Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Winter Issue - Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor


Hello all,

Hope you all had a very nice few months... and now here we are, officially in winter... How many more days until spring?

I wanted to take a minute to and reflect on the horrible tragedies that have not only happened here in America but also abroad.  It is a sad world we are living in, when human life isn't regarded as importantly as it should be.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims families.

I hope you all enjoy the new format and the new issue.

Thoughts, suggestions, submissions all welcome - email them to holidaycafe.nicole@gmail.com

Until spring,

Nicole



Nicole Leckenby

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Winter Issue - Musings For Moms: Holiday Traditions

Musings for Moms:  Holiday Traditions



Over the years, I have tried to adopt some holiday traditions with my children because growing up I always looked forward to some of the traditions we did in my house.  The version of the seven fish Christmas Eve dinner or the tree decorations that we would make to hang every year on the tree.

The traditions that I do with my kids are getting a new ornament for the tree every year and we go see Santa Clause.  We will drive around the neighborhood and look at the Christmas lights too.  Seeing which house would make Clark proud (a reference to Christmas Vacation).

I think the traditions that we start with our children are important to give them great family memories and to pass on to their children one day.

Traditions are also important because:
  •  Traditions strengthen the family bond.  It may sound corny, but researchers have found that families that have traditions that they follow have a stronger connection and also have a feeling of being a part of something unique and special.
  • Offer comfort and security.  In the crazy fast-paced world we live in today, sometimes it is nice to know that some things won't change, that there will always be that chocolate pudding pie on the table come Christmas or a new ornament on the tree.  Sometimes they also help people get through the sad times.
  • Pass on cultural and religious heritage.  Just like my fish dinner on Christmas Eve, it is a family tradition passed on by my Italian grandmother.  One day, when I can get the boys to try seafood, they will learn all about this meal too.

Just remember no matter how big or small your tradition is, it means something.


Winter Issue - A Wet and Wild Ride

A Wet and Wild Ride

   
Andy went hiking in the mountains with his outdoors group one day. He returned home soaked and smelly, not from rain and sweat.
 
After arriving back at the trailhead following the hike, Andy detected a vile odor nearby. Turns out it was coming from beneath his right hiking boot. Somewhere along the trail he’d stepped in the leavings of a dog whose owner did not pick up.
 
