Sometimes, when you produce a little independent title like mono.kultur, strange bonds develop with people you have never met, e-mail intimacies with stores in far-flung corners of the world who somehow found you, whereas you actually have no idea who they are or what they look like. And then, sometimes, you receive a mail saying, ‘Hey! Coming to Berlin! Fancy meeting up?’
Anyway, that’s what happened with the guys from Needles & Pens in San Francisco, one of those bookshop-cum-gallery-cum-general-cool-people-hang-out that every good city in the US seems to have at least one of (San Fran, of course, having dozens). What’s for sure is that they were early adopters as far as mono.kultur is concerned, and one of the first stores to introduce our little adventure in print to the West Coast of the US of A.
So what about that night, you ask? Suffice to say that we don’t remember that much, there were Schnitzels early on, we’re sure about those, and there might have been an MGMT concert involved at some later point, but that’s where things are definitely getting hazy (Quite possibly it was the first time I heard of a future addition to the family that evening?). But we do have this image imprinted in our minds of beaming wide-eyed generous American faces asking, ‘MORE BEER?!?!’
It’s been a while, and here’s to you, fellas.
Needles & Pens
3253 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
USA
