27/08: Authonomy Wars
The Authonomy site has now gone live with its ranking system although it is still in Beta testing and, predictably, virtual fights have broken out between authors on the way that some books have climbed through the rankings with the implication that they have "phantom" backers. The whole ranking system is open to abuse but it must be remembered that it is a site put up by Harper Collins and that they will want it to be seen to be a success. As such it is in their interest to have as many "votes" cast for the more popular books as possible. With an eye to publicity, they will undoubtedly want to announce in due course that they have found a gem suitable for publication that was backed by popular appeal.
All this is of course sour grapes as Oxford Cockaigne slides down the ratings each day due to my marked inability and disinclination for networking (or that's what I put it down to).
Of course if you read this and are an authonomy member you can always pop over there and back Oxford Cockaigne, add it to your Watchlist or give it a comment in order to bump it up.
All this is of course sour grapes as Oxford Cockaigne slides down the ratings each day due to my marked inability and disinclination for networking (or that's what I put it down to).
Of course if you read this and are an authonomy member you can always pop over there and back Oxford Cockaigne, add it to your Watchlist or give it a comment in order to bump it up.
25/08: No Comment
Thanks to being attacked by hordes of automated Comment Spams, I have set the Blog to not accept Comments - and in the course of clearing out the spam attack I have lost any genuine comments.
Anyone wanting to make any comments of a useful sort can email me on the contact page.
Anyone wanting to make any comments of a useful sort can email me on the contact page.
15/07: Ruskin Comics - How To See
The Ruskin Foundation have published the second of their Ruskin Comics: How To See by Hunt Emerson and Kevin Jackson.
Details available at www.ruskin.org.uk
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
Details available at www.ruskin.org.uk
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
Marco Wilkinson contacted me to tell me about the films he made for an exhibition at Modern Art Oxford in 2005, one of which includes Cutteslowe resident Jack Fallows talking about the Cutteslowe Wall, These are now available on You tube at the following URL:
http://www.youtube.com/user/oxford2015interviews
Twelve short films made by filmmaker Marko Wilkinson as part of Modern Art Oxford's 2005 exhibition - Oxford 2015 DREAMS PLANS VISIONS.
Each film is a short interview with an Oxford resident, talking about how the city's built environment effects their life, and how they would like to see it change and improve by the year 2015.
The films were originally shown as an installation on twelve separate screens placed throughout the museum.
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/oxford2015interviews
Twelve short films made by filmmaker Marko Wilkinson as part of Modern Art Oxford's 2005 exhibition - Oxford 2015 DREAMS PLANS VISIONS.
Each film is a short interview with an Oxford resident, talking about how the city's built environment effects their life, and how they would like to see it change and improve by the year 2015.
The films were originally shown as an installation on twelve separate screens placed throughout the museum.
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
29/06: Smells Like Cockaigne...
Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs produce a perfume oil called Cockaigne.
They have a forum where members review it at
http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=25831&st=125
I stumbled across this during one of my searches for Cockaigne on the Internet and, at first, thought that they were reviewing a bottle of wine!
Subsequent investigation seems to reveal that this perfume oil makes you smell like a sticky sweet cake - so,if that's your thing, hurry across to Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs to buy it.
In the interests of all things Cockaigne, I'll try and get hold of a bottle myself - they also do a perfume oil called Absinthe so I may be smelling of Cockaigne or Absinthe shortly.
www.Oxfordcockaigne.com
They have a forum where members review it at
http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=25831&st=125
I stumbled across this during one of my searches for Cockaigne on the Internet and, at first, thought that they were reviewing a bottle of wine!
Subsequent investigation seems to reveal that this perfume oil makes you smell like a sticky sweet cake - so,if that's your thing, hurry across to Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs to buy it.
In the interests of all things Cockaigne, I'll try and get hold of a bottle myself - they also do a perfume oil called Absinthe so I may be smelling of Cockaigne or Absinthe shortly.
www.Oxfordcockaigne.com
22/06: Authonomy and Youwriteon
Oxford Cockaigne has now been on Authonomy and Youwriteon for several weeks and it is clear that it doesn't fit into the most popular submissions for either website.
However, there are some people who do like it. It would be nice if, eventually, one of those turned out to work for a publisher.
In Oxford Cockaigne's alternative reality all publishers love it.
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
However, there are some people who do like it. It would be nice if, eventually, one of those turned out to work for a publisher.
In Oxford Cockaigne's alternative reality all publishers love it.
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
16/06: Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel has become one of the authors I am investigating recently. I have just got hold of what was his latest book The Library At Night "a beautiful rendered meditation on the meaning of libraries through history" and also The dictionary of Imaginary Places which brings together over 1200 imaginary places drawn from the literature of countries around the world. This was produced in 1980 by Manguel and Gianni Gudalupi.
I've also got a copy of "Stevenson Under The Palm Trees" from 2002 to read and then there is A History of Reading, The City of Words and The Iliad and The odyssey: A Biography to pursue.
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
I've also got a copy of "Stevenson Under The Palm Trees" from 2002 to read and then there is A History of Reading, The City of Words and The Iliad and The odyssey: A Biography to pursue.
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
Today is the anniversary of the first demonstrated (but unmanned) hot air balloon ascent at Agonnay, France by the Montgolfier brothers on 4 June 1783.
See http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/ss/airship_2.htm for details.
On September 19, 1783, in Versailles, a Montgolfiere hot air balloon carrying a sheep, a rooster, and a duck flew for eight minutes in front of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the French court.
On October 15, 1783, Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes were the first human passengers on a Montgolfiere balloon.
On 4 October 1784 from Christchurch Meadows James Sadler, the son of an Oxford pastry cook made the first ascent by any English aeronaut with a 170 foot hot-air balloon he had constructed himself.
http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/streets/inscriptions/central/sadler.htm
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
See http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/ss/airship_2.htm for details.
On September 19, 1783, in Versailles, a Montgolfiere hot air balloon carrying a sheep, a rooster, and a duck flew for eight minutes in front of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the French court.
On October 15, 1783, Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes were the first human passengers on a Montgolfiere balloon.
On 4 October 1784 from Christchurch Meadows James Sadler, the son of an Oxford pastry cook made the first ascent by any English aeronaut with a 170 foot hot-air balloon he had constructed himself.
http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/streets/inscriptions/central/sadler.htm
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
I have put the opening chapters of Oxford Cockaigne on http://www.youwriteon.com.
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
27/05: Jerome K Jerome's New Utopia
In Jerome K Jerome's After Supper Ghost Stories and Other Tales there is a story called The New Utopia where the author falls asleep after dining with some "advanced" friends at The National Socialist Club and wakes to find that he has been asleep for a thousand years and is now a museum exhibit in a Socialist Utopia in the 29th century. He discovers that everybody has been "levelled" in the name of equality so that sports or any other form of competition is not allowed, everyone dresses the same, has their hair dyed black, live in dormitories, work for three hours a day and share the same uninviting diet.
He is glad to find that it is a dream and to wake up to find
"Men are fighting, striving, working, carving out each man his own life with the sword of strength and will. Men are laughing, grieving, loving, doing wrong deeds, doing great deeds, - falling, struggling, helping one another - living!"
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
He is glad to find that it is a dream and to wake up to find
"Men are fighting, striving, working, carving out each man his own life with the sword of strength and will. Men are laughing, grieving, loving, doing wrong deeds, doing great deeds, - falling, struggling, helping one another - living!"
www.oxfordcockaigne.com
