David Francis Readings

Posted on July 30, 2005 - Filed Under

The latest heads up comes from Southern California, where it never rains and the Variations are Elegant. Mark at TEV alerts us that David Francis will be doing some readings in the Bay Area for his new novel The Great Inland Sea:

Book Passage in Corte Madera on Wednesday, August 3 at 1 p.m.
Black Oak Books [...]

New Pornographers Haight Amoeba In Store

Posted on July 30, 2005 - Filed Under

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Before they are in town for their September 27 & 28 shows at Bimbo’s, BMK favorite The New Pornographers will also be doing a free in store show at the Haight Amoeba on Wednesday, August 24th at 7:00 PM. See y’all there.

It Takes Proust To Make A Thing Go Right

Posted on July 29, 2005 - Filed Under

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Fair warning: The Proust Reading Group will be taking on In The Shadow of Young Girls In Flower. Come along, if you dare.

I Love The Smell of Bearclaws in the Morning, Genocide…Not So Much

Posted on July 27, 2005 - Filed Under

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Piggy-backing on David’s post, I’ll tack on this nugget I found in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine during a recent excursion to the windy city.
Published July 24, 2005
Thank you for sharing such an intriguing article about the Rwandan immigrant [accused of atrocities] who was living here in the southwestern suburbs ("The man called Zuzu," June [...]

Mad as hell yet?

Posted on July 27, 2005 - Filed Under

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The real failure has been television’s. According to monitoring by the Tyndall Report, ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of the Darfur genocide in its nightly newscasts all last year - and that turns out to be a credit to Peter Jennings. NBC had only 5 minutes of coverage all last year, and [...]

Schrieber Theory Test Case?

Posted on July 27, 2005 - Filed Under

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At Book Expo America, Ed Champion’s cohort the "roving reporter" spent a few minutes with Chronicle book critic David Kipen to discuss David’s upcoming book from Melville House. In it, he proposes his "Schrieber Theory" as an alternative to the more prevalent auteur chatter one finds in film discussion. Instead of tracking movies by directors, [...]

I Was Happy Pisco Sours Were A Choice

Posted on July 26, 2005 - Filed Under

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Robert Heinlein wrote you - your stranger in a strange land, you.
Which Author’s Fiction are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Via Gwenda

Nothing New But Bears Repeating

Posted on July 26, 2005 - Filed Under

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Jon Carroll in SFGate:
The president demands loyalty, and the president gets loyalty. Classified
information gets leaked, that’s part of the game, but it’s the approved
classified information. The unapproved classified information – like the
data that there was never any uranium in Niger, despite the president’s claims
in the State of the Union message – is hunted down like [...]

Critic

Posted on July 26, 2005 - Filed Under

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While being inundated with emails from Harry Potter fans with varying degrees of unhingedness ("Seriously bitch u need to watch what teh f – you say"), The Chronic’s David Kipen found a common thread among their replies. So as a service to us all, he has outlined the 3 Myths of Book Critics - in [...]

David Dondero

Posted on July 25, 2005 - Filed Under

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I first heard David Dondero on one of my Rhapsody radios stations, thinking it was some Bright Eyes track I didn’t know about. Apparently I wasn’t the first to make this mistake, and probably not the last. Since then, I’ve grown to be a fan of Dondero’s, and have had the pleasure of catching him [...]

Frisco has all the fun

Posted on July 22, 2005 - Filed Under

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Why do I live in NYC? First I have to put up with random cavity searches on my morning commute, now I learn this!
The third annual Paul Reubensâ€™ Day will be held on Saturday July 23rd, 2005 in San Francisco, California. To honor the three years of Pee-wee mayhem this yearâ€™s Paul Reubensâ€™ Day [...]

Blog Battle or Scrapped Flaming Lips Album Title

Posted on July 22, 2005 - Filed Under

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Mark Moford battles the Scientoligists.

A Tale of Two Readings

Posted on July 21, 2005 - Filed Under

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I went to two readings in back-to-back nights this week - two readings I likely would not have attended without some gentle prods from Ed & Scott. Tuesday night: Jonathan Ames at Booksmith. Wednesday night: Rebecca Solnit at Cody’s. In this post, I break down the Tito Reading ExperienceÂ®, in which I compare the two [...]

Random Judaica

Posted on July 21, 2005 - Filed Under

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Squeezed beteween all Loahan, all the time, comes a nice nugget from Stereogum, a track from the forthcoming Silver Jews album. Own the whole damn thing this autumn.

It Was Like Woodstock, Except at A Burrito Shop and no Porto-San Janitor Remarking on His Sons, And The Only Performer Was Beck

Posted on July 20, 2005 - Filed Under

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SFist brings our attention to Beck busking at Pancho Villa.

Without Comment or Context

Posted on July 20, 2005 - Filed Under

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"About nine seconds in, my arms got real tired, and I couldnâ€™t keep a steady beat."
"Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla were offered a joint prize, but the
offer was rescinded when the prize committee realized the two hated each so
much they wouldn’t stand on the stage together."

Meanwhile, Patrons “Wait For The Book”

Posted on July 19, 2005 - Filed Under

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Leah Garchik of The Chronic reports:
There’s action in the aisles at Black Oak bookstore in Berkeley, where Bob Zagone is directing a feature movie, "Read You Like a Book.” Every scene but one takes place in the store, where Zagone, cast and crew have been camped out. Most of the shooting is done while the [...]

Vonnegut Edges Redenbacher

Posted on July 19, 2005 - Filed Under

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ESPN.com is polling its readers for the "best of" for the 50 states of the union (I never did quite understand what a ‘commonwealth’ is….) When asked to select the favorite Hoosier personality or historical figure, the readers have spoken:
9) Favorite personality or historical figure?45.4% David Letterman (television)23.1% John Mellencamp (musician)7.6% Michael Jackson (musician)6.6% James [...]