Jan./Feb. 1984 RAIN Page 19 all writing about current New York City themes. It is notes toward a definition of a place, Northern California. But not a tight academic definition. Instead, it is the experiential definitions of residents exploring the whys and wherefores of where they live. It is concise. Most of the articles and stories are 6-7 pages or less. Many poems. Poems that surrender at least one level of meaning with the first read-through. Most of the writing is very evidently indigenous to Northern California, being about specific places and incidents. But even in the pieces that are more general, as in the “Relationships” section, there are clues as to what bioregion we are visiting. “Riding Leathers" is a brief story of an erotic encounter between a leather- wearing lesbian and a like-clothed gay male who mistakes the former for another leather-wearing gay male. Well, the story, as they say, just wouldn't play in Peoria. The “Places" section contains some of the strongest pieces. “What the Bay Was Like," by Malcolm Margolin, is a wonderful slice of bioregional history. “The Sausalito Houseboat Community" is a poignant story about the San Francisco Bay squatters' community told by longtime resident Piro Caro. “Letter from Mendocino" is a vignette-history of the back-to-the-land movement that moves through United Stand owner-builder battles to a place where the new pioneers are holding down county commissioner seats. And finally, Peter Coyote takes the anthology out of the bioregion into that bordering area south: Fifty miles south of San Francisco, the plane jerks and shudders, the seat-belt warning light goes on as the air currents-like sentries- rush off the Tehachapis shaking and frisking down the plane as it crosses their border. The great Transverse Range rolls, humps, and chasms below, dividing the open fields from the endless mega-city stretching south. Borders are protected here. Value systems change, language changes, and YOU better change ifyou're going to survive. Not even the plane is immune. City Country Miners is an enjoyable reading experience, proving at least once that decentralist provinciality is sharable. And yes, by all means send us your own bioregional anthologies. —SJ Fup, by Jim Dodge, 1983, 59 pp., $3.95 from: City Miner Books P.O. Box 176 Berkeley, CA 94701 Fup is a tall tale in the tradition of 19th Century California story tellers like Bret Harte and Mark Twain. But it's a little bit as if Bret and Mark had encountered a Tom Robbins or a Richard Brautigan or some outlandish 20th Century drug. It is the story of an old man who is immortal (well, almost) thanks to some whiskey that people travel from miles away to guzzle. He is joined in the story by his multi-millionaire grandson and by a duck (Fup), who is amazing on several counts and surely must experience one of the most unique spiritual revelations to be found anywhere in the chronicles of American literature. A good story to sit down with next to a cozy woodstove after a day of too many meetings. —SJ TOUCH Living By the Letter of the Law Speaking to the Montana Mining Association, Ron Arnold, described as a former environmentalist turned anti-environmentalist, urged "shooting" environmentalists. Butte's Montana Standard reported, however, that Arnold backed away from that position, saying he couldn't recommend doing anything illegal. —High Country News Good to the Last Drop According to a Dow Chemical Company report, chloracne, a skin condition caused by exposure to dioxin, is "usually not disabling but may be fatal." —The Progressive Finally Someone Is Using Widgets The Peoples Exchange Network in Nanaimo, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, uses the widget as a form of currency. One widget equals five minutes of time in this person-to-person skills exchange. The More Things Change ... Burlington Northern Railroad and several other companies are trying to develop a coal-fired locomotive. — High Country News The Arkansas House reached unanimous agreement on an important piece of legislation. They voted 86-0 in favor of a bill that would require warning labels on records and tapes that contain hidden messages when played backward. The legislation was promoted by the Rev. Don Hutchings who has been concerned that some records have messages from Satan when played backwards. —East West Journal Recession Chic Bloomingdale's Department Store in New York City has opened a "Street Couture" boutique featuring clothes that are ragged, tattered, and spattered—the "street look." An employee explained, "Bag ladies are in. They're very popular." — The Progressive
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