Visiting City Lights

 

Another place we had to visit while in San Francisco was the City Lights Bookstore. I've been a fan of the beats since I was in late high school so this was a most necessary stop.

City Lights was famously opened by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1953. City Lights was the first bookstore to primarily sell paperbacks which lowered the cost of purchasing a book and allowed for many to participate in the literary world without blowing your entire paycheck.

City Lights also published the books and poems of beat writers when they couldn't find publishing houses willing to publish their more controversial works. Sometimes that got them in legal trouble.

City Lights reminded me greatly of its sister store Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Despite the similar aesthetic City Lights has a personality all its own. I love both these bookstores and strongly recommend book lovers to check them both out. They are indeed literary pilgrimage sites.

So we roamed the aisles and soaked in the vibe. We took our time. It was indeed busy. But we were patient.

 

I had already decided on some books I would look for at City Lights. I thought it would be appropriate to purchase a couple of works from Beat legend Gary Snyder.

So in the famous Poetry Room I found a lot of Snyder works to choose from. I went with two of his classics: The Practice of the Wild and Turtle Island. 

Turtle Island actually was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1975. Although I'm a big fan of Gary Snyder I had not read these two essential works of his before this trip.

 

 

Both books are wonderful. Practice of the Wild is a collection of essays and Turtle Island a collection of Snyder's poetry. I have found the deeply meditative. They also will remind me of my wonderful visit to this special book shop.  

Visiting 826

Another place I always wanted to visit in San Francisco was 826 Valencia. I was very glad to have the opportunity to make the drive to the Mission District and the shop in person.

 

 

In 2000, Dave Eggers, one of my favorite authors, wanted to open a tutoring center for under-served kids in the Mission District. The only hang-up was that the space they had acquired was zoned commercial. So they decided to be creative and opened a whimsical pirate supply store in the front of the space to accommodate the city's regulations. Tutoring would take place in the back of the store.

 

The idea eventually took off and spread nationally with whimsical shops opening all over the world with tutoring centers in the back. Many of these shops earn a profit and pay for the rent of the center. The original Pirate Supply Store at 826 Valencia is always bustling with students, teachers and volunteers. These students get writing and reading help they desperately need. They often have their works published by McSweeney's, the non-profit publishing group founded by Eggers. 

 

It was indeed inspiring to visit the actual place after following their story for so many years. The shop is legit. Actual supplies a buccaneer would find helpful. All profits go to supporting and operating the center. I didn't buy a peg leg or eye patch, going for a t-shirt instead. 826 Valencia is a great example of using creativity to meet a crucial need in society. 

By the way, an extra perk of visiting the Mission District is that just a few shops down from 826 Valencia is Dandelion Chocolate which a very nice place to stop in for any reason.

A Visit to The Interval at the Long Now

 

Yeah, it has been a long time. But I just can't let go of the old Internet Lounge. It really is more about routine. I like keeping up with a blog. But once I get off routine, the blog updates are doomed. It would be a lot easier if Google actually resurrected a good Blogger app, but they gave their app up and the mobile options out there aren't great. But anyway...

This summer we traveled to San Francisco. SF is one of my favorite cities and it was a nice change going with kids this time. 

We saw the normal sites but we also had some chances to go to places that I find fascinating beyond the regular tourist trail.

One of these places is the Interval Bar/Cafe at the Long Now Foundation. It is located at the Fort Mason Cultural Center and was on our to-go list as soon as we decided to go to San Francisco. 

The Long Now Foundation is an organization dedicated to thinking about long-term issues for humanity. They opened The Interval a few years ago to serve as a meeting place for their salons and gatherings. This is also where they house their "Manual for Civilization," a community curated collection of thousands of essential books about understanding the meaning of civilization. 

They often have lectures and talks there by some of my favorite thinkers like Long Now members Kim Stanley Robinson, Keven Kelly, Stewart Brand and more.

It was a great place to soak up the vibe of SF thinkers and drink a fantastic green tea. It was an inspiring place to see in a beautiful location.

IJ Update

 

Long term reading update: I've gotten bogged down with Infinite Jest. Even reading just 3-5 pages a day has become a chore. I started reading this massive tome almost exactly a year ago.

Some context: A couple of years ago I began reading books that are long and notoriously challenging in a new way. I would read 3-5 pages a day during my lunch hour and just keep plugging along until I was done. No hurry, no rush. This would allow me to keep reading other books at the same time that I actually enjoyed without shutting down all my reading by focusing on one long, hard to read book. 

This all started with Joyce's Ulysses, continued with Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, and Bolano's The Savage Detectives. The process worked. Keeping my daily reading program short allowed me to plow through dense material in a slow regulated way. 

But my enthusiasm to continue reading 3-5 pages of Infinite Jest has waned. I'm still going...but admittedly not every day. I got to amp up the effort. But I find IJ overrated and tedious. It's supposed be one of the great works of my generation but I find it so pedantic. I am aware that this could be due to my intellectual deficiencies. Maybe David Foster Wallace is just too smart for me. I like his essays. And I like parts of this book. But a lot of it is meandering filler. Maybe I'm just too short-sighted to see the over-arching plan. But spending 40 pages on a simulated war game using tennis balls on tennis courts just wore me out man. 

The work is obviously the work of a genius. Maybe a mad genius who's ideas came out rather sporadically in this case. I don't wish to speak ill of a great writer who suffered from mental illness. But I'm not really enjoying this as much as my other long term reading projects. 

I had projected to be finished by January 2022. But I'm only on page 610. I still have 400 pages to go! This may take awhile. I got to get back to reading it every day. 600 pages in, and I cannot recommend this so far even if that makes other Gen X'ers upset with me.

Bistro

 

Prom!?!

Prom?!? Already? Well, my son was invited by an upperclassmen so yeah he went. Here, he and his date get photo posing advice from his little sister.

Bluebonnets 2022

When I moved to Texas in 1997 I discovered many interesting and unique traditions that are a part of Lone Star State culture. One of those traditions is taking pictures of your kids or family in a field of bluebonnets in April during the height of the blossoming season. I will say, that driving in Texas in mid-April and seeing an explosion of color on the side of highways is something I greatly enjoy. The bluebonnets can be spectacular. 

You always try to avoid stepping on the bluebonnets!

Rather than having to find a different spot each year on the side of an interstate or highway, we have found a park nearby that year in and year out has spectacular bluebonnets. It has been our go-to bluebonnet place for photos the last few years.

Uh oh...

 

The madness begins. The learners permit has been attained. 

Texas Dune

 

During Spring Break we headed to Odessa, Texas for a family obligation. We actually had fun in the deserts of West Texas, except for the cracked windshield due to a rock flung at us in a dust storm on the way there. 

 On the trip we tried to stop at as many roadside attractions that we had time for. We saw a giant Campbell Soup can painted by Andy Warhol in Eastland. We saw Ol Rip, the legendary (and now embalmed) horned toad that once met Calvin Coolidge...google it, the story is pretty crazy. We ate at Big Boys BBQ in Sweetwater and stopped to see the Settles Hotel in Big Spring. 

 In Odessa we stopped by a replica of Stonehenge. Took photos around town at odd sites like random Jackrabbits. We also went bowling just because. Went to the Monahans Sand Hills State Park and slid down massive dunes in the desert. Saw the Odessa Jackalopes minor league hockey team get beat by Wichita Falls. Had good food at Teak and Charlie's Pizza and Keith's Hamburger Station. 

 We didn't spend much time in Odessa...about a day and a half. But it was fun. Not sure I could live out that far in the desert. But it was a nice visit.