Decent Interval

I'm off on the road again starting tomorrow morning. First to Amsterdam, where I'll take a short ride to Utrecht to see Jon Dee Graham, who's opening for somebody named Gray Delisle I don't much want to see, and then, the next morning, to Paris, and thence to Montpellier, where I ought to get in at about 7pm, if the TGV doesn't fail me.

I've got a number of appointments there with people who are doing some interesting projects -- can't say more than that at the moment, I'm afraid -- and I'm also going to be looking into some other neighborhoods a former Montpellierian pointed out on the map a few months ago as the site of potential apartments. Moving day isn't all that much closer at the moment, but I'm hoping to sell a couple of stories in the next few days, and, I hope, a couple of books in the very near future.

Meanwhile, of course, I've got my collection of San Francisco posters up for sale. As I've said, it pains me to part with these, because of the circumstances in which I got them and the fact that they're living mementos of a piece of my history. But continuing to have a history trumps all of that, so if you're in an eBay frame of mind, you might want to check this rare Sierra Club poster, or this one, which comes from a venue nobody I know has even heard of, or classic designs like this, this, this, this, or any of the others found at this link.

And, as I wrote to a friend who expressed concern this morning about my going to France, I don't have any business at night in the immigrant neighborhoods of industrialized cities -- Montpellier is all university and hospitals -- and that's where all the trouble has been. Nor has Montpellier been hit by rioting or unrest, as far as I can tell, although a map in the New York Times online edition the other day listed it, but it seemed to be an unedited map of France showing the major cities, and a number of other quiet places were also included. (But no, I'm not going to be a good blogger and blame the MSM for the mistake).

I'll be back next Thursday, and will very likely be able to get my e-mail while I'm gone, since the entire Place de la Comédie seems to be wired with a free hot-spot. We'll see, though. It's France, after all.