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June 22, 2006
The Georgia Straight in Vancouver reviews San Francisco: The Unknown City
Thanks to Google Alerts, we found out that the Georgia Strait, Canada's largest urban weekly as they describe themselves, published a review of San Francisco: The Unknown City today.
Carolyn Ali writes "Helene Goupil and Josh Krist's San Francisco: The Unknown City was released in 2005. It’s fun to browse through, even if you have no immediate plans to visit. Entries include a page on William Randolph Hearst, who sensationalized the San Francisco Examiner. According to the book, Hearst is “believed by many to have initiated the Spanish-American War of 1898 in order to boost newspaper sales”. Learn about Rice-A-Roni, the “San Francisco treat” that was started by an Italian immigrant inspired by an Armenian neighbour’s rice pilaf recipe. (It’s now mass-produced in Illinois.) Read about the fate of the freewheeling California couple who launched Esprit. The clothing company may now be a global empire, but they’re divorced and their San Francisco flagship outlet is defunct.
The sure sign that this isn’t a regular guidebook has to be the section on San Francisco’s infamous serial killers. Several pages trace the grisly mid-’80s crimes of the “Night Stalker”, Richard Ramirez. Then there’s the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, a former University of California Berkeley math instructor, and Charles Manson, who once lived in the Haight area of the city by the bay. After reading all this, you may never want to venture out onto the streets of San Francisco."
Here's a link to the entire story. Thanks for the great review Carolyn Ali!
Posted by insideoutmag at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2006
Survival of the Fittest: Independent Bookstores Break the Chains
A couple weeks ago, I told you about the story I wrote for The Skinny magazine, a new local publication. Well, today I noticed that my article can now be read on their website here it is if you're interested in reading it.
Josh and I will be reading at Kepler's on October 12 so we hope to see you there (we'll of course post reminders as we get closer to the date).
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Posted by insideoutmag at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)
Survival of the Fittest: Independent Bookstores Break the Chains
A couple weeks ago, I told you about the story I wrote for The Skinny magazine, a new local publication. Well, today I noticed that my article can now be read on their website here it is if you're interested in reading it.
Josh and I will be reading at Kepler's on October 12 so we hope to see you there (we'll of course post reminders as we get closer to the date).
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Posted by insideoutmag at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2006
France Today
Since early April, I've (Helene) started working for France Today magazine part-time as an editor. Although I haven't been there very long, I've been able to interview some very cool people who are making headlines in France. My first interview was with Amadou and Mariam, whose music I really enjoy. I wrote an article about them for France Today that you can see here.
Amadou and Mariam (pictured above) were staying in a hotel downtown and we did the interview in their room. They smiled the entire time, telling me about meeting at the Institute for Blind Youth (both musicians are blind) and how they've been married for more than 25 years. Amadou is a big gadget fan and happily emptied his pockets to show me what cool things he had bought recently which included a talking watch. I was very touched and charmed by the two and that made me appreciate their concert even more.
Next week, they're coming back to San Francisco and I'm looking forward to seeing them again. They'll be playing at Stern Grove (a free outdoor concert) on June 25th. Hope to see you there!
Posted by insideoutmag at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2006
100 Pictures from Hong Kong
If you are interested in viewing snapshots of life in Hong Kong's oldest public housing residence, check out German photographer Michael Wolf's newest collection on his website, here.
The project, titled 100 x 100, contains 100 pictures of the residents of the 100-square foot flats.
The collection is fascinating. Most of these tiny flat owners have a television. While some of the flats are amazingly stuffed with various possessions—magazines, clothes, fans, etc.—other flats are surprisingly minimalist. One resident even has a roommate! Apartments of this size are not necessarily typical for the majority of Hong Kong residents but this collection could be an eye-opener for most Westerners.
Written by Kerri Gilbert.
Posted by insideoutmag at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2006
Amazon.com: San Francisco : The Unknown City (Unknown City): Books: Josh Krist,Helene Goupil
HI there, well, finally after a few angry letters on our part to Amazon.com you can now search inside the book. It's helped sales a little, which is nice. Even though people who read our book say they like (and no, we don't fish for compliments as tempting as that might be at times), it's hard to get the word out on a title from an independent publisher.
Anyway, Enjoy!
Blogged with Flock
allow_pings 0 id 300 blog_id 1 title APosted by insideoutmag at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2006
J. Maarten Troost is Back!
Kerri (our contributing editor) let me know that J. Maarten Troost will be reading from his new book, Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu, at Books Inc. in Mountain View on June 23 at 7:30 p.m. I loved his first book, Sex Lives of Cannibals, so am definitely looking forward to reading the new one.
Maarten celebrated InsideOut's two-year anniversary with us in Nov. 2004. He hung out with us at Cama, a bar in the Mission.
Check out the party pictures here.
And here is more info on his book tour:
6/16/2006 Avid Reader
617 2nd Street
Davis, CA 95616
530-758-4040 7:30 pm
*
6/19/2006 Queen Anne Avenue Books
1811 Queen Anne Ave. North
Seattle, WA 98109
206-283-5624 6:30 pm
*
6/20/2006 Powell's City of Books
1005 W. Burnside Street
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-4651 7:30 pm
*
6/21/2006 Bookshop Santa Cruz
1520 Pacific Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
831-423-0900 7:30 pm
*
6/23/2006 Books Inc.
301 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
650-428-1234 7:30 pm
*
6/25/2006 Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925
415-927-0960
Posted by insideoutmag at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2006
Kentucky Bourbon
I, Josh, just had a story come out in the San Francisco Chronicle on the character, and characters, of bourbon. My story in the San Francisco Chronicle, ran last Thursday.
Here's a little bit of the San Francisco angle I worked in to localize the story:
Kirk Walker from K&L Wine Merchants in San Francisco says that although the Bay Area is considered by liquor distributors a "white town," meaning that clear spirits like vodka and gin are most popular, there is still a dedicated whiskey following."San Francisco is definitely a whiskey town," says Walker. "Single malts (Scotch) are by far the most popular type here, with bourbons No. 2."
He says whiskey's local following is bolstered by the existence of Old Potrero, a locally distilled rye whiskey, and the fact that the Whiskies of the World Expo was founded in San Francisco.
Riannon Walsh, founder of the Whiskies of the World Expo, said that when she started the show in 1999, people in the spirits industry told her she picked the wrong city.
"They told me I was barking up the wrong tree, but the first year of ticket sales proved them wrong," Walsh says. "California is known as the king of the bourbon markets in the U.S. Maker's Mark has shown that most clearly, but others are starting to hop on now that they've seen what bourbon can do here. Since we started the expo, more and more bourbon makers are coming. We now have representation from just about every existing bourbon."
And, here's a great, relatively new San Francisco spot to taste bourbon to your heart's content: Nihon Whisky Lounge, where there are more bourbons than probably anywhere else in the city, and, a new place I've found that's much smaller but has a great collection of very good bourbon for its size (I'm guessing the owner's a bourbon fan, and one of the bartenders told me I was probably right) is Gallery Lounge, a neat little SoMa spot.
It took a long time to place this article, and although I wasn't allowed to dedicate it to a new friend I'd made on this trip to Kentucky, who died on the trip in a car accident, it means a lot for me that this story saw the light of day.
If I could have, I would have dedicated the article to Sarah Rosen. Here's an article about her death.
By the way, the article is best enjoyed with a glass of bourbon in hand.
Posted by insideoutmag at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)