Porch Postin'

Hello Bloggites! Gore-gee-us day outside, so I've taken Matt's laptop (aka "The Red Tigers") out to the porch to soak in the sun and provide weekend coverage of my usual subjects. It's the perfect antidote to a Charlie's Kitchen double-beef and beer hangover.

First, the usual: Videogames. More and more I'm realizing that Blizzard needs to release their next game, be it Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3 (preferably the former). Every game I pick up in the interim feels like digital distraction, a sad and ultimately futile attempt to fill a growing void. I understand that you can't rush the work that Blizzard does; they are the industry leaders for a reason, which is that nothing leaves their offices until you can see your reflection multiplied 58-fold in their product's perfectly polished facets. Still, a man has needs, and to find comfort in other games at this point makes me feel cheap.

On to publishing. You've already heard of Amazon's Kindle, the hugely popular ebook reader. Now, as someone who works in print publishing, I'm obligated to tell you that its development was actually a series of blasphemous rituals, dark rites of sacrifice intended to mock the gods. Purchase one at your soul's peril! As a kid who enjoys reading and thinking about emerging technologies, though, I'm delighted by its features, its energy-efficient screen, and the idea of digital distribution generally. I'm thrilled to think that music, words, images, games and software are on their way to becoming completely virtual; manufacturing itself is a needlessly wasteful practice when you consider that all these things can be reduced to ones and zeroes and reproduced endlessly and transmitted instantaneously. No more fuel wasted in shipping and no more real estate wasted on superfluous storefronts or warehouses. Putting content developers more directly in touch with consumers seems like a slam-dunk.
From a pragmatic consumer's perspective, though, I have to ask: Really, why do you need a Kindle? The parallels between iTunes and ebooks are false. People can actually use a device that holds 1,500 songs, because variety is important to the enjoyment of that medium. But 1,500 books? Who can possibly utilize that volume? The ability to purchase singles for 99 cents was another incredible boon to digital distribution of music - why force people to pay $14.00 for a CD that only has 3 worthwhile tracks on it? Books are meant to be consumed in whole, though, i.e. most people probably aren't interested in picking up just the foreword to The Bros Karamazov. And despite the total elimination of manufacturing and distribution costs, publishers don't intend to drastically reduce prices on ebooks over a typical paperback - the standard price right now hovers at about $10.00, so it'll be a long time before you're able to recoup that $359 entry fee to Kindle ownership (although I'm sure this price will drop in the near future). Frankly, I don't get it. But then again, as one of our vendor reps told us recently, it doesn't matter; Amazon has more money than God. If they will it to, it will succeed.

In other news, Madonna got shot down trying to adopt a child in Africa. Celebrity news isn't the sort of thing I usually devote brainpower to, but in this case the debate is actually pretty fascinating. It's like one of those giant balls of rubber bands, where each loop is a distinct, emotionally charged issue, pulled tight around the knotted whole; a band for racism, one for sexism, one here for fears of lingering imperialism, another for socioeconomic distrust and animosity. Pretty much everyone has a reason to feel uncomfortable when talking about it. Which isn't to say she's in the wrong; all indications thus far have been that she's a good mother, and able to provide a nurturing environment for her adopted children. In a sense, the bottom line really ought to be what's best for the kids, and since the number of orphaned children world-wide far outstrips the supply of capable adults willing to adopt, one would think it's a no-brainer: Let her adopt. But there's something about the situation that leaves me feeling uneasy, a subtext to the story that doesn't sit right. We don't often have to talk about the legacy of race and imperialism here in the Northeast United States, so it's hard to verbalize these concerns. Put bluntly though, you have to worry whenever rich, white celebrities decide to save Africa from itself. That's the concern. That she's used her privilege to grease the wheels and skirt local adoption laws is disconcerting. That she is, in a sense, benefiting from their poverty is also disconcerting. Again, I'm not planting my feet on one side or the other of the issue. I'm just slightly intrigued by how uncomfortable the whole thing makes me.