2004-07-01 Messenger - "Obituary: Robert Campbell (1951-2004)" by Pablo Capra

"Robert Campbell (1951-2004)"

Article and Photo by Pablo Capra

In the May 20 issue of the Messenger I wrote a double-page spread (“Robert Campbell’s ‘Real Fantasy,’ Vol. 28 No. 10) celebrating the art and poetry of my friend, fellow poet, and Brass Tacks Press cofounder Robert Campbell.

It is with a profound sense of loss that I now report that eight days after that article was published Robert passed away.

I didn’t write about my friendship with Robert in that article, but I would like to say a few words about how I got to know him here.

In the mid-’80s, my father, art director Bernt Capra, went to a play with imaginative sets that impressed him so much that he decided to hire the hip young set designer with bleached hair who built them—Robert Campbell. So began their friendship and productive collaboration on several rock videos, TV movies, and feature films.

Some of Robert's credits include “Baghdad Cafe,” “Echo Park,” “Cold Feet,” and rock videos for Kenny Loggins, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, and Nirvana.

I was around five at the time, and enjoyed hanging around Robert during his extended visits when he would stay for months at my house. He was a short, funny, chubby man who I watched draw and paint in my backyard, and whose artistic abilities I grew up having a tremendous respect for. When I pictured an artist, I pictured Robert. I naively believed he was the best painter in the world.

In the mid-’90s, my father lost touch with Robert and we only occasionally heard about him through mutual friends.

Then, in 2000, he showed up at my father’s house out of the blue, looking totally different. I met him first, but didn’t recognize him until he said his name. My father and some of Robert’s other friends in our neighborhood didn’t recognize him at first either. He was skinny, dirty, missing teeth, half-blind, and had grown a disheveled beard.

Robert explained that he had been diagnosed with diabetes, but didn’t want to take insulin because it made him feel sick. He also didn’t believe that he had diabetes (Robert didn’t trust doctors), and would make up strange and nonsensical explanations for his health problems.

For example, he used to complain that he suffered from the side effects of other people’s drug and alcohol problems. Robert himself never drank or used drugs, except coffee and cigarettes.

Everyone was concerned about how he had been neglecting his health and appearance. According to Robert, one doctor had told him that his eyesight could be fixed with laser surgery, which we all advised him to get. But Robert worried that surgery would make his eyesight even worse. He also believed that having poor eyesight strengthened his inner vision.

He began to stay on and off at my father’s house again for long periods of time. During one of his earlier visits he brought over an extremely disorganized, messy, and beautiful graphic novel of more than 100 pages held together between two loose sheets of cardboard that he had recently had to stop working on because of his deteriorating eyesight.

Now, when Robert was visiting, he would often space-out, take naps, or smoke cigarettes in our backyard. Once I saw him scribbling in his notebook, and walked over to see what he had been writing. I was surprised to learn that it was a poem. It was really good and original, and I wondered if it was just a fluke. I congratulated Robert and typed the poem up for my family to read. Everyone else was impressed too.

After that, I began to type up everything he wrote and encouraged him to write more. He also encouraged me when I shared my own writing with him. I was impressed by how fast he could write, and by the surreal associations he would come up with.

By the summer of 2002, I had collected more than 50 of Robert’s poems. Whenever I submitted my poems to a magazine or literary journal, I submitted Robert’s as well, but our poetry was always rejected. Frustrated, I asked him what we should do next, and he said that we should publish and distribute it ourselves in our own literary journal.

I asked my friend Richard McDowell to help us, and that summer the three of us created Brass Tacks Press.

In the almost two years since then, we’ve published 12 books featuring the work of various poets and artists.

Then, in late 2003, Robert impressed and inspired me all over again. I was hanging out with him at his home in downtown L.A. and I asked him if he could play the guitar that was leaning against his wall. I always knew that he considered his poetry as being close to music, but I didn’t think that he could actually play music. So I was totally unprepared when he picked up the guitar and started playing and singing a song he had written. Normally frail and spaced-out, he got into a groove as soon as he started playing the complicated melody. He played two more songs for me, and they all sounded great. Soon afterwards I started playing my guitar again, which I hadn't touched since high school.

Robert showed me that painting, poetry, sculpture, and music are just interchangeable mediums, and that a real artist is capable of using any of them to express his or her unique vision to the world.

On June 5, I went to visit him again at his home downtown (without calling first because he didn’t have a phone) and two grieving roommates answered the door. Something was wrong… but I was floored when they told me that Robert had died two Fridays ago on May 28—just over a month after his 53rd birthday.

Three Fridays ago I had gone downtown to bring Robert a laminated copy of my "Messenger" article about him, which had just appeared.

When I arrived at his building that day, I saw him standing outside on the sidewalk and greeted him as “the famous poet,” proudly showing him and everyone around us the article. I also gave him some of the first profits I had made selling copies of his new book, “Life as a Poet presents: Anesthesia Lake.”

Robert was extremely excited, especially because the title of the article (thanks to editor Dan Mazur) said in big letters “Robert Campbell’s ‘Real Fantasy.’” Real Fantasy was the name of the artistic movement that Robert had been trying to create his whole life. We hung the laminated article on his wall, and spent most of the day together celebrating.

According to Robert’s landlord, Robert had been drawing, writing, and hanging out with his downtown neighbors the night before he died. One roommate said that before he went to bed, Robert had complained to him about feeling bad. The roommate asked Robert if he wanted to go to the hospital, but Robert said no.

At 8 a.m. the following morning, Robert was found lying in the hallway outside his room by another roommate. The coroner identified the cause of death as diabetic ketoacidosis.

Robert's poetry was published by Brass Tacks Press in “Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon,” “Life as a Poet: Volumes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6,” and in his own book “Life as a Poet presents: Anesthesia Lake.”

We were in the process of publishing his graphic novel under the title “Floating” when the bad news came.

