Dov Charney, CEO of americanapparel.net is my new hero. He runs a successful garment factory in L.A. And he goes a long way to proving that you can run a successful business w/o exploiting workers or making their lives miserable. The L.A. garment industry is suprisingly third-world. Exploitation of all kinds and unsafe/unhealthy working conditions are par for the course. But it doesn’t have to be that way. PBS did a nice short film profile of the company last night. It was refreshing. It gives me hope.
I finally finished a book! I’ve had the hardest time finishing a work of fiction since I turned in my thesis and completed my M.A. in English. After years of being forced to read, it seemed like the last thing I wanted to do (even though I’ve always loved reading and always loved reading the classics in particular). I’ve read a good book here and there, but most of my efforts have been focused on pragmatically useful things: like php, mysql, java, linux systems administration, etc. But I picked up J. M. Coetzee’s novel Youth on Sunday and kicked through it in two days. I’m at the library right now, and I have his Disgrace with me (which won the Booker Prize in 1999). I’m looking forward to it.
I don’t get it, some self-important “journalist” for an ezine posts a list of albums he (she?) hates and suddenly I find it blogged everywhere, with lots of lemming-like head nodding. It’s like blogging that your favorite color is blue and that everyone else is confused if they like red. Sure, there’s some crap on the list, but there’s also plenty of good stuff that he’s slagging just because the other hipsters will be too afraid of loosing their cred if they admit they ever liked anything popular.