DVD sales weakening in response to economic crisis

Hollywood’s cash cow, DVD sales are faltering in response to consumer concerns about the economic crisis.   Its a common wisdom that economic hard times boost use of libraries, clearly as consumers choose to purchase less DVDs for their home collections, they’ll be walking through our doors looking for something to watch at home.

From the New York Times

DVDs, Hollywood’s Profit Source, Are Sagging

…  So far, total DVD sales are down by about 4 percent for the year, with most of that weakness coming in October, according to data compiled by Warner Brothers, the largest distributor of DVDs. The independent tracking service Nielsen VideoScan paints a bleaker picture, reporting a 9 percent drop in overall DVD sales during the third quarter alone and a 22 percent decline in sales of higher-priced new titles, although its data does not include results at Wal-Mart.

Most troubling, industrywide sales of next-generation Blu-ray discs — promoted as a high-definition technology that will restore growth to the medium — are growing but will miss sales projections for the year by 25 percent or more, according to Warner.

posting by Jim

roll out the red carpet

the winners for the National Book Award are:

• Young People’s Literature: “What I Saw and How I Lied” by Judy Blundell (on order)
• Fiction:  “Shadow Country” by Peter Matthiessen
• Nonfiction: “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” by Annette Gordon-Reed
• Poetry: “Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems” by Mark Doty (on order)

Give ‘em What They Want does a nice round-up of articles about the winners.

posting by marin

Ivan Doig and Sherry Jones on the same list?!

The shortlist for the 2009 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award consists of 12 books written or illlustrated by Northwest authors and published in 2008.  Selected by a committee of independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, the final list of no more than six titles is available in mid-December; the winners will be announced in January.  The shortlist includes:

• “American Buffalo:  In Search of a Lost Icon” by Steven Rinella
• “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein
• “Conquistador:  Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs” by Buddy Levy
• “The Eleventh Man” by Ivan Doig
• “The English Major” by Jim Harrison
• “Guernica” by Dave Boling
• “The Jewel of Medina” by Sherry Jones
• “Little Hoot” illustrated by Jen Corace
• “Selected Poems:  1970-2005″ by Flood Skloot
• “Shopping for Porcupine:  A Life in Arctic Alaska” by Seth Kanter
• “Wild Beauty:  Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957″ by Terry Toedtemeier and John Laursen
• “The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer’s Life” by Floyd Skloot

(via Shelf Awareness)

posting by marin

5 ways that Sandman changed the world

From io9, November 25th by Graeme Mcmillan

This week saw the 20th anniversary of the release of the first issue of The Sandman, Neil Gaiman’s now-classic fantasy series that rewrote the rules of mainstream comics more than once in its’ 75-issue run. Without Sandman, we may never have seen comics like Fables, Y: The Last Man or The Invisibles… but on the other hand, we probably wouldn’t have had to suffer through the CGI Beowulf movie, either. To celebrate Morpheus’ 20th birthday, we look at five ways in which entertainment is different because of comics’ favorite dream god.

It may sound like hyperbole to say that The Sandman changed the face of entertainment, and it is, to an extent – but there’s no denying that Sandman changed the face of the comic book industry, and that comics are one of the more dominant forces in pop culture these days (Don’t believe me? My friends Iron Man and The Dark Knight may be able to convince you). The series also made a star out of writer Neil Gaiman, allowing him to step into the roles of screenwriter and New York Times-bestselling novelist, and also inspired careers for people as disparate as Tori Amos and writer G. Willow Wilson. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’re the five ways in which I think that Sandman changed the worlds we watch, read about and imagine today:

So what are the 5 ways?  Go to http://io9.com/5086663/5-ways-that-sandman-changed-the-world

Becky Buckingham

sucked in by marketing

Stephen King’s freshly minted collection of short stories, “Just After Sunset,” came with a teaser video version of “N,” an obsessive compulsive who thinks he can spread his crazy to other people.  King partnered with Marvel Comics and Simon & Schuster to create a series of animated shorts.  the result is quite brilliant and mesmerizing.

Stephen King speaks

posting by marin with technical assistance by jim

the series are coming, the series are coming

yesterday, our fabulous directed field work student, Cara, finished up a major series order, filling gaps in the more popular series (mostly mysteries).  456 titles made it to the final list.  about 1/2 are available through one of the major vendors, the other 1/2 will be bought through the amazon marketplace, using every bit of Tracy’s more than fabulous acquisition skillz.  when available, hardbacks will be purchased to prevent the endless cycle of mass market paperback replacement.  it will probably take a few months to start seeing them on the shelves.

posting by marin

inanimate objects are best

personally, i prefer my historical romance covers with a house or a flower or…anything is better than the heaving bosoms and bare chests.  though i’ve read romances since high school (when my mom wasn’t looking), i still can’t get over the cringe factor of some of the covers.  apparently, the clinch is still in vogue – Carrie Feron of Avon says that they’re “pro-clinch.”  i wouldn’t mind if it went away.

(via Smart Bitches)

posting by marin

mtv knows what you shouldn’t be allowed to hear

MTV and musician Weird Al Yankovic are locked in a censorship battle over his song about file sharing, “Don’t Download This Song”.  So why would MTV not want you to hear Mr. Yankovic’s song?  Does he drop a bunch of F bombs? No he doesn’t and that isn’t why they won’t play his song unedited.  Stand back here comes the words that got his song censored by MTV.

• Morpheus
• Grokster
• Limewire
• Kazaa

That’s right a few references to music file sharing sites will get you banned from MTV, and that’s LAME.

If you want to hear his song and the accompanying video, you’ll have to go to Youtube or MySpace.

do you know george?

George, being George a new book detailing the life of George Plimpton, looks to be a great read. Plimpton’s life was a remarkable one, and in some ways reminds me of the film Forrest Gump, of course only if Forrest had been incredibly brilliant.

Read the New York Times review

See if you can spot the thing that Plimpton didn’t actually do?

1. Was at Bobby Kennedy’s side when he was assassinated, and wrestled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground following the shooting.
2. Played goaltender for the Boston Bruins
3. Played quarterback for the Detroit Lions-back when the Lions were a good football team. Yeah, I know it was a long, long time ago.
4. Was a drinking buddy of Ernest Hemingway in Havana after Castro lead the revolution in Cuba.
5. Was a sparring partner for heavyweight boxing world champion Archie Moore
6. Editor for literary quarterly Paris Review
7. Worked as a trapeze artist in a circus.
8. Played triangle in the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein
9. Had speaking parts in several films starring alongside, John Wayne, (Rio Bravo), Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia), and Warren Beatty (Reds).
10. Played on the PGA tour with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus

George Plimpton, originally uploaded by bluelephant.

The answer is that this is a trick question, he did all of these things.

posting by jim

hairball? or charming kitty biopic

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Variety announced the other day, that a film version of Dewey is in the planning stages  and ooh, ooh, ooh Meryl Streep will star!

Streep is attached to star in the adaptation of the Vicki Myron book “Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.” Pamela Gray will pen the script.

Streep intends to play the author, who works at the library and observed the impact that a kitten had on the townsfolk once it became the library mascot after wandering in through the after-hours book return slot on a cold night.

photo by jim mccluskey

My personal bias runs more towards Rin Tin Tin than Dewey so even if Dewey isn’t my cup of kibble perhaps you’ll love it.

posting by jim