Sorry, Giulia

Last night

Giulia Melucci said...

When insulting someone's work, your argument loses weight if you spell their name incorrectly.
Giulia Melucci

September 9, 2009 4:38 AM

Hi Giulia,

I am not a professional book critic. I am a blogger. I do not have a copy editor. I am a copy editor so my spelling mistake is a big embarrassment. I've since corrected the spelling of your name on my "review" of your book. Still, does that mean my review now carries any authority or validity? I think not.

There are about two people that read this blog. Only one of them will really read the whole post. Maybe you didn't read the whole post and just pressed CTRL+F after googling your book and found yourself on one little blog, a lowly grad student's after-school hobby. I don't know but you shouldn't take it to heart. It's not personal.

Now, if I had written a book and gotten it published, it would mean a lot to me. I wouldn't appreciate someone painting my work, my heart and soul, with a crude caveman strokes. You sound like a lovely person, really. Sorry for trivializing your relationships and your heartaches. I apologize. Maybe I'll take down the post.

I'm thinking about criticism right now. Real criticism. If you read food or book blogs, you've probably been inundated with praise and publicity for Frank Bruni's Born Round. They're all good and fine but I really liked the exit interview from Eater.com. If you've ever read Bruni's restaraunt reviews (Giulia, you have, I'm sure), you know that Bruni is thorough, he's a brilliant writer, and he takes being a critic seriously. In the interview with Eater, Bruni talks about what a really negative review means to the reader.

FRANK BRUNI: ....one of the really difficult things about being a food critic is, nobody sees all of the things you don't write about. And nobody sees the worst that you see. I ate at so many out-of-the-way, outer-borough restaurants. But I ate in so many terrible restaurants because I wanted to try to discover something. You can never tell people that because they're such out-of-the-way restaurants, off-the-radar restaurants, that if you bring them to people's attention only to say that they're terrible, it seems pointless and borderline immoral.

That's a really good point. When I was reading Nick Hornby's book (Shakespeare Wrote for Money) yesterday, initially, I was shocked that the editors of the Believer magazine would "censor" his opinions (Hornby often writes about books he didn't like but doesn't name the author, title, or anything else that would give the book away, and cites the Polyphonic spree's stringent protocols as the reason for this). Now in retrospect, I'm thinking this decision was probably in the interest of getting people excited to read, keeping the magazine's legal bills small, and for the sake of the reader, who doesn't care that you've spent your time with a book you didn't care for. After all, it's your problem that you read it, not theirs.

So, Ms. Melucci. My apologies. I still maintain my right to blog about whatever I want but I'm not going to post any more negative reviews without appropriate evidence and I will double check my spelling. That's just good practice.

Lesson learned.

Sincerely,
Megan

P.S. Readers and Giulia - a lot of people like the book. Positive reviews are all over the Internet. You can decide yourself if it's any good. And finally, I have no idea whether or not Mario Batali actually liked or read the book. He very well could have.

earlier: A Review

Jay and Dave, 1979, The Tonight Show

Viral Music

Kid Cudi (Feat. MGMT & Ratatat) - “Pursuit Of Happiness”

Toronto gets new evening paper

I don't know about you but on the way home, I just stare out the window. I don't even complain about how long the ride home is because I can't function anymore. Time is just an man-made construct. Eventually I will get home but for those 45-60 minutes, I am dead to the world. Bottom line, I'm not going to read a crap tabloid. Still, tonight, Toronto commuters met hawkers screaming "T.O. Night" as they boarded the subway (I am imagining this happened...I will verify with my brother) and were handed another flimsy free newspaper. Like people, on their way home from work, need another daily shoved in their face. Defending this brave venture, the publisher of T.O. Night, John Cameron, says:

"We are [the] last touch point that advertisers get before consumers go home — readers are sitting on a train on the way home. They want to be entertained," said Cameron. "And there's ... nothing there to provide that."

Apparently, Cameron has never heard of something called twitter, or the iPhone, or blackberries for that matter. Hey, I don't go to twitter to get the news but I'm certainly not going to go to my city's free evening paper for it either.

Someone please figure out the economics of "free." Someone besides Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Anderson. Those of us in the industries seriously hurt by the Internet would really appreciate it. It's so confusing. Sometimes smart people like Cameron just throw their hands in the air and start giving out crappy products for free to cater to the lowest common denominator. It can seem like their only hope.

I hope they include many pictures of Megan Fox. That may be the only way T.O. Night can survive.

regarding "Toronto gets new evening paper" @CBC.ca

Nope, I wouldn't buy it

The comments section on author blogs and on Amazon.com already permit readers to air their views, question an author’s premise or add their own knowledge to the content of a book.

