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WAY_OF_THE_PIRATE

                                             June 10, 2008

   About Dave Egger's "Valencia Street
   Project" at 826 Valencia, sometimes
   known as "The Pirate Store":
                                                    EGGING_ON
      Eggers wanted to create a home office for
      McSweeny's that also doubled as one-on-one
      writers workshops for kids, but he had a
      problem with zoning: the place he wanted to
      use (on Valencia Street in San Francisco)
      was zoned for retail.  So they figured they
      would sell something up front, and do
      their writer's workshops in the back, and
      somewhat randomly they settled on the
      concept for doing a Pirate Store (he says
      when the place was gutted, it looked to
      them like the interior or a ship).

      Oddly enough, this "Pirate Store" concept
      turned out to be commercially successful:
      it pays the rent and the salary of one
      person to watch the store.

      And the kids mentoring project turned out
      to be really successful also.  Putting the
      workshops in the back, behind this absurd
      store front works out really well-- it's
      obvious at a glance that whatever this
      place is about, it isn't just More School,        There are now spinoffs
      and kids come running by enthusiasticly           and imitators: a
      after their official school is over with.         "Superheroes Store"
      He argues that being down there on the            in Brooklyn, a
      street level is key, as opposed to being          "Time-Travelers Supply
      inside the school, or up on the 50th floor        House" in LA.
      of an office building.

           And that, I think is
           how one puts it across.

               The need to work on
               multiple levels...


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