Tag Archives: City Lights

Frisco Beat: At Least One Guy Hits the Century Mark

Doing a quick check of the net, it looks as if Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns 100 years old today. The event could have slipped past my radar, except a few days ago I got a deluxe one-sheet poem from D. S. … Continue reading

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Frisco Beat: And the Speakers Are

The celebration for the 25th anniversary of the literary streets is on for 2 p.m. in Jack Kerouac alley, next to City Lights, on Sunday October 6. The roster of speakers (five minutes each, max, or so I’m told) will … Continue reading

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Frisco Beat: Those Literary Streets

When we hoof up to Dashiell Hammett Street on the tour, I usually provide a thumbnail history of how it got named in honor of the author of The Maltese Falcon — alongside eleven other streets renamed in honor of various authors … Continue reading

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Frisco Beat: City Lights Hits 60

It’s up against the Hammett Tour I’m doing this coming Sunday with Dashiel (and the ghost of Dashiell, I guess), but what the hell — City Lights Bookstore making it to 60 years on the mean streets is worth a … Continue reading

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Hammett: The Big 88

My spies out there in the world, always keeping an eye on the news, have alerted me to the latest honor for the author who makes The Dashiell Hammett Tour the rollicking fun ride that it is: Hammett’s Red Harvest has … Continue reading

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Frisco Beat: A Century of Fantômas

Okay, I don’t know how this one got put on the calendar, other than via the interest and tireless efforts of Peter Maravelis, teamed up with a horde of local Fantômas fans and no less than the French Embassy — but … Continue reading

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Rediscovered: You Can’t Win

Out of the legions of neglected books from all the books that have come and gone in all the world, very few return to any kind of currency. Once the book slips out of print, or the generation of readers that made it … Continue reading

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Suicide Club: Billboard Liberation

Before the Billboard Liberation Front spearheaded the modern artform of liberating billboards, it had its shadowy origins in the exploits of the ur-urban adventure group, The San Francisco Suicide Club. Personally, I never cared much about billboards, but keenly appreciated the … Continue reading

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Rediscovered: Manchette

Finally. More Jean-Patrick Manchette makes the leap into English-language print. After nine years. Powers-That-Be, come on, speed it up. In March 2002 City Lights Noir created a shockwave among noir cognoscenti with Donald Nicholson-Smith’s riveting translation of Three to Kill, Manchette’s 1976 thriller … Continue reading

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News: October 2009

TWO TOURS IN OCTOBER For anyone who missed the full month of Hammett walks in September, you’ve got a couple of chances to make it good this month. Two dames flying in from Switzerland asked for one and a book … Continue reading

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