From Oct. 5-13, Litquake 2012 shook San Francisco with literary events. “Two Guys from Chicago: Daniel Clowes, Dave Eggers” Despite the formal feel of two red velvet chairs spotlighted on stage, “Two Guys from Chicago: An Evening with Daniel Clowes and Dave Eggers” began casually. The two compiled a humorous Read More…
The story of the New Yorker, the renowned arts and culture magazine, is an interesting one in and of itself, but it helps to start with Rea Irvin. Rea Irvin was the magazine’s art editor at its inception. Transplanted to the Big Apple from foggy San Francisco in 1906, Irvin Read More…
It’s clear in the beginning of Michael Chabon’s newest novel, “Telegraph Avenue,” that Nat Jaffe and Archy Stallings are fucked. In fact, it is the second sentence emitted from Nat’s mouth to his co-owner of Brokeland Records, a fictional, yet realistic, jazz music store in the fold of Berkeley and Read More…
Published in an August issue of The New Yorker, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” is a postmodern affair that should be taken with a grain of salt. A cheater’s guide to love? The idea is laughable, as is his titular proposition: You’re going to allow the exact antithesis of love Read More…
Last Thursday night, David Sedaris talked pretty all over Berkeley. He started in the Berkeley Art Museum at a fundraiser-turned-cocktail party for the California College of the Arts, where the writer met with Stephen Beal — president of CCA and Sedaris’ former art professor at School of the Art Institute Read More…
In contrast to the standard linear novel, Hari Kunzru’s “Gods Without Men” twitches back and forth between hundreds of years with characters that all relate and complement one another — even if they do not meet. This makes it a thought-provoking novel for the often distracted and difficult-to-impress modern reader. Read More…
The celebrated children’s author Daniel Handler, who is based in San Francisco, wrote “A Series of Unfortunate Events” under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. But for his latest book, “Why We Broke Up,” he uses his real name. It’s too bad that Handler’s real name is as much of a disappointment Read More…
You won’t find many superheroes at the Alternative Press Expo, a yearly comic book convention in San Francisco. And if you do, they’re probably not the sort that the city deserves — big publishers don’t show up to showcase the latest Batman or Superman offerings, nor would you see much Read More…
A medium simultaneously obscure and ubiquitous, the comic book is often dismissed as reading material for nerds, children and nerdy children. After all, famous characters like the X-Men and Batman constantly find their way on screen in the latest special effects-ridden blockbuster du jour, searing themselves onto the mainstream public’s Read More…
Writing a gripping story isn’t something that can be easily done. This difficulty was the weekly grind for comic book writer Steve Englehart during the ’70s and ’80s for Marvel and DC. As the acclaimed writer of series like The Avengers and Batman, Englehart penned stories that brought the popular Read More…
