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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
This I Believe. . .
The Importance of Singing with Others . . .
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97320958
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Paperback Dreams
A one hour public television documentary about independent booksellers and the people who love them
Independent bookstores function as literary laboratories, and publishers rely on them to champion new and controversial work. To passionate booksellers, selling books remains revolutionary. PAPERBACK DREAMS celebrates what these stores offer our local communities, and mourns the cultural loss that comes when a good bookstore closes its doors. Most folks don't realize how patronizing large chains and internet booksellers is adversely affecting our culture and our communities. What follows is an excerpt from the blog for PAPERBACK DREAMS.
Notes from the Road: Salt Lake City and Albuquerque
A few weeks ago, we kicked off the better part of two months of taking Paperback Dreams on the road. We’re screening at independent bookstores around the country, and I’m trying to make it to as many as I can in person. Check out the schedule here. Though there is a lot of sadness about Cody’s closing, and about the struggles of independent bookstores nationwide, it’s energizing to see how many great stores are still working hard, serving their communities, and even finding success in tough economic times.
About sixty people turned out for our first screening in Salt Lake City. We had an all-star panel, who together have been selling books for well over 100 years. It included Tony Weller, owner of Sam Weller’s, and the third generation of one of America’s preeminent bookselling families; Anne Holman, manager of The King’s English, which has occupied a corner of Salt Lake and the hearts of devoted readers for over 30 years; Ken Sanders, whose Ken Sanders Rare Books and counterculture legacy brings a shot of vibrancy that outsiders don’t expect in Utah; Patrick de Freitas, whose Waking Owl Books thrived just blocks from the University of Utah campus until Amazon went online, and took his core clientele with it; and Drew Goodman, who runs the trade books section of the University of Utah Bookstore, and who brought firsthand experience from working at both Borders and Barnes and Noble.
Even after spending three years talking to booksellers, there were some eye openers for me, like Tony Weller’s illustration of the 80-fold disparity between the growth of the chains in the 1990s, and the growth of the book market. That kind of speculation ultimately resulted in higher book prices for consumers, greater losses to small publishers, and more books going into landfills. I’ve also been quoting Ken Sanders’s short summary of the problem: “Endless growth for the sake of growth is the logic of the cancer cell.” You can read short interviews with most of the booksellers from the panel via the links in the previous post. . .
Watch Paperback Dreams on Public Television.
Paperback Dreams starts airing on PBS stations across the country.
Independent bookstores function as literary laboratories, and publishers rely on them to champion new and controversial work. To passionate booksellers, selling books remains revolutionary. PAPERBACK DREAMS celebrates what these stores offer our local communities, and mourns the cultural loss that comes when a good bookstore closes its doors. Most folks don't realize how patronizing large chains and internet booksellers is adversely affecting our culture and our communities. What follows is an excerpt from the blog for PAPERBACK DREAMS.
Notes from the Road: Salt Lake City and Albuquerque
A few weeks ago, we kicked off the better part of two months of taking Paperback Dreams on the road. We’re screening at independent bookstores around the country, and I’m trying to make it to as many as I can in person. Check out the schedule here. Though there is a lot of sadness about Cody’s closing, and about the struggles of independent bookstores nationwide, it’s energizing to see how many great stores are still working hard, serving their communities, and even finding success in tough economic times.
About sixty people turned out for our first screening in Salt Lake City. We had an all-star panel, who together have been selling books for well over 100 years. It included Tony Weller, owner of Sam Weller’s, and the third generation of one of America’s preeminent bookselling families; Anne Holman, manager of The King’s English, which has occupied a corner of Salt Lake and the hearts of devoted readers for over 30 years; Ken Sanders, whose Ken Sanders Rare Books and counterculture legacy brings a shot of vibrancy that outsiders don’t expect in Utah; Patrick de Freitas, whose Waking Owl Books thrived just blocks from the University of Utah campus until Amazon went online, and took his core clientele with it; and Drew Goodman, who runs the trade books section of the University of Utah Bookstore, and who brought firsthand experience from working at both Borders and Barnes and Noble.
Even after spending three years talking to booksellers, there were some eye openers for me, like Tony Weller’s illustration of the 80-fold disparity between the growth of the chains in the 1990s, and the growth of the book market. That kind of speculation ultimately resulted in higher book prices for consumers, greater losses to small publishers, and more books going into landfills. I’ve also been quoting Ken Sanders’s short summary of the problem: “Endless growth for the sake of growth is the logic of the cancer cell.” You can read short interviews with most of the booksellers from the panel via the links in the previous post. . .
Watch Paperback Dreams on Public Television.
Paperback Dreams starts airing on PBS stations across the country.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Harvest time
My friend Mindy has a blog (icantbegoodallthetime.blogspot.com) where she posts lovely photos & tales of good food. I was inspired by her as I was steaming the last of my grapes into juice this weekend. They were so vibrantly colorful in my sunny kitchen! My nighttime photography doesn't do their natural beauty justice. The brilliant purple of the concord grapes make them as much a pleasure to look at as to taste. The green "concord" grapes (I have no idea what varieties I'm tending to in my yard) created an opaque juice the color of pear flesh.It makes me cry to think of all the many years that the birds, the wasps, and I consumed only a few clusters of grapes while the bulk of them just rotted on the vine. I didn't know juicing grapes was so easy (albeit time-consuming). I think a steamer will be my next purchase for the kitchen.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
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