On the Blogs:

• Publishers Marketplace will be photo-blogging the festivites. Contribute via cap64far2blog@photos.flickr.com. (And for all those wondering about the real identity of mystery blogger Mad Max Perkins, here's a candid portrait.)
  
• Word on the street is that Sara Nelson thinks little of blogs, but that won't be stopping Publishers Weekly from launching its "first annual PW BEA Blog," home of what PW modestly calls "the sharpest, wittiest and most knowing Book Expo commentary around."
  
• As expected, lit blogs -- including The Elegant Variation, EdRants, and Chekhov's Mistress -- have already posted reactions to today's blog-related conference, "Book Industry Bloggers: Change Agents or Perpetual Blue-skyers?" (Someone, quick, tell me: what the hell's a "blue-skyer"?)
  
• According to this press release, Bookpitch.com will feature free and downloadable podcasts from Book Expo on its website starting Sunday, June 5th. (By then, of course, BEA will mostly be over. For cutting-edge technology, timing isn't always a priority.)

In the News:

• The AP talks to Laurence J. Kirshbaum, retiring head of the Time Warner Book Group, about the BEA. "It's still a way to break books out," Kirshbaum says. "Publishers and booksellers love to think about what's going to work and what are the holy grails for the year."
  
• Doug Dutton of Dutton Books describes the BEA for the L.A. Times:
  "It's 30% party, 30% buzz, 20% exposition specials, and the other 20% we don't usually talk about in a family newspaper."
  
• Taking a cue from the Haggadah, PW's editor column asks, "Why is this book fair different from all other book fairs?" Among the answers: "At other book fairs, we compete with each other for deals and party invitations. At this book fair, we do all that and reward publishers and booksellers for hard jobs well done." Sara Nelson continues: "All that, plus Billy Crystal. No wonder BEA is popular."
  
• Also in PW: a preview of this year's BEA highlights, featuring lists of the exhibitors worth visiting and the galleys worth grabbing.

Other:

• PM presents "Stalking the Wild Bookseller: 10 Tips for BEA Exhibitors." Tip no. 1: "Almost nothing that happens during the first hour on Friday morning matters. That initial Oklahoma Land Rush of attendees, both qualified and unqualified, who scoop up freebies is purely ceremonial, like a tight formation of Navy fighter jets performing a flyover at a baseball stadium on opening day."
  
• Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind reprints PW's fashion tips for BEA. Once again, the tips come numbered, tip no. 1 being, "You may not wear any shoe just because it is comfortable. You may, however, wear a shoe that is both comfortable and stylish." Fascinating.