Bruce in Barrhaven:

Well it looks like Barrhaven, Ottawa has instantly become ‘hip’ due to the master manipulator of image himself: Bruce Mau. From the only two photos I’ve seen of the newly renovated Indigo bookstore, it looks alright. Nothing totally revolutionary and seemingly more wallpaper than architecture, it’s still about a billion times better than what it was.

I guess the most important thing here is that Indigo actually put forth the effort to re-brand their image in order to generate more physical movement + interest in their stores.I was recently talking to a friend (and old boss) of mine who owns the fabulous City Lights Bookshop in London,ON and she was telling me that it is now becoming more difficult to attract buyers seeing that most people buy books over the internet.

Unfortunately what the internet lacks is the interaction between unique characters and the process of discovery. When looking for a novel, the ability to navigate through intricate spaces and items are tangible and sensorial acts that activate and stimulate your mind – basically, you’re not just a mindless robot making transactions with a generic interface! Yeah, internet is convenient, but what are you making time for instead? Watching more t.v. or surfing the net?

Discovery occurs through serendipity, if you don’t allow yourself the opportunity to discover, you may just be missing out on something interesting!

Live it!: taken from Bruce Mau's "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth":

1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
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2. Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.
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3. Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
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ReadingSPACE:
+ book: Mutations // Rem Koolhaas Harvard Project on the City

SongSPACE:
+compact disc: Sunny Day Real Estate :: LP2

+for some reason I can't link to City Lights' myspace account on the sidebar - probably because I loathe that site for reasons I cannot even begin to explain! - but please check it out: http://www.myspace.com/citylightsbookshop