SFist Reads
We'll admit it -- we've been watching a lot of movies this week, and our reading has fallen by the wayside. However, our blissfully empty weekend is almost within reach, which means a trip to one of our local independent bookstores, as well as to the library to pick up our online reserves. Right now, all we want to do is lie in bed with the pets and a good book or three, so the weekend cannot come soon enough.
SFist Matt says "I've been catching up on past issues of Butt Magazine, A Fantastic Magazine for Homosexuals, ever since I discovered that it's being carried at Books, Inc. on Market St. in, of all places, the Castro. Despite the name, it's not pr0n; or at least, not all of it. There's some excellent interviews, articles, photos, and a great layout -- it's just like a zine slapped together by a bunch of fashinable punky British fags, because that's what it is. My favorite interview in the current spring issue has the catchy headline "Bruce Benderson from New York Interviewed in Paris about Paranoia, Genitals, Boring Homosexuals and Celine Dion's Horribly Obnoxious Autobiography." Previous issues include "Luigi Murenu/Italian Hairdresser of Madonna Loves Talking About Hair" and "Robert Glück/Homosexual Writer of Books Loves C**ks and Cooking." I can't get enough of this magazine's blunt, unapologetic writing style, which completely succeeds in keeping my attention in between the totally humpy photos. (Ed note: Hmmm...pr0ny sounding name but with excellent interviews and articles, sounds like another publication we know!)
Ok, time to forget that rhyme you learned in fifth grade, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". As SFist Emily has been reading, it turns out that Columbus and other European explorers didn't have quite as much derring-do as we all thought they did. In 1421 The Year China Discovered the World a compelling case is made that Chinese explorers found and mapped all the continents seventy years before Columbus set out. Moreover it would appear that Columbus and crew had at least a rudimentary knowledge of those maps. Conspiracy, anyone?
SFist Cedric fulfills his duties as a food lover by reading Patricia
Unterman's Food Lover's Guide to San Francisco, which 4th edition just got released last month. Unterman is one of the bright spot of the Examiner, which otherwise has sunk so low it now has a periscope (Ed note: we'll hasten to add that while we vehemently support Cedric's right to express his opinion, this remark does not necessarily reflect the opinion of all SFist staff). Cedric has just started and he mouths the words when he reads, so it will take him a little while before he can address the substance of the book.