September 11, 2002.
Freedom and democracy often must be maintained in the face of our greatest fears.
Fiesta!
This October is ablaze with book festivals across the land. How about in your hometown? I’ve listed them alphabetically by locale:
California: Inland Empire Bookfest (Oct. 19)
Massachusetts: Boston Globe Book Festival (Oct. 19-25)
Concord Festival of Authors: (Oct. 24-Nov. 2)
Minnesota: Twin Cities Book Festival (Minneapolis, Oct. 12)
New Mexico: Sante Fe Festival of the Book (Oct. 17-19)
Washington: Northwest Bookfest (Oct. 19-20)
Washington D.C.: National Book Festival (Oct. 12)
November to come. Did I leave any out?
Flex-ability
The web site for the Yoga Journal magazine has a section called “Poses” where you can, through pull down menus, select an area of your body, health, and mindset to focus on, be it a sore theigh, feelings of fatigue or recovering from carpel tunnel syndrome.
What an excellent deployment of the web for a print publication. Others should take note.
Dave on Dave:
Dave Eggers answered readers questions recently over at McSweeney’s web site, if you’re curious about his second book and all, which is due out this month. There’s an excerpt on the New Yorker’s web site which, par for the course, is only readable if you’re an aphid crawling on the glass of your own monitor. Try printing it out.
A Personal Blogging Milestone:
An item I passed on to Cory Doctorow ended up on Boing Boing, the mother of all weblogs. What’s it about? Don’t ask.
Now I’ve Got Blog!
About a week ago, I put We’ve Got Blog!, a collection of essays and journalistic pieces about weblogging next to my toilet and would reada little bit whenever the spirit and nature moved me. I finished it up this morning and must say, I’m inspired. While I’m not entirely sold on the idea that weblogging is a full blown revolution, it does appear that citizens are reading, writing, staying informed and commenting more than ever, four of my favorite things in the world. Media is shifting, ever so slightly from a solemn pronouncement to the noisy buzz of a crowded birthday party. Information hierarchies, while still in place, are trembling. How we choose to learn, to stay informed is becoming increasingly a personal choice and a social responsibility. And being up on things is also becoming cool.
I don’t think the world is about to be ruled by freaks and geeks, by cool-to-be-smart wankers like me and those I like to keep close. But I feel like there’s a larger space at the global cafeteria table than there was before.
*grinning*
R.I.P the Constitution:
Why must safety always come at the price of liberty? Is our fear that great? Call me rabid but I would gladly fling open the gates of America to a 1,000 terrorists than to live in a culture where freedom is seen as conditional, where “an endless war on terrorism” really means “an endless state of martial law where dissent is hushed up, where the consitution is compromised and the fundamental rights of every American are compromised so those in power may act with impunity to ensure our ‘safety’.”
Take a history lesson, all of you, who think “endless war” is a noble endeavor. The constitution was established to be enduring, even in times of crises. Give up that right, make freedom dependant on the events of the age and you no longer live in a democracy.
Deal of the Century
27 books, 60$ breaking down to slightly over 2$ a book. All in great shape. The San Francisco Public Library Annual Book Sale is a wonderful thing.
Now, let’s hear your own favorite bargain story. Go on. I’m listening.
The big question:
So if ya gotta propose, this is kind of a cool way to do it (via my friend Dana T.).