Party at Mrs. Collins' house

Oh my how this bright a smile to my face.

I get e-mail alerts from my hometown paper, and this just arrived in my in box:

Power outage closes West High

A transformer failure at West High ended the school day early for 2,500 students today as the heating and other systems shut down, according to a statement by Kern High School District spokesman John Teves. Students should be dismissed by 8:30 a.m and those who came by bus will be brought back home by bus.

As a little background, back when I was in high school, there were a lot of power outages in the southwest part of town. And when the air conditioning went out and it was 90-plus degrees, they had to close the school all of a sudden. The teachers (including my mom) had to stay on campus. Damn, good times.

Labels: bakersfield

- posted by Amy @ 2/06/2008 12:06:00 PM

 
The Germans haaate the Malice Box

Did I mention my husband has written a book?

They've sold the rights to more than a dozen languages - though so far it's only in print in Polish, Czech, Italian, Dutch, (British,) and German. And while sales are still doing well in the UK, and iffy in the U.S., it's apparently selling quite well in Germany. But the reviews on the German Amazon are hilarious. They hate hate hate it. Passionately. But they're buying it. Maybe they hate it so much they go buy extra copies to hate it some more?

So far there are 14 reviews of "The Malice Box" on Amazon.de. Martin translated a few choice bits for me:

"one star is too many"
"an entirely new dimension of awfulness"
"threw it into the trashcan"

The best review, three stars, says it's "not so bad."

I of course think it's great, and since it's meeting with some success elsewhere, it's easy to laugh at the crazy German thing. Especially since it's selling well there.

So a few other "Malice Box" things of note:

The husband just days ago hit the send key on the first complete draft of the sequel to the Malice Box. Very exciting. It's slated for Penguin distribution in the UK/Commonwealth-types in 2009.

The Malice Box in paperback should hit the shelves, at least in England, at the very end of February.

There is now an audio version of the book, read by a British actor named John Oliver, a guy who actually had a small part in "Star Wars," which Martin loves. Though I'd of course like to see an alternate reading by John Oliver of "The Daily Show" for fun. ... The audio version they sent us a copy of is only in cassette so far, and extremely expensive (like $150 I think) because they market them to libraries. Hoping it comes out in CD later, as the "Star Wars" John Oliver does an excellent job.

Robert's blog -- which oddly never got that much traffic -- is now available in Dutch. (In the book, one of the characters is told to create a blog to prove that he's actually going to certain places. Martin created a real Blogspot account for him, and posted all the pictures referenced in the book.)

MaliceBoxQuest, the online contest Penguin created to tout the book's UK launch, is still online (though the contest is long over) but I think it may go offline at some point. It's worth checking out if you like complicated little puzzles.

Back in October, Martin spoke at a lunchtime Cambridge in America event about his book and a bit about his journalism career. It's on video and they've posted it online.

Cambridge in America also invited him to speak In San Francisco. It was held in the rather posh yacht club in the Marina, the St. Francis. Here's my man:


When we were out for that trip, he also did a reading at Book Passage in Corte Madera, an excellent independent book store. After we got back to Brooklyn, they sent him a box of personalized stationery as a thank you. (You can buy your own from them at that link. It's good stuff.)

Though for that California trip, it was the appearance at the Barnes & Noble in Bakersfield that really moved some inventory. Many thanks to everyone who showed up for that reading, especially my mom, who rallied the troops.


And also thanks to Allison Collins, my sister-in-law, who is doing freelance book publicity. She helped set up the California book tour for us. She's got very reasonable rates -- even if she's not married to your brother.

Here's part of Bakersfield's SRO crowd:



A LiveJournaler gave the book a nice new review, ( "... turned out to be quite dope.")

And lastly, another plug for Good Reads, sort of a Facebook just about the books you've read. The site's founder is a 30-year-old guy named Otis Chandler in L.A., though best as I can tell, he's not related to the Otis Chandler, last, great hope for the L.A. Times before the Tribune Co. "synergized" it into goopiness.

Labels: bakersfield, books, malice box, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 1/20/2008 10:04:00 AM

 
End of year misc.: Gottino, Water Taxi, SB mafia

Had a fabulous dinner a couple days ago at Gottino, a new wine bar on Greenwich Ave. So new in fact, the baretender claimed they weren't even open yet. He claims they need more work on the menu, but what we had was just excellent. Five tasting plates for $25 (including divine cheeses, pates, marinated pears and olives) along with a sardine thing (which yeah, that one was a bit dry.) Great wine as well.

It's at 52 Greenwich Ave - practically across the street from the former Our Name is Mud make-your-own-pottery place (which by the way, is still a vacant storefront.)

