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March 18th, 2008
04:51 pm - Obama's speech
This is possibly the most honest, insightful, and necessary speech I've ever heard from a modern politician.
It's 37 minutes long -- but completely worth it for all Americans -- when you have time to watch it, please do.
Also, Arthur C. Clarke died. :(
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January 22nd, 2008
09:02 am - Blessed Is The Fruit
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) buz and I watched The Handmaid's Tale last night. The last time I saw it I had just reread the book, and found the movie disappointing, but it's been a while since I read the book and I liked the movie more this time. The ending is clearly all hollywooded-up but other than that it does OK, but makes me want to read the book again (I think this would be the fourth time) for all the subtleties and meaning the movie misses. I've been toying with the idea of recording myself reading the book and dubbing it over a 1980's rock cassette, adding the ambient noise and closeness of being in someone's basement on the underground femaleroad.
This morning I open my friends page and practically the first post I see has a link to an article about federal guidelines that all women of childbearing age be treated as pre-pregnant.
But don't read that link, read this one instead:
http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=571
The things that in 1985 inspired Margaret Atwood to write the book haven't gone away. The mentality that a fetus is more important than a woman is still alive and well in Washington.
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January 8th, 2007
11:59 am - PGW fact and fiction
My former employer, major independent book distributor PGW, is in dire straits. Its parent company, Advanced Marketing Services, has filed Chapter 11. Book business blogs are abuzz with the details of the debacle. One thing that's being reported is not entirely true, however, from http://news.shelf-awareness.com/nview.jsp?appid=411&j=156310#1189006 -- is this: since publishers' books are on consignment when they're at the Indy warehouse, they are *not* PGW's property -- however I'm sure it's true reclamation rights are limited due to CYA language in the contracts.
http://radiofreepgw.blogspot.com/ has some darkly sardonic content about this. I wonder who's writing it?
My mom (Kat Mulkey), who still works at PGW, gave notice last Tuesday. She'd been planning to leave for a while and the bankruptcy is no surprise to her, though she had no particular insider information. In fact last Spring she said something like, "Mark my words, in another year there will be no PGW. Or at least not as it is now." Many of her coworkers seemed to be in denial, and were shocked when it hit the fan.
I don't know how I feel about this. It seemed inevitable, but what sucks is that yeah, PGW management has been weak and ineffective for a long time, at least since Mark Ouimet left, possibly since Charlie left, but PGW was essentially a Good Company. AMS (who bought PGW in 2001, or was it early 2002?) has been unprofessional and poorly managed to an unbelievable degree this whole time, and everyone knew it. Anytime AMS tried to interfere with PGW it was debacle after clusterfuck after shitstorm.
My greatest hope is that PGW is sold out from AMS -- and once it's cleaned up a bit, can go back to doing what they used to do quite well. Though I won't have any close friends working there anymore I feel I invested a lot in the place and would like to see it resurrected out from under AMS's thumb.
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