I See Book People

Clifford at 3:45 am, April 30th, 2006

Well, I’m recovering from an excellent hike up Mount Wilson with the USC Neurobiologists earlier today, so while I do that, I’ll tell you about last night. Recall that the LA Times Book Festival is happening this weekend.

I came closer to seeing a realization of one of those topsy-turvy scenarios I often fantasize about, where more “academic” pursuits, or at least those more associated with the life of the mind, are celebrated in full Hollywood fashion. (I envision it in the context of science and scientists….imagine an Oscar-Like awards ceremony for the year’s best science papers, watched by millions on TV in prime time… but this will do for a start.)

Yes, I went to my first LA Awards ceremony, the Los Angeles Times Book Awards, and although I joked about Oscar analogies in a previous post, it actually was rather Oscar-like. The setup of UCLA’s Royce Hall for the event was very plush indeed, with a podium each on the left and the right of the stage for smooth transitions, and a giant screen for either relaying of the closeup image of one or other presenter, for the showing of acceptance speeches from those “who could not be with us at this time”, or for the display of graphics accompanying shortlist readings, etc. Just like in the Oscars. And yes, they had (why?!) the usual eye-candy woman bringing on the actual award, and the announcement envelope to hand to the presenter at the appropriate time.

The Master of Ceremonies was Dana Gioia the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (there he is in full sail, at right, click for larger image). I was rather pleased that the first category announced was the Science and Technology section. (Perhaps it was in honour of there being a blogger from Cosmic Variance in the audience?) I found myself very excited by all of the nominees in this section, and was intrigued by the winning one, Diana Preston’s â€œBefore the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshimaâ€, which I’d somehow not heard of before (No, I don’t know how I missed it either). I had the pleasure of chatting with Diana Preston (and her husband Michael) at length at the After Party (see later), and got the chance to hear about how she went about finding a way into a field -atomic physics- about which she had no expertise (no science background, she said) to the extent that she could win a prize for her science writing. It was also interesting to hear her and science writer K. C. Cole bond over the various Manhattan project people they’d managed to talk to over the years in book research. (K. C. is working on a biography of her mentor Frank Oppenheimer at present).

I really want to read Diana Preston’s book, as well as several others on the shortlist in that section, as I mentioned in the previous post. Speaking of others, I finally met Sean Carroll. No, not our Sean M. Carroll, the Biologist Sean B. Carroll. We were together in line to go into the room where the After Party was to be held, which was taking a bit of time, for reasons I only figured out too late. I introduced myself and joked with him about the name-sharing thing, and told him about the blog. His Evo Devo book (â€œEndless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdomâ€) is another one high on my list of things to read. There was an excellent review and discussion of it in the New Yorker late last year by the way. You might be able to get it online. I’d meant to blog about it back then but somehow did not get to it.

Here is the list of winners and presenters. I took it from the blog Nimble Books:

Biography: Hilary Spurling, â€œMatisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour,â€ 1909-1954 (Alfred A. Knopf); presented by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Current Interest: Anthony Shadid, â€œNight Draws Near: Iraqâ€™s People in the Shadow of Americaâ€™s Warâ€ (Henry Holt); presented by Ronald Brownstein

Fiction: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, â€œMemories of My Melancholy Whoresâ€ [translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman] (Alfred A. Knopf); presented by Luis J. Rodriguez

Art Seidenbaum Award For First Fiction: Uzodinma Iweala, â€œBeasts of No Nation: A Novelâ€ (HarperCollins); presented by David L. Ulin

History: Adam Hochschild, â€œBury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empireâ€™s Slavesâ€ (Houghton Mifflin); presented by Leo Braudy

Mystery/Thriller: Robert Littell, â€œLegends: A Novel of Dissimulationâ€ (Overlook Press); presented by Mary Higgins Clark

Poetry: Jack Gilbert, â€œRefusing Heaven: Poemsâ€ (Alfred A. Knopf); presented by Dana Goodyear

Science and Technology: Diana Preston, â€œBefore the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshimaâ€ (Walker & Company); presented by Robert Lee Hotz

