Sunday Morning Shards #22

Smokler on February 6, 2005

On my mind and in the reading queue this week. The “Listening to You” edition.

*The Online Journalism Review asks “Should newspapers made their online archives free and advertiser supported or should they charge per article?” Quite a debate. I haven’t made up my mind yet (via New Media Musings).

*R.I.P Ossie Davis.

*43 Folders is on fire. They just partnered with MolskeineUS for notebook fufillment and are writing a column for Make, the new DIY Tech magazine from O’Reilly.

*Candlight and angry words at the closing of the Salinas, California libraries (via librarian.net).

*AlterNet profiles the 10 Worst Corporations of 2004.

*My buddy Jeff Veen has a fantastic primer on organizing your RSS feeds so they don’t drive you to drink.

*In praise of not joining book clubs (via Arts Journal).

*In a rare ahead-of-the-curve-gesture, Sony Music now has RSS feeds for their artists.

*Punxsutawney Phil says “Six more weeks of winter!” He didn’t spend this week in San Francisco.

Read Recently #5:

Smokler on February 5, 2005

Blue Angel: Francine Prose

Blue Angel by Francine Prose

Backstory: I love novels about academica and had heard a bit about this one when it first came out in 2001. Bought a hardcover for $3 at last year’s San Francisco Library Book Sale. In December, while between books, I was looking for a solid, midrange novel, 250-300 pages and written by a woman. Blue Angel fit the bill.

Notes: Sentence by sentence, Prose is one of the best there is. Her lines are like the courses of a fine meal, laid out one at a time to be chewed and savored. It almost works against her. Blue Angel tells the story of a has-been writer in a cushy teaching job at a small Vermont college and is falling in love with a manipulative student who happens to be a much better writer than he. She’s got the college down and her plotting is confident and steady. But she does not so much inhabit her characters as she does describe them from behind glass. Because her prose (had to happen) is so strong, I didn’t mind as much, but if you’re the type of reader who doesn’t like the author standing between you and the story, it will bother you.

Verdict: This book, about writing, about sexual politics, set at a university was a slam dunk for me. But I had never read Prose’s work before. I hear if you’re familiar, it’s not one of her best.

Oscar Omits (Fly)Overs:

Smokler on February 5, 2005

According to the New York Times, many of the movies contending for Oscar’s this year simply aren’t at “a theatre near you” unless you live in a major city. Which has the TV people worried because who the hell is going to tune in to an award show full of movies no one has seen? The reason though is another kind of economic worry-warting: Why spend a truckload on advertising for a movie that you think will get Oscar nominations when the nominations can bring in the hype for free? And why open the movie across the land if it doesn’t get nominated, isn’t of interest to (subtext: those bozos in Middle America) everyone? Now you’ve just wasted money.

That’s the argument anyway. I think it’s unfair that smart people living halfway between nowhere and never-heard-of-it get lousy films at their local theater. But that might also be one of the trade-offs of choosing that corner of the world.

Bonus: Article includes photos of the greatest movie theatre in the whole wide world, The Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Merlin is Meatloaf:

Smokler on February 2, 2005

My buddy Merlin took the words right outta my mouth. His assessment of the Delicious Library program, a very slick OS X dealy that creates visual shelving of your books, dvds and music, includes a pitch for social networking. In other words, it’s cool to log all my own media on a database but the potential is really in whether I can see what my friends and other people like me have got. Social network the bastard and the possibilities are limitless. That’s what I’ve been sayin’.

Can’t Stop Him!

Smokler on February 2, 2005

My buddy Jeff Chang’s first book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation has just hit shelves. Jeff has been a presence in Bay Area hip-hop journalism for over a decade. Over the last year, we’ve gotten to know each other and mutually support each other’s projects. I’m also an avid reader of his hip-hop political blog Zentronix.

The book’s already gotten killa reviews from Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist. Hopefully I’ll be able to grab my copy before the launch party next week.

Congratulations Jeff!

The Whole Wide ‘World’:

Smokler on February 1, 2005

Run, don’t walk to see A Home at the End of the World, an absolutely lovely sweet, little film about loss, identity and evolving notions of family. The trailer should sell you but if it doesn’t just take my word: It’s 90 minutes well spent. And don’t let the looming head of Colin Ferrell disuade you. It’s the Irish hound dog like you’ve never seen him before.

Go.