticks of incense burning

00:30:15.950 - 00:30:31.580

colorful flags and pictures of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, and Abraham Lincoln on the walls, that they were always close was all that mattered. It was the spring of 1947 in Santa Cruz's aging, ramshackled Chinatown was a happy place for

00:30:31.580 - 00:30:47.660

a young boy to be growing up. All about him, new life seemed to be singing everywhere. In less than a decade, however, Qin Lai, Ah Fook, and Mun Lai Bak would be dead, and the Santa Cruz Chinatown would be dead too. No longer will the plum

00:30:47.660 - 00:30:59.270

trees blossom in springtime, or the chickens grow plump and sassy and young. George Ow Jr. and his family would be living in Monterey. Morton Marcus: Yeah, that's wonderful stuff, really just

00:30:59.270 - 00:31:13.580

wonderful stuff. It's wonderful what you do with time, you know? You know that time is your real subject and the way you telescope it, move backwards and forwards with such ease. I was just, as you read, I was just realizing that, it's the way

00:31:13.580 - 00:31:25.460

time is used just so effortlessly, that really is impressive. Geoffrey Dunn: Well, it's probably because I have such a difficult time myself with the concept. History, the past,

00:31:25.670 - 00:31:41.930

sometimes haunts me, the rapidity with which life passes, crawls up my back. And one of the reasons I think I deal with history is a way of reclaiming that past, of dealing, of stopping time, of slowing it down, or preventing its passage.

00:31:42.500 - 00:31:55.370

The introduction to the book talks about a period of time on the Santa Cruz Wharf when I was growing up as a child, which was really what I consider the heyday of the Santa Cruz Wharf. The Wharf was filled with Italian fishermen. Davits,

00:31:55.400 - 00:32:08.990

hand-cranes, pulled up ships that they fished in from the water up onto the wharf. There were hundreds of them down there. I myself worked in one of the old fish houses, and that part of my life is gone, of course; we all grow up. But that

00:32:09.020 - 00:32:27.340

world is gone as well. The Santa Cruz that I knew as a child has passed. So, one of the ways I reclaim that sensitivity, that sensibility, is to write about it and go into it in my own Morton Marcus: And recreate it, as you just did in that piece. I

00:32:22.280 - 00:32:40.600

head. have not asked George that but I'll bet that just sums up that whole time in his life back in 1947. The other thing is the word davits. I will never again hear that word after reading the

00:32:40.600 - 00:32:55.810

piece, and how that marks and punctuates, when the davits go the wharf is gone, really, the wharf as a vibrant economic and social a place for the Italian fishermen to be, which again is just one of the memories of this book that Geoff was reading from

00:32:55.810 - 00:33:04.150

which is called, "Santa Cruz In the Heart," his new book, which has been out now I guess a month. Geoffrey Dunn: A month or so, yeah. Morton Marcus: Geoffrey, we're going to try an experiment now.

00:33:04.420 - 00:33:14.780

You are going to read from a prose poem, and I'm going to be playing what record here? Geoffrey Dunn: "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," by Bob Dylan from his, "Blonde on Blonde," album. And the piece I'm going to read

00:33:14.780 - 00:33:26.180

is called, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowland Blues," a story in B sharp for [unidentified]. Morton Marcus: Okay. What we're going to do is we're going to start with it up, and then you are going to signal me and I'm

00:33:26.180 - 00:34:24.110

going to be going up and down, okay? Geoffrey Dunn: Let's try it. Morton Marcus: Here we go. [Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan]

00:34:39.990 - 00:34:53.070

Geoffrey Dunn: He wanted to hear the song, the song he had first heard when he was twelve years old after the night in the old and forgotten pool hall on Pacific Avenue. His cousin Kenny and uncle Doty watching as he coaxed the bright yellow and red

00:34:53.070 - 00:35:07.740

and green balls into the black leather holes of the green velvet table. His cousin and uncle both holding cigarettes in their rough, fish-butcher hands, rubber boots and stained pants, five bucks each on the game, smiling big tooth grins as the

00:35:07.740 - 00:35:21.300

kid they called Little Babe barely able to reach his long shots on the table, knocking the blue ball in, then the final black ball into the final black hole. Laughter from the old cigar man on the stool and a cheer from his blood too as they

00:35:21.300 - 00:35:36.240

went to collect fifteen bucks from the loser, then hustled, only has nine bucks: five go to Uncle, four and a roach go to cousin, and Little Babe takes an album and a busted guitar, which uncle makes the loser cough up from his car outside. He takes

00:35:36.240 - 00:35:48.720

the album in the busted box anyway, and he plays them both that night. His father wondering where the hell he got the noisemakers and when the old man hears the stories, he makes a phone call and that's the last time Little Babe goes into the

