Every now and then we have a conversation in the office that goes something like this:

Me: Where's the list of the 429s?

Circulation Manager: Right here. (She's very efficient.)

Me: Oh, right. OK. Let's make some calls, do do some emails.

And what are the 429s, you might wonder? The 429s are the readers whose subscription lapsed with the most recent issue - number 429. And we want you back. We'll try with "Reminder" stickers on the cover, emails, phone calls - if you've been hearing from us lately, you are a 429, and we are thinking of you.

(Image: oldfashionedphones.com.)

Ode to Autumn by John Keats...

...considered one of the most perfect poems ever written...

(Image: farm1.flickr.)

Man on Wire, Future in Art

Heading to a bit of a 'do tonight, the opening of Newtopia at The Rooms - I'll write about this four-hander exhibit more later and will also be reviewing Peter Wilkins' work in the show for the next N. Q. In the meantime I have to recommend a fabulous film which screened at the MUN Cinema Series last night: it's called Man on Wire and it really is like nothing you have ever seen before.



(Image: madisonavenuejournal.)

This photograph actually has no connection to what I planned to write about today - which was about how some people are in such a rush to get to work in the morning that they honk at pedestrians who have the walk light and all legal rights to the road, and some drivers will even pull around a car that has stopped to let people cross the road at the crosswalk with the walk signal on - but instead let's just contemplate this pretty picture which for some reason came up when I typed in 'pedestrian.' (The bridge maybe?).
(Image: coolboom.)

Ned Pratt @ CPG

Spent part of this morning at the Christina Parker Gallery, checking out Ned Pratt's new work (it's up until Oct. 11, and can be viewed on line). Big, gorgeous stuff, a feast for the eyes.

(Image: therooms.)

Weekend @ Aesthetics

Spent the weekend attending sessions of Mediating the Aesthetic, three days of papers, Q&As, and the odd par-tay. Topics included the autobiography of landscapes, the onomatopoeia of comic book superheros, and the nodal tones of

Piet Mondrian - heady stuff for this fledgling grad student but it does keep one off the streets.

(Image: answers.com.)

Something I just read...

Carlyn Churchill's Far Away runs a swift 44 pages and, line by line, builds to a deeply haunting cascade of imagery: a world where everything and everyone, even the weather, is enmeshed in compliant, brutal war. It's hard to recommend something so honestly disturbing, but it is also such a adept and elegant piece of theatre.

(Image: iwritethings.net.)

Merlin Donald gave a talk at MUN yesterday: The Evolution of the Human Mind. It was engaging and erudite and often ten miles over my head but still fascinating. He talked a lot about culture, an issue of prime concern to the N. Q. of course, which he defined as "distributed cognitive systems." Don't be intimidated by the term - by reading this blog or picking up the magazine you become a distributive cognitive network all of your own. Now - don't you feel impressed with yourself?

(Image: sciencedaily.)

I keep trying to focus and write something on the upcoming magazine - our launch tomorrow - the trek we now begin towards our new issue - but the fact is I am completely distracted by a) the jackhammering outside our windows (they're trying to fix some potholes) and b) the alluring sight, just in the corner of my eye, of two lemon squares the Circulation Manager bought in as a treat for me (she's very nice). All you have to do is say "lemon squares" and you want some lemon squares, let alone actually have them in your office and be trying not to eat them, both, yourself, because there is this thing called sharing. Maybe they'll make it all the way home with me - if not, there's always this recipe I can turn to, to make amends...

(Image: hillphoto.com.)

Full Moon, Quiet City

Did you catch that gorgeous yellow moon last night? There it was rising over the Southside Hills as I strolled home from Curriculum Night at Holy Heart, a celestial event in itself of course as star-crossed parents wandered the halls, mistakenly directed to the auditorium (we were supposed to be in our child's homeroom), wrestled with the fourth floor doors which were all-but-one locked, for some reason, and frantically cell-phoned our children requesting to know their class schedule ("All the other parents have pieces of paper!")

(Image: neatorama.com.)

The magazines are off to you!

(Image: inmagine.)

Waiting for Delivery - Geared for Mailout

(Image: wvculture.)

September 11, 2001

I won't presume to write of that day - but if you are as tired of zany conspiracy theories as I am, this is the video for you.

(Image: roses.uk.)

Fields of Praise

I was walking down Water Street one Saturday morning when I met a friend. She had that look in her eye, you know, she was gone, she was in love - but not with a man - with a painting. It was Carolyne Honey Harrison who'd done this to her. Harrison has a solo exhibition opening at The Leyton Gallery this Saturday, well worth checking out and you too might have a new relationship on your hands.
(Image: avenue art.)

Art & Soul

Just back from another meeting of the Arts & Health Affinity Group. Some intriguing ideas floated about trying to exhibit work in a public hospital, dancing through therapy, and healing through drawing. It's a big topic, encompassing a range of physical, psychological and religious issues. Reminded me, among other things, of The Search for the Soul. In Middle Ages, many theologians and physicians believed the soul took up a specific space in the body, and that after death this space (now empty) could be located and identified. None less than Leonardo da Vinci used to study and detail skulls, seeking this elusive spiritual pocket.

(Image: success.co.)

Moving Video

I was hesitant to mark this video, by Amnesty International - it is so graphic, yet so beautiful; an incredible example of the power of simple black and white imagery.



(Image: cpluv.com.)

Memory & Forgetting

We have show up at Rabbittown Theatre, You Are Here, which is a 20-minute play about memory. An audience member from last night sent me this link today:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/08




Check out this gorgeous radio documentary - and the work of painter Joe Andoe.

(Image: paceprints.)

Ode to 101.2

We've corrected and tweaked and polished and fact-checked not once but thrice,
We've rejigged the cover until the image is something we think is very nice,
The files are clear,
The publishing date near,
So let's put some champagne on ice. (Image: zdnet.com)

Almost through the proofing...

(Image: seekingalpha.com)