Comics, Movies, Fighting Games, and Pop Culture. 3 New Podcasts Every Week!
Hey audioshockers! I've been in New Haven all week to visit my family (and Dad's Day / Mom's Birthday are adjacent). Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to read anything new - so this week I must place the onus squarely upon you to get this forum going. So let's blow the doors off the book club this week and get it crackin!
I am considering picking up this new joint, Robopocalypse - by Daniel Wilson, since the first chapter/intro were good and Stephen King cosigned it.
Welcome back paper sniffers. This week I bring you The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt. What caught me first off was the genius book cover design. I went from cover to PW review to Kindle in all of 30 seconds, and I was rather pleased throughout. If you don't like this book, you just don't know from fun.
Eli Sister and his brother Charlie are hired guns working for a shady Character called the Commodore out in Oregon City. Their last assignment left them with dead horses and bruised egos. Their latest involves tracking down a rogue prospector named Kermit in San Francisco. Throughout their journey, Eli discovers oral hygiene, Charlie gets drunk, and the bodies pile up.
Told from Eli's point of view, the book is full of family tension and a humorous self loathing due to an outsized reputation for violence. My favorite part would be the rather caustic description of San Francisco and the Gold Rush. As someone who is constantly being harangued about mission style tacos, the bay area tech scene, and SF coffee - I found it all rather fitting.
I don't know much about Westerns or frontier joints, but The Sisters Brothers is a fairly quick read, you won't get mired in umpteen characters, and the narrative rarely skips a beat. The plot may be sad, but the journey is hilarious.
And with that, this week's open forum book club is officially open. What up?
Welcome back chum chums. As mentioned last week, I will be using this post as the official open forum for our summer book club. I hope yallz had a chance to visit your local library and check out something awesome. Since we don't have a real agenda or any unanswered comments from last week, let me kick off this week's post by giving you a quick review/brief on what I read last week.
This past weekend I finished Kyle Smith's Love Monkey. The run down: our protagonist, 32 year old Tom Farrell, works at a tabloid called (har har) Tabloid as a robotically uninspired hack. Tom drinks too much. He exercises too little. He loathes himself just the right amount. Unsurprisingly, he has girl problems. He pines for a woman he can't have and is surrounded by others who are looking for something better. So, he takes life lessons from his dubiously successful friends, and music legends of old (Michael Stipe & Mick Jagger). Somehow he gets a bunch of these women in bed, juggles them, and then he fucks it all up. Excited yet? You really shouldn't be. Tom sucks. I hate Tom.
What strikes me about Smith was how quickly he and his protagonist simultaneously draw inspiration from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and then trashes it at the same time (seriously, it is all but called out by name) -- all within the first 40 or so pages. Given how quickly Smith returns to musical references and plays up Tom's preferences for this album over that album and how much he talks about music, it seems hypocritical to be so down on Nick.
What the book does well is embody Tom's personal desires and aspirations in his closest friends. His desire to get married. His desire to settle down. His desire to have a kid and be happy. And his diametric opposite: his desire to be a tall, black, cut, rich, casanova who doesen't give a shit about any woman (but who ultimately is just as personally tortured by a lost love as Tom is). There's this scene in a strip club where shit just goes haywire. I read that whole section as the inner workings of a really bad drunk/depression/breakdown.
It doesn't surprise me that Tom's self described 'manboy' personality is as detestable to me as it is to all the ladies he meets. He tries to internalize all the lessons thrown at him, and he learns from each of the ladies he gets involved in, but ultimately he satisfies none of them. He's too busy trying to be all things to all people.
In the aftermath (and well worn territory) of Sept 11th, Smith addresses things like terror sex (first identified to me via a now defunct [but VERY cool] blog called The Black Table) and how unrealistic we are. Are we trying to have it all -- and is that even a reasonable expectation? Tom couldn't - but if you need a funnier, more uplifting depiction from a female's POV, queue up any recent season of 30 Rock.
--- Ok, that's what I read. Now please, tell me what you are up to, literarily speaking.
Since Nick and I finally got around to doing the YDS Awards, I started thinking about other features we have neglected/are coming up -- most notably the AudioShocker Book Club. Last year, we petered out in July. This is unacceptable. In fact, it is downright criminal. Book clubs are like the OG social media. You read the book and then you talk about it with people. Boom.
That said, I know the AS audience is nowhere near my level of progress with 2010/11 novels. So, here's what we are going to do. I am going to give you a big list of recent books (emotional, scifi, weird, bad, comedy, prize winning), and every Friday I am going to use this space to host an open book discussion form. Any title. Just start commenting and I will respond. Hopefully Pete will contribute, but I'll do my best to spice it up with brief related edititorial content. Maybe a link to amazon or an alternate book cover or something - I don't know, I'm just winging it here. I may have discussed some of these books on the main podcast, but you probably weren't listening.
