(no subject)

Okay guys, I have thoughts about publishing and nowhere to put them, so you get them. Sorry.

One: I'm seeing a lot of articles lately about how trad publishing needs to "fight back" against e-books or buck the trend or some other utter nonsense. And the truth is they don't. What trad publishers need to do is yank their heads out of their asses and build a hardcopy publishing and sales model that actually functions in the modern world. You know how long the traditional "do a print run, hope it sells, remainder the remainders" model has existed in stasis? Something like four hundred years. Gutenberg was awesome but he's dead now, time to move on.

Because I want traditional publishing to succeed. And I want ebooks to succeed. I refuse to pick a side in the books versus ebooks debate because if you think one has to preclude the other, you're drastically missing the point. Books and ebooks aren't an either-or proposition; they're an "awesome, both" advantage.

Can I build a model for trad publishers to fix what is so drastically broken? No. I could give suggestions, but I'm not a professional restructuring consultant nor am I an economist. Still, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of those out there who actually live in a world where ebook readers exist, and they'd be happy to help.

Two: I have a really hard time feeling sympathy for Borders and their constant bankrupcy/recievership/whatevercakes drama, because Borders is one of the Big Box bookstores and in its time has edged out countless smaller independent bookstores without offering any significant advantage to the consumer, except for maybe about a ten year period between "big box bookstores open" and "the internet appears" when they offered heretofore unknown diversity. But that's over now, and for a long time Borders has been part of the problem, both for the publishing industry and for independent business.

(Sidenote: I cannot tell you of my enraged reaction to You've Got Mail, even as a teenager. The big bookstore corporation and its slimy, manipulative, lying mouthpiece won? The douchebag gets the girl and closes down her store and that was sold to us as an actual happy ending. What the hell was a film from 1987 doing in 1998?)

So yeah, I'm sorry a lot of people are going to lose their jobs and a lot of giant retail spaces are going to stand empty, but don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, Borders. I hope Barnes and Noble follows you down in flames and someone opens a Trader Joe's in all your retail spaces.

Three: On a less aggressive note, the above boils down to the fact that I would love to see a new model emerge where small bookstores flourish because they serve a different purpose from the past and a different purpose from the big online bookstores. I was talking about this with some friends the other day and I think it would be fantastic if we developed a sort of social order where if you're looking for a specific book, maybe you go online for it, okay, but if you're looking to browse or to find something new, you will have a small bookstore in your neighborhood where you can go for an experience. (Which incidentally would also be a nice step towards exploding the filter bubble.) I think this would actually get more people out to bookstores, in the same way our cultural expectation that everyone likes coffee gets more people out to coffee shops.

And you know what's awesome too, small bookstores can generally order any book you can order online. That does require that you go out and speak to another person, which I'm generally not in favour of. But they can do it -- and if you're just browsing, most of the time the clerk will leave you alone.

And that is my Friday morning rant.

(no subject)

And now that I've purged my rage, time for a Friday Photo Post!

My mum sent me this kit, because she knows I like to work with my hands and because last Christmas they gave me a sewing machine. It's a "make your own sock monkey" kit. She keeps sending me monkeys, I don't know. Anyway, I ran out of stuffing before I could complete him, so at the moment he looks more like a Make Your Own Tormented Soul. Or possibly a Make Your Own Belegged Penis.

Talking of tormented souls, I haven't actually seen the new season of Torchwood, but Jean -- who knows of my love for masks -- sent me the Torchwood Mask from Comic Con. It's currently hanging up with my commedia and Balinese masks in the living room. (That is my bed, obvs; and yes, those are frolicking polka-dotted dachshunds on my pillowcase. Don't judge.)

A while ago, the same plaza where Marilyn Monroe now stands had an art fair. Presented without comment, because indeed I can't think of one I could make.

Last weekend I went up to the Newberry Library in the near north, because they were having a big book sale. The library, which has a lovely front facade, stands opposite a park with a pretty awesome fountain.

This is one of the six rooms at the book sale. The photo doesn't give a terribly great sense of scale, but you get the idea.

After I left the book sale I walked back down to the El by way of Dearborn, which had this striking wall with a face in it.

This photo is probably really only funny to me, but every time I see the sign reading WALK I just crack up laughing.

PEDWAYTRIPPING. The dragon will be disappointed to hear there is no smoking in the Pedway (this shit is stencilled ALL OVER the branch between the cultural centre and City Hall). There are, however, plenty of poets -- it's astounding and a little awesome that the Poetry Center of Chicago is IN THE PEDWAY.

A typical shot in the Pedway branch that runs below Michigan Avenue, alternating this kind of hallway with stretches of parking garage.

Coming up from the Pedway, I happened to pass a building under renovation with the legend THERE'S ALOT TO SEE scrawled in what looks like lipstick on the glass. I couldn't figure out whether it was done in cynicism or optimism, but it made me grin. And think of the Alot.

I'd like to leave you with the massively disturbing Pudding Face ad. I want you to imagine an entire underground train platform full of these faces, no two alike, staring at you while you wait for a train.

SWEET DREAMS.

(no subject)

Interview #1: slamdunk!

Though there was a hilarious moment where we were discussing dress code issues and Overboss said, "If you're crawling under a desk I don't care what you're wearing, but if you meet with a VP you definitely need to adhere to business dress".

And my first thought, of course, because of fandom, was of all the blowjob-under-desk fic I have read over the years, and I almost choked on my lunch until I realised he meant "crawling under a desk to plug in a computer" and similar.

I think he was impressed I've already found a replacement, a temp working in the Department Of Entitled Entitlement.

When I got back, Coworker Crush had a HUGE box waiting for her at the reception desk, which she said was a turntable and a new high-fidelity headset. Guys, what if Coworker Crush is a secret hipster? Not that I have anything against dating hipsters, but I am not even hip, let alone hipster.

Mind you I own a turntable and so does R, and he's a bluesman and I'm...me, so perhaps she just really likes LPs.

(no subject)

Look, all I have to say about this is that flowers are hard.



Especially roses. Or, well, in this case, "roses".