Follow for Now

Before you start thinking that everyone loves Follow for Now (they don’t), check out Keith Rosson’s review on Razorcake. Here’s an excerpt:

There’s just not much interesting material being covered, even in the music and literature sections, which I feel a lot more comfortable with than, say, the science section. Like when Christopher interviews Milemarker—and time has still not proven to me that they were anything but a pretty boring band made up of some decent writers—and in lieu of trying to make Al Burian squirm a bit or trying to bring a bit of life to a band that’s always been celebrated for its coldness, he asks them “whom they read and respect.” Honestly, man—I couldn’t give a flying shit how some space-rock band has been using their library cards.

In contrast — and though he means it pejoratively — he nails it when he says, “Follow for Now unfortunately seems more interested in the ideas being presented regarding technology, media, literature, etc. than the interviews themselves.” Well, yeah!

Anyway, Rosson may have missed the point of the book, but I appreciate the attention as always.

Follow for Now is Dan Janal’s Cool Book of the Day today. Dan Janal runs the public relations firm PR Leads, among other things, and I am stoked to have Follow for Now on his book review site.

Many thanks to Dan and his staff over there.

Check it out.

Ann Raber posted this review of Follow for Now on Feminist Review, saying,

The title comes from the lyrics of a Public Enemy song, which is the equivalent of a Jesus fish drawn in the sand for white guys raised in the 1980s. So all of you Wired subscribers who jam Handsome Boy Modeling School and know what “Obey Giant” means, you are among friends.

However, as much as I like guys who like old school hip-hop, Follow for Now has some issues. First of all, the terribly pretentious and off-putting front matter ought to be addressed, lest an unsuspecting reader open up the book and get so icked out by the preface that they toss it aside in horror–which would be a shame.

Lest you think I exaggerate, behold the opening line of the preface: “This book is decidedly eclectic.” I know. It might as well read: “Pretentious self-important douchiness abounds in many forms.”

Ms. Raber clearly likes my book, but does not care for me, and that’s fine. Her review is thorough, and I appreciate her attention to it. My comment over there was only to correct a misquote.

If you’re still interested after all of that, the book is available on Amazon, Powell’s, and right here at followfornow.com.

The Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies at the University of San Francisco chose Follow for Now as its book of the month for September, 2008. Ellis Godard, who is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, Northridge, wrote a deep and insightful review of the collection. Read more

Follow for Now is on the NewPages list of New & Noteworthy books for August of 2008 (down at the bottom under “Anthologies”). Awesome!

Gareth Branwyn posted the following to his StreetTech site today:

Follow for Now: Interviews with Friends and Heroes is a collection of interviews put together by Roy Christopher. It features a glowing cavalcade of cyber stars, talking on technology, culture, media, and science. Interviewees include Bruce Sterling, Doug Rushkoff, Brenda Laurel, DJ Spooky, Steven Johnson, Mark Dery, Geert Lovink, and many others. Oh… and ME. At 400 pages long, with interviews conducted over seven years, this is a fascinating group snapshot of key thinkers of the webbed world. Oh… and ME.

Many thanks to Gareth.

Aesop Rock had the following to say about Follow for Now:

fuck yeah. such a diverse collection of interviews from all types of interesting folk. even the people whom i was not familiar with prior to this were great, excluding me cuz i suck at life. really well done, man. i brought it on tour.
best
a.r.

Thanks, Aes!

Brian Tunney conducted the following brief interview with me regarding Follow for Now for Issue 58 (May/June, 2007) of DIG BMX Magazine. Thanks, Brian.

Roy Christopher is a Seattle-based man about town that’s been on the BMX scene for as long as anyone’s bothered to count at this point. We first featured Roy in issue 48 of Dig, discussing his interview-based website frontwheeldrive.com in the “Do You Compute?” section. Since then, Roy’s split his time between Seattle and Alabama, taking time along the way to compile an anthology of interviews he’s collected over the years, and self-publishing his work in the recently released book Follow for Now. The book compiles interviews with luminary and challenging personalities from all walks of life, including musicians, artists, and cultural theorists. And Roy was nice enough to rush me some answers to some wise ass questions about the book. Take some time off from the message boards and read on… Read more

In his RE/Search newsletter last week, V. Vale had the following to say regarding, Follow for Now:

Note that Roy Christopher has recently authored a must-have collection of his interviews, Follow for Now — order from roychristopher.com or frontwheeldrive.com This is possibly the most “cutting edge” grouping of folks on the intersection of futurism/technology/art yet seen. We couldn’t recommend it highly enough! Check out pages 120-121, 242, 265 as an example…

Many thanks due, and be sure to check out my comments on Vale’s recent book, Pranks 2.

The following blurb appeared on Erik Davis’ blog yesterday (Thanks, Erik!):

“Roy Christopher is the supersharp, humble, and very friendly guy who runs the website frontwheeldrive.com, which has long been one of my favorite spots online to feel the technoculture’s intellectual pulse — which in Christopher’s case is primarily sensed through dialogue. The thirtysomething Christopher has a rich background — skateboards, BMX, zines, hip hop, Communication Theory degree from San Diego State (which is brimming with SF writers, by the way) — and all this (or something else, perhaps an alien implant) has given him an acute zeitgeist radar. The heart of frontwheeldrive is scores and scores of on-target, and generally succinct interviews — usually conducted by Roy, but also by folks like Mark Dery and Paul Miller. Now, after what seemed like eons, Christopher has collected a mess of these resonant chats and encased them in Gutenberg form. The book Follow for Now is like a crisp and substantial remix of the major memes of the last decade or so.” Read more