Young Adult Fiction: Per Nilsson, â€œYou & You & Youâ€ [translated from the Swedish by Tara Chace] (Front Street/Boyds Mills Press); presented by Adam Gopnik

The director of the Festival is the LA Times columnist and film critic, Kenneth Turan. He’s a favourite of mine, as he very often makes a lot of sense to me in what he’s saying about the films. I also like his NPR radio film commentaries (often abridged versions of his columns), where one finds that his gentle voice matches his writing rather nicely, in being firm, sensible-sounding and entirely reasonable in his analysis. So it was a pleasure to hear his familiar voice as he made some opening remarks at the ceremony, and even more of a pleasure to be introduced to him later in the evening at the After Party.

There were several excellent speeches of acceptance. The highlights were probably those of Per Nilsson (for just being direct, unpretentious, and just plain Swedish -wonderful), and of the son of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, who accepted on his behalf. Diana Preston’s urging us as a society to remember take responsibility for what we do and create (scientists take note, of course), were always remarks worth hearing.

There was semi-live blogging about the event at the Elegant Variation again this year. I wonder if I might have spoken to the several other bloggers who were at the event? (e.g., another report was done by Lee Goldberg.) Perhaps I should have told more people about the blog in conversation, but I think I was off my game. Too tired.

Ah. The After Party. Definite must-have if you’re going to do the Hollywood thing at your Awards event. Well, I figured out too late why there was such a congestion to get into the party, down what should have been a hugely wide corridor. They check your ticket into it and then you walk along a bit where it is just you and whoever you’re with so that the photographer can get a shot of you being all splendid and the like. Well, I was deep in conversation with Sean Carroll during all this and so missed it. I was walking along half-turned to look at him when the camera went off. So I won’t be showing up in any Page 6 -type (or Scene in LA -type) photo treatments of the event. Sorry.

book awards LA TImes Well, it was a splendid party on the terrace. I won’t go into the details since I’m very tired and you’re probably not that interested anyway. I met a huge number of interesting people. I was there mostly through LA Times connections (via K. C. Cole and Jonathan Kirsch) and so I met an awful lot of excellent columnists, critics and editors. There were some other USC people there as well such as Annenberg School of Communication people, excellent author and USC professor Aimee Bender (who I met just a week ago at Categorically Not! in Santa Monica), and Barry Glassner, our Executive Vice-Provost, who’s also a noted sociologist and author (see his “The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things”, for example). But I also met a lot of authors (some already mentioned), publishers and agents.

Yes, this was indeed a reception to remember, and at the wattage one would expect. Indeed, there were the inevitable ice-sculptures. Tacky, one might be tempted to conclude. But get this…. they had typewriters embedded in them, rather elegantly, I would venture. (I snuck a shot or two for you; click for larger images).

…And the main example of pure delicious decadence? It hit everyone as soon as they entered the room (having been savvy/smart/alert enough to look elegant for the photographer as they came in -ahem-), as there was a wonderful giddying smell of chocolate immediately upon entering. The source? Two flowing fountains of molten chocolate, surrounded by things to dip into the stream at the bottom and eat. They were hugely popular. There’s a shot of one fountain for you to the right (click for larger image).

It was good to be surrounded by book people again. And at a part of the book-world food chain I’d not encountered before in quite this volume. A tickling from those exciting book projects I’ve had brewing in my mind for years now did stir a bit within me as a result of this event. I’m going to have to give up on sleep if I’m ever to start on those. Or blogging maybe? Or both.

Which reminds me. Sleep. Must then get up and write and give sermon tomorrow.

-cvj

12 Comments on “I See Book People” rss feed

janet on Apr 30th, 2006 at 2:55 pm

It probably says something very revealing about me that the person I would most like to meet, among those listed, is Adam Gopnik.

