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.

harveyjames

February 10 2010, 18:05:11 UTC 10 years ago

New comment

Is your made-up robot secretary inspired by my made-up robot secretary

Anonymous

February 10 2010, 18:17:58 UTC 10 years ago

Thanks Nick, your blog has given me lots of ideas to work with in my life.
Happy birthday to you and I hope you have a great moment hidden somewhere behind the white of the google home page.

Best wishes,
Joshua

farblust

February 10 2010, 19:00:21 UTC 10 years ago

otsukaresama desu, momasu san-

Master Trickster!

February 10 2010, 19:02:19 UTC 10 years ago

So long, trickster of the tricksters!

rose_rose

February 10 2010, 19:57:11 UTC 10 years ago

i thoroughly enjoyed your blog and am sad to see it go.

randomaus

February 10 2010, 20:16:46 UTC 10 years ago

First, of course, a happy birthday's eve and a happy .5 century!
Secondly, a thank you for all your hard work.
And finally a 'good luck' for what you'll be up to, starting tomorrow.

Bye Bye Birdie

February 10 2010, 21:00:47 UTC 10 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t3cBTb3xPccentral

Exuent all

xyzedd

February 10 2010, 21:25:40 UTC 10 years ago

Go forth and multiply thyself, Momus. It's been a beautiful adventure.

My greatest regret is that my retreat from modern life and my incapability to absorb new information at the high rates you do has kept me away from this little wonderworld far too often this past half-decade or so. But whenever I did arrive here, with just a day pass and nothing but a few crumbs in my knapsack to offer as alms, I always had a memorable and meaningful time; I am just sorry that some of the litter I left behind will continue to skitter in the gutters of this site for the (un)foreseeable eternity of cyberspace.

It's going to be said a thousand times in a thousand ways--but we're all going to miss you! (And yet we know you're never really going away.)

But for now I feel a little like Crusoe, abandoned by his ever-reliable Friday. Where will I find new footprints in the sand to lead me away again from my own mundane existence?

The gratitude I feel in my heart is inexpressible. Once when we were alone together (you'll never remember) I said it to you in person, and now I say it again: you have inspired me.

I better go now before I get even sloppier...

ext_216126

February 10 2010, 21:27:44 UTC 10 years ago

'the end of an era / it was good while it lasted / crying wont help'

what is this from?

i googled this and got links to your blog

how often has this happened?

'i will always / always / miss you'

xiu xiu

imomus

February 11 2010, 01:11:17 UTC 10 years ago

As explained in Newspaper stalked and serenaded by a ghost of its true self, the image of the blackboard is a still from "Farewell, etaoin shrdlu", a 1980 film directed by David Loeb Weiss which documents Linotype operator Carl Schlesinger's last day -- and the New York Times' last day -- of manual hot metal typesetting, which occurred on July 2nd, 1978. The film was screened during Dexter Sinister's Performa Biennial 09 tenure at BLANK SL8 last November, during which they produced a broadsheet newspaper called THE FIRST / LAST NEWSPAPER, which featured some little textual and visual quotes from Click Opera.

Thanks

February 10 2010, 21:38:05 UTC 10 years ago

Nick, I've been reading your blog from the beginning. Might have to re-read it all over again! What can I say that hasn't been said before. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, theories, opinions and life.

I've definitely learned a lot - been pushed, expanded and stimulated by your writing. I think you are doing the right thing in ending this as your energy needs to be put into something less ephemeral - so keep writing; be it songs, books, journalism or art.

You have given so much and it's payback time. So a heartfelt thank you...

And Happy Birthday.
All the very best - see you on Twitter.

Richard in LA

February 10 2010, 21:42:07 UTC 10 years ago

fare thee well, imomus.livejournal.com! I look forward to whatever's next!

February 10 2010, 21:43:06 UTC 10 years ago

oh, and happy birthday!

Even the orchestra is beautiful

badger

February 10 2010, 22:21:26 UTC 10 years ago

Auf wiedersehen!
À bientôt...

Write anytime. http://www.subscapeannex.com/

Lowland Clearances

February 10 2010, 22:57:17 UTC 10 years ago

Damn that firestarting Loretto lot. But now you can be Pizza-haggising in any old new world without that gloB'ng mob smirring your Heriot row island-patch.
Whaur's oor hairy rainbow drawn on lammermuir noo - miss you and best.

ironape_b

February 10 2010, 23:01:15 UTC 10 years ago

Dear Nick, thanks for being so consistently interesting and amusing all these years. I have frittered away many a late night hour or two reading click opera and the adventures of momus and will keep a close eye, and ear, on all things currie/ momus, even curried momus, in the future. I feel a momus mix tape/cd will now be necessary.