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We’re delighted that Cody’s Books, our favorite Berkeley new bookstore, is moving to the middle of the city’s downtown arts/business district:

• San Francisco Chronicle story
• Cody’s note to customers

After the widely publicized closing of their flagship Telegraph Avenue store, and the recent closing of their San Francisco branch, they’ve been living out of the single store in the 4th Street high-end shopping area, nestled between Restoration Hardware and a variety of expensive boutique stores — a far cry from their grittier Telegraph Avenue roots.

We do have mixed feelings about the move. Unfortunately, it’ll entail shifting to a significantly smaller space, and dropping some of the categories that we’ve known and loved; I’m disappointed, for example, that they’ll be cutting the computer section; Cody’s used to have one of the best technical book inventories in the area, outside of Silicon Valley and San Francisco proper. On the other hand, we’re also looking forward to having the store (with its great readings series) be much closer to the center of town, and blocks away from our office.

This move also consolidates our downtown’s reputation as a book district, home to Cody’s Books, Pegasus Books, The Other Change of Hobbit, Comic Relief, Half Price Books, Eastwind Books of Berkeley, and Berkeley Public Library’s central branch, all packed into six downtown blocks.

[Now reading The New Kings of Nonfiction edited by Ira Glass]

At long last I have a new finished piece of art to post:

I suppose I'm reasonably satisfied with this piece. It seemed like it went a little smoother than usual and I managed to keep the paint fairly thin on the background which helps to cut down on time spent on the piece. What bothers me a bit is this isolated pool of red-orange that is the squirrel/boat. The warm yellow of the dragonflies was intended to balance out the orange of the squirrel, but I think they are too small to be as effective as I'd like. I did push some orange-ish color around in the background, but maybe not enough... All the same I think it came out okay.
Prints are in my Shop.

Not only have I finally gotten back to painting, but we've also gotten back to our frequent weekend hiking. We had a good long walk at nearby Bull Creek this past weekend. This trail was about three miles one way meandering back and forth across the wide creek. Where in LA we could clearly see the extremely parched condition of the land in the form of dry creek-beds and trickling waterfalls, here we could see the opposite - an abundance of water. We've heard the reason for this is that the soil's quite thin and underneath lies a layer of rock, so the water can't really soak into the ground and therefore channels into the many waterways that wind around the hills here. You can see how rocky the land is around the water in these pictures:

The trail came to an end in a small dog park. I have never seen so many happy dogs together in one place at the same time. It was fun to watch them splashing around in the water so exuberantly. I think they had the right idea too - it was surprisingly warm that day and the water looked so inviting!

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting story on the phenomenon of communities “rescuing” local independent bookstores in trouble, via membership programs, loans, or selling shares to the public. Per the Journal, the rescues make for a dramatic story, but some are more effective than others.

So it's official - we're moving to Texas. My husband accepted a job in Austin and just put in his two weeks this past Monday. It's such a strange feeling. We had a few weeks of anticipation and mild uncertainty and now, suddenly we're in the thick of preparations. We're out of LA in exactly two weeks, so it's going to be quite a whirlwind. I'm really excited to be moving - trying out a new city in a different part of the country, but the moving itself can be such a dreaded experience. We had a pretty horrid experience six years ago when we relocated from NY to LA and I'm not at all eager to repeat it. Fortunately, I have a bit more time to do better research on moving companies and the like this time around, so hopefully it will be a somewhat better situation. We shall see...

I've never been to Austin myself, but every one we've spoken to seems to really like it, so I have high hopes that we will too. The cost of living is very attractive and I hear it's quite green and boasts spectacular thunderstorms. I so miss thunderstorms...

Here's a sketch a did last week:
I've had a thumbnail of this idea waiting around in my sketchbook for years, so I'm glad to finally have a chance to tackle it. I'm not sure where the idea for it came from - instruments as boats just seems like a neat idea to me. I've got a color study finished for it, but I have a feeling I'm not going to get to touch it again for a while, since my current job is now 'moving coordinator.'

So as we're preparing to move, going through our possessions and trying to figure out what we can do without, we managed to gather up a few stacks of books that we were willing to part with - a lot of them duplicates that we both had before we got married. I remembered a small used bookstore right around the corner from us, that I'd walked past many times, but never really ventured into before. So I headed over there, arms full of books. It's one of these places I wish I'd discovered sooner - a really nice store with good selection and the owner's just nice as can be. They even had a copy of Castles by Alan Lee - quite a find! I love the big bookstores, Borders, B&N as much as anybody, but there's something to be said for the charm of the smaller independent bookstore. So, if you happen to be passing through Canoga Park, stop in and see what you can find - address is on their website: www.nextchapterbooks.com.

Also, I mentioned sculptor Vicki Banks' beautiful animal sculptures in a previous post - seems she does indeed have a website: http://www.vulturesculpture.com/

It's time for me to dive back into the madness of moving - many phone calls to make. Anybody know a good pet-friendly hotel in Austin by chance?

The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a business story about Diesel, an small independent bookstore in Oakland, California that Charlie, Wendy, and I all frequent.

It’s interesting seeing a neighborhood bookstore story go bit beyond the feelgood cliches, and focus on things like inventory selection, staffing issues, expenses, etc. Booksellers aren’t in business to lose money, and it’s nice to see some examples of local success in the post-chain-store era.

[Now reading: The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution by Fiona G.E. Ross]