tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26604422882695733312024-03-12T23:23:23.705-04:00Into the Wardrobe"She immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that it is very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe."AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-3165131563235694312013-04-16T13:36:00.002-04:002013-04-18T08:18:04.762-04:00In the Wake of the Boston Marathon<p>OK, haven't posted anything here for years, but here goes.</p>
<p>I'm a relative newcomer to Boston: I didn't move here until 2003, after graduating from college. There are times when I feel like an outsider (hockey, Bruins, what?), and even times that I feel close to the city but also like I haven't quite earned my place (see: October 27, 2004). But Patriots' Day is an all-inclusive event, and it's been my favorite day in Boston since I got tickets to the morning Sox game, saw the flyover, saw the helicopters tracking the elite runners, and exited the park to see the marathon for the first time.</p>
<p>I'm a runner but a very slow, amateur one; that first experience of the 26.2-miler was before I'd ever run a race and probably before I'd ever run 5 miles at one go. Seeing this never-ending swarm of *normal-looking* people coming down Beacon Street after having run 23 miles was something new (wow! They're impressive! and, ...could I do that?). And seeing this never-ending swarm of a crowd cheering them on brought home that it didn't matter if you were from Boston, or from Philly, or old, or young--it just mattered that you joyfully yelled your heart out to support the people who looked just like you, but who were running and running, doing this amazing thing.</p>
<p>I think that's what lies at the heart of everything I've loved about Patriots' Day, which I recently called my favorite day in the city because (as I tried to explain, without quite the right words) everyone is happy and there's just positive energy everywhere. There's the early spring cadre of runners on the carriage paths of Comm. Ave. in Newton on Saturday mornings, growing each week, wearing marathon jackets, oblivious to the cold and snow as they prepare for April. There's the building excitement of the preparations along the route--barricades and port-o-potties set up a few days before, then the camera bridge at the finish line and the tents that take over Copley Square. There are the international flags waving at the finish line, with tourists and locals alike taking pictures and posing. There's the yearly blessing of the runners at Trinity Church on Marathon Sunday, culminating with a bone-vibrating rendition of Chariots of Fire on the great organ (the organist getting psyched up since he's running too).</p>
<p>I was lucky to be able to join Trinity's church choir this year, and on Sunday we premiered a piece written by that organist who runs and is also our director. After the priest made his annual, well received joke about Trinity appearing "like the City of God" to the runners at the end of the race, we sang: "They shall mount up with wings like eagles; shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." And then, a bit self-consciously in our robes, a few of us hung around the back of the church to hear Richard play Chariots of Fire and to cheer him on when it was done. Everyone all smiles, everyone having fun in anticipation of the big day.</p>
<p>The electricity of Patriots' Day isn't just about the marathon. It's the reenactments of the revolutionary war in the pre-dawn hours in Lexington ("the drums are scary--you get why they played drums then," a coworker told me yesterday morning). It's the baseball game--in the morning! It's a vacation day, a holiday. Even the skeleton crew of us in the office yesterday took some extra time at lunch to catch a few pitches on the TV. The happiness is absolutely catching, and everyone's invited.</p>
<p>I couldn't make it to the festivities this year so I took my morning run into the city, along the marathon route, ending up at the finish line at 7, the sun slanting over the city, the hardiest folks already settling in their camp chairs on the sidewalk along the barricades. I took pictures; I Facebooked them; I couldn't refrain from multiple exclamation points.</p>
<p>And that's where it all happened, where the nature of how this day is celebrated and remembered in Boston changed. The very sidewalk, the very barricades, the very finish line.</p>
<p>There will be more marathons and more Red Sox games and more cowbell-ringing for the runners, and the sun will shine on the finish line again. But always, and rightly, we'll remember the dead, the injured, in the *place where it happened*, which we'll talk about in whispered tones. We'll be forced to think about hatred, evil, lunacy, or whatever brings a person to do something like this, and not just the magic of reaching goals worth fighting for and of taking in a morning at a green ballpark or being part of the effervescence of a supportive, happy crowd.</p>
