Did you notice that today was 05 05 05? Fifth month, fifth day, 2005 year? At 5:05 I was making wishes, mostly for the work day to end.

Over the week I have been recording quotes, which taken out of context seem even more bizarre, and some even poignant. Here are my favourites:

“I know just enough about astrology to be dangerous.”

“It’s hard to bomb a country if you’ve broken bread with its people.”

“Choose your destiny. You &*#@*^”

“Africa is the new India.”

It has been an interesting week.

ADDITION: How could I forget! The week started with “Pimping ain’t easy, but it’s easier in these.”

Canadian Press last week reported that Sears Canada Inc. has hired the services subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc. to provide ìa more robust online shopping experienceî at sears.ca.

Oh the joy. What does this mean tech-wise? Will there be books?

Quote: “This is a significant business initiative with aggressive growth opportunities and other long-term benefits and is planned with a substantial return on investment,î stated Brent Hollister, president and CEO of Sears Canada. ìIt is important to us to incorporate web features that make sears.ca as user-friendly as todayís technology allows,î Hollister added. Sears will concentrate on its ìcore competencies including merchandising, marketing, fulfillment and customer service.î

Other Amazon Services clients include Target.com and NBA.com.

Now whatever happened to the talks between Zellers and Target? Have you been to a Target. They’ve got books. What are the odds of Sears adding books? Does anyone remember the book department at the Bay? Mmmm. Memories. I think I got a Zamfir record signed in book department of the Bay in 1982 or ’83.

What’s the deal with this single transferable vote? Well I think it is probably the only exciting thing about the upcoming election.

The May 17 provincial election ballot in British Columbia will contain a referendum question about whether the province should switch to a new method of voting, called the single transferable vote.

The Citizens Assembly, which proposed the concept, shows how the proposed system works.

Here’s the link to the Citizensassembly.bc.ca Resource page with a flash animation on how it works.

Below is an abbreviated message from THE CORPORATION Producer/Director Mark Achbar and Campaign Strategist Katherine Dodds. They’ve started a movement against corporate misrule and are encouraging people to mark May 7 as THE CORPORATION DVD House Party and live online debate.

Check out TheCorporation.com/debate for details.

Quote: There are 8 hours of extra features on the 2-DVD set. It includes a “toolkit” called “What to do?” in the Q’s & A’s section of Disc 1, and the “Topical Paradise” on Disc 2 offers a road map to the extra info on the issues, including a wide-ranging one-hour section on “Strategies For Change.” As well, there are many more weblinks listed and a DVD ROM feature that works in PCs and Macs to make those links live and clickable. —Mark Achbar

It’s party time:

Quote: If we can generate 1000 house parties across North America, and they have on average 10 people attending, then we have 10,000 people brainstorming about what we can do to effect change. If each of those 10,000 people forward the email about our campaign to 10 more, well you get the picture!

Katherine wants to create a “Framework For Action” document, leading to a campaign to reduce corporate harm. She is collecting online feedback from partygoers and is working on an online grassroots network through HelloCoolWorld.com.

MAY 7, 2005 is the day to party!

INFO ABOUT THE DVD HOUSE PARTY CAMPAIGN & DEBATE AT:
http://www.TheCorporation.com/DEBATE

I bought a PSP this week. Mmmmmm. It is a handsome little machine. Unfortunately for me I have to give it to someone else. Regardless, portable entertainment has arrived. It is a very sweet looking package, slim, great screen, and you can play games, music and movies. Also good for photos. I fear the thing will get easily scratch, but what’s a little wear and tear. Love nips really.

If only it could offer wireless phone and internet … I looked at the Fido Hiptop2. Blech. It looks big and ugly.

I’m waiting for the sexy little machine that will solve all my wireless work/play needs.

James sent me this peek at things to come, check out Jason Kottke’s post:

The Sony Librie.

Quote: The thing that blew me away was the Sony Librie, the first commerically available electronic ink e-book reader. Here’s a photo I took:

What you can’t see from the photo is how insanely crisp and clear the text on the “screen” is. It was book-text quality…it looked like a decal until you pushed the next button and the whole screen changed. It was *really* mind-boggling and you could instantly see how most books are going to be distributed in the very near future.

Ah, books and the future, a subject close to my heart.

I think there’s a separate post in me regarding future distribution models for books. Stay tuned, the life of the mind isn’t exactly reliable or timely. I find lately I’ve been reflecting on the book industry and where it should be going. These are fleeting moments of brilliance that have yet to make it onto paper.

Not associating myself with genius, just an interesting segway, Albert Einstein apparently felt like an underachiever.

In my case, I’m testing Newton’s theory of relative motion. A body at rest will remain at rest. I’ve noticed in my house this does not apply, “oh, are you having a nap?”

What gave it away? The pillow? The horizontal position? The closed eyes?

Last night I went on a guided literary tour with host and author Michael V. Smith. As one friend put it, “I’d follow Michael V. Smith anywhere.” The Literary Tour was part of BC’s Book and Magazine Week.

