1/28/2007

At a travel themed EuroCircle literary reading at Frisson, a bar in the financial district.

The ceiling is a sphere dotted with lighted holes and, as I reached the bottom of my (very strong) cosmo, I became convinced that we were sitting beneath a very large telephone telephone receiver and the travel writers at the podium, spinning yarns about the pleasures and difficulties of maneuvering about the planet earth, were confiding in an other worldly being or maybe God himself.
(image stolen from the SF Station write-up)

This feeling was especially strong when travel writer, Jeff Greenwald, founder of ethicaltraveler.org, told a story about arriving in a Calcutta airport and, after a series of unfortunate events, finding himself face to face with a conflict-avoidant clerk who, upon hearing his laments, smiled and wagged his head and pushed forward a mammoth book scripted with "Complaints" which, it becomes clear, is never read by anyone with authority. While Mr. Greenwald read through the catalog of sandals melting in the sun and tourist falling through potholes (and cows who munched on marajuana), I sincerely did hope that God was listening.

Also reading were Alan Black, Junse Kim, Andy Raskin, Peter Orner (see next post), and Tanya Shaffer--check out her website--I guarantee you'll smile. In the picture below Jeff Greenwald is reading her book, Somebody's Heart is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa. Tish (not Tanya Shaeffer as originally posted) is reading Jeff Greenwald's Scratching the Surface.

Don't they look like people you'd like to meet at the hostel after getting lost in a bazaar and losing your passport?