The point is, summer is a great time to pick up a book and read - and with plenty of sunshine and weekend reading time ahead of you - you should all be tearing through at least one book a week. For those of you who think books are heavy, cumbersome, or don't provide enough secondary distractions, Kindles & Nooks are cheaper than ever, so there really is no excuse. Hopefully I will see some of you back here next Friday.
And now, without further adieu, the AudioShocker 2011 Open Forum Book Club reading list:
Remember when 'This Website is under construction, please come back real soon! Email our Webmaster here" followed by a crude .gif was a common phenomenon all over the Internet? Well, that era is over. Or at least it should be. There is no excuse for a major brand's website to be "Under Construction" today.
I recently started drinking Ketel One Vodka. Why? Because it makes an exceptionally smooth Vodka Soda, and it is cheaper than Grey Goose. (come on people, C.R.E.A.M) Anyway, as of today, Ketel One's website is under construction, and this is wholly unacceptable. How does a major brand, especially one associated with liquor/spirits giant Diageo, get away with such an egregious marketing violation? Let's do some research.
A quick Whois query shows that the domain name has been registered since 1995 (actually, surprising forward looking given the time), but the domain is curiously set to expire in November of this year - pending intervention by the parent/registrar. Basically, this means that Ketel One has had at least 16 years to get it's shit together, and at least 13 years before the Diageo partnership.
Next, the WayBack Machine will prove that Ketel One has had a functional website since 1996. It had a background texture, grainy images, incorporated several links, and got to the point quite quickly: Ketel One is...the smoothest vodka imaginable. This website ran through 1997. From 1998-2000, things got a little more better, fixed width layout, more graphic navigation, martini recipes -- even a 'free video'. 2000-2008 brought various version of a flash based/intro-ed website. Post 2008, the WayBack Machine has no data, but the copyright/last update date on the current website is from 2009.
Ad Age reports that Grey Worldwide took over the Ketel One account back in 2009, and launched the 'Gentlemen, this is vodka" campaign back in Q2 of that same year. So then, perhaps there was a time lag associated with the changeover. But wait, the website copyright hasn't changed since 2009, and the copy on the website reflects the current campaign. I am going to hypothesize that Grey has been in control of the site since they got the account. Does that mean the site has been under construction for almost two years? [Since I don't have the WayBack Machine to prove my case for 2009-2011, I'm appealing to all of you for the facts]
If Grey were my agency , and they tried to sell me on a placeholder website for any longer than a month, I would have fired them on the spot [nothing personal against Grey!]. I acknowledge that according to the Diageo website, Ketel One is not a 'Global Priority Brand' -- but still, the marginal effort to create a decent website (flash based or not) is quite low. How can you afford not to have something up to date at all times? With social/Internet connected shopping becoming a reality, if you are going to put your URL on your bottle, make sure it leads to something useful. There is no value in investing in QR/mobile/WAP/apps/whatever if you don't have the content to back it up.
And that's the whole point isn't it? Either you have a website or you don't -- and with the abundance of social media outlets and web savvy professionals - is there really an excuse to not have an up to date web presence? Even a basic Twitter/Wikipedia/FB strategy would be sufficient to keep me engaged. There is no currently official Twitter page, and Ketel's Wikipedia game is pretty sparse. The site does direct users to a Facebook fan page, but is not making use of Facebook's integrated features or even the Like button.
Now, I've seen the print/tv/outdoor ads. I totally dig the "Gentlemen, this is vodka" campaign, but how on Earth are you calling yourself marketers with such a newbie move? Keep your old website up until the new one is ready --- or don't introduce the new campaign until all of the collateral is ready! Worried about scaring people off? If you have been collecting emails and gaining fb/twitter fans, you have plenty of ways (don't write off RSS either!) to inform customers about your new site and keep them engaged.
My hastily drawn conclusion: Diageo/Ketel One, call up your account exec at Grey, or any one of the myriad web shops out there and get a real website.
With all acknowledgments to 50, some of us are just plain dance-challenged. And come Friday night, that can really suck when you hit the club. (Ed Note: I have not been to a club in ages). But don't lose hope fellow shockers, hope is but clicks away! Perhaps you remember AudioShocker favorite Barry 'BBoy GRIZ' Rabkin from AudioShocker Podcast #73? Well, our buddy GRIZ just put the finishing touches on his 45 disc (!!!) set of instructional dance dvds! From Breakdancing to Club, Hip-Hop, House, and even Techno - Barry has it ALL covered. You can cop the DVDs at CypherStyles today!
Need some proof of Barry's instructional prowess? Here's a freebie. As you can see, Barry is all about getting you comfortable with the technique.
Personally, I'm excited to finally learn the finer points of doing the Stanky Leg and the Harlem Shake. (By far, my two most favorite dances. ever.)
As you probably know, I'm currently in Terminal 4 at JFK, waiting to board my flight to Delhi. After two weeks in the motherland, I'll be off to Australia, returning sometime around the 29th of January. Hopefully I'll come back alive and without Herpes. If not, well, Nick/Pete/Justique/Ross/Kelly will still be around. PEACE!
