November 2006 – Page 8 – Kevin Smokler

Gleanings: Blogging, William Styron and Car Sales.

Smokler on November 2, 2006

I’m participating in NaBloWriMo which means I need to post here everyday in November. There are worse tasks.
Novelist William Styron is dead at 81 (via AL Daily).
Apparently nothing is beyond the pale of advertising because GM is now using images of Sept. 11 to sell trucks (via Andre Torrez).
Garrison Keillor has opened an independent bookstore in St. Paul, Minnesota where several independents have folded in recent years. The local paper wonders if it’ll succeed because of Keillor’s star power or because of it (via Arts Journal).
In related book news, The NYT reports that books are increasingly being sold as lifestyle items alongside clothes and housewares to fight off a downward trend in sales (via Arts Journal)

The Fine Art of Napping:

Smokler on November 1, 2006

As a believer in the fine art of napping, it hurt to learn that the modern world killed off the nap and that some people still believe in this endangered pleasure. To wit…

We are a culture that celebrates action, doing, achieving, an attitude that leads to a disdain for sleep in general. We stay up late and get up early. We pull all-nighters. We’ll sleep when we’re dead, and in the meantime there’s always a Starbucks on the corner.

It’s a misguided attitude. A good nap is one of life’s great pleasures, and the ability to nap is the sign of a well-balanced life. When we nap we snatch back control of our day from a mechanized, clock-driven society. We set aside the urgency imposed on us by the external world and get in touch with an internal rhythm that is millions of years old.

Amen brother. (via AL Daily)

Database Dream:

Smokler on November 1, 2006

In response to an earlier post, I got a note from one Kristina Dahl, part of the team behind Squirl, a social networking site for collectors.

Squirl comes at a fortunate time for me as I’ve been on the lookout for a database program to catalogue my art collection (really a pretentious way of saying a half dozen prints and some pottery) and most programs I’ve found are either Windows only or aimed at the yacht club market and hence, cost about $800. According to Ms. Dahl, the art collection template, is taggable and has the fields I’m looking for.

As soon as I can get my staff photographer to come over and shoot each piece, I’m going to give Squirl a try.

The Indie Rock Animal Kingdom:

Smokler on November 1, 2006

I think if I were an indie rocker and had 4 feet instead of 2, I’d probably be something a little bit more glowering like a racoon or perhaps a hyrax. But I would take my fashion cues from the alpha member of our tribe, the Indy Giraffe, who would know all the right moves (via Willo).