A Worldwide Book Promotion Service.
 |
|
 |
||
|
Just How Uncool Am I? I just read Ilana Stranger-Ross’s “Soapbox” in the latest Publishers Weekly, in which she describes her history with Brooklyn, New York. Ilana, unlike Seth Dellon, actually has a relationship with Brooklyn, in that she lived there from birth through the age of 18, and her parents still live there. Ilana has a justified annoyance with the current hippest place on Earth, unlike Seth Dellon who just feels spite towards it. Allow Seth Dellon—that is to say, allow me—to explain.
Everyone I know that lives in Brooklyn is infinitely cooler than I am. My best friend growing up currently lives there, and throws better parties, goes to better bars and inherently has better stories than I do. Another friend of mine from college works at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, danced with Sir Ian McKellen and also goes to better bars than I do. It can’t be a coincidence that they both live in Brooklyn and do really cool things all the time (nor can it be a coincidence that they each broke a leg during the past year-and-a-half and got to complain (in a really cool manner) about what a pain it is to take the subway with only one working leg).
Brooklyn is like a Mecca of awesome, situated next to the former Mecca of awesome, Manhattan (which lost Mecca of awesome status when it got a little too mainstream). Brooklyn is currently so cool that everything about it is favored over anything Manhattan can offer: New York Cheesecake is the best Cheesecake, but the best of the best is Juniors in Brooklyn; Manhattan gets great concerts, but any true music fan knows that Music Hall Of Williamsburg is better than Irving Plaza; New York is Book Country used to be a great book festival until Brooklyn started hosting it’s own; and so on and so on.
In “Soapbox,” Ilana described her fear that people might only find her credible because her bio says she’s from Brooklyn. After all, it is the Mecca of awesome, so everything there must also be awesome, right? Maybe. But, while this might be true, it certainly doesn’t mean that anything not from there is not awesome. And that’s where my spite comes in. At ALA, I met a girl from Brooklyn that said she doesn’t like to travel because “I live in Brooklyn, why would I ever want to leave?” (She also claimed to not own a TV, which is a crime because knowing how awesome “Lost” is, I can only imagine how awesome it would be to watch it in Brooklyn). In retrospect is seems stupid to me that I didn’t say, “Because there’s lots of awesome stuff outside of Brooklyn to experience.”
Any flavor of the month takes pride in being that flavor of the month. But once the month is over, you might realize what a shame it was to not have tried something else. I’m Seth Dellon, and I’ve been to Brooklyn a lot, but the best bar I ever went to was in California, the best concert I ever went to was in Manhattan, and the best book fair I’ve been to was out of this country.*
09/16/2008 01:09 PM Post Comment | Read More> Ew, Gross! Politics!! I don’t know what it is with VPs and the want to censor. Al Gore’s wife Tipper and her PMRC, and now prospective candidate Sarah Palin, who, according to this article from the New York Times, tried to censor some books in the local Alaskan library, and then tried to fire the librarian when she refused. Please note that the information in this article does come from a third party, so for all we know, it might be misinformation.
Also please note that we’re not turning this blog into a political propaganda machine for either side. But with the election at the forefront of news, and this being a book/library industry blog, this seems pertinent.
Just to prove that this isn’t a political propaganda blog, here are some puppies. ... 09/05/2008 12:09 PM Post Comment | Read More> Until We Meet Again, China The Beijing Book Fair recently wrapped, but without any updates from our fearless leaders on the scene, and without them back in the office, we’ve had no updates. So, we must turn to our good friends at Bookexpo America who happen to be exhibiting within the American Collective Stand. I point you to Booklab, a blog by BEA’s Rüdiger Wischenbart, who was on hand. Enjoy! ... 09/04/2008 12:09 PM Post Comment | Read More> |
||||
 |
 |
|||
Previous
© 2012 The Combined Book Exhibit Inc. All Rights Reserved. Web application development by Pulse.
|