00:35:48.720 - 00:36:03.480

old and now long-forgotten pool hall on Pacific Avenue. But he's got the album at least and over and over in the years to come. He listens to it and plays it, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." And now, twenty years later with a full-moon staring in flesh in

00:36:03.480 - 00:36:18.090

the red eye, he wants to hear the song again, to hear the voice slow-strumming of the chords, the harmonic well on piano in the rough voice. He wants to hear it lonely as he is drunk and lonely, as he is sad and lonely as he is because he

00:36:18.090 - 00:36:33.120

knows as only he can know that the song will somehow bring him closer to her, closer to the woman he wants to love and touch and feel and breathe, closer to himself, closer. That's all he is asking for in this dark, simple moment of love fading

00:36:33.120 - 00:37:03.680

into despair, love fading into loneliness, love fading into fear, love fading. And he remembered her mouth the first night he kissed her, front seat awkward sweet-oh-god-is-this-for-real-kiss,

00:37:04.010 - 00:37:18.350

and her lips were hard in the halo of that moment, harder than the sweet look in her eyes and he felt a little deeper then, understood her hesitancy then, wanted to love her then, and he felt her hand sweating and his own heart racing away, racing

00:37:18.350 - 00:37:32.000

with the stars that they would later brighten, and he felt her lips touching and sooner than later, her mouth softened, and he remembered their last kiss at the train station, softer than anything he had felt in his life and he didn't want to leave. He

00:37:32.000 - 00:37:44.600

wanted to hold her firmly in his arms and say, "don't go," but he couldn't. And their lips touching so softly, so different, the promise fulfilled, their lips touching, saying, "I love you," lips touching each other's hearts,

00:37:44.840 - 00:38:17.620

lips touching each other's dreams, lips touching each other's passions, past, present, future there on the tips of their tongues. Sweet holy kiss, lips touching goodbye. [Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan]

00:38:34.910 - 00:38:47.300

Barely seeing the smoke-filled room of alien friends and woman he had touched, but he never knew and people he even said he loved but how could he really know for sure when he didn't even know their names, and he couldn't even see their eyes,

00:38:47.510 - 00:39:02.180

could see nothing now but behind his eyes in the smoke and lies and shit and piss, which flowed through his blood behind his eyes and round and round in his brain. So dizzy and lost now with the poisoned juices in his blood, off-balanced attempts at

00:39:02.180 - 00:39:15.140

killing all the pain that strangers had told him in his life because only strangers can tell you lies. And I never know anyone to love them unless they were born here, not even my father who lied to my mother, the music, the music, another

00:39:15.140 - 00:39:29.780

song, a melody which lifts me above the smoke and lies, and the crystal voice of an Irishman from Belfast swims into my impure Irish blood and sues everything. That voice gripping me softly around my wounded heart. I still can't see but I

00:39:29.780 - 00:39:46.850

can hear it: God's voice is no stranger and he plays love songs and homesick songs and songs of justice and liberty and freedom for the poor Irish presence, short and socked, stocky on the raw soil of the earth. And he sees me crying in the corner,

00:39:47.030 - 00:40:00.290

calls out, "Mate, what song would you like to hear?" And I can barely see him wobbly-legged, he plays me the pretty one, oh so sweet, pretty Irish brogue and all. "I love you like I never loved before, since first I saw you on the

00:40:00.290 - 00:40:15.740

village green, come to me or my dream of love is over. I love you as I did when you were sweet sixteen." And later when the bar is closed and he tells a story about growing up with Van Morrison, a year in the Irish prison, roofing in the city and

00:40:15.740 - 00:40:29.480

falling in love with the Irish woman at the other end of the bar and hard nights singing for none but himself, and memories of Van in Belfast and the Virgin Mary in his dreams. He sings to him the song once again, this time only for him.

00:40:40.130 - 00:41:16.490

[Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan] How we love to share thoughts with her and dreams and books and poems and he was clear-headed that night on the train as it raced through the mountains of the great

00:41:16.490 - 00:41:29.600

Northwest, playing cards with old black men from Chicago, finding a place to read away from it all and he turns the pages of the book and she is there with him on each page. "Look at this. What do you make of these lines, my loved one?

