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Waldschattenspiel
'Today we look at something very special. It’s a German family game called “Waldschattenspiel”, sold here as “Shadows In The Woods”. It’s a game designed for children and an adult, but I think any group would happily play this wonderful little thing. There is nothing else like it, and certainly nothing else that looks like it. Let me explain how the game plays. A board. Wooden trees of different sizes. Little wooden pawns. A candle. The child player takes one of the little wooden pawns (the dwarves) and hides it in the forest, in a patch of shadow. Once all the children have hidden their dwarves. The adult player, a giant with a bright lantern represented by a tea-light, rolls a die and moves that many paces through the trees. As the light source moves, the shadows dance and stretch. Any dwarf caught in the light is frozen, unable to move, until another dwarf can come to touch it and break the spell. The dwarves win the game by coming together in the same patch of shadow, under the same tree. The light-bringer wins if it freezes all the dwarves.'









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Haunted Ruins
'I think it would be hard for any gamer with kids, especially one who appreciates the Ameritrash side of gaming, to look at a game like Haunted Ruins and not think, where was this game when I was growing up?? I mean, just look at the thing... It's a 3D pop-up board of a haunted graveyard, with moving obstacles and passageways, and you're being chased around by a ghost and a zombie. I saw this at a Toys R Us when it first came out a couple years ago, along with its Egyptian pyramid/mummy themed counterpart, Treasure of the Lost Pyramid, and it took all of my willpower to not just buy them both right then and there. But they were both about $25 and I couldn't really justify the purchase at the time. Well, fast forward to last week when I was bored and stopped into a Barnes & Noble in California... I had totally spaced the whole "Barnes & Noble game dumping sale" that happens every year around this time and so it was a pleasant surprise to see several copies of Haunted Ruins sitting there for 75% off. It was also kind of sad to see that, because really, this is a great game and a great production that deserves to be in the homes of many kids who will surely love it.'







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The Settlers of Catan 3D Edition
'The Catan 3D Edition is a special treat indeed. In the big wooden chest you will find 19 3D terrain hexes, an illustrated, sturdy wooden frame andover 170 game pieces that have been painstakingly modeled in exquisite detail. All pieces have been hand painted. All the pieces are included for you to play The Settlers of Catan in 3D. Note: the 3D version of The Settlers of Catan was a limited production of 5,000 copies. It may be difficult to find an authentic set online, however, many merchants have come up with an ingenious way to bring the Catan 3D experience to everyone. Blank terrain pieces are often available, which can then be painted. Use your imagination and get yours today!'














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Aapep 3D
'In Aapep you play either the demon Aapep, trying to swallow the sun, or the god Ra, fighting to escape the dark seas of the underworld. Players take turns placing pyramid tiles onto the board—Aapep swallows the sun if from any edge of the board he can "see" dark sides on the first pyramid tile that is visible from that direction while Ra escapes if from any edge of the board he can "see" light sides on the first pyramid tile visible from that direction.'








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Just William Game
'The first part of the game consists of constructing William's house and garden fence as per the diagram on the rules. Players are then given jobs to do around the built house & surrounds. There are two packs of cards - job cards and excuse cards. The object of the game is to get rid of all of your jobs, climb over the garden fence and land on the "William" spot. Designer (Uncredited). Artist: Thomas Henry Fisher. Publisher: Palitoy Ltd. Year Published: 1976. # of Players: 2 − 6.'








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Clue Premiere Edition
'After a steady decline after the video game boom, board games are regaining popularity, but only because the companies behind them are innovating. One such way is by upgrading from 2-Dimensional boards to 3D, pop-up ones. The Clue Premier Edition, retailing at $150, has a game board that is literally like a doll house. The board has nine sunken 3D rooms, each with detailed furnishing. The only thing that differentiates it from a doll house is that it has a non-removable, tempered glass lid placed on top, preventing tampering inside.'






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3D Labyrinth
'Part of the Ravensburger Labyrinth Games series, This is a super-simplified version of The aMAZEing Labyrinth for the really younger set. Instead of the shifting tiles of the other versions, in this game, entire sections of the maze shift, as the modular 3-D board has a sliding center piece, which allows for different pathways through the maze. Players attempt to reach the items shown on their treasure cards by shifting the maze and moving through the corridors.'







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Fireball Island Re-creation
'Here it is folks, the newly finished Fireball Island! What a trip it's been. What's been keeping me going is a guy out in CA who is going to be the proud owner of this piece. He's very worried about the shipment being damaged but I'm very confident in the strength of the object as well as my packing skills. Alain, the new owner, has really kept me interested in the project with his enthusiasm and excitement. We are both really into this whole thing and hope more comes from it. We talked the other night about Torpedo Run!, a very awesome game that puts Battleship to shame. I might be looking into recreating that game in the future, we'll have to see. But at the very least I am confident that I can make more Fireball Islands, and am taking offers to anyone who is interested in one. So check out the pics and stay on the look out for more boards to come.'








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Caverns of the Dead
'Sometimes I'll see an interesting game at a convention, but it can be hard to get a good photo when excited players are pressing around the table... and I'm hesitant to interrupt their fun. I dodged to the other end of the table to get a better shot... (not so good...) ...and finally, a somewhat fuzzy zoom shot. It looks to be a portable gaming table, built around several box bottoms.'






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Cranium Balloon Lagoon
'Spin the musical merry-go-round and start the timer, then race around the board trying to complete 4 fun-filled carnival games before the music ends. The 4 games utilize the same skills needed in the traditional Cranium categories: Word Worm, Star Performer, Data Head, and Creative Cat. Only this time, you're playing carnival games! In Letter Lake, you'll fish for letters to spell a word. In Frog Pong, you must hop the frogs from the lily pads back into their pond. In Snack Hut, try to collect 4 matching snacks, and in Tumble Tides, spin the picture wheels and try to match all 4 sections of the picture. It's based on the original Cranium game, but given a fun carnival twist that kids will love! Collect balloons as you play the 4 carnival games, and the first player to collect 15 balloons, wins.'









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Incursion
'Incursion is a board game set in the world of Secrets of the Third Reich. Armored troopers of the US “Lucky Seventh” hurtle through underground bunkers and combat the monstrous forces of the German SWD in a furious race against time. The Doomsday Device is ticking and neither the Allies nor the Axis can fail. The mechanics for this two player game are simple to grasp allowing players to instantly focus on their tactical options. Play is incredibly fast-paced and tense and players choose their forces through a card-based Requisition Point system. The game may either be played with chipboard stand-ups that are included in the box or with highly detailed metal miniatures that are available from this site. Miniatures are NOT required to play this game but they are really cool!'








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Stalwart Dark Angels
'I've recently completed designing and building my first game board. Here are some pics. The whole board (almost, have 8 total 2'x2' tiles). And some pieces for laying over the lava board. I've got loads of hills and rocks, though right now working on a road network including intersections and bridges.'







