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What It Is: 8/25/08

What I’m reading: I finished When Genius Failed on Sunday, and am slowly continuing Montaigne’s Essays. Oh, and I picked up the third installment of Richard Sala’s comic, Delphine. Guess I better reread the first two parts.

What I’m listening to: The Cosmic Game, by the Thievery Corporation

What I’m watching: Finished up the fourth season of The Wire, and caught The Life & Times of Hank Greenberg. I think this may be my favorite season of The Wire so far, inasmuch as the storytelling really seemed to surpass its police/crime roots. Throughout the show, Baltimore has been the central character, but this was the first season where it really felt to me like the police characters just weren’t sufficient for the writers to explore the themes they were going after. That was true in the second season, to some extent, but the amount of character development that went into the four schoolkids was an even greater accomplishment than the way season two made us (me and Amy) actually care about and feel sympathy for a union boss. How this show never got nominated for an Emmy is beyond reckoning.

What I’m drinking: Plymouth gin. Man, does that have a sweet botanical edge to it.

What Rufus is up to: Meeting neighbors, trying to lead me into their garages. Also, we took him up to Rusty’s Place, our local pet store, on Sunday, so he could pick out a new toy and meet more dog-lovers.

Where I’m going: I have a coworker’s wedding to attend on Saturday, down in Cranford, NJ. More importantly, I’m seeing my accountant today! Since that’ll put me in Hackensack, I may just make a side trip to White Manna for lunch.

What I’m happy about: My niece Liat (age 8) went to her first Springsteen show! And she and my brother made it up near the stage, to the videographers’ pit, where — well, here’s my brother’s description:

Bruce jumped down into the pit, held Liat’s hand and started singing ‘Girls in Their Summer Clothes’ to her. Her face was on the video screen the entire time. Minutes earlier, Clarence gave her a maraca as a gift (she couldn’t take her eyes off him the entire show when he waved to her after the first song). Needless to say, that kid now has a better childhood than either of us. I can die in peace.

What I’m sad about: Summer’s just about over, so my typically hectic September looms (big issue of the mag, plus our annual conference on 9/25-26). Also, only 10 episodes of The Wire left.

What I’m pondering: How lucky I was to be out of the country for both parties’ national conventions in 2004, and how unlucky I am to be stuck here for both of them this time around.

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Deb and the Dahlia

Happy birthday, Deb N.! We’ll make it up to Providence one of these days!

(I just wanted to post the wonderful pic she sent over today!)

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Till Lethal Injection Do Us Part

Everything about this NYPost article on people who date, marry and otherwise romance imprisoned psychotic murderers is bizarre, as you’d expect. But I don’t think the goofiness of this Polaroid of Gerard John Schaefer proposing to his girlfriend —

— prepares you for the impossibly ghastly crimes that he committed.

It may, however, prepare you for the punchline to his romance: “In 1995, Shaefer was killed by his cellmate because he had not left enough hot water to make coffee. His betrothed was devastated.”

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Catch a fire

I don’t agree with all of this guy’s points about the future of digital books vis a vis the success of the Kindle. I’m optimistic that the presence of the Kindle and other e-readers will help drag book publishing out of the horrifically dysfunctional returnable bookstore model that it’s currently in.

But I don’t think that book publishing can be directly compared to the recording industry, and I really don’t think it’s advisable to tell publishers, “If you’ll just embrace this DRM-free, digital model, you can get your sales demolished just like the recording industry did. What are you waiting for?”

I also think Steve Jobs was full of crap when he said that Apple wouldn’t develop an e-reader because  “Americans don’t read.” I think he recognized that Amazon was already in position as the store of choice, and that meant Apple wouldn’t be able to create an iTunes store for books. No store, no device.

I’m still enjoying the heck out of my Kindle, but I’m also bummed that the new Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of War & Peace is selling for $20, rather than the $9.99 that they usually price new hardcovers. Grr.

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Mourn with Bootsy

Today’s NYTimes has an article about the memorial service for Isaac Hayes. I can only hope for a memorial that features musical interludes by Chick Corea, Kirk Whalum and Doug E. Fresh (but I’ll pass on orations from Revs. Jesse & Al). The best part was this description of Bootsy Collins’ funeral attire: “a get-up involving wide pinstripes, a kerchief, and rhinestone-coated sunglass lenses with peepholes in the shape of stars. . .”

Of course, they had to provide a photograph of said get-up:

Photo credit: Karen Pulfer Focht/European Pressphoto Agency

I think it makes him look more like Lil Jon than the Bootsy I know and love:

But I guess the event called for decorum.

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Two new sites!

I just updated the blogroll, dear readers! It’s that “Sites To See” link over on the right side of the site.

First, Virginia Postrel, who blogs as The Dynamist, just added a new site based on her upcoming book. It’s called Deep Glamour. I arbitrarily put it in the Architecutre & Design section, although it could’ve gone into several other categories instead! VP is co-blogging with Kate Coe. I guess that makes it Coe-blogging, then.

Second, my old pal Jason G. just launched Eightiesology! Maybe he’ll let me guest-write a long-ass post on the virtues of Meet Danny Wilson sometime! Jason ends up in the Friends section of the blogroll. Keep writing!