Our local Borders Books — like all of them– closed a few months ago. Of course, I love books. But I wasn’t particularly heartbroken. I’ve never been a big fan of the mega-bookstore. I’m all for smaller stores, though. Today on Planetizen fellow Angeleno Josh Stephens wrote a nice piece on how he hopes the demise of Borders will mean the start of something much better (and also probably smaller). Definitely read Stephens’s piece. In it you’ll find this: “The bookstore is dead. Long live the bookstore.” Very nice, Josh!

And speaking of nice things… In the space of my local former Borders there is something new and inspiring. It’s called Open Borders– Summer of Music+Art. I absolutely love that people got together and created a space for music and art here. We need more of this out here in the LA exurbs. Saturday afternoon I dropped by with my two kids and Tom Corbett was sitting there playing and singing. I was blown away by him and  bought his CD Tonight I Ride. Corbett does Americana/Bluegrass music. It’s not my usual fare, but he’s really good. So please check out Tom Corbett’s music here. Or visit his website here. Oh, and don’t worry, this is definitely NOT Tom Corbett, the governor of PA!