"The laws of religion bind us like silk threads; the laws of government are as heavy as a golden yoke; but the laws of national tradition are as inflexible as an iron pillar."
From:
In the middle of the Tang Dynasty many well-known writers and poets began story writing. Their stories incorporate a wide range of subject matter and themes, reflecting various aspects of human nature, human relations and social life. In form they are not short notes or anecdotes like the tales produced before them, but well-structured stories with interesting plots and vivid characters, often several thousand words in length. Among them are many tales whose main characters are gods, ghosts, or foxes.
Each fall, Blogaulaire keeps missing Expozine, the exposition of zines, independent small press productions, chapbooks et cetera. Ignorance is not bliss, however, when you link to photographer Denis Carl's desktop wallpapers site (see the LINKS on the right) and find his flickr.com 9-image coverage of Expozine 2006 HERE. (On flickr, I use the slideshow feature for coverage like this.)
Of course you will want to browse over to the Expozine website HERE as well.
I must be in a buy-sell frame of mind. I keep thinking of how unique and interesting those zines on the exhibitors' tables must be 'in person' or 'in paper' or 'in plasma screen' or WHATEVER.
On the Expozine website homepage, be sure to scroll down and look at all the logos for sponsors of the fair. These cultural entities - some private-sector, some nonprofit - are a sampling of who and what is active in Montreal on the publishing front.
"Good and evil, life and death, love and separation."
Shop Lewis Buzbee's book "The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop," (US $17) online if you want to save mucho. Just use the form box at the top of this and every other page on Cheap Priceless Editions.
Maybe Ron Silliman is the new prophet-poet of what is happening in the book trade. He's at least eloquent and articulate, coming up with apt comparisons with past techno-family challenges.
Bookshops' latest sad plot twist
By David Streitfeld
Los Angeles Times
February 7, 2007
If you think everything '60s started in California, then you probably think everything '60s will end there.
Blogaulaire thinks that the last thing these California scribes will write about is the large number of ex-patriats who have left the state to discover some other New Eldorado elsewhere. Native Californians would much rather believe that Silicone Valley (with, perhaps, a little help from Seattle) still RULES; that we're all into California Dreamin, one way or the other.
On another personal note, Berkeleylost its magnetic appeal along with The Haight so long ago . . it was almost exactly on my 15th birthday. The point is: the demise of these culture icons up and down Shattuck is not the demise of The Culture ipso facto.
I'm even surprised that Cody's survived in that venue for as long it they did. (Blogaulaire still adores North Beach bistros in San Francisco.)
--Blogaulaire
"No man on a horse can remember what it is like to go on foot."
"Wealth gives a man the respect due to someone thirty years his senior."
Blogaulaire put those links in the right-hand sidebar for our readers convenience and enjoyment. Just leaving the names and links on the right, though, serves no real purpose unless you click on them. Few of you do.
So, if you can't bring the mountain to Muhammed . . .
Here is a screen shot from the homepage at Denis-Carl Robidoux's Blog.
"Around a widow's door slanders gather."
"It is better to offend a guest than it is to starve him."
"Check the weather when you venture out; check the faces when you venture in."
from Justin Wintle
"Beware the man who incites the dog to worry the pig."
"Ignore an old man's advice and one day be a beggar."
"Old trees are hollow inside; old men see things clearly."
"It is not every day that a delicious rice-cake falls into the open mouth."
"A thousand drinks with a true friend are not enough; half a sentence with an enemy is too much."
The style and format range in popular travel guides in the bookstores is great. This evening I shot table top shots of the Odyssey Illustrated Guide to Cuba (Hong Kong, The Guidebook Co, 1995) 314 p.
Since approximately 300 trade-sized glossy pages weigh more than a Fodor and because this guide sells in North America for double the 12 Euros of the cover price on the back, I believe it is best to illustrate at least a few of the images on the inside of the book. Guides with high quality, illustrated content are worth the average price tag of $30 (but I would settle for a secondhand pittance-priced 1995 edition and spend the $28 saved while on vacation!).
I want to experiment with setting up shots of the inside content without breaking the book's spine.
My 'table top' was merely a narrow, high back and seat on a folding IKEA bar stool, high enough so that I didn't break my own spine leaning over to make camera adjustments. Below I am sharing only two book cover shots and one inside panel from a recto-verso panoramic image.
Above - as if it fits comfortably in the side-pocket of a small backpack purse. (It won't; your guidebook practically "fills" a third of your whole bag! (The cover photo is of 'A street in Trinidad.' I know, but they ARE referring to the town in Cuba, not the island nation -- Color shift shows I need to use Photoshop or even Paint Shop Pro because my editor lacks automatically repeatable color balance settings!
Tightening up the perspective to see how this looks.
The right panel of the centrefold panoramic that shows Valle de los Ingenos.
