Reading: "The curator" from Paradox of the Locus (A.Glass 2016).

 

Chapter 2
The Curator

“Here, too, the praiseworthy has its rewards;
there are tears for things and mortal things touch the mind.
Release your fear; this fame will bring you some safety.”
Virgil, Aeneid, 1.461 ff.
there are tears for things and mortal things touch the mind.
Release your fear; this fame will bring you some safety.”
Virgil, Aeneid, 1.461 ff.


“Stock markets on the close for Monday are down twenty percent from their highs, it's looking like a market correction, possibly becoming a sustained bear market into 2016. But experts still believe the economy is relatively strong...”

Allison Vilus quickly glimpses at the television report as she dresses. Suddenly her phone rings. Attaching a heeled shoe to her left foot, she promptly sits down and picks up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey Allison, it's Sarah.”
“Hey! Hows it going? You not back yet?”
“Nope, still here in Berlin...fucking cold.”
Vilus looks up at the city skyline seeing the blizzard outside. “You're joking right? Because it's warm here...”
Her friend laughs. “Hows everything going at the Gallery?”
“It's ok, a little slow, great opening last Thursday though. We are representing a new artist. One of the up and comers. Some buyers, markets feeling a little tighter. What about Berlin?”
“Kinda tense, Europe issues...you watch the news...”
Vilus looks up at the television again, the news has moved onto the sports report. She fits on the other heeled shoe, then quickly slips various rings onto her fingers. Admiring one that was given to her by an artist a year back, “Yeah same old.”
“...I've seen some good shows here, great talent...but there's a lot of artists.”
Vilus stands straighten out her skirt, tucking in her blouse, she sees the larger jacket that she has picked out.
“So when you heading back?”
“In a weeks time, I'll let you know...cocktails?”
“Always, speak to you then.”
“Take care”
“You too”

“A new virus has appeared within South America, highly contagious, spread by mosquitoes. Initial reports are indicating this new and potential deadly virus as a sign that climate change will reveal newer and deadly diseases facing humanity...”

Vilus places her overcoat on, wrapping a scarf around her neck she picks up the TV controller and turns off the television.

A man awakes, looking up at the ceiling of his apartment. He then chuckles peering across at the bleak weather from his bedroom window. The man gets out of bed smiling. “Why be stressed?” Walking towards the bathroom he pauses at a framed image on the hallway wall. “This is my work, ok, it's good...” He looks at the art from various angles, trying to understand the image in-front of him. “...Interesting, the lines, its details...a complexity, yet...So I did this?” A cat walks past on its way to the kitchen area. The man looks at the cat then at the image again, exhaling he continues walking towards the bathroom.
Stepping into the shower he turns the radio on.

“A US Navy destroyer sailed within the twelve nautical miles of territorial waters of an island claimed by China within the South China Sea, which has geopolitical analysts worried saying that this could become a flash point between China and America, these are areas also claimed by American allies such as Taiwan and Vietnam who have also laid claim to the island as well...”

The man yawns, whilst shampooing his hair, the news report continues.

“...This operation was about challenging excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States and others, not about territorial claims to land features, said Chris Jacobs a Pentagon spokesman.”

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Reading:  "The curator" from Paradox of the Locus (A.Glass 2016)

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I will be doing regular readings of all my books from the last Ten years, in lieu of my new book "Coeval of the Hedonic"  (A.Glass 2025) which needs to be settled for at least a month, before the readings will begin.