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Smurfs, The Game
'The 3-D Smurf Game. Pick a Smurf character and play the 3D Smurf game! The 3-dimensional game takes place in the Smurf village. Each player has to follow the tricky Smurf path by climbing over bridges and traveling behind Smurf houses! Watch out for the spinning baddie cat, Azrael! Your goal is to be the first Smurf player to reach home with 4 different food baskets of apples, acorns, grapes and strawberries. "The Smurf Game". From 1981. Made by Milton Bradley.'







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Halo Interactive Strategy Game
'Featuring the same premise and characters as the video game - including Master Chief, A.I. and Covenant - the 'Halo Interactive Strategy Game' offers a modular board that can be re-configured to create a virtually limitless game play experience. In recreating the video game's signature three dimension graphic design, the game pulls fan-favorite elements from Halo 1, 2, and 3 along with music from the video game's award-winning soundtrack and features unseen exclusive DVD content to enhance game play. In the game, players will command armies of three-dimensional collectible character pieces for two different levels of play: Heroic for faster, more casual game play and Legendary for more strategic advanced gamers. Fans can follow story lines that expand the Halo experience in Campaign mode or go head-to-head in interactive battle sequences with Slayer or Capture the Flag modes. The battle options are endless with future add-ons of new adventures, vehicles, characters and weapons to expand the experience.'









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The Scooby-Doo Haunted House Game
'The Scooby-Doo Haunted House 3D Board Game is action-packed! Move around the haunted house and try to make your way to the top. There are secret booby traps waiting to get you - a moving ghost knight, a creaky staircase, a haunted moose head, and more. There are seven traps in all, but if you make it past and you are the first to the top - uncover the villain and you win!'








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The Lost World Jurassic Park Game
'Based on the second movie, of course. This tri-lingual (English, Spanish, French) crowded MB box contains a whole bunch of thin cardboard 3D buildings; stand up cardboard pieces for the 12 humans and the helicopter, and a bunch of plastic miniatures of the dinosaurs (a T-Rex and some Velociraptors). This is played in teams, the human team trying to get 3 humans off the board via the chopper, and the dinosaur team trying to prevent this. When 3 play, the third player alternates teams. The humans can jump between building roofs or can run between them. Unfortunately, the dinosaurs move a lot faster on the ground than the humans (the humans move between marked spaces, the dinosaurs between zones). Buildings have several entry/exit points for the humans but only one for the raptors. Dice indicate how to move humans and dinosaurs; one of the dice has Stop/Go markings which control whether you may roll again or not -- making movement harder to predict. Jumping (for humans) and entering buildings (for dinosaurs) is also dice controlled. The T-Rex is confined to a single board edge area; its function is to flush the humans from the starting building -- once he reaches it, all remaining humans are devoured! Yes, unlike the first movie game, in this one there is death aplenty.'











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Heroscape
'Heroscape is turn-based miniature wargaming system played using miniature figures on a board made from interlocking hexagonal tiles that allow for construction of a large variety of 3D playing boards. It is a game of hit points, numerous dice, and attacking. It plays like a fantastic version of chess. Only instead of rooks and pawns, you have all manner of orcs, dragons, robots, assassins, etc. The board and character selection is vast if the host has enough expansion packs, and this was certainly the case over the weekend. The three playing boards sprawled out in full 3d upon a long banquet table and were surrounded by plastic containers full of various character pieces. The five other people playing for the most part knew the characters’ stats without looking at the cards. It was a little intimidating, so I picked a pre-configured, defensive style army. After six hours of 45 minute long games, I had won two and lost the rest.'







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Scream Inn
'Bet you never knew there was a Scream Inn board game?! Well, neither did I? Released in the 1970s by Fisher Price, it's currently on eBay for about £70 or thereabouts. Below I've snagged a few photos to give you an idea of the look and feel of the game. A standard board game with some cut-outs to give a 3d effect and a internal turntable for I presume turning various bits and bobs around? Comes with markers both of the ghost and human variety plus a die and rule book. Strange that no obvious characters from the strip appear aside from a generic ghost. Maybe the comic gave rights only to use the name of the strip. Still, a slice of forgotten comics history which probably went unnoticed by fans back in the day.'









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Mordheim: City of the Damned
'Mordheim does to Warhammer Fantasy what Necromunda does to Warhammer 40k. The game mechanics work in classic Games Workshop fashion. Instead of playing with hundreds of miniatures, you pick a warband of 1-20 models(Most average at 10-12 or so), and fight a skirmish with other warbands. If you play well, your warband gains money, levels, size, and new powers, but play badly and your warband slowly deteriorates as people die or otherwise get dismembered. Games actually play very similar to Necromunda but due to the fantasy setting you should see fewer long distance shots, and a lot more hand to hand fighting.'
















