Explosive Message Erases Poet’s Avant-Garde Work From Menu

It sits there amid a blah block of University Avenue in Hillcrest: unpretentious on the outside, but dedicated to do-your-own-thing on the inside.

Since opening in June, the Soho Tea & Coffee house has developed a strong following among the politically dispossessed, the desperately hip, the forever bohemian, the culturally alienated.

Drawn by cappuccino, herbal tea, bagels, raspberry cream cheese brownies and more. And some of the splashiest poetry readings around.

Political poetry, populist poetry, body function poetry, down-and-dirty poetry, I’m-against-everything-you- stand-for poetry. Full verse ahead and let the censors be damned.

A recent session of lesbian love poetry began with a salute to Jesse Helms. A salute consisting of a joyously upraised middle finger.

But last week, on the eve of their biggest session to date, the Soho owners did what no censor could have forced them to do: canceled a reading by punk rock lyricist Henry Rollins.

Rollins was set to bring his angry social analysis (masturbation, beer drinking, drive-by shootings, etc.) to the Soho last Friday night. Nearly 200 tickets were sold in advance at $5 each.

Then Friday morning, a tiny sign was posted, promising refunds and saying Rollins had been canceled because of unspecified “capacity and security” problems.

Explanation: An anonymous caller Thursday night had threatened to detonate a bomb in the middle of Rollins’ reading.

Soho manager Kathy Black says the cancellation does not signal a backing down from Soho’s ideals: “We just weren’t equipped to handle something like this.”

Still, the poetry crowd is worried about Soho’s constancy in the face of pressure. Railing against a politician is easy; standing up to a telephone nut is hard.

Some say a test will be whether Soho goes ahead this month with San Diego poet Steve Kowit.

His explosive themes: animal rights and opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Mideast.

Beasts and Their Keepers

Heaven and Earth.

* Pachyderm power.

State Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) may introduce a bill to prohibit the unnecessary chaining of elephants.

Two years ago, in the wake of the Dunda scandal at the Wild Animal Park, he sponsored a successful bill to ban he beating and prodding of elephants.

Last week he met with San Diego animal activists Sally Mackler and Florence Lambert. They showed him a tape of elephants shackled during a circus at the Sports Arena.

* Say what you want about me, but leave my horses alone!

August Anderson, losing candidate for Encinitas City Council, has filed a $6-million libel suit against an Olivenhain man alleged to have distributed an anonymous flyer during the campaign.

The flyer said Anderson’s horses are polluting a creek.

* The Lord is my Realtor.

San Diego-based evangelist Morris Cerullo on Saturday faxed out a proclamation to the press calling the day “an historic date for all Christians worldwide.”

The occasion: the closing of escrow on Cerullo’s $52-million purchase of the South Carolina theme park once owned by Jim Bakker and his PTL ministry.

Wars of All Kinds

Here and there.

* San Diego State University may soon ban fraternities from having “little sister” auxiliaries.

One reason: too many allegations of “the brothers” sexually harassing the sisters.

* San Marcos City Manager Rick Gittings, a Marine reservist, has been called up and sent to Twentynine Palms. He’s in a tank battalion.

* The Coalition for Peace in the Middle East plans a candlelight march in downtown San Diego on the eve of the Jan. 15 deadline set by the United Nations.

Marchers will also take part in the Martin Luther King Day parade Jan. 12.

* East County bumper sticker: “Happiness Is a Cold Beer and a Warm Cowgirl.”

Yes, it was on a pickup truck.