The Rage Diaries

Devaluing the word "literati" since 2007

I don't know if y'all have this weekend's plans set in stone already (hey -- maybe some of you have already had long weeks. It could happen!) or what, but if you're in the Bay Area and you're casting about for a way to spend your Saturday, come on out to the Alameda Literati book fair and writer's conference.

Extra bonus: you can see me in action. I'll be speaking on an 11 a.m. panel titled "The Blab on Blogging: How to Get Started and Where to Go Next." My co-panelists are Matt Holohan of I Fought the Law; Dan Brodnitz of Cecil vortex; and John Knox White of Stop, Drop & Roll. It promises to be an interesting mix, what with a smart lawyer, a vibrant artist, a civic activist and, um ... me.

This is going to be like the panel I did at last year's Flow conference, I know it. There, we had a boatload of PhDs and -- again -- me. And all of them were saying these fantastically insightful and penetrating things about HBO's role in the business and pop culture landscapes of television, and when it was my turn to talk, the first words out of my mouth were, "I'm just here because somebody has to stick up for Real Sex."

So come on -- you know you don't want to miss the sequel to that!

On a related note: there are other Alameda bloggers who don't appear to be speaking at the event but should be called out anyway. You've seen Lauren Do in the comments recently -- she writes Blogging Bayport Alameda. Ayse Sercan writes Casa Decrepit, which is a fantastic reno blog and an inspiration for my own gardening. And finally, two of the three bloggers over at the Oakland As blog Catfish Stew are Alamedans: Ken Arneson and Philip Michaels. So our tiny island is simply packed with bloggers. Awesome!

Are you paring down or trading up?

We've chatted about the whole masstige thing over the last three years (here, here, here, here and here), so I'm curious to hear your thoughts about the reversing of the trend.

In "The Latte Era Grinds Down" (Newsweek, Oct 22, 07), Daniel Gross argues that the shrinking pool of easy credit is affecting the industries that used to depend on people who rationalized their daily Starbucks habit or frequent Coach purchases. There's a nice little anecdote about a Frisco, TX, couple who are downsizing from their mansion before the mortgage resets.

So tell me: are you tightening the belt any? Are there projects you've put off because you don't think you'll be able to dip into your home equity line? Or are there little extras you pass up now because the rising costs of fuel and food are biting into your discretionary income? Or are there goods and services that you're unwilling to let go no matter what? I can't be the only one out there who's unwilling to budge on the pedicure issue.

Who reviews the reviewers?

Now on Brijit are summations of articles in current issues of GQ, Wired, Mother Jones, ESPN the Magazine, the Economist, Smithsonian and more than 50 other magazines. Even if you never read the entire article, just scanning Brijit could make you the smartest person at your next cocktail party.

[...]

There are precedents for the idea. Reader's Digest became America's most popular magazine for decades by condensing content to short, easily readable articles. And magazine analyst Mark Edmiston notes that "The Week," the National Review's weekly magazine summary of news, written with attitude and wit, has made a solid business.

"I think [Brijit] makes a lot of sense," Edmiston said. "I think that's where the Web is going."

The Web is moving toward the combination of human reviewers with Internet search. WebMD founder Jeff Arnold has said that if the latest evolution of the Internet, Web 2.0, was about the consumer -- meaning user-generated sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube -- then Web 3.0 will be about the editor.

-- "Brijit Cuts Magazine Pile Down to Bite-Size Pieces," WaPo, Oct 29, 07 I've visited the site, and I can see the point to it.

As I've noted people, people will pay if data's been sorted into something that's easily searchable, easily sortable and immediately applicable. And I've noted that people like having editors to act as human filters for them. And clearly, the identification of a business niche based on filtering and aggregation has been around for some time.

It's just the suspicious skeptic in me that wonders ... who will keep the abstract-writers and summarizers over at Brigit honest? I've checked three abstracts related to articles I read yesterday: two of them missed what I thought were salient and insightful points. This is a very small sample, but it still raises the question for me: how is this service guarding against editorial bias or agenda-pushing? Will it have an ombudsman? And do you really trust someone else to tell you everything you need to bluff your way into informed discourse?

On a different note, the writer in me thinks: They're paying five cents a word for the abstracts? It's like piecework, only for prose monkeys!

