20 Years Without Ed

Most of the folks who read this blog are most likely very much aware of the fact that we're creeping up on 20 years without Cactus Ed.  Of course, like most of us, I never met Ed and was, frankly, too young to care when he passed.   At this point in my life I'm pretty sure that Ed wouldn't have liked me, and I probably wouldn't have liked him much either.  So it goes.  The truth is, though, that one can respect and admire the ethos of a man's work without ever having known him.  

Some folks blame the popularity of Ed and his work for bringing more people out here to the Southwest than would normally have come, and I do see that as a possibility.  Hell, a lot of the contributors to this blog may very well have moved here because something Ed wrote woke something in them; therein lies the beauty of this problem.  Ed's work attracted a lot of folk to the Southwest, but they're, hopefully, the right folks, whatever that means.  

Shit, I'm sick as hell right now...probably rambling, so I'll get to my point. 

With the help of Ken Wright, Kate Niles, Art Goodtimes, John Fayhee, Michael Rendon... and others I'm sure, Maria's Bookshop will be celebrating the life and works of Ed Abbey by reading some of his work, stuff of their own, or possibly just standing in front of the crowd and yelling obscenities... I'm looking at you, Ken.  We're also hoping to help kick-off WilderPress's new publication, proof that the spirit of drastic fundamental change is still alive and pissed off.  

This all happens at 6:30 on Monday, March 16th.  

(Since Maria's isn't a bar, there won't be any beer there, much to the lame-ass bemusement of the Herald's Patricia Miller, but I'm sure we'll all somehow pull through it.  Here's a sidenote question: Does anyone else think that Durango houses too literate and intelligent a community to put up with the substandard and poorly written (and often unnecessarilyand pompously cruel) reviews in the Herald's Arts & Entertainment Section?  Just wondering if it's just me...)

So, besides some rowdy reading by many of the San Juan Almanac's contributors, my friend Andy Nettle, the owner of Arches Book Company and Back of Beyond Books, both in Moab, will (hopefully) be on hand with some of his extremely rare Abbey stuff.  Andy specializes in rare books and has some pretty amazing stuff, including copies of Ed's first book, Jonathan Troy.  He recommends bringing a diaper if you're the excitable type, 'cause he's got some cool shit.

All right.  See you there, I hope.  We should all go hit the bars afterwards.