| Bring back the traditional bookshop |
[16 Nov 2009|02:20pm] |
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/nov/16/borders-waterstones-traditional-booksellers No more lounging in Waterstone's or browsing in Borders – turn over an old leaf with the starchy, strait-laced booksellers of old When the Borders Group first imported its corporate ambience to the UK in 1998, it seemed the book business had been made anew. Here were stores in which not only could you get away with browsing noncommittally, you were positively encouraged to do so. There were armchairs for lolling in while you read a chapter or two, as well as coffee-shops that offered cappuccinos and a range of sugar-laden treats to keep your energy levels up while lolling. It wasn't long before Waterstone's followed suit, the bigger branches kitted out with the kinds of squashy brown leather sofas they have in the Groucho Club, sweet little window seats, and the de rigueur waft of Costa Coffee fumes. It's all so much more civilised than yesteryear. We have left behind the brutally commodified atmosphere of the old book chains, and seen it replaced with a proper air of studious contemplation more appropriate to the business in hand. Except, I've had enough now. It may be lovely to be able to read a chunk of a book in an unhurried fashion while deciding to buy, but I don't believe that's what most of these sofa-lollers are doing. Bookshops have now taken on the atmosphere of municipal libraries, with people killing an empty hour or so between arrangements, or else just waiting for the rain to stop. I caught a man in Waterstone's in Piccadilly, London, with his feet up over the end of the sofa, settling himself agreeably while leafing through a large work of war history. Furthermore, since people now expect to be able to sit and read, there is an unspoken battle for sofa-space, with the result that, if every seat is taken, they make do with the floor, transforming the place less into the local library than the departure lounge at Gatwick. A pair of backpackers in the Charing Cross Road Borders had set up camp in front of (wouldn't you know it?) Philosophy, spreading out their gear and sitting cross-legged at the foot of the shelves to read graphic novels, impervious to the Excuse-mes of those of us trying to get to the Badious (I know, I know, it's what we deserve). The smell of coffee-machines is now the default aroma of the urban environment in Britain, beguiling enough when you're on the point of flagging, vaguely sickening when you're already satiated with caffeine. Once held mythically to be a great way to sell your house, it now hovers like a bilious miasma over the business of book-buying, for no other reason than to smarten up those profit-margins that have been dented by encouraging people to lounge about with no intention of buying a book. There will be people who still feel it's good to be able to sit and think, without being pressured into making a decision. I do remember a fearsome manager at the WH Smith of my childhood, who used to follow you about tidying up the shelves every time you put back a book you had just briefly looked at. But I also remember a small independent bookshop, staffed only by a man who looked far too young to be wearing a cravat, and who only looked up from his own book in order to tie up your purchase in brown parcel paper and string. That to me is a more gemütlich experience than the Borders/Waterstone's approach. Nobody used the place as a railway station waiting-room (there was nowhere to sit), and nor were you likely to be sold a Danish pastry with which you could then gum up the pages of the next book you started leafing through. The backlash starts here.
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| philcon schedule and out of town authors |
[16 Nov 2009|09:19am] |
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mood |
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music |
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wolfsheim: i find your gun |
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Here's my Philcon schedule for this weekend:
Sat 10:00 AM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
THE VALUE OF ART: TRADITIONAL VS. DIGITAL MEDIA (119)
[Panelists: Ray Ridenour (mod), Kyle Cassidy, Luke Stelmaszek, Alan
Beck, Thomas Nackid]
How does an artist set prices for their art? Should a one of a kind
oil painting cost more than a digital piece that took the same
amount of time to make? Do buyers understand the value of art
Sat 12:00 PM in Plaza V (Five) (1 hour)
STEAMPUNK ART: WHO'S DOING IT AND WHY WE LIKE IT. (121)
[Panelists: Kyle Cassidy (mod), D.E. Christman, Thomas Nackid]
A discussion of steampunk artists
Sat 4:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Two (1 hour)
KYLE CASSIDY SLIDE SHOW (254)
[Panelists: Kyle Cassidy (mod)]
Photographer Kyle Cassidy shows his work
Sun 11:00 AM in Plaza V (Five) (1 hour)
DRAWN TO THE DARK: THE APPEAL OF HORROR ART (113)
[Panelists: D.E. Christman (mod), Mark E. Rogers, Kyle Cassidy,
Thomas Nackid, Hartstein Onezumi]
What draws artists to do horror art? What draws fans to love these
images of gore and creepiness
Sun 2:00 PM in Plaza IV (Four) (1 hour)
WHAT MY CAT HAD FOR BREAKFAST. (218)
[Panelists: Orenthal Hawkins (mod), Kyle Cassidy, Alyce Wilson,
Terri Osborne, KT Pinto]
Just because everyone can have a blog does that mean everyone
should? Panelists discuss what kind of personal responsibility
comes with putting your thoughts out there for the world to read
I have to really applaud the programing people because of all the panels available, these are probably, mostly, the ones I'm competent to be on. I was imagining I'd end up on some panel like "The early untranslated fiction of M. Blatherskythe Blimpzesken: an examination of minor characters in Babylon 5 in comparison with the second transurnal blendstream movement (1977/1987) - Kyle Cassidy (mod)"
I'd particularly recommend "what my cat had for breakfast" cause, you know, it'll probably have ROSWELL CONTENT.
