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Tears came as I drove my four-year-old son home from preschool yesterday. I had been doing a good deal of processing since the heinous attack on an Orlando nightclub early Sunday morning. Many voices have risen, and mine is perhaps the least important among the crowd. After hearing commentary from the Justin Torres of the Washington Post yesterday on All Things Considered as we drove home, the dam broke.
Mr. Torres uses the word "sacredness" to describe the club in his Post essay (In Praise of Latin Night at the Queer Club). On NPR he says "people talk about the gay bar like it is church."
Look, I'm a white, middle-aged straight man from Kansas. On the surface, I'm as far from Latin Night at Pulse as anyone in this country. But I've been there--different city, different club--and I've seen that sacredness first-hand on the face of some of my closest friends.
No, not friends. Family.
When you realize this attack was on us, our family, it changes everything. Those weren't "just" gays, or Latinos, or whatever-box-you-might-try-to-put-them-in-to-make-you-feel-safe. They were us. Our brothers and sisters and family.
My heart breaks when I hear of this tragic event bastardized into Islamophobia or a rallying cry for the gun-crazed Right and their "out of my cold, dead hands" mentality. Our Muslim brothers and sisters are family, too, and they've suffered at the hands of men who look a lot like me. I grew up in a small town in which everyone owned guns, hunting was a way of life, and shooting cans of Barbasol to watch them explode in a cloud of foam was just "something to do" on lazy Saturday afternoons. The sacredness of church, mosque, synagogue, or gay club does not stop at the second amendment.
I shed tears on the drive home yesterday for all of us--gay, straight, Muslim, Christian, Latino, black, white, whatever-you-are. I shed tears for the sanctity of life and how awfully easy it is to have that life stolen. I shed tears for all of us, our American family, and how God-awfully dysfunctional we can be.
I'll pick up my son again this afternoon. There will be more NPR coverage of Orlando. He will one day grow old enough to talk about such tragedies. I hope and pray I can help him understand what the word sacred means in exactly the context Mr. Torres used it. I hope and pray he will know the meaning of family, too.
***
Listen to "'These Are My People': Writer Reflects on Orlando Attack in 'Washington Post'"Read "In Praise of Latin Night at the Queer Club
By:
Heidi MacDonald,
on 12/11/2015
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You might recognize Ben Mackey’s name because of his kick-ass Twin Peaks tarot cards or Sean Lewis for his work on This American Life. How the hell did these two guys meet? We're about to find out.
J.K. Rowling has revealed why she took on the pseudonym Robert Galbraith and what it felt like to be discovered in a new interview with NPR.
Rowling explained her act to NPR host David Greene. Here is an excerpt from the interview:
I think that Potter was incredible, and I am so grateful for what happened with Harry Potter, and that needs to be said. The relationship I had with those readers, and still have with those readers is so valuable to me. Having said that, there was a phenomenal amount of pressure that went with being the writer of Harry Potter, and that aspect of publishing those books I do not particularly miss. So you can probably understand the appeal of going away and creating something very different, and just letting it stand or fall on its own merits.
You can listen to Rowling on Morning Edition and in the latest episode of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast at this link.
By: Catherine Fehre,
on 12/9/2014
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Well known is music’s power to stir emotions; less well known is that the stirring of specific emotions can result from the use of very simple yet still characteristic music. Consider the music that accompanies this sweet, sorrowful conclusion of pop culture’s latest cinematic saga.
When the on-set footage begins, so does some soft music that is rather uncomplicated because, in part, it simply alternates between two chords which last about four seconds each. These two chords are shown on the keyboard below. In classical as well as pop music, these two chords typically do not alternate with one another like this. Although the music for this featurette eventually makes room for other chords, the musical message of the more distinctive opening has clearly been sent, and it apparently worked on this blogger, who admits to shedding a few tears and recommends the viewer have a tissue nearby.
This simple progression has been used to accompany loss-induced sadness in numerous mainstream (mostly Hollywood) cinematic scenes for nearly 30 years. This association is not simply confined to movies, yet inhabits a larger media universe. For example, while the pop song “Comeback Story” by Kings of Leon, which opens this movie’s trailer, helps to convey the genre of the advertised product, the same two-chord progression—let’s call it the “loss gesture”—highlights the establishing narrative: a patriarchal death has brought a mourning family together (for comedic and sentimental results).
