Forget all this talk about the death of print media for a moment. Tomorrow a newspaper is born in San Francisco. Issue 33 of McSweeney’s Quarterly will be a one-time-only, old-fashioned broadsheet — the San Francisco Panorama. Its pages will measure 22 by 15 inches. Here’s what this beautiful beast will cover: “It’ll have news (actual news, tied to the day it comes out) and sports and arts coverage, and comics (sixteen pages of glorious, full-color comics, from Chris Ware and Dan Clowes and Art Spiegelman and many others besides) and a magazine and a weekend guide, and will basically be an attempt to demonstrate all the great things print journalism can (still) do, with as much first-rate writing and reportage and design (and posters and games and on-location Antarctic travelogues) as we can get in there. Expect journalism from Andrew Sean Greer, fiction from George Saunders and Roddy Doyle, dispatches from Afghanistan, and much, much more.”
Exciting and ambitious for an 11-year-old literary journal, right? That’s why we sat down with Oscar Villalon, McSweeney’s publisher, to get the back story on the project.
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Photo: AP Hasbro Inc., Darryl Bush
America’s most notorious crooked street got a makeover yesterday thanks to Hasbro toy company, in what one onlooker described as “capitalism meets childhood.” The occasion? It’s Candyland’s 60th birthday, so show some respect. Respect in the form of life-size playing board winding down Lombard Street and one hyperrealistic cake. Read More »
Last week we visited Rough House in San Francisco and hung out with the three guys who conceived Chasing The Moon, a video podcast inspired by French filmmaker Vincent Moon’s popular Takeaway Shows. After a conversation about the dishonesty of people who wear contacts, the deliciousness of creamy root beer soda, and the slowness of travel during rush hour, we finally got down to talking about the show. Read More »
1. Gap founder Don Fisher wanted to give San Francisco a $100 million museum in the Presidio, but the people said no. [via SF Chronicle]
2. “Radiohead manager Brian Message has launched a new digital label, Polyphonic, which will allow artists to keep their copyright. [via NME]
3. An anti-smoking protester crashed the opening of Antony Gormley’s Plinth living art project in London’s Trafalgar Square. (video) [via BBC]
4. Sarah Jessica Parker’s production company has optioned Amy Sohn’s upcoming novel Prospect Park West in conjunction with HBO for a half-hour series. [via NYP]
5. Chris Brown and Amber Rose (Kanye West’s on-again-off-again ex) hooked up at Diddy’s infamous White Party; Brown arrived with another date. [via NYDN]