Also, if there are any out of town authors who don't have a place to stay or were thinking of driving back to NYC, the Rock Star Hotel is vacant that weekend, drop us a line.
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| again, calling all whovians, a second question |
[16 Nov 2009|01:20pm] |
Poll #1486210 Actually, a second question, related but subtle separate...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5Leaving aside the week-by-week stories, or the overrunning arcs, Doctor Who's underlying feel is...
I should have put this in the first poll but I was in a hurry.
Edit: Gotta love my ability to put typos in places where I can't fix them.
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| In your water, watching you |
[16 Nov 2009|11:59pm] |
Hmmmm I may have to look at my eyebrow plucking, I appear to be wonky.
I swam 400m today that is 400m more than I have done in ages.
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| You call that journalism? |
[16 Nov 2009|12:42pm] |
"As far as I personally was concerned, there came a point with the presentation of the so-called evidence, with the moment when Colin Powell sat down at the UN General Assembly and unveiled what he said was cast-iron evidence of things like mobile, biological weapon facilities and the like...
"When I saw all of that, I thought, well, 'We know that Colin Powell is an intelligent, thoughtful man, and a sceptical man. If he believes all this to be the case, then, you know, he's seen the evidence; I haven't.’
"Now that evidence turned out to be absolutely meaningless, but we only discover that after the event. So, you know, I’m perfectly open to the accusation that we were hoodwinked. Yes, clearly we were."
That's Jeremy Paxman, who is generally considered to be one of the tougher people at the BBC.
From this, which is well worth reading
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| Poem of the week: Stone Poems by Douglas Skrief |
[16 Nov 2009|10:55am] |
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/nov/16/poem-of-the-week-douglas-skrief Skrief's nature poems sidestep the 'egotistical sublime' by allowing nature to speak Some poems enrol us as respectful admirers: others walk straight in through an open door in our minds and make themselves at home, admired no less, but also intimate friends. I felt this about Douglas Skrief's new book-length sequence, Stone Poems, and I have chosen a handful of separate poems from different sections to give you a glimpse of its pleasures. One way in which contemporary nature poets subvert the Wordsworthian "egotistical sublime" is by giving the natural world its own ego and voice. Ted Hughes and Alice Oswald employ this technique: the poet's thoughts "too deep for tears" are transferred to "the meanest flower" itself. Such dramatisation allows the writer unostentatiously to be present, while accessing unconventional or more powerful forms of utterance. The ancient boulder which talks to the poet in Stone Poems inhabits the south shore of Rainy Lake, in the US/Canadian border region of the Upper Midwest. "Court records," Skrief writes, "say that for over half a century my family has owned the Northern Minnesota bedrock on which the stone sits. The records do not mention the stone." Skrief has rectified this: the stone has become its own vivid historian, and the poet owns it in the sense that he has fully imagined it. Describing his educational background, Skrief lists Harvard and Oxford and "the sweat lodges of the Ojibway". So it seems he may owe his vision not only to the Romantic poets but to the animistic beliefs of this Native American people. His ease with a natural world infused with consciousness permeates all his observations. Skrief's imagination is nonetheless soundly scientific: all the elements in his universe cohere as a vast family-unit, whether they are gases, glaciers, coyote or human beings. Time often seems compressed, as if, as some physicists believe, events are simultaneous. The inevitability of evolution and change also comes across strongly in the later poems. When the boulder describes how its lichens are learning to break down "the latest particulates" emitted by nearby industrial workings, we are reminded of nature's prodigious adaptability. Whatever its terrors, progress is seen as inevitable, already implicit when the lichens "first saw a two-leggèd skip a flat stone". There are five sections in the sequence: