I got an early start on the weekend and took a rainy-day trip to a framing shop to gather materials for holiday gifts. Picked up a frame for the Places in America print I got Dan for his birthday, and while there found three frames and mats for the Genevieve Quick trio I won at last year’s Monster Drawing Rally. On Saturday, Dan and I went to SOMArts for the Underground Market and stopped by the Renegade Craft Fair, conveniently located across the street at the Concourse. I began reading Steve Martin’s An Object of Beauty and couldn’t put it down. Martin’s description of the art world, and the way he writes women, are both completely foreign to my experience, but I loved the book nonetheless. His cool approach and wit reminds me of Lee Blessing, and I would have loved the opportunity to hear him talk about the book at the 92nd Street Y, the talk that was supposedly so “boring” because Martin didn’t talk much about his film career. What a catastrophe. It reminded me of a quote in the book, where Lacey tries to “sell” a painting and is advised that it is enough to put a good painting in front of a knowledgeable patron. Sometimes with contemporary work it is very challenging to present an accurate picture to the desired audience … but focusing on accuracy and on finding the right audience is much better in the long run than hype.

Meredith May wrote a beautiful and accurate story about Feast of Words: A Literary Potluck in Saturday’s Chronicle. Irina Zadov and I have been co-hosting this endeavor for three months now and although we are still tweaking the recipe (pun! couldn’t resist) there is a a sense of warmth and new discoveries that is exactly what we had hoped for. The next one is January 4.

I am adding a new category, “Advance Notice,” to document some of my San Francisco exploration. While it’s in no means a guarantee, it is definitely an indicator of places I’ll be in the week ahead. If you see me, say hi;)

Thursday, Nov 20, 8pm
Brava! Theater’s production of Friends, by Kobo Abe

Friday, Nov 21, 7pm
Rebel Reading Series at The Knockout, 3223 Mission (at Valencia)

Saturday, Nov 22, 11am
World’s Smallest Postal Service at The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia

Sunday, Nov 23, 7pm
Industry Night for Magic Theatre‘s production of Evie’s Waltz, by Carter W. Lewis

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Homecoming is continuing in 2008 with a series of writing workshops, and today the University of Chicago Press released an expanded paperback version of 2006′s Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families (Random House), containing stories by American military personnel and their loved ones who wrote candidly about what they saw, heard, and felt while in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as on the home front.