I’m working on an article for the SCORECast online web portal, and decided to dig up a classic tome on music, sound and psychoacoustics - The Psychology of Music, by Carl E. Seashore. It’s a 1960s era work, and I expected it to be hard to find. To my surprise I found not only that Barnes & Noble listed it, but that they had a copy at their store at the Grove. So I reserved it and rode over the hill into Hollywood to pick it up.
It occured to me that I could take this opportunity to look up a few other books that I’ve had in mind for a while, and if they were available I’d check them out in person and consider adding them to my bookshelf. I went to the customer service counter to inquire about a book on video editing – Sony Vegas Pro 8 Workshop by Douglas Spotted Eagle. When I got there, the lady working the desk was caught on the phone with someone that seemed to have both a hearing problem and a speech impediment. While I was waiting my turn, I noticed that there was a stack of books that caught my eye…
Mind you – I think digestive health is a very important subject. But it struck me as an “only in LA” thing where they’d put the book right on the front edge of the customer service desk. I know that this town is notorious for pushing every kind of self-help book under the sun, but this is a bit over the top.
So I found the the Vegas book as well as another, and went to find a place to sit down for a few minutes, thumb through each of my choices to decide whether or not I was going to take them home. I found a bench right in front of a reading/signing area that was fully stocked for their next event.
Speaking of self-help (of a sort), here’s another example of “only in LA” – but then of course that’s probably not completely true. After all, I’m sure there will be other stops on the book tour for this reality TV celeb. I’ve worked on “unscripted TV” projects, so I’m not going to reflexively turn my nose up – particularly when it’s a book signing at a store in Hollywood of all places.
But by the same token it does kind of feel like it’s impossible to get away from the “reality TV” vibe that seems to be taking over our pop culture. This isn’t to rail against this person, their TV show, or the sub-genre of television that it represents for that matter. It’s more about taking note that this is just a blatant sign-o-the-times, that what sells gets the marquee, and in the search for intellectual stimulation you’d do better to find a public or university library.
So I paid for the books, packed up the bike and dashed through early rush-hour traffic to get home before things got really crazy. It’ll give me time to set up for dinner and then do something I’ve not done in a long time – read a good book.
