We know that part of your Members benefit was the promise of a Member’s Christmas Party — a stupefying bacchanalia of Roman excess. While we are no strangers to the appeal of grapes fed to aesthetes on lounges, after chatting with a number of members in the store we’ve decided that perhaps it is a bit early to mount something so indulgent in regards to the whole plague bit. We know that Christmas parties are probably going ahead in many corporate headquarters this year, all arranged by the Illuminati, but our little bookshop will not be among them. Great as our reach into the seedy underground of the contemporary gig economy is, we’ve opted for something less extroverted and have, in deep wisdom, delayed our party until the spring when doors can be open, back parking lots can be used, and the pandemic is, pray to Zeus, mainly gone from London, Ontario.
So, no party this year.
However we have been cooking up new Member benefits in lieu of this great absence and these are coming. 2022 will be a banner year. It is 10 years after the Mayan apocalypse after all and as we are both believers in the Mandala effect — the idea that we are all living in an alternative universe, Jason thinking that the world DID end in 2012 because what has felt real since then? — we plan to mark this anniversary of all endings by starting a bookshop press, a podcast, and other nuisance-making delights. And you, good Member, will be in on that fun, Christmas party or no Christmas party, grapes or no grapes.
Until then, enjoy this list of beautiful things. We’ve got Patti Smith, the Wu Tang Clan, pulp detective stories, Neil Gaiman, lake monsters, transcendental magic, Corto Maltese, movie posters, Neil Young, Charlotte Bronte and more.
With love,
Jason and Vanessa
P.S. A quick Romper Room shout-out to Jay who is probably delighted that it is snowing today. First real snow of the year, Jay. We will give you this one. But after that…
