Tag: Tower Records

Vietnam still loves reading

Huffington Post picks up a piece from Vietnam news, featuring used book shops in present day HCMC.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/13/used-bookstores-vietnam_n_714522.html

If you don’t know, you would think the city was on wheels. But in some quiet corners, you still find students and researchers actually reading and browsing

just as you would find at a B&N here.

The piece did not mention the rise of e-books, which is very similar to the rise of wikipedia when it overtook Britannica  i.e. used book shops will soon follow the way of Tower Records or note pad when I pad overtook it.

In the piece, we learn that used bookshop owners know their stocks. They serve as knowledge curators.  A prisoner wrote and asked for a list of books to self-reform.

Or some Vietnamese, before resettling abroad, sell all their books to these shops.

The stacks sit there, waiting to be discovered, to come alive.

The joy of reading will never be overtaken by web surfing or DVD watching.

One reads in order not to be alone.

Linearity triggers other parts of the brain, perhaps makes all sorts of connection and link.

Fragments of information finally joined in and mashed up to help one connect the dots.

The same way wiki contributors are helping to shape world’s evolving knowledge.

So used book stores in Saigon stood the test of time: war, post-war, and pre-industrialization.

All sorts of novels translated directly from Japanese, German, East European languages and of course, French.

They are there, dusted everyday, like ancient swords awaiting  for our heroes/warriors.

In this case, peace time has turned swords into plowshares.

It’s time to read, learn, and self-cultivate.

It’s time to build knowledge, to catch up with ROW (rest of the world).

I love old book shops. I happened to be born just a block away from them.

But now the journey for me to get to those shops takes  24 hours.

Still I know they are there, awaiting my next visit.

That’s the thing about books: wisdom that stood the test of time. A loyal friend.

 

The three towers

Tower Records and Twin Towers.

All came down.

I remember watching it over and over in disbelief.

My “where were you when Kennedy was assassinated” moment. My friend even commented on my being so upset.

And I remember blurting out that a culture with Howard Stern throwing bagels at cream-cheesed butts on TV  was in collision with a culture which condones woman stoning. The two could not co-exist .

Yet, after nine years, I saw a planned Quran-burning pastor standing next to a Muslim cleric who wants to build a Mosque in lower Manhattan.

It’s an unusual line up on PBS, yet not Howard Stern show.

Things have never been the same after the three towers came down.

After 11/9, we no longer have East Germany. After 9/11, we live life so exposed and vulnerable (traveling has been more difficult, with shoes off etc…).

I am sure I have mailed less packages, if at all. We read more and know more about
the Others (I wouldn’t have known about the many shades of Islam in Iraq for instance, thanks to the likes of Thomas Friedman, expert on Middle East affairs. )

And suddenly, we find ourselves living in a multi-polar world, one in which nations stand together to condemn acts of terrorism and extremism.

(I am glad people with decency spoke up against the Gainesville pastor’s plan and bluff).

Have we learned anything? or just react Pavlovianly?  Tit for tat. A bagel here, a stone there.

I couldn’t articulate my feelings to my friend. I am not sure I can now, after years of processing those emotions.

I just knew then that the world, as we knew it, would never be the same.

It flash backed that mass grave scene in Hue I saw on TV back in 1968 (Tet), when CBS anchor said it was a stalemate -signifying VN war ‘s turning point.

With 68 came 75 and my vanishing innocence.

With 9/11, my confidence in Good triumph over Evil. What a decade it has been (for both towers and treasury).

I couldn’t tell my friend then how I felt since I was in shock (while he was probably in denial) .  I realize now, that even with the same event, people react in various ways. I hear myself pledge my allegiance once more to the flag, but knowing that I am too old to enlist. It’s a different kind of warfare now. But it still demands courage, sacrifice and willingness to draw a line in the sand. Evil hasn’t changed. Just its manifestation. And we need not to forget enormous harm it has brought on us all, one tower at a time. When Tower Records folded, it was quoted that “it was the day the music died.” 9/11 has been humanity’s double death. We are mourning still, widows, widowers and watchers by. The only thing that should be burned is the hate that resides in us all. Don’t take it out on anyone or anything. Use it, to rebuild better towers.

 

Tang, Sanka and Google instant

Tang was well-known way back then, as the drink of choice for astronauts.

Sanka had been in every motel room, before the green de-caffeine (equivalent of conditioner that is coupled with shampoo) bags came to existence.

And now Google Instant, promised to be faster and more magical.

Can’t data mine faster than that.

The wisdom of crowd interacts with the wisdom of machine. IQ vs AI.

We were amazed at Luke’s drink (in Star Wars). Now we know why? The speed of everything has been quickened.

I prepared lunch for myself and my daughter today.

I found myself very impatient with the process: chopping, heating, eating and cleaning.

Would it be easier to eat out of  Instant Cup O Noodles? (which made the Noodle King richer than Burger King).

Nobody knows you are a dog on the internet. But you must be the top dog. Search engine and crawlers show SEO, be it the best or not.

Only the highest page-ranked items are displayed above-the-fold. With Linkedin Social endorsement, we have invented the online equivalent of “street cred” (the age of Lordship is back, albeit in new currency)

I remember browsing through a section of the library, just to see what’s placed close by.

Now with Google instant, I won’t get to do all that. It will “ping” right away displaying only the search term.

We are back to data silos, to our own “cubicle”. Hence the danger of isolation and the need for integration.

The Web gives us vast data pool, Google instant narrows it down. A personalized version of Google trend.

Ph.D. candidates are having a field day narrow down their thesis.

( Once you can articulate the problem and find no existing research done on the topic,  you are half way to the degree.)

I am glad for competition in Search and instant Search.

It’s tough enough having to deal with spam, and unsolicited mail (data deluge).

BTW, the NYT might stop to exist in physical form. It’s experiment on-line has been successful, so much that it threatens the print side.

The tipping point came when people bought more e version than hard-cover version.

Save a tree, save a buck , but not B&N.

No longer do we browse other books while shopping for a new release.

Save gas, save space and save time. Instant gratification. Boy oh boy, what am I going to do with my existing book collection?

Another “Tower” is down (referring to Tower Records, which went busted after MP3). I don’t think Goodwill will accept all the book donation in the future,

the same way it is inundated with tube TV‘s. We are witnessing  a near complete transition to digital, one which is overtaking our lives a zero and a 1 at a time.

My plea: be patient with yourself. And if you have to prepare lunch, try not to use the microwave. Not that it’s not fast, it’s just that with our current expectation, even microwave speed seems so slow in the age of Google Instant. Use those free minutes for a Tweet that might go viral.