As usual at this time of the semester, I’ve been preoccupied with teaching responsibilities, which overloads my ability and desire to blog, much less write anything extended (typed as I recall I have two essays to write that I completely forgot about). Excuses, excuses, right? Let’s be content with a wee update and I’ll spare you the dramatic story of my office building being occupied by protesting students yesterday, the impending 32% fee hike that will make a Berkeley education out of reach for many of my current students (and the similar fee hikes throughout the Cal State and community college systems), the sign on said building’s elevator reading “repairs delayed due to budget cuts”, the wonder about how disabled students are supposed to get to upper floor classes, and so on. I believe the word for the place I work right now would be “clusterf*ck”, but I am proud to be a part of the solidarity between students, faculty and staff that’s unfolding across the UC system.

However, there are bright points in any dark time, and I’m pleased to report that Slanted and Enchanted has a few kicks left in it even at the sixth month old mark. I did an interview with Tim O’Shea about the book, which you can read here, and there’s an interesting entry over at Carrie Brownstein’s NPR Monitor Mix blog about how people define the word indie (with some thoughtful contributions by people I interviewed for the book).As I prepare to put a period on my years of talking about indie and move on to an entirely different topic and project, I’m heartened that people are still out there fighting the good fight and DIYing the good DIY. Props.

And I’ll try to remember all of them! Book tour wrapup, radio, news and links to follow:

• Thing the first is that I’ll be on KALX today from noon - 12: 30 for Arts in Review with Greg Sharpen. KALX is the best college radio station ever. Streams online if you’re not in the Bay.
• Powell’s was amazing. What a great, interested, informed crowd, awesome staff, great ambiance. It’s really Carnegie Hall for writers. Special thanks to Kevin Sampsell for hosting and writing the best introduction ever (comparing the book to an indie version of The Tipping Point); my sister Betsy Oakes for putting us up and bringing so many friends; my mom for flying up and clomping to the store with her foot in a cast; Douglas for taking us to the Bosnian food cart and for sending this cartoon, which explains the whole hipster phenomenon better than I can, and Sage for being my media escort (which involved a lot of patient dealing with my tantrums over being cold and lost in Seattle).
• While I was in Portland, I did an interview with Jeff Baker, the books editor at The Oregonian, which is online now and will be in the paper on Friday.
• The Cleveland Plain Dealer gave the book a swell review on Sunday, which has led to some good discussions about why some cities’ indie scenes fall off the radar while others get tons of media.
• Speaking of media, if you’re interested in the future of magazines, I highly recommend checking out this discussion on Jeff Chang’s website. Malcolm Gladwell has some comments about the issue of free versus paid media in this week’s New Yorker as well. Suffice to say it appears that all magazines will soon be in pill form, which is a depressing thought for someone who watched her own indie magazine die a painful death not so long ago.
• Speaking of depressing, I’m puking sick of hearing about the California Budget Meltdown. What a mess. I still have a job (for now), but like all teachers I will be doing more work for less money come fall semester. Something’s got to give before we really do sink into the ocean.

The semester is almost over, and I’ll have much more time, very soon, to read other blogs and post here. I have a ton of catching up to do in terms of book related work — with publication just weeks away, we are in the “final push” (that’s what we called it in the indie magazine biz) of publicity, marketing, and so on. In the meantime, I wanted to share the cake we had at the final faculty meeting of the semester, courtesy of Sweet Adeline Bakeshop (my neighborhood bakery/cafe, where I wrote much of the book), and courtesy of Dr. Jane Stanley, who herself has a book forthcoming this fall. It’s a carrot cake!