<p>Our task now is to let that remembrance fuel us to do more great things, to build a stronger community, to let that effervescence bind us together as a city and as a humanity, to be the light that dazzles against the darkness--to take this tragedy and make it help us to mount up like eagles, to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.</p>AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-26761717802771522622009-08-18T19:47:00.005-04:002009-08-18T20:18:26.753-04:00Cultural Observations of an iPhone UserThe advent of mobile devices not only allows us to be more connected, it shifts how we perceive activities like reading, and how we think of other devices, like computers. For example, two things I've noticed since becoming an iPhone addict:<br /><br />Thing 1: When you read things on the iPhone that you used to read on your computer or in analog (a newspaper or a book, for example), you're still perceived as doing something much more frivolous and distracted, like fragmentedly texting or obsessively checking email. You're perceived as being unfocused on the world around you rather than focused on a piece of content. Tim and I noticed this once when he was reading a book and I was reading on the Kindle app, and he kept wanting to tell me to stop obsessively checking my email or something--and he had to keep reminding himself that I was actually engrossed in a Dickens novel.<br /><br />Thing 2: My home computer has become much more fun, because much more of my stress-related email checking has moved to the iPhone, while use of my computer has basically degenerated into watching Battlestar Galactica DVDs (and writing the odd blog musing).AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-53740769581428682982009-05-14T16:15:00.003-04:002009-05-14T16:20:15.956-04:00The Physical Book in 50 YearsHere's a metaphor for how we'll think of books in fifty years: like candles.<br /><br />We use candles now to mark special occasions, for a sense of cozy old-school nostalgia, for atmospherics, for decor, and in a pinch for their original use when the power goes out. But most of the time, when you really want to get something done, you flip a light switch.<br /><br />In the future, physical books will also be used to mark special occasions (they'll be <a href="http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004678.html">souvenirs</a>) and to decorate your apartment and for atmospherics and nostalgia, and in a pinch when your computer or portable data device is on the fritz. But most of the time, when you're really going to want to get something read, you'll just turn on your Kindle/iPhone/magic-electronic-gizmo.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-10572745007774744412009-05-06T11:11:00.009-04:002009-05-06T12:11:20.752-04:00The Newer, Bigger KindleOkay, I'm going to put out there right now that Kindle's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Amazons-Wireless-Generation/dp/B0015TCML0/ref=amb_link_84277971_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=1A8NT9A8VR7M5B3RGJKV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=476565871&pf_rd_i=507846">newer bigger self</a> is not going to work. I seem to be in the minority, so let me be clear about what I mean by that: It will not sell as well as the original-sized Kindle, and it is not the way of the future.<br /><br />The ways in which it will be moderately successful are as follows: As an entrance into the Boomer market (i.e., people who find the iPhone and even the original Kindle too small). What's going to hold it back here somewhat is the price. For folks who are already slightly skeptical about digital, $500 is a pretty big chunk of change. It will also be somewhat useful for folks who depend a lot on graphics--students who use textbooks, professionals who use manuals. For everyone named above, it's an interim step backwards, opening up the market for more users to become comfortable with the technology that already exists.<br /><br />It's also a threat to Apple, because it's an interim step in the direction of a new kind of laptop technology: something like this could be your new computer someday. Make it a touchscreen, with a touchscreen keyboard, and you could run a pretty full OS. Apple is already <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/164006/apple_iphone_mediapad_could_be_a_kindle_killer.html">responding</a> to this threat with their Mediapad. If the Kindle goes in this direction, that's the one way that this thing will become a big player.<br /><br />But I'm not sure Amazon is going in that direction because they seem pretty set on thinking of this as a *reading* device. And that's the real problem. The media device of the future is going to have to be an all-in-one, like the iPhone is.<br /><br />The all-in-one mindset is important for two reasons. First, portability: if the logic behind the Kindle is that you don't want to carry around multiple books, then you also don't want to carry around multiple devices, and you probably don't want to carry around a big one. Portability is a key factor in mobile devices, and this Kindle just ain't it. If you're in the general market (not Boomer, not infographics-focused) and you wanted a digital reading device badly enough to pay that much money for it, you would have tried out the original Kindle, and by now you'd be used to it, and so why ever would you get something bigger?<br /><br />Second, because we always want more functionality, not less. Why would I want to carry around a huge slab of computer that can only do one thing, when I could carry around something that could also act as a GPS, as a phone, as a Red-Sox-game-score tracker? I already expect more of my mobile devices. I think this is really important: if Amazon is trying to present a disruptive innovation (something that does less but reaches a broader market), they've got their price wrong. And if they're just trying to present a new innovation, then they are just innovating by looking in the rear view mirror.<br /><br />So fire away. Why am I wrong?AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-76624147930825486412009-04-23T09:23:00.002-04:002009-04-23T09:26:55.019-04:00The New Role of PublishersUmair Haque makes a fascinating point in his <a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/04/twitter_1.html">most recent blog post</a> when he urges the New York Times to acquire Twitter in part to "help the NYT rebuild detailed information about people, products, services, and news." In other words, the NYT becomes not just a source for information published by the NYT, but an aggregator of information provided by everybody.