6/1: We completed our book’s introductory precise. Here are the documents:
On Friday, we made the promise of a draft precise for authors. On Saturday, the Supreme Being guided us. By afternoon, we were totally wiped out. Showered, shaved — and dragged over to San Francisco for a performance by Iliana Georgieva.
5/27: Last Friday, we emailed our invite to authors. We heard back a few days ago with confirmations from all authors — totally taken aback by the enthusiasm. We regrouped at Café Que Tal at 4PM, as usual.
Today, Michael suggested that we draft a four page introduction and revise it by this coming Wednesday. On Friday, we meet at his place and go over the logistics of submission. We set January 15, 2012 as the deadline for drafts from authors. Last Friday, when we met, we promised to exchange ideas for the introductory precise.
Brainstorming, took place last weekend, on Sunday while having coffee. Ideas were transferred to the computer, and two more sections added: (1) conventional wisdom of oil political economy and; (2) postmodern conventional wisdom list of considerations.
In turn, Michael sent over a 30 page manuscript. It was fabulous. He was writing on a variety of topics — relation to technology, production, history– but also conveying meaning about unaccountability, extensive chains connecting our lives to the center of the earth, parallel systems of management, addiction, poverty and fabulous wealth. In short, we write events and tell emotions. And this sense of distance began to suggest — it is the concept of distance to oil, the appropriate distance, that we have been talking about all along.
5/20: We crafted an invitation to a few scholars on our oil and gas book:
Oil and Gas Publication Letter of Invite
5/19: On Fridays at 4PM, I stumble over to meet with Michael Watts, UC Berkeley Geography Professor, at Café Que Tal. The Café is located in the Mission District of San Francisco on Guerrero and 22nd street. We usually sit near the front of the shop, in an alcove by the window. Our discussion covers a co-edited book project.
Some months earlier, Michael suggested we co-edit a book on oil/gas. The idea is to provide a counterpoint to current approaches on oil and gas framed by progress, economic growth, elite decision making.
Of course, Dan Yergin’s The Prize, offers fabulous descriptions of personalities in history. What we take issue with is how these stories follow a premise — that stages of modernization (W.W. Rostow) are real and that the empirical is a formula of interactions between supply and demand.
Paparazzi Ethnography 
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