Sounds like a fun party!
Cynthia on Apr 30th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

Excellent post! It is refreshing to witness the realm of popular science slightly shifting gears towards great women in the history of science. Diana Preston’s “Before The Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima” exemplifies this trend in the marketplace of pop-physics books. Similarly, Patricia Rife’s “Lise Meitner and The Dawn of The Nuclear Age” captures the essence of the pioneering work lead by the brilliant female scientist, Lise Meitner. Likewise, Christopher Hill’s “Symmetry and The Beautiful Universe” pays special tribute to Emmy Noether. Unfortunately, Nature - acting with a unnatural degree of fine tuning - appears to be defying this fundamental concept of beauty and symmetry: a concept deeply ingrained in western thought.
Clifford on Apr 30th, 2006 at 9:46 pm

Cynthia, Don’t forget Brenda Maddox’s excellent “Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA”. That was really excellent.

-cvj
chimpanzee on Apr 30th, 2006 at 11:57 pm

Here are some good sites:

http://www.witi.com/

[ found it after seeing that excellent PBS series “Discovering Women”, which profiled 6 leading women scientists. Included Melissa Franklin/Harvard, & also Lynda Jordan (1st black woman to get a PhD in that dept @MIT), an African-American woman biochemist. I actually contacted her, & was going to collaborate with her on some ideas I had ]

http://www.achievement.org/

[ really good site, with good interviews from leading scientists..both male & female. It’s designed for high-school students, to give them an idea of what a science-career is like. If I knew what I had to go thru, I likely might not have done it. The PBS show “From Student to Scientist” was really good, it had a bunch of Nobel Laureates & leading scientists. It actually had a section on “Ethics”, which got into the Manhattan Project & atomic power. Dr. Edward Teller had a really good quote:

“If I should be remembered for anything, it will be the courage to work on nuclear program”

[ he was referring to the speech by someone: “if you don’t work on the bomb, then Freedom Will Be Lost”. I.e., part of the MAD (mutual assured destruction) program which had the end-effect that both sides will disarm. Unfortunately, that only works for the 2 super-powers, US & USSR (former). The proliferation of nuclear bombs among “3rd world countries” (plus the threat of dirty nukes) has now made THAT a real threat to world security. See Sean’s thread on Iran nuclear program.
chimpanzee on May 1st, 2006 at 2:32 am

CVJ:
Did you really hike up to Mt. Wilson (the observatory & such)? Mt. Wilson & Mt. Vetter are locations at ~5000 ft. If you did, that’s a heckuva hike. I tried doing it on a mountain bike last year (thru Henniger Flats)..COULDN’T DO IT! I simply wasn’t in shape, the steepness of trails were pretty brutal. I had to get off the bike, & lay down on the ground. Some of the hikers passing by asked me if I was OK, & even offerred me water.

Did you go thru the JPL entrance, or the above (north Pasadena)? There is some nice hiking in Eaton Canyon Park (nothing steep, just a rocky wash), I went there a few months back to fly my R/C aircraft.

Try El Prieto (going up), from JPL entrance. Take the Lower Brown Mtn Rd, & look for the El Prieto sign..take it. It’s one of the best single-track for mountain-bikes in SoCal, & is also a scenic hike. Stream crossings, cactus..you might even see deer & bear. There have even been some Mt. Lion attacks recently)

Try OTBMBC if you are into Mt Biking, they go as a group & will take along stragglers. Man, you really need to dump that folding-bike, it’s way too spindly..you’ll get into an accident. You can get a decent urban-assault-bike for like around $400. In about Sept, the local bike shops have clearance sales. I got a $550 full-suspension bike for $299. Don’t get those Wal Mart or Target bikes, they are unsafe.
Clifford on May 1st, 2006 at 2:38 am

I even did a photo-assisted report of one of those hikes on this blog. It is fun. I’ve done it a number of times. Particularly fun to do it fast up and fast down. Wipes you out for a day or two. Great workout. But slow is good too. I don’t bike such trails. At least not yet. Just hike or hill run. ish.

-cvj
chimpanzee on May 1st, 2006 at 1:56 pm

The neat thing about MTBiking up, is that coming down is pretty quick..a real rush (not too fast, have to respect hikers & horseback riders).

Hey, I’m blogging Pahrump, NV (yeah, another offroad race, it’s a nice change of pace which helps with doing Research all cooped up in a room). I’m leaving for Beatty, NV to take the Titus Canyon run to Death Valley. Have to de-compress , & re-shoot QTVR panoramas. Inspired by your recent Death Valley trip. I’ll be doing night-time astrophotography (summer Milky with Way canyon in foreground). I will blog using my mobile satellite-DSL dish on my van. 1st blog to CV from Death Valley?..with an astrophoto?

