Richard Grayson's "LAST SUMMER IN ROCKAWAY" Now Available as Trade Paperback or eBook at Amazon Kindle Store

This week Superstition Mountain Press published Richard Grayson's Last Summer in Rockaway. It is available in a 204-page trade paperback edition for $12199, as well as an e-book published by Art Pants Company available at the Amazon Kindle store for 99 cents.

The promo stuff says in part,

Acclaimed short story writer Richard Grayson has been keeping a diary since the summer of 1969 when he turned 18, a time recounted in his first published book of diary entries, SUMMER IN BROOKLYN.  In LAST SUMMER IN ROCKAWAY, it's 1991 and he's turning 40.

The diary entries begin in Los Angeles, where Grayson goes for the first time to lead workshops at a writers' conference overseen by his oldest friend, a writer and editor he met in a second grade class in Brooklyn's P.S. 203.In California, Grayson learns that his bankruptcy has been finalized and that he has been accepted to law school at the University of Florida.

After a brief stay in South Florida to complete his teaching career at a community college, Grayson flies to New York for three months, living in the now-vacant beachfront apartment in Rockaway that had been his grandparents' longtime home.

Between visits to his grandmother in a nearby Long Island nursing home and excursions to Brooklyn and Manhattan for long lunches, dinners and walks around his native New York, trying to take everything in, knowing he will probably never return except as an infrequent visitor.

Grayson also reflects upon everything from the death of novelist Isaac Bashevis Singer and conditions in Rockaway's ghetto neighborhoods to whether one day the computer, TV and telephone will merge into one device.

Richard Grayson's previous diary books include SUMMER IN BROOKLYN: 1969-75; MORE SUMMER IN BROOKLYN: 1976-79; WINTER IN BROOKLYN, 1971-72; SPRING IN BROOKLYN, 1975; AUTUMN IN BROOKLYN, 1978; A YEAR IN ROCKAWAY, 1980; SOUTH FLORIDA WINTERS, 1981-84; WEST SIDE SUMMERS, 1984-87; LATE SPRING IN SUNRISE, 1982; INDIAN SUMMER: PARK SLOPE, 1985; SPRINGTIME IN LAUDERHILL, 1986; EIGHTIES' END: 1987-89; SUMMER IN NEW YORK, 1990; and FIRST FALL IN GAINESVILLE, 1991.

The book is also available on Scribd and Lulu for free online reading.

Sunday Morning in Queen Creek: Queen Creek Peach Festival at Schnepf Farms

At 7:30 a.m. we drove down Ironwood Drive from Apache Junction for the short ride into Queen Creek, where we thought we were arriving early to beat the crowds at Schnepf Farms' Queen Creek Peach Festival.

Actually, the parking lot was already filled with cars, which makes sense on a day when it's supposed to be 104 degrees; the early birds catch the peaches without passing out from heat exhaustion.

It was a fun experience, especially if you dare to eat a peach. Or two. Or hundreds.

We're grateful we got a chance to see what the Queen Creek Peach Festival was all about. Mostly peaches, it turns out.

Early Saturday Evening in Downtown Mesa: Weird Is the New Cool at the Mesa Rocks Block Party

"Ain't shit to do in Arizona," goes the chorus of Weird Is the New Cool's terrific anthem, "Arizona," but at 5 p.m. today we were able to enjoy a very good hour's set by the smart, breezy local rock-rap hybrid band at the Mesa Rocks Block Party in beautiful downtown Mesa.

We had limited time today so, sadly, we had to miss the earlier acts - Catfish Mustache, Voodoo Swing, and Herb n Life - and had to leave before seeing The Veragroove and Iration,

but we're grateful we got to see the up-and-coming Weird Is the New Cool, whom we were introduced to by the popular video of "Arizona," featuring Authority Zero's Jason Devore, in a romp-filled song that name-checks a lot of what many of us like and hate about this hot place.

It was a pretty hot afternoon, getting close to 100 degrees, but we had our water and were able to be in the shade. The band - Kyle Collins (vocals), Tim Yokley (drums). Nate V.(guitar), Cash Murphy(guitar), Kenny Porter(bass) and Omni Rutledge(keys) - has been compared to Gym Class Heroes and Lupe Fiasco, among others, but their summery, high-energy sound has nicely raggy, intense moments, as on "Skateboarder" from their debut album, Girls.Love.Fun.Music!

There was an enthusiastic, if somewhat sparser than we expected, crowd at that hour of the block party.

But we were really grateful we got to see and here the band perform excellent material like the haunting "Baby Making Music" and their feel-good party song "Beer Pong."

The band finished its set just before 6 p.m., just around the time we had to leave.

On our way to our ancient Geo Prizm, bought used back when we lived here in Mesa in 2001 and still managing to cheat death despite being totally dilapidated (just like its owner), we passed kids lined up for the 6 p.m. shows at The Nile Theatre and Underground.

Anyway, we're sorry we didn't get to spend more time at Mesa Rocks, but as we hurried off to meet some fellow old people in Phoenix, we're glad we did catch Weird Is the New Cool, whose fine alt/hip-hop music was well worth the ninety-minute detour on our way from Apache Junction.