Robert is survived by his brother Dock, sister-in-law Cherry, and nephews Rodney, Erick and Jeremy Herron in Oakland, California; his sister Janice Newton in Savannah, Georgia; and his mother Margaret Winn in Marshall, Texas.

*
Robert Campbell plays the painter in (and was the painter for) this 1985 music video:

2004-05-20 Messenger - "Robert Campbell's 'Real Fantasy'" by Pablo Capra

"Robert Campbell's 'Real Fantasy'"

Article and Photo by Pablo Capra

One night Robert Campbell tossed and turned on top of the uncomfortable bulge of his wallet, which he had forgotten to take out of his pants pocket before going to bed. Half-asleep, he finally pulled his wallet out of his pocket and threw it onto the floor. But after searching everywhere for it the next day, it was nowhere to be found.

“I must have thrown it into a dream,” says Campbell, a surrealist. “Maybe one day I’ll find it again in a dream.”

Campbell stays on and off with friends in Lower Topanga, and has been a part of their artists’ community since the mid ’80s when he began collaborating on rock videos with some of the residents.

“Topanga reminded me of the rural areas and small country towns I was raised in. It became my oasis in the big city, offering ample space for my mind to wander. And the conglomeration of talented people who lived there made for a more creative headspace than I experienced in the so-called real world,” Campbell says.

Campbell is the latest poet from the popular collection “Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon” to have his own book published by Brass Tacks Press.

His book’s title poem, “Life as a Poet Presents: Anesthesia Lake,” begins by describing his ethnicity, which is one-eighth Native-American:

He was a black man
had Scotland in his name
and a Cherokee pow wow
burned brightly in his veins.

Campbell was born in Marshall, Texas in 1951 and began drawing and painting at an early age. He also had a talent for football, and regretted being unable to pursue a career in it because of his short skinny build. In college he won an art scholarship, but dropped out his junior year and never received a degree.

He came to Los Angeles in 1975, where he showed in art galleries, painted faux finishes and trompe l’oeil on many prominent walls throughout the city, and worked as a scenic painter in the theater and movie business. Some of his credits include Baghdad Cafe, Echo Park, Cold Feet, and rock videos for Kenny Loggins, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, and Nirvana.

Campbell calls his artistic style “Real Fantasy,” emphasizing the fantastic in his own take on the school of Fantastic Realism—although he is capable of painting perfect realism.

“The pyramids can’t compare to the freeway,” he says, expressing his unusual perception of how the world today is more fantastic than ever before.

The title of the poem that his book is named after, “Anesthesia Lake,” refers to an allegorical place in the fantasy world that Campbell has created in his art and poetry. Some other allegorical bodies of water in his fantasy world are Tranquillity Lake, Mercy River, and Whiskey River.

He first dabbled in poetry in the late ‘70s while trying to come up with rock songs to play on his guitar, but was discouraged from becoming a musician by his own shyness and soft voice.

In 2000 his eyesight began to fade. Unable to draw and paint like he used to, he started writing poetry again to keep his creative flow going.

Today, he is a prolific poet who writes everything in large letters with a permanent marker. However, he still draws cartoons by putting his face very close to the page. He also still refers to many of his poems as “rock songs,” and occasionally plays one on guitar, or collaborates with a musician friend to make songs out of others.

Alongside the other Idlers poets, he has done readings of his poetry at Rose Alley Theater, Village Books, Howell Green Fine Art Gallery, Lobal Orning, and Beyond Baroque.

One interesting distinction between his poetry and his art is that he has no real education or influences in poetry. He basically taught himself to write poetry by listening to the lyrics of his favorite music, especially Motown ballads and the psychedelic ponderings of Pink Floyd. Therefore, his poems sound fresh and unaffected by the history of literature. In addition, the scarcity of his influences makes for a voice that is unpretentious, personal, and totally natural.

But just like his art, his poetry is surreal and full of pop culture references. Revolving around specific symbols and myths of his own creation, his poems often read like nursery rhymes for adults:

from “The Halfwit Lament”

he wonders where his memory went
held in suspense of the next moment
the gods took it out to play frisbee
Snap! Crackle! Pop!
Rice Krispies!

Campbell is the main character in his books’ many introspective poems. However, his poems also feature an elusive mystery woman who reappears in moments of longing, and who seems to be a cross between an old flame and a fabled enchantress:

from “Anesthesia Lake”

She was from Palenque,
or Teotihuacan,
or up along the green hills of
Monte Alban,
she came to America
one summer in June
when the trees were heavy with fruit
and the jasmine was in bloom
she came with the art of enchantment
she had learned since age two
the things she’d learned in dreams
from the Pyramid of the Moon.

Although his poems tend to be long, they are usually written at high speeds. Sometimes he claims to hear them as songs in his head when he wakes up in the morning, and finishes writing them down before lunch. A few of the longest poems in his book were written in less than an hour.

Once when a friend told Campbell that it was impossible to find rhymes for the words “purple” and “orange,” Campbell effortlessly answered him a few minutes later with a poem that begins:

from “Purple and Orange”

The eternally fertile totally verbal turtle
affectionately aware that another liquor store binge would turn him orange a la mode
hopped in the back of a blue-back Cadillac
that hurried on down the road
and on leaving he’s receiving
impressions from Mars
as his head begins to float
evanescing with the stars.

Of the Rodeo Grounds in Lower Topanga, and the regrettable relocation of many of its residents by State Parks, he writes:

from “Rodeo Grounds Last Spark of Eden”

though some believe it has dried up
I’m convinced it has just left for a season
to collect more angel and fairy stuff
Rodeo Grounds, the last spark of Eden

“Robert is a visitor to this earth,” joked former Lower Topanga resident Gustav Alsina, pointing out Campbell’s spacey nature while expressing admiration for his art. The two worked together as scenic painters.

