REB #13: “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

– Groucho Marx

The Baltimore Book Festival was this weekend. Who went?

If you were there Saturday, chances are good that you saw this guy; chances are even better that you saw his hair. But seriously, Andy Poxon is 16 years old, looks 12, and can shred a guitar like nobody’s business. He’s an accomplished blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist with a full-fledged 13-song album, and he’s not even out of high school yet! You can listen to the songs on his website, download them, or even buy the CD. And I definitely recommend it.

In other news, I walked away from the festival with 4 books for $9. I probably shouldn’t have bought anything because I don’t really have room for any more books, but I couldn’t resist. I got a book of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings (by Nancy Frazier), because of a conversation I had with an acquaintance of mine about the best way to practice painting – copy other people’s work. Over and over. So that’s what I’m going to try to do because I like to paint, but I am so out of practice! I also got John Hedgecoe’s Complete Photography Course, which is a little antiquated because it’s all 35 mm (but I think that’s actually kind of cool!), The Art of Gift Wrapping by Jane Cornell (an awesome and beautiful $1 find), and another book that I intend to use as a gift, so I won’t mention the name, in case that person is reading this.

And that’s about it. Sorry these updates are coming so late in the week; I’ve been rather busy with other school work and with looking for a second job. One more post coming tonight or tomorrow!

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

REB #7: “I see her as a series of marvellous shapes formed at random in the kaleidoscope of desire.”

– The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter

This kid is nuts, not just because he went from an iPhone on AT&T to a highly unattractive Samsung candy bar on the Cricket network, but also because he gives his phone number out for the world to call/text him. It got so bad that he had to go to an unlimited plan, hence the switch to Cricket.

I suppose, in a way, it’s awesome that we live in a world where this kind of thing is possible. Where we can display our phone numbers for all to see and have a cell phone plan that allows for this without breaking the bank. In the grand scheme of things, $45 a month is a small price to pay for unlimited conversation. In a world where we can communicate via Internet with anyone—from any soil-covered and Internet-equipped corner of Earth—we can also speak directly to them on what is now becoming an old but trusty piece of technology: the phone. Specifically, the cellular/mobile phone.

On the other hand, it takes a lot of guts to put oneself out there like that because…this is a scary world we live in, and ironically, part of the scariness isthe technology itself and what it might mean in the future. Minority Report(which was first the title story in a book of science fiction stories by Phillip K. Dick) is not that far off. Of course, the other scary part is that some people are just plain crazy. Just read anything by Angela Carter, and you may think she was crazy—but really, she was just brilliant—and that was decades ago! Just imagine who’s out there now! On the streets of Baltimore, or Los Angeles, or London. Waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey. And mug, rob, threaten. Hurt.

Me, I keep my “purse” close and my cell phone even closer. And it doesn’t hurt to have a bit of pepper spray. Where’s the techno pepper spray, Cricket? You’re certainly no Google Voice.

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.