00:41:29.750 - 00:41:45.350

This is about us, don't you think? Let me read these lines to you. Kiss me, I need a hug. The train rolling and rolling towards the Great Pacific and they're on the pages of a man dying, separated from his lover or his thoughts. His final

00:41:45.350 - 00:42:01.190

vision of light. The times I feel sad, it's you I remember. The times I feel glad, it's you I remember. I carry you within me, deep inside of me. I carry you in my heart, you are a part of me. I never thought you could steal my heart from me, whether

00:42:01.190 - 00:42:16.010

by day or night, it's you I remember, like a melody that lingers with me. It's you I remember. Then the man imagines that they're both together and then he dies. "Come here to hold me. I've just read a sad story. I need you to rub my hair and a

00:42:16.010 - 00:42:27.230

kiss. And the train rolls through the Mexicali rows of an evening," and he imagines they're both together. Then he falls asleep with his own sheet-metal memories and the song in his heart.

00:42:29.840 - 00:42:47.210

Unknown: [Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan] Morton Marcus: And I take it it worked. That was Geoff Dunn reading and I'll let you go through the title again. Geoffrey Dunn: "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowland Blues."

00:42:47.000 - 00:42:59.570

Morton Marcus: How the heck can you remember that? And of course, the person in the background was the voice of Bob Dylan. I have just been handed a bulletin which I would like to read to you. It concerns schools' openings and closings.

00:42:59.870 - 00:43:13.160

Cabrillo College, all you Cabrillo College students out there, or people who know Cabrillo College students, Cabrillo College will be closed until this coming Monday. That is Cabrillo College will open Monday, October 30th. And I can

00:43:13.160 - 00:43:28.790

tell you that all the structures, all the buildings are in excellent shape. They are just making sure that everything is just perfectly safe for you students to come back. So, Monday October 30th is the day that's set and if you're feeling

00:43:28.790 - 00:43:46.700

strange about coming back to school and thinking school is of no importance, now that the quake has happened, and even if you're unsure that you can do the schoolwork, the teachers are re-designing their classes and they are well and cognizant

00:43:46.940 - 00:44:01.400

about what is going on with you emotionally as well as intellectually, and they certainly will work with you so I, as one Cabrillo College instructor, urge you to return to Cabrillo, return to any school you're going to and just

00:44:01.400 - 00:44:18.770

come in, talk with a teacher and I think that you'll find it very rewarding. Don't give up your education, don't let yourself be depressed by Mother Nature. There's lots to live for and we're all alive. We can all rebuild and rebuilding is what

00:44:18.800 - 00:44:30.620

the human effort is all about anyway. In fact, that's what we've been hearing from Geoff Dunn tonight, and he is our guest. So Geoffrey, I guess, four minutes of ten. We're ready for one more piece.

00:44:31.290 - 00:44:46.290

Geoffrey Dunn: All right, I'll read with the closing selection from, "Santa Cruz Is in the Heart." It's a piece about my daughter and about our relationship to Santa Cruz. I've been very fortunate to have a multi-generational relationship

00:44:46.290 - 00:45:01.650

with the town, my daughter's in a sense even longer than mine, she's one more generation here now. But each person who comes here, whether they were born here, whether they've lived here 50, 60, 70 years or whether they just arrived today, as some

00:45:01.650 - 00:45:17.040

people no doubt have, create their own relationship with Santa Cruz. I can only hope that they treasure that relationship, that they treat it with the love of someone who loves this place as their home. I've had thoughts about leaving Santa Cruz, I

00:45:17.040 - 00:45:27.450

still have them. I bring them up with my daughter one day as- I brought them up with my daughter one day as we were sitting out on the Santa Cruz beach, and I'll read the closing of this story.

00:45:29.700 - 00:45:43.740

Out in the water, politics and familial history have little meaning to the young girl with a flowing blonde hair, who is now calling out for her daddy to come play with her. The Ohlone Indians who first inhabited this piece of earth had a song they

00:45:43.740 - 00:45:59.130

sang about dancing on the brink of the world. As I watched my daughter swaying with the waves and wind, I have a feeling that she is doing just that. Again she calls out to her daddy. The water against her skin is so cold that it stings when she

00:45:59.130 - 00:46:13.290

jumps up into my arms and asks me to carry her out into the water beyond the breakers. I can feel her tiny little heart beating wildly to keep her warm. I look down the beach both ways. We're the only humans out in the water for as far as the eye can

00:46:13.290 - 00:46:27.270

see. We have this whole wonderful world to ourselves. The view from out here is utterly familiar. It strikes me that I've lived all but a few months of my life between Lighthouse Point and the Cement Ship in Seacliff to the south.

