{"id":436,"date":"2004-12-06T14:14:41","date_gmt":"2004-12-06T19:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=436"},"modified":"2005-12-08T18:16:32","modified_gmt":"2005-12-08T23:16:32","slug":"too-tired-for-sprout-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/too-tired-for-sprout-jokes","title":{"rendered":"Too tired for sprout jokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m starting to think I’ve seen too many European cities lately. I realized today that I may’ve reached a point where I’ve gotta cut back on the Euro-travel, and find other places to go. I’m giving myself the benefit of the doubt, assuming that it’s more a function of work-stress, travel-aggravation, the cold, overcast weather, and general exhaustion, that’s left me walking around this city like a shadow. Or like it’s<\/em> the shadow.<\/p>\n

I try to find little differences in the cities, how this place differs from Stockholm and Copenhagen, Paris and Milan. Unfortunately, the weather’s a big factor in how I perceive this place. Everyone’s bundled, hustling. I can’t tell if that’s just a function of weather, or if there tends to be a lot of hurrying in this city because of its business-status.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen more bookstores for children than bookstores for adults, and it makes me wonder if there’s a “child-friendliness” to this city.<\/p>\n

Just a word of advice: Never go to an Internet cafe in an Arab quarter, because you don’t want to look over at someone else’s screen and notice that he’s Google-up images of suicide-bomb attacks. I’m just sayin’, is all.<\/p>\n

They sell Cherry Coke in these thin, tall cans, like Red Bull. They’re so cute.<\/p>\n

There may be an inferiority complex among the bandes desinees sellers, as regards Parisian BD stores.<\/p>\n

I’ve been pretty enervated this whole trip, but I had some wonderful moments in the evening. Here are some pix from the day, with a little commentary.<\/p>\n

My conference starts tomorrow, so I probably won’t get to write more for a little while.<\/p>\n

I’m a Jew, and the holidays don’t mean all that much to me, but I was affected by the sight of the trees, the lights, the soundtrack of gently laughing children, and all the people milling around. It was otherworldly to me.<\/p>\n

It made me happy that I came here, despite this burned-out state of mine.<\/p>\n

(My Brussels pix via Flickr)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m starting to think I’ve seen too many European cities lately. I realized today that I may’ve reached a point where I’ve gotta cut back on the Euro-travel, and find other places to go. I’m giving myself the benefit of the doubt, assuming that it’s more a function of work-stress, travel-aggravation, the cold, overcast weather, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Too tired for sprout jokes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brussels","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-72","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7003,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-visible-cities","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":0},"title":"Podcast: Visible Cities","author":"Gil","date":"April 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 8 - Visible Cities \"My impulse is to break the windows of Starbucks, but I'd get arrested if I did that, so I make comics about people breaking the windows of Starbucks.\" Cartoonist and MacArthur Foundation \"Genius\" Fellowship winner Ben Katchor joins us for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=0307906906","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3186,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/f-you-you-whining-f-1509","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":1},"title":"F*** You, You Whining F***: 1\/5\/09","author":"Gil","date":"January 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Editors and publishers must now learn how to use telephones. (In a bonus piece of cluelessness, this article also focuses on publishers' debilitating problem of returns from bookstores . . . without ever mentioning e-publishing! God forbid you mention a distribution venue that eliminates the cost of physical production, shipping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5968,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/books-a-nil","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":2},"title":"Books-A-Nil","author":"Gil","date":"April 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As I'm sure I've mentioned on numerous occasions, I'm not happy about the decline of bookstores in the digital age. I've spent countless hours wandering through bookshops of all sizes, listening for The Call, entranced by the simple notion of all those possibilities. Any one of those books could have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1770460020","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10001,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-194-bob-eckstein","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":3},"title":"Episode 194 – Bob Eckstein","author":"Gil","date":"November 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #194: Bob Eckstein \"This book has three things I love: bookstores, painting and name-dropping.\" Artist, writer, humorist and cartoonist Bob Eckstein joins the show to talk about his wonderful new book, Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores: True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"9780553459272","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/9780553459272-440x360.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/9780553459272-440x360.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/9780553459272-440x360.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/see-you-in-the-funnies","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":4},"title":"See You in the Funnies","author":"Gil","date":"August 7, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry I haven't written. Been busy with the magazine, the book, housekeeping, and the barest vestiges of a social life.Things are mostly squared away with my printer. My rep is trying to get me 5,000 color postcards of the cover as a make-good for messing up on the cost of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":581,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/corporate-synergy","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":5},"title":"Corporate Synergy?","author":"Gil","date":"July 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning, I read a neat article about co-op advertising in bookstores (better known as \"pay for play\", which helps insure that deep-pocketed publishers get the most exposure for their books).Then, on a whim, I hit Amazon's \"most-preordered books in Literature and Fiction,\" when I came across this. Evidently, The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}