I bought the very last copy of Mc Sweeney’s 33rd quarterly issue, San Francisco Panorama, earlier today at 826 Valencia in the Mission. It is easy to understand why the publication is so hugely popular. The hefty newspaper format is a glorious celebration of everything that is wonderful about the print medium; it is bursting with well-written local news probing the Bay Bridge project, book reviews, intelligent political insight, war reporting, a relevant food section, sixteen pages of big colorful comics, as well as information on art, music, international issues, sports and more. It is everything that your basic wretched and vapid Sunday SF Chronicle is not.
Every local vendor that I visited in San Francisco was sold out of San Francisco Panorama by 1pm today; but the beautiful broadsheet can also be ordered directly from Mc Sweeney’s online.
I really don’t want to do anything else for the next two weeks except just read Mc Sweeney’s San Francisco Panorama from end to end. The writing is superb, the design, engaging and clever, the immense pages are incredibly lush and satisfying; and did I already mention that there are sixteen gorgeous pages of full color comics? ¡Viva el periódico!