(I nicked that line from somewhere but I can't remember where, ha.) E-Mails I never sent part the first: an e-mail to the Duke sympathising with his decision to not want to write any more for the site he'd created. Yes it can take over. Yes writing whatever you want is the best idea. Go for it. ("Never sent" also equals "Never wrote". I am a slave to the send button but there is an awful, awful lot I think but never say.) This message was taped to Richard Simmons car before he lost weight and became a millionaire. It motivated him to lose weight and well, the rest is history. Forget what you look like, being overweight will KILL you in one way or another. If you don't love yourself enough to live, then do it for your family and friends. They need you and you are causing them to worry... Also: this piece of fluff which has apparently been doing the rounds is written from a press release by ME! Yes! Do I only enjoy weblogs when I am a little bit familiar with the person? Yes? Does that make weblogs a dead end? No. We just need to all make more friends, ha. There is no such thing as community around here - the houses are new-built, the population transitory. But it's hard not to look at strangers and imagine that - even angry and upset - they feel more at home here than you do, and it's probably hard for them not to look back and think the reverse. The same of course is true of London, but there it's a condition of living, not something you try not to talk about. What about bananas , though? He shrugged. Bananas don't vary much. So why do they outsell apples? Mr Emmett said: 'The banana is easy and convenient. It's a slow-release energy fruit . Kids love them because they see the tennis stars eating them.' " There is still an 'aura' to print journalism despite most of it being not very good - I know several web writers who consciously or unconsciously seem to see print as a higher calling (NB this is aside from the economics of it - print pays a lot more). As well as a sense of respectability there's also a feeling that print is somehow less impermanent (which is untrue of periodicals at least). I think the commentariat reflects opinion more than it shapes it - I also wonder to what extent newspaper columnists (even big ones) think they do influence anyone. I have a monthly op-ed column in a print mag and find it laughable to imagine anyone even reading it let alone paying it much attention. Broadly speaking I'd prefer having a small but tangible influence on a small but select web audience than a completely negligible influence on a mass print audience." I've been thinking lately about what 'post-web' print journalism might be like.
Summer is almost over: it was darkening at half past six tonight. It's been an odd few months: tonight I put on the Pet Shop Boys without really thinking about it and started walking into town. It was cool and clear and the music made me happy; it could have been any late Summer evening in the last eight years, and that made me happy too. Was it a good Summer? It was a Summer.
Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?: The ahem Duke of Harringay's weblog, bookmarked for later reading.
Gang mistakenly steal childbirth drugs
Dear Lord, don't encourage them!. There is plainly still much work for Groke to do.
Today I am self-centred, bitter and gloomy - oh, and of course annoyed and guilty about being so. O Delight! My remedies are time-honoured: listen to pop albums loudly and escape to the pub. Christ.
I LOVE YOU AND I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE!
Payday Is The Best Day: it is you know. To celebrate my relative wealth, tidy house, current emotional equilibrium etc. etc. I head for the shops for the first time since ooh Wednesday and return with an album by Cannibal Ox (which I already know to be a record-of-the-year contender: world-weary, intelligent flow meets icy steam-powered music), an album by Herbert which I am listening to RIGHT NOW and is full of strange and ear-delighting fleshnoises, and an album by Grace Jones which is packaged in ZTT High Style (sleevenotes by Penman, track titles like "THE CROSSING (ooh the action...)", all tracks remixes of single song, hooray).
Nostalgia For The Present Time: incidentally I have no memories at all of anything that happened in January or February this year. If you wrote, spoke to or met me around those months please confirm that I was alive and not in some kind of space coma.
Tangerines in a Red Net Bag: Anthony Easton's weblog (yeah I said weblog) - AE is a regular poster on the IL Massif and his weblog is really good.
(c/o John) Winning Slogans In Promotional Competitions: this is very very funny.
"I myself am hell / Nobody's here": On Skunk Hour, which I read again this evening after writing the below.
Walking home (in August, in the dark, too much work, too little willpower), I notice the front door of the house nearest the road is open, light streaming out. A woman in a short red dress is walking, face lined, hair fiercely tied up, smoking a cigarette, back and forth in front of the lit door. She is angry. I suddenly feel terribly lonely.
From the Exeter Express & Echo (c/o Tim): "Rickard told police that he was not sure why he had broken into the shop or how he got into the premises. "He does recall leaving hospital and consuming alcohol," said Mrs Phillips. "He was very drunk and the events are a blur." James Rickard said his client was a binge drinker who had been on a sherry and cider spree."
Can you get arm cancer?
Art show to explore 'erotic' Thatcher: gnnnh.
"At New Covent Garden Market last week, the fruit wholesalers were enthusing about the new apples arriving from South Africa. 'They're the best,' said Paul Emmett, 28, of Pouparts, one of the market's biggest firms. 'Fantastic quality. A premium product. You should try the Royal Galas.'
Me, from this thread: "The big difference between web publication and print publication is that print is far more of a 'push' medium. If The Wire was online, somebody wanting to read about Acid Mothers Temple could do so without ever even being aware of Robin C's Delia obituary. However buying The Wire physically, our AMT fan has to consciously avoid and decide not to read the obit.
And it's National Left Handers Day. I will be eating a mango entirely with my left hand. Except I don't like mango.
It is National Mango Week. Act on this information as you see fit.