Loss gestures can play upon one’s heartstrings less discriminately; they can elicit both tears of joy as well as tears of sadness. Climaxes in Dreamer and Invincible, both underdog-comes-from-behind movies, are punctuated with loss gestures. As demonstrated at 2:06 in the following video, someone employed by the Republican Party appears to be keenly aware of this simple progression’s powerful capacity for moving a viewer (and potential voter).
Within the universe of contemporary media, the loss gesture has been used in radio as well. The interlude music that plays before or after a story on National Public Radio often has some relation to the content of the story. A week after the Sandy Hook school shootings, NPR aired a story by Kirk Siegler entitled “Newtown Copes With Grief, Searches For Answers.” Immediately after the story’s poignant but hopeful ending, the opening of Dustin O’Halloran’s “Opus 14” faded in, musically encapsulating the emotions of the moment.
How the loss gesture works its magic on listeners is a Gordian knot. However, it is undeniable that producers from several different corners of the media world know that the loss gesture works.
The post Scoring loss across the multimedia universe appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Kathy Mirkin,
on 11/6/2014
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National Public Radio (NPR) has an interview with John Cleese about his new autobiography
So, Anyway... Check it out to discover what the British wit whose comic characters and hit movies, including
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Time Bandits, and
A Fish Called Wanda, has to say about writing funny.
Here's a highlight from the NPR interview:
Cleese's advice for young comedy writers"I tell them to steal, because comedy is extraordinarily difficult. It's much, much harder than drama. You only have to think of the number of great dramatic films and then compare that with the number of great comic films ... and realize that there's very, very few great comedies and there are lots and lots of very great tragedies, or dramas. That tells you, really, which is the hard one to do. So at the very beginning, to try to master the whole thing is too difficult, so pinch other people's ideas and then try to write them yourself, and that'll get you started."
To read and listen to the NPR interview, click on this link to NPR's
website:Do you agree that it's hard to write funny?
Hope you enjoyed this post! To be notified of future updates, use the subscription options on the right side bar.
Esquire today: "The number of American families without fathers has grown from 10.3 percent in 1970 to 24.6 percent in 2013." It's higher in families at poverty levels, of course. With chingos of latino and black males in prison for minor drug violations. That's our America.
I didn't know my father much, not the way I would have wanted. We won't go into that more.
But I was lucky to be a father, also lucky enough to be a stay-at-home dad for my first-born, the Boy. Wish I could've done the same with the Girl. We only ever get to wish for more Fathering. So make the most of your opportunities.
Fathering decades ago, while I typed propaganda, the Boy would crawl around the floor, doing his stuff. I should've gotten down there with him more than I did. Less propaganda would've made for more Father.
Fathering both kids included doing Lamaze birthing classes, that strange experience that's makes you into a spectator of birth. La--mazing! Holding them for my first time, wiping the cheese off their face. Like a father's supposed to.
Fathering was taking the boy with me in a carrier to the bar for me to play pool, setting him in a booth or under the pool table. Giving him--and later, her--sips of beer. Until months later when they started spitting it out, wisely.
Fathering was easy hitchhiking with the diapered Boy. Stick my thumb out and seconds later, decide which person to accept a ride from. Never had to wait as long as a minute. The kid empowers the Father, both projecting contagious empathy.
Fathering meant the chance to become diaper-putter-oner extraordinaire. A wire couldn't get past the edges of my work; their blood probably had difficulty passing. That's the part about diapers to remember.
Fathering meant that when it was naptime, the favored method was lying down to lay them on my chest, pat their backs, sing dumb, made-up songs until they, and sometimes I, fell asleep. Heartbeats close to each other.
Fathering included giving the two some chiles as soon as possible, to build up their tolerance. It sort of worked.
Fathering meant playing my made-up game of "The Big Hungry Bear looking for Little Puppies to Eat." Laughs and shrieks and chasing around until Big Hungry Bear captured his meal. Oh, there was no bear; it was just a father.
At bedtime, fathering was the chance to make up silly, weird songs as if they were real songs. Songs that sometimes made Boy and Girl howl. Like fathers want to hear.
Fathering was the futile attempt to teach the Girl how to drive a car. Yes, futile. Wisdom, skill, experience flew in the face of Girl who seemed to bend time travel and inter-dimensional planes using a car with only two wheels on the road. Taught me: "I doubt I can teach her much."