The Water Taxi, as you may recall, recently said it would cancel service to Red Hook for the winter, which it calls its South Brooklyn service. A couple days later, it announced it would also cancel its East River service for the winter, due to economic reasons. A couple council members rallied Saturday to get city subsidies to reinstate East River service. Cough, Red Hook?

Seems the NYT also forgot Red Hook, as its Real Estate section commuting thumsucker on Sunday gave a juicy superfluous quote to Water Taxi owner Tom Fox:

Or look at the New York Water Taxi, which started a route from Red Hook to Wall Street last year. Five years ago that circuit wasn’t necessary. But the perpetual “next big neighborhood” has sprouted not only a gourmet grocery store but also a community that shops there.

“The stop has two things,” said Tom Fox, president of New York Water Taxi, who worked with Fairway and local developers to create the service. “It has a new population in Red Hook that is going to Wall Street, and second it’s got Fairway which draws people to Red Hook, so there’s a potential for travel to and from the location.”

Maybe healso forgot he canceled all service to Red Hook.

Still more on Red Hook. ... I walked over in the scathing wind this morning to see what was up at the old sugar factory because I've been hearing a lot of construction noises in the past few days. I was afraid they were ripping down those old red brick buildings closest to the water. But they're mainly still there. The short one, attached to the old metal ruins in the water, are only two walls, the interior of the building has all been ripped out and neatly placed into duumpsters. Have no idea if that means they're going to try to preserve something from that site.

(Pictures TK)

At the right, you can see the outer walls of the brick building.



This is where the smokestack was - the one I took pictures of in November while it was smashed to pieces.:



Two of my college buddies are making media waves lately. Welch is taking over Reason magazine as EIC come April. The Washington Post discusses the swingin' pot-smokin' DC parties he'll be attending. ("We want to add a new bacteria to the culture.") Ironically, it's Tony Pierce now wearing the suit for The Man. But as it turns out, The Man now wants to drink beers with him. Read Tony's account of his first day at the LA Times as king of all blogs. He may yet be able to save newspapers.

Ken Layne, who isn't technically part of the SB Nexus Mafia, has a new politics column at AOL. This week I learned, via Ken, that Huckabee's kid was fired from a Boy Scouts camp for torturing a dog to death.

Oh and since I used to own the crazy animal beat at the LA Daily News, I should flag a line of interest from the SF Chronicle's reporting about the zoo mauling, in which the height of the wall turned out to be lower than necessary: "In the two days since a fatal tiger attack on Christmas Day, the zoo has given at least five different measurements for the outdoor exhibit."

Luckily when I was covering that stuff in LA, the only zoo animal that came after me was Gracie the chimp who slung her poo at me because I was talking to her keeper, who was late for feeding time. Luckily I moved quickly, so the large handful of flying poo -- powerfully lobbed, mind you, from the middle of the chimp enclosure about 40 feet to where we were standing -- instead landed on the expensive shoes of the zoo's PR woman.

Oh and I shouldn't end on a whine, but damn, what the hell happened to the Internet? In the past six months, it seems like there's so much more crap (Gracie's poo excepted) -- and from people who should know better. Is it just that search engines like quantity over quality? I know it's not that you have more time on your hands, so what gives?

I pretty much hate all this Web2.0 stuff, but in the past few weeks I've been wading in, trying to find out what's actually useful. I mean really, I want facts, quickly. Is that so wrong?

Labels: bakersfield, brooklyn, nexus, nyc, pictures, red hook, restaurants

- posted by Amy @ 12/31/2007 11:36:00 AM

 
Hello, California

The "Malice Box" "book tour" heads to California today as Martin and I get on a plane and head to San Francisco, then down the glamorous Central Valley.

Please stop by if you're in the neighborhood:

Saturday, Oct. 20 at 4 p.m.
Book Passage in Corte Madera
(followed by drinks at Il Fornaio)

Sunday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m.
Barnes & Noble on California, in Bakersfield
(followed by drinks at Mimi's)

Labels: bakersfield, books, malice box

- posted by Amy @ 10/18/2007 10:06:00 AM

 
California notes

Some bad California papering news. The LA Daily News is closing two of its suburban bureaus, including the one I used to work at in Santa Clarita, (and wrote the first Newhall Ranch water story.)

Earlier this summer, another paper way back on my resume, the Bakersfield Californian, said it was closing its Sacramento bureau, also for financial reasons.

Rather scary that there's now more media than ever, yet no one wants to pay for the mundane watchdog local journalism that's really at the heart of a democracy.