*

p.s. Hey. Kind of quiet around here. ** David Ehrenstein, Hm, Cindy Sherman comparison, interesting. I need to think about that. I'm kind of curious about Shirley Jones' memoir for reasons that must be obvious to you and that, if obvious, I would ask you to keep between you and me, please, but I can't imagine actually sitting down and reading such a thing. Do they still release those 'Cliff Notes' books? ** S., Hey. I associate feeling/emotion with words because the two are such sworn enemies and because I like being confused to a certain degree. De-jading yourself is important, I think. Jadedness will age you faster than cigarettes. Art's a decent savior, I think, I hope. I'm okay. It rained yesterday. That was ultimately good. ** Mononoke Paradice, Oh, that's okay about the Day delay, no problem, gosh, just thank you! Which Robbe-Grillet do you want to read? Or should I wait and let the post fill me in and surprise me. That sounds fun. Yeah, the comments arena was a little echoey yesterday. Strange. It's hard to know what niceness is, which I guess is why I'm finding it interesting to write about. I do think you're nice. I guess it's like an instinctual reaction and opinion or something. Pieter Saenredam! Thank you! John Ashbery really loves his paintings, and I can see why. ** Heliotrope, Hi, Mark! Thanks about the posts. Me kind of too about the questionable translation offered to my thoughts by my mouth. No, I did think about going to watch the TdF finale, but it was murderously hot, and that plus the crowds made me do otherwise. I saw a bit on TV. Wow, really cool about finding those letters. That's amazing. My heart went boom. I don't think I had any experiences re: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, that I can remember anyway. It feels very vague when I think about it. I remember Sound Spectrum, of course. I'm getting a creeped out yet unillustrated memory when I think of that place. Dude, ouch, about the re-torn thing. Get better as close to this instant as possible. Andy Prieboy! I've met a couple of French people who are big fans of his. I'm not sure if he's one of the anointed American cult figures beloved by the French or whether encountering two French fans of his was pure coincidence. And Tony Kinman! Great bass player, yeah, and his voice is awesome too. The heat has broken, at least at the current, still early hour, and that is a fine thing. I love you guys so too! ** Sypha, Hi. Hm, maybe a scene where a guy has his back moles shaved by a doctor he's attracted to would make a good novel moment. Not in my current novel, but in something. Thanks for reading 'The Dream Police'. The Flintstones one ... oh, right. That one. I remember that. I wrote that for my friend Ziggy who was the model for Ziggy in 'Try'. Anyway, thanks, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, I'm so glad you thought it was okay, Ben! Thank you again so much! ** Grant Scicluna, Oh, rubbing it in, nice. I don't think I yell, or maybe once every few years, but that comment almost turned my typing's volume up a notch. Nah, kidding. Our heat broke, for now, so I'm cool. Internally, and kind of vaguely externally. That's interesting about the dilemma of the script or of your script. So, there really is a formula to such things that you have to stick to and finesse and try to subvert? Tough form. Or for me it would be. I can't do formulas. When I try, the writing just gets very artificial. Yeah, sounds tricky. Great about the readers report! The funding bodies, scary seeming. I guess you've probably sussed how to do that. Oh, as far as how the early stages of my novels look, it really depends on the strategy I have for the novel, and I try to take a different strategy with each one to keep myself challenged and pushing myself. A lot of the time, the novel-in-early-progress only looks like a novel the way a cloudy night sky looks like a starry sky. With this one right now, let's see... There's a notebook full of handwritten stuff that I started with. It contains ideas, formal graphs, some random sentences and paragraphs of prose, etc. There's the first chapter of what was going to be the George Miles novel, which I'm still considering keeping as the first chapter with changes. And, in any case, which I'm using a template for the new novel's form because there was something I liked going on there. Thus far, I'm writing the novel in a doc rather than by hand -- I normally write by hand -- because I wrote 'The Marbled Swarm' by typing in a doc, and it was interesting enough that I want to continue that experiment. What's in the doc is messy. A few scenes I'm working on. Some very personal self-examining stuff that might or might not stay. To see what I'm writing wouldn't make much sense yet. I leave lots and lots of gaps that I will fill in later because I can't write in a linear way. So, I guess that's a general picture of what exists right now. The heat went down last night. That isn't supposed to last, so I'm going to try to run as many errands that require metro rides early on today as I can. Best to you, and stay chilly in the good way. ** Steevee, See, I was just saying to James how the 'hot' dermatologist thing could be a good fictional conceit, and your story is proof positive. ** Misanthrope, You guys are pushing it with the Shirley talk. Cease and desist. Tim Law, that's him. I was brain dead yesterday, and my fingers proved it. Well, that's one way to think about escorting. Ugh, sorry, about your niece's mom's shit. Ugh. Your niece deserves so, so much better. As do you, of course. ** Rewritedept, Well, I would certainly hope you're enjoying 'Alien Lanes'. Otherwise, I would think you were clinically something bad. 'Do the Collapse': their big produced record. A record of controversy for that reason amongst the Pollard diehards. I like it a bunch. Not my favorite of theirs, but there are a lot of great, great songs on it as well as perhaps the only crappy song Pollard has ever written, a song which he has subsequently apologized for. 'Love It to Death' is maybe the best Alice Cooper album, yeah. But 'Killer' gives it at least a run for its money. I'll get the True Widow. Haven't yet. Thanks for giving the definitive on the candy. Thought something like that might be the case. Shows? The Paris Pitchfork Festival is coming up. I'll definitely see a day or two of that: Deerhunter, Iceage, Baths, Deafheaven, No Age, The Haxan Cloak, ... The novel is taking more shape, yes. I did work on it yesterday, yeah. My day was okay, weird, but okay. Thanks, pal, and later, gator. ** That's it. 3D boards games are on your blog plate today due to a short but intense spate of interest on my part in them the other day. See you tomorrow.

Michel Ciment: Do you like poets like Francis Ponge? Your films remind one of him, and his Le parti pris des choses.
Robert Bresson: Yes. I no longer see Ponge, unfortunately, as he has moved to the south. He wrote me some remarkable letters about my films and about cinema. I like his fondness for objects, for inanimate things.


'Francis Ponge has been called “the poet of things” because simple objects like a plant, a shell, a cigarette, a pebble, or a piece of soap are the subjects of his prose poems. For Ponge, all objects “yearn to express themselves, and they mutely await the coming of the word so that they may reveal the hidden depths of their being,” as Richard Stamelman explained it in Books Abroad. David Gascoyne, a contributor to Reference Guide to World Literature, declared: “To transmute commonplace objects by a process of replacing inattention with contemplation was Ponge’s way of heeding Ezra Pound‘s edict: ‘Make it new.’ His ever-renewed attempts to celebrate objects of everyday experience in a language enlightened by puns and complex words, with onomatopoeia, and the calligrammatic, were not a restless search for novelty but rather a way of transcending ‘modernity’ and restoring a Wordsworthian appreciation of the simple things in life: slate, the Seine, asparagus, and tables.”

'Throughout his forty-five year writing career, Ponge was faithful to his unique approach to poetic subject. Speaking of the poet’s collected works, Sarah N. Lawall in Contemporary Literature found that “what Ponge has to say remains quite consistent, and his collected works juxtapose texts from 1921 to 1967 without any contradiction whatsoever. He still goes to the ‘mute world’ of things for his peculiar dialectic, and he still celebrates the creative power of speech.” Lawall found, too, that Ponge’s work served as an “example of systematically individual perception and expression in a world threatened by group morality and intellectual totalitarianism.”

'Michael Benedikt, writing in The Prose Poem: An International Anthology, concluded that Ponge’s poems are “as ‘objective’ as objects in the world themselves.” Robert W. Greene, in his book Six French Poets of Our Time: A Critical and Historical Study, argued that in many of his poems, Ponge tries “to create a verbal machine that will have as much local intricacy as its counterpart in the world of objects.” Stamelman went even further in analyzing this relationship. “In Ponge’s poetry,” he wrote, “the text refers to itself and to itself alone… The only thing the text ‘represents’ is its own surging into being through language, its own act of expression. Ultimately, the text signifies itself.”

'Ponge’s prose poems follow no set formula. They develop instead in a seemingly spontaneous manner, following a meandering path to their completion. “Ponge may be the first poet,” James Merrill wrote in the New York Review of Books, “ever to expose so openly the machinery of a poem, to present his revisions, blind alleys, critical asides, and accidental felicities as part of a text perfected, as it were, without ‘finish’”. Greene acknowledged that Ponge’s “texts hardly conform to most conceptions of what poems, even prose poems, are or should be. They contain puns, false starts, repetitions, agendas, recapitulations, syllogistic overtones, a heavy ideological content, and other features that one normally associates with prose—and the prose of argumentation at that—rather than with poetry.”

