No Drugs on Vacation

So I'm going on a little trip, a much needed one month vacation from Green Apple, San Francisco, and I think, my brains. Where I'm going doesn't really matter, what does is that I'll be catching a bunch of flights over the period of the next thirty some odd days. I've never really been a fan of flying. I try to stay within reach of the ground most of the time. So I'm saying that this will be something for me. I keep trying to have a sense of humor about it, think about this James Tate poem and just be cool-

We Aim to Please

I went to the cabin and said to
the pilot, "Excuse me, Captain, but it seems
as if I left my camera in the airport. Is
there a chance we could go back?" "No
problem," he said, and the plane began to
turn and descend at a tremendous speed. The
passengers were screaming and I was thrown off
my feet and struggling to stand. I crawled
back to the cabin and said, "Excuse me, Captain,
I found my camera after all. No need to return."
The captain said "No problem." And the plane
began its turn and rapid ascent, and I was
thrown backward again, and the passengers
were screaming even more shrilly. But soon
we were back on course, and the rest of the
flight went smoothly, and the landing
was perfect. As we lined up to depart, the captain
stood at the cabin door shaking hands with
the passengers. When it was my turn he said,
"What kind of camera do you have?" I said,
"I don't have a camera." "You're my kind of
guy," he said. And then he hugged me. And
I kissed him in the cheek.

God. That will probably happen to me.
So as I was saying, I'll be gone for April. Someone will most likely be blogging in my stead, but just in case there isn't I'll direct your attention to these other blogs that may fill the gap in my absence. These are things that I read on the semi-regular.

THE LOOM OF RUIN
By Sam McPheeters

ZYZZYVA SPEAKS
By Howard Junker

F THAT S
By Joe Preston

COSMODEMONIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY
By some guy who is really obsessed with Henry Miller

STUFF
By John K.

THE MONOLOGUIST
By Anders Nilsen

Or hell, I dunno, maybe just read a book. You've got your Wednesdays cut out for you. See ya' in a month.

Bad advice anyone?

You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You: The Believer Book of Advice

Litquake, The Believer magazine, Green Apple Books, and the JCCSF present a book release event for You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You—a new anthology featuring horribly bad advice from renowned comedians from stage and screen!

Thursday, April 15, 8 pm
Jewish Community Center San Francisco (JCCSF)
3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118

Among the You’re a Horrible Person But I Like You contributors appearing
on April 15 will be:

• Larry Doyle - humorist (with the New Yorker, Esquire and more), TV writer
  (The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead), and author (I Love You, Beth Cooper)
• Daniel Handler - author of three books for adults, and a series for children
  under the name of Lemony Snicket. He also plays a mean accordion.
• Marc Maron - Stand-up comedian who has appeared on Conan and HBO among
  many other shows, radio host, author, top-rated podcaster of WTF
• Eugene Mirman - Named Best NY Comedian by the Village Voice and one of the
  country’s best by Paste. Has appeared on Comedy Central as well as Flight of
  the Conchords.

There will be a post-show wine reception in the atrium of the JCCSF!
Tickets are $20 and available online.

Jewish Community Center San Francisco (JCCSF)
3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118

Poem of the Week by David Highsmith

Happy Monday, readers. Without further ado, here's the poem of the week, by David Highsmith.


snow
for Scott Taylor


green light diffused within a fog
Irish parade cancelled in a plague year

warmth first, then time
spread out among the consequences

snaps loose into sensibility
sentient as
"the wind that shakes the barley"

day to carry us back
curious sound

carried then, as arms take in sky
swift voices in snow

silent herd, church & steeple
within a closed hand

a congregation
carried on the wind

--from your wilderness & mine by David Highsmith, BlazeVOX [books], 2009

So, You Liked The Lost City of Z?!

With everyone on vacation, some staffing changes, and changes to the store in general, we haven't really been up on our blogging...

That said I don't have too much time either.

I noticed that in the two months that the paperback of David Grann's The Lost City of Z has been out that we have already sold over 30 copies! There has been a lot of national media attention for The Lost City of Z (and it was a Green Apple Book of the Month when it first came out a year ago) and rightfully so.

Now there is a new David Grann collection out! Grann is a staff writer for the New Yorker and has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New Republic.

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession is a collection of some of Grann's most interesting and hard-hitting essays. Inside you will find questions on Texas' Death Penalty state, The search for the Giant Squid, the underground waterworks of New York City, the Aryan Brotherhood and their rise to power inside America's prison system, as well as other fascinating mysteries. Grann always investigates to the fullest, writes eloquently, and captivates the reader.

This is another great read...

NOW IT IS BUCK DANCING TIME

I listen to my Abner Jay record when my dog or my wife dies. I listen to Abner when I am depressed but want to be depressed and think terrible. I listen to Abner when I drink too much gin at the beach or when I am turning Dolores Park into a prison. I basically play that Abner Jay record and listen to it over and over and over whenever I can. It is that good. Good for living in SF or Oakland. Good for Atlanta or the China. Good for under the river, sheets, or weather. Lord forget it, just get in it.

Listen to a really good song by Abner Jay HERE.

At the Green Apples Bookstore where I work there is the Mississippi Records vinyl release of The True Story of Abner Jay. There is also the Subliminal Sounds release of the Abner Jay CD, One Man Band, which has some different songs on it, but also some of the same songs too. I suggest both because they are so great.

Choose a Book. Change a Life in Mongolia.

Our friends at The Asia Foundation have launched an online book contest to send storybooks to fourth-grade students in rural Mongolia. In the contest, you can choose your favorite among five classic stories: Corduroy, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Make Way for the Ducklings, Where’s Spot, or The Little Engine That Could. Copies of the winning book will be sent to the fourth grade class of Khishig-Undur School, a school that serves the nomadic communities of a remote area almost 200 miles from the nation’s capital, Ulaanbaatar.

Here is a video featuring the students who will receive the books and Tungaa, a graduate of the school who now works with an Asian Development Bank program that helps rural migrants adjust to life in Mongolia’s big cities. In the video, Tungaa says she is “living proof” that “a single book can make a big difference.”

Your (free) vote will not only go towards sending a child a book, but also supports the programs of The Asia Foundation. A donor will contribute $1 for every vote cast, up to $10,000. Voting ends on March 29, so choose your favorite childhood story now!

[You may remember that I blogged in December about their last contest in Bangladesh. Click here to watch the video showing their return to Bangladesh with the winning book, Harold and the Purple Crayon.]

Poem of the Week by Brian Teare

Here's this week's poem by local poet Brian Teare. Enjoy the poem and this first week of spring.

Embodiment

(White Birch)


how a birch shirks its skins : strange
grain of the language of prayer : to disturb
words addressed to where God is is
what writing is : alphabet alive beneath
the alphabet so far into whiteness
each mind to itself creation come crawling
matter out of nothing : always
longing inquiries at the threshold a question
unanswered : not skin but the look
of skin : what once overheard the talk
of God became matter : ask the birch
did the soul have a choice :

from Sight Map by Brian Teare, University of California Press (2009)