When I link to books, mine as well as others, the first link I give out is usually the publisher page, and a recommendation to buy at independent bookstores. I link to Amazon for my books too, of course, because I want to be able to pay my rent. But I’d very much prefer if people bought them elsewhere! Why? A few examples. When I self-published the first edition of Ludotronics (to keep it under a Creative Commons license for three years) before I pitched it to a publisher, I sold it at a price point of 14.99 (576 pages, 100 illustrations), out of which Amazon would have taken an extortionate 9.75—so I said “screw it” and sold it elsewhere. If you sell your book at 2.99–9.99, Amazon’s cut goes down to a “mere” 30%, but then you have to pay a fee for every single digital download! Then, if you buy an ebook from Amazon, it’s locked shut with DRM most of the time, and if not (as, e.g., Tor Publishing’s books), there’s no way to find out at the Amazon page. And if you buy a physical book, there’s a chance Amazon sells you a crappy print-on-demand copy when temporarily out of its JIT stock without telling you. Finally, small magazine publishers are struggling right now because Amazon just axed its magazine subscription program in September last year, capriciously and without reason, while refusing to grant publishers access to their own respective subscriber lists. So if you’re a self-publisher, a small publisher, a reader, you name it, you keep getting fucked over in so many ways to fund Bezos’s climate apocalypse prepper fleet. Thus, if you can, buy at independent and/or publisher-owned bookstores instead!

I didn’t get around to writing any blog posts last week because I was too busy with grading exams and term preparations. As for images, there are three new Singapore albums with shots from Changi Beach, Little India Malls, and Orchard Road on Flickr; several new images in my Singapore and Düsseldorf Flickr buckets and at my Instagram account betweendrafts; and my daily vintage travel-squaries at Pixelfed.

Two recommendations from last week: Glazer’s Under the Skin and the Mike Kelley exhibition “Ghost and Spirit” that just opened at K21. As for this week, if you live in or around Düsseldorf you can join me if you want to for Ferrario’s Umberto Eco: La biblioteca del mondo on Monday, Koreeda’s 怪物/Monster (»Die Unschuld«? WTF?) later that day, and perhaps—depending on Monster’s running time and transportation—Borgli’s Dream Scenario even later. On Wednesday, you can find me at Düsseldorf’s Jazz-Schmiede for a Neue Musik concert with works by Christian Banasik and others, and on Friday, for the finishing touch, at a special screening of Donner’s 1976 The Omen (the uncut version, of course).
 
For the Sunday Funnies, here’s an entrancing fan movie about the construction of the Millennium Falcon (and after you’ve watched it, go to this original tweet to have your mind blown again). Also, please have some cats (and crows).
 
Enjoy!
J.