Category: literature

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Random House’s Salute To Fireworks

I’ve goofed on my history of (incredibly) small press publishing for years. While there are plenty of specific reasons why I was a failure, there are also some pretty enormous structural problems with the business of book publishing. I think most of those problems can be traced back to bookstore returnability, but it’s a complex argument that I don’t feel like making right now.

What brings me to this topic is the news that Bertelsmann, a privately held German media conglomerate, looks ready to announce a new president for Random House, one of the largest publishing companies in the world. Perturbed that Random hasn’t had any blockbuster hits in the last year and revenues have slipped, ownership (and new CEO Hartmut Ostrowski) decided to promote from within. Of course, when you’re a major conglomerate like Bertelsmann, “within” can be a pretty broad term.

In this case, Random House’s new president, Markus Dohle, comes from Bertelsmann’s Arvato Print unit. What’s Arvato? Why, I’ll let the WSJ explain:

While Arvato is so unglamorous a business it was once referred to inside Bertelsmann as “Siberia,” it has served as a major growth engine for Bertelsmann in recent years. Arvato has been plunging into far-ranging businesses such as repairing mobile telephones, storing pharmaceuticals and running call centers and billing systems. Last year it booked almost [$7.8 billion] in revenue, or about a quarter of Bertelsmann’s turnover.

I’m sure Mr. Dohle’s a fine executive, and I’m sure Mr. Ostrowski (another Arvato Print alumni) has some big ideas for how Bertelsmann can make book publishing a major contributor to its bottom line (it’s currently at 10% of company revenues), but this sort of pedigree sounds a lot like the appointment of Jack Donaghy to the role of Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming.

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What It Is: 5/19/08

What I’m reading: Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad, and the first 8 issues of the new Omega the Unknown miniseries, sorta written by Jonathan Lethem, whose prose I’ve never tried out. I oughtta sample some of his stuff on my Kindle, because I’m that awesome.

What I’m listening to: A new Mad Mix. More to come.

What I’m watching: Game 7 of Cavs/Celts, and wondering if the LeBron/Pierce matchup was going to live up to the ‘Nique/Bird shootout in 1988. It was pretty awesome.

What I’m drinking: Wet by Beefeater.

Where I’m going: Nowhere, not even for Memorial Day weekend. Sigh.

What I’m happy about: Getting out for a fantastic meal at Saddle River Inn on Saturday night, even if Dad raised the stakes on inappropriate conversation by launching into a discourse on the method used by my mohel. Seriously.

What I’m REALLY happy about: My pal Tina got married!

What I’m sad about: The Celtics won.

What I’m pondering: Microsoft’s strategy. Post to come.

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The White Stuff

I’m sure he’s a perfectly good guy, but I was just transfixed by this combo of headshot & name in today’s WSJ:

Probably because of this guy:

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What it is: 5/12/08

What I’m reading: Lush Life, by Richard Price.

What I’m listening to: Rain, by Joe Jackson. I’m 37, and I’ve been listening to Joe Jackson for 26 years, when Steppin’ Out was a single. That’s a long time. Anyway, this new record is eschews the big production of his previous album, Volume 4. It’s just a trio: Joe on piano and vocals, bassist Graham Maby and drummer David Houghton. It sounds a lot like his Summer in the City live record, which featured a similar trio. His lyrics are still alternately witty and a little awkward, but he’s still got some delightful melodies in him. This record’s enough to make me forgive him for Night & Day II.

What I’m watching: More NBA playoffs and the third season of The Wire

What I’m drinking: Brooklyn Brewery Summer Ale.

Where I’m going: Nowhere!

What I’m happy about: That lunch on Friday still seems pretty awesome to me.

What I’m sad about: That I had to mute the broadcast of the Lakers-Jazz game on Sunday after Mike Tirico had to deliver an extended shill for the new installment of High School Musical . . . and two of its stars happen to be sitting right next to us at courtside! Great corporate synergy, DisneyABCESPN. You probably managed to ensnare a whole new audience for High School Musical: you know, hardcore hoops fans who blew off Mothers Day to watch an NBA playoff game.

What I’m pondering: A whole ton of gardening/landscaping issues, now that the tree removal guys have done their business.

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Mini Driver

I worked at home today, dear readers, in anticipation of a visit from James Maloney & Son Tree Service. In addition to getting The Raccoon Lodge removed, we contracted a whole lot of other work with them, removing some smaller trees from the front yard, getting a couple of hazardous ones removed from the side of the house, cutting too-low limbs from the big trees to get some sunlight onto the yard, and sawing down some stumps so we can begin the nefarious second phase of Operation: Livable Back Yard.

Since I’d be at home, I took Amy to the bus stop today. It’s a quirky logic, but we’re a quirky couple. Anyway, about 10 minutes before the tree guys were to arrive, I thought, “Hmm. Amy’s Mini is sitting right in the driveway, and I bet they’re going to need to get past that in order to take care of a lot of this work.”

Unfortunately, her car’s a stick-shift, and I’ve never actually driven a stick-shift, outside of the one time she tried to teach me in the bus-stop parking lot. Oh, and the time when I was 16 and my pals Jon-Eric & Todd tried to teach me, before we headed to the Kinnelon Cinema to see The Running Man.

I dug deep into that 1987 version of me and tried to recreate the experience of zooming around the parking lot of my high school, but it was to no avail.

Then I looked again into that geeky high school soul and discovered inspiration from another artifact of that era: the Miller/Mazzucchelli 7-issue run of Daredevil! In particular, I recalled this set of panels from the final installment, in which our blind superhero must get behind the wheel of a car:

Emboldened, I went out to Amy’s Mini, took off the emergency brake, put it in neutral, let it roll down to the bottom of the driveway, tried several times to get it to start, tried several times to get it in gear, and eventually made my way up into the garage!

(Where I, um, stalled out and had to push it in the rest of the way so I could close the garage door…)

(Oh, and, before-and-after pix of the yard are pending…)

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Caucasian Coincidence

Yesterday, I began reading Lush Life by Richard Price. The lead character/suspect, Eric Cash, is a hipster who’s a little too old to be hip and has to deal with losing his hyphen: as in, no longer being an actor-waiter, and just being a waiter.

At one point, he mentions how in college he got the lead in a play called The Caucasian Chalk Circle. I thought this was some sort of inside joke of a title, or a dig at the absurdities of college theater.

This morning, I received an e-mail from my local alumni association with the subject line, “Don’t miss The Caucasian Chalk Circle”! Evidently,

a) I’m a cultural moron,

b) it’s by Brecht, and

c) another alum is co-starring in it.

Anyway, here’s the website of the theater company (and a review), if you’re in NYC and wanna see one of the final performances (it finishes on Sunday).