Origins, Visitors, Awakenings, Words to the Word-Giver and Change. The boulder begins by recalling its originary "time amid stars" and "the crush/ before upheavals of deep horizons". It remembers how "A she-mastodon's single tusk dislodged iced lichens" and then evokes its human visitors: the priestess and the shaman, the fur-traders and "frost-bit men culling pine". In sections 3 and 4, the poet's personal relationship with the boulder is considered, and its own "character" emerges as it talks with the poet more intimately, and absorbs and reflects a more complex consciousness. The tone is authoritative, calm, amused, occasionally cranky or challenging, but un-judgmental. This stone values language, and sometimes addresses the human "Tongue of Creation" in a prayer-like chant. Whether rocks or pebbles, canticles, stories or haiku-like snapshots, the poems combine melody and harmony, clean outline and dense texture.
Together they form the portrait of a man and a boulder; they are also the celebration and song of a particular region, its wildlife, its history, its native and immigrant cultures. But these Stone Poems are good travellers: they talk to any reader willingly, as if they shared our own profoundest memories, too. vii For a moon, round an ash-wood fire,
seven warriors counselled, content
this point was theirs. One dragged his leg.
Another, with oak-bark skin, picked at scars
on his left shin. A boy, with the voice
of a brook, assented to every plan.
They laughed. They called him
The-Sapling-No-Wind-Can-Tame.
On their last day, they re-lashed spears,
ochred faces and launched their craft.
That evening a white-tailed coyote sniffed,
then lifted his leg – his scent a mix
of juniper berries and dead mice.
(from Visitors) xvi Words can't reattach a weasel paw left in a trap
or replant spruce seedlings uprooted when stags rut.
Moose shed their racks, and mice feast.
If I cracked in half, part of you would die –
your words careening like fireflies in a jar.
Be a grizzly. Swat open the anthill.
Release your needles to the squalls.
Let storm-washed gravel fret your banks
before frost sets the clay.
(from Words to the Word-Giver) xiii A shot. An elk avalanched, antlers
balanced even as it collapsed.
I'll be here in the morning.
It may not look like courage.
(from Awakenings) ii They flamed unwavering, long into the night.
Not stars washed up on the far beach.
Not lightning bolts persisting on singed retinas.
Not campfires diminishing to coals
as old storytellers lost momentum. No.
Streetlights. Houselights. Car lights. Approaching
till we could see up close how brashly they vied
with the splendid humility of the auroras.
(from Change) x Ants build mounds with my castoffs.
Bears splinter wild plum bows.
Frost heaves fox holes as easily
as fire sears dry yarrow. Their dreams –
all memory. You pile stones, yank up
the reed bed, mow the poplar volunteers.
Promise if you ever choose to move me,
Word-Giver, you'll start with a prayer.
(from Change) Thanks are due to the author and to Starhaven for permission to reprint these poems.
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| Sad news |
[16 Nov 2009|11:36am] |
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I note that Karl Kroeber, the son of Alfred and Theodora Kroeber and the brother of Ursula K. Le Guin, died on Sunday 8th November. He was 83. The North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, which reports the news, adds: "Karl used to joke that he was always being approached by people who wanted to talk about his mother or father or contact his sister." Karl Kroeber was Mellon Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. His major scholarly interests were English Romanticism, American Indian literatures (especially oral narratives), and children's literature.
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| Delicious LiveJournal Links for 11-16-2009 |
[16 Nov 2009|11:01am] |
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I'd read Woofer.
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And about time too.
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Beginning in 2012 the law will abolish current road taxes and sales taxes for automobiles, cutting the cost of a new car by 25 percent, in favor of the pro-rated distance tax.
Drivers will be charged 0.03 euros per kilometer (7 cents US per mile) in an attempt to reduce traffic jams fatal accidents and carbon emissions.
