Thank you Centre Street Cafe

Not many posts lately due to the Frankfurt Bookfair, but this deviation is worth it. Thank you Centre Street Cafe for giving us one of the best brunch experiences ever.

For the past 6 years we've been going to Centre Street Cafe whenever we desired the most amazing brunch that will last until Monday. Since we've moved we haven't had the ambition to make the trek back to JP. Well we were rewarded today. We were allowed the super secret table downstairs. What's that you say, a secret dining area? Yes, it was the prep area downstairs where a special table for 2 was set up. We dined among the biscuits and produce set for dinner. We had a personal carafe of coffee and a view of mixers, pots, pans and walk-in freezers. It was a private dining room with our own special music- (98.7 playing the scariest songs ever.) For all you fans of Lady and the Tramp, you couldn't get much closer (and with a "scary" single from Michael Bolton, the ambience was perfect). The best part was that we were given a little special treatment from the staff and even got to cut the line. It was one of the best times we've had there. And the Biscuits are Gravy were perfect this morning.

Birthday Greetings

I'm a little late and we didn't get to suprise her for her 30th, so the least I can do is give a little shout-out- Happy Birthday, Craige. May you have a cheesetastic time.

Book Soundtracks- Can't Stop Won't Stop

I mentioned Book soundtracks some time back (long ago when I started Can't Stop Won't Stop) and I still haven't happened upon any sites that offer soundtracks or song listings for books they're reading. So I'm going to start with the book that pushed me over the edge.

First the rules:
A) The soundtrack is can only be 16 songs long. There's something comforting about sticking with the traditional full-length album concept.

I could easily list 50 songs for this particular book- stuff Jeff Chang writes about, songs not mentioned, addendums, personal favorites, etc. But the book does a really good job in listing sources at the back of the book.

B) The songs are not necessarily mentioned in the work but capture the mood and atmosphere of the work. They're meant to be a companion piece to the work. To enhance the flavor, not duplicate it.

Here's my soundtrack to Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang
1) Dead Prez- Hip Hop
2) Sugar Hill Gang- Rapper's Delight
3) Bob Marley and the Wailers- Concrete Jungle
4) Afrika Bambaataa- Planet Rock
5) Blondie- Rapture
6) Dillinger- Cokane in my Brain
7)Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five- the Message
8) Public Enemy- Don't Believe the Hype
9) Eric B. and Rakim- My Melody
10) Toddy Tee- Batter Ram
11) NWA- F--- tha Police I love Amazon's listing- you can read them naughty words in books but not in song titles. Track 17 is really interesting.(ed. note)
12) Ice Cube- The Wrong Nigga ta Fuck Wit
13) Public Enemy- Burn Hollywood Burn
14) Dr. Dre- Let Me Ride
15) Snoop Dogg- Gin and Juice
16) Eminem- Like Toy Soldiers

This story isn't sitting too well in my tummy

Yum.

(found while reading about the Knack, yes that Knack, on Tofu Hut

Google Print Redux

Before I forget to add these, Boing Boing (one of the few daily reads around here) has posted some more on the Author's Guild and Google Print.

Xeni's Op ed
Cory's comment from Sept. 27

But as an industry I think we're still back here.

Let's assume that all the royalties received by artists in every other field are equal and everyone is making the same percentage off their products (and these are not being split between members of the bands, and the producers are not taking a share, etc.). The argument is moot. Just because authors cannot make money on merchandise, touring, endorsements, and so forth, does not mean that used books should be treated differently than used CDs, DVDs, or even used cars and thrift shop clothing. It means the authors need to diversify. At least in the analogy of authors = musicians and other creators. It's absurd to claim that the world owes you more because you chose the wrong artistic profession for maximizing profits. If you want to make more money go be a musician and sell t-shirts, merchandise. Hell, be an author who sells t-shirts; go talk to Neil Pollack about it.

Publishing is a hard gig, and there are things wrong with it, but calling for the revoking of laws that affect several industries because publishing isn't happy is right up there with any other special interest group that feels persecuted because they can't compete in the free market.