John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Take two tablets, and call the publishing industry

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

There’s been a lot of chatter for the last few months about what Apple’s forthcoming tablet device will look like, and more importantly, what exactly it will or do. 

All this speculation – and remember, it’s all speculation – is kind of odd, because no one has publicly seen what’s expected to come down the pike in early 2010, if the rumour mill on the release date is in the ballpark. 

One common thread that seems to be emerging is that the tablet, which will be something more than an iPhone (or iTouch) and less than a Macbook), will be engineered to showcase newspapers and magazines, in no doubt stunning detail. I haven’t been at all surprised to read that Apple has, very quietly, been working with major publishers, including the New York Times. 

I'm sure the tablet, whatever it will be called, will have a big impact – and not just Apple's version. The technology blogs have had plenty of juice over the last few weeks about Microsoft’s competing product, which so far is known as Courier. Leaked images and details show it is not so much a tablet as a book-like device that closes on itself, featuring two work areas. As the ultra-influential blog Gizmodo put it, "maybe we've all been dreaming about the wrong device." 

Since the advent of Amazon’s Kindle, which is still restricted from sale in Canada for copyright and other reasons, there’s been a sense that e-books, tablets, or whatever you want to call them, may dramatically change how we read periodicals.

The timing could not come at a better time for the newspaper and magazine industry, which was slumping for years before last year’s economic meltdown, and has been in seeming freefall for at least a year. The possibilities of a new distribution are considerable, not the least of which is the ability to sell advertisers on a marketing capability that could be as interactive as the web.

Tablet technology – which is being touted as prominent titles like Gourmet magazine are folding – might be just what the doctor ordered.

Elsewhere this week 

(The Customer Is) Not Always Right
First things first: the folks at this blog do not believe in poor customer service. They do believe, though, in giving people who have toiled in the retail trenches the platform to vent about what they’ve seen and especially heard. Like Overheard in New York and many other variations, you’ll find one painful (but often funny) conversation after another. Hit the "popular" tab to see ones that have most resonated with other readers, and the "random" tab to see any old chestnut that’s been collected to date. 

The Raven
With Halloween around the corner, set the tone with one of the most wonderfully creepy bits of writing of all time: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven. Get ready for your own once upon a midnight dreary with this version; if you don’t want to read it aloud, click on the link to have it read for you. (Turning off the lights might help!)

Balls
Want to play divide and conquer with a bunch of balls? Actually, it’s more of a game of just dividing, and it’s not so much a game at all … but you will likely be amused as you see how this Flash-based attraction works. Move your mouse over four circles, and watch them divide, and then divide again, at least as long as your cursor is in place. The circles, or balls, get progressively smaller; I counted them down to 1/128th of the original size, but I stand to be corrected. Look also for some other games on the left-hand side, including a photo-tag guessing game that is pretty challenging. 

John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, and is currently on leave from his job with CBC News in St. John's. John is on Facebook right here. John is on Twitter right here.

A thought on being a good example (or not)

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning."
- Catherine Aird

The (Disney) road not taken with Where the Wild Things Are

Our boy is really curious to see the adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, the much-delayed (it was shot almost three years ago) film by Spike Jonze. It's the not the first attempt, though. In the early 1980s, John Lasseter - who would go on to cofound Pixar (and run Disney) - helped with a digital mockup for the backgrounds of a film version that never came to be.

Starbucks, a memoir, the dignity of work, and an unorthodox sales pitch

Earlier this month, I pinched a book (as I often do) from my wife's bedside table. Michael Gates Gill's How Starbucks Saved My Life has one of those titles that's pretty catchy, but it's the author's blueblood background, matched against how he ended up as a Starbucks employee, that make the book intriguing.

Michael Gates Gill is the son of Brendan Gill, a still-legendary writer for The New Yorker. I have a copy of Here at the New Yorker down in my home office. Gill did well in life: he sailed through Yale, and on graduation went to work immediately for J. Walter Thompson, one of the largest advertising companies in the world. His client list was peerless.

And then he got fired. He rebounded by forming his own consulting company ... and then screwing up everything in his life. His marriage failed. He became estranged from his kids. And, gradually, his self-directed company dissolved into sand. (Despite this, he managed to coauthor an evidently less-than-truthful book in the 1990s about how being fired is liberating.)

