peteashtondotcom

Got a curious email from another ebay user concerning this auction of mine. “burn them now” he says. How could someone feel so vehemently about the existence of independent comics? I had a look at his last few purchases. In the last couple of months my new chum gorgonradeo has bought the following delectable items:

• NEW/SEALED SONY NP-F750 INFOLITHIUM BATTERY
• MARMOT LONG SLEEPING BAG-MAGICIAN-LIKE NEW!
• Vintage Missoni Sleeveless Sweater large with the description: “You are bidding on an authentic Missoni that was made in Italy for Bonwit Teller. The item was purchased in the late 60’s and retailed then for over $500. It is in perfect perfect condition. 100% wool. Trimmed in chocolate brown on sweater bottom, sleeves and neck. Typical Missoni pattern with wonderful colors. French blue, brown, camel, white, sea green, rust, champagne. Absolutely today’s style. Can be worn alone or with a shirt under it. It would look great with silk or satin slacks for a dressier look that is so in style today.”

So if you see anyone wearing this jumper carrying a sleeping bag and some kind of Sony electrical equipment, watch out. They want to burn your comics.

Started work at the Leadenhall branch today (yesterday really - check the time stamp). Very odd. Similar to Cheapside yet significantly different, so I kept being caught off guard. Should be fine though. The manager is very good, in that he actually manages and people get things done without anyone panicking. And this is a bookshop, you say. Ah yes, I see the books now. For a minute I wasn’t sure.

And then some very good news from Borderline HQ, although it was communicated as bad news. Seems the magazine has people in high places worried. Now, how could that have happened. Could it be because we actually give a shit about comics and want the industry to sort it’s shit out? And we’re rather more popular than anyone expected? Oh, I don’t know.

So, a good day, then.

Oh, here’s something from the Handheld I forgot to upload last week. It’s from very early Friday morning…

1:13am:
On a bus.

Went drinking in Hampstead with Kate and Heather and the Hampstead store gang (inc Uncle Mike). Coming home, we change at Totnham Court Road. I decide I need a piss and leave K & H on the platform. After rushing out, urinating, and coming back, I see the next train is 10 minutes, which fits with my memory of the train after the one K & H would have gotten. So I get on it.

I’m reading something on the handheld and I notice the chap over from me has a Brummie accent, something I haven’t heard for a while. Listening in I notice he’s tallking about Steve Albini, especially Shellac. I catch his eye and give the thumbs up. We talk about Big Black and he gives me his card (Phil Rigby, works for Lambeth Council). I will be in touch.

Suddenly I notice the tube is about to stop at Queensway and I have gone West by accident (aiming for Mile End). I get out and start walking, collecting Prostitute Trading Trumpd (ostensibly for Jez) and gettig two nigh busses, the latter of which I’m on now. Should be home by two.

I love London!

Kate reckons I’m now addicted to eBay. Fair point. I’m currently getting very excited watching the last half hour to two auctions which are going very well. The first I was expecting to go for quite a lot, but the second I didn’t know what to expect. Thing is, I get sent these, for free, by publishers as a bribe. And then I can sell them for these prices. And then I can buy more comics and CDs. I love it!

I think I’ve lost some email. None was coming through on Sunday night from 2.00pm until about 9.30pm, including a test I sent myself, so if you sent something on Sunday, chances are I didn’t get it.

[Distraction] LEGO Junkbot. Indeed!

I read a report in The Bookseller a while back which I took to be scaremongering about ‘Napster-For-Books’ where novels are scanned and sent around the internet. Then I downloaded a 460k text file from fp which, when opened, had the following header:

Title: 2010: Odyssey two
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Original copyright year: 1982
Genre: science fiction
Comments: to my knowledge, this is the only available e-text of this book.
Source: scanned and OCR-read from a paperback edition with Xerox TextBridge Pro 9.0, proofread in MS Word 2000.
Date of e-text: August 29, 1999
Prepared by: Anada Sucka

Anticopyright 1999. All rights reversed.

With the obvious caveat that it’s easier to encode a track as an mp3 than to scan, OCR and proof a 200+ page novel, it would appear this stuff goes on. Hmm.

Photoshop Tennis

03. powazek volleys:
Derek has taken us into a Borgesian world of existential dislocation; actually, given the old man’s appearance, there’s more in common here with Jonathan Franzen, but literary references aside, the blur tool has been put to work combining the man, a plane, and a conveyor belt (?). A theme is being discovered between the players — about air travel? Protestant anxiety? — and Heather has a chance to add to Derek’s storyline. But it’s still early enough for her to lead us somewhere else.

Tops!

Aha!

