Done!

I've just finished proof-reading my new book: Don't Worry, Books are Unreadable Anyway. This will appear on the 24th of September. At the last minute I added a very short piece for the memory of Shingo. It concludes and opens the book toward the ocean where the islands of books are scattered.

Water and Blood

Films this year:

49. Armagan Ballantine, The Strength of Water (2009).
50. The Coen brothers, Burn After Reading (2008).
51. Joe Wright, Atonement (2007).

The new Maori film 49 offers a sheer beauty of northern North Island. 50 is so funny because of Brad Pitt's impersonating Jim Carrey (as if). In 51 again I encounter the strength of water, in a different sense. Very powerful.

But of them 49 remains the one I'd like to watch over and over again.

In Apia

In Apia, Samoa, dogs roam about in the street. Between 1 and 3 am they get into a big fight and the noise keeps me awaking. They are not like pitbulls or anything, just mangy mongrels. Scared of people during the day. But at night they become different animals. Dog's life.

"Flying" by Stephen Dixon

I came across a very short story (3 pages) called "Flying" by Stephen Dixon.

I'd never read anything by Dixon and I don't know who he is. But this is a chilling masterpiece that deals with the idea of an afterlife.

"We continued flying, each with an arm out, and by the time night came we were still no closer or farther away from the ground."

This brings me to tears, really.