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!