There's tons more I could put here, but not enough time or space for that.
Do the father thing, at least once. Even if you have to adopt. It makes you almost human and somewhat super-human. And assume, accept and live with the fact that no matter what you do, you'll wind up wishing you'd done more Fathering. Later in life, there will never have been enough of it to satisfy.
And if you can do something about America's fatherlessness, do it. Fatherlessness is a crime of inhumanity, especially when it's not the father's fault.
 |
| Ramos, as if he knew he'd win |
Two Colo. Chicano winners
The Colorado Book Awards is "An annual program that celebrates the accomplishments of Colorado's outstanding authors, editors, illustrators and photographers.
"Awards are presented in at least ten categories including anthology/collection, biography, mystery, children's, creative nonfiction, fiction, history, nonfiction, pictorial, poetry and young adult."
 |
| Tim Z. Hernandez |
Chinitas, gente!
Yesterday, the announced winners included La Bloga's own Manuel Ramosfor his mystery novel, Desperado: A Mile High Noir.
And in poetry, our friend Tim Z. Hernandezfor his poetry, Natural Takeover of Small Things. Now's your chance to congratulate them. Oh, and read the best Colorado mystery and poetry.
NPR seeks your help
"I'm a reporter at NPR's Latino USA. We're working on a four-part series on Diversity in Geekdom. The first part will focus on sci-fi/fantasy writing. I'm looking for stats on sci-fi readership by race. Have any of you come across recent (from 2010 and on down) stats on this? Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! - Roxanne L. Scott, Freelance Reporter, Twitter: @WhosWorld
---------
Es todo, hoy, pero mañana es Father's Day. So act like you earned it.
RudyG
By: Grant Overstake,
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Is good old-fashioned grit the missing ingredient in today’s youth? Yes it is, according to a report on today’s National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. In a segment titled, “Does Teaching Kids To Get ‘Gritty’ Help Them Get Ahead?” reporter Tovia … Continue reading →
ALA is this weekend and I think my blog is going to be a bit quiet until I return. I don’t want to neglect things completely, so I thought I’d take the time to post a bit today.
Yesterday, I drove to Indy and had the opportunity to actually listen to NPR all day in my car. This included twice hearing their piece about the whiteness of children’s literature. I thought it was very well done. While there is always more that could have been said, I did like that NPR brought attention to this important issue and that they didn’t trivialize it. The link is here, you can listen to or read the article. Additional points are made in the comments.
The piece was create by Code Switch, a new department at NPR that is “a team of journalists fascinated by the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting.” They discuss the racial issues most of us thought would never make the light of day, and they’re doing it in mixed company.
I also got to upgrade my iPhone yesterday! I was made aware of the impending deadline to upgrade my 4 to a 5 “for free” and given the age of my phone, I really needed to do that! I’ve lost some phone numbers and songs in the process as well as faith in the iCloud, but am glad to have a new phone. New can be nice! While it’s still an iPhone, there are enough differences to challenge my brain a bit.
Going to ALA? Although most of my time will be with BFYA, there are several sessions I want to attend. Unfortunately, I’ll miss B.A. Binns session “Attracting Reluctant Male Readers”. This is such a relevant topic! What do you plan to do at ALA?
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By:
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on 2/11/2013
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Before we begin I would like to have a few words with the publishers on behalf of catalogers nationwide.
Ahem.
Hi, guys. How’s it going? Heckuva weird weather we’ve had lately, right? Yeah . . . so . . . here’s the thing. You know how you’ve been rereleasing a couple classic children’s books recently like Slake’s Limbo and all the Ramona Quimby books? That is just awesome of you. Seriously, new covers were desperately needed. But, you’re kind of doing this weird thing that’s messing everything up. See, for some reason you’re changing the covers but you’re keeping the old ISBNs. And we wouldn’t really mind if it was just the jackets you were changing, but in the case of the Ramona books you have new interior illustrations. This is a HUGE disservice, not only to libraries, but to your new illustrator, Ms. Jacqueline Rogers. If you keep the same ISBN then in records across the country previous illustrators will be listed in the system. Not Ms. Rogers. So, I know we’re supposedly going to go through some crazy crisis where we run out of all the ISBNs, but do a gal a favor and change the ISBNs on rereleases if you have new interior art (or, also in the case of Ramona, new pagination). It just makes good clean sense.
