Letter from the Editor - Summer Issue

Hi Cafe'ers

Hope everyone is staying healthy during this time.  

We have a good issue this time around.  A lot of great stuff in here.

As always, we are always in need of content - so don't be shy and submit today --> just drop me an email  holidaycafe.nicole@gmail.com

See you in the Fall

Nicole 

Musings for Moms - Covid

When we were first told to stay at home, it was for two weeks, then it became a month and now here we are three months later.

Thankfully, some of the restrictions have lifted, while others have stayed in place.  During those first few weeks, it was hard to juggle everything and worry about going out to the grocery store and bringing back this sickness and infecting the entire family.

My boys, they have held it together better than most, and I am thankful for their resiliency during all of this.  Online schooling was not always the easiest thing for us to get through, but we managed 12 weeks of online remote learning.  I truly hope that they will be able to go back to school in the fall.  I mean going to their actual schools.  Kids need to be around other kids, and can learn so much more in a classroom environment.  If they have to do some in-class and some remote, fine... whatever to keep the kids safe and healthy.  

Sure, they are on their devices way too much, but they also get outside and ride their bikes and swim.  My youngest learned how to ride a bike without training wheels during all of this.  So I guess that is something.  And we take walks around the block.  

I know my sleep schedule is all messed up, and when I return to work (in office - not at home) it's going to be an adjustment... like that last day of summer before school starts.  

Stay healthy everyone.

Nicole Leckenby is the co-founder/editor of The Holiday Cafe. She works full-time at the University of Pittsburgh and she has two amazing boys at home that keep her busy, along with a whole host of other things.  Check out her website leckenby3.wixsite.com/nicoleleckenby

Evan Dean Band - Interview

The Evan Dean Band puts on a fantastic live show, I have seen them perform live and on live video feeds for the past few years now.  I also have the pleasure of family being in the band (ok, so my family makes up like half the band), kinda cool right?!

They are a great group of people, and I was able to talk with Evan Dean briefly for a little interview.  Check it out, then go check them out!

1. Tell our audience about the Evan Dean Band? When did it begin? What kind of music do you play?

The Evan Dean Band began in 2015 in tis current iteration: Joe Cipollone- Keys, Vocals, Steve Dunn- Bass, Chris Belin- Drums, Natalie Belin- Percussion

We play Classic Rock, Blues, R&B, Soul, and Classic Country . We have a very eclectic playlist. It’s common for us to go from the Rolling Stones to Otis Redding to Johnny Cash to Chris Stapleton to Muddy Waters. 

2. When did you begin playing music? What instruments do you play? 

I began singing in the church choir at age 5. I’ve always been a singer. My mom said I came out singing… or was that screaming? In any case, I’ve always loved singing and when I was an awkward teenager, it was the only thing I liked about myself. I played violin and piano before guitar. But on the last day of 7th grade I broke my ankle and I decided that I would spend my summer learning the guitar. I was 13. From then on I was hooked on the instrument and I’ve never been able to put it down.

3. Who are your musical influences?

I have a very wide range of musical influences. Ask me on any day and you’ll get a different answer. But overall, I try not to write like any particular artist. I just try to get out what I hear in my head. I try to tell a good story, or paint a picture with my lyrics. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Marcus King Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Allman Brothers, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, JJ Grey & Mofro, The Wood Brothers, T-Bone Walker, Howlin Wolf. 

Evan Dean Band, Picture taken by N. Leckenby

4. Where are your favorite places to perform? 

We love playing outdoor festivals, community days, and private parties. We’re still playing a few despite the pandemic and we’re really looking forward to the Pleasant Hills Community Day on August 8th.

5. What is my inspiration for writing music? 

Most of the time I write about my own pain. I’m trying to process it and get another perspective on it. Writing about joy is harder, but “Southwind” was one of the first songs about joy and hope that I ever wrote and really liked. Sometimes I like to tell a story that’s totally made up but expresses something I’m feeling or a truth I see; The “Nitty Gritty” is an example of that kind of song.