'Ponge spent the last thirty years of his life as a recluse at his country home, Mas des Vergers. He suffered from frequent bouts with nervous exhaustion and numerous psychosomatic illnesses. He continued to write, however, and the work he was involved with at the time of his death was published posthumously in 1981. Entitled La Table, it “reflects what was Ponge’s undying, and increasingly obsessional, quest for le mot juste,” mused Gascoyne. “Its final sentence reads: “O Table, ma console et ma consolatrice, table qui me console, ou je me consolide.” For Ponge, his final subject was his writing table, which had in fact by then become his entire world.”' -- Poetry Foundation



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Extras


Francis Ponge à propos de Cezanne


INK with Francis Ponge


la destruction des quartier Francis Ponge & Gaston Bachelard


Translating Francis Ponge at Shakespeare and Company Bookshop


Literature Book Review: Mute Objects of Expression by Francis Ponge



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Further

Francis Ponge's 'Preface to a Bestiary'
FP's 'Soap' @ Stanford University Press
Tom McCarthy on Francis Ponge
FP @ The PIP (Project for Innovative Poetry) Blog
'Francis Ponge: Siding with things'
'The Prefix of Prefixes:
Francis Ponge’s ‘Le Pré’ and La Fabrique du ’Pré’
Francis Ponge's 'l'Orange' (bilingual)
Francis Ponge's 'Bread'
'on Mute Objects of Expression by Francis Ponge
'L'OBJET EN POESIE AU 20ème SIECLE : confrontation de quelques textes de Francis Ponge'
'L'œuvre insupportable de Francis Ponge'
'Commentaire hypertextuel du l'eau de Francis Ponge.
FP @ Writers No One Reads
'THE LAST BOOK I LOVED: FRANCIS PONGE’S THE VOICE OF THINGS'
An appeciation of FP @ Lacanian Studies
Buy 'Unfinished Ode to Mud' @ CB Editions



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My Creative Effort
by Francis Ponge




THURSDAY 18 DECEMBER 1947

No doubt I am not very intelligent: in any case ideas are not my strong point. I’ve always been disappointed by them. The most well-founded opinions, the most harmonious philosophical systems (the best constituted) have always seemed to me utterly fragile, caused a certain revulsion, a sense of the emptiness at the heart of things, a painful feeling of inconsistency. I do not feel in the least assured of the propositions that I sometimes have occasion to put forth in the course of a discussion. The opposing arguments almost always appear just as valid; let’s say, for the sake of exactness, neither more nor less valid. I am easily convinced, easily put down. And when I say I am convinced: it is, if not of some truth, at least of the fragility of my own opinion. Furthermore, the value of ideas appears to me most often in inverse proportion to the enthusiasm with which they are expressed. A tone of conviction (and even of sincerity) is adopted, it seems to me, as much in order to convince oneself as to convince one’s interlocutor, and even more, perhaps, to replace conviction. To replace, so to speak, the truth which is absent from the propositions put forth. This is something I feel very strongly.

Hence, ideas as such seem to me to be the thing I am least capable of, and they are of little interest to me. You will no doubt object that this in itself is an idea (an opinion), but: ideas, opinions seem to me controlled in each individual by something completely other than free will, or judgment. Nothing appears to me more subjective, more epiphenomenal. I really cannot understand why people boast of them. I would find it unbearable should someone try to impose them on us. Wanting to give one’s opinion as objectively valid, or in the absolute, seems to me as absurd as to state, for example, that curly blonde hair is truer than sleek black hair, the song of the nightingale closer to the truth than the neighing of a horse. (On the other hand I am quite given to formulation and may even have a certain gift in this direction. “This is what you mean . . .” and generally the speaker agrees with my formulation. Is this a writer’s gift? Perhaps.)

It is somewhat different for what I shall call observations; or shall we say experimental ideas. It has always seemed desirable to me to agree, if not about opinions, at least about well-established facts, and if this still seems pretentious, at least on some solid definitions.

It was perhaps natural that with such a disposition (disgust for ideas, a taste for definitions) I should devote myself to recording and defining the objects of the world around us, and particularly those which constitute the familiar universe of our society, in our time. And why, it will be objected, do something over which has been done several times already, and firmly established in dictionaries and encyclopedias?—But, I shall reply, why and wherefore is it that several dictionaries and encyclopedias co-exist in a given language, and for the same objects their definitions fail to correspond? Why, above all, why do they seem more concerned with the definition of words than with the definition of things? Where do I get this impression, which is all in all quite preposterous? What causes the difference, this inconceivable gap between the definition of a word and the description of the thing designated by the word? Why is it that dictionary definitions seem so lamentably lacking in concreteness, and that descriptions (in novels and poems, for example) seem so incomplete (or too particular and detailed, on the contrary), so arbitrary, so random? Could one not imagine a sort of writing (new) which, situating itself more or less between the two genres (definition and description), would take from the first its infallibility, its indubitability, its brevity also, from the second its respect for the sensory aspect of things ...





SATURDAY 27 DECEMBER 1947

If ideas disappoint me, don’t agree with me, it is because I too willingly agree with them, since that’s what they want, what they are made for. Ideas demand my assent, insist on it and it’s too easy for me to give in: this gift, this agreeableness, gives me no pleasure, but rather a certain revulsion, nausea. Objects, landscapes, events, people around give me a great deal of pleasure on the other hand. They convince me. By the very fact they don’t need to. Their presence, their obvious solidity, their thickness, their three dimensions, their palpability, indubitability, their existence of which I am far more certain than of my own, their: “that’s not something you invent (but discover)” side, their: “it’s beautiful because I couldn’t have invented it, I would have been quite incapable of inventing it” side, all that is my sole reason to exist, my pretext, so to speak; and the variety of things is in reality what makes me what I am. That’s what I want to say: their variety makes me, gives me permission to exist in silence even. As the place around which they exist. But in relation to a single one of them, in relation to each one of them in particular, if I consider only one of them, I disappear: it annihilates me. And, if it is only my pretext, my raison d’être, if it is therefore necessary that I exist, from it, it will only be, it can only be by a certain creation of my own with it as subject.

What creation? The text.

And, to start off, how do I imagine it, how could I have imagined it, how do I conceive of it?

Through works of art (literary).

(cont.)






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Things


Francis Ponge and Jacques Derrida, 1975




Ponge, Sartre, Beauvoir, date unknown







Pierre Reverdy, Andre Breton, Francis Ponge







___
Book

Francis Ponge Unfinished Ode to Mud
CB Editions

'A bilingual French/English edition of new translations of prose poems by a writer praised by Italo Calvino as "a peerless master . . . I believe that he may be the Lucretius of our time, reconstructing the physical nature of the world by means of the impalpable, powderfine dust of words" (Six Memos for the Next Millennium).

