About Me

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Marlan Warren is a journalist, novelist, editor, playwright, screenwriter, blogger, website designer, and publicist. She is the author of the fictionalized memoir, Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged: All’s Not Fair in Love or War and the AIDS memoir, Rowing on a Corner. She reviews for Midwest Book Review. Marlan is also a filmmaker.

You can check out but you can never leave...

WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?

My life, your life, our lives inside and outside of Los Angeles and its angels.

Monday, August 6, 2018

Life After Hollywood: Artemis Craig's Firewalk Back To Salvation ("Inspirational Verse" Book Review)

Title: Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst
Subtitle: A Book of Poems to Feed the Soul
Author: Artemis Craig
Genre: Inspirational and Religious Poetry
(Sale Sheet Info Below)
Reviewer: Marlan Warren

I have respect for anyone’s spiritual journey. And I have a lot of respect for the poet Artemis Craig, whom I met at USC, while we were both in film school studying screenwriting. We only met once, in the changing room of the gym, but her feisty humor made a lasting impression.

“Before they’re done, this school’s gonna own the drawers on my butt!” she said. I don’t know about her, but that school does own the drawers on my butt. The one thing I do know that we share is post-film-school depression. A not uncommon affliction in L.A.

Now, a couple decades later, Craig has risen out of the ashes of Hollywood as an evangelical poet who has walked through fire, and lived to tell her story in the form of Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst: A Book of Poems to Feed the Soul.

With straightforward honesty and a gift for storytelling, Craig has arranged the poems in this anthology as an odyssey washed in the blood of heartaches, losses, and disappointments after returning home as the Prodigal Daughter. All the elements that make  “inspirational verse” inspirational are there (finding and praising the Grace of God), woven into searing moments from Craig’s life, told with her flair for dramatic prose and metaphor.

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Is that a Confederate Flag Scarf or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: United Daughters of the Confederacy Tried to "Mend Fences" with Slavery History (2006 Picnic)


UDC Picnic at Pennytown: Photo by Marlan Warren

March 2006: Unpublished Feature for Newspaper in Marshall, Missouri by Marlan Warren
 
United Daugthers of the Confederacy visit first black settlement site in Missouri:
"Our mother told us if there was ever a fire, grab a box of records and run..."

   There isn’t much left of Pennytown anymore. But when Virginia Huston looks at its vacant landscape, she sees more than just meadows, a church and a house. She sees memories that must be preserved.

   Huston was the last person born in Pennytown, a black settlement located eight miles southeast of Marshall that was started by Joe Penny in 19871 when he managed to purchase eight acres for $160.

   “What is unique about Pennytown is that it was started by a freed-slave,” Huston said.

Monday, April 2, 2018

L.A. Artist Violetta Antonia Sorcini Will Show At La Galeria Gitana (4/21-6/1) Before Italy Art Trip For New Book

Echo Park DipTic by Violetta Antonia Sorcini
Violetta Antonia Sorcini
Artist: Violetta Antonia Sorcini
Gallery Website: http://galeriagitana.com/
Artist Website: http://www.sorcini.com/

If you've never experienced Violetta Antnoia Sorcini's passionate artwork, you will have this exciting opportunity starting Saturday, April 21 at La Galeria Gitana in the San Fernando Valley. The show, which features local artists, closes Friday, June 1.

Sorcini is a veteran artist whose paintings, photography and collages often show at local galleries, including ChimMaya.

Born and raised in East L.A., the half-Latino artist is now preparing for what she anticipates will be a life-changing Art Odyssey to Central Italy to meet and live with the Italian side of her family for a month.

"The whole reason I'm going to Italy is to create an art book about my experiences with my relatives and the communities that I'll be visiting,"
Violetta explained during our interview in her charming studio. Although she and her Italian relatives have often been in touch, they have never met in person.

Mixed Media Collage by Violetta Antonia Sorcini

The central theme of Sorcini's non-abstract paintings, photographs and collages is "story."

SeƱor El Sereno by Violetta Antonia Sorcini

"My artwork is composed of allegories that make statements about how I see the world," said Sorcini. "I invite contemplation while staying positive."

