{ feuilleton }

Via Vintage Ad Browser. Thanks to the very efficient WordPress spam filter readers here seldom see any spam comments but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any hitting the site. This blog receives an average of around 1,200 a day, sometimes more on those occasions when some algorithm out in the Deep Web turns its Sauron-gaze [...]

Seven and Seven Is (1967), a single by Love. Celebrating seven years of this here blawg with a bunch of sevens. But first, the stats which (according to WordPress’s own meter) say “This blog was viewed about 2,300,000 times in 2012″. The caveat there is that many people visit these pages simply to see a [...]

Vaslav Nijinsky in Fokine’s Schéhérazade. A print by George Barbier (1913). Happy new year. 02013? Read this. “Taking your measure”: October, 1913. “The elevated sidewalk: How it will solve transportation problems”: July 26, 1913. November 15, 1913.

Chiozza e Turchi, fabricants de savons (1899) by Adolf Hohenstein. My regular email account is currently malfunctioning so if anyone has sent a mail to my discordia address after 10.00am (UK time) on August 29th I haven’t received it. For the time being I’m switching to my Google account as the default so if anyone [...]

The photo shows a detail of the design embossed on the front board proof of the forthcoming Reverbstorm book, publication of which has been put forward while the printers address some production problems. Without getting overly technical there’s been trouble with the ink causing a number of pages to print far too dark for reasons [...]

Number Six/The Prisoner (1990?) by Roland Topor. Welcome to post number 2,618, and the sixth anniversary of this here weblog. Roland Topor’s drawing could be interpreted as a cry for help from your narrator—imprisoned by the daily necessity to file copy—but it’s there mainly because I couldn’t think of another picture featuring the requisite numeral. [...]

Oh look, it’s the train again… The site was down for a couple of days after my webhost decided to repair the server without giving any advance warning. My apologies. Everything should now be back to normal.

A peacock. Photograph by Vidhya Narayanan. Posted at the Weird Fiction Review in the past week, The Weird (or Étrange) Questionnaire is Éric Poindron’s Weird (or Étrange) riposte to the Proust Questionnaire. I’d read the post, and seen Jeff VanderMeer’s answers to the questions, but wasn’t planning on answering it myself until Neddal Ayad wrote [...]

With my on-again/off-again phone problem persisting it’s getting impossible to post anything substantial here so I may as well take a break for a few days while I try and get the line fixed. I’m hoping this won’t take too long but given the failures of the phone company on previous occasions nothing is certain. [...]

I nearly called this post “Topology of a phantom city” after Alain Robbe-Grillet (and Paul Schütze) but was concerned that might confuse matters. On the other hand, such a title is probably pompous, elitist and obscure enough for the subject in question. Today’s post is necessarily brief since the trouble I keep having with my [...]

Life magazine for March 2nd, 1911, with cover art by Orson Lowell. The Peacock Number, eh? Can’t help but wonder what the rest of this issue was like. 02011? Read this. Happy new year!

Normal service has been resumed. Thank you.

Where we’re from the birds sing a pretty song, and there’s always music in the air. My internet connection has been steadily degrading over the past few days to the extent that I’m now reduced to posting this via the antiquated miracle of dialup. Things will be quiet here for the next day or so [...]

Well that took a lot longer than it should have done but as I mentioned earlier, the break has enabled me to catch up with some pressing deadlines. Despite the delay the server move seems to have gone better than in the past, and should have the advantage of making this part of the site [...]

The server swap is still ongoing here so, for technical reasons I won’t bore anyone with, I’m taking a short break until things are sorted out. Yesterday’s post and a couple of recent comments may vanish for a while but if they do they should be restored soon after. A break would be useful this [...]

Will at A Journey Round My Skull turned up this hand-coloured picture from Ronald Balfour’s illustrated Rubáiyát some of whose other drawings were featured here recently. That distant volcano is a curious detail. Related: Golden Age Comic Book Stories posted plates from Willy Pogány’s edition. • Authors on authors: China Miéville on JG Ballard; Rodrigo [...]

Good things come in fours: the mighty Kraftwerk performing Numbers on the Minimum-Maximum DVD (2005). Yes, the day between Darwin Day and St. Valentine’s Day is this blog’s birthday. I continue to be surprised that I’ve kept this going for so long since I never managed to keep a diary. Doing work that chains you [...]

“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.” Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem (1984). As well as chasing a deadline this week I’m now suffering badly from a cold, always a dismal combination if you can’t take time off. So this picture of the wonderful Jeremy Brett is all you get today. [...]

Now we’re into January it’s customary here to reduce the cost of the latest calendar since these things have a limited shelf-life. This year’s Psychedelic Wonderland production has been my most popular so far and can be had now for $17.99, one dollar over the base cost. Thanks again to everyone who bought a copy. [...]

The Firebird, a costume design by Léon Bakst for the Ballet Russes/Stravinsky production of the same name which had its premiere in Paris on June 25, 1910. 02010? Read this. Happy new year!