Publishing Insider

The 4th

Now begins the most conflicted and happy season for me. My heart yearns for the salt air of my youth on the North Fork of Long Island, but I just cannot bear the LIE. And to be honest, I've also grown cranky about low tide, jellyfish and rip tides. But oh the light, the pure light of Eastern Long Island. Sigh. So,instead, we head for unchic New Jersey lake country and a pond without boats or traffic or crowds. Just hawks circling up on the ridgetop. We may go 'down the shore' to see old friends this weekend, and I really really hope that Bruce comes on the radio. When he rasps: 'Sandy the aurora is risin' behind us', my heart breaks for some foolish lost youth. And I will try to keep the salt on my skin as long into cocktail hour as possible.

Corrections and answers

Some of you have thoughtfully posted some comments of late, which I found helpful. First, it’s Kevin Dillon, not Matt, in Entourage. I did think he looked too skinny. And the musical 2-1-1 mystery was solved; Stephen Foster introduced this pattern to popular song. And I pride myself on being Mr. Geography (I LOVE maps), but I said Oswego was on Lake Erie; it’s on Lake Ontario. Alas, HOMES couldn’t help me on this. Off by a lake. By the way, don’t miss one of the great books of all time: Verlyn Klinkenborg’s The Last Fine Time, about a bar in Buffalo and that city’s once great promise as a Lake Erie port to the west. It’s a beautiful book and I still remember the first line: “Snow begins as a rumor in Buffalo, New York.”

2 new podcasts

New podcasts up at Olive Reader, and news via Shelf Awareness of a Forbidden Planet podcast.

Bookseller Chick

Bookseller Chick has some wonderful new postings. One is a painfully true look at bookstore life (book display and shelving is one of those devil-in-the-details aspects that can drag the day down, or elevate it when all goes well), and the other is an interview with author Ayun Halliday, whose No Touch Monkey looks hysterical.

Sartre on soccer

Jim Harris of Prairie Lights has been in Germany for the Cup, and I can envision him in some Berlin cybercafe sending some messages back home. Two missives from him yesterday:

"In futbol everything is complicated by the presence of the other team."  - Sartre

"Look for us in row 16 behind the German goal of the Argentina vs Germany match Friday."

Jim is the one who turned me on to the Coover chapter in Thinking Fan's Guide.

Spice girl

I found a Spice Girls CD in a box the other day with some other items of my daughter’s earlier years. I was able to embarrass her greatly with this artifact. Okay, only a little; she knows my tricks. She’s Smarty Spice, my little math whiz, and thankfully doesn’t care that Beckham is married to Posh. (I repeat my prediction that he is moving to the US next year, as he attempts, like Pele before him, to raise US soccer’s profile.)

Last night, my non-Sporty spice girl asked me to stop on the Univision replay of the Italy-Australia game so she could hear what Spanish she could recognize. (Spanish is the main second language taught in NYC public schools, which makes sense. My 5 years of French serve little beyond the occasional menu reading.) And Hector at the deli even knew that the referee in the game was prone to bad calls; the game-ending penalty call was atrocious.

My daughter and I can't watch Spain and France together today on Univision. What is pelotta in French anyway? But I REALLY want to skip work to catch Brazil v. Ghana.

Breathless

Either the announcer on XM had way too much German espresso this morning or the Swiss/Ukraine game is the most exciting 0-0 game ever played! I write this in the 2nd OT. And how heartbreaking was the Aussie loss to Italy in the 93rd minute!! And all this a reminder about how lacking the US team was/is.

Summer music

Do not miss The Subdudes on tour this summer. You will be happy for weeks after. Go to Pollstar.com to search anyone on tour.

DVD picks of late

A slack period of late, but picking up steam after watching HBO’s Entourage on DVD. I liked it despite myself, and Matt Dillon is terrific. Now, Syriana has finally arrived, as has the original Producers, which I’m hoping my daughter likes us much as I do. Now I’m just eager for Neil Young’s Heart of Gold to get back in stock! (And if you still haven't rented these, you must get to Paper Clips and Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Please? They are both incredibly touching documentaries.)

DH is great

Whoever thought of MLB interleague play a few years ago is/was a genius. The looonggg baseball season, often only spiced up with the handful of old rivalries, now gets a serious boost 3x a year with interleague play.

What’s really cool is that many of the match-ups around the country are interesting. I feel the buzz of White Sox vs. Cubs, Mets vs. Yanks, Giants vs. A’s, Reds vs. Indians (yikes, that’s not very PC), and even the Nationals vs. the Orioles. A little less exciting, perhaps, is Atlanta/Florida or Arizona/Colorado, but still, it’s all a wonderful change of pace.

Just one request: Please, let’s drop the DH debate. Strategy and tradition aside, it SUCKS to watch pitchers hit. And it is GREAT every time David Ortiz comes to bat.