<br /><br />What if that’s what publishers need to do today? Not just to provide content, but to help their customers share content between each other as well?<br /><br />While some publishers are beginning to do this in a rudimentary way--OUP has a blog on which readers can converse through comments; HarperCollins has various reading groups--nobody has yet set this as their new business model.<br /><br />You wouldn't only have to have discussion forums; you'd have to have space for people to upload their own work and the capability for your editorial team to sort it and comment on it somehow, so readers know what their getting (after all, one of the most important functions of the editorial team is as gatekeeper to good information). But a lot of the work would just have to be automated.<br /><br />Is this the world we're heading to?AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-31386234018737935522009-04-08T15:11:00.005-04:002009-04-08T15:14:40.292-04:00Pride and Prejudice and Zombies…from Quirk Books (publishers of “Worst-Case Scenarios” and nothing else I have heard of) has sold almost 14K copies since its release on Saturday! Perhaps more amazingly, only one of those was to me!<br /><br />What is Quirk doing right about word-of-mouth book marketing? I initially heard about the P&P&Z weeks ago on NPR's “Wait Wait Don't Tell Me” and one of my coworkers reports it was covered on the BBC world news this morning. I certainly Twittered about it when I preordered, and got the most RT’s I’ve ever had (ok, like 3, but still). I've even written a blog post about it! (Ooh, so meta!)<br /><br />Is this just a case of good author track record (I hear Austen’s pretty hot right now…and for the past two centuries), a catchy title and idea, or are they actually doing something other publishers can emulate (perhaps in their own nice, brand-appropriate way)? Check out the publisher’s website - <a href="http://irreference.com/">http://irreference.com/</a> - they’ve got plenty of space for reader feedback, tons of tschotschkes, quizzes, and much more. It's not all stuff that every publisher can do from a brand perspective (not all of us are publishing irreverent humor books), but there's certainly community-building inspiration here for all of us.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-78746447411137554702009-02-24T19:11:00.004-05:002009-02-24T19:21:04.370-05:00Out of AfricaJust saw "Out of Africa" for the first time. It's a stunning film. This has something to do with the combination of Meryl Streep's slow, quiet voice and the expansive, serene vistas of Africa.<br /><br />Yes, it's also to do with the attacks of lions and with Robert Redford's slow, quiet looks that hide a soul afraid of being caged in. And of course Karen and Dennis's argument before the fireplace cuts to the dilemmas of the 'plot' of the movie: trust, independence, freedom, dependability. Those are the human problems the film presents. Very nice and interesting to talk about, but not what makes the movie so perplexing.<br /><br />The film's achievement is the lasting impression of peace it gives us despite the incredible disruptions at the end of its narrative. The answers to those human question are presented not by the unfolding plot but by those vistas, by that voice. The serenity of green and the roll of Karen's slightly labored lilt are what make you close your eyes after the movie ends and keep imagining it is still going on. Karen has gone out of Africa, but Africa has not left her, nor us. <br /><br />From our greatest losses--the film tells us, reminds us, enacts for us--something, an overwhelming something, lasts.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-14269476562490741172009-02-10T20:07:00.006-05:002009-02-10T21:11:38.967-05:00Charging for the NewsLast night's <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/56946/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-mon-feb-9-2009">Daily Show</a> included an interview with Walter Isaacson, author of the recent Time cover story <a href="http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1877191,00.html">"How to Save Your Newspaper."</a><br /><br />Isaacson practically got laughed off the stage with some of his old-fashioned ideas, but they're actually ones that I've come back around to recently.<br /><br />It all revolves around the idea that one of these days we're going to wake up and realize that professional journalism is a) crumbling before our eyes, and b) the foundation of a stable democracy. Don't believe me? Look! A big stone tablet at the Newseum in DC even says so:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JJh5lV1P_qQ/SZIlOfxvg5I/AAAAAAAAAgM/mDhQ24TMnOM/s1600-h/DSCN9737.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JJh5lV1P_qQ/SZIlOfxvg5I/AAAAAAAAAgM/mDhQ24TMnOM/s400/DSCN9737.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301340642347025298" /></a><br /><br />Professional journalism is crumbling before our eyes because we refuse to pay for it. <i>I</i> refuse to pay for it. Remember the New York Times's venture "TimesSelect?" When we all thought paying for just the op-eds and the sports section was ridiculous, and so they quit trying? And when was the last time you bought a print paper? Jon Stewart may have admitted that holding a print newspaper in your hand is just more satisfying, but I doubt that many people under the age of 25 would agree with him. It's these trends that are leading to the massive layoffs at the Times, at the Globe, at the Tribune, at NPR...the list goes on.<br /><br />Of course, citizen journalists are all the rage right now, from CNN's i-report to bloggers on every topic to people who digg or del.ici.ous or Share stories. I think those folks and these media add a lot to journalism that was lacking before. I just don't think that they're a viable replacement for professional, paid journalists.