Are You Still Here?: I don't have much to offer at the moment, as I have kind of lost myself in a non-writing, non-web-update frame of mind - mostly because the weather has been beyond gorgeous and I've been chillin' on my terrace. Kind of nice not to fret over writing (or not writing) or have to browse the web with a sort of search-and-destroy mentality.

I've been listening to Loud by Timo Maas. Most techno and it's sub-genres are repetitive and annoying. This is techno based, lots of power and energy, but still comes across as songs and music, rather than extended excercises in synthetic drum-machine programming. (The website is a marvel of cool design, too.)

And I've been completely sucked into Haruki Murakami's novel, Wild Sheep Chase. I've really only scrathced the surface, but I'm hooked.

It begins simply enough: A twenty-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend, and casually appropriates the image for an insurance company’s advertisement. What he doesn’t realize is that included in the pastoral scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man in black who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences.

That makes it sound like a pot-boiler, which it is decidedly not. It is remarkably literate. It borders on impressionistic in parts, which I generally don't like, but it's done with a bit of tongue-in-cheekiness and no pretension. I'll probably write more about it when I'm done. Reviews here.

So that's why I have nothing to post. Good weather, good distractions. But rain is coming so I should be back with a vengence in a couple of days.