Lofts and domains

[imomus]

I thought I'd tell you about a couple of things today. The first is a fantastic art show I saw at the ICA in London on Friday, Klutterkammer by Berlin artist John Bock. Bock burst into my world at the 2001 Yokohama Triennale, where he had an enigmatic loft installation you had to clamber on chairs to see. I thought it was the best thing in the whole Triennale. The loft theme continues at the ICA, where Bock has gathered work by artists he likes and staged it in a series of hay lofts and odd little folksy huts you reach by clambering up ladders or crawling on your hands and knees along plyboard corridors. The show is spread across three floors, and it's really worth climbing the ladders to peek at Bock's comical, throwaway, bizarre videos (Bock trying to control a tractor run amok, Bock zooming his camera around a series of little installations in the forecourt of a petrol station...)

The other thing I have to report is that my good friend Jean Snow seems to have been cyber-squatted. He's apparently forgotten to renew his ownership of jeansnow.net (where he keeps the fastest moving and best guide to Toyko cultural and pop cultural life I've seen anywhere) and some domain sharks have snapped it up. No doubt they'll be demanding a ludicrous amount of money to sell it back. I thought I'd write about this here so that Jean can leave a message in the Comments section. He may need our PayPal donations. In the meantime, you can keep up with Jean (on a slightly less personal level) at the design site he edits, MoCo Tokyo.

The moral of all this? Always renew your domain name before it expires. (If you want to know when that is, check here.)

Comments

Jean Snow Lives!

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks, Nick and Warren. Yeah, the mistake lies with the company that registered my domain (e7domains.com). The domain was to expire on October 1, and I paid to have it renewed on September 21 (I have the PayPal receipt that proves it). After seeing the domain not pointing to my site on Saturday, I checked my account, and it indicated that I had not paid (payment due). It's been two days now, I've opened tickets and sent a bunch of emails, and haven't gotten any responses, which is what is really worrying me. As far as I know, the domain hasn't been sold (there's a grace period when a domain expires, I believe), but there's nothing I can do as e7domains.com is not responding to my emails (and I've learned that it's actually just one guy who runs it). I've tried to transfer it, but the domain is blocked. So right now I'm just incredibly annoyed, and can't do anything else but wait to see if they respond or something.

In the meantime, I'll still be blogging at the TSiG Blog (http://blog.tsig.se), and of course at MoCo Tokyo (http://mocotokyo.com). I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that everything gets settled as soon as possible. I mean, I'd pay again, I just want this all cleared up!

- Jean