Mini Blog--That Baffling Ballet Video That I Couldn't Embed

I don't know why I had so much trouble doing this! Here is Barry Molina dancing Don Q. My thanks to Alyson and the Milwaukee Ballet for filming this.

Snow Ballet Recap--How Did Our Event Go for Apollo's Angels?

How's the snow out there? It's in big piles. We wound up opening on Wednesday on time at 11, but because we couldn't get anyone to break (we had two booksellers within walking distance) and sales were pretty slow, we wound up closing at 4 pm. So we gave it a good try. Starbucks was packed, as was Hollander. And Downer Hardware told us that folks came in and cleaned him out of every shovel, every sled, and every snow toy, in the course of one hour. Good thing they stocked up!

Jocelyn was thoughtful enough to take some pictures of the snow. Pentagon did a great job clearing the sidewalks, and even the alley, but with so many properties to cover, our first hour was a little slow. It actually doesn't look so bad here, but depending on the wind, but you have to understand how the wind blew around two feet of snow. At home, we actually had part of our walkway completely clear of snow before shoveling, but there were also four foot drifts in our neighbor's driveway (which I helped shovel out, of course).

And the wind! Here's a photo of the Downer theater, sans some key letters. The last storm blew some of my home awning half off and this one finished the job. It's tied together with spring till I can find someone to fix it. Fortunately the old roofing is there underneath.

Now the only problem is that there are less street parking spots out there, as some of them have piles of snow in their place. There are spots--I drove to work today after taking the car on Thursday and Friday, and I was able to park in my usual spot. Don't worry, I am probably not taking up a customer spot. I park farther away than you likely would. But can I just say it's still closer than the farthest out spots in Mayfair. I still haven't done my blog piece on that!

We had calls all day on Thursday wondering if our Milwaukee Ballet event with Jennifer Homans, author of Apollo's Angels*, would still go on. Plus emails. Plus Facebook queries. Homans was originally set to come in on Wednesday, but keenly rescheduled for a flight that would arrive Thursday afternoon. Since she was coming from the west, her plane was there and delays weren't terrible.

I'm pleased to say that the event was a smashing success with 80 enthusiastic attendees. Had the eather been perfect, would we have had more folks. Yes, likely. On the other hand, if the event had been scheduled for February 1st or 2nd, it probably would have been cancelled.

Under Alyson Chavez's watch, the floor was laid, the bar was brought in and set up, the furniture was moved. We set up our new projector for Homans talk, testing to make sure we could use it. Stacie's very handy, you know.

Artistic director Michael Pink introduced the event. Dancers from MB2 demonstrated the positions while Homans talked about their military origins. There were lots of enthusiastic questions. And then Barry Molina from MB2 danced Don Q. I'm going to post it separately as the embedding code is acting up. Naughty code!

Today I received an email from Jake, who I had chatted with after the event. He told me he could have used the A word to purchase the book, but understood that if the books don't get bought from us, the events don't happen and the store disappears. So he bought it from us. And I'm very, very grateful to all of you who figured out the equation.

If you enjoyed this event, don't forget to come to our opera insights event on February 16th where the Florentine Opera Studio and Corliss Phillabaum will be previewing "The Italian Girl in Algiers." Tickets are now available for the show itself, which is playing March 18-20th.

Tomorrow, I figure out what that means in the age of ebooks, and why I have put off signing up for Google editions. I normally write up gift stuff on Saturday, but very little came in this week. I am working on a new blank book spinner, so our stock is a little low. Your insider scoop of the day--you buy the books in the spinner and you get the spinner for free. We need something on wheels, as I've already broken one blank book spinner and the 2nd one I brought over from Schwartz already has some cracking going on.

*And yes, we have signed copies. Order the book and request a signed copy in notes.

Leaving on a Jet Plane--Jennifer Homans' Plane from L.A. Has Taken Off

Yes, our event with Jennifer Homans and the Milwaukee Ballet is still on for Apollo's Angels. I've just talked to Jynne, who told me that the plane took off. They start laying the floor this afternoon. I am so excited!

Roads are clear, buses are running (I took the 15 this morning), and yes there are parking spaces. Not quite as many, but the parking garage is open. My advice to you? Instead of coming at 6:57 (the event starts at 7 pm), leave yourself a little more time, 15-20 minutes, to find a spot.. Or come even earlier and have dinner at Hollander or Via first.

One last incentive. The Milwaukee Ballet will be discounting tickets to the Genesis International Choreographic Competition on February 10-13 for Boswell customers. Details at the event. Too anxious not to get your Genesis tickets right now? Here's the link.

All Ballet, All the Time! More on Our Apollo's Angels Event with Jennifer Homans and the Milwaukee Ballet on February 3rd.

After our shopping bag holiday window came down (I hated to see it go, so it lasted through the full 12 days of Christmas, we needed a good idea for what's next. Since we have the ballet event and had some nice ballet kids stuff, we put together an event promoting Jennifer Homans event for Apollo's Angels.

I wanted some of our plush animals posing in tutus, but I couldn't find tiny little tutus or tutu material for the right price. Then I went to the chain drugstore down the block and found a ballet doll marked down. I'm not going to tell you how little I spent on it (it looks it). First we sat Little Nina on the shelf, but it was only when we had her leaping across the window (I love fishing wire) that she came to life. It's still a bit of an odd window, I must admit, so I'm not posting a photo of it. We did sell a magnetic ballerina playset out of the window over the weekend, which I consider a triumph.

