The wild coast of Bohemia

Stumbled across this article, which is actually more relevant to me than I expected. I think there is a lot of truth in it in a broader context than just the US one it talks about. Certainly, we couldn't realistically do our work - building The Magic Realist Press from scratch, in ANY of the more expensive countries of the West. It would take far more money - and I think, oddly, far more dogged determination to ignore the establishment - than we have.
Here it isn't easy, but it's possible.

I do wonder how fast the "creative industries" (whatever that means - I'd certainly include the more creative aspects of software engineering) will begin to migrate in a significant way? Oddly enough it all ties in with another article I found in the Financial Times yesterday. It's about the "Chicks on Speed" - a group of women who are Berlin-based. I don't find their work all that interesting in its own right, but as the article pointed out, a prime example of the new "do it yourself" zeitgeist.
I'll try to find a link to a non-subscription FT article. Here is the Chicks own site:
http://www.chicksonspeed.com/index3.html It's slow and a bit obvious in its use of terms like "sell out"? Yes, but well, you get the point about what they represent - a conscious amateurism in one sense.

What this leaves me wondering is if this article from alternet is missing a trick? It is still assuming BIG. That the creative industries need big amounts of people, big investment, big market share. But is that true? If we really are moving more towards a "do it yourself" kind of cultural collage, then things are going to come out of the places that support small, free and inexpensive. Like Berlin. Like Prague. Like Yalta even?

Anyway, as ever this is a bit of a ramble. But I'll come back to it when it's sunk in and made some sense.

Meantime, here is the article:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17576

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more cards coming when I can get them uploaded - we seem to be getting on quite well with them now. Still nervous about the April date though - looks like we may slip by a fortnight or so, but I hope not.

Poking around in someone else's journal (is it only me who feels slightly voyeuristic doing this?) reminded me about Margin:

http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/margin/contentscurrent.html

Worth reading.

This is likely to be one of those late night un-thoughtout posts.

But to begin with, here is the revelation about parrots:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3430481.stm

I always thought they were incredible creatures, even if now it turns out they do have a rather naive sense of humour.

Cocteau? Just feeling my old interest in Cocteau coming on again. "Orphee" had the most profound effect on me when I saw it at fourteen. I actually think it may largely have been the root cause for the work I'm doing now. I think I need to read more Cocteau and really think about the directions we want to go in (to Hell and back? Hopefully not).

Why the article about parrots brought on this association with Cocteau I've no idea. But I seem to remember he did draw a parrot or two.
Not to mention the cats =^:^=

To my endless "I'll get back to this" list, I'm now adding Cocteau - that's Jean, not the twins you understand.