The Book Tour: Week 2

Almost there. The second week of the tour is finished – Dallas-Fort Worth, Seattle, Portland, and Berkeley. All that remains of the “official” tour (i.e. the extended time away from home) is the World Affairs Council of Northern California on Monday, followed by the Art + Design Museum on Los Angeles on Tuesday night (although BLDGBLOG’s Geoff Manough is sharing the bill for that one) and the PSFK Conference in New York on Friday. Then it’s onto Memphis next week for the Airport Cities conference, which is always… interesting, to say the least. And there are dozens of random events and conferences after that. Please keep an eye on the event calendar for the complete list.

1. Monday morning, I met my friends Bridget and Sergio at the Starbucks on the baggage claim level of Terminal 1, where the part were about to depart for Honolulu on their honeymoon. I gave them some reading material as a wedding present. From there, I was off to Dallas-Fort Worth, with a quick book-signing (but no reading) at the Hudson Bookstore in Terminal A at DFW. I spent the afternoon on the phone with SmartPlanet’s Andrew Nusca, the transcript of which has just been published here.

Monday night, I had dinner with The Wall Street Journal’s Scott McCartney, who writes the must-read “Middle Seat” column for the paper every Thursday. I was mildly surprised to learn that Scott has lived in Dallas for decades, but it makes sense when you consider that two of the six largest U.S. airlines – American and Southwest – are both based there.

2. Tuesday afternoon, I was the guest of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth and the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce, which joined forced to host a luncheon and reading in my honor. The lunch was held at the recently completed Irving Convention Center, which wouldn’t look out of place in Rotterdam but it pretty bold (and beautiful) for Texas. I wrote about the ongoing densification of Las Colinas (which has more occupied office space than downtown Dallas) for FastCompany.com last spring. The talk was a hit, if book sales were any indication.

3. That night, it was off to Seattle. On Wednesday afternoon, KUOW’s Ross Reynolds and I talked about airports, the aerotropolis, and Boeing on “The Conversation.” Audio clip available here. Later that evening, I talked at Town Hall about the “Warfare State,” China, and global supply chains, which touched off a lively discussion about China’s efforts to strip mine Africa in order to boost exports and keep its economy growing at all costs – real estate and investment bubble be damned. And then my friends Steve & Rachel joined me for a locavore’s repast at Sitka & Spruce.

4. Thursday morning, Jeff Schectman and I spent a solid half-hour hashing out air travel and globalization for his show “Specific Gravity” on Napa’s KVON radio. After catching my flight to Portland (aboard a nice, new Q400 prop plane by Bombardier), I checked into the Ace Hotel (there was no typewriter with my reservation, unfortunately) and spent part of the afternoon chatting with Stumptown Coffee buyer Aleco Chigounis, who was leaving for Central America the next week on his latest hunt for coffee farms to work with as part of Stumptown’s Direct Trade program. This summer, he’ll be off to Africa. “The non-stop KLM flight was a game-changer,” he said. After flying from PDX to AMS, he can get to just about anywhere in Africa, transforming a resolutely local business into a global one. But such stories were mostly lost on the audience at Powell’s that night. “I read your book at the library, and I disagree with just about everything in it,” is how the first attendee greeted me. For Powell’s sake, next time please buy a copy.

5. I took off for San Francisco on Friday morning, then schlepped to Berkeley, where my friend Eva had hastily organized a talk under the aegis of Cal’s Architecture Research Colloquium. I was grateful that anyone bothered to show up on a gorgeous Friday afternoon to listen to me ramble about instant cities for an hour, my voice shot and feeling a little feverish. But it was so worth it.

6. I spent the weekend hanging out in San Mateo and Oakland with Mel, Teemu, Lindsey, and Nora, eating cheese, more cheese, and still more cheese.

7. Tonight, I’ll be speaking at the World Affairs Council of Northern California about the future of cities. Please come if you’re in the Bay Area. Tomorrow, it’s off to Los Angeles for an event at the A+D Museum with BLDGBLOG’s Geoff Manaugh.

Other coverage you may have missed:

• I appeared on BBC World’s “Fast Track,” talking about air travel and the aerotropolis.

• The Louisville Courier-Journal quoted me in a story about the UPS hub and its effect on the city.

• The Faster Times ran an excerpt from the book actually set at the UPS WorldPort.

• And PSFK ran a short interview with me ahead of the conference on Friday.