“TRIPLE SPAR”: A DECADE OF SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS
Tag: Avotcja
On Radio
One of the most memorable childhood pastime is listening to the radio. Summer days were spent lying on my father’s big bed. After the news at noon the radio played theme songs of the latest movies, followed by story-telling and Chinese opera excerpts.
At seven-thirty at night our maid would set up the ironing board in the kitchen. I sat on the low stool while she ironed, and together we listened to our favorite radio show, Diary of a Stout-hearted Husband, a comic parody on family life.
My connection with the radio remains, with live-in partner Dore Stein (Tangents Music Radio, KALW), friends Avotcja and Stephen Kent, hosting shows on KPOO and KPFA. Tomorrow my voice will come out of the radio during Jack Foley’s Cover to Cover show (KPFA, 3pm). I had often wondered what was on the other side of that box that I spent so much time with. Now I know, and it still amazes me.
The Only Difference
Avotcja, who works in the penal system, said, “The difference between the ones in jail and us is that they get caught.”
The winners—The difference between winners and losers is that the winners get picked.
Maybe that’s the only difference. Right and wrong, good and bad; who are the judges who declare one winner over the others? Majority rules even if they are dead wrong. Famous today, gone tomorrow are the American idols. Isn’t it still true that most artists and writers become known only after they are dead?
My dad used to tease me, said I’m a sour grape. Maybe, but that’s only because he likes his grapes sweet.
Avotcja, Medicine Woman
Avotcja! I called her when my daughter (18 at the time) ran away from home. Avotcja. Not only her name was magical but I knew she was the strong woman who I could lean on. I needed magic and a miracle. She stayed with me the whole way through, advising, warning, consoling, encouraging me, the distraught mother.
When my daughter came back I took her to the Sacred Grounds reading. Avotcja read a poem. She pulled me aside afterward, “I don’t know if it helps but I put the poem out there for her to hear it.”
Six years later her poem is still out there doing its magical transformation as I watch my daughter grows into a functional young woman celebrating her 24th birthday today.
Photo by Cathy Cade.