I’m leaving today for the Frankfurt Book Festival, which I attend every October. I meet with agents and publishers from other countries about translations of our books into other languages. Stretching has been translated into 23 languages. In recent years our building books have been translated into French, Korean, Japanese, and now Chinese.
This will be my busiest year ever, due to the Tiny Homes book, which is likely to have appeal worldwide. I have 19 appointments lined up and am taking along a complete set of color proofs, as well as samples of our tiny tiny (1-7/8″ by 2-5/8″ — 64 pp.) book, which may just be our best promotional idea ever.
The day before the fair, I’m catching a train to Mainz to meet with Nicolette Stewart, whose little renovated trailer in a “…community of tiny caravan dwellings” is in the Tiny Homes book.
After that, if there’s time, I’ll visit the Gutenberg Museum (a 3rd time) to see the Gutenberg Press (circa 1450) and a copy of the Gutenberg Bible. I’ll be posting from Germany next week.
Yesterday I ran across these four people on bikes in point Reyes Station. They are: Robin Hill, Abe Greenspan (in the photo), Robin’s dad Tyler Hill, and Chanel Walker. Since leaving South Lake Tahoe, they’ve been on the road for three weeks, heading south from the Oregon border, following the ocean down to Cabo San Lucas. Here’s their blog: https://bikensurf.wordpress.com/
“About the Ride
In September 2011, fellow surf stylist and adventure extraordinaire, Abe Greenspan and my self (Robin Hill) will embark on an epic 3 month adventure, biking down the pacific coast surfing in Baja Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This trip is inspired by a love for adventure, and a humble appreciation for the ocean and a simple life on the road.…”
Mary Haggerty sent us these photos of this beautiful little log building for sale (somewhere in Pennsylvania) by JC Woodworking
I don’t see this one on their website (above), but check out the 2-story log building. Here’s what JC Woodworking wrote to Mary recently:
“…pictured a small, oak log summer kitchen. The building was used as the summer kitchen on a farm (apple orchard) in southern Pennsylvania and dates to the mid 1800’s, possibly earlier. The overall size is 12 by 16′. It’s a 1.5 story…Ceiling height on the first floor is 7′ to bottom of the floor joists. On 2nd floor, height from floor to peak is 6’10” with a 30″ sidewall. Wall height (exterior) is just over 10′ and the height to the peak is 14.5′. 3 top plates need to be replaced….The rafters would also need to be replaced, but is in otherwise very good condition.…
…to reassemble this structure on your property; the cost to set the frame (with new replacement logs for the top 3 plates and new rafter system as well as leveling the sill plates to accommodate your foundation) is $6K plus travel to your site and lodging.…
Price for structure (including floor joists) dismantled and tagged as-is: $8000.”
What got me roaming around Kevin Kelly’s writings was his recent recommendation of a video of David Simon, creator of HBO’s The Wire, talking about capitalism, health care, Wall Street, corporate greed, the Republicans, poverty, America’s blowing it on so many fronts, the futility of the drug war, the for-profit prison system — and why Snoop (the real life Snoop) was recently arrested. At the end of this long and serious talk, he asked for questions, and quipped that everyone always wants to talk about Omar.
Just ran across this post of Kevin’s, from 16 April 2011:
“…It’s taken me 60 years, but I had an ephipany recently: Everything, without exception, requires additional energy and order to maintain itself. Not just living things, but the most inanimate things we know of: stone gravemarkers, iron columns, copper pipes, gravel roads, a piece of paper. None will last very long without attention and fixing, and the loan of additional order. Life is maintenance.…”
I’ve just been cruising through Kevin’s writings (kk.org). Tremendous amount of focussed,thought-provoking output.
Went into SF yesterday, first stop the Apple store at the foot of Stockton Street. Big decision to make: the 11″ or 13″ MacAir and finally settled on the 11. Going to lighten my travel load all around. The Panasonic Lumix G1 has cut the weight considerably (from a Canon 20D) if I want to take a serious camera along. I’m going to Hong Kong in early November to oversee printing of the Tiny Homes book and will take a few weeks to explore Borneo or some place yet to be determined. (One possibility is surfing on an island off the coast of China.)
I missed Dr. John, but heard the Blind Boys of Alabama, then Ray Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. Totally wonderful. The Blind Boys have still got the power, after 60 years. There must have been 5000 people in the glade. “Take the high road to the valley (3 times) if you want to meet the promised land.” Toward the end they said they’d just done their first country gospel album, and did a gorgeous 3-part harmony rendering of a white gospel song. By the end everyone was dancing, punching the air.
Ralph Stanley, 84, stood there all alone and sang:
“O, Death
O, Death
Won’t you spare me over til another year…”
Then did a bunch of songs with the bluegrass boys and are they good!
I felt a tap on my shoulder, turned, and a guy passed me a joint. I usually think of weed partaken of at rock and roll and blues events, but the air was redolent with bluegrass smoke yesterday.
At 7:30 last night I went to The Riptide bar, a hip, warm neighborhood bar with good Feng Shui on Taraval out by the beach and heard CB Brand, a great little country band from LA playing classic country songs. A great day of music.
Fellow adventurer Doug Armstrong relates his scary adventure last weekend.(My neighbor Mark runs a 40 foot salmon trawler out of San Francisco and told me yesterday he got really scared motoring back in past Point Bonita last week.)
Doug: Robin and I set out on my Santana 22 at 8:55 Saturday morning from Horseshoe Cove at Fort Baker to sail out into the ocean and up to Muir Beach. I’d sailed solo from Berkeley to Horseshoe cove the afternoon before and had an amazingly straight sail through Raccoon Straights and only a minimum of difficulty with the squirrelly eddies at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge near the approach to the cove. Saturday was the first time past the bridge for my boat, and I had some trepidation as we reached Point Bonita and turned north atop the large swells and up between the Headlands and the confused currents of the Potato Patch.
But all went without difficulty and we cruised beneath the fog to Muir Beach. As there seemed inadequate protection to anchor there for lunch, we turned back toward the bay and continued our sail.
We made up to 6.2 mph (my iPhone’s GPS only reads land speed) as we sailed happily back toward home. While we made our way back toward the bridge, I had some concern about the strength of the out going tide and the equally strong opposing wind.
I’ve been sending out email newsletters called GIMME SHELTER for some years now, to a mailing list of around 600.The frequency is a lot less often now that I’m blogging. We post each one on Shelter’s website. Here is the latest: https://www.shelterpub.com/_gimme/_2011-09-28/gimme_shelter-2011-09-28.html