Help me shop

So here is the deal: I do not send out Christmas cards because it is so stressful to write them out and get them in the mail while I'm also trying to do the shopping and the cooking and the decorating and the making of warm f***ing holiday memories, goddamn it.

However, the guilt always gets me, because I happen to know many many people who do not have my holiday issues and are, in fact, overflowing with peace, fellowship, time-management skills and good penmanship -- and they all send me Christmas cards. So I found a perfect solution with the January cards. You see a sample at left. And honestly, it was nice to sort of drag out the holiday goodwill with the card-sending in January.

However, when I wrote KnockKnock to ask when they'd be releasing the January 2008 cards, they told me they're not producing any this year. This baffles me, because in an interview a few years ago, KnockKnock founder Jen Bilik had said of the card, "It continues to be one of our best-selling holiday cards, printed and reprinted every holiday season. The retailers like it because it extends the card season by a month into the new year." Last year, the 2007 cards sold out pretty quickly at places like Uncommon Goods -- but I guess things have changed in the intervening months.

I am now in the market for a substitute card. So far, the stuff I've seen is very positive and upbeat and sweet and absolutely guaranteed to make any recipients wonder if I've been replaced by a pod person. So I am flinging the question out to y'all: do you know any offbeat, yet not hideously tacky, stationers who carry New Year's cards? Where are your favorite places to look for paper goods online?

Why I love California sometimes

In El Cajon, the Westfield Parkway mall morphed into the Ponderosa during the peak of the evacuations, as more and more refugees began showing up with livestock.

"We had over 200 horses at one point. Goats. We had chickens. Some pigs. Also a porcupine," says Adrienne Bergeron, the mall's marketing director. A temporary corral was put up on the asphalt by Borders, and the RVs circled like a postmodern wagon train. Volunteers cared for the animals, and overflow was sent across the street to a Home Depot that was still under construction.

-- "Mall Haven," WaPo, Oct 25, 07

Between that and the story on the Oct 24 Bryant Park Project about the Gentle Barn evacuation that was facilitated by a plea on Craigslist (get the podcast, seriously. Y'all need to be listening to this show!) ... somehow, it is not at all surprising that this is how Californians rolled during a big disaster. I only hope we in the northern part of the state can respond with as much grace and good will when the inevitable Big One hits.

By the way, Gentle Barn still needs your help. Donate if you can. I challenge you to read about some of the animals and not want to help. (At left, Bonsai, a horse rescued from a drunken, abusive owner.)

I (heart) mutlichannel commerce!

Perhaps the two margaritas I've just knocked back have loosened my fingers on the keyboard too much, for I'm about to confess one of my favorite pop culture products ...

The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team II, now airing on CMT.

Part of my fascination stems from the quasi-religious self-abnegation and fervent adoration that the aspiring DCCs on this show exhibit. It's a unique subculture, and y'all know how I love examining the internal rules that define any group of people who identify with a specific type of membership.

So because I am taken with the whole Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders thing, I decided to learn more. Enter Deep in the Heart of Texas: Reflections of Former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, by former DCCs Suzette, Stephanie and Sheri Scholz. Only thing is, this book is available used, and it's not in my library system.

Enter Amazon.com. I found the page for the book and noticed that the first seller was Blue Rectangle ... which happens to have recently opened a store in Alameda's little downtown. A quick phone call later and I was talking with someone at Blue Rectangle's warehouse; she got the book shipped over to me and I walked over to the store and paid a little less than I would have if I were to have had it shipped.

And then, I spent a delightful evening reading about how in the early 1980s, the cheerleaders dealt with the punishing schedule and crazy weight-control requirements by adopting an all-cocaine diet. Good times! And they were made entirely possible by a combination of online and offline commerce. Gosh, I love multichannel retail.

When I didn't show my work, my math teacher marked me down

According to "More Moms Staying (and Eating) at Home" (AdAge, Oct 22, 07):

The decades-long rise of women in the work force -- and the related rise of meals bought from restaurants -- has ground to halt and begun to reverse since the turn of the millennium. ... Women's participation rate in the paid U.S. labor force topped out at just above 60% in 1999 and again in 2001 but has fallen since then, according to the Labor Department. Restaurant meals, fueled for decades by the migration of moms to the work force, also topped out at 211 per person per year in 2001 according to NPD and likewise have been bouncing lower since, hitting 207 this year.

