They Tore The Marquee Down: Part Two
My vinyl days gone by, sweet memories, bye and bye.
I was just thinking about my undergraduate days at StonyBrook University. We didn’t have much money back then. But somehow we always had enough for some maryjane, quarters for the pinball machine and a good stereo system. Oh yeah, beer, of course.
I was one of the lucky residents. One of my roomies in my suite had made a serous investment in stereo equipment. It was all top of the line at the time. The needle was so sensitive that it skipped by the mere opening and closing of the door. The speakers were large and took up most of the room. We had extra speakers hooked up to the main room as well. They were all dressed up in the a hodge podge of psychedelic paraphernalia, tie-dye, and pictures of a stoned Jesus and Elvis mounting the top. It was sight to be seen. We inherited a set of small but powerful speakers that fit nicely on top of the refrigerator. On the far corner of the room facing the entrance was a soda machine that had been converted into a beer machine. That and the occasional transaction of weed were our main sources of income. Herby was something of a hustler and brought a serious amount of ill-gotten gains from the local pool halls. He had a thing about Janis Joplin. Whenever we played her tunes he would wrap his legs and arms as best he could around the refrigerator that held a particularly large image of the songstress. He’s stay that way for hours. We never really did speculate on what was going through his mind but he definitely was a conversation piece at our room gatherings. Another one of the roomies was pre-med. A very bright guy with a quirky almost annoying personality. He was pre-med and a few other areas that I can no no longer recall. He was also the local supplier for home made bongs. He came up with some real interesting and practical designs that ‘improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the substance in question’. That’s about a delicately as I can put it. There was Marshall and Eugene, two geeky types with an easy disposition that the girls seemed to like. He was the pimp of the room I guess. Nobody went without dates if they followed these two around long enough. And I did follow them around. If they were the pimps then Gainer was the whore of the room. This guy had a way with women that bordered on Machiavellian. He was part of the local theatre scene on campus acting and directing various shows. He was damn good at it. He also had no moral concerns about using his influence to bed the wannabe freshman actress. While I admired him in many respects—as most any young male would—I sensed there was something ‘not-right- about it. He just smiled a bit too much and a bit too chatty always spewing philosophy of some sort or another.
I was the resident assistant of my hall, which essentially meant that I always got the heads up when the college was planning a drug and/or beer raid or just generally being or attempting to be a fly in the ointment that we called dorm life. Fortunately, they weren’t very good at it. The head of the quad took the job on a dare and the promise of a scholarship for his master’s work. Truth is told not many wanted anything to do with Hendrix College. We somehow always tore the guards at the door down to the point where most simply joined in the party rather than fight it.
As I write this there is so much stuff to write about that I realize there is no way I can put it down in one sitting. That strikes me funny since right now the one thing I have plenty of is time.
My personal media consumption involves a great deal of downloads in the form of PDFs, iBook’s, and mp3s. I tend to use YouTube and Rhapsody for my music. I typically listen to an album or selection from one or the other and than go to the other to see if there is a similar title. I have not bought a physical CD/DVD in five or more years.
I never was very big on reading newspapers and magazines with the exception of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Typically, I read these during my commute on train into Manhattan. I still tend to read hardcover books mostly in the areas of philosophy, classic literature and other various academic areas. I have gravitated to the occasional soft cover version of a book just for convenience sake.
To summarize, the ‘big picture’ for my media consumption is primarily on-line for all music. I tend to watch full movies on Hulu, YouTube and have been and remain a huge fan of Brit Com and B Science Fiction movies. While I have a Netflix account I rarely use it. The student and teacher in me still love the feel of a book. Monty Python and Plan 9 From Outer Space is still my favorite way to spend my all too rare free moments. There is something quite organic about notion of reading a text over a coffee first thing in the morning.
So I would say that my consumption habits have changed in the sense that I do a majority of my reading, film viewing, and book reading through on-line sources. The shift has primarily been away from television. I find I have little tolerance for commercials and so the pause, fast-forward, and rewind button of YouTube have become three of my favorite friends. Since I have never been much on magazines and newspapers in general there has been no real shift in my ‘personal’ trends.