Off he went to a nearby stream intending to scrape and rinse the pungent excrement from his boot. Before he was finished, however, the hiking group leader called everyone to board their chartered bus for the two-hour trip home.
Thirty minutes later the bus was down the mountain, where early morning temperatures had been just above freezing, and was heading across the plains where afternoon temperatures now were blazing hot. That would have been less of a problem had the air conditioning in the aging bus been functional. It wasn’t.
As the heat increased people sitting near Andy and his offensive hiking boot began glancing in his direction, their noses twitching in discomfort. He quickly recognized the urgency of tending to his still soiled boot, as well as a now pressing need to remove his long underwear, worn for the chilly start of the morning hike.
Andy headed for the toilet at the back of the bus.
A sign inside the door promised occupants the light would go on when the latch was engaged. It did, at first. But when Andy was half disrobed the light went out.
He felt around to find the switch, all the while being thrown around bouncing off the walls as the bus lurched side to side down the highway. He found the switch and turned the light on. He resumed disrobing. A few seconds later, off it went again.
Once more, and now down to those long johns, his outer clothing somewhere on the floor beneath his feet, Andy fumbled around again in the careening bus for the switch. Just then, the bus suddenly lurched sideways, throwing him hard against a wall. Andy’s hip slammed into a button that flushed the toilet. It sounded like a 747 taking off.
Andy remembered another sign on the wall when he’d entered. It admonished occupants to sit while doing their business. Convinced of the wisdom in that advice, he decided to sit in the dark while changing his clothes. After that, he’d somehow figure out how to clean the rest of the doggie detritus off his right boot, most likely in the dark.
But first, being a fastidious soul, Andy thought it prudent to wipe the seat before depositing his posterior. He lifted the lid. That’s when he learned two pivotal facts: 1. the lid and the seat itself were dripping wet, and, 2. the lid had been concealing a rush of air now screaming loudly skyward from the depth of the toilet bowl.
What to use to wipe it? Andy felt around in the dark until he found the toilet paper dispenser... you know, that’s the stuff when not on duty in public toilets finds service elsewhere as sandpaper.
Amid the deafening rush of air in the darkness, he used the toilet paper to wipe the lid and the seat. Then he balled up the soaking wet remnants. He pushed the button for a few more seconds of light, and prepared to throw the wet ball into the toilet.
That’s when Andy made another big mistake. He decided to flush the wadded up toilet paper. Wrong move! The intense wind screaming up from the depths of the toilet grabbed and disambiguated the soggy paper ball, and then flung it to the ceiling where it stuck. And the wind also reversed the direction of the flush water, with dire consequences. Then the light went out again.
There was Andy, standing in the dark, undressed. His body and clothes were soaked with a mysterious liquid of dubious origin... his bushy hair also dripped with the unknown moisture. The walls and ceiling were soaking wet. And his right boot remained obnoxiously odiferous.
Andy struggled out of his long johns and into his wet pants and shirt. He reluctantly stuffed his feet clad in dripping socks back into his hiking boots, and located his semi-dry jacket hanging on the door.
For a fleeting moment Andy considered using the toilet for its intended purpose. He lifted the lid and then promptly abandoned the notion. The wind screeching up from the depths was convincing; he’d be left wearing anything he chose to deposit.*
The wet hands of a now soaked and disheveled Andy located the door latch. The light came on and this time stayed on, for one final insult. Andy clenched his teeth and headed down the aisle of the bus to the front. There he informed the driver of the malfunctioning toilet.
As a damp and disgruntled Andy, long johns draped over one arm, made his way back toward his seat under the curious gaze of fellow passengers, the bus driver announced over the intercom that the only toilet was now out of service. All eyes focused on Andy as the presumed culprit.
The rest of the trip back shall be left untold. For Andy the best part was that his 82-year-old seat partner had the habit during bus rides of installing ear buds for his iPod, and then promptly falling asleep. Mercifully, he had obliged again and missed all of the drama. 
At home, it was easy to tell that Andy had arrived.
Outside on the front steps were his hiking boots, damp and still smelly. Just inside the door was his now semi-dry jacket lying in a heap in the hallway beside the closet. On the stairs up to his bedroom slumped his damp shirt. And beside the steaming shower were the rest of Andy’s clothing.
Just another day of hiking... well, kind of.
---
* (Later, the rushing air was found to have been caused by a cap left off the holding tank drain, allowing 60+ mph winds to enter the tank and flow directly up the drainage pipe and out of the toilet.)
#
“A Wet and Wild Ride,” is Copyright 2015 by James Osborne.  All Rights Reserved
James Osborne is an award-winning author, and a former journalist and journalist professor. He has written more than 60 short stories, mostly drawn from the lighter side of life’s enriching experiences, as well as two fiction novels. Two of his short stories have received awards in international competitions. James has also published dozens of non- fiction articles in textbooks, academic and popular magazines, periodicals and online. His personal blog is: http://JamesOsborneNovels.com. 

Winter Issue - Holiday Cafe Interview with Karen Lillis

Holiday Café Interview with Karen Lillis

 

1.  What inspired Small Press Pittsburgh to be born?

 
When I was moving to Pittsburgh from New York, a Brooklyn poet told me, "There's Gist Street Readings [now defunct], but there's nothing else there. I would never move to Pittsburgh for the writing scene." I knew about the visual arts in Pittsburgh, but I didn't arrive here with many expectations for a lit scene. I was pleasantly surprised that there was a lot going on. This was in 2005. Great bookstores; lots of interesting small press activity; collaborations between artists and writers; high-energy literary events like parties with readings, music, and wall art; a poet on every block.
 
