This SF Chronicle article points out that Mayor Gavin Newsom shouldn’t be irked that people are saying Golden Gate Park is littered with needles since “his own Public Health Department spent $800,000 last year to help hand out some 2 million syringes to drug users under the city’s needle exchange program — sometimes 20 at a time.” Continue reading ‘More Needles in Golden Gate Park’
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
At least I’m listed for the “fall” in Publisher’s Weekly, under RandomHouse/Knopf–hope that means a review is on the way!
Last week, two coyotes attacked dogs in Golden Gate Park. The coyote attacks led to a storm of protests. Why are we so concerned about coyotes but we’re not concerned about all the homeless who camp out in the park? The park isn’t safe, people said, and it’s not because of coyotes–it’s because of needles. Is making the park a safe place for kids too much to ask, people wonder? Some commentators wrote that the number of homeless people is a fault of society at large and thus allowances need to be made while we figure out a proper solution; others wrote that it’s the fault of the individuals who, they say, made crappy choices to get to this point and are now unwilling to work hard like the rest of us in order to put a roof over their head. Therefore, a zero-tolerance policy should be enforced. Continue reading ‘The Homeless in Golden Gate Park’
We went to see Femi Kuti last night at the Fillmore–fantastic concert!  Another reason to live in the Bay Area. Femi and his band played for over two hours. We are totally psyched to see him live someday in Nigeria at The Shrine. If you’re not familiar with Femi, he’s Fela Anakulapo-Kuti’s son and Fela basically started the Afro-pop genre of music. Femi plays keyboards, sax, and horn, but there are several other musicians with him also playing sax and horn, as well as drums. I think people were a little surprised by his “children should learn about sex from their parents so they know what to do when they get married” speech, but if they knew anything about Fela, and how he died of AIDS, and the scourge of HIV that plagues Nigeria, maybe they wouldn’t be surprised. They cheered, however, when he told us not to be fooled by “that man” anymore (in a reference to President Bush.
A few articles on Femi:
Afrobeat Reverberates Throughout Bay Area
Here’s the website I’ve been looking for, a website devoted to books guys read, recommend, and pass on to others: http://www.guysread.com/
I just finished a radio interview with KTEP, which will air live at ktep.org at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on August 3rd, if anybody wants to listen to it. It will also be archived, so you can access it later.
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast has written a lengthy and thoughtful review of The Confessional. Thanks to Jules, who wrote the review.
Just finished reading a thoughtful post about whether it’s easier to write for kids or not. Many non-writers (and many writers) assume that it’s easier to write for younger audiences in large part because they (sadly) demean the intelligence of teenagers and children.
As the blog writer, Erin Dionne of Bread and Circus, notes:
“What is it with the perception that writing for children is less worthy of an endeavor than writing for adults? As children’s books become more and more popular with adult readers—especially young adult titles such as Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (and its sequel, New Moon, which has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 45 weeks) or the Harry Potter series—one would think that the depth and quality of these books would change public perception, but that doesn’t seem the case. If anything, the attitude seems to be going in the opposite direction…as more children’s books achieve mainstream popularity, the more the genre and its authors are bullied.”
What she doesn’t note is that all “popular” books are looked down on by certain audiences. Hey, I’m the first to admit that I’m no fan of John Grisham novels (poorly written) though I admit the plots kick ass (at least, I enjoy the movies). But I know some graduates of certain East Coast ivy-league schools who will say that nothing worth reading has been written after 1950, with the exception of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
For some really obvious reasons, I disagree.
The best reviews I could possibly get, though, were from Mom and Dad.
Dad said, “It’s exceedingly well written.”
Mom said, “It’s really powerful. I read it twice, just to see how you did it.”
That means more to me than any Kirkus review.