Now, in an experiment developed by SharedBook, a company that designs customized books and allows readers to annotate documents online, the publisher of “Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children,” a book about parenting by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman that went on sale last week, is inviting readers to make notes on three chapters of the book.

Starting Sept. 14, chapters concerning praise for children (and why too much is not a good idea), the importance of an extra hour of sleep and the prevalence of lying among children, will be posted on PoBronson.com, Nurtureshock.com and Twelvebooks.com, the Web site of the book’s publisher, the imprint that released the book. Readers will be able to highlight a word, a sentence or a paragraph and add notes that will be integrated as footnotes on the text.

“We thought this would be a great way to go deep into the text and literally argue with it sentence by sentence, collectively,” said Jonathan Karp, publisher and editor in chief of Twelve, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group.

SharedBook will collect footnotes and incorporate them with the three chapters into a PDF that readers can buy for $2.95.

--"A Book that Lets Readers Handle the Footnotes," New York Times

A Review

I'm in such a state of despair right now with it being the first day back at school and all. I get so anxious having to meet new people and talk about myself. I hate talking about myself... so let's move on to some things I've read.

Since the next eight months will be entirely devoted to reading publishing, editing, and design texts the whole summer was devoted to reading things I could enjoy without effort. No experimental literature, no dated non-fiction, no critical theory - just books about food and some fine fiction.

As I mentioned before, I was reading The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I finished it a while ago and I've since recommended it to a few but it's so good everyone should know. I found out about the book reading the Westender (I skip straight to the food section) and in the Chef Q&A, Lee Humphries, chef at the wildly popular Irish Heather, named it as the book he was reading at the moment.

In Soul, Ruhlman takes you through the Master Chef exam at the CIA, a month at the Cleveland restaurant Lola - headed by Michael Symon (Food Channel's cheesy biker dude/Iron Chef replacement for Mario Batali), and a few nights at French Laundry - the epicenter of fine American cuisine, located in Napa Valley.

The stories are emotionally intense, richly detailed, and often funny. When you get to the section about Thomas Keller, owner/chef of French Laundry, the description reaches a zen-like quality. The language is so quiet and serene; it perfectly conveys the (uptight) immaculate experience of dining at French Laundry, and the parallel atmosphere in the kitchen. You really melt into the story here. It's pitch perfect.

The last book that squeezed in just before the September no-more-fun deadline was I loved, I lost, I made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci. I subscribe to GQ Radio podcasts and in one episode, the hosts devoted 45 minutes talking to Melucci. They had me convinced that this was a sweet book that "even men will enjoy." So, I was halfway to requesting it from the library. Then they mentioned that the advance praise for the book included a pat on the back from Mario Batali: "It's a foodie's dream version of Sex and the City!" So, there I went to the VPL website and requested the book.

Now earlier in the summer, Batali talked with GQ and illustrated his diverse taste in books. He obviously is a fast reader too because he manages to read a lot considering he is on television all the time, runs 10000 restaurants, and is a dad of young kids.

SO, he probably skimmed through this book and he probably owed someone a favour because this book is pretty awful. I read it while waiting for friends to show up at a cafe. They showed up but we crossed paths and I ended up waiting outside for an hour. Between my pizza dinner and my inconvenient bus ride home, I finished this piece of trash and I felt dirty.

Basic plot synopsis: Giulia Melucci remembers all the men she's dated her entire life, all of them totally awful sounding (e.g. lazy deadbeat writer of mature age, young alcoholic, pothead, etc). Interspersed in these neverending accounts of bad life choices are some pretty good recipes for pasta and Sunday roasts.

It's a better recipe book than memoir.

Enough about that.

Today I read Nick Hornby's Shakespeare Wrote for Money. Now here's a book I can enthusiastically recommend! It gives me much delight to share this book with all of you. It's short (131 pages), sweet, and funny. What more could you ask for?

Shakespeare is the third collection of Hornby's column for the Believer magazine, “Stuff I've Been Reading," about the books he's bought and the books he's read*. Over a year, Hornby's dedication to finishing the books he's started wavers but his sense of humour is consistent, and I'm so thankful. Like I said, today was hard but this book made me feel better and it made me want to read (fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, YA novels - you name it); it was the perfect September blues antidote.

