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The Stone Bridge Blog XML to RSS conversion by Grouper Wes "Scoop" Nisker at Book Passage tonight by Stone Bridge Press "Brilliant, consciousness expanding, profound, mysterious, and very funny." --Jack Kornfield Wes "Scoop" Nisker will bring his signature blend of Buddhism, science, and humor (and, if the audience is good, a little song and dance) to Book Passage in Corte Madera tonight, beginning at 7 p.m. Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! will be available for purchase, and Scoop will sign books after his presentation! (INFO) New excerpts from The Berkeley Book of College Essays by Stone Bridge Press Are you or your children looking to get a head start on those pesky college admissions essays? Stone Bridge Press has made a new series of excerpts--including complete, successful admissions essays--from The Berkeley Book of College Essays available online. Just go to the book page, click on "EXCERPT," and get ready to get inspired! ?This is a useful, provocative, and entertaining new book. It is radically different in wholesome ways from most of the other ?How To? essay books that crowd the bookstore shelves?. And it is a great cultural survey of Berkeley: female Boy Scouts, male dancers, you name it. What a great group of kids.? --Jonathan Reider, Director of College Counseling at San Francisco University High School and former Admissions Officer at Stanford University In the Blogs: Kurosawa's other half and a Kyoto guide for locals by Stone Bridge Press Following Teruyo Nogami's sold-out appearance at the Japan Society in New York, she and her book, Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, have been popping up all over the blogosphere. Chris MaGee and Jason Gray talk about the (Japanese) Cinema Today article on Nogami-san, and Karl Ufert and (Stone Bridge author) Patrick Galloway report on the New York event. Perhaps the Flavorpill listing helped pull in that sold out crowd? Ufert saw Nogami-san as a "magical 81 year-old lady with [a] shock of white hair, vibrant personality and lightning fast responses (through a translator)." (more...) Also in the blogs, Dancing on Temple Tops takes a peak at Judith Clancy's Exploring Kyoto: On Foot in the Ancient Capital, noting that while the book is great for tourists, it's "also the guide that even we Kyoto residents buy and use." Awesome! Teruyo Nogami in the New York Sun, at Japan Society tonight by Stone Bridge Press Using the Nakadai retrospective at Film Forum as a chance to reflect on Akira Kurosawa's life and legacy, Bruce Bennett interviewed Teruyo Nogami for the New York Sun yesterday, writing: If one were to say that Kurosawa is one of the 20th century's filmmaking deities, Ms. Nogami was his archangel. (read more...) Nogami-san will speaking at the Japan Society in New York City tonight to support the release of her Stone Bridge book, Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa. Stone Bridge Press Sponsors the New York Asian Film Festival, Which Opens Ton... by Stone Bridge Press Stone Bridge Press is proud to be a sponsor of this year's New York Asian Film Festival, which opens tonight and runs through July 6. There are too many great films to name this year! Whatever you decide to see, look out for giveaways of Stone Bridge film titles, including The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Anime Classics Zettai!, Asia Shock, and The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film, throughout the festival. What a time for film lovers to be in New York. A major Nakadai retrospective opens at Film Forum tonight, and Teruyo Nogami, author of Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, will be making some very special appearances in New York and D.C. Journalist Fumio Matsuo to Speak in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Palo Alto by Stone Bridge Press Ever wondered what the Japanese think of American history? Curious how the Japanese media is portraying the US presidential election? Democracy with a Gun author and veteran international journalist Fumio Matsuo will be speaking on these topics in Los Angeles on June 24 and in the Bay Area on June 28 and 30. ---Los Angeles Event--- Tuesday, June 24 "Citizen Forum: Hiroshima-Pearl Harbor Reconciliation" 6:30 p.m. Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena CA Free admission / Reservations recommended To RSVP, email to info@culturalnews.com or call Cultural News at (213) 819-4100. (more info...) Program moderated by Hugh Leonard of Los Angeles, a business consultant specializing in providing services to Japan-based American companies. Co-sponsored by Armory Center for the Arts, Cultural News and Japan America Society of Southern California. ---Bay Area Events--- "Democracy with a Gun: A Conversation with Fumio Matsuo" Please join the Japan Society of Northern California as we co-sponsor two special talks with Mr. Fumio Matsuo, the author of Democracy with a Gun: America and the Policy of Force. In this book, one of Japan?s best-known international journalists traces America?s position today as the world?s sole superpower. With a foreign perspective rarely provided by English-language media pundits, Mr. Matsuo provides in-depth, controversial analysis of America?s use of force to achieve its goals. Mr. Matsuo will be speaking about his book, as well as providing insight on Japan?s views of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, on the following dates: Saturday, June 28 Monday, June 30 Haruki Murakami book in the Hipster Book Club and Life in the Cul-de-Sac on t... by Stone Bridge Press A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World was recently reviewed at the Hipster Book Club, where Michael Ward writes: A Wild Haruki Chase is a fine collection of essays touching on a number of subjects including globalization, postmodernism, and translation issues. . . . The volume represents a work of criticism that is open not only to Japanese literature scholars but Murakami fans in general. (read more...) Also, in the blogs, Senji Kuroi's Life in the Cul-de-Sac, translated by Philip Gabriel, recently showed up at rgdinmalaysia, where it is interestingly compared to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. China for Businesswomen in the Wall Street Journal's "Faux