Third Saturday Backspace Night Gallery Sparser than First

It may have been that today was the University’s Homecoming and, hence, more entertainments were being offered downtown. Or possibly not. But whatever the reason, this evening’s Backspace Gallery’s “Night Gallery” art, music, and spoken word event — the third of four weekends, for the October Friday and Saturday nights leading up to Halloween — drew relatively few people compared to Saturday’s two weeks ago (cf. October 7).

That was the one where, a reader having had to cancel the night before, I had premiered as the “spooky readings” performer, this time out partnering with three members — including the Writers Guild’s own Tony Brewer — of the musical group Ortet. And then another partnering too, informally planned at the Writers Guild’s business meeting at the County Library that afternoon, just two hours before. Thus at a little before 6:30, about halfway through the the three-hour 5 to 8 p.m. event, two more Writers Guild members showed up, Joan Hawkins who had been a reader the night before and Hiromi Yoshida who is scheduled to read next week on the closing weekend.

The idea: Joan had mentioned that she had read the Grimm Brothers’ “Snow White” Friday, while I had a story, “The Seven,” that relates the tale as it “really happened” from the diminutive miners’ point of view. So while I took a break, she took over the mike with, first, “The Robber Bridegroom” with Hiromi listening to gather some ideas of what to expect for her reading next week. Then, I having come back to read a few more of mine, at a little after 7:30 she took the stand again to read “Snow White” which, with my following with my rather more jaded “sidekicks'” version, pretty well closed out the hour.