Hello! This is Click Opera.: imomus

Hello! This is Click Opera.

1. What's this? This is the last entry in the blog called Click Opera, which means that, in the funny through-the-looking-glass world of blogs, it's the first page future internauts and web adventurers will come to. So think of this not so much as an ending as an entrance. What you've reached is the door to "probably the best-written blog on the Anglophone web", according to Warren Ellis. "It doesn't get any better than Click Opera," said novelist Dennis Cooper.

2. Who's behind Click Opera? The best introduction to who I am is this article in The Guardian Review. I'm a Scot, a musician, a writer, and -- according to this page, gulp! -- the 4697th most significant contemporary visual artist working today. My Wikipedia page is here. You can download six of my early albums free here. Books I've written are here and here. I want to write more books, so if you're a publisher email me! That goes for people wanting to reproduce bits of this blog in print, too.

3. Where can we find out what you're up to, post-blog? From my "personal digital assistant" Maria Wolonski, who announces my engagements in the charming, ringing tones of a talking clock. From the Momus concerts page on LastFM. From my Flickr page and my two YouTube accounts, momasu and bookofjokes. I may even revive my old website (1995-2003), imomus.com.

4. What do you plan to do now? I want to write books and articles. Maybe teach at an art school. Deliver lectures in many lands. Make some more records. Play concerts. Walk around the world. Learn to speak Japanese and live in Japan. Write my own regular newspaper column of cultural commentary (I've written for people like Wired, The New York Times, Frieze, Spike, The Wire, 032c). Hold some more art shows. If you can help me realise these dreams, email me, please!

5. If I want to stage a Momus concert, what do I need to do? Tell your friendly local promoter (or it could be an art gallerist, store owner, festival director) that all I require is travel expenses (from Berlin), accommodation, plus a fee of around €1000 for a regular Momus show (festivals tend to pay more). If that works for the promoters, get them to drop me a line and we'll take it from there. I also do art performances -- live storytelling and unreliable tours.

6. Will you keep the Click Opera archive up indefinitely? Yes, I will. If you feel like helping with the modest LiveJournal and PhotoBucket hosting costs -- or compensating me directly for some illegal mp3s of my songs you've downloaded -- you can make a donation via PayPal here.

7. What's the best way to search the Click Opera archive? Simply type the word imomus plus your search term into a search engine, then follow the links headed "Click Opera".

8. Will you keep reading and responding to comments left under this entry? Yes, I will. Leave your email address if you want a personal response.

9. Why did you stop updating Click Opera? Not because anything went wrong or it got unpleasant. Quite the reverse, in fact. Click Opera was just too damned good: too compelling, too time-consuming, too satisfying. It took over my life. It became my job, the main topic of my conversation, the hub of my self-mediated fame: "Aren't you that guy from the internet?" (Read the piece called Clickswansong if you want to know more about why this blog came to a "happy ending". Or listen to this radio interview with KCSB's Colin Marshall.)

10. Can I step through the door now? Please do! There's a lot to read! You can browse backwards from here, or start at the beginning (Thursday January 15th 2004) and work forwards. The calendar is your friend, or you may prefer to read through the titles displayed in the month view.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to Click Opera, this big vineyard! You've given me years of pleasure! Happiness, as T.E. Lawrence said, "is a by-product of absorption", and blogging -- the best hobby I ever had -- has been absorbing indeed.

Anonymous

November 29 2010, 01:01:42 UTC 10 years ago

New comment

I very much enjoyed your Osaka podcast. I do hope you do more.

January 4 2011, 00:40:14 UTC 10 years ago

Me too.

February 6 2011, 23:35:42 UTC 10 years ago

THE SHRIEKING OF NOTHING IS KILLING ME

Good

yirirask

April 7 2011, 18:59:17 UTC 10 years ago

Did you heard what Rob Matts said about that?

Love

April 28 2011, 15:40:32 UTC 10 years ago

And I am comment number 300! Momus's new material (Henriksson collaboration) on Youtube is more than a return to form – absolutely incredible. Love it. RW.

Re: Love

imomus

May 2 2011, 15:14:23 UTC 10 years ago

I'm rather selfishly enjoying it too. "I only make the kind of thing I want to hear myself, because nobody else is."

Your new book's cover

April 29 2011, 15:02:45 UTC 10 years ago

Maybe I missed your nod to it, but your new book cover is an afterimage of the Japanese flag.

Re: Your new book's cover

May 2 2011, 15:13:19 UTC 10 years ago

Yes, that was designer Zak's intention. Not so much an afterimage, maybe, but a reversal of the original colours. Which of course produces an afterimage.

(Wow, it feels strange leaving comments on Click Opera after all this time! Which avatar should I use?)

count_vronsky

10 years ago

May 30 2011, 05:37:10 UTC 10 years ago

Momus, I can’t help noticing something of a contradiction in two socioeconomic strands that run through Click Opera. One is that a high gini coefficient is an evil. The other is that there’s a financial threshold of happiness of around 20,000 pounds or so, and that if you earn more than that per annum it statistically won’t make you any happier. If the second proposition is true, then surely the happiest society is the one that gets the greatest number of people over that happiness threshold. But that won’t necessarily be the one that has a low gini coefficient, because those nations tend not to be so good at generating wealth. Cuba probably has a pretty low gini coefficient, but that doesn’t make it a happy nation, because it simply doesn’t generate enough wealth to get everyone over the threshold. The UK, on the other hand, has a fairly high gini coefficient, with high disparities of wealth. And yet because its economy generates significant wealth – enough to finance a national health service etc. – then a lot more people will get to the threshold, regardless of the disparities. So why do the disparities matter, as long as a healthy percentage of the population are over the threshold?

June 19 2011, 11:24:42 UTC 10 years ago

But that won’t necessarily be the one that has a low gini coefficient, because those nations tend not to be so good at generating wealth.

This is where your argument falls down. Go to this page, click the little symbol at the top of the UN Gini column, and you'll see that the nations with the lowest Gini are highly efficient wealth-generators: Denmark, Japan, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, and so on. The CIA Gini tab gives similar results. Being equal does not mean being poor.

w_e_quimby

January 4 2012, 17:28:23 UTC 9 years ago

Momus we love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

come back

March 12 2012, 13:37:22 UTC 9 years ago

would you consider doing a u-turn and resuming this journal?

Photo in post

ztz42

September 1 2012, 06:42:52 UTC 9 years ago

Photo with mountine is very attractive!

I like

postsquotes

January 21 2016, 01:43:52 UTC 5 years ago

i love you momus

withoutinternet

April 1 2020, 21:16:01 UTC 1 year ago

Momus!

I keep wishing I knew where you were blogging so that I could read your thoughts on this pandemic and what you are doing day to day. Hope you are well.

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310 comments

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Hello! This is Click Opera.

Meet Maria Wolonski

Having nothing to say, no words but the words of others, I have to speak

What's not to self-love?

Error

Good

Love

Re: Love

Your new book's cover

Re: Your new book's cover

Re: Your new book's cover

come back

Photo in post

I like

Meet Maria Wolonski

Having nothing to say, no words but the words of others, I have to speak

What's not to self-love?