I never quite know what to make of weeks like the one that has just passed. So much happened, but so little has changed. I like change, I’m pretty sure change is what I need right now (don’t take that out of context anyone). I’m pretty sure that sitting in my office at work for 5 hours a day and having very little to do isn’t exactly helping. I should be reading more than I have been but for some reason things have tapered off. Could it be the books, yeah, I’m just going to blame it on that.
I did get to go to an event this past week. I saw Dave Eggers along with Oscar Villalon and Jesse Nathan, all of whom are with Mcsweeney’s and helped in producing the Panorama. I mentioned the Panorama last week in my post but I was finally able to get one in my hands. I’ll start by saying its huge and rad. I’m really looking forward to delving into and reading some of the incredible stories there in. In Deidre English’s (UC Berkeley J-School faculty) words, rather than try and begrudge print media today the Panorama is a “homage to newspapers.” Much emphasis during their slide show presentation was on the idea that the Panorama was designed to encompass the ideas and forms of print media of old and inject life into the print media of today. The intent as Mr. Villalon pointed out was to “play to the strengths of newspaper.” From just glancing through it, it’s clear that that is exactly what they have done.
Tuesday & Wednesday, February 16th & 17th
@ 730pm / 7pm
- Chris Cleeve, author, will be appearing and talking about h is book Little Bee at The First Congregational Church of Berkeley in conjunction with Berkeley Arts & letters on Tuesday and at JCCSF in conjunction with Books, Inc. on Wednesday. Tickets are still available (I believe) on the JCCSF website. Cleeve, a British journalist who writes about the plight of refugees, has come a long way since the release of his book so do him a favor and go see him, I am sure he’d appreciate it.
Wednesday, February 17th
@ 7pm
- Annie La Ganage, her husband Bill Cotter & Dave Eggers, authors and cool people, will be at City Lights serving, are you ready for it, grilled cheese sandwiches. Yeah, you read that correctly, pretty rad right? If you’re a vegan, I guess you’re shit out of luck. Naturally, the biggest Eggers fan I know already knew about the event. I thought for once I might get the drop on her but I was wrong. Anyways, this event isn’t all about grilled cheese. Cotter has a new book out, Fever Chart, put out by Mcsweeney’s (hence the Eggers appearance). I don’t know much about the book but I’ve never seen Mcsweeney’s put out something less than impressive so it’s worth checking out. Oh yeah, there are grilled cheese sandwiches in the novel, hence my free meal. Annie will be reading from her “collage of monologues and poems” titled Stoners and Self-Appointed Saints. I don’t know if she references grilled cheese too but who cares. From I hear she’s a bad ass poet.
Thursday, February 18th
@ 730 pm
- Yvonne Prince, author and founder of one of the best music stores ever, Amoeba Records, will be speaking about her latest book The Vinyl Princess at the Booksmith in the Haight. For those of you that walk around, ride the bus, bart or wherever with your little white headphones in apparently this book is for you. My recommendation, you read without the headphones in, only because you won’t get distracted. Some people would certainly disagree, but that’s just my opinion. Oh, and apparently there will be some pretty rad giveaways. Matthew Edwards will also be playing a short acoustic set.
Saturday, February 20th
@ 12pm
- T.C. Boyle, author, will be at Point Reyes Books speaking about his latest book Wild Child. He’s an award winner and I know people love his work but I have not had the pleasure of reading any of his stuff. Those of you that have will probably be delighted that he’s in town. Get to it if that’s your thang.
Sunday, February 21
@ 3pm
- Ozzy Osbourne, musician, reality tv weirdo and apparent author, will be signing and hopefully singing (ok, not really hoping for it) his book I Am Ozzy at Book Passage in San Francisco. I’m up in the air on this one, would it be worth going to, will they have a translator? If you’re fan, you should be there, who knows maybe his messed up children or his wife Sharrrrrrrron will be there. Oh, and don’t even thinking about bringing anything other than a copy of the book bought from Book Passage to the signing, cause they aren’t having it!