You know something is wrong when Pete is on the verge of having more posts than I do. And I wish I had a real excuse other than "school work" or "job hunt" or whatever, but I don't. Instead, how about we discuss book trailers?
First an example:
That's a big budget example, while this one was cheaper. These bad jackson's are becoming increasingly popular with entire sites devoted to aggregating/curating them (i.e. Book Screening)
Book ads aren't new - but book ads that are even remotely engaging are. The two most common formats I am aware of are the wan single column ads in the New Yorker and the kitschy urban thriller ads on the subway. Both are terrible and I can't remember the name of a single title or author that advertises this way.
Book trailers are a cute gimmick for YA - but the last thing I want to see is a trailer for Dan Brown's newest rag. And do adults really need to be wheedled into reading via video? I know selling books is tough and attention spans are short, but is compressing a book down to a 60 second trailer really the approach we want to take with readers? Books, even e-books, are not impulse buys. Are independent authors and academic presses going to have to start producing these things in hopes of getting titles picked up by majors? Will a Publisher's Weekly starred review still have any cachet? And how do librarians feel about this? Any residual value that librarians add, (at this point mostly recommendations to curious readers), is cut off at the knees by flashy videos.
I blame social media for this. At some point in the last 3 years, agencies and marketers decided that earning exposure without spending a dime on promotion was the ultimate goal. That is incredibly risky and stupid, especially since agencies rely heavily on media commissions. Retainers and other compensation structures may be changing this slowly, but by and large media commissions pay the bills.
But I can understand why it is so appealing to publishers. Even the major houses have extremely limited marketing budgets. I asked a sales rep this summer about book ads and he basically said that publishers can't come up with the scratch to do big ad campaigns, even digital/mobile campaigns which are typically much cheaper print. I find this all rather puzzling. Publishers are willing to use their scarce resources to create these risky trailers - but not to promote them. Considering how quickly poor week 1 sales will get a book pulled off the shelf, marketing really is the name of the game. You can't rely on social/viral media - you have to use it to augment your media strategy. And without an integrated conversion/preorder/sale option, these trailers may never lead to a sale.
There is so much cool/ interactive stuff you could do with book ads, but no one seems to care. How about an ad unit that expands, pushes the page content over to the side (these already exist), and allows you to read a chapter from the book? It could have direct links within the unit to purchase the book and continue reading, download directly to your e-reader, or order the physical copy? Or why not have an ad that shows you where the closest library or author signing is using IP geo-location? A lot of this stuff is already available, but the majors are content to ignore what's right in front of them.
If anyone has a good counter example, I'd love to see it. Things change everyday afterall.
Ok, rant over.
I like to read short stories. I wouldn't say I am a terribly well informed reader, but I read WSJ articles when I am at my parents' place, The New Yorker when it is sitting around, creative non-fiction to pass the time, and short fiction as a break from novels.
Collection and series such as Best American are great because they curate my whole experience and take the work out of subscribing to thousands of journals and blogs just to find something decent to read. I get to read across a range of authors and themes. However, as of late, I have a serious bone to pick with the editors of these collections: every story I read is depressing as hell.
Have any of you seen Wendy and Lucy? Imagine a film festival where every entry was like that. How about an endless loop of the last 10 minutes of Nights of Cabiria and The Bicycle Thief? That's what these anthologies seem like: a broken record of hopelessness and heart ripping grief.
I know that some amount of conflict is necessary to drive a story. Obviously a 100% positive narrative would not make a compelling story - but why does every anthologized short story that I read leave me with a pit in my stomach? Lee Gutkind's Becoming a Doctor, a collection of creative nonfiction written by doctors, almost had me crying myself to sleep. Three of the first five entries in The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories made me feel so dejected that I lost my appetite.
In my high school Spanish class, we read a lot of Mexican literature, There too, all the stories followed the same pattern: tragedy besets family (vital livestock/family member dies), youth goes on a journey to better his circumstances, tragedy befalls youth again, tragic end. I wish I could find the book we used so I could quote some of the examples to you, but I recall one story where a cow was killed by a snake, another with a recurring comparison of a man's hands to worms, a long drawn out tale documenting the aftermath of a grand mothers death. There was just no positive message anywhere. In fact, these may be the most terrifyingly depressing stories ever.
Editors - I'm not asking for a cute romantic comedy (I have bittorrent for that) - but would it kill you to include a few chuckle worthy tales in your neatly collected volumes? Can't the guy get the girl every now and then? Does fire/war/pestilence/disease/CANCER have to ruin every narrative? Why even bother foreshadowing or irony when your peer authors have already extinguished any possibility of optimism?
The Bottom Line: Who decided that short stories can't end in anything less than general malaise?
I was in Cobble Hill Brooklyn today and I ran into Terry Crews and his daughter at an open house. I was totally starstruck -- it was that big of a deal. He was incredibly nice, perhaps a little embarrassed, and assured me that he was doing everything possible to make The Chronicles of Camacho a reality. I walked away and quickly tweeted/texted/emailed/called everyone I knew. And here is the proof:
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