It’s like all our friends have gone to a party and we’re stuck at home. Except for the part where we chose to be stuck at home. And we’re terminally shy, so would still be a wallflower. However, TEV checks in and shares the critical news from BEA as he attends a panel on blogs and publishing. Not necessarily in that order.
Mad Max owns a bitchen Gandalf costume.
And:
Michael Cader gets it. He has since day one. He’s a man who has perceived and grasped the potential of blogs from their earliest moments, and he’s full of sensible and thoughtful things to say. He’s a man to listen to.
And (we’ll skip the nice stuff about M.J. Rose, but it’s there):
Robert Gray is one of the most thoughtful booksellers we’ve ever met and makes us wish – for a brief moment – that we lived in Vermont. Except for the cold and the snow and stuff.
Now, we realize TEV has parties and stuff to hit, so we’ll reserve commentary until he reports back, but we’re worried. It sounds to us like the panelists (Mad Max, Cader, Rose, and Gray) are in touch with what’s going on — but the BEA organizers aren’t. It’s 2005. It should be all about the Internets. Trust us when we say this is important. Not just blogs — blogs are the vehicle for the sauce. The sauce is the message. Yeah, we can screw up McLuhan without even trying.
If publishers aren’t seeing the Web (and by extension, blogs — which are your All-American personal content management systems) as essential, well, hello, it’s 2005. This should be the number one focus.
7 responses so far ↓
gwenda // Jun 3, 2005 at 8:03 am
Let’s spearhead the BEA Jealousy Backlash? How about it? We can do things like go see movies and say, “I’d just be exhausted and irritated at BEA… right?”
Booksquare // Jun 3, 2005 at 8:24 am
So right — I mean, we’d be fighting the crowds and humidity and, oh, hauling extremely heavy bags around. So much better to sit in a sunny backyard, sipping a nice wine, birds chirping, book in lap, that sort of thing. You are so right in saying that BEA wouldn’t compare to the real fun we’re having.
gwenda // Jun 3, 2005 at 8:58 am
Exactly. And I’m almost positive my feet would hurt and I’d fall asleep during a panel and, and, and what if I got in a fistfight with a major editor? So MUCH better here at home.
Karen // Jun 3, 2005 at 9:35 am
These things give me hives. I get confused, and lonely. I’m usually one of those idiots trudging up an aisle against traffic, a crumpled program in my fist, on some stubborn journey to go hear a speaker who has long since cancelled his/her appearance. Plus, the bathrooms at convention centers are never ever clean.
Free books would be cool, though. And I do hope Mark returns with compromising photos of SOMEBODY.
Booksquare // Jun 3, 2005 at 10:23 am
Karen — You wouldn’t be going against traffic alone; that much I can promise you. We do not need such aggravation in our lives. We are much happier and healthier. Technology today allows us to enjoy events with the level of coverage that makes it seem like we’re there; why fight crowds and such when others are willing to do the heavy lifting?
Though, Gwenda, a fistfight with an editor could be something to lure me out of the cave. I love nothing more than a good scandal…
David Thayer // Jun 3, 2005 at 6:05 pm
Your identification of this peculiar envy of BEA attendees reflects my own. Common sense dictates that we’re better off at home, free of tote bags and stale coffee. Having spent my formative years in the Big Apple I know what subway dust smells like. The westside has cockroaches large enough to require valet parking, yet it all seems inviting when viewed from a distance.
Booksquare // Jun 4, 2005 at 12:01 am
Well, considering the price of valet parking, I’ll skip the cockroaches. And stale coffee? Really, they are so suffering. We are living large. Plus, how often does one encounter an insane editor in one’s backyard?