<br /><br />That's what it comes down to: paying the guys to go to Baghdad (as Isaacson said), who spend years digging into Madoff's past, who cover the beleaguered state of our crumbling urban schools. Stuff that might be missed by the i-Reports, stuff that takes more hours in a day than a part-time blogger has to devote pro bono. Whether or not the journalists are paid through large, authoritative institutions, they need to be paid.<br /><br />We need to start getting used to that idea, and we need to figure out how to pay them. (Because even I am not going to pretend that paper newspapers are going to make a comeback.)<br /><br />Isaacson actually brought up a good idea that I've been thinking about for a while: microcharges. It's like iTunes--you can pay a tiny fee per article that you read online. So you don't need to pay $14.95 a month or whatever--you pay for how much you use, but in small enough increments that it doesn't hit you where it hurts each time you click.<br /><br />Jon Stewart countered that news articles are different from music in that you're much less likely to go back and consume that content again and again, though. It's a good point. Is it enough to keep people from buying?<br /><br />My hope is that we realize how valuable professional journalism is before it's gone altogether. My sense is that the crux moment is coming: will we recognize it and suck up the price when it's here?<br /><br /><br />Update:<br />Disagreement: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/opinion/10kinsley.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/opinion/10kinsley.html</a>AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-84065586311440517712009-02-09T20:40:00.004-05:002009-02-09T20:46:42.336-05:00Becoming Un-Jane"Becoming Jane" ended with a caption that said, "Jane Austen went on to write six of the greatest novels in the English Language." The suckiness that goes into that useless and wrong capitalization of "Language" is reflected throughout the movie. I know, surprise surprise--listen, I like to give these things a chance.<br /><br />If one put aside historical realities, the movie became merely one of those vapid creations that so often pass for romantic comedies. It was chock-full of approbation for disobeying parents, disregarding prudence, and generally disavowing reason and intelligence. <br /><br />If you didn't put aside historical realities, of course, you'd find lots more things to be offended by: the number of times Jane takes off her hat in public, how she runs around and plays cricket with the boys, how she's making out with her boytoy beneath that tree in some lady's garden.<br /><br />The best thing about the movie is that it didn't end happily. I don't mean that vindictively, I swear. I mean that the (historically-forced) ending alone shows a sense of independence from the typical romantic-comedy script--that sense of independence which Jane (in theory) values so very much. That it is missing from the rest of the film--with Jane falling unselfconsciously as she does for the village heartthrob and following him stumblingly from one end of England to the other--is perhaps not a surprise, but no less aggravating as a result. We are left with a sense that this isn't the true Jane, the one with the wit and the shrewd whistle-blowing on middle-high society. The one that's more Dr. Johnson than the Misses Brontë.<br /><br />If it's this wrong about its heroine, how do we know how much of Jane's history the movie presents is actually true? How can we use it to add any kind of zing to our reading of her novels? What's the point of this movie???<br /><br />True, I am sure that Jane wrote her heroines to act as she *wished* she acted, and not as she in reality did. Lizzie Bennett's wit is sharper and Eleanor Dashwood's heart is steadier than Jane's, most likely. Jane herself was likely correcting her foibles by the successes of her leading ladies. But if that were the point that this movie were trying to make, it needed to make it more deliberately and not, as I suspect, by pure accident.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-48816953164701229092009-01-29T20:35:00.009-05:002009-02-09T20:50:19.942-05:00Stimulated?Interested in the stimulus just passed by the House? check it out here: <a href="http://www.readthestimulus.org">readthestimulus.org</a><br /><br />Okay, so I've only made it through the first 150 pages so far--500 more to go. But in the meantime, some preliminary points of interest:<br /><br />- p. 12, lines 1-5: "Section 1109. Prohibited Uses. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may by used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool." Seriously, no zoos?<br /><br />- p. 14, lines 1-9: "Section 1112. Additional Assurance of Appropriate Use of Funds. None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by the State after the date of the enactment of this Act, or (2) Rod R. Blagojevich no longer holds the office of Governor of the State of Illinois." Of <i>course</i> Blago found a way to get himself immortalized.<br /><br />- All plans for use of the funds will be accessible to public viewing at <a href="http://www.recovery.gov">Recovery.gov</a>, a site to be set up and maintained by the newly named Accountability and Transparency Board for the bill.<br /><br />- $18,500,000,000 for energy efficiency and renewable energy!!!<br /><br />So far, so good, imho.