Willie & Joe

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:49:30 +0900

People sometimes find this hard to believe, but I have a hard time expressing myself. I can write well enough, and if you want a quip, a wisecrack, or a smart remark, well, I can give you those a little too easily. But when it comes to saying what I feel, especially about another person, face to face, the words don't come out. Or they do but no one can understand them for the sobs and tears that accompany them.

I don't know why this is, but I've had this problem as long as I can remember. Saying what I mean, emotionally, is difficult to the point of handicap for me.

And then it's Christmas or a birthday or Father's Day and I can't get the words out and I won't write them down. So I do what any good 'Merican does: I buy things. I look for presents that the people in my life would really like but probably have no idea exist; I look for things that will make them happy if only for a few minutes. I look for things with meaning, either to myself or to them, perferably to both of us. I look for things that express the consideration and regard I have for them and which I seem to be unable to say.

This Father's Day, I got my dad, who's a veteran, a collection of comics put out by the wonderful Fantagraphics Press. The collection is a two volume edition of all the Willy & Joe comics published in newspapers during World War II, by Bill Mauldin.

Dad loved it. And I hope he understands that by giving it to him, I really mean that I love him too.

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eMusic Audiobooks

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:29:43 +0900

eMusic

My favorite, and highly recommended, legal music download service, eMusic, has just added Audiobooks to their service.

eMusic works on a subscription basis. I pay a monthly fee of around $20 USD and am able to download 90 tracks per month. The tracks can be from any album, from any genre, from any artist I choose, provided they have licensed their music to eMusic.

And now, for an addtional $10 USD per month, subscribers can choose an audiobook to download as well.

The selection is modest at the moment, although several well-known and popular authors are represented, as well as a good selection of the classics, and eMusic promises to add more authors and books on a regular basis.

I decided to try out my membership with William Gibson's Spook Country and Jonathan Lethem's You Don't Love Me Yet. The downloads were quick and easy, and, unlike, Audible, eMusic breaks each book into hundreds of tracks to make listening workable on any device. The files are good quality mp3s, just like the music, and will play on any music player.

$10 may seem like a lot for a single audiobook, but, considering that the same books often run $50 or $60 on CD, the price suddenly seems much more reasonable.

For someone like me - I have an hour long commute to work - this is a welcome addition to a service I already loved and I am looking forward to being able to get many, many books this way.

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Smiley's Tropical Escape

Willie & Joe

eMusic Audiobooks