'Still radical, the poems of Francis Ponge seek to give the things of the world their due. Impatient with the usual baggage of literary description, Ponge attends to a pebble, a washpot, an eiderdown, a platter of fish, with lyrical precision; playing with sounds, rhythms and associations of words, he creates wholly new objects – "but which may be more touching, if possible, than natural objects, because human" (‘My Creative Method’).' -- CB Editions


Excerpts

Rain

The rain, in the courtyard where I watch it fall, comes down at very different speeds. In the centre, it is a fine discontinuous curtain (or mesh), falling implacably but relatively slowly, a drizzle, a never-ending languid precipitation, an intense dose of pure meteor. Not far from the right and left walls heavier drops fall more noisily, separately. Here they seem to be about the size of a grain of wheat, there of a pea, elsewhere nearly a marble. On the moulding, on the window ledges, the rain runs horizontally while on the undersides of these same obstacles it is suspended, plump as a humbug. It streams across the entire surface of a little zinc roof the peephole looks down on, in a thin moiré sheet due to the different currents set in motion by the imperceptible undulations and bumps in the roofing. From the adjoining gutter, where it runs with the restraint of a brook in a nearly level bed, it suddenly plunges in a perfectly vertical, coarsely braided stream to the ground, where it splatters and springs up again flashing like needles.
    Each of its forms has a particular speed; each responds with a particular sound. The whole lives as intensely as a complicated mechanism, as precise as it is chancy, a clockwork whose spring is the weight of a given mass of precipitate vapour.
    The chiming of the vertical streams on the ground, the gurgling of the gutters, the tiny gong beats multiply and resound all at once in a concert without monotony, not without delicacy.
    When the spring is unwound, certain gears continue to function for a while, gradually slowing down, until the whole mechanism grinds to a halt. Then, if the sun comes out, everything is erased, the brilliant apparatus evaporates: it has rained.



The Young Mother

A few days after childbirth, the woman's beauty is transformed.
    Her face, often bent over her chest, grows slightly longer.
    Her eyes, attentively peering down at a nearby object, occasionally look up, faintly distracted. Their gaze is filled with confidence, but seeking continuation. Her arms and hands bend together in a crescent, mutually sustaining. Her legs, grown thin and weakened, are gladly seated, knees drawn up high. The distended belly, livid, still very tender; the abdomen readjusts to rest, to nights under covers.
    ...But soon up and about, the tall body maneuvers through the bunting hung out conveniently high and low, which squares of wash, which from time to time are grasped by a free hand, are crinkled, tested knowledgeably, then folded or hung out again depending on the verdict.



The End of Autumn

In the end autumn is nothing but cold tea. All kinds of dead leaves macerate in the rain. No fermentation or distillation of alcohol: only spring will show the effect of compresses applied to a wooden leg.
    The last returns are a mess. All the doors of the polling booths bang open and shut. Into the bin! Into the bin! Nature shreds her manuscripts, demolishes her library, furiously knocks down her final fruits.
    Then she pushes herself up from her desk. At once she appears immense. Hair undone, head in the mist. Her arms hanging loose, delightfully she inhales the icy, thought-refreshing wind. Days are short, night falls quickly, comedy is uncalled for.
    Up in the air among the other stars, the earth looks serious again. Its lit-up part is narrower, infiltrated with valleys of shadow. Its shoes, like those of a tramp, soak up water and make music.
    In this frog pond, this salubrious amphibiguity, everything grows strong again, leaps from stone to stone and changes bog. Freshets multiply.
    This is what you call a good clean-up, disrespectful of convention! Dressed in nothing, drenched to the bone.
    And it goes on, and on, takes ages to dry out. Three months
of salutary reflection in this state; without vascular incident, with neither peignoir nor horsehair mitt. Her strong constitution is up to it.
    Then, when the little buds start to point again, they know what they are up to, what it’s all about – and if they peek out with precaution, swollen and ruddy, it is on good grounds.
    But thereby hangs another tale, which may depend on but hasn’t the same smell as the black ruler I’m going to use to draw the line under this one.



The Blackberries

On the typographic bushes of the poem down a road leading neither out of things nor to the mind, certain fruits are composed of an agglomeration of spheres plumped with a drop of ink.

*

Black, rose and khaki together on the bunch, they are more like the sight of a rogue family at its different ages than a strong temptation to picking.
    In view of the disproportion of seeds to pulp birds don’t think much of them, so little remains once from beak to anus they’ve been traversed.

*

But the poet in the course of his professional promenade takes the seed to task: ‘So,’ he tells himself, ‘the patient efforts of a fragile flower on a rebarbative tangle of brambles are by and large successful. Without much else to recommend them – ripe, indeed they are ripe – done, like my poem.’



The Crate

Midway from a cage to a dungeon, the French language has crate, a simple slatted case devoted to the transport of such fruits as at the least shortness of breath are bound to give up the ghost.

Knocked together so that once it is no longer needed it can be effortlessly crushed, it is not used twice. Which makes it even less durable than the melting or cloudlike produce within.

Then, at the corner of every street leading to the marketplace, it gleams with the modest sparkle of deal. Still spanking new and a little startled to find itself in the street in such an awkward position, cast off once and for all, this object is on the whole one of the most appealing – on whose destiny, however, there’s little point in dwelling.




