Oscar Villalon

Check out this exciting project that our Senior Editor @manjula.bsky.social is part of!

This is an incredible team and project and I have never subscribed to anything so fast. Remember a few days ago when everyone was like "support independent media"?? Now is your chance to support and read really thoughtful writing about how culture workers live & make things in this economy.

Join us this Friday! All words are welcome, as are listening ears, as we sit around a table with beer and water and share poems, very informally. Then troop over with us to Golden Sardine to listen to poets Kelly Gray, Nica Giromini, and Brian Ang on the mic for the @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social launch!

Smoked duck sandwiches, chia seed pudding, and tater tots: Introducing the new Ohlone-crafted cafe at Lawrence Hall of Science The UC Berkeley science center launched 'ammatka from Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino in February as part of its larger 'ottoy initiative.

Excited to enjoy the food at 'ammatka, the new cafe from Ohlone language and culture keepers Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, at the Lawrence Hall of Science, next time I take my kids! oaklandside.org/2026/03/02/a...

At the beginning of this year, I found myself unexpectedly drawn to Melville, wanting to read beyond “Moby Dick.” So the stories from “The Piazza Tales,” “Billy Budd,” and now “The Confidence-Man,” and I think it’s the reader’s version of the trick knee presaging storms; you know before you know.

The video that Trump just released … is madness. An annihilating war against Iran, with the idea of regime change. The consequences will probably be profound and sinister and horrific, & not just for the people of Iran. We are sinking into the darkness of uncertainty, where only fools dare tread.

Going to bed tonight at a decent hour isn’t going to happen after all, I guess.

Graphic featuring THE WEEK OF COLORS book cover, March's pick for the Contemporary Translated Works Book Club. This is a hybrid event, held in person at the Mechanics' Institute, and online, via Zoom.

Don’t miss our next book club at the Mechanics' Institute! March’s pick is THE WEEK OF COLORS by Elena Garro, translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell, published by @twolinespress.com.

Join us in person at the Mechanics' Institute—Downtown San Francisco, or via Zoom. Register at buff.ly/I0QOcHh

Join us next week to celebrate our new issue ZYZZYVA 131, this time on the San Francisco side of the bay at the fantastic Golden Sardine bar. Ft. readings from contributors Brian Ang, Nica Giromini, and Kelly Gray.

Friday, March 6, 6pm
@ Golden Sardine, SF

I wrote a book! (Yes, this often happens to me.) And yes, it's the pink stripe in the rainbow flag when you stack them right. It's out Tuesday and I start doing events on Monday with the most amazing people. List here and more below: www.rebeccasolnit.net/events1.html

If the news orgs cover this in terms anything other than a terrible situation is only further deteriorating, they will have missed the story. The story is the rot of illiberalism deepens. The story is facts, such as what a tariff is, don’t matter. The story is do not be fooled: This is dire.

On top of all the repellent aspects of this address, there’s the shabbiness. All that power, all that wealth, yet the seedy and the false and the cynical are what come through. It hangs like a miasma over the whole miserable occasion.

An ICE agent shot and killed Ruben Ray Martinez, a US citizen and San Antonio resident, in March 2025. Then ICE and the Texas Department of Public Safety covered it up. He was 23 years old. I am calling for a full investigation into this shooting, including why there was an 8-month cover up.

Submit | Litquake Submit authors and program ideas to be part of Litquake's 26th annual festival, October 9–25.

📣 Submissions for this year’s @litquake.org main Festival are open until March 31st. We regularly partner with Litquake on Bay Area events and love working with them. We think you will too. Author and program ideas submissions information here.

“I watched the moon abandon a sinking blue ship. The night we parted still glitters in me.”

New poetry from John Yau in our latest issue! Read + subscribe: zyzzyva.org

Renew your commitment to independent literary journalism. This month only, sign up for a year of The Believer and get the latest issue of @pioneerwork.bsky.social Broadcast absolutely free. store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...

He was fantastic in that role. And in the stop-motion/animated movie “Anomalisa,” he voices something like a dozen distinct characters, never making his voice unrecognizable (per a conceit of the narrative) but nonetheless giving each character life. Truly impressive work.

Robert Duvall AND Frederick Wiseman? My Criterion Channel queue is going to blow up. Wiseman’s immersive and grand doc about Cal, “At Berkeley,” floored me. Its texture is that of literature.

RIP Robert Duvall. The Criterion Channel may as well empty out the vault to commemorate his work.

Michael Silverblatt, 'genius' host of KCRW literary show 'Bookworm,' dies at 73 Silverblatt’s 30-minute show, which ran from 1989 to 2022, included interviews with celebrated authors including Gore Vidal, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Foster Wallace, Susan Orlean, Joan Didion and Zadie Smith.

Michael Silverblatt, 'genius' host of KCRW literary show 'Bookworm,' dies at 73

How strange that cruelty as part of any domestic or international policy’s strategy doesn’t automatically disqualify that policy from consideration. This is how a society hollows itself out: being OK with an occasional dash of debasement. But it thrives by unceasingly calling out that backsliding.

Listening to The Police lo these many years later, and it’s kinda amusing how they go from a ska-and punk-influenced pop group to a jazz-influenced pop trio (or pop-influenced jazz trio?) in almost no time. Not a bad thing, but it’s interesting how they didn’t suffer commercially for it.

Come see us tomorrow at Local Economy + pop right next door to visit the wonderful @ebbooksellers.bsky.social

EBB After Hours: We're staying open late on Thursday, Feb 12th. Opening hours will be 11am to 8:30pm.

The good folks at @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social ky.social
are doing a release party for Issue 131 at Local Economy tomorrow night. Seems like a perfect time for us to stay open late!

www.thelocaleconomy.com/events/xxrdk...

As infuriating as Pam Bondi's grandstanding before the House has been to witness, at the same time it's hard not to laugh. It's as if she's channeling Cecily Strong playing her as a buffoon. Every faux indignant "Wow!" is comedy gold, or would be, if this were but a skit.

bringing the whole fam!

FWIW, newspaper book review sections are part of the mission of journalism. Every year, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry titles tell us something we didn't know before, or advance the craft of verse and prose in new ways. This is the purpose of reviews: to alert us to the shaping of our culture.

Zyzzyva Issue 131 Release Party — Local Economy Come and toast the publication of the newest issue of ZYZZYVA, the award-winning literary journal publishing since 1985. Featuring short readings by contributors Tomas Moniz, Maw Shein Win, and Suzann...

Pizza, contributor readings, wine, celebrating all things ZYZZYVA 131! See you Thursday?

As the fallout from the Epstein files continues to grow, the old boxing saw keeps coming to mind: It’s the punch that you don’t see coming that knocks you out.

Join us next week to toast our newest issue ZYZZYVA 131! Ft. readings from contributors @tomasmmoniz.bsky.social + @mawsheinwin.bsky.social + Suzanne Rivecca.

Thursday, 2/12, 6:30pm
@ Local Economy, Oakland