Sunday, March 18, 2018

"BITS OF PARADISE: KOCHIYAMA'S CRUSADERS" VIDEO CLIPS OF STAGED READING

Yes, it was in July 2017, and no, I don't know why I didn't  post any video clips or the gorgeous photos I received in January 2018 from actor/playwright/producer Ariel Kayoko Labasan's father before now. But they should not be invisible to the public.

For more video clips and photos of the play and the documentary that grew out of it, please visit:
BITS OF PARADISE WEBSITE


SUMMARY:
Excerpt from staged reading of the One-Act Play "Bits of Paradise: Kochiyama's Crusaders" by Marlan Warren with Ariel Kayoko Labasan at Rogue Machine Theatre (July 2017) featuring Labasan as human rights activist, Yuri Kochiyama, and Warren as a filmmaker who wants to document the little-recognized war effort of girls and women behind the barbed wire of the "Japanese American Internment" who called themselves "The Crusaders" as they embarked on a letter-writing campaign to boost the morale of the Japanese American soldiers who were fighting to prove patriotism while their families were held in U.S. concentration camps.

Warren adapted verbatim the letters and circulars sent out to "any soldier missing a letter" (the en masse correspondence was all written by Yuri) from The Crusaders scrapbooks in the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and the Japanese American Museum of San Jose.

Videographer: Michael J. Labasan

These scenes from the play will be integrated into Warren's documentary film, "What did you do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama's Crusaders" -- currently in post production.

NOTE: This show was also performed as a benefit for Founders Metropolitan Community Church at the invitation of Rev. Kevin Downer and FMCC Board. (July 2017).

[This play was originally produced in 2008 at The Marsh in a Reader's Theater version, "Bits of Paradise" by Marlan Warren.] Director: Marlan Warren Producers: Marlan Warren and Ariel Kayoko Labasan Special Thanks to Rogue Machine Theatre (Hollywood, CA) and to Founders Metropolitan Community Church (Los Angeles).

Cast: Ariel Kayoko Labasan............Yuri Kochiyama and Mary Nakahara
Douglas N. Hachiya..............Bill Kochiyama & Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Jacky Jung..............Various Crusaders
Zoe Jean Kim..........Various Crusaders
Scott Shima............Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Mack Wei...............Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Marlan Warren.......Filmmaker
Theater Sound: Amanda Bierbauer (Tech) and Roger Owens (Sound Design)
Website: http://bit.ly/2tSXRto
Facebook: @YuriKochiyamaPlay and @CrusadersFilm






"Better go and doublecross yourself / Turn tail and run / In sickness and in health / Something wicked this way comes..."

Monty Warren & The Friggin' Whatevers tune "Doublecrosses" was aired by Steve Kelly on his Kelly's Heroes show on Fylde Coast Radio (U.K.) on March 14, 2018. It was an honor to be included in the 2 hour / 48 song lineup! "Doublecrosses" was penned by Monty Warren and John Beemiller, for album #3: "Far Out Close Up." Monty Warren leads a motley group of "Whatevers" who hail from the South Florida / Raleigh, NC area -- all veteran musicians who just plain love rock 'n' roll. If you like us, won't you please get in touch or follow us? Here's some more info: Website: http://www.montywarren.com EPK: http://montywarrenmediakit.blogspot.com Facebook: @montywarrenandthefrigginwhatevers CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/montywarrent..
. iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/tt/artist/mo... Video by Marlan Warren.

WOMEN'S MARCH REVISITED: Because Flicker deleted my photos on this blog

Because I didn't get out to the Women's March 2018, I'm posting the music video I made of the "first" Women's March that happened after Trump's "election." Music is by Monty Warren & The Friggin' Whatevers. Anger and Humor and Desire for Positive Change is by the wonderful people--women, men and children--who gave their all for Democracy.

Remember: "Power never concedes without a Demand. It never has and it never will."


Wednesday, March 14, 2018

L.A. Photo Blog

Master Au, Chinatown L.A.
Neuvo Generacion Mariachi

Archangel Raphael (LACMA)

Fumito Nagasu, Sushi Guy (Ai)

Ai Japanese Restaurant

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