Richard Dawkins says somewhere that there are no mammals native to New Zealand. I have no idea if that's true. I know one girl who lives in New Zealand--- Jill at pacificlolita. I know a girl who's now a new media/advertising exec on the Skinny Island--- she once did a cocaine-and-champagne gang-bang thing aboard a houseboat in Wellington harbour. And I know a girl who went hang-gliding in NZ. Beyond that, NZ is just scenery from "Lord of the Rings". I'd like to see NZ, I suppose. But--- Europe and the Maghreb and Japan: those are always where I need to be first. And I'm an historian by instinct. Nothing in NZ is old enough to hold my fascination.

Plaid shirts and tiny denim short-shorts. Miss Ginny at ginny_mccoo writes that undergraduate girls at McGill favour that look this September. Query--- plaid cotton or plaid flannel? September is a liminal month in Montreal--- how cool is it on early semester weekdays?

Co-eds at the coffeeshop by the university gates this morning--- lots of tiny short-shorts, a few sundresses. Short-shorts and halter-neck short sundresses, both worn with kneeboots or even cowboy boots. Cowboy boots and miniskirts--- I remember that as a Los Angeles look from the early Nineties, a look Dallas and Atlanta girls picked up. Lots of ultra-skinny jeans--- a look I love on leggy slender co-eds, but a look that leaves me empty and bitter whenever I think of Laura-Ashlee at bladeoftheknife.

Last October on a crisp Friday night, a beautiful Bennington co-ed and I ran laughing hand-in-hand through Brooklyn streets near BAM. I miss that. And I feel utterly trapped and helpless on any streets here.

I do want to write about Nick Bantock. I was always a great fan of the Griffin & Sabine books, and I loved Bantock's "Forgetting Room" and "The Museum at Purgatory". I'm a great fan of his collage art, of his use of found objects. I always wanted to be able to recommend Bantock to girls I liked--- to Laura-Ashlee, to Miss Ginny, to Lissy, to Kara-Jaime at arakha. And I suppose to Meredith at thelittleriddle, too. I wanted to recommend him to Britt-Nicole as well. I miss being able to do things built around books and art. I miss having someone to talk to about the books and films and music that mean something in my life. I hate living outside the glass, living without Voices and touch.

I wonder if Miss Ginny ever did see David Hamilton's film "Summer at St.-Tropez" or find his photo collections--- "Sisters", "Dreams of a Young Girl", "Bilitis", "Tender Cousins". Miss Ginny would love the photos, and the use of colour and light. And, yes--- I wish she would write more about her own life and visions and tastes at 13-18, about the things and events and places that shaped her conceptions of beauty and romance.

I dropped "9 Songs" back into a mailbox today. I wish I had someone to talk with about the film. And I wish the film itself didn't make me feel so empty and useless and isolated.