Vacation Finds

On occasion of my participation in the 2013 meeting of the EPTC, I recently spent three weeks traveling in British Columbia. Having visited Seattle last fall, I had expected the opportunity to go on a British Columbian microbrew 'tour,' and we weren't disappointed. Like many of the other breweries in the Northwest, BC breweries are producing a variety of excellent IPAs; standouts include Nelson Brewing Company's Double IPA, Phillips' Amnesiac (which is also a double), and Mt. Begbie's Nasty Habit (although I might like it because I associate 'Begbie' with a particular sociopath who haunts Irvine Welsh's novels). Cannery Brewing's Blackberry Porter and Philipps' ginger beer are also notable, though this list could keep going...

The Tom Vickery Trio (and guests), playing standards, at Hermann's in Victoria, June 6th

We also spent a considerable amount of time bookshopping, fueled by the idea that it is possible to find rare tomes in the Holzwege of British Columbia, making stops in towns we wouldn't have otherwise visited, for instance, Kingfisher Books in Creston, where I found Allan Antliff's Anarchy and Art stashed in the basement 'esoteric' section. The most surprising finds came in Mission, which we passed through en route on the search for a well-hidden campground (there where once found we couldn't stay), at Better Buy Books. It seems that they discovered a time capsule full of remaindered books from the 1970s, a great majority being published by Grove and Evergreen. On this topic, I'll let a picture speak (and the Brautigan title is a first edition):

McSweeney's iphone Application

Just in from my email inbox: well, not from my email, it's now from the link to McSweeney's:

We hereby announce the debut of the Small Chair, a weekly selection from all branches of the McSweeney’s family. One week you might receive a story from the upcoming Quarterly, the next week an interview from the Believer, the next a short film from a future Wholphin. Occasionally, it might be a song, an art portfolio, who knows. This week we’ve got a new short film by Spike Jonze, starring the legendary Maurice Sendak with a story of life before the Wild Things were. Appearances by Jonathan Ames and Chris Ware will be following soon after. None of this material will be available online and it’s all pretty sure to be good stuff.

McSweeney's, of course, is already involved in an excellent quarterly, a magazine (the Believer), a series of DVD anthologies (Wholphin), and publishing well designed books. I am not an iphone person, although Caroline has one, and I can confirm that I have held it and even used it to call somebody once. I do have twenty-one issues of McSweeney's quarterly, and over a dozen of their books. Sooooo, if I had an iphone, I would probably purchase their application. Until then, I will have to resort to reading their publications either online or in bound and inked paper format.

This says something about the brand loyalty of McSweeney's customers (aside from saying that McSweeney's thinks/knows that enough of their customers have an iphone to make this worthwhile). Imagine a publishing corporation, say, Harper-Collins, creating an application. Who would care? Harper-Collins isn't searching out a market niche for brand recognition, they are mass market. They publish both Sarah Palin and Martin Heidegger. The only logic therein is capitalism (for a good book about that story, see Andre Schiffrin's The Business of Books). By contrast, it wouldn't surprise me to see other independent publishers try out developing applications. Imagine if this technology existed at the peak of Semiotext(e)'s popularity (which I hear was in the late 80s and early 90s), with people receiving clips of Baudrillard talking about simulacra and art or publishing his photographs, or Deleuze chain smoking. Just about as cool as finding rare copies of their pocket books, which (sign of the times?) are now being reissued in 6"x9" format.