*

p.s. Hey. Much thanks to d.l. Mononoke Paradice who provided the trigger for today's post. ** Eli Jürgen, Eli! Holy wow! How awesome to see you, pal. It feels like it's been ages. I need to look seriously into 'Forbidden Bridge' clearly. You made me ache about it. And may I say how much I love your Justin Bieber paintings? Everyone, long term but, until yesterday, recently quiet d.l. and unquiet artist Eli Jürgen made some awesome Justin Bieber-centric paintings a while back, and you can see them and even buy one if you like by clicking this, and so do. How are you doing? ** Scunnard, Hi, man. I'm going to see if I can hunt down that Tolkien game. That early real world tech aspect is so intriguing. Ha ha, if only, on the 19D games. Or maybe not if only. Maybe a quick google search would unveil 3 of them, and that post will be more than your crazed, inspired idea. Will do. Glad you liked the Maclean post/work. I didn't know of Vlad Kromatika. Whoa, pretty interesting. I'll get obsessed with his oeuvre today, no doubt. Everyone, courtesy of Scunnard and relative to the Rachel Maclean post for reasons that will be obvious, enter the video work of Vlad Kromatika, starting here. Dude, nice. ** Mononoke Paradice, Hi! Thank you again for helping instigate this Ponge post, and I hope you think it's okay. Ah, 'Ghosts in the Mirror'. It's sort of criminal that the other two volumes of R-G's memoir have never been translated into English. Oh, wow, that Barthes post you want to send to me sounds incredible. And it would be helpful to my novel, no doubt. That's so very kind of you, my friend. Only when you have the time and when it would give you pleasure to make, please. Yes, tell me how to get to your handmade jewelry shop, for sure. That's so very interesting to think about. I will try to have a nice day, and maybe I will, thank you. You too! ** Grant Scicluna, Thanks about the post, and I'm so glad my early novel layout talk was of interest. Jesus, you're expected to 'condense your story into a single sentence'? That's, wow, ... I'll never be a screenwriter for sure. Being able to work chronologically must be a must in that medium. Well, unless you've got the resources and clout of guys like Lynch, et. few al. Yeah, fascinating talk and info about the screenwriting process and yours in particular. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. ** Martin Bladh, Hi, Martin! How great and what an honor to have you here! That's excellent news about your publishing venture. I'll go use the Facebook link and the 'like' option in just a few minutes. Everyone, the superb artist of many sorts Martin Bladh has started a publishing company called Infinity Land Press, and you can check it out via Facebook and 'like' it, or I recommend that you do, here. The idea of publishing my 1981 scrapbook is very interesting. I like the idea, and, of course, it's incredible of you to want to do that. The thing is that Fales Library at NYU own it, and they have total control over it. I would be happy to write to them and say that I'm into your publishing idea and then you could approach them and see what they say. Let me know. The other obvious possible problem is that the scrapbook is, as you know, packed with magazine photos from the time that I used without permission and which aren't credited. I don't know how that works exactly, but that might be an issue re: publishing? Anyway, thank you, Martin, and, yeah, I'm into the idea if it would be possible. All the best! ** David Ehrenstein, That would be some musical. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh! Me too. I like to just sit and look at board games. Watching people play them, less so. Playing them myself, much less so. That Guy Debord board game, or rather the original plus lots of sketches for it and models and things, were in the Guy Debord archive show that I saw at the Bibliotheque National a couple of weeks ago. Pretty amazing to get to see that, obviously. I'm happy that you're in writing mode too, and even happy that you're dealing with mess like I am, even though that might be selfish of me. Excited for the end result of all those years of your work, Mr. B. ** Grant maierhofer, Hi, Grant. I've got some D&D playing friends too. Most of them do that thing where they dress up in costume and play out whatever D&D asks of them in empty lots and storm drains and stuff. I get excited thinking about that exact same stuff. Sweet that your book has its own page! You should let me do a post about/featuring the book when it comes out to celebrate and help spread the news. Everyone, the mighty scribe Grant Maierhofer has a novel coming out this fall called 'The Persistence of Cros', and his publisher has made an advance page for it. Go whet your appetite for the book here. Cool, man. ** S., Mental swelling? Hopefully just conceptually. I guess regressing can be instructive or something? Within limits. Newness always has a silver lining. That's too imperative, but it seems like it. Good luck at that tete-a-tete with Shadow S. 'Candyland' was cool, yeah. My memory tells me so. I even like 3D movies. ** Steevee, No, I don't own a one of them. No room, and, like I said, I just like to look at them, and I have no room to look at them, sadly. Weird about the mix-up and misinfo about that screening. Weird. ** Rewritedept, Board games are the like vinyl records of the gaming world, so, yeah, there are people who are still way into them. I did something about Mousetrap here a while back, so I axed it. I played a shitload of full games of Mousetrap when I was a kid. 'Hold on Hope' is the one, yeah. I will check out the True Widow. Maybe today, I hope. All true, I agree, what you said about 'Assisted Living'. Not sure about the Hunter Thompson resemblance, but I would need to think more about that. The heat here is down a couple of notches, but probably not for long. ** _Black_Acrylic, 'Mine' is real good. One of his very best, I'd say. I'll pass on your AGK thing. Nice trailer, btw. Everyone, here's the maestro _Black_Acrylic, so read his words and click: 'This year Yuck 'n Yum is really going for it with the AGK hype, and there's a new teaser trailer here to give a flavour of what it's all about. Karaoke videos are most definitely welcome, if anybody fancies it.' ** The Man Who Couldn't Blog, Hi, Matthew! I just read a really good interview with somewhere. I can't remember where. I remember Dark Tower. Or its existence. I never played it. Holy shit, that Orson Welles ad is indescribably something or other that's really great. Everyone, The Man Who Couldn't Blog, who is also the incredible writer Matthew Simmons, hooked us up yesterday with an old video/promo ad for a board game called Black Tower featuring and narrated by Orson Welles, and it is something you should see, if you haven't. If you haven't, voilà. Thanks a bunch, man. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff, thanks. I know of 'L'Homme Qui Dorme' precisely due to Shelley Duvall's involvement because, yes, that is probably the most exciting combination of geniuses I've ever heard about, but I haven't seen it, no. I'll see if I can get the youtube version to play. Cool! Obviously, any guest-posts would be saintly of you, and thank you so much, but get your work done, man. And thank you kindly for the kind prop in your Poets and Writers thing, which is a lovely thing. Everyone, Chilly Jay Chill has written a short, terrific thing about inspiration at the Poets & Writers site. Read it. It's here. Great day to you, J. ** Misanthrope, You were in a curious mood yesterday. Yeah, well, if Shaggy pops up, pop me over there, and we shall see. Yeah, I hope her mom makes it brief down there, or, I don't know, do we want her to stay down there? Suddenly, the latter possibility aka staying there forever seems the more positive one? Am I tripping? ** Sypha, Hi, James. Yeah, that 3D Clue made me kind of drool. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Exactly, about the imagination's nudge. That's how minimalism works, in visual art at least. I will, about 'Mine'. I'm reading it slowly 'cos I'm in writing mode, which hampers my ability to intake others' output. But, yeah, I see what you mean. Happy dawn of your holidays and serious writing stint! ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Those low-light photos of Waldschattenspiel were really seductive, right? Smart photographer move there. Family travel: meaning you have to travel to you family again? You are a good relative, my friend. ** Done. I must go. Francis Ponge is a super great, if you don't know that about him already. Maybe the post will add some convincingness to that opinion. See you tomorrow.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER COS THAT'S THE POINT



Poison Idea 'The Badge'



Cypress Hill 'Looking through the eyes of a pig'



John Maus 'Cop Killer'



Johnny Cash 'Highway Patrolman'



Fugazi 'Great Cop'



Regulations 'Police Siren'



Black Flag 'Police Story'



N.W.A. 'Fuck Tha Police'



Body Count 'Cop Killer'



KRS One 'Sound of Da Police'



Youth Brigade 'Men in Blue'



Iron Maiden 'The Trooper'



Dead Kennedys 'Police Truck'



The Dicks 'The Dicks Hate the Police'



Ill Bill 'How to Kill a Cop'



Sinéad O'Connor 'Black Boys on Mopeds'



MDC 'Millions of Dead Cops/More Dead Cops (Full Album)'



Subhumans (UK) 'No'




