Technology Blog

Carmen Dog, Carol Emshwiller

The book that inspired the Tiptree Award

Camoflage, Joe Haldeman

2004 Tiptree winner

Dread Empire’s Fall: The Praxis, Walter Jon Williams

First half of a space opera

Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Johnson

Instead of simpler, games and media have become more complex.

Life, Gywneth Jones

The life of a woman working in biology, as the world becomes more reactionary

Planetes, vol. 1-4.1, Makoto Yukimura

Straight up near-future science fiction manga

Mark Bernstein does a better job than I in getting to the point about the Fifty Quid Man that I mentioned last night.

Meanwhile, it’s a big world. Lots of people listen to lots of music. There’s a much bigger opportunity now — people who have real, individual taste and passion and intelligence. People who have wallets (!) instead of an allowance.

In an article on music in the current issue of Tekka, Ed Ward mentions The Fifty Quid Man as a force driving the music market not in rotation on Clear Channel.

I searched for an origin of the term, and found a weblog entry from March of 2004 citing an article in the Guardian describing middle-aged guys coming into Borders on a Friday afternoon after work, and dropping 50 quid (say $150) on new music and books.

This is the guy we’ve all seen in Borders or HMV on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book - fifty quid’s worth - and frantically computing how he’s going to convince his partner that this is a really, really worthwhile investment.

Fortunately, Cynthia’s at the store with me, so we don’t have to justify our purchases to one another.

There were plenty of Fifty Quid Women and Men at the Brazilian Girls show last night at Bimbo’s 365: in our 30s, 40s, and 50s such as myself and my friends, mixed in with the shiny twenty-year-olds.

And we’re using our weblogs to chat up the music and media we discover. Then there’s the KCRW and Radio Paradise streams we listen to at work and home.

Hear something interesting between stories on NPR? We get instant gratification via iTMS and eMusic. Failing that, we pull off the freeway into Borders on the way home (there’s a reason there’s one at 237 and 880.)

We drive other media. For example: who’s buying copies of Katamari Damacy? I bet you found out about it because you read Boing Boing.