Maybe you guys have heard of her...

I was reading the New York Times review of Dave Egger's new book, What is the What and found the reviewer, Francine Prose an excellent writer. Her recent book, Reading Like A Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want To Write Them got good reviews. I wont be able to get that book until i'm back in the states, so if any of you happen to see it, pick it up, read it and write something here.

di

Another great book and find:

I am a sucker for history and my sister actually got be hooked on this. Its so good: The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. Okay so i popped my head in San Francisco's known bookshop, Ardvark, and found this magazine called FOUND. It is a collection of "finds" all over the place, like photos, letters, plays, journals entries, etc. It is the coolest thing and one magazine besides Jaded that i have read entirely through.

for more info:
foundmagazine.com

-maddy

F is for food, fun, family

i'm in taiwan right now and everything is in chinese.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32318884@N00/sets/72157594431107344


my winter reading list:

Why I Write by George Orwell
The Republic of East L.A. by Luis J. Rodriguez
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Snow Flower and The Secret Fan by Lisa See

Cool Artist

Check out Ken Siebert on this website:
http://phoenixinsac.com
This gallery is local in my hometown of Sacramento and they have some really cool art. Ken's style is like picasso but it conveys a lot of sociological messages.

American Apparel

Clamour Magazine has an interesting feature on American Apparel in thier latest issue. I remember we had talked about doing a critical article about AA a few issues ago. The articles on American Apparel are under special features at:

http://www.clamormagazine.org/issues/38/

The articles look at AA from a few different angles, deconstucting thier sexist advertizing, thier anti-union practices, and other hypociticalness

Also, No Sweat (AA's biggest competetor) seems like they might be an interesting company to profile or interview. Unlike American Apparel they don't do any advertizing, relying on grassroots orgs and word of mouth. They seem to be the real deal. Thier website is at:

http://www.nosweatapparel.com/index.html

I hope everyone is having a great break.

-Patrick

Same-sex marriage in South Africa

The South African cabinet is in the process of approving a bill that would allow same-sex marriage and it would be 1st country in Africa to same rights to homosexuals as heterosexuals . If passed by parliament, South Africa will join Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain in same-sex unions and counter the long African tradition of heterosexual relations.

-maddy