If you’re the type to have physical newspaper and magazine clips strewn about (and it’s hard to fault you, as long as you’ve recycled the rest), Delivereads may be just what’s needed. The brainchild of investor and writer Dave Pell, the effortless tool is ink and paper-free and delivers select content via Kindle. Lifestyle, culture and news features can be coming your way upon the quick submission of a @kindle email address.
First published on ecofabulous.
As I plot a few weeks away from San Francisco (gasp), I wanted a Lonely Planet alternative and have found a good one in a book by Teresa Rodriguez Williamson, founder of TangoDiva. Fly Solo: The 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone describes destinations that pass a test of being safe, having decent public transportation and a social center, being friendly, and hosting with a decent climate. It’s Barcelona cultural recommendations are spot on, and I especially liked the sections about Reykjavík (soak in geothermal waters, then have a shot of Black Death at the ice bar) and Cartagena (speedboats, snorkeling and Old City treks). I wish the tone reflected less of a fashionista/adventurer dichotomy–mentions of “leave the Jimmy Choos at home” and “leave the Birkin at home and schlep the backpack (a cute one)” are tiring. But I’m glad the companion exists.
If you’re 18 to 39 with an affinity for culture coverage (and a propensity to share), you fall in the user profile for PopPressed readers.
I’m excited to be editing the new WordPress project that features daily arts and style coverage from around the web. The collaboration between the blogging platform and Federated Media promises “the freshest in culture” across photos and features. It’s presented and supported by Lexus’ new CT Hybrid.
Recent coverage has included Amour Vert dresses on Ecofabulous and Herman Miller-winning hammocks from Inhabitat. Sustainability, graphic design, entertainment, and–of course–adventures are among the topics regularly reviewed.
You can follow PopPressed on Twitter and please do send along your own concepts for coverage.
As though South Park weren’t already a wonderful enough place to kill an hour between meetings, European-style bike maker and shop Public Bikes is now inhabiting a bright space across the street from the swing set (sounds like a dream, I know). Their “Public M” and double diamond frames come in orange, white, blue, and green, and no local would be surprised to hear that the color that’s sold the best is the one that no other word rhymes with. The website and store have clothing, bike accessories, and a certain book whose logo I love for its similarity to the forthcoming SanFranista redesign.
I wish that writer Victoria Klein’s new yoga book was published when I started my first teacher training. Although the guide (now on a “blog book tour”) is intended for beginners, a read through “27 Things to Know about Yoga” shed light on a few components and Sanskrit pronunciations that were most confusing when I started studying. With her straightforward style, we learn that “a scholar named Patanjali wrote the first inclusive guide on [yogic concepts], titled the Yoga Sutras,” in a humble tone that can be rare when it comes to books on the subject. Klein, a former Yoga Tree instructor locally, covers how to keep class costs down; the fact that yoga is a spiritual and mental practice, not a religion; and why practitioners shouldn’t push themselves to pain.
I’m a big fan of her description of different types of yoga, including selfless service (which includes a mention of the Art of Yoga Project, the Bay Area-based group that takes yoga into juvenile detention facilities) and Bhakti, the path of devotion. “Whether you believe in God, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, someone else, or no one at all, everyone can practice bhakti…the key element is a deep, unwavering emotional connection to our version of the divine.” Lovely put.
While I’m in Spanish class this summer (it’s long past time to learn), I’ll be no doubt wishing I was in writer-led sessions at The Grotto. The SOMA and Mission-based collaborative writing spaces will offer classes on travel feature writing, short story development, and voodoo (“Writing is equal part hard work, technical craft, and voodoo. This class is about the voodoo part. It’s about learning how to access that unconscious part of your writing brain, that place where your stories live”). Whether you go for the intensives or the one-day courses, it’s recommended to register early as classes with Grottoites tend to fill up; if you go, please respond with what you learn about the topic of developing realistic writing schedules.
Should seeing the Fisher Collection in its first public weekend at the SF MOMA not be enough of a celebration of 67 degree weather, The Believer Magazine’s “Summer Festival of Language and Thinking” could make for free fun. Authors will abound at the event with an all-acoustic set of summer-themed cover songs by Citay’s Ezra Feinberg–as though you had more reasons to love the publisher after this year’s “You’re a Horrible Person.”
The literary guilty pleasure site The Rumpus and McSweeney’s, publisher of a great recent collection of funny folks’ bad advice, are among two of my favorite SF publishers. So having the latter’s “Citrus County” book by John Brandon included as an early feature of the “One Rumpus, One Book” program has me reaching for credit card. The program offers not-yet-released books (in hardcover, galleys or pre-printed paperbacks) for $25 monthly.”It’s neat because we’re going to have a dis
cussion about new books, rather than waiting to be told what books are approved for cultural consumption,” the site said in its announcement of the idea to encourage more early citizen reviews.
While July through September reads include “The Surf Guru” and “Shoplifting from American Apparel,” the work I’m most looking forward to is Brandon’s, which Publishers Weekly described as “reveal[ing] a Florida that, despite (or because of) being more Ted Bundy than Disney World, is absolutely worth visiting.” Nods to that.
A talk given in a suit and Detroit Tigers cap that urges for an end to new media buzzwords and explores the cultural roots of the White House vegetable garden? Throw in a stat that 4 percent of people are tone deaf and anthropologist Grant McCracken has me hitting play on his PSFK Conference talk for a second time. If the observations shared here about the need for rewarding creativity within company planning are at like his book “Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation,” I’ll be reading it on the Kindle in under a minute.
Just as submissions close for male and female nominees for their “40 Under 40: The Future of 
Feminism,” the Feminist Press’ upcoming publications are worth a browse. Even if someone you support doesn’t make the final list of social justice and gender equity champions, sharing some of the publisher’s titles with them is a great consolation. A few that piqued my interest include:
Streb: How to Become an Extreme Action Hero: Elizabeth Streb has been called a movement architect, action mechanic and Evil Kanevil, and I’m curious about whether her book can do justice to her descriptions of choreographed crashes. Her extreme action is described by FP as “a form of movement that’s more NASCAR than modern dance, more boxing than ballet.” I charge you to find someone who’s able to make better use of confined space (see “Little Ease” at 11 minutes).
