Dialogic

I sat down with Miguel Reyna to talk about his production of The Thin Place at the Actors' Theater in Santa Cruz.

Juneteenth, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Solstice, and more!

In this podcast, I discuss the power of supporting local businesses, artists, and media. If we want to build a bright and hopeful future, we must start at home by supporting the efforts of those within our own communities.

I start the podcast out listening to a couple of minutes of Fog Machine by White Reaper from their new album "Asking for a Ride." 

Next, I read a little bit from Don DeLillo's novel White Noise, recently made into a movie on Netflix that eerily foreshadowed the events that have taken place in East Palastine, Ohio.

Finally, I share some stories and information about the pieces I have available for purchase in a silent auction till 10:30am Thursday February 16th. If you want to place a bid, head over to my Instagram: https://https://www.instagram.com/jakejthomasphoto/

I will be doing a silent auction the 15th of every month for the rest of the year. Thanks for listening!

I have three big announcements to make.

1. I am moving from the Westside of Santa Cruz after 8 fun-filled years of living here.

2. I am clean and sober having given up alcohol and cannabis.

3. My dear sweet father sadly passed away and I have been grieving.

Today, there is a crisis in the world. Well, actually there are lots, but I just want to focus on one to begin with. A solution to this particular crisis might offer auxiliary positive results for other problems.  Drought is an existential problem in much of the world. In California, and probably elsewhere, we are mostly advised to conserve. I'm sorry, that is untenable, giving up and even deleterious.   We need to supply water through desalinization--massive amounts of water. The water would not only supply human needs, it would benefit wild animals, trees, plants--our environment. We are partners in this endeavor. It is more ambitious and vital that super fast trains and trips to the moon or Mars.   A plan that could be feasible is piping ocean water far enough from the shore. Once on the shore, solar panels would be placed on the pipes powering heat and pumps. These pipes would run twenty to one hundred miles to areas that could be created into reservoirs and at that point over the constant heating would be opened into the reservoirs. It would be necessary to add natural chemicals to make the water healthy and suitable for people and plants.  The next phase would be to send the water to cities, towns, rivers, aquifers, forests and farmlands. This is a rough idea, but I am counting on your brain power, hard work, and will to solve the problems.   Let me go over some of the problems.  As the water is being pumped and heated there must be immediate safeguards for rips or tears. We can't have saltwater spilling on our land. There will be an enormous amount of salt. Some of it can be used commercially, some maybe for power stations, but most of it will have to be secured safely.  The next problem is work force and funding. These jobs will be meaningful with many facets and skills. Plus, there could easily be training to improve people's job skills. Unions, the military, private enterprise, the federal and state governments could all coordinate and work together. The funding should also be cooperative--federal, state, local, insurance, manufacturers, Wall Street, agriculture, pharmaceutical--anyone who has a stake in the survival of us all.   In California, we will need to be aware of our restrictions. Be careful, but move as fast and as much as we can. Right now, the super forest fires are destroying more plants and trees than ever before. If we give these environments enough water on the ground and in the aquifers, we will still have forest fires but they will be less powerful. We will give them a fighting chance.

https://jakejthomasphoto.com/2022/10/01/a-message-from-my-dad-water/

This is the most important sequence so far. In these poems, the poet delineates a poetics. In their description of form, the poet discusses the idea that less is more in the expression of love. This has been consistent throughout the poems. Consistency is the strongest attribute of the collection, and at its core is this idea that describes the beloved and also the poetry: Fair, Kind, and True. Fair, meaning beautiful beyond all else; Kind, meaning in service of others; and true, meaning not duplicitous: these are the tenets of Shakespeare's poetry.