You will pay the price for your lack of vision

Twitter: King Of Birds

From the 1987 album Document, The R.E.M. song King Of Birds seems to be sending wisdom to the future company Twitter, 20 years hence. 'Standing on the shoulders of giants' would be referring to the use of open source software and user generated "songs" or tweets. A thumbnail sketch is an abbreviation. Also, apparently, children (teenagers) carry reservations (and they do). A hundred million birds fly.
Another salient parallel: 'My kindom for a voice'  :)

A thumbnail sketch, a jeweler's stone
A mean idea to call my own
Old man don't lay so still you're not yet young
There's time to teach, point to point,
Point observation, children carry reservations

Standing on the shoulders of giants
Leaves me cold, leaves me cold
A mean idea to call my own
A hundred million birds fly

Singer sing me a given
Singer sing me a song
Standing on the shoulders of giants
Everybody's looking on
(Old man don't lay so still you're not yet young,
there's time to teach, point to point,
point observation, children carry reservations)

Standing on the shoulders of giants
Leaves me cold
A mean idea to call my own
A hundred million birds fly away, away, away

I am king of all I see
My kingdom for a voice
Old man don't lay so still, you're not yet young
There's time to teach, point to point
Point observation, children carry reservations

Standing on the shoulders of giants
Leaves me cold, leaves me cold
A mean idea to call my own
A hundred million birds fly away, away, away

Everybody hit the ground
Everybody hit the ground
Everybody hit the ground
Everybody hit the ground

Amazon Should Acquire Borders Books

jeez...two years since my last post here. onward...

Poor Borders.

Borders has been my favorite bookstore for at least 15 years. On average, I probably go there once every 2 weeks to buy magazines, DVD's, books and coffee. I would guess I spend about $100 on each of these visits.

Over the last year, however, I've noticed Borders is looking pretty sickly. All the DVD's are gone, as is the music. The aisles are shabby. Everywhere you look, all the cool stuff has been replaced with calendars or, say, crappy little gift items. Whatever book you're looking for is never in stock and the atmosphere of the place is emptiness and neglect.

I suppose it has a lot to do with the current economic climate, but it also has to do with service. The service is truly a joke these days, and, like most stores I go to, I actively avoid having to deal with the inept staff.

The reason I go to Borders is to get an immediate fix, and to revel in the "bookstore" atmosphere.

The reason I buy from Amazon is price and convenience. Recommendations, too.

In an ideal world, you would have an Amazon-Borders store where you go to purchase any book you want which is then printed on demand at the store, whether or not it's in stock. I understand that there are some legal reasons why you can't do printing on demand (same reasons why a local blockbuster apparently cannot just burn you a dvd copy of the one movie you MUST have THAT NIGHT, but is sold out or not in stock- why not have infinite supply for infinite demand??? long tail selling, anyone?), but inventories could be stocked based on store location/local buying habits - all gleaned from amazon. If I buy the book at Amazon-Borders (which I do just like at home, via a browser tweaked to show from which store it's coming from), it should have a higher shipping priority, with the option of it being sent to the store for pickup the next day, while I'm still in my gotta-have-it stupor, or sent directly to my house.

An Amazon-Borders store would also be an ideal showroom for all the other stuff Amazon sells, like games, movies and music. Not only would each of these large Borders stores act as distributed warehousing for Amazon, but an ideal outlet (think apple stores) for the Amazon brand and all its diverse goods and services. You would login to the store wifi using your Amazon account. Have an Amazon account? Free wifi and a free coffee (Peet's or Starbucks) just for coming in. Have an Amazon Associates ID? More cool in-store offers/services to grease the wheels.

Essentially, this is an ideal opportunity for Amazon to create a real-world presence across the nation and take advantage of Borders' already in-place infrastructure. Great situation for Borders as well, because they could then move into the ebook reader space (kindle) without competing with themselves!

One could only hope:)