Yesterday I attended one of publishing's largest tradeshows, Book Expo America. Wow. Talk about getting a feel for your industry. My current employer found no "business reason" for me to attend and hence would not reimburse me for a day pass, but luckily a former employer had an extra pass and "business reasons" be damned, happily forked it over. Many thanks to my old chums for the opportunity!

Basically it was an enormous cavern of publishers with free stuff to give out, and people were loading up: I don't think there was a single person who didn't have a tote bag chock full of free booty. My only two celebrity sightings: Spike Lee and George from The Apprentice. There were some Storm Troopers walking around with Darth Vader though, and a skinny Babar who turned out to be a miserable looking 16-year old boy.

I got to meet one of my publishing heroes, Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House Books and Moby Lives. What a great guy! I'm going to try and stay in touch with him. He is also the author of the absolute must-read The Big Chill: The Great Unreported Story of the Bush Inauguration Protest.

My other publishing hero, Johhny Temple of Akashic Books was mobbed each time I strolled past the booth, so I didn't get a chance to gush at him and make a fool of myself, which I inevitably would have ended up doing.

I went to a panel about the Patriot Act called "Is Someone Reading Over Your Shoulder?" which was mediated by the ABFFE. One of the panelists, Jerry Nadler, gave a chilling insider's perspective on how the Patriot Act was actually passed. He said the vote on the Patriot Act was "imposed" rather than "debated," that the Republicans used their usual melodramatic flag-waving language to try and scare them by saying there would be "blood on their hands" if they didn't vote for the Patriot Act. He also pointed out what may be the sneakiest detail of the Patriot Act: its name. Nadler pointed it out that the Republicans named it the "Patriot Act" precisely so they could call those who questioned it un-Patriotic. Bastards!

Picked up a catalog from Princeton Architectural Press. The catalog is beautiful - I highly recommend requesting one, not only because they have amazing titles (Prefab Prototypes and Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography to name only two), but it's just plain old nice to look at. I think they are going to become one of my favorite imprints.

I also got a copy of What is Goth? by Voltaire, which is pretty hilarious. He talks about being a teenager in suburban New Jersey and sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night to watch videos on "Night Flight," which is how he discovered The Cure, Adam and the Ants, and other goth/new-wave bands. I'm convinced this is how all kids who were into this music discovered it: by sneaking out of their bedrooms in the middle of the night to watch videos on TV. Worked for me!