Lower Topanga resident and art director Bernt Capra confirmed this, saying, “Whenever I hired Robert, I had to baby-sit him to make sure his beat-up VW van was running and everything else was in order, or he wouldn’t show up to the set. But once he got there, his artistic abilities were unmatched. He could do anything in the visual arts—from painting and sculpting, to designing and building sets.”

Always standing with one foot in the fantasy world that he paints and writes about so beautifully, Campbell never seems to lack inspiration. However, he often wonders about the “loose screws” that put one in touch with that other world, and the way they make one appear in this one:

from “A Lewd and Ludicrous Woman of the Dawn”

You’re all over town
those crazy things that you do
you really get around
you’re so full of loose screws
that sure makes you seem dumb
but you’re a jewel

Sometimes Campbell absentmindedly leaves loose pages uncovered after a morning of writing outside in Lower Topanga, and the wind scatters them across the lawn. At least one of the poems in his book was only found again days later, in the bushes.

Campbell currently lives in, and oversees, a movie sound stage called Glaxa in downtown Los Angeles, which he painted inside and out. He sleeps in a converted make-up room under a big mural of Louis Armstrong, his bathroom has a mural of Adam and Eve, and the walls of the sound stage are covered in trompe l’oeil architecture.

Inside the sound stage, prefabricated sets of a cafe, a bar, a concert stage, and a restaurant wait to be rented out to film crews. When not in use, the empty dimly-lighted sets serve as a backdrop for Campbell’s own surreal visions.

In addition to painting and writing poetry, Campbell has done several comic strips, and two graphic novels drawn in meticulous ball point pen.

“Floating,” the title of one of these graphic novels, is due out some time this year by Brass Tacks Press. Drawn shortly before his eyesight deteriorated, “Floating” is a surreal comedy about the problems caused when a new recreational drug actually makes people’s heads float off of their bodies.

Campbell’s book, “Life as a Poet presents: Anesthesia Lake,” collects his contributions to the first five volumes of the Life as a Poet poetry series, which he helped found in 2002.

“Campbell’s poetry draws its images from the public consciousness without sounding clichéd. In spite of its surreal structure, it beckons for a simpler time,” said Life as a Poet cofounder Richard McDowell.

Campbell dedicates the poetry in his own book to “the awareness of the deadbeat syndrome that weaves its subversive threads throughout society in general.”

"Life as a Poet presents: Anesthesia Lake" by Robert Campbell is for sale at Lobal Orning in Topanga Canyon, and at Village Books in the Pacific Palisades.

To order it online, go to the Brass Tacks Press website at www.brasstackspress.com.

"Dedicated to all the dead unknown poets," the "Life as a Poet" series puts together group shows of different poets who are given the space to express themselves in ten poems each.

2004-05-20 Messenger - "Topanga Poets Published" by Pablo Capra

"Topanga Poets Published"

by Pablo Capra

Two poets from “Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon” published their first solo books under Brass Tacks Press in March, “Life as a Poet presents: Anesthesia Lake” by Robert Campbell, and “Life as a Poet presents: Death Eats the Words that I Don’t Write” by Pablo Capra.

With “The Lowered Bucket” by David Hayward, published last year by Brass Tacks Press, this makes three Idlers poets who now have their own books.

See P. 12 for more on Robert Campbell’s book “Life as a Poet presents: Anesthesia Lake.”

Pablo Capra’s book, “Life as a Poet presents: Death Eats the Words that I Don’t Write” also collects his contributions to first five volumes of the Life as a Poet poetry series, as well as his poetry from Idlers of the Bamboo Grove.

Capra was born in Vienna, Austria in 1979, and currently lives in a greenhouse next to his father’s house in Lower Topanga where he grew up. He went to Malibu high school and UCLA, graduating in 2001 with a degree in American Literature. He is 6’ 7” tall, doesn’t know how to drive a car, and is afraid of dogs.

Capra’s poetry is personal and straightforward. The subjects he writes about most are love and his desire for transcendence through art. The following excerpt is from “This Girl is Getting Bored of Me:”

Finally she says, “You know, Pablo,
You don’t have to be so uptight.
Loosen up, live a little, life’s not that serious.
Sleep less, make a mess, wear a dress,
Be frivolous....
Nothing’s that important.”
My answer is obvious:
“Everything’s that important!”

David Hayward’s book “The Lowered Bucket” presents an overview of his poetry, including his refrigerator magnet poetry, and his poetry from “Idlers of the Bamboo Grove.”

Hayward was born in Winchendon, Massachusetts in 1940, and moved to Lower Topanga with his wife, Joy, in 1960. He is a husband, father, grandfather, professional trumpet player, astrologer, and massage therapist. As a musician, he worked with Sonny Rollins, Stan Kenton, and Janis Joplin.

Hayward’s poetry is thoughtful, humorous, and often reveals his deep love for astrology and music. The following excerpt is from “On Ballads:”

Poems are to prose
what ballads are to other tempos.
The tendency to over speak
kills the soul of a ballad.

All three books are available at Lobal Orning in Topanga Canyon, and at Village Books in Pacific Palisades. For more locations check the www.lifeasapoet.com.

2004-04-22 Messenger - "The Passing of Princess" by Pablo Capra

"The Passing of Princess"

by Pablo Capra
Photo by Bruce Dath

Princess, a horse known to many from the moving cycle of poems written by her owner Bond Johnson in Idlers of the Bamboo Grove, died on April 2 at age 34.

As Bond’s poems relate, he was forced to live apart from Princess after his house burned down in the Malibu fire of 1993. Fortunately, horse-lover King Zimmerman agreed to let Princess live with him in Lower Topanga.

“Where else would a Princess live / If not with a man called King?” Bond writes.

In a sadly prophetic moment, King told Bond “It’s only a trial, / But you know, Bond, / She’ll likely still be here / When I die.” King was killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing Pacific Coast Highway in 2002. Shortly afterwards, State Parks relocated all of King’s tenants except Princess.