When designing pages for AvantGo, you should include the following META
tag in the HEAD element: <META name="HandheldFriendly" content="True">

This tag enables several HTML features that are normally turned off.
Most notably, AvantGo ignores all JavaScript and does not try to display TABLE
tags or the HSPACE and VSPACE attributes of IMG tags unless the page is marked
as "HandheldFriendly". Most TABLEs or H/VSPACEs are designed for much larger screens.

So, in order to get AvantGo to ingnore the tables, I have to tell it that my Handheld Friendly page is not Handheld Friendly at all. By saying it is, it isn’t and by saying it isn’t, it is.

Wonderful!

Hmm, the AvantGo version of this page isn’t quite what I imagined. It’s kept the tables. It doesn’t normally do that. Hmm.

Will investigate tomorrow…

Ooops, a redesign.

This one has been in mind for a while, since I got my handheld in fact. You should be able to read this perfectly on AvantGo now without having to scroll down past all the links. “Handheld Friendly” is the way forward!

Experimenting with comments again. Play with them, please do. If they work I’ll transport them over to BP HQ. Also, if you notice this page loads significantly slower than normal, let me know.

cheers.

I don’t get as excited by cool web design as I used to, but this deserves a mention. Go to little.red.boat, look at the boat and scroll down. How kewl is that!

From the handheld (yes, I got a Handspring for my birthday and I’m loving it…)

14:04: Today I’ve been co-pilot to a white van man - the Hatchards van to be precise - delivering books to other branches in London. As such, I’ve been spending a lot of time in stationary traffic. What has struck me is how different London looks from a stationary van, being higher than normal and in the middle of the street. You can really get a good view of the buildings, especially on Picadilly and around Knightsbridge, and the approach to Buckingham Palace is as impressive as it’s no doubt intended to be. Compared to coming out of a tube station and suddenly being somewhere, or walking around hugging the pavement and pushing through the crowds… well, there is no comparison. I now understand the appeal of those open top tour busses, although I could do without the commentary. And thankfully, my white van man is a nice bloke, so, other than the 80 boxes we just lugged, it’s been a pretty ginchy kinda day.

The Cheapside branch of Waterstone’s (where I’ve been working for the last 18 months) closed to the public on Friday for the last time. I had half an hour free and bashed out the following:

Friday 12th October, 6.05pm

We close in 25 minutes for the final time. After this there is no more trading. The shop is closed for good. All that remains is to put everything in boxes and send it out before the anti-sho-fitters come in and reduce the shop to a bare shell.

It’s surprisingly unemotional here. Three weeks back I was expecting a big emotional upheaval - some kind of celebration type thing, although celebrating what I don’t know. But it’sjust quiet and functional. We have work to do over the next fortnight and, actually, I’m quite looking forward to it. Now all the staff have been found new jobs there’s nothing really holding us here. Some have said it’ll feel different when all the shelves are bare but I don’t think it’ll be upsetting - just strange and alien, and therefore not the shop we knew.

How do you say goodbye to a shop anyway? Normally you say goodbye to everyone who works there, but no-one is staying - we’ll all going en mass. The shop, without it’s people and books, means nothing. It’s just another square block in a big building waiting to have people in it again. No great loss.

The customers will miss it. They’ll get used to the idea but I suspect they’ll miss having a small-but-functional bookshop on their doorstep more than most other retail outlets.

But I’m not upset or distressed by it going. Which is odd because I thought I would be.

This site has been a bit quiet of late, hasn’t it? Thing is, it’ll probably stay that was for a while.

Without going into tedious personal details, I’m having a bit of ‘down time’ at the moment, and to be honest, it feels good. I’m on “indefinite extended leave” from Borderline and I’m generally not doing any comics-related work for the foreseeable future.

What I am doing is sorting out a load of things in my life that have needed sorting out for a long time so I’m able to give 100% to projects like BugPowder and Borderline should I feel the need to do so. This, as opposed to trying to give 100% to these projects when what I suspect I’m doing is just avoiding the bigger issues, and therefore not able to give 100% to anything.

An interesting development has been that I’m spending hours reading books and comics again, and enjoying them. This hasn’t been the case for quite a while.

On top of this, there is turmoil on the job front. My bookshop, where I’ve been assistant manager for the last five months, is closing next week. We found this out a fortnight ago. While I’m not in danger of unemployment I do want to ensure I don’t end up working in a crappy store and my immediate job has become somewhat intense.

For some reason I don’t feel the need to write about my life. Maybe I feel the need to live my life a bit more.

Anyway, I’ve given myself from now until Xmas to chill out - an extended holiday if you like. There will no doubt be occasional postings here but this weblog is not a priority in my life any more.

Thanks for reading it!