While traveling through Tibet last August, I found Spinn Cafe — a small eatery down a back alley run by two Thai and Hong Kong bike fanatics. When the violence and riots erupted a few weeks ago, I of course sent mails to all my Lhasa contacts asking how things were and if they were OK. It turns out Kong from Spinn Cafe is running a Twitter stream giving a day-by-day frontline report of the status of the city.

The reports are brief. Constrained mainly by the 140 word limit on Twitter posts, they provide small but intimate insights into what's happening on the ground in a way I've yet to see or feel from any other new source. I suggest checking out their Twitter stream. I've been a huge opponent of Twitter ("Yes, just what I need — another online 'presence' to update!") since it came out but recently I'm beginning to see how much power this simple tool packs.

Andrew Golub, aka Durandy — the world's foremost archivist of Duran Duran paraphernalia — has a special request to readers in Japan:

Hello,

I am a Duran Duran poster archivist in the United States. I am looking for any posters promoting Duran's April 14 concert at the Zepp Tokyo venue, and I am happy to offer a reward for any posters found. I am dedicated to preserving these paper treasures, which mark milestones in the band's great career. If you can help, I would appreciate hearing from you very much.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Andrew Golub
Durandy Productions

We know Andy (on the far right in the photo, showing off one of his rare posters to the band) to be a standup bloke, so if you do get your hands on one of these concert posters, drop him a line via his website and help him expand his impressive collection of all things Duran Duran.

Here's a great quote from Mai Ghoussoub on why we need books:

Literature is inseparable today from the books that carry their stories. If we want to save literature we have to save the rectangular objects that carry and spread their words. We have to respect the book for what it is: an art object that we should defend, defend against censors, narrow-minded educators and, most of all, the dangers of war. Fiction has described wars better than any history book because a novelist, a true novelist, is not a warrior. Literature and war carry opposite genes.

The full essay is here. Thanks to Shelf Awareness for bringing the quote to our attention.

While Sumie Kawakami is about to kick off her "quickie West Coast book tour" this Thursday in San Francisco, the rest of the world has already caught on. Following features and reviews in Denmark, Australia and Japan, the good people of Madagascar have chimed in with their own discussion of the book.

It's a big week for Chin Music Press. On a week when the absurd and dismal Iraq War turns five and spring officially arrives, we're siding with spring by offering a whole lot of good stuff for your soul. We've got two readings in San Francisco, a reading in Seattle and our fifth title, Art Space Tokyo, goes to the printer. We're going for it!

Tomorrow, Dave Rutledge, currently stuck in the Houston airport and sending me text messages likening it to hell, will be in a little slice of heaven along San Francisco's Market Street called Get Lost Travel Books. The travel gear/bookstore is a beacon in the neighborhood with a big glass window emitting warm light on the street, and up in the loft is a cozy little reading area where Dave will update us on all things New Orleans and read a bit of Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? This will be the last event for the first edition of Do You Know because the book is all but out of print. But Get Lost has copies, so come get 'em. The reading starts at 7.

The following night, 3/20, at the same cozy loft in Get Lost Travel Books at the same time (7 pm), Sumie Kawakami makes her North American debut as she does a reading and talk about Goodbye Madame Butterfly. I will have a flask of bourbon on hand should she get a little nervous (and who wouldn't, giving a reading in one's second language?), and I'll make sure to bring something for her to drink too.

Then on 3/22, Sumie takes on the Seattle crowd at Elliott Bay Book Co. in Pioneer Square. She'll be on from 7:30. Translator Yuko Enomoto will be in the crowd too.

Join us at one of these events if you can. They should be fun.

And just to top it off, we're sending our fifth title to the printers this week. Art Space Tokyo is shaping up to be a true literary object. If you want your book hot (or at least warm, depending on where you live) off the presses, we still have a ridiculously good offer of $22 for the book and worldwide shipping through March 31. After that, the book will retail for $30. Get it now!

For all you Japanese speakers reading this blog, finally a review of Goodbye Madame Butterfly for you. It comes from Jungle City, an excellent Internet site on all things Seattle.

And for those of you in the Seattle and San Francisco areas, please come check out Sumie Kawakami on her Quickie West Coast book tour next week. We'll be in San Francisco (Get Lost Travel) on Thursday evening at 7 and in Seattle (Elliott Bay Books) on Saturday evening at 7:30 That's March 20 and 22. Hope you can make it.

I love my hometown but am ambivalent about the new trend of its largest retailers — Starbucks, Amazon and Costco — being the arbiters of literary taste. In case you missed it, The New York Times just ran a long piece on this trend.

Amazon is amazing. Its return rate is minuscule compared to the chains and it is very good at selling niche books. But the trend toward selling books at Starbucks and Costco helps the middle while hurting the fringes — the indie bookstores, the ... gulp ... Chin Music Presses. So we get more middling stuff. Not to say that the books Starbucks or Costco sells are bad — far from it — but they always feel like they've gone through one too many corporate tests to get on the shelves.

Take this quote from the NYT piece, for instance:

“We wanted to find extraordinary books that would encourage people to discuss compelling issues” like war, hope, faith and family, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, I suppose, but I'm betting there is going to be a sameness to the way those issues are discussed. It's all so NPR-ish. So friggin' safe. What I like about a good bookstore is the democracy of it. You can pick up the latest by Michael Savage or Howard Zinn. Your choice. It's all there. When Starbucks presents one "compelling" title for three months, I'm reminded why I avoid the chain whenever I can. Read a Starbucks novel, listen to All Things Considered and drive a hybrid... Oh Seattle!

But then again, Seattle is home to this and this. I wonder if it's all connected.

Taking a break from late-night editing of Art Space Tokyo, I found a new review of Last of the Red Hot Poppas by the Midwest Book Review. The writer called our Baton Rouge murder mystery "utterly compelling from cover to cover." Nice. I will sleep well tonight. But first, a little more editing to go.

The whole (short) review is on the Poppas Amazon page.

Taking a 10 second breather from working on Art Space Tokyo. As an experiment in geekism meets book-dorkdom, I'll be twittering production/design notes on the book. Follow if you dare!

While doing some fact-checking for our next title, I came across this funny piece on how lame it is that publishers don't check the facts of their nonfiction writers. Having been a reporter and an editor before becoming a publisher, I agree. Of course, newspapers are guilty of the same crime. A couple of phone calls and a little research can go a long way (and fans of The Wire are dying to know which way it cuts for Templeton — gotta wait till Sunday).

When your subject says she was raised by wolves, it's probably worth corroborating. If she claims to be a half-native American former drug dealer for the Bloods, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if one (or all three) of those claims are false. And if your mama says she loves you, do what a good reporter would do and check it out.