It's Not a Holiday

Reflection of the synagogue in the Rue de la Victoire.

It's Not Goodbye Either

Paris:- Monday, 20. October 2003:- This is a 'holiday issue' that isn't. It began as a small but regular issue but this morning I realized that the cash register is so nearly empty that I have to do something about it right away. If a couple of items had been a bit further along before I started 'doing something' this afternoon, they would have been in this issue.

But this has been exactly my problem. Doing new issues most weeks, and not doing much very seriously to make sure that I can keep on doing new issues. Letting vital things slide for almost seven years has finally caught up with me. I am sitting on the bottom of a dry barrel.

This means that future issues will not be 'holiday issues' either, even if they fail to appear. I will be engaged with farming for bread, and this will take a priority until there is something substantial in the barrel again - until the light at the end of the tunnel doesn't look so far away.

I have never been especially clever about making money, but continuing 'Metropole Paris' for so long without making any must be some kind of dubious achievement. What isn't as dubious is the number of readers the magazine now has, and the consistant loyalty of some readers who have been following the adventure since the beginning.

Don't get me wrong, if you stepped on to the deck of this wobbly ship last year or last week, you are just as valued as the readers who have been on the voyage for as long as 'Ed.' Staying on board will help, because it is Metropole itself that may keep the whole enterprise afloat.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for all of your encouraging emails. Thank you, all members of the Café Metropole Club.

While I borrow this title from Norman Mailer, I do not intend to be so long-winded. 'Metropole Paris' was begun because I thought Paris needed a regular chronicle. At the same time I wanted to produce a publication for which I would use all of my skills - writing, drawing and graphics, and photography.

I had done all of these before, for many other publications, but never all at once. A skill I added was editing, by necessity, and not always perfectly. In fact, it was one hat too many to wear - and gives me a fourth thing to be self-critical about.

You won't need to be a genius to quickly notice that I claim no skill at all for management or business. I guess this makes me less than a renaissance man, or less than clever for not substituting management for graphics or business acumen for photography.

But I have no real regrets. I prefer working with graphics, and trying to capture imagined images. Writing is not easy but it can be fun. Drawing is easier for me, but it had fallen out of favor because, before Metropole, I did too much of it for too long.

So, there it is, what I do. Spread it around wherever you can. I am for hire. I will do anything except things I don't know how to do.

If you prefer that I take no holidays from doing Metropole, send me your ideas. Everything will be welcome and considered seriously.

Although vitally important, I have downgraded this item down the page to here because weather in the immediate future is not going to be wonderful. Tonight on the TV-weather news the lady said it will be like 'average for late November.'

To be a bit more precise, we have three partly sunny days coming up. By 'partly sunny,' the interpretation could be mostly cloudy. The weather video animation was pretty animated and it was hard to tell whether clouds outnumbered partially-hidden sunballs, or they were just put in because somebody likes yellow for contrast.

Regardless of how the sky turns out, the temperatures are not going up. The TV-weather news is at odds with today's Le Parisien here, with the paper suggesting that degrees of warmth will rise from nine to 12, while TV's tendancy is the other way - from ten to nine.

My suggestion is that hats, scarves and gloves will not be misplaced if you have them with you at all times you intend to be outside. There are also restaurants here with skimpy heating, so avoid sitting near doorways and windows without nearby radiators.

Café Life

In addition to incomplete features and other random items, there is Matt Rose, who was recently featured in Metropole for his 'Mail-Art' expo that continues until Saturday, 1. November. If this mention rings no bell, check the recent Café Life column.

Today's plug is for Matt's literary efforts. While having a café with him last week he convinced me that by putting in a link to the articles be contributes to Art - the Magazine, readership for both Metropole and Art - the Magazine will explode. You can prove Matt right by clicking on the link and then on 'Paris,' where you will find Matt's pieces.

In fact, keeping an eye peeled in general for Matt's efforts with a pen are not amiss. The magazine section of the New York Times for Sunday, 21. September has another of Matt's reports. This one is about Alfred, who has been living in the arrivals lounge at Roissy's terminal one for about 15 years.

It should come as no surprise that Paris' Bus 38 - Gare du Nord to Porte d'Orléans - has been picked as a WiFi test-bed, because it was about the first bus line in the city to have its own Web site.

This new development was mentioned here recently, but now it is official that you'll be ale to test its WiFi capabilities from Wednesday, 29. October until Friday, 31. October. A bus plastered with a horizontal heart-shaped logo will be parked for one-hour periods at major stops along the route from 8:30 to 19:15 on the three days.