Next I observed that Pittsburgh writers didn't always think much of the Pittsburgh lit scene as a whole--some of them talked about it almost sheepishly. But that seemed like it was because they didn't regard each other as worthy--they didn’t care about the scenes they weren’t in. So when I made Small Press Pittsburgh as a literary directory, I wanted to show Pittsburghers that they had built a lot, if they could respect the whole literary cosmos of the city. They didn’t have to love every lit scene in Pittsburgh, they just had to acknowledge that each scene had its own value. I was in cataloging classes and thinking of it like a librarian: From a detached distance, I could help show the Pittsburgh literary scene to itself by cataloging it, by giving each aspect equal weight and letting the readers sort out which parts they felt a connection to. I also wanted to give librarians a context for small presses and their output, so that discovering, obtaining, cataloging, and ultimately circulating Pittsburgh indie lit would be easier--so that libraries would have fewer obstacles to reaching these books.

 

2.  What should publishers, writers, etc. know about your site?

 
People should know that there’s a new site in town that is helping to make Small Press Pittsburgh obsolete. I mean that in the best way. The new site is called Littsburgh and it’s a very dynamic website that lists Pittsburgh’s literary organizations as well as Pitttsburgh lit people: Editors, authors, booksellers. There’s a space for new content coming in: Not only an events calendar, but news about and writing by Pittsburgh authors. It’s a site that’s much more geared to the post-Facebook world we live in.
 
Small Press Pittsburgh played a part in where the Pittsburgh literary scene has landed today, I’d like to think. I hope it got people to appreciate their literary city as a whole. The wiki began around 2007 or ‘08 with pages for each of the small presses and indie lit publications (mainly literary journals). At that time, I also started to make a catalog (on LibraryThing.com) of all the books and zines being put out by Pittsburgh presses, but that got too labor intensive to keep up with. Next I added pages for Pittsburgh’s reading venues, reading series, and bookstores; each page had basic info to give context and contact information, location specifics, and a photo when I could. I also added historic Pittsburgh author sites, and travel info--all of this trying to allow outsiders a way in to Pittsburgh, physically or with their imagination. When I moved here from New York, no one there had the imagination for what Pittsburgh was or could be. I wanted to allow writers to imagine coming here, to facilitate authors to make a tour stop here, to give publishers a way to book them.
 
Later, in the spring of 2013, I started collecting books from Pittsburgh small press publishers, sending these collective donations to the “Mellow Pages” small press library in Brooklyn. This was a new lending library that really got the small press world excited, and I wanted Pittsburgh’s indie lit to be part of it. I’d send the library packages labeled “Small Press Pittsburgh” and they were baffled and thrilled. Soon after that, I collected books on consignment and expanded Small Press Pittsburgh into a pop up bookstand featuring books from Pittsburgh authors as well as small press wares from New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and many other places across the country. I added a mail-order component, creating Small Press Roulette with the same stock of books. With Roulette, I could send books I recommended to readers near and far: This let me send Pittsburgh books to readers out of the city, and recommend non-Pittsburgh books to locals. I’m always interested in cross-fertilization, in making introductions.
 
Small Press Pittsburgh has always been about showcasing and contextualizing Pittsburgh’s lit scene and literary output, whether as a website, bookselling service, or the readings I’ve organized over the years--I’m usually pairing touring small press writers with our best local indie lit authors. 
 

 

3.  What do you feel is the most valuable information you have on your site?

 
Putting everything together in one place was the most valuable thing, I think--letting people view the whole Pittsburgh lit scene at a glance. I think it helped change people’s minds about what was going on here. People already thought of the Pittsburgh film scene, the visual art scene, the theater scene. But because there were very different camps, I don’t know if most people thought of the “Pittsburgh literary scene” in the same way. I used to refer to the literary scene here as “Balkanized.”
 