There's a great section on McCarthy's The Road:

"The Road may well be the most miserable book ever writer, and God nows there's some competition out there. Two survivors of the apocalypse, a man and his young son, wander through the scarred gray landscape foraging for food...The man spend much of the book wonderful whether he should shoot his son with their last remaining bullet, just to spare him any further pain...Sometimes they find shriveled heads or the remains of a baby on a barbeque...Sometimes you feel like begging the man to use the bullet on you, rather than the boy."

There are some great one-liners, and perhaps too much reliance on the self-deprecating, self-reflexive voice to excuse sloppy introductions. But all is forgiven, Nick Hornby, since you came into my life at the right time.

Hornby has a bad rap because his novels make such terrible movies but reading this, I remember how much I loved High Fidelity. Well, on second thought, How to be Good was totally forgettable. It's not as if Hornby should be part of the canon. But on the whole, I think we can agree that he is entertaining and very accessible while still sharp-witted. Bravo!

If you're a reader--and I mean, a reader, not just someone that knows how to read--I guarantee you will enjoy this book. You will see glimpses of yourself in Hornby. This is true when he loves a book and when he can barely bring himself to finish one.

* The first and second collections of the column are The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
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So, maybe you enjoyed the movie Dead Man Walking (as much as you enjoyed reading The Road). If so, may I suggest "Trial by Fire" by David Grann at the New Yorker. No news here, the legal system is broken--particularly pertaining to the death penalty... in Texas--but the story will make you very angry and break you. Sometimes you need that. If today was your first day back at school, this would not be the day to read it. But save it on your computer and come back to it when you're feeling too "up."

Twilight Fan Art Enchants the Staff of Pulpfiction Books

Monday, August 24, 2009

Twilight Fan Art

Found in a box of books on the weekend. Black felt pen on BC Hydro Post-It. Nb. bats and puncture marks on Bella's neck.

Posted by cjb at 12:56 PM

Understaffed Harpers Bazaar Makes a Mistake

Copy editors, have you ever let a really terrible mistake slip past you? Let your shame and guilt wash away knowing this:

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Harper's Bazaar magazine skips 39 folios

Powerful ammunition for those of us who promote the virtues of those vital behind-the-scenes workers -- good copy editors, fact-checkers, production people and proofreaders.

The current issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine has 39 pages missing, as folios jump from 256 to 295. An embarrassing flub. No suggestion that they pulled any content.

posted by D. B. Scott at 2:46 PM

(from Canadian Magazines)

Wham, Bam, Thank you, Ma'am

Hey, cool!

The following map (reblogged from CBC.ca) shows works to be on display as part of the Vancouver Biennale 2009-2011

Instructions: Click on the markers in the map or in the list to the right for more information. Drag the map to look around or zoom in and out to get a closer look.

SAD MAG ISSUE #1

Sad Magazine makes its smashing debut on Thursday, September 17 at the ANZA club in Vancouver, BC. Join us for a night of great music, dancing, drag, and cheap drinks!

Thursday, September 17, 2009
ANZA Club, #3 West 8th Avenue (@ Ontario - click for map)
8:00 p.m. to late!
$5—$10 sliding scale
(CASH ONLY)

The event features musical performances by our cover star and feature story, Isolde N. Barron, DJ sets by Jef Leppard and DJBJ vs. Lonny Gaga, and art installations from Vancouver’s best emerging visual artists.

The event is a fundraiser, so come early, stay late, and bring your friends.

Sad Mag loves you.

RSVP on Facebook and visit us online for sneak peeks at Issue #1

Please re-blog

I'm going to make the smallest logical leap and guess that Chris Brown's interview with Larry King is going to stir up some controversies.

Because, at least in my opinion, the least reassuring thing a person who has beaten a woman half to death can say is, “Huh, you know, I don’t remember it at all. I don’t remember why I did it either. But I can tell you that I’m not a violent person.”

Uh, that’s not what the ear-biting, strangling, face-pounding act you committed suggests, asshole. And bringing your mama (cheap ploy!) on to say that you never (up until February) beat the shit out of anyone doesn’t help much either.

--Michelle

Miyazaki vs. Andy Samberg

The Footnotes of Mad Men

If you're a fan of Mad Men, you need to see the brilliant blog The Footnotes of Mad Men. My favourite site/blog in the past little while has been The Awl, which scored an exclusive column by Footnotes writer Natasha Vargas-Cooper ($10 says that's not her real name).

For casual watchers, here's some cocktail hour conversation starters about the accoutrements of Lane Pryce's office.

Oh, and AMC renewed Mad Men for a fourth season!

