Beast Blog

Local Berkeley author Madeleine Kahn's new book published

Local Berkeley author (and dear friend) Madeleine Kahn's new book, Why Are We Reading Ovid's Handbook on Rape? Teaching and Learning at a Women's College, is finally out in paperback. You can buy it at Amazon, directly from the publisher, or from Berkeley's own Cody's Books. I've created a web site for Madeleine Kahn (the author), where you can read reviews of the book, see where her book tour will take her next, or peek at some of the essays she has been working on since she wrote Why Are We Reading Ovid's Handbook on Rape? Teaching and Learning at a Women's College.

Susan Ito, a former student of Madeleine's, put on a great book party as part of her Shepherd's Canyon Writers series to celebrate the paperback publication. I was there, and managed to get a few pictures of Madeleine Kahn giving her book talk. There are more pictures available to family members at TheBishop.Net photogallery.

Congratulations Madeleine!

Cross posted from The Berkeley Blog

Great East Bay Book Stores!

bookstores are wonderful places, and independent book stores are even more so! the east bay has plenty of great indie bookstores.

my four fave books stores in the East Bay are:

1. A Great Good Place For Books, 6120 La Salle Avenue, Montclair District.

when i first walked in, i was greeted by the owner. she was one of those people that was helpful without being pushy. she asked about my lit preferences, and was able to recommend some great titles that i hadn't read based on who i liked. she is also one of the people working on "West Coast Live" (a public radio program), so she gets great authors coming through the area to read there.

2. Pegasus/Pendragon Books:
(3 East Bay Locations)-
2349 Shattuck Avenue, (Berkeley, Downtown)
5560 College Avenue, (Oakland, Rockridge)
1855 Solano Avenue, (Albany, Solano Stroll)

i love this independent mini-chain for several reasons: knowledgable staff, excellent recommendations, cheap book tables (great gift store!), and their annial calendar sale. (wait til Jan 1st to get the new year's calendar & you'll save save save! it's an east bay tradition to shop for calendars on Jan 1st here!)

3.
5433 College Avenue, Oakland (Rockridge)

Tourettes Without Regrets

Tourettes Without Regrets
Thursday Oct 9th, 8:30 PM,
Thursday, November 6th, 8:30 PM,
Thursday December 4th, 8:30 PM
$6-$10 sliding scale (please support the arts!), all ages
Oakland Metro- 201 Broadway (@ 2nd street, Jack London Square, Oakland)

Tourettes is a "psychotic vaudeville" hosted by Jamie Kennedy & Geoff Trenchard that regularly features The Suicide Kings, freestyle battles, freakshow performers, filmed pranks, and more!

Tourettes is a notorious variety show run by Slam champions/HBO Def Poetry Jam poets Jamie Kennedy & Geoff Trenchard. Included in every variety show are a freestyle battle, spoken word, music, & freakshow features, stand-up comedy, and the most outrageous antics you'll ever see. Kennedy's brand of spoken word is "a mutated hybrid of hip-hop, stand-up blitzkreig comedy, performance art, and fucked up theater." Tourettes Without Regrets is "sex, drugs, and spoken word. It's like a party for poets, sort of a debaucherous celebration if id." (quotes from The East Bay Express)

Tourettes Without Regrets: voted "Best of the Bay 2003" by The SF Bay Guardian!

Jamie Kennedy voted "Class Clown" (along with John Geek of The Fleshies) by East Bay Express!

Full length feature on Jamie & Tourettes from The East Bay Express

Dr. I Don't Feel So Good

While waiting to be picked up at the Oakland Airport, I realized I was standing next to Vince Neil, Motley Crue's frontman and more recently a member of "The Surreal Life", in all his paunchy unkempt glory.

A photo of Vince Neil with whom I think is his girlfriend or fiance or something:

She was there, too, and boy is she a frightening sight. Tightened skin, inflated breasts and lips, remarkably vacant. She ended up looking more like a post-op than anything else.