Princess endeared herself to several Lower Topangans. In addition to Bond’s poems, she appears in the poems of David Hayward and Catherine Holliss, who says that she decided to move to Lower Topanga after meeting Princess. In part, Princess became a symbol of Lower Topanga, and the stress of having to leave.

In April 2003, Bond built a small corral, then walked with Princess from Lower Topanga all the way to his home at Malibu Lodge, just past Tuna Canyon on PCH. But spurred by homesickness, the old horse tried to walk back to Lower Topanga when no one was looking. Bond found her unharmed on the PCH, and brought her back to her new corral, “As close to the old place / As we could get.”

Princess lives on in Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon, available at Lobal Orning. Below is one of Bond’s poems from the book:

"Soon Enough Now"

(For Princess)

Soon enough now
The water in the corral will be dry
And there will be no need to fill it.
Soon enough now the grain cans
Will rest unopened,
Then be turned out for the birds.
Soon enough now the sun
Will cross the whole sky
Looking for a horse
Whose brown coat
It can dapple with shadows of Sycamore leaves,
And find only the empty earth
Where she used to walk.
So in these autumn days,
Let us banish
All who would scorn the mystery of such things.
Let us live each day left
With full hearts and open eyes,
So that when the end comes
We will know
That nothing
Stood in the way
Of us and the love we shared.

2004-04-01 Westside Today: Pacific Palisades - "A Palisadian Jazz Poet Speaks" by Caroline Ryder

"A Palisadian Jazz Poet Speaks"

by Caroline Ryder
Photo courtesy of David Hayward

A decade after Beat author Jack Kerouac prophesized the American "rucksack revolution", Dave Hayward, a talented young jazz musician with a taste for liquor, found himself right in the middle of it. It was 1970 and the 28-year-old musician was touring the country with Janis Joplin and her hippie entourage, riding the wave of the new counterculture. But unlike Joplin, Hayward had little time for flower children. "I did the sixties hard-core but I was never a hippie," says Hayward, who has lived in the Palisades since he was a child. "I never shared those values. I was more of a libertarian, if anything. For me, those times were just about the music."

Dave had been playing the trumpet since he was a teenager, and got his first real break at 24. Completely inebriated, he somehow managed to persuade jazz legend Sonny Rollins to let him play with him. "He was playing a show in Hollywood and I was there, totally loaded," remembers Dave. "He took a break and I went up to him and asked if I could stand in. I would never have done that sober. It's like asking God if you can stand in for him." But Rollins was impressed by his enthusiasm, and invited Dave to join him for six months, playing venues in New York City. The two remain friends to this day. "It was the single greatest musical experience of my life," said Hayward. "If you had asked me at the age of 16 who I would die to work with, it would have been Sonny Rollins."

Hayward went on to tour with big-name musicians including The Righteous Brothers, and was asked to join Joplin's band in 1970. By then, the "phoniness" of the hippie movement was already starting to grate. "They thought it was very chic to hate anything ‘conventional'," he said. "But behind the peace and love slogans, there was violence and elitism, which I hated."

Even though Joplin was an icon of the movement he despised, they became friends - thanks to their shared love of booze. "She and I were the only alcoholics in the band," explained Hayward, who has been sober since 1974. "But she would always take things to the extreme."

When he heard she had died of a heroin overdose six months after they finished the tour, he wasn't surprised. "We used to worry about something like that happening," he said. "I remember she'd do her sound check in the afternoon, and her roadie was always wondering whether she'd O.D. before the evening's gig."

Over the years Hayward found himself drawn to other art forms, especially poetry. "I'm a musician, and I started to realize that all great poetry has music in it," he said. He was inspired by the poetry of WH Auden and Dylan Thomas, joking "they were alcoholics, just like me." After publishing some poems with the Topanga Poets, he recently put out his own collection, a 51-page book called "The Lowered Bucket". He will read from it at Village Books in the Palisades this month, in a collaborative reading with poet, pacifist and – dare we say it – peacenik John Harris.

"I suppose you could say I'm a hippie," said Harris, founder of the Venice Poetry Workshop, LA's oldest poetry workshop, who fostered a generation of Los Angeles writers as a mentor and publisher. He also ran famous bookstore ‘Papa Bach', a hub for Conscientious Objectors during the Viet Nam War. "Dave and I do have our differences in opinion when it comes to politics and so on," said John, "but we do have a lot of things in common – jazz and poetry. That's all you need."

Dave Hayward and John Harris appear at Village Books (310 454 4063), 1049 Swarthmore Ave., Pacific Palisades, Thursday April 8 at 7.30pm in celebration of National Poetry Month.

An Excerpt from "Clatter"
A poem from "The Lowered Bucket" by Dave Hayward

I'm simply a bucket in a hole
Banging my way up and out
In to the light.

Musician, poet, joined at the root, sessile
I rattle and splash my way back
To pure expectancy;
Non-being, out of reach.

2004-02-12 The Malibu Times - "Idlers of the Bamboo Grove at Lobal Orning"

Photo by Baretta

2004-01-29 Messenger - "Book Review: The Children's Guide to Astral Projection" by Pablo Capra

"Book Review: The Children's Guide to Astral Projection"

by Pablo Capra

Lower Topanga artist James Mathers was tired of mainstream books with mystical themes but no real information about the occult (i.e. Harry Potter), so he came up with The Children’s Guide to Astral Projection in an attempt to actually teach children how to leave their bodies, explore other dimensions, and hang out with immaterial beings.

The back cover of The Children’s Guide, which Mathers wrote and illustrated in comic book form under the pseudonym “J.A. Homes,” reads: “This handy guide will introduce children to their own out-of-body experience, and equip them to express their own private vision of the threshold between this earthly dimension and the Astral Plane.”

Mathers describes the Astral Plane as “the natural domain of children, poets, and young creatives.”

Mathers wrote the The Children’s Guide” specifically for children because he believes that they are more open to new ideas. But the book is not dumbed-down for children.

“I make no apologies for the complex ideas that are presented here,” states the foreword.

