21st August Weekly Roundup

I started writing this roundup on the plane to Denver on the 10th. Let the time lag to posting serve as evidence of how busy press week is, and how totally exhausted I am upon my return home. Here’s what I started out with on the 10th:

Here I am in a window seat (sans window, thankyouverymuch United Airlines) on flight 1124 direct to Denver, and here’s what I’m thinking.

I am so tired. Maybe it’s good there isn’t a window next to me, so I can sleep in the relative dimness.

I’m writing this on my iPhone. Neat.

A woman in the washroom earlier commented on my t-shirt. It says, “Sometimes I worry about zombies.” When a toilet made a funny noise, she said to me with a smile, “Maybe there’s a zombie in it.”

When I finally arrived in Loveland a couple of hours after landing in Denver (this involved an hour-long coach-bus ride, which I love every time I go to Interweave HQ [I once calculated that I’ve spent a total of around three months of my life on a coach bus]), I saw, all within a five-minute span, two late-middle-age people on stand-up motorized scooters, one young adult on a squat three-giant-wheeled scooter, and one child on a regular-old stand-up scooter. Those were the only scooters I saw the whole time I was in Loveland, lest you get the impression everyone in the city of sweethearts learned about personal transport from GOB Bluth.

I’m going to write an On Editing post about press week, so I’ll save you from redundancy by saying nothing more of it here. And so now onto the beloved (by me, at least) bulleted list.

• I finished reading Blindness, by Jose Saramago, last night. It would seem I picked this summer to read devastating books about the humanity that arises out of human destruction. This book is genius, and I’m sure my saying it will sway you to read it just as much as the badge on the cover announcing its winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Out of solidarity with a friend, I subscribed to Very Short List, and then proceeded to be delighted by the daily email. I’ll do you the favour of passing on that you must run, not walk, to the site for the new David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, and spend $9 on the kickass download for some instant really, really good music satiation.
• Want to know more about the business of publishing? I’ve barely made a dent in this in-depth explanation, but it’s good.
• I am one hundred percent in favour of reopening the discussion of the legal drinking age in the U.S. Two reasons: First, discussion is good and healthy, and the speed with which various groups have made it politically impossible to have this discussion is alarming and unsettling. Second, I think the drinking age in the U.S. isn’t doing a damn thing to curb underage drinking, and likely is quite a hefty contributor to dangerous drinking among “minors”. I feel funny calling people under 21 minors, on account of them being able to vote and enlist. I’ll leave it at that.
• I’m going to a family function this weekend, and will be blissfully unplugged. Unless, you know, there’s wireless in the hotel my iPhone can pick up.
• Oh, right. Get this. Remember how I said that my formal request to interview Joss Whedon made it to at least one degree from him via two different sources? As it turns out, a few days after I wrote that yet another avenue was pursued. And yesterday I awoke to an email from the person who followed that route, saying she heard from Whedon’s assistant. And although nothing is set up yet, what his assistant said is that Joss is “definitely interested” but that he’s really busy directing Dollhouse right now. So I emailed her my phone number and told her to be in touch any time. I’m now confident this interview will happen, likely sooner than later. But again, nothing’s definite.
• And really, I hope we can do it sooner rather than later, because in mid-September I’m going on a doozy of a business trip:
  • First leg: Back to Cleveland to tape series 200 of Knitting Daily TV.
  • Second leg: Driving up to Lansing, MI, for a wicked exciting thing I can’t tell you more about yet. But if you live within driving distance (I’ll be driving four hours to get there; just sayin’), keep an eye out.
  • Third leg: Chicago for the Folio show I mentioned in my last post. I’ve never been to a magazine-industry event, and I’m excited. And I won’t know a soul there. Not a one.
• I’ve just started reading Twilight. It’s like crack. For my brain.