Potpourri

Today's soundtrack: Yo La Tengo, "Blue Line Swinger"

Seven p.m., rain again, a light wind shaking the few last leaves still remaining on the spindly little tree opposite the open bookstore door. Through which comes cool air, the scent of rain, the sound of wet tires on pavement, the twang of the trolley wires. Inside, Lions Winter Ale and not much in the way of customers. Not that I blame anyone for not coming in this evening; if I wasn't at work, I wouldn't be within a mile of outside.

One of those rare introspective evenings. "So, are you going to keep on doing this?", a friend of a friend inquired last week, her tone suggesting that it might be time to leave retail and go back to school, to get that MA or MBA and move into teaching, or law, or architecture, or something that would let me grow gracefully old and bald with a BMW, small Kitsilano house, and tenure. Well, no. The plan is to keep persisting, writing stories, making photographs, organizing shows, climbing mountains, and unlocking the store in the morning, until I either topple over from exhaustion or the ice starts cracking. As I've probably said before, I take for granted that I'm not as smart, well-off, or emotionally secure as you, but I'm sure as hell going to try and outlast you. As one of my latest competitors, the trust fund kid who paid mid five figures for his so-called "business," is now learning the hard way. "You keep score," said D., amazed, I thought, at discovering that flinty and hard side of my personality, the cold bedrock underlying the pliant mantle and constantly shifting continents. Well, yes.

Last week's mail: a couple smart-alecky emails wondering how Anodyne, Inc.'s doing, given the Conservatives' recent alterations to Canadian income trust law. Down on the week, less than the TSE. The changes don't kick in until 2011. And questions like these, as far as I can tell, betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how the stock market works. In the end, share or unit prices can only track the financial results of a business. It shouldn't matter if the business is an income trust or not, the only questions worth asking are, 1/ is the thing profitable?, and, 2/ is it likely to be profitable in the future?, and, 3/ what portion of the profits are available to the owners? Buying or selling shares or units in a business on the basis of endlessly mutable Canadian tax law strikes me as an odd way to go about "investing."

CSA Space's next six months are programmed, but not yet available on line, as the result of a strangely productive late-night meeting between the principals at Wazubee Cafe on Commercial Drive, a meeting during which, inexplicably, no alcohol was consumed.
- posted by cjb @ 6:54 PM