October, 3, 2004 archives

slick: a novel by daniel price is a very clever first novel by a los angeles writer, set in the intersecting world of crisis pr management, the rap industry, and the news media. besides having all the necessary elements of a great novel (plot, characters, dialogue), it’s also loaded with all sorts of clever and interesting tidbits.

the official website for the book has a good chapter-by-chapter reader’s guide. it fills in some bits of back-story, explains some plot and character points, and points out the real events that are woven into the story. (it is full of spoilers, so read it after the book.)

should i blame the book for making me more sensitive to how the author is often billed as a media critic and the guy behind abused by the news, a site whose creation only barely pre-dates the publication of the book, and he doesn’t really seem to have any real background as a media critic beyond that? (which is not to say he does not deserve to be recognized as a media critic. but i think the book is leverage into that, as opposed to a background in media criticism being the leverage into writing a novel that borrows from that field.)

(i picked up the book based on the mention over at la observed, which provides a peek behind the scenes of a pr stunt used to promote the book.)

i’ve been noticing a real upswing in good t-shirts for sale on the web lately. it’s like a distributed second wave following the earlier mini-cottage-industry of cafe press products. this please touch my monkey shirt and the others from glarkware is an example, as are the shirts from threadless.

threadless is a really interesting example of this. it’s run like a kuro5hin for shirt designs, with designs being submitted and voted upon by the users.