Facing a potentially life-threatening disease and without health insurance (a topic that resonates in the U.S.), he applies for a job at Starbucks, in large part because the coffee chain offers health benefits. He eventually becomes so desperate for those benefits that he becomes willing to take on any challenge, from cleaning toilets to working any shift he's offered. Most of all, he learns plenty from his young, black manager, whom he calls Crystal in the book, and who is based on Tiffany Edwards, the woman seen above with Gill in a USA Today photo taken on the book's release in 2007. (The paper's report is here.)

The book is light stuff - I went through it in a few evenings of bedtime reading - but I have to say that I was challenged by Gill's experiences, even though he acknowledges that he cast a fictional veil over details of the lives of his coworkers, almost all of whom were young and black.

It's the contrasts he draws that are fascinating, and which I would expect will drive the movie adaptation (to which Tom Hanks has been attached, even before the book was published). Because of his connections growing up in remarkable wealth and comfort, he was introduced to plenty of famous people; a scene involving Gill as a college student with Ernest Hemingway in Pamploma does, indeed, seem right out of a movie. Gill's world once included hobnobbing with Jackie Onassis; he finds himself nonetheless redeemed by eating a great big piece of humble pie, and learning profound lessons late in life.

A key nugget is his citation of an F. Scott Fitzgerald line about the dignity of work, which appears to underscore his late-in-life discoveries. (As recently as this winter, Gill was still working at a Starbucks, even though he is now closing on 70.) Trained as an executive to be cold to his subordinates, he is astonished to see how Starbucks prizes respect and discipline among all of its employees.

I liked the book, and would recommend it, but I had a nagging sense throughout that I was being sold something. Even though Starbucks was not officially involved with its production, one cannot be suspicious about Gill's sales pitch, which is unfailingly boisterous about the virtues of the company.

Moreso, I found the book a bit of a trifle. Enjoyable, like a snack. Which is a shame, because I had been hoping for more of a meal.

Name that teacher

John Mutford has a Saturday morning brain-teasing quiz at Book Mine Set. Check it out.

Julia on Julie: Child couldn't take Powell seriously

This weekend coming, Julia & Julie opens, providing grown-ups with something they might want to see amid the special effects, explosions and noise. Martha read Julie Powell's book a while back and is hankering to see it. I'm curious to see what Meryl Streep does with Julia Child.

Some dots I had not connected was that Powell started her now-famous blog (on Salon) in 2002, before Child's death ... meaning that Child would have been aware of Powell's recipe-a-day project before she died. (Powell's book appeared in 2005.)

And did Child have an opinion of the homage, not to mention Powell's skills?

Oh, yes. And it was devastating, according to Judith Jones, Child's biographer. In an interview with Publisher's Weekly leading up to the movie's release, she lays it on the line:

Jones says Child did not approve of Powell’s cook-every-recipe-in-one-year project. The editor and author read Powell’s blog together (Julie and Julia was published a year after Child’s 2004 death). “Julia said, ‘I don’t think she’s a serious cook.’ ” Jones thinks there was a generational difference between Powell and Child. “Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn’t attractive, to me or Julia. She didn’t want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned. Julia didn’t like what she called ‘the flimsies.’ She didn’t suffer fools, if you know what I mean.”

Ouch. Especially given that the film, at least, is being marketed by highlighting the parallels in the two women's lives.

Julie Powell, meanwhile, is still blogging. You can catch up with her evidently unedited prose here.

From Scotland, the most diligent library patron of all time

I love this story, about a 91-year-old woman in a Scottish town who takes out a dozen books (the limit) from her local library, with every visit. From the BBC:

An avid reader in south west Scotland is on the brink of borrowing her 25,000th book from her local libraries.

Louise Brown, 91, from Stranraer, took her first book on loan from Castle Douglas library in 1946.

...

Library staff said they were amazed by the achievement, particularly since Mrs Brown has never had an overdue fine. 

Read the rest here.

What's unfilmable?

With the Watchmen DVD hitting stores today (including a director's cut edition that adds 24 minutes to the running time), Wired asks an interesting question: what else is out there, really, that's unfilmable? Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns (above) is on the list, as well as dorm-reading mainstays Gravity's Rainbow and Neuromancer. You can add your own suggestions to the list, and vote on your interest in any of the adaptations.

A thought on your own significance

"I learned the significance of my own insignificant life."
- Frank McCourt, who died on Sunday.

The above quote (and photo) appear in this New York Times article

A thought on hearing things said out loud

"Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning."
- Maya Angelou