What’s killing newspapers is the same thing that killed the slide rule.
Good grief! If newspapers stop printing, what will I use to wrap all the Christmas gifts?
I was hoping for an invitation to read an inaugural poem. Here’s a haiku I prepared in case McCain won the election:“How’d you like your moosesteak, McPalin?” “Rare, with aside of off-shore oil.”
Lunch is to publishing as liquidity is to banking
From Robert McCrum:
The book world is in full-blown transition. Blogs are rampant; Google is digitising every text going; e-readers are transforming the experience of reading. Books (and book reviewing) have been pushed to the margin. It doesn’t help that in a global recession publishing is also feeling the pinch.
Lunch is to publishing as liquidity is to banking.
We work, we play, we marry, we grow old, we dust ourselves off and keep going, all in a quiet hopelessness, neither loving much nor expecting to be loved much. We hang drapes in our pit and hunker down. All is weariness; what has been will be. And then Christmas comes.
Andrée Seu
Goof off at work, read a book, ignore e-mail
Long Tail Content – a haiku

scumblr: lickystickypicky: I am in love with pictures….they transmit us to places never seen before.
This should be Tumblr’s mantra.
I’m embarrassed to say that since college… I’ve been so busy speechwriting for Kerry and then Barack that I haven’t been reading all the good literary stuff I used to read…
Big ideas often demand a marketing strategy that is a lot more difficult than marketing gravity…. When in doubt, market gravity.
Seth on the death of the personal blog
From BlogAsheville:
Many local bloggers have neglected their blogs recently, with varying reasons/excuses.
So, do bloggers need a bailout too? No. Read Seth’s take on the personal blog demise:
There’s a difference between a blog about YOU… and a blog about the reader. Guy Kawasaki’s blog, and my blog for that matter, are not about us, about what we ate yesterday or how great we are. They are about you, the reader.
I guess there’s an easy analogy:
Your blog could be like a newspaper (written by a staff)
or it could be like a book (written by an author)
So, enough about me. How about you?
The point is not to show up on a list, the point is to start a conversation that spreads, to share ideas and to chronicle your thinking.
“not all data is equal”
From Seth Godin:
If you looked at web activity, you could rightfully assume that the web consists largely of porn, gossip, Britney Spears searches, trolls, trivia, anger, complaints, flirting and self-absorption.
If you look at the logs of who is calling your toll free number, you could rightfully come to the conclusion that 92% of your customers are mad at you and the other 8% are merely stupid.
If you look at the ads in the magazines you get, you could understandably come to the conclusion that all people buy is cars, pills and shoes….
Figure out the difference between early warnings and selfish noise. Figure out what’s loud merely because it’s angry and personal, and what’s loud because it’s important.
“The BBC reports that forty-six per cent of men and thirty-three per cent of women have lied about what they’ve read in order to impress or seduce.”
// i know, i know. my inbox is filling up. i left a book at a clients office. press proofs were delivered. and, yes, i will call you.
“Txtng: the gr8 db8” is on the list of booklist.
How many post-avant poets are there?
Shampoo has published
888 poets in its first 34 issues
& only three of the ten Grand Piano authors
(Steve Benson, Kit Robinson, myself)
are included
(via silliman) Link
So, what does that say about the post-avant poetry movement?
Brands could learn a lot from rock fans’ loyalty
Rock fans are some of the most loyal people in the world: they wear the t-shirt of their favourite band with true pride, like a badge of honour.
It’s a market that is relatively unknown to the world of fashion, but what’s interesting is that many bands make most their money through merchandise sales, so it’s worth understanding rock fans. The merchandise has to fit the image of the band – there are the standard t-shirts and songbooks but often there is something special which really represents an artist.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I’d add that brand is more about the experience (in the case of rock fans, the attitude), than about the product or service.
// kidlinger calls and says, ‘when you coming home… i’m making chocolate chip pancakes.’ AWRsome! who needs to work when thar’s pancakes?
