Mike's Blog

[poliphilo]

My son Mike has a thing about ruins. Japan- where he lives- is dotted with abandoned buildings- some from the boom years, some much older.  Where we'd call in the demolition men- or strip out the insides and build luxury apartments- they just walk out the front door and leave the premises to rot- often with the furnishings intact. They've got a name for these hulks; they call them haikyu. Mike explores haikyu- and blogs about them- and on Saturday he got a very tasty review in the Guardian.

Comments

[shullie.livejournal.com]

wonderful - and I love his web site...

I love neglected houses, and what people leave, & the 'ghosts' that remain

Have bookmarked him... ;)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Excellent.

I love ruins too- but I prefer them to be in the possession of English Heritage :)

[aellia.livejournal.com]

Well done to your son!
I particularly like the abandoned chairs and the ruins of the sex industry articles.
I diverted to your book.
Good reviews there :-)
x

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I particularly like his chair photos.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Well done! He's got a great website and I got lost in there for a good while. I really like the chair photos and the ghost towns.

Congratulations, proud dad!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

The chair photos are my favourites.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

How fascinating! I'm surprised that the Japanese just leave the ruins to rot, I thought they were short of space and that the land was very valuable, but perhaps that's only in parts of the country? That's what happens in the UK, certainly. Urban ruins get redeveloped or pulled down, but in rural areas buildings can decay quietly for years until someone complains about the safety aspects.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I thought that too.

I guess the huge population is all concentrated in a few very densely built up urban areas.

[sovay]

Mike explores haikyu- and blogs about them- and on Saturday he got a very tasty review in the Guardian.

Awesome!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Good innit!

[sovay]

Good innit!

Browsing his blog, I realized that I'd read one of his stories before: "Isidro's Furnace," in Reflection's Edge (January 2005). I liked it then, too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a small world after all!

[tispity.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for linking to Mike's blog, I've always been fascinated by ruins and have just spent the last hour or so absolutely engrossed in the haikyu posts.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's great.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Now that's two of yours with a measure of fame each. It's about what I would expect of your offspring. Do you have other children, too?
Now I'm going to check out Michael's website.
I am a Capricorn -- we all love old things, old places, ancient history, old people, etc. Haikyu (this is new to me) should be right up my alley.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I gave the site a quick run-through. It's very well done, full of great pictures. I'll have to revisit another time when I have more time. There's a lot to be seen there. Both Mike and Alice are quite talented. (I wonder where they got that?)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The thing is they grew up in a household where writing was seen as a normative activity.

I've got a third child- Joe- who went into the army and served in Iraq. He's out now and working as a personal trainer. He has writerly ambitions too

[oakmouse]

That's marvelous; I love his stuff!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

[michaeljohngrist.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hey Dad- Thanks for this plug, and to all the folks on here who said nice things. Is funny how this review went up without them even contacting me. I wonder if they shouldn`t have paid me for using the photo? I`m not going to complain though, it`s been great exposure.

Also it`s been good to hear what people liked- I`ll be putting more posts up along the lines of the 10 abandoned chairs one and ruins of the sex industry soon.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess that's the nature of the Internet.

That's an awfully good photo- by the way- the one they used. Your pictures get better and better. I particularly like the chairs. Have you been back to the publishers who din't think the photos were good enough for a book? I think they'd think differently now.

[michaeljohngrist.com (from livejournal.com)]

Thanks, it`s great to hear the photos are getting better. As for the book, yeah, I met with an editor and we had a chat. This time he seemed pretty taken with the photos, but not so sure about the text. We discussed how it could be better, and I went off to run up a few samples in that style. I sent them to him about 2 weeks ago and am still waiting to hear. I let him know about the Guardian thing too, can`t hurt to reassure that there is an audience out there.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you've got a really marketable product here. I'll be disappointed if someone doesn't take it up. And, yes, that vote of confidence from the Guardian isn't going to hurt.