For specifics, I am proud of adding several travel pages and a hotel accommodations page (which is one of the most visited pages on the site). These are designed to demystify getting to Pittsburgh, getting around Pittsburgh, and staying overnight affordably. I wanted to put Pittsburgh on the map, to get Pittsburgh included on author tours whether the writer or the publisher was looking into it, to break down the barriers to visiting Pittsburgh that seemed to exist before we landed on all the “Best Place to...” lists. And every city has a lot of specifics you don’t hear about before you get there. Are you going to find Not Another Hostel or the cheapest Oakland hotel on your own? Then there’s The Pittsburgh Left. In 2008 I did a reading at The New Yinzer Presents, at ModernFormations. An indie novelist from Chicago was the out of town writer on the bill, and driving to the reading she got slammed by a 17-year old driver making a Pittsburgh Left. Her car was totaled, but she was alright, so she went through with the reading. The (paper) chapter she was going to be featuring was ruined in the car by exploded brake fluid, so she read from her laptop instead. She had to get a rental car for the return drive to Chicago.
 
I made sure to include a warning about The Pittsburgh Left in the Small Press Pittsburgh directory, because not only do I want to keep authors alive and well, but I’d like them to take a good impression of Pittsburgh back to where they came from. I can imagine that our Chicago novelist never wants to come back here. Every visitor is a potential ambassador of Pittsburgh, or a potential bad-mouther. I believe in Literary Tourism, in Bookstore Tourism. For a city like Pittsburgh that is actively remaking its image as we speak, the impression we make on writers in particular seems vital to moving in a good direction.
 

4.   If an author wanted to become a part of your catalog, what do you suggest they do?

 
I would suggest they contact Littsburgh at< littsburgh@gmail.com>. Small Press Pittsburgh the website does not showcase authors in particular, but Littsburgh is doing a fabulous job of just that.
 
There is a quality of Pittsburgh that I’ve noticed: It’s very easy to start things up here. Not only tech start ups, but anything start ups. You can start a reading series, you can start a small press, you can start a magazine, you can open a bookstore, and people will cheer you on. But this openness, this permissiveness, does not speak to the other aspect, which is whether there is a full audience for your start up once it’s up and running. If you start something, it better be unique and fill a certain niche. It better be high quality and well advertised. And even then. Say you start a reading series. Soon enough, you’ll notice that on any given evening there’s an abundance of fabulous art and cultural events going on in Pittsburgh. Your potential audience can often choose from two or three readings per night, to say nothing of art openings, music shows, plays, short-run films, etc. The challenge is putting your start up on people’s radar, cultivating an audience beyond your close friends, making them show up for the other vibrant people they know will be there.
 
What I’m getting at is that I don’t think it does anyone any favors to have too much redundancy. If Littsburgh has stepped in to fill essentially the same role as the Small Press Pittsburgh website but in a more dynamic way, then I’m willing to consider passing them the baton. 

 

5.  Where do you see your site going in the future?

 
I’m at a wait-and-see moment for a few reasons. Mainly, I want to spend more time on my writing and less time on all the other literary activities that aren’t the writing itself.
 
It also seems that a new crop of literary Pittsburghers are excited by the scene as a whole. This is great to see--it’s one thing to have poets and writers clump up in their own scenes and be jazzed about their friends or energized to promote their students. But it’s important to have people or organizations who are looking city-wide, who are agnostic about the players, who can appreciate the whole and try to encourage everyone, inspire everyone, give all the writers a forum to interact and overlap--whether in real space or virtually. In addition to Littsburgh, the Poetryburgh blog has been doing a great job of illuminating the Pittsburgh reading scene. Peter Webb, the blogger, attends as many poetry readings around town as he can and blogs about what they’re like. This is a great service, and it creates another trail of information about what’s here.
 