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-86708322255115122282009-01-28T15:10:00.011-05:002009-01-28T16:18:44.310-05:00Remembering, and CallingIn his short story "Pigeon Feathers," John Updike's fourteen-year-old character David is terrified of death: "a long hole in the ground, no wider than your body, down which you are drawn while the white faces above recede. You try to reach them but your arms are pinned. Shovels pour dirt into your face. There you will be forever...and in time no one will remember you, and you will never be called."<br /><br />The story is about faltering faith in God, and its desperate ending does nothing to convince us that Updike disagrees with his young mouthpiece's doubt. David has just cruelly shot a handful of pesky albeit beautiful pigeons when the story concludes abruptly: "He was robed in this certainty: that the God who had lavished such craft upon these worthless birds would not destroy His whole Creation by refusing to let David live forever."<br /><br />Compared with this ugly brashness, David's earlier description of human death is much more palatable. And while it is true that every poet and perhaps every human legitimately fears being eventually forgotten in death, in pronouncing this fear, Updike also announces its remedy: the remembrance and "calling" of the living. Just as Wordsworth pleaded with his sister to "remember me and these my exhortations," I think that what Updike does here in effect is to remind us of what makes us most human (and least pigeonly): that we care about and can remember each other, even across the bridge of death.<br /><br />Updike suggests that those actions are meaningful not just to ourselves, but perhaps (we can only imagine) to the dead as well. And so it is a human strength, and not a weakness, that when we gather around the "long hole" of a loved one, we choose to overcome the ugly brashness of death by engaging in the acts of remembering, and of calling. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">My experiences of the last year have certainly informed my re-reading of Updike here, as those of you who know me probably suspect. But it is two deaths in the past week which have brought me specifically to put pen to paper (or fingertip to keyboard, I suppose), as friends, acquaintances, journalists, and I remember a coworker's father, and Updike himself.</span>AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-66863951651523254352009-01-25T15:07:00.008-05:002009-01-26T22:09:43.418-05:00The Lives of OthersJust watched "The Lives of Others."[*Spoiler alert! If you just want my recommendation, you have it--go put this on your Netflix queue.] I spent the film dreading the ending more and more; while I couldn't help but hope for some sense of human, concrete closure, I feared it too: how could it not be contrived, set against the gritty randomness, the blindness, the cold East-German reality of the rest of the film?<br /><br />But instead of being incompatably precious, the end of the movie forcefully served as an appropriately nagging reminder of the other lives lost throughout, in the twin senses of those who were killed, and those whose lives in the end belonged to the East German state and not to themselves.<br /><br />It's a movie about one-way surveillance, and in the final minutes the tables turn: Georg is following his one-time Stasi surveillance man Wiesler, but, like Wiesler, he cannot bring himself to actually meet the man. And so the two are left to "meet" only in the dedication of Georg's new book as Wiesler's eyes read the note of thanks to his code name. The dedication reminds us of Wiesler's failures as much as his strengths; it stands in the place where a dedication to Christa-Maria should have been had things not gone so horribly wrong; and above all, like the surveillance that dominates the film as a whole, it is at the same time intensely impersonal and intensely personal.<br /><br />It's a great ending that can simultaneously fulfill the hopeful human need of the watcher, and yet exist in harmony with the realism that leads up to it. It's optimistic without being trite: it suggests that there is, after all, some hope to life, in whatever strange and demeaned form it may take--from the colorful graffiti on the now-open Brandenburg Gate to the obsessive actions of a grey operative watching and being touched by the lives of others.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-86621576950683791212009-01-20T17:22:00.004-05:002009-01-20T17:46:31.701-05:00Immediate Impressions of the InaugurationThere are no words to capture the experiences of the last few days. But you know me--I'll try.<br /><br />Masses of tourists descending on the city; whole streets cut off to cars for the pedestrians to take over; taking in history through a new lens at the Newseum; helping a gay couple from LA take their Christmas card in front of the Capitol ("Aren't you guys excited?! Tomorrow's the first day of a new world!"); traipsing down the Mall in the gathering dusk and cold; everyone happy; the surge of enthusiasm and engagement among the African-American community; the calls of the kitsch-salesmen--"Obama! get your buttons! hand warmers! t-shirts!"; the bedazzled everything; the foam fingers--with two fingers up for peace; the lights of MSNBC, of ABC, of CBS; the lights of the Capitol; the Washington memorial fading into evening mist; a delicious dinner thanks to our hosts; a beer out on the town with crowds of friends meeting faraway friends; getting up early early early in the dark, with cries already ringing out in the streets; a free Obama donut on the way to the Metro; the "Obama" chant ringing through the halls of Union Station as we headed to the Capitol; the people, people, people everywhere; people streaming in every gate, walking on every closed street and onramp; the sense of looming hopelessness among folks who couldn't make it onto the Mall before the gates closed; standing in the back of the room as we watched the ceremony, able to watch everyone's faces and hear the cheers on the Mall at the same time; the tears on everyone's faces during the swearing-in and the speech; the chopper lifting Bush up over the Capitol to cheers and waves of (mostly-)good-natured good riddance; the frigid march back to Dupont up Mass Ave. through the throngs; swapping stories with Jacob and Heather; the sun-filled and quietly happy and tired bus on the way home; that sense of cold and tired and happy that settles on you after a day of skiing--and apparently after a day of inauguration.