Pas" by Stone Bridge Press In her Wall Street Journal "Faux Pas" column on karaoke as a business tool in East Asia, Emily Flitter quotes China for Businesswomen author and international business expert Tracey Wilen-Daugenti. Check it out. The story has a great opener: The first deal Paula Beroza ever struck in China was sealed after she sang "Red River Valley" at a luncheon. Rock on! Linguist-Violonist Teaches China Survival by Stone Bridge Press In an exciting lead-up to the China Survival Guide booksigning at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on June 21, The Grand Rapids Press ran a feature on full-time violinist and full-time language professor (and full-time China Survival Guide co-author) Larry Herzberg on Sunday. The article's full of gems from the multi-talented instructor, especially this one: "Music, of course, is the universal language. And every language, spoken well, is music." Herzberg, who speaks eight languages (Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, French, and...English), is a big fan of felines. From the article: He's cat crazy. He started a newsletter for symphony members called COMA -- Cats of Musicians Association. "I once spent a three-hour train ride with him just talking about his cats," says Aaron Lester, a Calvin College student who went on one of Herzberg's China trips. "He can talk about his cats for hours." Larry's wife Qin, co-author of the China Survival Guide, comments in the article on Larry's splendid sense of humor (something which comes across bright and clear in the travel guide!): "It's impossible for him not to make a humorous comment every few minutes," says Qin, who teaches upper-level Chinese at Calvin. "If you see a group of people standing together laughing, there's a good chance Larry is in there making jokes for them." (read more!) Business Passport to Japan in Rotary and OchTamale by Stone Bridge Press Sue Shinomiya and Brian Szepkouski's new book, Business Passport to Japan, recently popped up in OchTamale, the University of Redlands magazine (Szepkouski is an alumni) and In Flight, the paper of Rotary International District 7470. OchTamale calls the book "a practical how-to guide," and In Flight tells the intriguing story of Szepkouski's journey from student to teacher to scholar to international businessman, based in New Jersey with his heart in Japan. Teruyo Nogami is Coming to New York and DC! by Stone Bridge Press "A wonderfully intimate and beautifully written portrait of one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived...essential reading.? --Martin Scorsese The legendary Teruyo Nogami, author of Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, will be traveling on the East Coast with actor Tatsuya Nakadai in June 2008, supporting the HUGE Nakadai retrospective at Film Forum. In addition to numerous film screenings, in-person events include: June 21: Tatsuya Nakadai and Teruyo Nogami at Kinokuniya Bookstore, Bryant Park, 1073 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 3 p.m. in the 2F Event Space June 22: Yojimbo screening with Nakadai and Nogami, Freer Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) and I Am a Cat at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC June 25: 50 Years with Akira Kurosawa: An Evening with Teruyo Nogami, Japan Society, New York, NY Scoop on the Bonnie Simmons Show tonight by Stone Bridge Press Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! author Wes "Scoop" Nisker will be on the Bonnie Simmons Show on KPFA tonight, 8pm-10pm, supporting his new book and his upcoming performances at The Marsh in San Francisco and The Freight in Berkeley. If you don't like the news, buy a copy anyway! Here's a preview that the San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote for a different Scoop show a little bit ago. Still applies: Wes "Scoop" Nisker is probably best known as the KFOG news commentator who ended each broadcast with the words "And if you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." Nisker, the author of several books and a leader of Buddhist meditation groups, is full of good-humored, wry insight into the political and social questions of the day. (They also listed the opening at the Marsh here) China Survival Guide Feature and Booksigning by Stone Bridge Press The Grand Rapids Press recently ran a feature about Larry and Qin Herzberg, co-authors of the China Survival Guide. Speaking to the Press' Nardy Baeza Bickel about the need for a humorous and detailed travel guide to China, Larry noted: "There are all sorts of planners that talk about what to see, where to see. But they don't tell you the nitty-gritty." (read more...) Larry and Qin will be doing an in-store booksigning at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on June 21 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Put it on your calendars! Details TBA. McCarthy and Sharp at the Barbican and Beyond by Stone Bridge Press The Anime Encyclopedia co-author Helen McCarthy is as busy as ever. Upcoming events include: May 3: Kihachiro Kawamoto films at the Barbican Cinema in London. McCarthy will be joined by Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film co-author (and Barbican Senior Curator) Jasper Sharp to discuss Kawamoto's work before the third program at 4:15 p.m. (more info...) May 11: Bristol International Comic Expo. McCarthy leads a panel on Osamu Tezuka's impact on the anime and manga industries. (more info...) May 31-June 1: McCarthy at A-Kon in Dallas, Texas. September 11-16: McCarthy curates a film season at the Barbican Cinema devoted to Osamu Tezuka to mark the 80th anniversary of his birth. Screenings will include titles previously unseen in Britain. A further short season in Spring 2009 will continue the celebration. Wes "Scoop" Nisker on West Coast Live and Green 960 by Stone Bridge Press Two more upcoming radio appearances for Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again! author Wes "Scoop" Nisker! May 11: "The Peter Laufer Show" on Green 960AM, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m., San Francisco May 24: Sedge Thomson's nationally syndicated "West Coast Live," 10 a.m. - noon, taping at the Ferry Building, San Francisco, followed by a booksigning (you can buy tickets to attend the show and signing) Newsfeed display by CaRP |