00:46:27.570 - 00:46:41.850

And for a second, I feel almost claustrophobic. On our way through the breakers, I suggest that now might be a good time to move away from Santa Cruz, to another town where there aren't so many people and so many controversies. "No way, daddy,"

00:46:41.850 - 00:46:57.840

my daughter says emphatically as a wave crashes against my upper torso. She says,"This is where my family and friends live. I love it here." I'm surprised by both the strength of her conviction and her developed sense of place. Her feelings are

00:46:57.840 - 00:47:14.040

not rooted in the past but in the future and she has forced me to look forward, not behind. "Okay," I tell her, proud that she has taken a stand, "we'll stay." The coldness of the water accentuates her concern. She hangs on tightly as we move

00:47:14.040 - 00:47:29.130

farther from shore. Without knowing it, she's just taken her first real step in Santa Cruz. Much like her great great-grandfather 120 years ago. She has claimed it as her own, and also without knowing it, she's just concurred with him

00:47:29.130 - 00:47:43.140

too. This is a fine place to live. Family and friends do matter. This is home. Morton Marcus: And that brings a little frog to my throat and it brought my wife to tears when she read that because she's an

00:47:43.140 - 00:48:00.900

old Santa Cruzan who goes back three generations. Wonderful. And Geoffrey, it was just great having you here. Geoffrey Dunn, screenwriter, novelist, magazine-writer, you name it. Be aware that on November 7th, next Tuesday, he is going to be at

00:48:00.900 - 00:48:06.090

the Louden- is that next Tuesday at- Geoffrey Dunn: The Santa Cruz Library. Morton Marcus: Santa Cruz Library. Geoffrey Dunn: It'd be two Tuesdays.

00:48:06.030 - 00:48:15.690

Morton Marcus: Two Tuesdays, right. Two Tuesdays, he will be Geoffrey Dunn: Right, I have a little acting job and I also at Booktalk, twelve noon, upstairs in the meeting room at the Main Library. And then two days later, November 9th, "Madd

00:48:15.720 - 00:48:31.680

lena Z," his first fiction fil will be premiering in Santa C uz at the Nickelodeon shows at 7 30 and 9, champagne reception b fore each show. So, and you're a so in the picture, you have a se ondary acting job in the

00:48:33.810 - 00:48:44.880

would like to remind people that the book is available at the Capitola Book Cafe and a couple of other bookstores around the county. Unfortunately, we've lost temporarily, at least three of our bookstores on the Mall.

00:48:44.990 - 00:48:59.000

Morton Marcus: Right, right. Friends, let me remind you of ten Santa Cruz writers celebrating Halloween but not scarily, just a good chance to get together and meet with people in the community. That will be Friday, October 27th,

00:48:59.030 - 00:49:16.670

7:30pm at Louden Nelson. Again, I want to reiterate what I announced just before: Cabrillo College will be closed until Monday, Monday Cabrillo will be opened. That is Monday, October 30th. Please come back. Don't let the quake get you down,

00:49:16.820 - 00:49:29.390

continue with your education. The teachers are going to be very understanding and we'll discuss with you both the difficulties of the quake and redesigning their classes right now to take into account the lost week and the difficult

00:49:29.390 - 00:49:40.670

times. So that's Cabrillo College reopening Monday, October 30th. Everything is fine out there. The structures are fine, everything else is fine. We're just making sure that everything is perfect before we open up. It's actually a little

00:49:40.670 - 00:49:55.940

water problem that the water has to be perfectly drinkable before we open up again, and there has been some breaks in the pipes. That's all there is. So, come on back to Cabrillo on Monday, October 30th. And, more importantly, happening tomorrow,

00:49:56.090 - 00:50:12.110

tomorrow night, Santa Cruz Mayor Mardi Wormhoudt, Louis Rittenhouse, president of the Downtown Association, and city officials will have a town meeting here on KUSP. They will be in the KUSP studios live to discuss the current and future

00:50:12.110 - 00:50:25.610

status of the Pacific Garden Mall. Listeners will have the opportunity to call in with their questions. A town meeting on the air with Mayor Mardi Wormhoudt, Louis Rittenhouse city officials in downtown merchants tomorrow night at 6pm

00:50:25.610 - 00:50:41.570

here on member-supported KUSP Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Salinas and if you ever had any sense that this was not a community radio station, it has programs like this, they just whipped together town meeting on a subject that is very, very

00:50:41.570 - 00:50:54.140

close to all of us, lets you know how KUSP is serving this community all the time. That's here tomorrow night at 6pm. Geoffrey, great having you on and we'll do it again. Geoffrey Dunn: Thank you very much, Mort. And of course, you

00:50:54.140 - 00:51:04.610

have provided a great community service here and I appreciate it and I know all those people who love literature in this community appreciate it as well. Thanks. Morton Marcus: Thank you. One more thing, what about next

00:51:04.610 - 00:51:16.940

week? Joe Stroud and yours truly will be here reading Halloween poems, poems of the supernatural, so tune in with the Bobbsey Twins, we're not traveling this time but we will be here with you. See you then.