Or Where My Mind Does Some Serious Wandering…
Five nights back, in the early hours of the morning, I was making my way south through the north of France, stopping at every signpost and peering myopically at my map in the hope of actually finding my way through the Ardennes – a bewildering nocturnal land of wooded ridges, enormous cemeteries and rotten radio reception – when I suddenly throught of the handwriting personality test I did a while back..
What’s the connection, you legitimately ask? None of course. I don’t know about you, but my mind works like that, an errant bark skipping from isle to fabled isle in the Archipeligo of Serendipity. Perhaps it was the purposeful aimlessness of that particular leg of the trip, the absurdity of not knowing exactly where I was, an out-of-date map, driving in the dark… an accumulation of apt metaphores to be sure…
After all, it was only 10 bucks, how could I decline to meet my inner self at such a bargain?
It turns out that I am a stubborn obstinate considerate critical goodnatured ambitious aggressive skeptical deliberate decisive impatient easygoing businesslike honest conscientious straightforward talkative kind of fellow who is not easily fooled, dares to do what he thinks is right, is accustomed to finishing what he starts, with natural executive ability commercial instincts and a promotional mind. I like music too, and could consider self-employment in a pinch.
Wow, ALL that? Amazing what you can learn about yourself for such a modest investment.
Artistic talent? Nothing but empty boxes in that area.
Damn. (No sense of humour either.)
So it’s decided, I’ve ordered a carload of encyclopediae and vacuum cleaners and I’m ready to hit the road, especially as I’ve now learned to read road maps properly. The time to check out my chinese horoscope, my celtic calendar, my manual on feng shui, my biorhythm and sky chart, make a quick call to my gyspy palm reader and I’m off!
Geneva Book Fair
The show in Geneva was great fun. Here are a couple of photos, we’ll put up a serious selection in the scrapbook. Alas, there were so many people that I had to give up doing drawings and fall back on simple signatures. Even those, at about 10 seconds a signature, went on for an hour and a half – I could barely hold the steering wheel on the way home, my arm was so sore.
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The Mysteries of Life:
Why is it that I can purchase a book (published in France) in the US one third cheaper than I can get it here at the local bookshop? (Including postage!). We are only 40 kilometers from the French border, but the book costs nearly 2 dollars a kilometer extra to wend its way to Neuchâtel… three times the price of air mail from L.A. I’m willing to support local commerce, but there is a limit. Culture has no price, just substantial mark-ups.
On the Drawing Board:
More dont-you-ever-get-bored-with-that-stuff-honestly Tolkien drawings, this time for the French edition of Meditations on Middle-Earth.
The Tolkien Exhibition:
The gallery show is coming to Neuchâtel (you know how us homeboys are, anything to get decent service at the local bakery) in conjunction with the NIFFF – Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival. Early July. It’ll be great fun, and no driving in the dark! (For once I can go to the opening on my bike.) More news to follow.
The hippopotamus? The other day on the TV there was a feature on Toronto, and voiced over the image of the observation deck of the CN Tower, was the fact that the glass floors of the deck “can support the weight of fourteen hippos”. Other than the totally enchanting image that immediately conjured up – a merry pachydermal assembly of equus fluvialii jostling for a view, and the totally ludicrous nature of the comparison, it occured to me that as a general rule in life, you never want to be that 15th hippopotamus…
See you next week!