Okay! Moving on.
- If I say that Travis Jonker fellow at 100 Scope Notes is a nice guy I’m not exactly telling you anything you don’t already know. But how nice is he? Well, in his awesome 10 to Note: Spring Preview 2013 do you know what book he led with? MINE!! I’m thrilled and flabbergasted all at once. Ye gods! I hit the big time, folks! Now I just need to get my hands on that cool looking Lauren Myracle early chapter book and that new Charise Mericle Harper graphic novel. Woot!
- You know you’re cool when the National Coalition Against Censorship collects cool birthday wishes for you. You’re even cooler if those birthday wishes come from folks like Jon Scieszka, Lois Lowry, and the aforementioned Lauren Myracle. And if you happen to be Judy Blume? Icing on the cake, baby.
- On the one hand, it’s awfully interesting to hear folks speculating on what really made Mary Ingalls blind. On the other hand . . . . NBC News linked to me, linked to me, linked to me me me!
- In case you happened to missed it, I hosted a helluva Literary Salon the other day. Yup. Jeanne Birdsall, Adam Gidwitz, N.D. Wilson, and Rebecca Stead all gave up their precious time to stop by old NYPL for a Children’s Literary Salon where they debated why pop culture at large tries to label middle grade fiction as YA. The whole conversation was, for the very first time, recorded for posterity. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the audio feed is lousy. Not sure what I did but it’s a bit mucked up. Clear enough that you could make a transcript from it (casts meaningful looks into the nethersphere) but not so clear that you could actually enjoy listening to it. A little later in the podcast some folks stop speaking into mics. That actually helps. Rear in Gear reports on how it went from the frontlines. By the way, the title “Why YA” is a good one. I might shorten it to Y.YA, then proclaim that to be the newest bestest trend without explanation. Cause that’s how I roll.
- Speaking of my Children’s Literary Salons, I’ve one in early March on the topic of Diversity and the State of the Children’s Book that will prove to be most fascinating (and better recorded, I hope). Much along the same lines is a truly fascinating post over at Ms. Yingling Reads. The post concerns those book jackets that do not reflect the ethnicity of the characters within, but brings up a very interesting p.o.v. from that of the smaller publisher reliant on stock images. This post is your required reading of the day. Many many thanks to Carl in Charlotte for the heads up.
- The post on 10 Fictional Libraries I’d Love to Visit is a lot of fun, but I would add the library featured in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman books most certainly. That would be the library that contains every book conceived of but never published by the world’s greatest writers. The in-jokes alone are worth it. Who doesn’t love Psmith and Jeeves?
Thanks to AL Direct for the link.
- Nerd that I am, I cannot help but be thrilled that the Bologna Book Fair has just established a new prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. What a fantastic idea, and why has no one else come up with it before? Now THAT is something I can get behind. Boy, yeah.
- Flavorwire’s Conspiracy Theories About Classic Literary Characters doesn’t tell you a lot you haven’t already heard about your classic books (Nick Carraway = gay, Holden Caulfield = gay, yadda yadda yadda) but there are some fun exceptions on the children’s literature side. I think I’ve heard the Winnie-the-Pooh theory before, and I certainly heard the Harry Potter one (Rowling herself even addressed it) but the Wizard of Oz one is actually entirely a new one on me. Huh! Thanks to Annie Cardi for the link.
- I like it when authors reveal the covers of their upcoming books. I especially like it when those authors are folks I’ve heard of before and have enjoyed thoroughly. I met Matthew Kirby (The Clockwork Three, Icefall) at a SCBWI event recently and now I find out that he has revealed his latest title The Lost Kingdom. Yep. I’ll be reading that one.
- The other day I spoke on a panel for some young publishers about the library’s role in the pursuit of Common Core. I was on that panel with Scottie Bowditch of Penguin and John Mason of Scholastic. After the fact I learned that Scholastic has been working to get their hands on all this Common Core schtuf by creating the site Common Sense for the Common Core. It was created to help parents through this tricky time, but no doubt we librarians would benefit a tad as well. FYI!
