Granted, I can be as pretentious as the next guy and the new cover is not my cup of tea either. I also fully understand the issues of how mass-market retailers manipulate the publishing industry. Maybe Mr. Cassem’s comments were tongue in cheek, but the last paragraph in this article just irritated me:
As to whether the new, DiCaprio-ed edition of “Gatsby” would be socially acceptable to carry around in public, Mr. Cassem of McNally Jackson offered a firm no. “I think it would bring shame,” he said, “to anyone who was trying to read that book on the subway.”
As a librarian I’m pretty excited at the prospect of thousands of new readers being introduced to a piece of classic literature–in WHATEVER format. To suggest that people should be ashamed to be seen reading a great book because it has a flashy cover or was purchased in the “wrong store” is just ludicrous and makes me want to buy my books from someone with a touch less attitude.
There’s a problem with my RSS feed. I’m trying to fix it. Film at 11.
Photos from my New Year’s trip to Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and environs. These were delayed by, you know, all the rotten stuff that happened in January. It was a great trip, though.
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Surprisingly enough, though, I still love Elmo.
Indochine
Canary Bay (1985)
And a cover from 2009.
Highlights from last week’s trip to Washington:
- Making a presentation on the same stage as some major international heavy hitters and in the same building as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
- Dinner with Juan Felipe at Busboys and Poets.
- The National Building Museum and its orgasmically amazing bookstore.
- Great Lebanese place in Alexandria.
- The aforementioned shower head. I usually have a hard time believing a high-end hotel is really three times better than the Red Roof Inn, but I was almost convinced this time. It helped that I wasn’t paying for it, though.
And some stuff for a warm spring evening:
- Good piece on modernism in Canada. I really love that modernism was a bigger deal in Canada than in the US.
- in honor of the late Margaret Thatcher.
Interesting article from the RaleighCharlotteNewsObserver about how the southern accent is disappearing from urban areas in North Carolina. We’ve all been hearing this for years and it is, of course, true. I work with lots of younger NC natives who sound no more southern than the people I worked with in California and I sometimes spend days at a time going about my business without hearing a noteworthy twang. I think this research is too quick to dismiss the impact of broadcast media, but that may be an artifact of the article rather than the actual research.
People here have a hard time figuring me out too. With my North Carolina roots having been moderated by some speech training, by some low-grade radio work, and by thirteen years in California, the average person I meet has no clue where I come from (although they could probably figure it out by paying close attention). And I kind of like that.
Photos from my recent weekend in Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City. I’d always thought it would be fun to spend a weekend there. I was right.
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Tonight at dinner, a friend and coworker was asking me if I thought I’d ever get married again. I replied, as you might imagine, that I could scarcely imagine anything more unlikely. But I may have changed my mind. I think I’m ready to engage in a long-term relationship with the shower head in my hotel room. It’s quite wonderful. It’s not a sex thing, but damn…
That said, the “massaging soap” is really creeping me the fuck out.