“Awareness of the Astral World is a gift,” Mathers writes. “Not unlike musical ability, athletic talent, or a powerful mind, it can be developed and explored, or ignored and neglected, while it slowly fades into the background of our busy lives.”

When I ask Mathers what his experience with the Astral Plane is, Mathers says, almost surprised by my question, “It’s the same as yours.”

According to Mathers, everyone interacts with the world on an astral level whether they know it or not.

Mathers believes that our bodies are actually designed for Astral Projection.

“It’s part of our standard human equipment, and one of our most powerful spiritual tools,” Mathers says. “But because of a bias in our collective perception, Astral Projection has sadly been pushed to the fringes of the human experience.”

A Topanga native, Mathers moved to New York City after graduating from high school to pursue a career in painting. Since then he has traveled extensively, and lived for four years in Dublin, Ireland, one of his favorite cities. He is currently one of about 40 remaining residents in Lower Topanga Canyon whom State Parks is forcing to relocate.

In addition to painting, Mathers passions include writing, filmmaking, and poring over maps and diagrams of various spiritual hierarchies.

“There’s no way to talk to most people about the Astral Plane without giving the perception of mental or emotional disturbance,” Mathers says. “The main purpose of all my delvings into the spiritual realm is to create a language to describe this stuff.” The Children’s Guide is his latest attempt.

“It’s the book I wish I had when I was a kid.”

The Children’s Guide is the first comic book to be published by Brass Tacks Press, a small press founded in 2002 by three local poets. Brass Tacks Press also published Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga, which Mathers illustrated and contributed poems to.

The Children’s Guide sells for $3.33 at Lobal Orning in Topanga, as well as at Hi De Ho Comics and Midnight Special in Santa Monica. It can also be purchased online at www.lifeasapoet.com.

2003-11-06 Messenger - "James Mathers' Bohemian Rhapsody" by Pablo Capra

"James Mathers' Bohemian Rhapsody"

by Pablo Capra
Photos by Katie Dalsemer

Growing up in Topanga Canyon, artist James Mathers was baby-sat by young women he described as “fantastic hippie girls” who would hitch-hike with him down to the beach, and then go to the Rodeo Grounds “to hang out in hot tubs with surfers and actors.”

Thus, Mathers became a part of the Lower Topanga community.

At 17, Mathers moved to New York to embark on his “glorious and disastrous” painting career. In the ’80s, he showed paintings in the Lower East Side, then moved to Europe where his paintings were exhibited by galleries in Switzerland and Italy. He spent a year painting in Indonesia, and four years in Ireland. In Ireland, he ran an anarchist bookstore called Garden of Delight and started writing screenplays. He sold one called “Crushproof,” about a subculture of tough young kids who rode horses through the streets of Dublin.
But during his travels, he always kept a house, trailer or art studio in Lower Topanga—”the last bit of what Topanga felt like when I was growing up,” says Mathers.

According to Mathers, the bohemian lifestyle of Lower Topanga performs a “vital function” in our society.

“If the idlers, poets and headcases didn’t go down to the beach at night to give thanks to the ocean and the sky, who would?” he asks.

Mathers’ unconventional lifestyle is evident in his appearance. His baby-thin hair is never brushed, his face is unshaven, and he wears cheap suits and black combat boots, a vestige from his punk days.

He currently shares an Airstream trailer and an art studio in the Rodeo Grounds with his girlfriend, fellow artist Daisy Duck McCrackin.

An actress, painter and songwriter, McCrackin was named after a cartoon character by her guru Adi Da Samraj when she was born on a commune in Northern California.

Mathers and McCrackin are two of about 40 people who are trying to hold out in Lower Topanga and preserve what is left of their community. Their trailer is surrounded by three boarded up houses and a vacant lot where a fourth house was bulldozed in May.

Mathers says that living in a disappearing community makes him more aware of the temporality of life and gives him a feeling of urgency to document it. In a recent comic strip, he depicts his life in Lower Topanga through the magical rituals he performs in praise of arundo, his frustrations about the demise of his neighborhood, and his relationship with McCrackin.

“Yes, I do burn money and am in contact with the fairies,” says Mathers.

He says he feels connected to the arundo canebrakes in Lower Topanga.

“They are implacable, assertive and the State wants to have them removed.”

He has learned a valuable lesson from arundo, in life and art—”to just endure.”

He is glad that the state Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority’s project to use herbicides on the arundo in Lower Topanga was defeated.

“It’s remarkable that the people who are being kicked out of Lower Topanga are actually the ones who are preserving the land, and not State Parks!

“We’re serving our purpose down here.”

In 1999, Mathers wrote and directed a film, “King of L.A.,” about a poetic homeless man living in downtown L.A. This year, he wrote and illustrated a children’s book called “The Children’s Guide to Astral Projection,” which he is trying to get published. The book teaches children how to have out-of-body experiences and prepares them for encounters with other-dimensional creatures on the astral plane.

“It’s the book I would like to have had when I was a kid,” says Mathers.

Mathers will be emceeing a reading of “Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon” on Sunday, November 9, at 4 p.m. at Beyond Baroque. Mathers illustrated the book, and he and McCrackin contributed poems to the collection of writings by residents of Lower Topanga.

2003-11-04 Flavorpill LA - "Performance Pick of the Week: The Lower Topanga Poets"

"Performance Pick of the Week: The Lower Topanga Poets"

When: Sun 11.9 (4pm)
Where: Beyond Baroque (681 Venice Blvd., 310.822.3006)
Price: $7

This poetry reading and performance celebrates the quirky and creative character of Topanga Canyon with a multimedia mélange that's unlikely to be repeated anytime soon. Works by poets and musicians are displayed alongside various other mediums, most fabulously a performance painting by Norton Wisdom. His appearances are mesmerizing and unique: using his fingers and a squeegee, Wisdom paints on a huge plastic scrim onstage for all to see, creating a reciprocal trance with the musicians. It's messy and funny and kind of sexy, too. Miss at your own peril. (SND)

Note: A collection of Topanga-based artists, including many who perform tonight, collaborated on a book entitled Idlers of the Bamboo Grove.