The Haven is another new literary initiative in Pittsburgh. They started not long ago as a group of indie fiction writers supporting each other through their novel-writing process, moved on to be a roving reading series at spots like Cyberpunk Apocalypse and Bayardstown Social Club, and they’re aiming to have their own physical space in about a year. They’ll host affordable writing classes, workshops, and writers’ retreats, and create a café workspace that can also double as a reading venue. The Haven will be available to Pittsburgh writers of any genre and they’ll offer a resource library as well. This sort of open-arms, open-ended, affordable writer’s resource is a gem for a city. It reminds me of the organization Small Press Traffic (San Francisco), whose resources and classes encouraged experimental writers like Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian.
 
And of course we have the City of Asylum endeavor on the horizon: the pending Alphabet City literary center on the North Side. This is aiming to be a high profile reading space, bookstore, workshop series, and restaurant. I’m very eager to see how it shapes up, who it attracts. City of Asylum Pittsburgh is adept at getting diverse audiences, and they’re one of the only lit organizations in town that regularly gathers audiences full of people who aren’t even writers. If you’ve ever tried it, that’s very hard to do.
 
 
 
 
 Nicole Leckenby is co-founder and editor of The Holiday Cafe. She works full-time at the University of Pittsburgh and runs after two very energetic boys at home.

Winter Issue - Who Is John Williams?


Who is John Williams?



If I were to conduct a survey asking people to name the greatest musicians of all time, encompassing all the genres of music, I would hear names like Elvis Presley and John Lennon for rock.  Country fans would certainly say Garth Brooks and George Strait.  Michael Jackson and Madonna would definitely be thrown out there from pop fans.  The old school jazz fans might shout out Miles Davis and John Coltrane.  That’s a pretty great list and everyone named so far most certainly deserves to be on it.  Anybody obvious missing?  No?..........What about John Williams?  Whenever I mention John Williams to most people I get a reaction of “WHO?!”  Yes, John Williams is one of the greatest musicians of all time.  Right up there with everyone already mentioned earlier in this article.  “Well if he’s so great how come I don’t know any of his songs?”  The answer is pretty simple – you do know his songs, a lot in fact…you just never knew it.  
John Williams is a symphonic composer and conductor who has composed many of the most famous movie soundtracks we all know by heart.  You don’t know his voice because he never sings.  You don’t know his face because Rolling Stone and Spin never feature symphony composers on their covers nor do they write articles about them. 


John Williams was born in Floral Park, New York in 1932.  He comes from a family of musicians.  His father was a jazz percussionist; his older brothers are percussionists and conductors as well.  In 1950 he moved to Los Angeles where he attended UCLA. He learned how to arrange music and compose from an Italian composer named Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.  Then in 1952 he was drafted into the Air Force where his talents were utilized, as he was put in charge of conducting and arranging the music for the U.S. Air Force Marching Band. 

After his Air Force service ended, he returned to school.  This time he was studying at the Julliard School in New York City.  When he completed his studies he then began composing soundtracks for a variety of television shows and ‘B’ movies.  Williams got his big break when in 1974 a young up and coming director named Steven Spielberg who had heard Williams’ work asked him to compose the soundtrack for a movie he was working on called JAWS.  Another young up and coming director and good friend of Steven Spielberg named George Lucas was looking for a composer to write and conduct the score to a space opera he was writing called Star Wars and Spielberg recommended Williams to him.  This would kick off what would be arguably the greatest decade of music ever composed in all of history.  1975 – Jaws, 1977 – Star Wars, 1977 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1978 – Superman, 1980 – The Empire Strikes Back, 1981 – Raiders of the Lost Ark,  1982 – E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, 1983 – Return of the Jedi & 1984 – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  With this amazing run Williams cemented himself as THE composer in Hollywood.  To this day Williams is still the go to composer for major motion pictures.  Other soundtracks he has composed that are easily recognizable include Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter, The Olympics on NBC & Sunday Night Football just to name a few.
 
Over the course of his career John Williams has been nominated for 44 Academy awards, 6 Emmy awards, 25 Golden Globe awards, 65 Grammy awards & 49 Oscar awards.  His greatest honor came in 2005 when the American Film Institute selected his 1977 score to Star Wars as the greatest film score of all time.  So to answer the question of who is John Williams…you need only hum your favorite movie theme and there you will find the answer.
 
