That Silent Phone
Thursday, February 08, 2018
One of the
negative byproducts of the decline of magazine and newspaper journalism in
Vancouver is that my phone does not ring anymore. There are many reasons for
this. A most obvious one is the virtual disappearance of landlines and Yellow
Pages.
Another and
the most obvious one is that if you are not seen you do not exist. Exposure in
local and international newspapers and magazines was crucial for phone
popularity.
While I
have my own magazine, my blog, those who look at it are far away or like me are
obsolete, redundant& retired.
The
importance of the web has almost killed the physical trek of writers, actors
and directors to our city. The inability of our local film festival to want to
compete with the international one in Toronto, also means that the likes of
Charlotte Rampling will never show up here and that would cement my union to my
wife for many more years.
Consider
the photographs here. I am being very careful not to show the face of this very
famous novelist. During a Vancouver Writer’s Festival she noticed some of my
pictures in the Georgia Straight. Her publicist called me up to set up a
meeting to take photographs (undraped) of her client.
I look at
these photographs which are superb (it was a good day for me, perhaps) and I
wonder if the phone will ever ring and take me away from my present slump.
I have my
doubts.
