Gilt Groupe, Ideeli, The Outnet, Rue La La…the list of members-only online clothing sites expands by the day as a swelling wave of consumers joins these virtual shopping clubs. But it’s no longer just dresses, boots and bags that consumers are after. Today, those in the know (and with an invite sitting in their inbox) can purchase everything from limited edition artwork to exclusive music collections at the click of a button.
Pop Market: The premise of Pop Market should be familiar to anyone who regularly logs on to shop—become a member, at no cost, to get the ‘inside track’ on flash sales with deep discounts. But, what this new site peddles can’t be hung in your closet. Rather, its offerings are box sets, memorabilia and merch culled from Sony’s vast music archives. There’s something for everyone: Slayer vinyl sets for metalheads, Michael Jackson DVDs and albums for pop fans, and Broadway cast photos for drama nerds. It’s strictly first-come, first-served, so if you’re looking to add to your Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin or Iggy Pop collection, you best have fast fingers.
With the cultural heat generated by the iPad and the continued rise of the Kindle and other e-readers, the commercial impact of e-books has exploded. As such, it’s become easier than ever for unknown authors to self-publish their works, which has major publishers shaking in their cubicles. Now, it begs the question: Will e-books do for independent authors what YouTube has done for independent filmmakers?
New Self-Publishing Services: This October, two of the top bookstore chains launched services that allow authors to sell their work through e-bookstores. Borders’ program provides self-publishers with an ISBN and a distribution channel through leading e-book stores at prices set by the writer. Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! allows indie scribes to distribute digitally through BN.com and Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore. Both companies are attempting to compete with Amazon’s Digital Text Platform, through which authors can upload their texts for sale in the Kindle store. With self-published authors now sold through all the major booksellers and being read on the same devices as books published through publishing houses, the thin line that separates the amateur from the professional author is fading away by the day.
If you feel like your mind is turning to mush from spending endless hours playing bocce or darts in your neighborhood bar, you’ll be happy to learn that there are more intellectual pursuits to be found inside some watering holes these days. A new breed of boozy reading series ensures that your brain cells can remain sharp regardless of how many drinks you’ve downed.
Refresh Refresh Refresh: This series, held at New York’s Chinatown bar Happy Ending, invites local online literati to come out from behind their screens for nights of live storytelling. Organized by New York Observer reporter/Tumblr blogger Leon Neyfakh, Refresh is enlisting Internet celebs like Emily Gould and the ‘anonymous music blogger’ of Pitchfork Reviews Reviews to recite their musings to fellow web writers and fans—many of whom can’t help but promote their favorite voices by tweeting quotes throughout the night in real-time. So popular has the series become that other zeitgeisty reading evenings are sprouting up, like tonight’s story hour at Esopus Space organized by Juiceboxxx. (The list is full for the RSVP only event, but if you want to get on the waiting list, send an email to space@esopusfoundation.com.)
Jamie Oliver is outselling Harry Potter, grocery stores are opening up their own book boutiques and consumers are turning to novelists to help them decide what to eat. Indeed, food-inspired tomes have become a main course, as cookbooks continue to fuel peoples’ growing love affair with food culture. Now, recipe writers and publishers are pushing the edges of innovation in distribution by featuring cookbooks in some unexpected places.
Hotels: While room service food conjures images of overpriced fare that’s often soggy and cold, hotels are starting to change perceptions of their meal offerings. The European Boscolo Hotel Group has created a room service menu that details what goes into creating each meal before it’s wheeled to your room. As with any typical cookbook, the menu includes ingredient measurements, cooking tips and preparation time. It also includes tantalizing pictures to inspire your order. The recipes are even graded according to difficulty. For example, the Bruschetta appetizer, which takes only eight minutes to make and is rated “easy,” drives home the point that simple food can also be high-quality and delicious. Wouldn’t it be great if airlines would follow suit?
The idea that many parents feel too stressed to find time to play with their children is nothing new. In many respects, the divisions created when moms, dads and their kids sit glued to their divisive devices are making it worse. Breaking down these walls is a slew of new products and services that encourage parents and children to play together more. While such interaction is imperative to children’s social development, parents are finding that they enjoy playtime too.
LEKAR: IKEA recently conducted an international study on the important role of play in a child’s development. Inspired by the resulting Play Report‘s finding that parents feel they sometimes lack imaginative ideas for activities to stimulate their kids, IKEA created the LEKAR iPhone app to inspire family bonding. The app, whose name is the Swedish word for games, includes a variety of traditional group-oriented games like Hide and Seek, Charades and Follow the Leader. However, there is little traditional about the modern technology that is used to enhance the way the games are played, from enabling the phone to interact with multiple players wirelessly, adding challenges throughout each contest, and integrating high-quality graphics and sounds. Who’s up for a game of Musical Chairs, backed by our favorite playlist, of course?