Sean O'Brien is the Music Writer for the Holiday Café. He enjoys going to concerts, playing the drums and rocking out to Grunge music.  He resides in McDonald, PA with his wife and daughter.

Winter Issue - Life

Life

 
Life is crazy life is hazy
Decisions, decisions
Will my decisions take me down the right path or the wrong path
Let me start a new chapter in my life
Is it feasible is it pleas able 
 
Adventures are what I need
I can't adult today
I need the warm sun, warm sand, and the ocean breeze
Whether it be from the east coast or west coast
 
New experiences are what I need
I can't adult today.
Bills, bills go to hell.
I need a shot of tequila.
What's that you say, a shopping day will be today.

Stress what a mess.
Percussion what a rush!
Ink me beyouch! 
Have a great day! 
 
Natalie Belin holds an Associate's degree in Specialized Technology Le Cordon Bleu Pastry Arts. Natalie is currently a percussionist. Natalie has a love for the Arts, and loves to adventure!

Winter Issue- Book Review - After You

Book Review - After You




*Note – If you have not read this story, this review contains some spoilers. All opinions are my own and may differ from your views of the story.

 

Well hello Winter! Here we are coming up on the holidays and some of my favorite reading time (okay, okay, most of the year is my favorite reading time). As I reflect on the year, I’ve had some great reads, some meh reads and reads that I couldn’t finish. One of my great reads I reviewed earlier in the year -Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I can’t really write this review without spoiling the first book, so I greatly apologize (or if you really want to read the first – stop here!). But as my bestie can attest to, I agonized over this review and how to structure it, so bear with me.

So Me Before You was an amazing book in my opinion. I hit the full range of emotions with this book, which for me, is the sign of a great story. It was also thought provoking, which I tend to like as it makes me pause and think of my own views on things I maybe wouldn’t normally be pondering. In this case, the subject tackled was assisted suicide. Will was a vibrant young man who in the blink of an eye becomes a quadriplegic. Fast forward after time to come to terms with his new life and what it entailed, he chooses to end his life. As his family grapples with this decision, they seek out a care giver that might change his mind, that might give him a new reason to live. Enter Louisa, a free spirited young woman who at first can’t stand Will, but eventually grows to love and respect Will. However, in the end, Will proceeds with his wishes and ends his life in the manner in which he wanted.

So After You picks up with Louisa’s life after Will. At the end of Me Before You, Louisa received a poignant letter from Will and a sum of money with the basic theme of ‘don’t screw this up’ (this being the life you’ve been given). However, Louisa is lost. She’s not sure what to do, she desperately misses Will and is spinning her wheels as a bar tender at a crappy bar in the airport, watching people living life in the airport. She’s trying to move on, attending a grief group, but is greatly struggling.

One night she receives a huge surprise…in the form of Will’s daughter that he was not aware of. The book leads them through the unique situation they are in, while also intertwining the key players from the first book. This part I won’t spoil, as there are a lot of complex twists/turns with this development. Throw in Louisa still trying to come to grips with her new life as the world seemingly continues to move on around her and you’ve got a not completely neat and tidy book.

With that, I have to say I was let down by this book. I guess they’re not all going to be winners, but I was particularly sad over how this book went. I don’t know if well enough should have been left alone and just left Me Before You as the only book, but I just felt down after reading this. And yes, the theme in this IS sad, but I didn’t really derive much emotion out of this book. Where Me Before You gave me the full spectrum of emotion – After You just left me feeling flat. I am bummed, I was very much looking forward to this sequel, but I suppose it is a good lesson in that sometimes a follow up is not necessary and can in fact be a detriment.

Gwen O’Brien works full time in higher ed, works full time as a wife, works full time as a mom, works full time as a dog mom and occasionally finds time to write or edit. She resides in McDonald and enjoys reading, yoga and donuts (not necessarily together) when she’s not working.