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-79689269844252233272008-11-29T09:32:00.005-05:002008-11-29T09:56:29.131-05:00America's Next Top Gift IdeaBoxes of chocolates and sweets are so out, Legos have become stunningly expensive, and gift cards are a no-no this year. Still trying to figure out what to give people for the holidays? Because of the growing financial crisis, there is extremely high demand at food banks: consider donating funds in your family member/friend/coworker's name. Everybody's doing it. Here, for example, and for your convenience, are some links directly to regional gift donation pages:<br /><br />- Philadelphia - <a href="https://www.philabundance.org/takeactionnow/tan_financial_tribute.asp">Philabundance</a><br />- Boston - <a href="https://dnbweb1.blackbaud.com/OPXDONATE/AddDonor.asp?cguid=1547E9D7%2DDE66%2D4425%2DB107%2D6FBDAEA0BDF9&sTarget=https%3A%2F%2Fdnbweb1%2Eblackbaud%2Ecom%2FOPXDONATE%2Fdonate%2Easp%3Fcguid%3D1547E9D7%252DDE66%252D4425%252DB107%252D6FBDAEA0BDF9%26dpid%3D472&sid=824EEA52%2D5E24%2D48FD%2DB273%2DD5074299C1EC">Greater Boston Food Bank</a><br />- New York - <a href="https://secure3.convio.net/fbnyc/site/Donation2?1380.donation=form1&df_id=1380">Food Bank for New York City</a><br />- Los Angeles - <a href="http://www.lafoodbank.org/tribute.htm">Los Angeles Regional Food Bank</a><br />- Washington, DC - <a href="http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/donation/donate.cfm">Capital Area Food Bank</a>AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-70425611852637826882008-11-20T08:39:00.004-05:002008-11-20T08:45:39.522-05:00Pirate RealityGuys, I am so psyched about all the piracy off of the African coast right now. I mean, it sucks and all, but with all the other bad news about, this is the one thing that the media can kind of have a good time with. They have to keep it kind of subtle, but you can be sure every station and channel plays the theme song to "Pirates of the Caribbean" as they fade out of their daily pirate segment. And I forget who was doing the interview, but one of the NPR guys was talking to the head of one of the security companies working to quell the pirate situation, and it turns out they use some kind of sonar noise thing to chase the marauders away, and he (NPR guy) definitely had a hard time getting out "so you're saying you use iPods to keep the pirates at bay?" without losing it.<br /><br />It's probably not great for the people dealing with this mess that nobody really wants to take them seriously. But it sure makes a nice interlude between talks of the non-existent auto bailout and ever-plummeting stocks.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-31868411583521060482008-10-26T09:16:00.004-04:002008-10-27T13:08:26.778-04:00The Problems (and Not) of Sarah PalinUs Dems are all up in arms about how much Sarah Palin spent on her wardrobe. Aha!--we cry--an instant showing of hypocrisy. Sarah and the McCain campaign are pushing the Obama-the-elitist-and-McCain-the-populist angle! And <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/opinion/26dowd.html?hp">here they are</a> spending lots of money! Proof that they are, in fact, elitists!<br /><br />Unfortunately, to many people, elitism has much less to do with how much money you make or spend, and much more to do with how you communicate with them. I'm not talking about some intangible, mythical "connection," rather, about the candidates' accents. It's notable that the Republican party has milked this Eliza Doolittle's accent for all it's worth rather than teaching her which syllables to pronounce and how to say her vowels. And that Obama, unlike many successful Democratic (and of course Republican) candidates of the past, has nary a twang amongst his dulcet educated tones.<br /><br />This all speaks less to how much money a candidate has, and more to how they were educated. And that's really what the Republicans are after: they want someone who was <i>educated</i> like they were. Obama is off-putting because his East-coast education is so foreign to them. Sad as that is, it is frankly a much more realistic basis for liking or disliking a candidate than is the amount of money they spend on clothes, or how many houses they have. I myself like to think I'll vote for the ticket that is the best educated (whether in schools or in practical experience) to lead my country--but for many Republicans, I think, that requisite schooling just looks different. In many cases people are going to vote for the person who is educated most like themselves, instead of someone who is educated for the position they are voting him into.<br /><br />But I'm not here to argue that identity politics is wrong--I'm here to argue that it is very much at play, no matter how much various Republicans spend on Palin's wardrobe. Our crowing over absurd price tags misses the point: people will like Sarah Palin and think of her as non-elitist because she talks like them--no matter what clothes they dress her in at the ball.