Another nibble at history

 

As mentioned yesterday, I am taking a wander through the history of clerkmanifesto, just a random stroll, to bring back up something we might like. In a few days we'll be back up to date with posting here in France, and I am most likely already back home in the Belle Epoque City. But to be safe, as I'll have no computer on my trip, I bring you this chosen relic which I must have liked enough to write and publish at one point, and hopefully also liked so much that I thought you would want to see it again, if you have ever even seen it at all.

Wait here and I'll see what I can find...

Ha, I went to 2018 and this one was the very first one I looked at! How could I resist:

Wolves Return to France

It's a good news/bad news situation as viable wolf populations have returned to France. 

The European Gray Wolf went extinct in France in the thirties, but in the early nineties a pair of Italian wolves crossed the Alps into France. Now there are over 500 wolves in France and they are considered to be "Demographically viable", which means, and I'm just winging it here, they are viable in a demographic way.

The really great thing about this is that there are way too many rabbits in France and everyone is hoping the wolves will eat up some of the rabbits. Also looking like winners in this ecological triumph are the sellers and manufacturers of Grandmotherly disguises, who will be expecting increased business for their line in small, outlying villages.  Of course, the sheep herders of France are not happy about the situation and have even brought their sheep to Paris to express their dismay. 

However, it is not the sheep herders who need to be kept happy...

it's the woodcutters.

Looking for wheat among chaff

Occasionally, when I am looking to keep clerkmanifesto going when I am not available to regularly work on it, and I am prestocking it heavily with posts, I look to my history. With thousands of posts to draw from it is nice to bring out something long forgotten and give it one more chance in the light. I don't honestly know if there are any readers besides me who on occasion drift back to some long past clerkmanifesto era and read through a couple weeks or months of little essays or pictures like they're eating peanuts. But if there are out there among you (or even you yourself!) people who do this, it still seems unlikely we will both be covering the same ground on so sprawling a historical record as is Clerkmanifesto, and no one is likely to be rolling their eyes having just read one of these reposts chosen from the thousands.

My motif when doing this historic posting lately is to be random, often pulling unseen an anniversary post that evenly matches the day of posting, but I have had a change of heart. Why not read back until I find something that speaks to me? Why not look for something I'd specifically like to show you again?

So for the next three days, until I know I will safely be back to post again (as far as anyone can know such a thing!), I will go wandering into clerkmanifesto history, among the vast library days, and find something I like.

And then I'll bring it here and see if I can get it to fly a little farther.

 

Memory boxes

 

While we wait for me to return from Montpellier and report on the vital issues of the day, we're mostly running through some photography experiments. These take in some photographs going back to Japan, though some, like of the fountain, are just from this past week or so.

Self promotion to no particular purpose

 

Along the lines of the work I have been showing you, I have been working on a Clerkmanifesto movie poster. I think we could go a bit further, and maybe will later, but here is where we are at this point:

Dioramas of dreadful Eze

 

Not far from where I sit now, typity typity typing, sits a famous medeival hill town, Eze. You won't have to look far in your reasearch for your fabulous Cote D'Azur travels before you will see this place enthusiastically exclaimed.

It's awful.

I mean, you'll see. It is very pretty. But it is small, full of the most boring kind of tourist shops, and has a slightly overpreserved quality that ruins much of its charm. I found its disporportionate popularity unappealing. 

But I got some nice pictures there.

I have recently been making some dioramas of these:

Plans foiled again!

 

In case our visit to Montpellier is extended, I have done the traditional clerkmanifesto solution of writing and scheduling posts well ahead of real time. Or, at least, that is what I am currently doing. I'd like to get another week's worth done today, but...

Today sort of passed by. Yikes.

So... tonight then?

What happened is the latest advance in photo generators came out, and I can never resist experimenting with the new possibilities with these. I've been running a lot of images of mine through this wild machine, working on one of my favorite motifs; Diorama boxes. But the strongest new element this model excels at seems to be in informational presentation design.

So without a lot of fussing I'll let you take a look at this, a guide book page for Clerkmanifesto. Though the model needed some guidance, I'm already happy with the starting point.

A cartoon about getting older

 

It's my half birthday today.

I'm just noting it. No presents are necessary. Also the coincidental fact of it dovetails nicely with this Doris cartoon I made for today:

Everything you ever wanted to know about Montpellier France

 

On the plus side, as you read this I have been in Montpellier France for four days! That is a lot! And there is much I have learned and many vivid impressions I have taken of this burgeoning medieval city just inland from the southern coast of France.

On the minus side, I am writing this many days ahead of time and haven't actually been to Montpellier and can tell you nothing about it.

It's a conundrum.