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| Now this is interesting |
[16 Nov 2009|10:42am] |
The Religious Discrimination act also covers more general philosophical beliefs.
It's now being used to defend a young lady who was turned down for a position in social work because of her "sexual lifestyle" and a person who was turned down for a position as a magistrate when it turned out he was interested in BDSM.
Looks like the churches might have opened the floodgates here...
From
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| Tell me why I don't like Mondays |
[16 Nov 2009|10:02am] |
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This may all be down to having slept rather badly all weekend and my hip being troublesome, but I was possibly rather inordinately annoyed by the following:
Passing-by woman saying 'Careful!' when my foot slipped on one of the numerous wet leaves on the pavement - when a) I had been carefully picking my way for several blocks, thanks, and b) I really think the question is less one of the pedestrian having to be careful and much more about the London Borough of Islington getting its finger out re street-cleaning.
Vast hordes of schoolkids on the tube - some kind of group excursion? Teachers - why not time these after rush hour?
This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/1131636.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View  comments.
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[16 Nov 2009|01:44am] |
 PERUGIA, ITALY |
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| calling all whovians |
[16 Nov 2009|09:25am] |
Okay, I'm not a huge Who fan and some of you are, help me out here.
Poll #1486141 Talk to me, whovians
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13Leaving aside the week-by-week stories, or the overrunning arcs, Who's underlying feel is...
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| Ballarat Show |
[16 Nov 2009|08:21pm] |
I had a corker of a weekend. It was laid back and relaxed.
Have a photo blog: http://www.cjcurrie.com/wordpress/?p=914 (Some good long exposures in the gallery)
I have an understanding why Picasso has mistresses and was a womaniser. Losing a Muse is devastating. Going through the Japan photos I became more and more aware I was missing something. Frog's face dominated my photography, he was easy to photograph, being photogenic and generally a patient model. I loved taking photos of him. I moved onto my friends when he left, Fran, Sarah, Ruth and Ed I think got a lot of lens time. Not as an intimate relationship but faces that I think are beautiful and people I love. There are a few photos of CEB, he does not have a classically handsome face like Frogs and one I would have liked to learn CEB's angles.
I miss having a muse, I am a portrait photographer at heart, making people comfortable and making them happy makes for a happy mort.
It is funny what you realise when things have gone, may Picasso had it right, many muses that are replaced often means you are not left without inspiration.
This post is bought to by swimming laps and trying to work out what is missing.
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| Water Discovered on Earth |
[16 Nov 2009|07:00am] |
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http://scottmccloud.com/2009/11/16/theres-water-on-earth-too/ http://scottmccloud.com/?p=1611 
Last week London, this week Portland. Two damp and wonderful cities (note Portland’s actual 10-day forecast as of Sunday night at left).
Saw some great old friends in London (while briefly in town for a session with the good folks at Skype) including “The Man at the Crossroads” Paul Gravett, webcomics innovator Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, and my old pal Ted Dewan, and had the privilege of meeting Pat Mills, Sarah McIntyre and Woodrow Phoenix among others. Sarah got a great shot of Paul, Woodrow, and I on her blog.
Woodrow’s 2008 book Rumble Strip made for some intriguing plane reading. It’s all “word specific” (i.e., without pictures, the words would still form a coherent text), and uses only images of inanimate objects to make its points as it mounts an all-out assault on car culture. An unusual and interesting book.
Here in rainy Portland I’ll be doing an in-class workshop at Reed College (not open to the public—sorry!) and will probably see about one in ten of the hundreds of talented cartoonists living in this lovable soggy city, but I’m sure I’ll be back before long.
After these two back-to-back trips, it’s non-stop drawing from here to February as I wrap up layouts on the graphic novel. Always fun to visit two of my favorite cities, but looking forward to getting back to work.
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[16 Nov 2009|10:39am] |
I had a good weekend, have to play with photos and will do a proper update.
Frog has finally changed the relationship status on facebook, considering he is already seeing someone it is a little slow but anyway.
I have changed my name on facebook, this will leave me open to high school people finding me but thems the breaks.
I could do with some help on website, was redesign recently but I want some things removed and text changed. It is no longer in HTML I think so I need some help. Any takers?
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