I might also say that the recent trends in reality shows is particularly irksome to me both on-line and on television and has seriously impacted my choices of viewing habits. I am also not much on mainstream media news and gravitate towards the more ‘independent’ or ‘liberal’ choices that are made available on the Internet. NPR and BBC tend to be my favorites.
That having been said, I am fully aware that the trends are towards miniaturization via palm held devices. My major challenge in this regard is very simply the ability to read the text. The truth is that the words are simply too small. Although this doesn’t necessarily stop me, it is the reason I moved to the iPad2. The phone is a quick way to calendar my day, make reminders, and listen to music. Occasionally, I will use the iPhone to send pictures to myself.
I have definitely become very involved in the new forms of technology in all its various sizes and spend a great deal of my professional life on-line. I don’t see that changing in the near future. If anything I believe it will get more intense.
It is my firm belief that doing business in ‘second wave’ sort of fashion has gone the way of the dinosaur. Today’s aggressive entrepreneur simply has to have some degree of experience with technology in its various forms. I refer to handheld in particular. Eventually, I believe the handheld devices will have improved graphics that are ubiquitous to all national brands. And if I’m any judge of my character and habits I will be right there as far on the edge of technology as my budget will allow.
Publishing and distribution will have to take on the notion of handheld devices that will continue to become smaller and more powerful. Therefore, screen size and resolution will be two main areas of concern. Also publishing and distribution is experiencing significant legal challenges in regard to trademark, copyright, and patent infringement. As the demand for new technology becomes more intense, so will the number of lawsuits. I am keeping a keen eye on this. As far as the content and context of what is going to be published? I see that there will be a body of well-established authors writing to the part of the audience that I refer to as mainstream. However, I also see that there will be a body of writers involved in self-publishing that will collectively establish a vanguard movement that will continue to flourish.
In part this has to do with larger publishing entities inability to resolve issues typically entrenched in complex business models grappling with technology. Ultimately—and I think this is already happening in a large way—the larger publishing houses will see the value of a larger self-published writer who comes to the table with low overhead and product that bears up to demographics. I also see publishing houses loosing editors and related professionals to the self-publishing consulting market. I believe this is as a result of generating a more unique body of writing and the lure of financial gain.
I see serialization of characters much like the notion of Sherlock Holmes becoming a key demographic and psychographic that determines sales. We see this quite clearly in the numerous movie and book titles that are derived from a previous release. More books will be written in such a way that they translate well into film taking advantage of higher end audio and visual effects. This might be a dangerous to the overall writing style if notions of plot, character development, and theme are overtaken by a really big building exploding while the stock character types run to escape. Of course, there are variations on this and it is not always quite that simple. But you get the idea.
Almost forgot. I'm looking carefully at 3D Audio and Video technology that is made affordable to emerging talent. While I still haven't quite figured out where this belongs in my overall plan, I definitely believe the notions of holographic images in our favorite movie titles is not near in a galaxy far, far away as we imagine.
As far as brick and mortar are concerned? It was recently in the news that several states were suing Amazon for sales tax owed by related states. California recently settled with Amazon. My point is that they days of brick and mortar are not quite done yet. The fact remains that while on-line reading is rapidly increasing it has still not overcome hard copy audience choice. There is something quite visceral about the experience of reading a book in hand. Think of it like some folks who have turned reading the Sunday Times as a ritual. I recall a famous Rockwell painting of the man of the house in robe and slippers with the Sunday paper strewn about him while—in the background—mommy, daughter, and son brightly garbed in sober Sunday attire cast a disparaging eye towards the quite content hubby. My point is that people love their rituals and no matter how strong the convenience factor, they will not surrender the tribal right of passage called reading a made-of-wood book. It is a strong trend but it is not yet strong enough an event to entirely eliminate the brick and mortar scenario.