Fun and prizes were involved.

Destination 1 was Pulp Fiction. Talon Books presented bill bissett, Jamie Reid and George Bowering.

Destination 2 was Lark. Raincoast Books presented Karen X. Tulchinsky. Whitecap Books presented Julie Van Rosendaal. And apparently delectable finger foods were provided. I joined the tour a little late.

Destination 3 was Burcus’s Angels. Event Magazine presented a reading.

Destination 4. Enter Monique. Soma Coffee House. Anvil Press and Nightwood Editions presented Fiona Tinwei Lam — I liked her poems, Matt Rader — he was good too, but the music from Monsoon was rattling off the window I was sitting against and I got distracted, but his new book looks beautiful, and last was Lyle Neff whose son was in the audience. Lyle read a poem about his son’s death. He did, of course, make a joke about the darkness of his work, “there are happy poems in the book.”

Destination 5. I got my second event punch, one more and I was on my way to winning prizes. Our Town Cafe, my most favourite haunt and home of Henry’s Americano. Dance International Magazine presented a dance and a dance critic introduced the soloist. It was a modern piece that moved around the room. And I won a prize for knowing that Bournonville worked with the National Ballet of Denmark. Oh it was my good fortune to have a copy of the Spring 2005 issue on my table, with the headline “Bournonville’s Legacy — Danish Dance and Beyond.” Denmark was fed to me.

Destination 6 was in THE most interesting building, home of FRONT Magazine. There was a sign on the stairwell that said “denouement” and at one point everyone at my table upstairs passed around a sign “Climax.” I had a Lager and another chance at prizes. There was also a stack of Tylenol on my table.

It was pretty fun, essentially we followed Michael V. Smith around. He was dressed as a ringleader with pink and red knee high socks, black suit and top hat. Under the top hat was a frog.

And people think the arts are unaccessible?

Here’s a random round-up of book news:

Grumpy Old Bookman is talking about the UK publishing industry’s support or denunciation of Google Print. The comments can be extended to the North American publishing industry. Are we for or against? It depends what day it is and who’s asking. Here’s the post.

On The Tyee, Lisa Richardson comments on “The Art of Book Dropping.” In particular she talks about BookCrossing.com. Let your books wander. Read the article.

Paul Kennedy of CBC fame is quoted in John Mullan’s column in the Guardian, regarding a movement to make Leonard Cohen the next recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Quote: “Now one of the best-known radio broadcasters on the CBC, the Canadian equivalent of the BBC, is leading a campaign to have MontrÈal’s own bard given this year’s Nobel prize for literature.”
Get the full meal deal, read the Guardian article or just listen to The Man, leonardcohen.com.

Seems everyone’s favourite wizard was put in his place on Thursday. The German version of Amazon had three of the Pope’s books in the top spots on the charts, pushing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (coming July 16) to fourth place.

Fourth place. Outrageous! Well, outrageous really that an unpublished book has sat at #1 since its publication was announced in December.

From Regular Joe to JO. Both JOs have gone from unknown to superstar. Both JOs have a small empires. Both JOs have book deals. It is nice that someone is making money in publishing.

My favourite independent US bookstore, Powells, has posted a Green Press Initiative section in recognition of publishers who support the forest-friendly paper initiative. Read about Green Press Initiative.

I was also pleased to see mention of Alice Munro on the wire today. Canadian Press is reporting “The fictional wizard Harry Potter and real-life renowned writer Alice Munro are helping to spearhead a made-in-Canada environmental campaign designed to save the world’s endangered old-growth forests.” Go team!

Markets Initiative is the Vancouver-based environmental group who is working with the Canadian publishing industry to shift from printing on paper that originates from ancient forests to more ecologically sound alternatives, like 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

I’d like to point out that recycled paper is not what it was originally. It is not grey or brown or trashy like newspapers. High-quality recycled paper is out there, and it makes a lot of sense to support the publishers and authors who take a stand–Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Farley Mowat, Barbara Gowdy, Alice Munro, McClelland & Stewart, Raincoast Books, 35 Canadian mags including Canadian Geographic, Walrus, Harrowsmith Country Life, Owl and Cottage Life. I know I’m missing people and I apologize. The point is the economies of scale, the more demand for this paper, the more the printers will source it, the less it will cost, the better it will be for the world.

Here are some of the facts from the CP story:
ï 80% of the world’s large tracts of old-growth forest have already been logged.

ï Canada, Russian and Brazil hold the vast majority of what’s left

ï Northern Canada is home to 25% of the world’s remaining frontier ancient forests

ï Globally, 71% of the world’s paper comes from ecologically valuable forests, rather than from tree farms.

Check the back cover or the copyright page for the tag line on forest-friendly books. It usually something like “This book is printed on acid-free paper that is 100% recycled, ancient-forest friendly (100% post-consumer recycled).”

It’s Earth Day on Thursday. Love the rock you live on.