Can you tell me where you were, that killer shot of the flower against the stark desert floor? There was a trail up a mud-hill, or something. I will try to hit that place, & do a QTVR panorama. So, CV’ers can get a VR experience. Best thing, to not being there.

Made some business contacts (ex CEO of a 100 billion dollar fiber-optics company, now VC..& others), which is for my “outside the box” Research Funding. Who knows, when Sean comes to Caltech next Sept, I may have funds available & fund his projects. Do you take non Standard-Model funding sources? Cosmology & String Theory need to goto modern-day philantropists like Paul Allen (ex Microsoft founder), Richard Branson (Virgin). That’s what Burt Ruttan (famous aeronautical engr, Scaled Composites) did for that Space Ship One (privately funded space rocket). Brnason is funding a space-port in New Mexico, & Paul Allen also funds that SETI Inst (near NASA Ames), Dr. Jill Tartar, Dr. Seth Shostak, & company (Jodie Foster played her in that Carl Sagan based movie).
chimpanzee on May 2nd, 2006 at 6:44 am

I’m blogging from Death Valley near Titus Canyon, with my mobile satellite-DSL dish on my van. It’s 4:30am, & I accidentally fell asleep while uploading the 14mb & 20m video files. See:

http://desertoutback.blogspot.com/

You can see the 2 laptops, 1 of them is parked at Cosmicvariance.com The above 2 videos are from 2 hikes into Titus Canyon & mudhills (tried to find a place like CVJ was at). I will post QTVR panoramas later, they should be good.

If you want the iPod video version, try here & subscribe to the video-podcast, hook up video-iPod, download it, play it & show to friends. I’m doing this, to demonstrate how CVJ can video-blog & syndicate over iPod/iTunes. Joanne could do the same thing from SLAC (pretty facility), great PR tool this video-iPod.

You also see a Sony PSP, another mobile video-play device. If any of you want the PSP video files, let me know & I will post the link.

I gotta run to Titus Canyon now before sunrise to take some Milky Way astrohphotos.. CVJ goes to Death Valley to escape, I go there to blog..can’t get away from it..after all!
Clifford on May 2nd, 2006 at 1:18 pm

Great stuff. Some of us are aware of the technology to which you refer. There are only so many hours in the day, so blogging the old-fashioned way is quite enough for now, at least for me. It’s easy to get away from it… after all…. since all these devices do have off-switches, right?

Please, no more Death Valley posts on this thread please. I’ll delete any more I find.

Thanks.

-cvj
Pingback from Shopping, Sightseeing, Science | Cosmic Variance on May 22nd, 2006 at 8:42 pm

[…] Here are some more lovely shiny brassy instruments. Here is a sextant, from the late Eighteenth Century. This enables you to accurately determine the position of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies in the sky. This is vital for determining where you are on the planet’s surface especially when you’re - literally - all at sea. At this point I refer you to Dava Sobel’s wonderful book “Longitude” on aspects of the history of this science, technology, and instrumentation. (I’m a big fan of at least two of her books (see also “Galileo’s Daughter”. I was all set to be a literary groupie-type if I got meet her at the LA Times Book Award ceremony and after-party (which I blogged about here), but she was not there. I met her agent instead. Nice fellow, but it’s not quite the same. Sigh.) […]
Pingback from It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over - Asymptotia on Aug 23rd, 2006 at 8:06 pm

[…] I have to say, they’ve got a rather grand setting, looking more like the Golden Globes, Oscars, or Emmys than a scientific conference. (Click for larger). (I wonder if they’ll have fountains of chocolate, like at the LA Times Book awards. Hmmm…..) […]
Pingback from LA Times Book Prizes - Asymptotia on Mar 4th, 2007 at 10:38 am

[…] I don’t know if I’ll be dressing up and reporting to you on the glitzy Award/Prize ceremony, as I did last year, but it will be interesting to watch for the results in any case. More importantly, don’t forget the annual book fair weekend. […]

I See Book People

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