But in other Bakersfield news, Korn played a free show at the South Street Seaport in NYC yesterday evening. In their pre-show 5-question interview with J&R Music, they give the props to my (and their) hometown. (Though in language mother won't approve of.)

Labels: bakersfield, media

- posted by Amy @ 8/01/2007 08:24:00 AM

 
But you can get it from the Slip 'n' Slide

Some people get e. coli poisoning from eating organic spinach. But in my hometown, they get it from playing on a waterslide.

Labels: bakersfield

- posted by Amy @ 5/14/2007 05:04:00 PM

 
No peak oil in Bakersfield

So my hometown's on the front page of the New York Times today, in an awkwardly written story debunking the "peak oil" theory, using Bakersfield as an example.

Bakersfield has long been an oil town, (when my grandparents eloped, they met up at the oil well in front of the high school and drove to Vegas,) but what's left in the ground isn't great quality and it's hard to get. So the only time it makes sense to drill is when the price of oil is absurdly high.

The NYT story eventually makes that point:

Initially, engineers expected to recover only 10 percent of the field’s oil. Now, thanks to decades of trial and error, Chevron believes it will be able to recover up to 80 percent of the oil from the field, more than twice the industry’s average recovery rate, which is typically around 35 percent. Each well produces about 10 barrels a day at a cost of $16 each. That compares with production costs of only $1 or $2 a barrel in the Persian Gulf, home to the world’s lowest-cost producers.

But it hardly seems to justify the tone of the story, which is summarized much higher:

With plenty of oil still left in familiar locations, forecasts that the world’s reserves are drying out have given way to predictions that more oil can be found than ever before.

Their video with the story is better balanced, but I still would like to know what the price at the pump would be if we had to rely solely on this hard-to-tap oil. Presumably as much as 16 times as we pay now if it currently costs $16 in Bakersfield vs. $1 to $2 in the Persian Gulf?

Labels: bakersfield

- posted by Amy @ 3/05/2007 08:56:00 AM

 
Bad airport, good airport

Just got back from a week in California to see grandma for her birthday - 39, she said.

Opting for the same route as last summer, I flew Continental into Bakersfield, which includes a transfer at Houston's rather unpleasant George Bush Airport.

On the way out last week, I was able to get a free but spotty wi-fi connection in Terminal B?? But yesterday at Terminal E, the only option was a $10 for 24 hours on Sprint's wireless (where not even the limited free access to in-airport info was working.)

But here's the real important thing you need to know if you're going through Houston: Your checked bags may get soaked.

When we flew through in July, there was a big storm in Houston. When our checked bags came off the carousel in 100-whatever degree Bakersfield, everything was wet. I had a cute new white blouse now stained orange. Most everything inside was wet. And there was nothing in there to spill. Other luggage was also wet.

So when I was sitting on the tarmac last week looking at the guys in the rain unloading the plane next to mine, I watched one guy take the bags off the plane and set them down in the puddle at his feet, rather than on the covered luggage rack two feet away. These were garment bags and other heavy-fabric type bags - all on the ground. Finally, another guy walked over and picked up those bags and set them on the covered rack.

Again when I flew through yesterday, also raining, the same process was repeated, though the unloader guy did put some bags directly onto the rack, others directly at his feet in puddles. (Picture here.)

So I don't know if this happens at all of Houston's terminal, but the place I saw it was at Continental Express (operated by ExpressJet Airlines.) So either make sure your luggage is hard plastic, or wrap all your stuff in plastic inside if you're flying through there.

So the good airport referenced in the headline? Bakersfield.

Best free wifi in the city, almsot no lines at check-in or security. They're friendly, efficient and fast. The Blimpies there now has a beer and wine license. And on top of that, if you fly into Bake, you don't have to deal with the evil, incompetent TSA screeners at LAX, or its parking hassles. You miss the traffic to LA, and that frequent game of whether the 5 will close over the Grapevine due to snow, fog, fire or a wreck, thus forcing you to drive through the desest or to the coast, adding three or four hours to your trek.

Since mom and dad now live near the airport, I was able to stroll out their front door about an hour before my plane was scheduled for takeoff, and still had time to check my e-mail at the gate before boarding.

Labels: airports, bakersfield, houston, travel, wifi

- posted by Amy @ 1/25/2007 12:44:00 PM

 
California Travel Dates

I'll be in Bakersfield January 18 to 24 for my grandmother's birthday. Probably a day trip to LA in there, but I haven't decided which day yet.

Labels: bakersfield, los angeles

- posted by Amy @ 1/10/2007 11:13:00 AM