- You may have heard that tornadoes recently ripped through Mississippi on Sunday causing untold devastation in their wake. They hit in a number of places, including Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Why do I mention this? Well, are you aware what resides in Hattiesburg? That would be the University of Southern Mississippi. And what is the University of Southern Mississippi home to? If you answered that it was the de Grummond Collection “one of North America’s leading research centers in the field of children’s literature” you would also be correct. So did the collection survive the storms? We are happy to report that they did. And on the de Grummond’s Twitter feed they assured everyone that they were safe and sound. Whew!
- Look me in the eye. Right here! Right in my beady little eye and tell me that this is not the smartest use of The Pigeon you’ve seen in a long long time. The crazy thing? I thought they melded together a bunch of different Pigeon books. Not true! Instead, all these panels come from The Pigeon Wants a Puppy.
- Remember when NPR started that program they called NPR’s Backseat Book Club? They said they would pick a new book for kids every month and discuss them. Well, the whole “every month” part of that plan has been spotty and the selections have been even spottier. Seems to me NPR isn’t taking full advantage of the field. I mean, Black Beauty and Wimpy Kid? Is that the best you can do? Fortunately it looks like they’ll crank things up a notch when they discuss Gary Schmidt’s Okay for Now. In fact, kids are encouraged to submit some questions to the author ahead of time. Got yourself some kids? Then go to it!
- Speaking of kids submitting stuff, you may have heard that YA author Ned Vizzini is getting into the middle grade fiction arena. He isn’t doing it alone, though. Director Chris Columbus is penning House of Secrets with him. Aside from the fact that the book has an honest-to-god blurb from J.K. Rowling on it (no blurb whore she) kids can get a copy by tweeting Ned their “secrets”. You can see some examples here. Love the kid who used to eat chocolate dog biscuits. That one I believe.
- Would you like $1000? Sure. We all would. But to be a bit more specific, would you like $1000 for your program that uses, “children’s literature as a way to promote international understanding”? Well then are you in luck! USBBY would sure like to give you some cash. Say they, “Schools, libraries, scout troops, clubs and bookstores are all eligible for this award. Does your school or library program or do you know of another organization that “promotes reading as a way to expand a child’s world”? To learn more about the award, view information about past winners and award criteria and access the downloadable application form, please link to: http://www.usbby.org/list_b2u.html“
- Done and done.I wasn’t particularly aggrieved by the Anne of Green Gables brou-de-haha going on about that random cover someone created. In fact, a commenter at ShelfTalker with my name (not me, alas) basically summarized my thoughts on the matter brilliantly when she said, “Folks, you are getting all upset because you MISUNDERSTAND the situation. This is NOT a ‘PUBLISHER’ with a marketing dept. This is a public domain book that some RANDOM PERSON is selling. You could do the same thing. PUBLIC DOMAIN – it means anyone can do anything with it. Here is a list of public domain books: http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain. If you want, you yourself could publish, say, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo with a photo on the cover of Governor Chris Christie eating a donut. (If you had the rights to the donut picture of course.)” Which was all well and good . . . but I truly have to tip my hat to Donytop5 who simply replied, “Here Betsy, I found it! http://wolverinesss.tumblr.com/image/42556986881“ That made my day, right there.
- Apparently there’s a competitor to Goodreads out there and it’s calling itself Bookish. It’s not really the same thing as Goodreads, mind you, since it’s publisher driven through and through. Says Media Decoder, “Instead of relying essentially on the taste of other customers with similar preferences, as most recommendation engines do, Bookish’s tool takes into account critical reviews and awards.” Curious, I decided to see what they had in the realm of children’s literature. It’s interesting. Not a ton of content yet, but their recommendations aren’t shabby. Worth eyeing warily for a while.
Someday I will be very rich and I will create a children’s library of my very own. When I do, I will allow one or two walls to be like this:
Fortunately if that looks cool to you, you don’t have to wait. Just head on over to the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art and have your fun. Thanks to Swiss Miss for the link!
Earlier this week, NPR released the results of its survey of its listeners favorite young adult novels. Like Shaker Laurie (teacher in Minneapolis), I was struck by how White the list is... As she pointed out, there are only two books by authors who are not White. Those two are House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
Do the responses to the survey and the list NPR created based on the responses and their judgements on what qualified for the list reflect the Whiteness of the listeners and of the NPR staff, too?
I think so.
