It's not a mirror: it's a door

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* Still not blogging.

Going dark

I'm working on a new thing – I'm always working on a new thing – because I believe in moving forward and I enjoy being useful. Recent events have convinced me that being online is either very important or a waste of time; prior to that I thought it might have been somewhere in between, but the in-between – again, it seems – can only be that which comes after: that which is in retrospect, and not during. So it's time to kick off and end things. It's over. I have other places to be. So do you.

Pictured: Mr Mojo Risin', Paris 22 Feb 2011.

Goodnight, everybody.

La vérité est là

Season five of Maupassant is my favourite.

New favourite Degas

Danseuses bleues, 1893, Musée d'Orsay.

When I was down you just stood there grinning




Major book chains are closing up. Meanwhile in France (pictured) where the selling price is fixed by publishers, book stores are still open for business. Note also that retailers lease fewer than four floors, don't serve coffee or sell CDs and DVDs. So Amazon has won... at least until governments (= consultants) decide the postal service isn't financially justifiable.

A London publisher told me about the Christmas when Amazon UK demanded that they cut their prices. The publisher refused, so Amazon switched off the 'Buy' buttons on all their titles. The publisher refused to back down and Amazon caved – eventually. Stories like that make me like bookstores even if they are a chain.

I'll remember Borders in Auckland for stocking my novels (ta Chris B) and wish the staff well. If the Civic premises are going to vacated, now is the time for a DKD revival.

Also on the theme of change The National Enquirer has been staking out Steve Jobs. I don't want to know and I'm not going to link to it but I do want to point out that the last time a reporter pulled this kind of stunt the Tooth Fairy bit his lips off.

Hellcats of the specific




Supplementary / particular images from things I've been thinking / reading / posting about this week. Namaste: Frederick Elms, Tak Fujimoto, Ernest Laszlo, Anon.

Happy V Day

Big ups to Jaybyrd Slim and Dapper D for tonight's do at The Nitty Gritty, named after this number, apparently:


Related: NY 2011 playlist from DJ Pierre C.