2003-10-23 Messenger - "Idlers' Reading at Beyond Baroque" by Pablo Capra

"Idlers' Reading at Beyond Baroque, Nov. 9"

by Pablo Capra
Artwork by Norton Wisdom

Ten Lower Topangans will read from their book Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon at Beyond Baroque on Sunday, November 9, at 4 p.m.. Their poetry celebrates the idyllic bohemian lifestyle of their community and laments the prospect of being evicted from their homes by State Parks, who bought Lower Topanga in 2001.

The title of the book comes from a group formed by eighth century Chinese poet Li Po, called the "Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove." Lower Topanga poets related to the name because of the bamboo arundo that characterize their neighborhood, and because arundo, a "non-native" plant, is also being uprooted by State Parks.

Their multi-media reading will include live music, a slide show by Topanga photographer David Blattel, and performance painting by former Lower Topanga resident Norton Wisdom.

It will also feature a new addition to the group, former Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band lyricist Herb Bermann, looking back one year after being relocated from his home in Lower Topanga.

Idlers of the Bamboo Grove is on sale in Topanga at Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery, Lobal Orning, and the Elder Tree. For other locations, see www.brasstackspress.com.

Beyond Baroque is located at 681 Venice Blvd., between Lincoln Blvd. and Main St., in Venice. Admission is free for members, $5 for students/seniors, and $7 for the general public. For reservations or information call (310) 822-3006.

2003-06-05 Messenger - "Trumpeting Poetry at Howell-Green" by Pablo Capra

"Trumpeting Poetry at Howell-Green June 6"

by Pablo Capra
Photo courtesy of David Hayward

David Hayward, Lower Topanga resident, trumpeter and poet, will perform with his old friend and mentor John Harris at the Howell Green Fine Art & Framing Gallery on Friday, June 6, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Hayward has had an extraordinary career as a trumpet player touring with many well-known performers including Janis Joplin and Sonny Rollins. He also recently joined fellow Lower Topangans for a poetry reading and musical performance at Howell Green. He will read from a new set of poems titled “The Lowered Bucket,” play trumpet and provide background music for a poetry reading by John Harris.

Harris has had his poems published in numerous magazines and anthologies. He was one of the founders of the Venice Poetry Workshop in 1969. As proprietor through the ’70s and ’80s of the historic literary center and bookstore, Papa Bach Books, he fostered a generation of Los Angeles writers as a mentor and publisher.

The Lower Topanga poetry reading at the Howell Green Gallery earlier this year was a memorable experience for those who attended. The music performed with the poetry was an enhancing surprise to many.

Admission is free. For more information, call (310) 455-3991.

2003-04-17 Los Angeles Times - "Glum Stares Amid Bulldozers' Roar" by Martha Groves

"Glum Stares Amid Bulldozers' Roar"

by Martha Groves
Photos by Anacleto Rapping

As houses are razed for expansion of Topanga State Park, longtime residents believe a way of life is also being demolished.

Like a ravenous T. rex, the backhoe tore again and again into the ramshackle house at the mouth of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, quickly reducing it to a pile of snapped lumber and twisted metal.

The early morning demolition buoyed state parks officials, who are nine months behind on their plan for putting in a parking lot, picnic tables and trailheads where the twisty boulevard meets Pacific Coast Highway.

Longtime residents, meanwhile, gaze glumly as bulldozers knock down neighbors' houses one by one. After all, they say, the metal jaws are crushing not just plywood homes but also a way of life.

"A little paradise is coming to an end for no good reason," growled Bernt Capra, a transplanted Austrian filmmaker who has rented a home in lower Topanga Canyon for 22 years -- a relatively short time by the community's standards.

Once home to dozens of writers, painters, actors, filmmakers, poets and retirees, the area was perhaps the last affordable seaside haven in Los Angeles. Here, an artist could rent a home and sun-splashed studio for a paltry $400 a month, or splurge on a $1,000 six-bedroom compound replete with fruit trees and hammocks.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation saw the area as a biological treasure that was being degraded by human habitation.

In August 2001, the department bought the 1,659 acres for $43 million from LAACO Ltd., which owns the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The department's goal was to extend the 11,000-acre Topanga State Park and hack out the first uninterrupted trail from the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific.

The agency sent eviction notices last April to the more than 70 tenants in the area, hoping that residents would negotiate relocation packages and vacate by July 1, 2002. But the process quickly bogged down as tenants resisted leaving their counterculture commune.

Over the next several months, about 50 month-to-month renters, many of whom had lived in the area for decades, accepted cash payments and moved. The settlements have averaged $80,000 each, with the top payout so far $255,000 to a tenant who was able to document that he had made about $100,000 in improvements to his extensive compound. The money enabled many residents to buy or lease new quarters in Malibu, Pacific Palisades and other nearby communities.

But 20 tenants, including Capra, balked. They filed grievances against the parks department in an effort to gain more time or a more generous settlement. So far, $4.1 million in taxpayer-backed bond money has gone to lower Topanga tenants and business owners. An additional $2.6 million remains to cover the cost of relocating the die-hard tenants and some businesses. That process is expected to take several months.

The owner of the old Topanga Ranch Market on Pacific Coast Highway sold out months ago, and parks officials expect to raze it and turn the site into a parking lot for visitors.

The state also plans to begin negotiations soon with longtime businesses at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway. Officials say they would like Reel Inn Fresh Fish Restaurant to stay on as an amenity for park visitors. Not so for the quirky Malibu Feed Bin, which sells gifts and animal feed from a bright red barn, and Oasis, an outdoor furniture and pottery business.

"This is one of the top-grossing businesses in all of Malibu," Oasis owner David Haid said. "Between us and the Feed Bin, we give the state over half a million dollars in tax revenues every year. And now we have somebody sending me a letter to close down my business."

