24 Comments
Feb 21Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

You got my take on ballet nailed perfectly - not that I've ever had to go watch a whole one. I consider the bits I've ever seen on telly sufficient warning.

Sometimes I like listening to the music alone though - that can be pretty damn good sometimes.

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author

"Sufficient warning" made me laugh ;-) And yes, the music can be fabulous. It's all the DANCING...

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Feb 21Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

I really love this idea and it's no nice to read these snippets you've collected. Looking forward to more.

I have a similar folder I call 'Found Things', which is basically anything my brain randomly yurks up as I go through this life.

Some choice items are:

"John the tall baby." (No idea)

"Children and old people both know things, I think, for this reason." (No idea what the reason is)

"The Following Man." (Who is he? I don't know but I don't want to meet him)

"Sometimes they hug me so tight they leave bruises."

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author

Wow — each one of those sounds like a story prompt or a title for something or both!

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I like those, particularly the one about whims!

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Feb 21Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

this is a great idea. loved "the ballet" and "Transactions" .... bit disturbed by "Haunt your own life".

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author

Yeah, me too... I must have been in a weird mood at the time!

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Feb 21Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

That second one was one hell of a thing to read before I had my coffee.

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author

Yeah — think I must have been in a strange mood at the time!

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That's something of a default state, isn't it?

Now I feel the need to go listen to The Cure and Morrisey and Nick Cave.

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Feb 21Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

I like these, and your plan for sharing more of them. I will forever disagree with you on that last one, though ;) People's dreams and coincidences and the treasures they are pulled to are, like their whims, an expression of a facet of inner life that the person might not even know themselves or would never likely communicate directly, so while the raw data might not seem interesting, the specific way in which someone interprets it and injects it with meaning can be fascinating.

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author

That, to be fair, is true.

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Feb 21Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

I have little notes like this, too. Periodically I transcribe them into other notebooks.

I love ballet and you are correct about all those Russian warhorses!

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author

Ha :-) And maybe we should all start notes substacks...

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I have the shell of a blog on wordpress! So you know how old that is.

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founding
Feb 21Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

I often sit outside our local beach side pubs and cafes, slowly sipping local brews, reading a first edition of À la recherche du temps perdu (in English, weirdly... that's ebay for ya) and watching the vast menagerie of human life pass by, whilst smoking insouciantly and feeling as dapper as a 1 shit Dan in a 3 shit waistcoat...

My wife says I look like an absolute twat...

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author

LOL wives can be very undermining ;-) If we want to look like insouciant twats THAT'S OUR RIGHT, GODDAMMIT.

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founding

Just so, although she says the insouciance is coincidental to my general twatishness...

Hope you didn't mind my fan boy 1 shit waistcoat steal😁

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Feb 22Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

Ballet and Bollywood movies have a lot in common…

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author

They DO!

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Feb 23Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

I love this. Thank you.

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author

Thank you!

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Feb 25Liked by Michael Marshall Smith

I've only been to a ballet once and was surprised by how much noise is actually made by the dancers. You think it's all floaty light but it's crashy thumpy

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author

That's so true! Seeing one in real life — and hearing the constant thud of their feet on the stage, despite how etherial they make it look — does make you realize the work involved...

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