Walking along Chicken Alley

Yesterday evening at 6:00 pm, Paul and I joined the last Live Oak History Walk of the summer. Guided by two local historians Norman and Kathy Poitevin, over 62 of us walkers started at Live Oak School (1916 Capitola Road), and headed north along Chanticleer Avenue. 

Courtesy of Paul Titangos Photography

Chanticleer Avenue, or Chicken Alley, was officially recorded by Santa Cruz Sentinel on 13 July 1911. The road name originated from two sources: Edmond Rostand’s 1910 play, and home of early poultry ranches in the Chanticleer neighborhood.  The popularity of the poultry industry was a natural result of soil depletion, and lack of viable irrigation after previous 50 years' wheat and oat farming, and fruit and vegetable cultivation. Around 1910, Frank and David Wilson, two real estate agents, established the Wilson Bros. poultry company. They purchased several wheat farms and subdivided them into long and narrow new lots equipped with poultry units typically comprised of a 2-bedroom house, one or two coops and chickens. Those lots not only gave the neighborhood a unique land feature, but also defined its residents' occupations, and their families.

Courtesy of Paul Titangos Photography

We visited more than 22 houses built since the rise of chicken ranches on both sides of Chanticleer Avenue, with odd numbers like 1935 and even numbers like 1840. Interestingly, very few house owners were locals, but were from other states, or from countries such as Canada, Denmark, England, or Germany. Their former occupations varied too. But the new opportunity brought them here to work either directly in the poultry industry or indirectly for their families, working as butchers, real estate agents, school teachers, shopkeepers or bank-tellers or managers.

Courtesy of Paul Titangos Photography

At 7:30 pm, we completed our tour outside 2235 Capitola Road. The house owner was a little alarmed at first by our appearance, but immediately expressed his satisfaction at the mention of his house's fame. He is one of the few owners who are familiar with the long history about their homes. Moreover, there is a sharp contrast among the existing old houses: some houses are well-kept and well-preserved while others are dilapidated, and one, only a few days earlier, was torn down without an original trace.

Courtesy of Paul Titangos Photography

Full of local pride and well-being, Paul and I turned around and walked home to see our anxious Chippy and quiet home on the lot once inhabited by numerous hens and roosters.

 Courtesy of Paul Titangos Photography

Meeting Simon Vance & Jerusalem

Courtesy of Paul Titangos Photography

Yesterday evening, Victor, Paul and I attended an event jointly organized by SCPL and Recorded Books, LLC.

It was attended by a group of intimate but hardcore audiobook readers combined with fervent fans of author Alan Moore. Simon Vance, the reader of Moore's Jerusalem, started the evening by recalling his interviews with the writer about his "million-word" (in actuality, about 600,000 words) new publication. What was it about? What emphasis did he need to pay attention to? The audience was treated with the author's recorded answers.

After watching his live performance drawn from segments of a number of chapters, the audience asked Vance how he started his career as a narrator, his treatment of genders, his use of accents in books, his role in selecting reading material and his personal favorite authors and books. It turns out that Vance volunteered for a nonprofit organization recording books for the blind in the early 80s in Great Britain. Before long his unique voice was talent-spotted by the BBC, and later by Blackstone Audio, and Recorded Books. With his acting ability, he is known for bringing books to life with various characters. At the event, he revealed to his audience one secret to his success: consulting with writers whenever necessary. For instance one chapter in Jerusalem was extremely difficult to render. He contacted Moore again and found out that it was conceived in Irish. Accordingly he narrated in with the appropriate Irish accent, and the result was a success.

Vance has been narrating over 800 audiobooks over more than 3 decades and has won numerous awards. Like any Olympian, his accomplishment comes with both talent and hard work. The reading of Jerusalem is 57 hours long, but it took the entire month of June for him to complete the recording of the book. Even though he has limited say in selecting his reading materials, as Hollywood stars do, writers like Dickens and Proust remain his lifelong favorites. He loves a well-written book with well-created characters who make right choices, such as Hakan Nesser's Inspector Van Veeteren.

Courtesy of Paul Titangos Photography

The impatient audience wanted to know when they could listen to Jerusalem. It seems that they have to wait for a few more weeks, as its street date is 13 September 2016! Visit then at http://www.santacruzpl.org/ or http://santacruzca.oneclickdigital.com/ for a digital audio.

Narrator Simon Vance Visits Santa Cruz

Well-known audiobooks narrator Simon Vance is coming to Santa Cruz Public Libraries to discusses the upcoming Release Jerusalem by Alan Moore. He is a critically acclaimed narrator of over 700 audiobooks, winner of 53 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a twelve-time Audie® Award recipient. The event is taking place tonight, August 16, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM at 224 Church Street, Santa Cruz, California. A video clip about Simon Vance can be viewed at YouTube.

Lu Gusun (陆谷孙) Passed Away

Professor, lexicographer and Shakespearean scholar Lu Gusun's 陆谷孙 (1940-2016) passed away on July 28, 2016 in Shanghai. He was one of the most renowned celebrities Fudan has ever produced. His funeral service was fully attended, with white wreaths from city and state dignitaries.

In my four years' undergraduate study at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, I was fortunate to have one translation class with him, when our regular professor was away. True to his name, he was extremely witty but kind, a very rare combination among professors of his status. Later my schoolmate was assigned to work for him, compiling the monumental English-Chinese Dictionary in the Academy of Social Sciences, next door to our Film Bureau. Since I left for California, I have not heard too much about Lu, except for his separate personal life with him in Shanghai and his wife and daughter in the States. A sad loss indeed.