*

p.s. Hey. Big, big thanks to scribe supreme and d.l. Grant Maierhofer for bringing the topic of law enforcement into the blog's sphere or context in such a homey yet disruptive and variously musical and so conducive way. Please listen and/or watch as the cases may be, and speak up to him if the inclination strikes. Behind the scenes, I'm still having sleep problems, and my brain is in low gear this morning, so, yeah, sorry for whatever results from that effect as I proceed. ** Mononoke Paradice/혜민, Hi! So glad you liked it! Yes, me too, about the greats' reverence for his work/him, and of course the Bresson connection is the highest of the high kind of validation for me. I'm so sorry you're feeling unwell. Me too, at least in my body's attic. Oh, Mike Kelley's 'Areanas' is your jewelry shop's inspiration? What a fantastic idea. Even my low-wattage brain is producing a light show of association-based speculative dreams. I like your new name. I should find a google translation of it. I will. Blanchot's pattern, yes, crazy, strict and reliable and always just unpredictable. Oh, nice, the link to the making of Pré. Thank you! Everyone, via the awesome Mononoke Paradice/혜민, an image of one page of Ponge's 'The Making of the Pré' is so easy to see. I don't think I've read 'TMotP', but I'm sleepy, so I'm not very trusting of my memory this morning. Amazing characterization! Messing my blog? What? Hardly, my friend. ** Eli Jürgen, Hi, E! I did find that youtube ad. It was many curious shades of awesome. Yeah, the Bieber paintings are beautiful! I would love to see your recent work, but that link was dysfunctional and bounced me to a 404 non-existence notice. Do you mind trying again? What's the newspaper job that has you reading the sports pages? ** David Ehrenstein, It is rather essential indeed. ** Sypha, I had a bunch of 'Clue' obsessed friends. I liked watching them play. It was kind of like the visual and auditory equivalent of reading an experimental genre novel. Cool that you're concentrated on the short fiction collection again. I certainly understand the appeal of a slim volume. Nice potential titles. Maybe my fave is 'Strange and Unproductive Thinking', but know that a good potion of my brain is fuzz at the moment. ** Grant maierhofer, Sir, you rule, due to your gift to the blog today among many other reasons. Good, send me stuff when it gets closer to the pub date and we/I will set something up. Great! I'm good except for being in a strange state caused by almost two weeks of inexplicable yet persistent sleeping problems and some very odd resulting occurrences in my life that would be too lengthy to explain. Heat's still broken. It's actually pouring rain as I type this. Sweet if the HDS post had anything to do with Stanton's current hold on you. Best of the best, and, yeah, thank you again so much for putting the blog in order today. ** Martin Bladh, Hi, Martin! Cool. I'll write to the head of the Fales collection in which my stuff is kept and quickly explain what I know about what you want to do and give my approval, and then I guess I can send you the guy's email address? I'll try to do all of that today if I can get enough coffee in me to remember/concentrate. Here's hoping. I like the idea, and I'm very grateful that you have the wish. ** Heliotrope, Hi, Mark! I certainly like the idea of you laughing uncontrollably for a good portion of a day, and if I had anything to do with triggering that occurrence, I will reward myself with something, maybe a handful of Haribo. Get that dizziness attended to, and hopefully you did yesterday as planned, and let me know what the doc says, okay? I've been having this weird sort of dizziness, inspired, I guess, by my oft-mentioned longish term lack of sufficient sleep. Like I find myself walking down the street like a horse walking backwards. Like I fell off the platform at a metro station and onto the tracks the other day, luckily at an opportune moment. I think mine just needs a couple of nights of shuteye to beg off. Love you like the universe in which the sun is but a quirky speck. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. 'Soap', yes! Mostly small press publishers in English, yeah. A couple of university presses. A lot of books o.o.p., but gettable for not insane prices. Interesting about your wish for a live-in editor. I wish I could clone myself whilst removing whatever it is in me that can't be totally objective but maintaining within the clone a strong emotional connection to what I'm writing about and then conjure said improved me when the going gets tough. I am a baseball fan, albeit pretty lapsed since I've been over here. But, oh, the Japanese's love of baseball played no small part in why I loved being immersed in them. 'Rhubarb', okay, great, thank you! I will check into that today. Sounds very tasty. Thank you again! ** Steevee, Life in Russia for gays is becoming absolutely barbaric. I'm glad to see that social media seems to be making noise about it. I guess the Olympics, and the thrust to boycott it, whether that happens or not, is a conveniently timed thing that will force governments to have to take some kind of stand. But, yeah, Putin, for one, is pure evil. ** The Man Who Couldn't Blog, Hi, Matthew! Yes, the Ofelia Hunt interview, exactly! Everyone, May I urge you strongly yet kindly to click this and read an interview with the great Matthew Simmons aka TMWCB, whose new book 'Happy Rock' is one of my favorites of this year? And he's interviewed by another terrific writer, Ofelia Hunt. Anyway, click that. Me too, utterly, on Welles' chosen pastime. The exact way he said 'We will sell no wine before its time' is one of his most sublime achievements. Up there with the way Johnny Rotten said, 'We mean it, maaaan.' ** Rewritedept, Oh, re: grandpa, okay, yeah, I get that. I can imagine that doing door would be fun. Wait, I've done door in my life. That's obviously why I can imagine it being fun, I guess. My day? Uh, waited for a bunch of the day for Fed Ex to deliver a package. Worked on novel. Emails. Went to pick up another package from an inconveniently placed and weird Chronopost outlet. A couple of phone calls. This and that. Birthday? Tomorrow. What's that word ... shit, oh, staunch. Staunch that blood. ** S., At long last. Cyber-trippy. Everyone, S. finally has a new Emo stack for you, me, and the world at large. Laser Emo. Yes, you read that right. Laser Emo. ** Misanthrope, I'm down with the tired effect. I mean down with your tired effect and with mine as well. Or I mean down on mine. Yours is fun, at least from this distance. John would only cast Bieber if he does a what's-her-name ... Amanda Bynes type of meltdown thing and then fades into an obscurity from which John alone can rescue him. 'Cecil B. Demented' is great! Well, then, yeah, may the gods make her stay down there forever. ** James, Hi, James! Good to see you. My pleasure re: the Ponge. I don't know of 'The Way Way Back'. Is it new? It probably hasn't yet reached here or creased the attention of those who hype what's coming here. I'll check for it. Thank you, buddy. Hopefully in October, yeah. Much love to you too! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. The collection I spotlit is really good. Maybe I'd recommend starting with 'Soap', which is kind of his tour de force. Yes, I love 'Commercial Suicide'. I think it might be my favorite Colin Newman solo album. I love all of them a lot. 'Not To' is really great. 'It Seems' too. I would get those. 'Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish' and 'Bastard' would be second tier. But, yes, I love 'Commercial Suicide' a lot. I was just listening to it not two days ago. ** Thomas Moronic, Novel locked brain, dude, so totally understood. ** Bye for now. Sorry for my haze. Click those vids in GM's post today and wake yourselves up whether you're sleepy or not. You'll probably be glad. See you tomorrow.

