No molar picture, two chances left

Last week, my first wisdom tooth was pulled.
It wasn’t that bad—fifteen minutes of prying. And I have two more.

Forgot to ask for the molar. So, no picture.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: A Love Letter to Books, Tokyo, and Second Chances

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa is a quiet, tender novel about finding your way when life has left you adrift. Takako, a young woman from Tokyo, quits her office job and comes to live and work in the small second-hand bookstore of her uncle, Satoru, in a small provincial town.

In her life in Tokyo, she was indecisive, reserved, and treated like dirt by her boyfriend. After summoning the courage to confront her boyfriend and tell him the truth, Takako takes a decisive step forward, leaving behind the negativity and moving on with her life.

Her uncle’s wife suddenly reappears with her husband after years of absence. As if nothing had happened. With her aunt Momoko, she heads into the mountains for a weekend. Momoko turns out to have had an abortion years ago and then struggled with life. After the mountain outing, Momolo disappears again as shyly as she has returned. Takako breaks her vow of secrecy and informs her uncle Satoru of the secret his wife is carrying. He searches and finds his wife again, and they become closer than ever.

Secretive as a Murakami. With a fine list of quoted Japanese writers at the back of the book.

If you’ve ever lost yourself in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin—a novel about a grumpy bookshop owner who rediscovers joy through books—then Days at the Morisaki Bookshop will feel like a kindred spirit. Both books describe bookshops not as places to buy books; they’re places where lives are rebuilt.

Best of the week ending 10 August 2024

Un P’tit Truc En plus

Watched Un P’tit Truc En plus. Seen in the Filmhuis Alkmaar. It is a very funny and sensitive movie by Artus about a group of people with disabilities with two bank robbers hiding amongst them.

We are planning our holiday to Uzbekistan, and this amazing documentary on YouTube is better than many travel books.

Enjoyed Robert Rodriguez – Ten Minute Film School

Liked this documentary about Cindy Sherman.

More weeks here (now newsletters).

The World Don’t Need No More Images

I have my photo-movie, The World Don’t Need No More Images (full of pictures), just about finished. The first episodes are on YouTube. Is it any good? Probably not. Does it raise a ripple? Unlikely. Is it fun to mix images and sound? Absolutely. Besides, it feels like it has to get out. In this form, this had to be tried and done because I have not seen anything similar done before.

And now: bye. Next.

Failure narrative

From Seth Godin’s The Practice, this creator’s failure narrative:

  • There is more supply than demand; therefore, most of the feedback is rejection. From the market, from the gatekeepers.
  • The work is created with generally available tools. The group that believes they can do the same job or better is large.
  • The fan base is transient, and the churn is significant.
  • Negative criticism spreads easier than positive feedback.
  • We work in novelty. There is always more novelty for our customers to turn to.
  • We and our customers chase creative magic. By that standard, almost all of our efforts fail.

Then, successful creators have in their favor the benefit of the doubt and tribal cognitive dissonance.