Wednesday, July 31

The Globe

Jasper in Prague

1993, when the rest of us still stunned, post college, Jasper went to Prague and co founded The Globe, which now celebrates its 20th anniversary. This was a bad ass thing to do.

The Globe modelled after Moe's and Cody's Books and other similar Berkeley institutions, thx to Jasper, and became the meeting point for ex pats and Czechs alike who, during communism and the early 1990s, could not browse nor sit and read in a bookstore as books were shelved behind a counter. The Globe changed all that, offering coffee to boot.

In the early days, The Globe attracted readings from Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Alan Levy, Ivan Klíma, Zdeněk Urbánek, Amy Tam, Richard Ford, P.J. O'Roarke, Arnošt Lustig, Jáchym Topol and Allen Ginsberg.  I recall President Clinton cancelling a visit last-minute when in Prague, 1994.

It is unclear if Aneta knows about The Globe but her generation lives on the net.