Word of the Day: “Praxis”
Praxis (noun): Convention, practice, custom.
Heard: On an amazing interview with Junoz Diaz on KCRW’s Bookworm.
A Day for Literary Heroes:
Happy Birthdays to Tracy Kidder, Wallace Shawn and Roland Barthes (via The Writer’s Almanac).
Pac Man Meets Super Mario Brothers:
Word has it that this video was put together, all 691 frames of it, one frame at a time. That’s like stringing beads blindfolded (via Coin-Op TV).
Gleanings: Mailer, Profiler, Girlier:
A reading queue dump…
- Norman Mailer is gone. The Elegant Variation has a nice set of appraisals.
- I’m dying to read this Malcolm Gladwell article on criminal profiling. If it were doused in peanut butter, it would have been delivered to be via heaven (via AL Daily).
- Speaking of the New Yorker, videos from the New Yorker Festival are now available as a podcast.
- The Carrie Bradshaw urban girl lifestyle has gone overseas. This article submits that this says a lot more about politics and economics than we think it does (via AL Daily).
- Business Pundit asks if constant connectivity is actually bad for your career.
- A blog on personal branding. Which sounds redundant, don’t it?
Salt Lake City Tribune:
The Salt Lake City Tribune wrote up my speech at Pub West.
It’s the best of times for
readers whose access to books has never been easier. But with book
sales looking flat for the foreseeable future, it may be the worst of
times to be a publisher, said Internet entrepreneur and writer Kevin
Smokler.
"The contradiction seems to be it’s the best time in history
to be a book lover, but it’s not the greatest time to be a person
making books," Smokler said Friday.
What is happening to books is the same thing happening to
music, movies, television and newspapers. Digital technology is
strengthening the hand of consumers at the expense of companies that
provide culture, entertainment and information.
"Those millions and millions of cultural consumers who are out
there, they are in charge now. Not us, not the producers of what they
consume," said Smokler, who spoke to the Publishers Association of the
West, which is meeting at The Canyons Resort through today.
Side Note: The Trib mistakenly called Soft Skull Press an "online publisher." They publish regular ole’ paper books. I brought them up as examples of innovators marketers in the publishing space.
In Park City via The Salt Lake City Airport:
I’m at the Salt Lake City Airport waiting for my flight home and felt like recapping the last 48 hours in park city. Which, correctly labeled by my new friends from Graphic Arts Center Publishing, felt like three weeks.
Recapping’s probably too formal. Here’s some stuff I learned out while I was out here.
- Park City’s an old silver mining town turned ski and tourist destination in the late 1980s. Most of the remaining historic buildings downtown survived a devastating 1898 fire.
- Park City is only 30 miles outside of Salt Lake City, the state capital. The 2002 Olympics used Park City for a bunch of big hill-related events. Monuments to the athletes and games dot roadsides.
- Park City’s really a sleepy town when it ain’t ski season (which thanks to "bad science" is arriving later and later) or Sundance. Historic Main St. was practically deserted save a few other lost souls like me.
- The Village Candy Shoppe is charming as all get out. I walked in and heard a voice cry "Just a moment! I’m putting toffee on!" You just don’t hear that anymore.
- I’d never been to a "swiss continental" restaurant before until the good people of Pub West took me to Adolph’s on Saturday night. The name creeped me out (I’m Jewish. It might as well have been Geobels’s World of Weiners) but both the food and company was delicious.
- Although my speech went fine, I don’t think I have to give the "Wake up and pay attention to technology" speech anymore to book publishers. I think they get it.
- PubWest is filled with mighty nice people I look forward to keeping in touch with in the future. Next year the conference is in Portland. Hmmm. I might have to present a seminar at Ground Kontrol.
In Park City…
Just finished my big ole’ talk in Park City. The living is easy for the rest of the weekend here.
Nice people in PubWest. I may have made some new friends.
Joseph Epstein:
Great interview with Joseph Epstein has me thinking some about the term "Public Intellectual." More on that later.
Thought of the Day: “Sainthood”
"All saints are guilty until proven innocent"
—George Orwell (via KQED’s Forum)
Park City Bound:
I’m headed to Park City, Utah this weekend to give a keynote address (!) at the Publisher’s Group of the West’s Annual Conference. Having never been to Park City before and not being able to ski, I’m wondering what I should do in my down hours.
So who knows a thing about Park City that doesn’t involve Sundance or hitting the slopes? If the answer is "nothing", I’m bringing a lot of books.
On that, I’m prepping like mad this week and probably wont be blogging much.
See you Monday.