Martine Pagé

The art of living

If living is an art it is a strange one, an art of everything, and particularly of spirited pleasure. Its developed form would involve a number of qualities sewn together: intelligence, charm, good fortune, unforced virtue, along with wisdom, taste, knowledge, understanding, and the recognition of anguish and conflict as part of life. Wealth wouldn’t be essential, but the intelligence to accumulate it where necessary might be. The people I can think of who live with talent are the ones who have free lives, conceiving of great schemes and seeing them fulfilled. They are, too, the best company.

From Intimacy, by Hanif Kureishi.

Goin’ Dot Com! The Musical

I hate musicals but I wish I could see this one. It really reminds me of San Francisco, South Park area, circa 1998:

Based in a SOMA loft with all the necessary office distractions, like foosball, air hockey, cellphones ringing to the tune of « Baby Got Back, » Rental Puppy, as a company, seems to be mostly about office workers IM-ing their friends all morning before going out for a high-tech burrito, while they wait to vest. « I’m vesting. I’m vesting. Just four more years, then I’ll be resting. »

Via Salon.

I was 3 years short of « vesting » when I left the SOMA based company I worked for. Most of my friends didn’t make it either to the 7 year mark it took to cash in on the generous stock ownership plan the company was setting aside for us.

As one of the songs in this musical says: Hey Dot-com (Where Have You Gone?)

A writer’s challenge

For the last week or so, the guy that does the maintenance on my building has been sanding the iron balconies to prevent them from rusting. Today he’s got a friend with him and they have started the painting job. Here’s what I see as I’m sitting at my desk, trying to finish the first draft of the screenplay I’m working on.

One of them is singing: « Tout, tout, tout, vous saurez tout sur le zizi… ».

Concentrate, Martine, concentrate… Keep staring at your computer. Good girl…