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-42916012780100694892008-10-26T08:30:00.007-04:002008-10-26T09:02:48.729-04:00The Problems (and Not) of Grant BalfourOK, to everyone who is all up and impressed by the Ray's risk-taking in loading the bases last night: I just want to make clear that loading the bases in <i>no way</i> could have helped the Phillies. Who cares is four (or three, or two) guys score? It's the bottom of the ninth in a tied game, and so it's only about whether one guy can score--Eric Bruntlett, who's already on third. There are no outs (i.e., you can't just get a forceout or two elsewhere to end the game without the run scoring). So you have to make it as easy as possible to get Bruntlett out at home. And therefore it actually helps the Rays and not the Phillies to walk two guys to create the forceout.<br /><br />It sounds all dramatic to walk the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, and in some ways those walks do signify drama: the Rays wouldn't have done it if the score had been more uneven, if one little hadn't meant the game, and if there hadn't been a lone baserunner on third that represented that run. But it's not that the Rays were impressively putting their World-Series lives on the line--or actually risking anything at all.<br /><br />In other words, granting ball four was not among Grant Balfour's problems last night.<br /><br /><br /><br />P.S. Much as I'm kvetching about this, it's the five-man infield that I find awesome. Never saw that before. Stuff for the ages.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-32771085460801087782008-10-23T23:16:00.011-04:002008-10-23T23:28:59.382-04:00Alan Greenspan<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JJh5lV1P_qQ/SQE-z1GZW0I/AAAAAAAAAYY/S_VLkMX4myc/s1600-h/greenspan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 337px; height: 250px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JJh5lV1P_qQ/SQE-z1GZW0I/AAAAAAAAAYY/S_VLkMX4myc/s400/greenspan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260554899893607234" /></a><br />Photo courtesy <i>The New York Times</i><br /><br /><br />To me this picture embodies all the pathos, the sadness, the brokenness of a worldview gone wrong, of an old man whose success has suddenly crumbled into not just nothing, but into, as he knows, the suffering of millions, of billions. It's a Lear who has just felt control slip beyond his grasp in the land he handed over, listening with ears perked up to his verdict, meekly accepting his guilt, and helplessly staring a fresh unknown future in the face while carrying the burden of the entire past that he has been so mistaken about. You can see it in the pink watery droop just around his eyes, in the many wrinkles that just weren't there in the more familiar pictures, and perhaps most of all in the buttoned-up wry smile that speaks in negative of unshed tears, the unclenching of absurdity, and a fleeting vision of what had been and what was supposed to be--and an understanding better than most of the enormity of his error.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-61051461505807970962008-09-22T14:57:00.002-04:002008-09-22T14:58:54.310-04:00Obama/Bartlet '08I think many of us have imagined this meeting of the minds, but I do think it kind of falls flat. I thought Bartlet would be more helpful and encouraging of Obama. Sigh.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html?ex=1379736000&en=a303bca10d6e4cc8&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink">Barack Obama meets Josiah Bartlet</a>AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-55292545977153773002008-09-19T12:33:00.003-04:002008-09-19T12:35:08.918-04:00In Honor of the DayTo be sung, lustily:<br /><br />Most days are like all of the others,<br />Go to work, come back home, watch TV,<br />But, brother, if I had me druthers,<br />I'd chuck it and head out to sea,<br /><br />For I dream of the skull and the crossbones,<br />I dream of the great day to come,<br />When I dump the mundane for the Old Spanish Main<br />And trade me computer for rum! ARRR!<br /><br />Want more? go to <a href="http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/tlapd.htm">Talk Like a Pirate Day Song lyrics</a>AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-92029394583927013942008-09-18T21:14:00.002-04:002008-09-18T21:18:47.860-04:00Firings and Regulation and LiesOK, so Barack Obama wants to deal with the economic crisis by introducing more regulation of the markets. John McCain is against more regulation. Instead, his solution to the crisis is to fire the SEC chair.<br /><br />I'm not against firing the guy. It does appear that he missed something about his job in letting all this happen. But I think McCain's approach sends mixed signals: he is trying to appear very dramatically concerned about the crisis (to match Obama's own lashing of the government), but he's sticking to his conservative guns at the same time, without actually proposing any new strategy. Just firing people, Palin-style, isn't going to solve this problem. We clearly do need more regulation--or, if regulation for things like how much of a capital margin you have is already on the books--we need to enforce it more. We need to do more than just fire people. We can't just take the emotional steps and leave off the smart, strategic ones because they're less fun and cathartic.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-37399498513524368712008-08-15T13:52:00.004-04:002008-10-24T22:31:54.003-04:00TbilisiWhen I hear of its sad state in the news, I think of Georgia strongly, because I had just recently been taken there by a book, one which in its very core decries Russian imperialism. Here is Georgia:<br /><br />From Ryszard Kapuscinski's <i>Imperium</i>, translated by Klara Glowczewska:<br /><br /><blockquote>...One should see the museum in Tbilisi. It is located in the former seat of a theological seminary, where Stalin once studied. A marble plaque at the entrance commemorates this. The building is dark but spacious and stands in the center of town, at the edge of the old downtown district...The splendor and excellence of Georgia's ancient art are overwhelming. The most fantastic are the icons! They are from a much earlier time than Russian icons; the best Georgian ones came into being long before Andrey Rublyov...their originality lies in their having been executed largely in metal: only the face is painted. The most glorious period of this work spans the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. The faces of the saints, dar, but radiant in the light, dwell immobile in extremely rich gold frames studded with precious stones...There is an icon here on which several generations of masters worked for three centuries...