Other recent fun stuff

[andyhat]

In addition to all the great musical stuff here, the Bay Area is also amazingly rich in quality bookstores, which means lots of author events. The first reading I attended was by China Miéville at Cody's Books in Berkeley, reading from his new novel, The Iron Council. A great reading that reminded me that I really need to get around to reading Perdido Street Station and The Scar. I ran into nihilistic_kid there, who introduced me to gadarene, strangebint, jlassen, Heather Shaw, and Tim Pratt.

The other reading I've been to was Michael Moorcock at Borderlands, reading from the new edition of Gloriana. While waiting for the reading to begin, I read the first chapter and was reminded strongly of Gormenghast, one of my favorite books. Of course, it turns out this isn't a coincidence; Moorcock mentioned that he'd written Gloriana as something of an homage to Peake. Moorcock was full of great stories of his long career (such as the time he fell asleep at a screening of 2001—sitting next to Arthur C. Clarke).

At dmk's and Bill's engagement party, I remember there was a discussion about the possibility of an Elric movie. Moorcock confirmed that it's still in development. He also mentioned that his current choice to play Elric would be Paul Bettany, not an actor I know well, but he does have the right sort of look. (Of course, this is Hollywood, so the author's preferences probably don't matter all that much.)

Other bookstores I've visited are Bookshop Santa Cruz and City Lights. The only thing saving me from buying piles of books is the fact that I'd have to carry them all the way back to Raleigh.

I stayed here in San Francisco again last weekend, and my mother came to visit, so we went and did the standard touristy stuff. Saturday we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and went up to Muir Woods and wandered around the redwood groves. Sunday we took the ferry across to Alcatraz. On Saturday, we had dinner at the Carnelian Room on the 52nd floor of the Bank of America Center, San Francisco's tallest building. As is usually true of such places, the food is overpriced, but the views are spectacular.

I've had a couple of enjoyable meals at Scoma's, tucked away on Pier 47. Their seafood is absolutely superb. The stuffed pizza at Zachary's in Oakland is the best pizza I've had outside Chicago; thanks to capitalfellow for that recommendation! I've also had some excellent prime rib at Broadway Prime in Burlingame. And I still have a long list of restaurants to try.

I do usually go home on weekends, which means I got to enjoy one day of Trinoc*coN. I had a chance to see lots of area friends there, and hear readings by Jason Lundberg and Richard Butner, two excellent Triangle-area short story writers. I had fun, and I do hope that next year I can actually go to more than one day of the Con.

Comments

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Muir Woods is one of my favorite national parks. Those giant redwoods are beautiful stuff!

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

If you read _Perdido Street Station_ and are a teeny bit disappointed, don't let that keep you away from _The Scar._ One thing I love about Miéville is that he doesn't sit around on his duff but he really works on his craft, so although I enjoyed _Perdido Street Station_, I was really impressed with how well-written _The Scar_ was in contrast.