The uncertainty has put Marty Morehart, owner of the Feed Bin for 35 years, in a bind. "We don't know whether to buy or not to buy for the fall and winter seasons," he said. The almond firewood he stocks needs at least five months to dry; holiday trim-a-tree gifts need to be ordered now.

"We don't know what's going to happen," he added.

State parks officials fear that delays caused by reluctant tenants and business owners could jeopardize the project, given the state's financial distress. "We don't want to get behind and have our state parks money reallocated somewhere else," said Roy Stearns, a department deputy director. "We feel an obligation to stay on track to convert this into a park for the public."

Meanwhile, demolition contractors are attempting to work around lingering tenants, raising hackles in the process.

Chris Murray, an actor, said he had to whisk his wife and two small children away from their home one recent Sunday when men in hazardous materials uniforms showed up to remove old tile from the house next door, and dust began flying.

"They posted 'Danger: Asbestos' signs, but I had no idea they'd start work on a Sunday when we'd be home," he said.

One relocation official reported that he was threatened by a renter -- albeit with a garden hoe -- and tenants have complained that parks officials have harassed them. Officials counter that they have issued citations to some tenants who put furniture on their lawns or moved belongings into abandoned structures slated to be torn down.

In addition to knocking down structures, officials also intend soon to begin eradicating nonnative plants such as oleanders, nasturtiums, eucalyptus trees and morning glories. Suzanne Goode, a senior resource ecologist, plans in late summer to begin removing arundo, a towering, bamboo-like plant that she considers the worst offender.

The plant grows so thickly and propagates so easily, she said, that it has diverted the creek and crowded out trees that would serve as habitat for birds and other creatures.

The prospect of losing the arundo pains Pablo Capra, Bernt's 6-foot-7 writer-poet son, who considers the plant his natural habitat. He has lived most of his 23 years with his father in the secluded Rodeo Grounds section of lower Topanga and traipses daily through the ubiquitous stands of arundo to go surfing or to visit his neighbor, James Mathers, an artist who lives in an Airstream trailer.

The arundo even provided Capra the title for a book he compiled recently of poetry by the lower Topanga community: Idlers of the Bamboo Grove. Mathers, who one recent morning sported a pin-striped suit smeared with paint blotches, did the drawings and contributed a poem called "A Village on Cracking Stilts" that included the passage:

Like a beautiful woman dying of cancer
Our village counts the days,
Each a gift of infinite pleasure.
Is anything sweeter than another empty day?

"The lower Topanga community was a model for how people should live in harmony with nature," Capra said. "We're just trying to hold on as long as we can."

2003-04-10 Messenger - "David Blattel Exhibit 'Lower Topanga: Before the Bulldozers' Opens at Howell-Green" by Pablo Capra

"Blattel Exhibit 'Lower Topanga: Before the Bulldozers' Opens at Howell-Green"

by Pablo Capra
Photo by Katie Dalsemer

“Lower Topanga: Before the Bulldozers,” is a very timely title for David Blattel’s photo exhibit at the Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery because State Parks began demolishing the first houses in Lower Topanga earlier this month.

Blattel, who has been shooting in Lower Topanga for the last year, vividly captures a way of life that is disappearing fast. In fact, the photo exhibit already evokes a profound sense of loss and nostalgia since several of the people in his photographs have been relocated and their houses are now boarded up.

“It’s really a shame that the Lower Topanga community is being destroyed; and not just because it’s tightknit, but because it’s also unique and can never be duplicated,” Blattel said.

The exhibit’s opening reception on March 29 was crowded with longtime Topanga residents and newcomers interested in finding out more about this unique community.

“We had a great turnout!” Blattel said, “I didn’t know what kind of a response to expect, but the people received it well.”

Longtime Topangan Marsha Maus said she thought the exhibit was “amazing, especially the pictures of the people because they’re so expressive!”

She called Blattel’s approach to the subject matter “not glamorous, but sensitive.”

Maus also enjoyed meeting residents of Lower Topanga.

“I was impressed by their fierce sense of community, the way they care for each other. It reminded me of the hippie heyday in Topanga, or of communities I’ve seen in Hawaii.”

Ami Kirby, another longtime Topangan, said she felt a sense of community among everyone at the gallery as they all shared in the “uniqueness and wonder” of Lower Topanga.

“I wasn’t aware of who was from upper Topanga and who was from Lower Topanga. There was a just a feeling of fellowship with the entire Canyon. A feeling of family,” she said.

A young woman at the opening said she had moved to Topanga less than a year ago and wanted to learn more about its history and culture.

Nine Lower Topanga poets were present at the opening to read from their book, “Idlers of the Bamboo Grove: Poetry from Lower Topanga Canyon.”

The reading brought to life the images in Blattel’s photographs: a young poet writing in a greenhouse, an old writer getting out of bed, a jazz trumpeter playing at home, a guitar builder and his dog, an intimate portrait of a beautiful old lady.

Together, photographs and poetry attempted to transport the audience to Lower Topanga.

James Mathers, a lifelong Topanga resident, prefaced his poem with a humorous account of how Topanga had changed since his childhood.

“Sometimes in life it’s necessary to be in a place where you can just lie in bed for a year and pluck your guitar to get over a depression or to go through a change. Topanga used to be one of those places, and I feel fortunate to live in the last piece of that. There are millions of people in this city who are very good at doing what they do, but there have to be at least a few people who know how to do nothing,” he said.

As part of a resistance effort to stay in Lower Topanga for as long as possible, Mathers said, “I wouldn’t trade my trailer in Lower Topanga for a house with a pool in Bel Air!”

Bond Johnson played a classical piece on piano called “Tender Sorrows,” by Rameau, to express his feelings. Dave Hayward, on trumpet, and Frank Lamonea, on guitar, performed Lamonea’s ominously titled song “Sunset,” just as the sun was setting behind the Topanga hills.