6. The best way to get the most up to date info on the Evan Dean Band is at our website: www.EvanDeanBand.com. On our facebook page you can find our gig events, crazy pics, fan videos, etc: www.facebook.com/evandeanband. If you just want to see videos of my solo acoustic and the band go to my YouTube page: www.youtube/evandean31.

Nicole Leckenby is the co-founder/editor of The Holiday Cafe. She works full-time at the University of Pittsburgh and she has two amazing boys at home that keep her busy, along with a whole host of other things.  Check out her website leckenby3.wixsite.com/nicoleleckenby

Elephant

Painting By Pittsburgh Artist - Mary Dunn

Mary has been an artist since the age of 11.  She paints mostly in acrylic and takes commission work.  

Additionally, Mary has a  YouTube Channel where she provides free art lessons in acrylic and art journaling.

Mary has a BS in Business Management and a Master’s degree in Public Management.  

Recently, Mary illustrated a book, Summer Vacation by Nicole Leckenby.  She is working on her next illustrated book that should be completed around October, 2020.  Mary has also illustrated another book, The Many Colors of Natalie, by Natalie Belin.  Both books can be purchased on Amazon.

Grief

a raven pecks your heart   takes wing  

returns and returns

a brick thrown through your soul’s window with 

a note attached   I’ll never let go

a corner you round at the intersection of Heartbreak 

and What You Thought You’d Overcome

a sea of rage at the course of life

a God who turned his back   or never was

the keen of what forever means

songs you can’t listen to anymore

half a sandwich molding in her fridge

friends that don’t understand

a teacup half empty on his sink deck

that private language you shared

jokes no one else can get 

a shape in a crowd that must be he

a car she’s driving

a crib sans a future

an instrument  silent   on a music stand

a home that’s become a house

a sweater limp in a closet

a world of poor and empty

Charlie Brice is a retired psychoanalyst and is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne’s Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (2019), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, I-70 Review, The Paterson Literary Review, and elsewhere.Charlie Brice is a retired psychoanalyst and is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne’s Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (2019), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, I-70 Review, The Paterson Literary Review, and elsewhere.Charlie Brice is a retired psychoanalyst and is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne’s Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (2019), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in 

Waiting Room Again

The lady with three kids

in the corner of the room yells:

“You want your ass warm?

I’ll beat your ass in front of anyone.

Don’t think I won’t!” She

screams as much for us

as for her doomed offspring.

This fleshy prodigy producer

should have taken a Do Not Reproduce 

pledge, but no luck. “I’ll beat your ass,”

she bawls again, and I find us another 

place to sit, far away from this 

impresario of abuse.

Judy has to get another injection

for the relentless pain in her hips and back.

Her cane keeps a mordant rhythm while 

we move to our new seats only to hear

the lady in the wheelchair by the fish tank

loudly proclaim, “What matters

is that you’re saved. The water 

doesn’t mean a thing. You’re saved

what’s important!” 

They take Judy for her injection and 

I jam plastic buds into my ear canals, 

hoping that Khachaturian will save me

from whaling fanatics and frantic

ferocious Medusas. When Judy returns

we go to lunch at the Regent Square Café.

I have bacon and eggs, she French toast.

The injection doesn’t work, her pain returns,

but the food is good, and the drive back 

made marvelous by the green/yellow gleam 

of sycamores that line our route home.

Charlie Brice is a retired psychoanalyst and is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne’s Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (2019), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, I-70 Review, The Paterson Literary Review, and elsewhere.Charlie Brice is a retired psychoanalyst and is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne’s Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (2019), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, I-70 Review, The Paterson Literary Review, and elsewhere.Charlie Brice is a retired psychoanalyst and is the author of Flashcuts Out of Chaos (2016), Mnemosyne’s Hand (2018), and An Accident of Blood (2019), all from WordTech Editions. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net anthology and twice for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, I-70 Review, The Paterson Literary Review, and elsewhere.

