City Lights: San Francisco’s Beat Bookstore

by Neil Woodburn on

A trip to San Francisco is never complete without visiting its most famous bookstore: City Lights.  There are only a few “famous” bookstores on this planet-Powell’s in Portland, Shakespeare & Co. in Paris-but City Lights is my favorite.

Located in North Beach, this literary landmark served as the headquarters of the beat generation during the 1950s and 60s.  Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and countless other poets and beatniks whiled away the hours here, penning literature and poetry which would remain long after passing away themselves.   City Lights is perhaps most famous for publishing Ginsberg’s classic, Howl-for which the bookstore later faced obscenity charges. 

Because of the important role City Lights played in nurturing Beat Literature and protecting the First Amendment rights lost by such authors, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors bestowed upon it Landmark status in 2001-the only bookstore in America to receive such an accolade. 

Today, City Lights remains much as it did fifty years ago.  Its dark wood and homey interior creates the perfect atmosphere for browsing an outstanding collection of books.  My favorite section, “European Literature” contains just that.  I can’t tell you how many new authors I’ve discovered just by browsing this section and picking out authors with strangely spelled Czech, Russian, or French names. 

 

Red Corner: Anti-Tourism in Russia

by Neil Woodburn on

From the same author who brought us the term anti-tourism (discussed in yesterday’s post) comes an article in which the writer puts his words into action. The Bizarre Guide to Russia, by Daniel Kalder, is a 3,000 word essay summing up, as the title suggests, some of the more oddball places in Russia so far off the beaten track you’ll need a GPS to find your way back to civilization and normalcy. And, a couple of shots to calm your nerves. And perhaps even some psychiatric counseling.

With plenty of wit and an overzealous dosage of dark humor, Kalder guides us through Russia’s gangster cemeteries, a pickled baby museum, religious cults, mass graves, animal sacrifices, prisons and more.

Carnival Cruise lines it ain’t.

Anti-Tourism

by Neil Woodburn on

If the difference between a traveler and a tourist is that “a traveler doesn’t know where he’s going, and a tourist doesn’t know where he is,” than what is the difference between a tourist and an anti-tourist?

Anti-tourism is a phrase that has been coined by author Daniel Kalder, whose book Lost Cosmonaut will be out in the States this August.  Anti-tourists, according to Kalder, embrace a different type of travel altogether.  They shirk from guided tours, concierges, Parisian cafes, room service, and chocolates on their pillows.  Anti-tourists embrace the down-and-dirty of travel, sucking life’s grittiest experiences from the marrow of this planet’s “urban blackspots” where “ordinary people choose to avoid.”  They mock the Pyramids of Egypt and other pseudo-adventurous tourist destinations that have become “as banal and familiar” as a box of cornflakes. 

Kalder has posted a series of anti-tourist resolutions on his website that are both masochistic and admirable at the same time.  These governing bylaws dictate the travel mantra of the anti-tourist.  Some of them I wholeheartedly agree with (The anti-tourist believes beauty is in the street) while others I don’t (The anti-tourist embraces hunger and hallucinations).

Kalder’s new book, which I hope to review in the near future, is a testament to such philosophy as it chronicles his travel adventures through some of the more fascinating, but nastier armpits of Russia.

 

Best Guide Books

by Neil Woodburn on

Trips can be made or ruined by the guidebooks one takes with them.  Let’s Go was my favorite post-college guidebook.  However, I quickly learned that when I followed their advice for the best bar or restaurant in a particular city, it would be packed with other American college students clutching their copies of Let’s Go.  Sometimes there wasn’t a local in sight.

Good guide books should get you to the right places without ruining it themselves.  They should educate, be up-to-date, and offer recommendations that fall within your budget.  But which ones to choose?  Although I lean towards Lonely Planet these days, I usually pick up at least one other guidebook for variation and a second opinion, if you will.  Considering that 4,000 guidebooks are published each year, this is never an easy choice. 

I was therefore pleased to run across a rather intensive study of the major players in the guidebook industry, printed in The Sunday Times, which balances the publisher’s PR claims with input from various travel writers.  Since every traveler’s needs are different, the article does not rank the books, but rather educates the reader on their strengths and weaknesses.  After reading through the reviews, however, I’m still sticking with Lonely Planet-although it’s opened my eyes to some other interesting publishers out there for my secondary travel book.

 

Shakespeare: ALL of him

by Neil Woodburn on

In an extraordinarily ambitious move, London’s Royal Shakespeare Company is doing something which has never been done before: staging all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays and poems during one event. 

The Complete Works of Shakespeare kicks off April 23, the Bard’s birthday, and continues for an entire year, covering the classics you’ve come to expect and love from Shakespeare, as well as lesser known pieces such as Timon of Athens and The Phoenix and the Turtle.  Famous actors participating will include Patrick Stewart as Prospero in The Tempest, Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and an army of inch-high plastic ninja soldiers starring in all roles of Hamlet. 

With so much good stuff, you may just have to move to London to catch this spectacular season of the Royal Shakespeare Company.