On Friday, I headed over to the Milwaukee Ballet Studio to take a few pictures and pick up materials about their upcoming show. I had never been in the space on National Avenue, the renovated former home of the Tivoli Palm Garden. There are two wonderful practice studios--here's a shot of some ballerinas in training. I took this photo from the viewing room upstairs.

In the end, our event really ties in with the Milwaukee Ballet program, as Homans wonders what's next for ballet in Apollo's Angels. What do you know, the Milwaukee Ballet is trying to answer that question with their upcoming show.

It's the fourth annual Genesis International Choreographic Competition, going on from February 10-13 at the Pabst Theater. In this competition, three choreographers chosen by artistic director Michael Pink to present an original 20 minute work with 8 dancers and a maximum of 90 hours rehearsal. The winner gets $3000 and a commission from the Milwaukee Ballet to create a new work. Get your tickets to the performances here.

Then on Saturday, somebody finally explained to me the plot of "The Black Swan," which is currently playing at the nearby Oriental Theatre. I was having trouble understanding the previews. But who has time for a movie? I'm using that time to put together our event with Homans and the Milwaukee Ballet. Thank you to Alyson and Leslie for all the hard work they've done helping put this together. And much appreciation to Ms. Homans too. So the program? There will be demos and dance too. I'm very excited and I hope you will be too. It's all happening Thursday, February 3rd, at 7 PM. Mark your calendars!

Guns Vs. Books, Transitioning into the New York Times Book Review Top Ten

Yes, there is life beyond the bookshop, though not much of it. I sit here, waiting for our new water heater to be installed, knowing that I don't have that much time on the computer, as I left my power cord at work, where I was processing our lovely book fair at St. John's yesterday. We have two more, on December 13th at Eastcastle and December 16th at the Milwaukee Catholic Home, from 2-4. If you are planning on visiting familiy or friends at either center, it might be a fun way to shop. And yes, I gift wrap.

This morning I finished reading Our Patchwork Nation. It's one of those books that's not easy to hand-sell from a mere bookseller. It strikes me that readers would rather hear from experts in reviews on such a subject. At least that's been my experience with similar books. "It's nice that you liked it, but what do the experts say?" seems to be the implication. Eh, could be wrong.

Ray Chinni and James Gimpel divide the country into 12 community types: Boom Towns, Campus and Careers, Emptying Nests, Evangelical Epicenters, Immigration Nation, Industrial Metropolis, Military Bastions, Minority Central, Mormon Outposts, Service Worker Centers, and Tractor Country.

These divisions are by county, which is better than metropolitan statistical area, but makes it harder to divide something like Cook County, which is clearly a little bit of half these groups. I think that's why they renamed the original "Big City" classification as "Industrial Metropolis", as many counties include surrounding areas. And in the appendix in back, they give both the primary and secondary classification. You could see Milwaukee County being subdivided into immigration nation, minority centry, emptying nest, and Boswell's neighborhood probably looks more like campus and careers than anything else.

The groups are created by socioeconomic data, including income, education, ethnicity, religion, and economic makeup, which by that I mean, where are most of the jobs. One of the things you learn is that even at the county level, the world is more purple than it is blue and red. The difference of opinions among groups is not as great as you'd think.

I was amused by one chart, which compared the prevalence of gun and book stores per 100,000 people. I don't live that far from a gun store (Badger Gun in West Milwaukee, but I'm not linking to it, it's enough that I have to pass it whenever I take brush to the recycling center on Lincoln) but I live closer to a second-hand bookstore, Bay View Books and Music.

Boom Towns, 3.7 gun shops, 5.4 bookshops

Campus and Careers, 2.9 gun shops, 7.1 bookshops

Emptying Nests, 4.4 gun shops, 3.4 bookshops

Evangelical Epicenters, 5.5 gun shops, 1.5 bookshops

Immigration Nation (which refers to Latino presence), 2.6 gun shops, 2.5 bookshops

Industrial metropolis (cities), 1 gun shop, 3.3 bookshoops

Military Bastions, 4.0 gun shops, 2.7 bookshops

Minority Central (this means African American or Native American, as the socio-economic data is very similar for the two types of communities where these groups dominate), 3.4 gunshops, 1 bookshop

Monied Burbs, 2.3 gun shops, 5.8 bookshops

Mormon Outposts, 4.5 gun shops, 1.7 bookshops

Service Worker Centers (often tourism dependent), 5.0 gun shops, 4.8 bookshops

Tractor Country, 10.1 gun shops, 3.8 bookshops

As the authors state, the level of guns is not just a function of attitude, but of space. Open spaces mean more opportunities for hunting. The tractor country stat for bookshops being better than for industrial metropolises was quite interesting to me, and did actually warrant a note from the authors. My explanation wasn't that interesting, so I leave it out here.

On to the next. I'm starting Apollo's Angels, which was just named one of the top ten books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, and yes, we have an event with the author on February 3rd. What's been interesting to me this year is that all five nonfiction books have been already big hits with us. The sleepers this year are in the fiction area. And I really expected to see A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, but no.

The fiction books are:

Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen

The New Yorker Stories, by Anne Beattie

Room, by Emma Donoghue

Selected Stories, by William Trevor

A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

Story heavy with two collections, and the Egan, which had an story-or-novel backstory with its publiciation, or so I discussed last night with friends Polly and Willy.

The Nonfiction books are:

Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet, by Jennifer Homans, as previously mentioned

Cleopatra, a life, by Stacy Schiff

The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Finishing the Hat, by Stephen Sondheim

The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson

We've been chasing these books all fall, but that's partly because of their great reviews in The New York Times Book Review. It's interesting that the nonfiction selections all relatively recently published. I guess the books published last spring were all relatively crappy.