NPR has a lot of work to do with regard to diversity. Given that NPR recently received a 1.5 million dollar grant to work on diversity, let's hope that we'd see a difference list from a more informed NPR.
If their coverage becomes more inclusive, maybe more people of color will tune in. And when NPR administers another survey, the results would be different.
And if they hire a more diverse staff, maybe that staff would notice how White the list is, and develop a story ABOUT that whiteness. Such a story would inform listeners of the outstanding literature being written by writers of color.
That "P" in NPR has got to stop standing in for "White" because the public in the US isn't predominantly White.
Yesterday, NPR posted the results of the Best Ever Teen Fiction Poll. It’s interesting to see how certain YA books fared in this complied 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels list.
Of course since it’s a poll, it’s entirely subjective. I didn’t participate, but I did find some of my favorites on the NPR list.
I’ve read SO many books over the years. I actually keep an inventory of books and I have compiled over 500 books. Maybe I should compile my own 100 top favorite list?
Writer friends, did any of your favorites make the list?
There are a lot of very cute posts out there about very young children telling stories. The link directly below this paragraph will take you to "The Worst Haircut EVER", recorded by an NPR journalist after one of his pre-school daughters cut the other pre-school daughter's hair. These kids are so cute.
The Worst Haircut! "Everybody does that kind of stuff sometimes!"
Here is another clip which gives advice on helping children tell their own stories. Thanks go to Detroit Public Television.
This review actually appeared online a couple months ago, but National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward’s piece on Merce Rodoreda’s Death in Spring made it onto “All Things Considered” last night.
I personally think Death in Spring is one of the most unique, and interesting books that we’ve published, and it’s fantastic that this is getting such great publicity. This is available at better bookstores everywhere, and through our website.
Additionally, this is part of our First 25, a collection of the first 25 titles we published, available for $200 $175. (Just enter “FIRST25” at checkout to receive the $25 discount.)
And to whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt from Death in Spring:
I removed my clothes and dropped them at the foot of the hackberry tree, beside the madman’s rock. Before entering the river, I stopped to observe the color left behind by the sky. The sun-dappled light was different now that spring had arrived, reborn after living beneath the earth and within branches. I lowered myself gently into the water, hardly daring to breathe, always with the fear that, as I entered the water world, the air—finally emptied of my nuisance—would begin to rage and be transformed into wind that blew furiously, like the winter wind that nearly carried away houses, trees, and people. I had sought the broadest part of the river, the farthest from the village, a place where no one ever came. I didn’t want to be seen. The water flowed, sure of itself, confident with the weight that descended from mountains, snow and fountains escaping the shadows through holes in rocks. All the waters joined together for the delirium of joining and flowed endlessly, the land on both sides. As soon as I had passed the stables and the horse enclosure, I realized I was being followed by a bee, as well as by the stench of manure and the honey scent of wisteria that was beginning to blossom. The water was cold as I cut through it with my arms and kicked it with my feet; I stopped from time to time to drink some. The sun, filled with the desire to fly, was rising on the other side of Pedres Altes, streaking the white winter water. To trick the bee that was following me, I ducked under the water so it would lose me and not know what to do. I knew about
the obstinate, seven-year-old bees that possessed a sense of understanding. It was turbid under the water, like a glass cloud that reminded me of the glass balls in the courtyards beneath the strong wisteria vines, the wisteria that over the years upwrenched houses.
The houses in the village were all rose-colored. We painted them every spring and maybe for that reason the light was different. It captured the pink from the houses, the same way it took on the color of leaves and sun by the river. Shut inside in winter, we made paintbrushes from horsetails with handles of wood and wire, and when we had finished them, we put them away in the shed in the Plaça and waited for good weather. Then all of us, men and boys, would go to the cave on Maraldina in search of the red powder we needed for the pink paint . . . When we returned to the village, we would mix the red powder with water to make pink paint that winter would erase. In spring—bees buzzing about, blooming wisteria hanging from houses—we painted. And suddenly the light was different. [. . .]
I decided to stroll through the soft grass, up the incline; at the end of the slope the tree nursery appeared from behind some shrubs. The seedlings had tender trunks and no leaves; but all of them would carry death
E.J. and Nate have censored this post for reasons that are probably obvious.
I swore to myself that I would never write about Amazon, pricing, price checking, and the suckery of NPR ever again, but then of course, NPR has to go and run this insipidly stupid piece about a “predatory” Amazon.