*Thanks, Brandon

Still on Print Media Time

I missed this but, possibly more than anything I have ever posted*, it deserves mention:

Sad news for '80s kids and other fans of quality educational programming. [Friday marked] the final episode of Reading Rainbow, the bookish series that convinced countless kids to view literature as a portal to rousing adventures and interesting discoveries.

Actor LeVar Burton may have a number of more, er, high-profile roles (Kunta Kinte from Roots, Star Trek's visor-sporting Geordie LaForge) on his resume, but to the generations that learned their A-B-Cs from the mid-80s onward, he'll always be best known as the warm and witty host of Reading Rainbow. The classic children's show has been going strong on PBS for just over a quarter of a century. NPR reports that the plug is being pulled because none of the usual suspects (PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, home station WNED Buffalo) wants to pony up the cash necessary to renew Reading Rainbow's broadcast rights.

In the same story, NPR reporter Ben Calhoun claims that, according to WNED content manager John Grant, the show's demise may be connected to an ideological shift within educational programming. One of the fantastic things about Reading Rainbow was the way in which Burton and his producers gently connected the stories in the featured books with children's real-world activities. Instead of approaching literature from a stodgy schoolmarm perspective and focusing on reading as a task that had to be mastered, the show encouraged viewers to use narratives as a jumping-off point for flights of the imagination.

The program's soulful theme song made this idea explicit: "Butterfly in the sky," went the somewhat cloying lyrics, "I can go twice as high. / Take a look, it's in a book / A reading rainbow..." Roll your eyes all you want at the jingle's aspirational tone -- like Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow coaxed kids to make an instinctive, unbreakable connection between dusty old words on a page and their own wild and woolly fantasy lives.

It's truly the end of an era. But as LeVar Burton would say, you don't have to take my word for it.

--Sarah Liss, Things that Go Pop, CBC.ca

I was raised on television. This is the show that made Megan read.

* Relative to this blog, and not the world.

Mad Beats!

I thought I was stoned when I saw this commercial first thing in the morning.



It reminds me a bit of another popular toy.

One Day We Will Look Back and Laugh at This

The Vancouver Sun's bid to get with the times is so adorable. The "THIS TWEET JUST IN" headline just kills me.

Ice Cream is for Lovers

Vermont's legislature - despite their Republican Governor's wishes - passed legislation earlier this year recognizing full marriage equality in the state. That law takes effect [today], September 1, and to celebrate Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's is altering the name of one flavor of ice cream to show their support for same-sex marriage.

From the Ben and Jerry's website

In partnership with Freedom to Marry we are gathered here to celebrate Vermont and all the other great states where loving couples of all kinds are free to marry legally. We have ceremoniously dubbed our iconic flavor, Chubby Hubby [Fudge covered peanut butter filled pretzels in vanilla malt ice cream with fudge and peanut butter!] to Hubby Hubby in support, and to raise awareness of the importance of marriage equality. Check out our press release.

If you live in Vermont, or visiting, you’re invited to celebrate the pride-filled occasion with an all naturally fabulous union of Peanut Butter Cookie Dough ice cream, fudge and pretzels. Enjoy our Hubby Hubby Sundae for the month of September in participating Vermont Scoop Shops!

To learn more about the issue in your state and take action, visit www.freedomtomarry.org

Hubby Hubby will be available across the state at Ben & Jerry's shops, though regular Chubby Hubby tubs will continue to be sold across the rest of the country due to distribution challenges.

via HuffPo, Change.org, and the Advocate

My Fondness for You is Floundering

Doug, how about E (as the evil younger brother of F) Or how about Q (as the deadbeat dad of O)?

Generation A, Coupland's 2009 answer to Generation X, hits bookstores today.

Early reviews indicate little promise of appeal for anyone besides devoted Coupland readers:

As in most Coupland tales, matters such as corporate branding and selective consumerism are wittily portrayed with heightened importance.

The world is also beset by a new prescription drug called Solon, which attenuates people's perception of time, thus enabling transatlantic flights to go by quickly and people to forget about the long-term future and its anxieties. Solon users are never lonely, constantly engaged and happy. Solon is immediately addictive.

This is all fine and dandy, but halfway through the book no story seems to be developing. I want to give this book a fair shake, so I'm worried. Then all five characters are abducted and taken to Haida Gwaii, where a perhaps-mad scientist makes them improvise fictional stories. These pretty much take up the remainder of the book.

--Les Wiseman, Victoria Times Colonist

That said, the Random House website touts the book with glowing quotes from Esquire UK, GQ UK, and the National Post.

I want reviews from anyone who reads it!