Charlie Brice Interview

1.  Tell our viewers a little about yourself.  How did you get into writing?

For years I didn’t know whether I wanted to be a musician (I played drums in a terrific soul band) or a writer, but when my mother got me a Royal portable typewriter in 1966, I sat down and typed out five poems, or at least what I thought were poems in those days. I’d only recently began reading poetry, especially e.e. cummings (still a huge favorite). My heroes in high school were The Beatles, James Brown, and Ernest Hemingway. In college I became a philosophy major. Then my heroes were Nietzsche, Spinoza, and Bob Dylan. This was during the Viet Nam War. I became a conscientious objector and was assigned to Denver General Hospital where I became passionately interested in psychology (I was an orderly on the Psychiatric ward) and where I became passionate with a cute intern in psychiatry, Judy Alexander. The passion never let up! Judy and I have been married for 45 years! We moved from Denver to Pittsburgh where I got my Ph.D. in psychology and practiced as a psychologist and psychoanalyst for 35 years. What’s the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist I hear your readers asking: about $35 an hour (hardy har har). I also love to tell people that Judy drugs ‘em and I help ‘em get over it (but Judy doesn’t find that funny—also hardy har har!). Anyway, I wrote a bunch of papers in my field (I was especially interested in how the relational philosophy of Martin Buber could be applied to psychoanalysis). But around 2007, I started writing fiction. I got a few things published, but discovered that I loved writing poetry. I’ve been published now in over 150 journals, so I guess I found my niche. 

2.  Tell our viewers a little about book that was just released.

An Accident of Blood (WordTech Editions, 2019) is my third book and it was released almost a year ago. Some have seen it as a poetic memoir, but that was never my intention. True, the first section of the book deals with growing up in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the fifties and sixties, and the trials of living with alcoholic parents, but there are sections of the book that deal with political issues, Ekphrasis, nature, psychology, contemporary friendships, literary figures, philosophical issues, and even the art of poetry itself. There’s a lot of satire as well.

3.  What was the inspiration for the book?

In antediluvian days of yore, I took an English course in college. The professor, Bernie Beaver, said something I never forgot. He insisted that “anything can be a poem.” I’ve found this to be true over and over again and it’s probably why I’ve never faced any serious bout of writer’s block. Whenever I think my creative juices have dried up, I simply look around me, read a few lines out of a novel or history book—any book—even the newspaper, sit down and write. In other words, life itself inspires me. I seem to never run out of material. For example, the title poem, “Accidents of Blood,” came from reading a Facebook posting of a friend of mine who is a cowboy in Wyoming. We don’t agree on anything. He’s a right-wing evangelical Trump supporter and I’m a lefty atheist pinko. But my friend Bill described the decline and eventual death of his most beloved horse in such a way that his pain and suffering became dramatically present in my own life. The poem almost wrote itself. All that is to say that I’m constantly inspired by the world around me.

4.  Will you be out promoting the book, if so, where will you be?

I love to do readings and, up until this month, I’ve averaged a reading a month since the publication of my first book, Flashcuts Out of Chaos in 2016. In these days of COVID in person readings have disappeared. I have done a few readings on line and, if you search for me on Youtube, you’ll see me reading poems. I’m especially happy with the reading that’s entitled, “Charlie Brice: Hello Cooped-up World.” My friend, the poet Jeff Kass, wanted to have a series in which poets read their work and talk about their process that he could show to his high school creative writing classes. I loved making that video. You can find it here. I read several poems from Accidents of Blood in that video. I also recently read on Zoom for the C.C. Mellor Library here in Pittsburgh. That recording should be up soon at http://ccmellorlibrary.org/. If you search “Charlie Brice” on YouTube, you find a couple more recordings of me reading my work. Finally, if you check my Facebook page, you’ll see more about possible upcoming readings on line. https://www.facebook.com/charlie.brice

5.  Where can our viewers find your book?

The book is at Amazon and you can also get a signed copy from me. Send me an email at Charlie.brice@gmail.com and I’ll get one out to you for $21 (which includes shipping costs).

6.  Where can we find you on social media? 

https://www.facebook.com/charlie.brice

Nicole Leckenby is the co-founder/editor of The Holiday Cafe. She works full-time at the University of Pittsburgh and she has two amazing boys at home that keep her busy, along with a whole host of other things.  Check out her website leckenby3.wixsite.com/nicoleleckenby