Local Notes: The Red Baron Controversy

I took a walk over to see the old boat, called the Red Baron and the yellow crane that artists want saved. When I moved here twelve years ago, I thought that whole area a junk yard. Now, it’s been cleaned up somewhat, and I would hope will be more.

Do these two items pollute the water? The boat is rusty, so I would think so, but I don’t know. The rest of the boat yard is, well eccentric is the nicest word I can put to it.

Also, apparently, these relics form sort of a sea wall, protecting the area from the incoming tide. A new sea wall is supposed to replace it, apparently.

At this point, I tend to support removal of these old, though charming antiquities, providing a replacement to the informal sea wall can be done in a timely fashion. I’ll keep learning and listening. Leave a comment if you feel strongly about it, or can make some important points.

I was talking to Jim Stevenson, who’s closing down his publishing business—but helping Benicia Literary Arts—with his expertise.

When he started taking an art class at Solano College, the teacher introduced him to an abstract expression approach, something which tapped into, “a right brain activator…I was so excited. I wish I’d found it forty years ago.”

That made me think of a quotation: “Art breaks the ice within us.” I needed to find who said this. A google search, found a quote by Franz Kafka, which is a translation: “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” You can find some other versions too.

Stevenson, a history buff, has taken the rest of the books he has on hand to Bookshop Benicia, where the few remaining copies are on sale at deep discounts. These include:

• Great Expectations, The Story of Benicia by Richard Dillon
• The Capital That Couldn’t Stay Put, The Complete Book of California Capitols, by June Oxford
• The Pike County Ballads by John Hay
• The Story of the Pony Express by Glenn Bradley
• The Legend of Francisco Solano, Cultural Myths, Frontier Nostalgia, How Solano County Discovered the “Chief” by James M. Ramirez

The Art Walk is this Saturday on First Street. Poets will be reading at Gallery 621 at 6 p.m. and at 7 p.m. at Bookshop Benicia, where Bonnie Wiedel’s art will also be on display.