Frankly Speaking Book Party - Modern Times Bookstore Collective, San Francisco

Recorded March 27, 2014.

Thursday night at Modern Times was amazing ! Full of magic and of Frank!
Here is what Corey Alexi and Erika wrote about the night. xxoo

Thursday night was the first event for Frankly Speaking: A Collection of Essays, Writings & Rants, which just came out last month!  It was billed as a “Book Party” and “celebration of the life and work of the iconic bay area cultural pioneer, and world-known radical shaman performance artist, Frank Moore”, and it was very much both!  The setting was Modern Times Bookstore Collective on 24th St. in the Mission, San Francisco.  In the '90s, Frank did poetry and zine events at Modern Times when it was on Valencia St., and now Modern Times has been struggling to stay open with financial difficulties.  We could not say enough about how welcoming and warm Carolina and Ashton were at Modern Times.  They have created an environment of freedom there, and we fit right in!

After Ashton cleared the room, the five of us transformed the space like we would at performances … hanging Mikee's colorful painted panels, and the vinyls of Frank's paintings “Frank and Linda”, “Shy”,“Falling In Love”, Frank's definition of Deep Love, and a selection of our great t-shirts.  Frank was there with us.  Of course we all felt him there deeply … plus, we blew up one of our favorite (there are so many!) photos of him to nearly live size, and framed it, and Frank sat there with us on an easel, smiling out at everyone all night!  Tomek soon arrived, Frank's “band” for so many years at performances, and set up his electronic music rig, proceeding to lay down an amazing musical accompaniment for the next 2+ hours, including a sample of Frank's vocal jamming, which we would hear coming in and out throughout the night.

A wide range of people came … Michael, who has been attending Frank's performances for 25 years; Kaye for even a little longer; Larry the “Flower Vato”, a veteran of Shaman's Den jams and performances in Sacramento and Davis, driving all the way down from Sacramento with his girlfriend Kendall; Diane, one of Alexi's handyman clients; a young guy who came to Frank's second to last performance (the last one Frank was at) and an artist friend he brought with him; a couple who met for the first time in 2011 by doing Gestures at one of Frank's performances at the Center for Sex and Culture in S.F.; Geri who saw us putting up fliers at Rainbow … and we even noticed Larry-Bob from Holy Titclamps zine enjoying the readings for a while from the side of the room.

The night was deeply inspiring and moving.   In addition to telling stories from a long history of life and art with Frank, Linda asked everyone to read something from the book.  Diane cried when she read “Creating a Masterpiece”. Tomek said afterward that he was very inspired by the description of our daily life in “Imagine the Possibilities”, one of Frank's presidential speeches.  This piece was actually passed around to different readers, including Larry, everyone really enjoying Frank's presidential plan!  Kendall told us afterward that Linda's stories about the origin of Frank's webstation LUVeR were really inspiring to her.  She is a DJ up in Sacramento, and was already a fan of Frank's, but now even more so!  The couple traded off reading the “Gestures Intro”, and others also read “An Open Letter to Senator Jesse Helms”, “Dance of No Dancers”, “The Inner Maze” Chapter 21, and  “Shamanistic Art”.  And Michael Peppe was there in spirit, a jamming partner of Frank's from many performances over the last 15 years, as Linda read his great piece about Frank that he just sent to us.

The night really amazed us and fueled us … Frank was so much there with us, enjoying the way that everything continues … it had the feeling of all of Frank's performances … the intimacy, smallness, vulnerability, and willingness to just go wherever the writings, the stories, the music, etc., took us.  

And last but not least, we sold some books!!!

http://www.eroplay.com/franklyspeaking/