And the first thing I thought was, "Are the moms really dropping out? Break down those women by age group ..." So I went to the Labor Dept and checked out the stats for myself.

Or maybe I won't be having that apple crisp ...

... since my recipe requires close to a cup of sugar. Oh, science, why do you break my heart? ("Face facts: Too much sugar can cause wrinkles" Prevention, Oct 21, 07.)

And this is what drove the dagger in deep:

As [advanced glycation end products] accumulate, they damage adjacent proteins in a domino-like fashion," explains Fredric Brandt, MD, a dermatologist in private practice in Miami and New York City and author of "10 Minutes 10 Years." Most vulnerable to damage: collagen and elastin, the protein fibers that keep skin firm and elastic. [...] Once damaged, springy and resilient collagen and elastin become dry and brittle, leading to wrinkles and sagging. These aging effects start at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that, according to a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Guess who turned 35 this year?

Then again, given that I began lifeguarding in an era when we used to slick ourselves down with baby oil, then climb into the stand with a spray bottle of water so we could mist ourselves down and thus attract more of the sun's burning rays ... it is sort of a miracle that my complexion isn't already reminding people of fine Corinthian leather.

Always expanding the definition of luxury

According to "Tiffany to Expand, Open Smaller Stores" (Display and Design Ideas, Oct 18, 07), the luxury jeweler will be launching a series of smaller stores that offer "a wide range of jewelry designs." Explains CEO Michael Kowalski:

"[U]p to 70 Collections stores will be opened as location opportunities arise. This new format has the potential to significantly accelerate U.S. sales growth over the medium- to long-term and enhance profitability due to a merchandise mix weighted with higher-margin products."

What this tells me is that they're going to go aggressively after middle-class consumers and teenagers who will see spending $250 on the heart charm toggle bracelet as a big -- but attainable -- deal.

How 'bout them apples?

Last Saturday, Phil and I played hooky from the house and work to-do lists and headed out to beautiful El Dorado county for a day of picking apples, drinking wine and admiring the fall foliage scattered across the Sierra foothills.

El Dorado's not that far east of Sacramento, so if Sacto's an easy drive for you, you really should head out this week to grab some fruit and pie and alcohol. We love Jodar Winery -- the Cabernet Franc was so good, we were compelled to join the wine club so we could buy some, the Barbera was like a fruit explosion (but a good one), and their dessert wines were sublime. I am not a huge red wine fan, so when I'm all, "My God, I love this port!" you know it's good. Also, one of the guys on-site is a chocolatier and the truffles are to die for. Especially when eaten with the port.

So we also tooled around Apple Hill, and my advice to you is to go in the exact opposite direction of the standstill traffic. This is how we ended up taking the Larsen Dr. loop and finding an excellent little pick-your-own place. It's not listed on the map -- it doesn't even have a sign on the road, other than "Granny Smith Fuji Pick-Your-Own" -- but it's right after the Jack Russell Farm Brewery and right before Ralph's Apple Ranch. Look on the left side of the road. You will be parking in someone's front yard.

So! What always amazes me about picking my own fruit is how irregular and bug-ravaged so many pieces of fruit are. It's a little mind-blowing to think back to all the perfect produce you see in a farmer's market or at a store, and calculate how much more fruit was grown and didn't make it to market. However ugly the apples, they're still tasty, which is why we may have gotten carried away with the thrill of picking our own fruit and taken home 20 pounds of apples.

Because the wine and truffles had worn off by this point, and because I was like, "We are not coming out to Apple Hill without having some sort of apple baked into something," we pulled into Bodhaine Ranch. This was an unexpectedly good decision, as their blackberry-apple-sour cream pie was amazing. All of you need to have some. You can thank me when you do.

Our only regrets: we now have 20 pounds of apples hulking on the kitchen table, and we forgot the camera. Isn't that always how it is on the loveliest days? Anyway, I'm pretty sure a number of local friends and family members will be getting an apple crisp from me soon, and there's applesauce in our future. How do you like to eat your apples?