I’m half-tempted to go back to my normal argument that of course they’re predatory, in much the same way all corporations are predatory and take advantage of the system as it exists and tax loopholes and economies of scale and all of that shit. Bottomline: corporations only exist to make money, not to make the world a better place.
Does that disturb me? Hell yes it does. I’m a pretty anti-corporate person, but trying to change the nature of Amazon by complaining that what they’re doing is unfair seems similar to trying to convince people to read translations because it will “make the world a better place.” Not to go all 2002 on this subject, but this is a time when the phrase “don’t hate the playa, hate the game” is pretty fitting.
But I don’t want to talk about Amazon in this post . . . Instead I want to talk about how NPR sucks and is helping make this conversation about Amazon and other corporations really stupid and middlebrow and unproductive.
Let’s start with a little thing called timing. Aside from the bit about Nancy Pearl’s new book series (which no publisher would touch until Amazon decides to publish it at which point everything is EVIL), everything in this article is at least a month old. The Price Check App? We burned that bridge long ago.
And then there’s those pesky little things we call “facts.” This article, which is as typically lazy as all NPR journalism is, implies that the Price Check App applied to books, which is PATENTLY NOT TRUE. But why bother researching things when you can just throw shit at a wall and create a “controversy” by just riding whatever opinions get you the most hits.
But the thing I really want to get at is how this article actually impairs any sort of intellectual discussion about the corporation vs. culture situation. Check this quote from O’Reilly’s publisher, Joe Wikert:
“The word ‘predator’ is pretty strong, and I don’t use it loosely,” he says, “but . . . I could have sworn we had laws against predatory pricing. I just don’t understand why that’s not an issue — because that’s got to be hurting other device makers out there in trying to capture this market.”
Now what should follow this quote? If NPR had any journalistic balls, they would do a bit of research into anti-trust laws, and explain whether Amazon is violating something or not. If not, the discussion could be about whether anti-trust laws need to be updated, or why they’ve been corroded over the past half-century and what that’s resulted int. THAT would be an interesting article, and a fucking useful one.
Does NPR go in that direction?
But Wikert is also well aware that Amazon has made life very convenient for consumers.
GAAAAGGH! This is not journalism, this is explaining that we need air to breathe. Well done,
Ellis Avery's novel The Last Nude imagines the hidden affair between art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka and her model Rafaela. From afar, the boldly colored paintings appear polished and cool-headed, but up close, Avery says, you can see they were created in a state of passion.
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Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone has been on the list for 100 weeks. The novel tells the story of a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, and their twin boys, Marion and Shiva Stone.
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Critic David Orr surveys the "jumbled landscape" of American poetry to select his favorite collections of the year: five books that will alternately comfort and challenge you.
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'Ghost' from The Needle by Jennifer Grotz
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'Magic' from What It Is Like by Charles North
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An excerpt from Voyager by Srikanth Reddy
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We're often told that our teenage years are for forging our identities — even if it doesn't feel so great at the time. Author Jennifer Hubbard recommends a book that charts the complexities of growing up.
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Every year, the comedian's three young grandchildren visit him for Christmas. Problem is, "they're annoying," he says. So Cosby came up with a plan to calm the squabbling children and restore Christmas cheer to his household.
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The "Can You See What I See?" children's book series are photo-puzzles made from Walter Wick's signature photographic compositions of model toys and odds and ends. His latest book is called Toyland Express. Wick joins host Audie Cornish to talk about how he puts together is photo illustrations.
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Alex Schmidt's grandparents say that the best Jewish food they've ever eaten came from Mexico. They remember a legendary husband-and-wife catering team who made downtown Mexico City feel like the shtetls of Eastern Europe. Schmidt visits her grandmother to find out more about fusing two culinary traditions.
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The mission to capture Osama Bin Laden didn't just include a few dozen Navy Seals. A dog named Cairo played an integral part. Military dogs are often equipped with an ear bud and camera in order to be the first to enter a room and help soldiers survey the scene. Guest host Allison Keyes speaks with Lisa Rogak, author of Dogs of War.
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You might recognize Ben Mackey’s name because of his kick-ass Twin Peaks tarot cards or Sean Lewis for his work on This American Life. How the hell did these two guys meet? We're about to find out.
I wish I were going. Have a great time.