<br /><br />...Then there are the frescoes in the Georgian churches. Such marvels, and yet so little is known about them outside of Georgia. Virtually nothing. The best frescoes, unfortunately, were destroyed. Thhey covered the interior of the largest church in Georgia--Sveti Tschoveli, built in 1010 in Georgia's former capital, Meht, near Tbilisi. They were a masterpiece of the Middle Ages on a par with the stained glass of Chartres. They were painted over on the order of the czar's governor, who wanted the church whitewashed 'like our peasant women whitewash stoves.' No restoration efforts can return these frescoes to the world. Their brilliance is extinguished forever...<br /><br />...Niko Pirosmanashvili is all the rage in Paris these days. Niko died in 1916. He was a Georgian Rousseau...Niko lived in Nachalovce, the Tbilisi neighborhood of the lumpen and the poor...Niko painted suppers like Veronese. Only Niko's suppers are Georgian and secular. Against a background of Georgian landscape, a richly laid table; at this table Georgians are drinking and eating...The culinary fascinated Niko...Niko's Georgia is sated, always feasting, well nourished. The land flows with milk. Manna pours from the sky. All the days are fat. The residence of Nachalovce dreamed at night of such a Georgia...Over and over again he painted his feasts, with that table against a mountainous landscape...</blockquote>AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-12922545908410556832008-06-06T13:45:00.001-04:002008-06-06T13:46:43.414-04:00This Makes Me HappyI've been jarred a few times in the last day or two by someone using the male-gender-specific pronoun when referring to the presidential candidates. Somewhere along the way I just got very used to assuming that one of the candidates was a woman.AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-89747582617798262182008-05-08T16:35:00.005-04:002008-05-08T16:59:49.979-04:00A Brotherly BandOn company blogs, people talk most frequently about the results of what their company does. It's very infrequent that people talk about how the company does it (that's the trade secret, after all).<br /><br />Are we ever going to get there? What would it take for us all to talk to each other about how we go about our business?<br /><br />That is, to some extent, what the publisher O'Reilly's doing with their Tools of Change for Publishing conference and <a href="http://toc.oreilly.com/">blog.</a> Maybe it's because publishing as an industry's beginning to feel a little too squeezed? Like we all have to be in this together? Like we're all staring the beast in the face and think that throwing our lot together may be our last hope?<br /><br />Well, maybe it's not that dramatic. But it's something that William Heinemann proposed in an <i>Athanaeum</i> article in 1892. Then it was shrinking profit margins due to exploding author advances and production costs. Now it's exploding author advances and flat sales.<br /><br />So do we get more cutthroat (as in many cases we are), or do we, in Heinemann's words, and in O'Reilly's footsteps, "form ourselves into a brotherly band, and stand together against the inroads that are being made on our common interests"?AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660442288269573331.post-81569329846229111162008-05-05T10:42:00.005-04:002008-05-05T10:57:32.938-04:00The Guy Who Makes the Lists, or, Aggregation Is PowerThe <i>Wall Street Journal</i> just came out with new rankings for most influential business leaders (<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120994594229666315.html">here</a>).<br /><br />Obviously, this is a sparkly day for Gary Hamel (#1) and the rising stars just behind him.<br /><br />But what does a piece like this do for Tom Davenport, the ranker himself? He may not be Gary Hamel, but his position as someone who we depend on to tell us who <i>is</i> isn't too shabby either.<br /><br />The <i>U.S. News and World Report</i> gets as much out of the annual college rankings as the top ("top") schools. And is the Academy around for any other reason than to give us the Awards (I mean really)? These groups are powerful because we rely on them to get it right.<br /><br />Point being, the guy who makes the lists--who tells you who to listen to, where to go to school, what to watch, what to read--may be just as important as the folks on the lists themselves.<br /><br />And hence, the internet aggregators. Google makes its money by giving you authoritative lists (search results, feed reader). Digg.com does too. These companies aren't in the content business; they're in the list business.<br /><br />We all know the content business in publishing is suffering these days. That brings up the question: Can, and should, you do both lists *and* content? Should the NYT list articles not in the NYT as "most emailed"? Would more people visit their site if they did? Should our company's site list competitors' books as "similar products" if that will make more people think of us as "the authority" in our field?AGWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12413411406742981530noreply@blogger.com2