After the reading, gallery co-owner David Green praised the photographs and poetry for “taking our minds off of the war in Iraq for a short while, which everyone is distressed about on some level.”

Blattel’s photo exhibit has been extended and will now be on display until April 19, when Blattel will have a second reception at the gallery from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. He will talk about the photographs, his cameras and techniques as well as his experiences shooting in Lower Topanga.

The Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery is located on 120 N. Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Pine Tree Circle. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.,Tuesday through Saturday. For more information call (310) 455-3991.

Photographer David Blattel, seated, with, from left, pianist Bond Johnson, Pablo Capra, Julie Howell, David Green and David Hayward at the Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery for the opening of his show “Lower Topanga: Before the Bulldozers.”

2003-04-03 The Malibu Times - "Theater for a Difference" by Cathy Neiman

Excerpt from "Theater for a Difference"

by Cathy Neiman

…Through their theater arts connections and at the productions at The Rose Alley Theatre, Willoughby and McMurray came in to contact with a vast variety of people who ended up becoming involved, especially from Malibu.

Even Malibu celebrities, like Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, have been spotted in the audience at some of the productions. One Malibu resident, Brandon Wilson, an old friend of Willoughby, became the stage manager and public relations/advertising person for the theater. Topanga resident Catherine Hollis recently choreographed "The Cave Dwellers." Pablo Capra, another Topanga resident, helped put on the poetry reading "Lost Lives: The Poetry of Lower Topanga" that showed last December and was a sell-out….

2003-03-13 Messenger - "Idlers Poetry Reading and Photo Exhibit at Howell-Green" by Pablo Capra

"Idlers Poetry Reading and Photo Exhibit at Howell-Green Mar. 29"

by Pablo Capra
Photos by David Blattel
Artwork by James Mathers

Lower Topanga residents will be reading poetry from their book Idlers of the Bamboo Grove at the Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery in Pine Tree Circle on Saturday, March 29, at 4 p.m.. The book, edited by Pablo Capra, is a collection of poems expressing feelings of love and loss in Lower Topanga as the long-standing neighborhood is uprooted by State Parks to make way for a public park.

The reading will also mark the opening of an exhibit a the gallery of photographs of Lower Topanga by David Blattel. The opening and reading event is free, and there will be live music. The exhibit runs from March 25 through April 5.

Idlers of the Bamboo Grove is available for sale at Howell-Green and The Elder Tree in Pine Tree Circle.

Howell-Green is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. For more information call (310) 455-3991.

2003-01-30 Palisadian-Post - "Topanga Poets' Visions of Art, Love, Abandonment" by Libby Motika

"Topanga Poets' Visions of Art, Love, Abandonment"

by Libby Motika
Photos by Rich Schmitt

The poems in Idlers of the Bamboo Grove, edited by Pablo Capra and illustrated by James Mathers includes the work of nine Lower Topanga poets, some of whom describe life in the close-knit community, while others lament the loss of the last outpost of the Topanga bohemian hippie lifestyle.

The title of the book is taken from 8^th century Chinese poet Li Po's "Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove," which celebrated nature, wine, friendship, solitude, and the passage of time in Tang Dynasty times.

Idlers of the Bamboo Grove can be found at Village Books, Dutton's, Vidiots in Santa Monica, and Howell Green Fine Art Gallery in Topanga Canyon.

Topanga poets will read from the book at Village Books on Swarthmore next Thursday, February 6, at 7:30 p.m..

From the "Introduction" to Idlers of the Bamboo Grove, by Pablo Capra

Lower Topanga is home to a rural community of artists and surfers that begins at Topanga State Beach and includes the first mile of Topanga Canyon. It lies on the border of the city of Malibu. Approximately 120 residents rent low-cost houses near, or in, the flood plain of the Topanga Creek. They maintain these houses without assistance: sometimes digging them out of the mud after floods, or setting backfires to prevent a spreading wildfire from burning down their neighborhood. The roads are unpaved and must be repaired annually.

Fires, floods, and good times too have helped make the Lower Topanga community close-knit. Poets, painters, and filmmakers share and collaborate with each other. Neighbors are best friends.

The Chumash considered Lower Topanga a sacred, economic, and cultural meeting place for tribes all along the coast. One of the main areas, the "Rodeo Grounds," takes its name from an actual rodeo arena that existed there on a Mexican Ranch in the 1800s. In the early 1900s, Lower Topanga was a Japanese fishing village, and artifacts from that time can still be seen.

For the last 50 years Lower Topanga was owned by the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and has remained virtually unchanged because the flooding creek makes the land undevelopable. There are actually fewer houses in Lower Topanga today than there were 50 years ago. Most of the houses were built as weekend beach shacks. Famous actors such as Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Charlie Chaplin, Carole Lombard, and Ida Lupino spent time there.

Today Lower Topanga is unique as one of the last outposts of the classic Topanga Canyon bohemian hippie lifestyle where the village raises the child while promoting anti-materialist attitudes, freedom of expression, and living in harmony with nature. Also, the Lower Topanga 24-hour architectural style (built quickly because illegally) of creative add-ons to the beach shacks has high aesthetic value.

In 2001, Lower Topanga was sold to State Parks. Even though the Lower Topanga community occupies less than 2% of the total purchased land, State Parks has an aggressive policy to relocate everyone, and bulldoze all of the houses. Arundo, a type of bamboo that characterizes the Lower Topanga landscape, has become a totemic plant for the residents because it is first on a long list of "non-native" plants that State Parks has also condemned to be uprooted (and even poisoned!) in an attempt to restore the land to its "natural" state.

Many Upper Topanga residents (including the local Native American population) realize that the destruction of the Lower Topanga community will be a terrible cultural loss. Most Lower Topanga residents have lived there for over 20 years - some for 40 and 50 years! But the relocation process has already begun.

Lower Topanga residents are currently fighting forced relocation in court, but their community is vanishing quickly.