But, and here's the good news: It is not entirely accurate of me to say I have never been to Montpellier! We went through it on a train twice, and we even changed trains at the train station!

But first, what is all this with Montpellier? Are we thinking of moving there? Are we disenchanted with where we are now on the Cote D'Azur? Are we looking for a new home? Are we on vacation?

Yes.

Yes yes yes and yes. In fact, at some point I was just making questions that had 'yes' as an answer! 

Our Belle Epoque city is famous, lovely, sparkling, and a wonderful fun place to visit. In some ways it is a million times better a place to live than anywhere we have lived before. There is really nice food, we walk everywhere because a thousand useful and unuseful places are less than ten minutes away, the ocean is heaven, and the old town is magical. 

But we live here, and it isn't a very kind place, nor a creative one. It doesn't have a lot of soul. It's not so much this city's pretty face, it's more that it's just so busy with its pretty face. It's not really that nice of a city to simply sit and talk to.

So while we were meeting our dear cousin and his dog somewhere between here and Paris, we thought maybe we'd take a look at Montpellier, a city we've thought interestedly about before. Full of students from its large and ancient university, and with a trememdous pedestrianized medeival core to the city, maybe its vibe will suit us better?

What did we see when we briefly stepped outside of the train station in Montpellier?

It was a little like a dream. There was stone, stone everywhere. And there were trams and tramtracks everywhere, and many people walking about here and there. And I don't remember seeing any cars anywhere.

I hope we like it.

Why Montpellier?

 

I am in Montpellier!

Well, as you read this I am. As I write this it's a few days before we go.

Why go to Montpellier? You ask.

No, I answer, not the one in Vermont.

Oh. You reply. Still, what's up with Montpellier? Aren't you in a paradise half the world spins their idle fantasies about: The brilliant Cote D' Azur?

Oh, sorry, you wouldn't say any of this. It's another reader of clerkmanifesto that was asking all of this. Sorry for the confusion. I guess this is the fundamental weakness of the Second Person Narrative. It's a high wire act.

What's a high wire act? You ask.

Wait. I reply. Who is asking that?

Me/Not me you reply.

Now I'm lost.

Who's lost?

Who's talking now?

Enough of this nonsense! This is the authorial voice of clerkmanifesto reasserting myself. Let's get it together! Now who out there wants to actually hear about why we are going to check out the medieval city of Montpellier, France?

Ohhhhhh. More than I thought.

When should I do it?

Yes, tomorrow is a good idea. I think we all need a little break now.

More capitalism

 

We are heading off to Montpellier, or, as you read this, we're there. We are visiting with the only human we know in all of Europe and meeting his dog. It is very exciting! In preparation I am gathering up some ahead of time posts because I am not bringing my computer, and won't be posting from there.

Before we get into a discussion of the lovely (hopefully) city of Montpellier, France, I do have one last bit of unfinished cartooning from my "Capitalism Nibbles on your Brain" shirt. I did make this cartoon into a single block of four panels, but I think it will be easier to see if I show you the four frames sequentially here. Then I'll put the block at the end for completionist sake.

Tomorrow we can talk about Montpellier.

Nibbling on your brain

 

Just a couple posts back here I tossed off a phrase that caught my fancy: Capitalism nibbles on the brain.

What a nice logo that would make, able to be used in so many ironic ways! So I used a couple of AI's to try and get the logo together, but it would not oblige on the little bugs I had in mind. I needed to work on those independently, then ask the ai to use them in the logo image.

Here is the bug I managed to get to:

Lately I have been doing a lot of redrawing and working into these kinds of images, but for now I though I'd let this little guy stand, as I was aware my project might have an awful lot of steps. I moved onto the logo, changing the wording slightly, and after just a few million attempts, I was happy enough with this one:

Great. I like it.

Now my ultimate idea for this logo was as a t-shirt. I had an plan for a two panel Doris Cartoon. I made dozens of iterations, but without spending more hours on it, I think this is the best expression of my idea, which is where we will conclude today's post:

The next thing

 

Surely the next thing must be around here someplace. I can feel it in the air. I'm pretty sure the next thing will be showing up on clerkmanifesto any day now. So it might be a good idea to make some space for it.

You know, just in case it 

wait,

what was that noise?

Was that something coming in the window at Clerkmanifesto? Is the next thing here right now????!

Wait here.

I'll go check.

Oh, it was a cat. So, almost as good. 

Well, while we're waiting, why don't I show you whatever pictures I have left in the folder on my desktop titled "To Post". If I'm not willing to post them now then they need to go in the file "Finished unposted". And if the next thing isn't here soon, we may end up rifling around in that file too.

Brace yourself, it turns out this is quite a haul.