1. Apex Magazine has 5, count ’em, FIVE, Rhysling Award Nominated Poems this year. This? This is awesome.

2. Random House? Yeah, they decided to put out their new pricing scheme for library ebooks, which tripled the prices. NOT COOL, Random House. I was excited when they first proposed this model. Now? Not so much. All it really does is drive those users that can directly purchase to do so, which I imagine is the whole point of the exercise. And, again, libraries get the short end of the stick. ALA is doing their best to respond. It’s a brave new world of publishing out there; I just wish that there was some recognition that libraries have a valuable role within it.

3. Last night we watched the 25th anniversary production of Phantom of the Opera at Royal Albert Hall on our local PBS station. It. Was. Spectacular. Great casting from top to bottom, fantastic performances, and it was really well directed. Quite a departure from the Nick Jonas 25th anniversary of Les Miserables that made me cranky. This is especially important to me because Phantom is my favorite show, and I have completely imprinted upon it. I have Strong!Feelings about it, and that film by Joel Schumacker never happened in my world. This production makes up for the abomination mentioned in the previous sentence.

4. Apex Magazine‘s March issue 34 goes live tomorrow. Wait until you see the contents!

5. There is not enough caffeine today. I think I used up all of my brain with this morning’s class.