*

p.s. Hey. Today's the birthday of my favorite person. This post is for him and for you too, needless to say. ** Eli Jürgen, Hi. Thanks for trying again. I'll pore over the end results in just a while. Everyone, go here to see new work by the majestical artist and d.l. Eli Jürgen and to read a telling, very interesting interview with him, won't you? Oh, gotcha on the job, thanks, man. ** Grant maierhofer, Thank you, pal. Other cop songs, hm, okay, uh ... Spiritualized 'Cop Shoot Cop', Robert Pollard 'Soul Train College Policeman', Randy Newman 'Jolly Coppers On Parade', Serge Gainsbourg 'You're Under Arrest', ... That's where the current state of my memory starts to fail. Great weekend to you and yours. ** Thomas Moronic, Nice adds. I was going to list the Le Tigre, but you beat me (not like a cop). It was weird, the metro topple. I got a bit more sleep last night, so hopefully my feet are nimbler. ** Rewritedept, Obviously very happy to hear that you're sonically engaged with GbV and stocking up. I love Tobin's songs. His solo albums are uneven, but each one has, like, five great songs on it. Likeminded artist friends can be half the battle. Swim trunks: I like that word(s) for some reason. I think it's the vowels combination. Hope your day isn't shitty. I mean, clearly. My weekend? Hm, my agent is in town, so I'll see her. My friend with the birthday is halfway across the world, so I'll call him. Buy train tickets for a trip. Work on novel, see friends, etc., etc. ** 혜민, Hi! Ah, it's your real name, cool. Yeah, I mistyped the Mike Kelley title too, oops. Old doilies, that's a cool collector item. I think I've said before that I wish I could collect fake restaurant display food. It's very expensive, however. I feel a little better, thanks. Wow, love like a nori pocket. I'll take that and boomerang it back to you. Nice to look over the shoulders of you and Scunnard talking, if that's not rude of me. Gosh, I know you're a real person. I've never had any doubt about that. I met you in NYC, remember? Anyway, no need to be frustrated about anything in that realm. And if I'm missing stuff, it's my lack of sleep and resulting fuzziness problem entirely, I think. That does sound like my writing pattern. Where did that come from? Did I say that? It sounds familiar. Thank you! ** Scunnard, Ditto re: you and 혜민 talking and the resultant niceness for me, peeping tom. True, right, about the translation thing? It's kind of weirdly exciting to be on the passive end of that. Picking the right door, winding up in a place that, at best, is only a shade of authentic, and all of that. ** Empty Frame, Hi, bud. No, I was just too sleepy to be properly self-defended or something. Your hopefulness causes a tingling sensation in my head/heart. Cyprus, nice. Never been there, but I can imagine. Fingers crossed. Oh, I don't what you mean exactly about sites for artists. You mean a host for a website you would make? I don't know anything about such things, I don't think. I've never made a website, and I wouldn't know where to start even. I'm very naive/improvisatory about the web. But others here are probably more savvy so I'll highlight your question, and who knows? Everyone, Empty Frame has a question. Can you help him out with an answer? If so, cool. Here he is: 'Can you recommend any free websites for artists that don't look too lame or hideously template-y? There seem to be a bewildering bunch out there. I can't afford a cool website at the moment, and don't code, but there's a pressing need for me to get my stuff uploaded and out there, not least to harass curators, chase residencies, enter competitions etc. Doesn't have to be super-fancy yet - any ideas?' Same back to you re: the great weekend! ** Martin Bladh, Hi, Martin. I hope so too! Okay, sure, about the FB thing. Thank you in advance for the book! My mailing address is: c/o Centre International des Recollets, 150 rue du Faubourg St. Martin, 75010 Paris. Bon weekend! ** Steevee, Hi. Yes, good that I wasn't drunk. I haven't been drunk in years. Maybe I should get drunk now while I'm mentally and physically weird from the sleep issues. Maybe the combo would be like an amazing drug or something. I'll take along a designated walker if I do. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Happy weekend! ** _Black_Acrylic, Nice cop story, man. ** Sypha, Hi, James. I thought of that Swans song too, but, like with Thomas' Le Tigre suggestion, your comment pulled a thread out of the wool of mine. I still like that title now when I feel a little more awake. Sweet about all the writing, of course. Very sweet. Have an excellent next couple of days! ** Right. I hope the post has something in it for you guys. Would be cool. See you on Monday.

Roger's Profanisaurus is a humorous book published in the United Kingdom by Dennis Publishing which is written in the style of a lexicon of profane words and expressions. It is a spin-off publication from the popular British adult comic Viz and features one of the comic's characters, the foul-mouthed Roger Mellie "the Man on the Telly". The title of the book is a word play on Roget's Thesaurus, Profanisaurus being a portmanteau of profane and Thesaurus. The book is marketed as "the foulest-mouthed book ever to stalk the face of the earth".

The Profanisaurus was originally published as a supplement stapled into the middle of the comic. Contributions from readers have been published in the comic and then edited into later editions. The first book was released in 1998 with 2,250 definitions and this was followed in the second edition in 2002 with the number of terms covered growing to 4,000. An updated version, the Profanisaurus Rex, containing over 8,000 words and phrases, was released in 2005, and a further-expanded version, the "Magna Farta" (a play on Magna Carta) at the end of 2007. The current version is "Das Krapital", a play on Karl Marx's "Das Kapital".

Unlike a traditional dictionary or thesaurus the content is enlivened by often pungent or politically incorrect observations and asides intended to provide further comic effect. The authors often take delight in lampooning political or media figures of the day, or illustrating terms with fictional dialogue between notionally respectable historical figures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger%27s_Profanisaurus





A few examples:

golden bogeyn. A nose-stud.

thundercrackn. The kind of fart that requires one to check one's kex for bullets.

marabou storkn. A fixed bayonet, the old Adam. An erection.

brown pocket n. A smuggler's receptacle that allows him to spirit contraband through customs. 'Did you bring anything back from Amsterdam, Phil?''Yes. I've got some clogs and cheese in my suitcase and a lump of squidgy black in my brown pocket.'

frottage cheesen. The sticky end product of a successful act of frottage.

scatman1. n. A jazz singer who improvises nonsense 'Bill and Ben' style lyrics, eg. Sammy Davis Jnr. 2. n. A teutonic poo-game enthusiast.

red tien. To finish oneself off with a sausage sandwich after having had enough of the cranberry dip.

brown admiraln.zoo. The common and far from beautiful butterfly that can be found in the pants of someone who has failed to draw an ace. A gusset moth.

fannytastic1. adj. Anything wonderful to do with the female genitals. 2. adj. Descriptive of a thing which is so excellent that it can only be compared with a fanny. 'Have you been watching the repeats of 'My Family' on UK Gold?' 'No, and it's been fannytastic.'

http://www.viz.co.uk/profanisaurus.html





Every great man has a source of solace that they turn to in troubled times: Thoreau had Walden, Machiavelli had Livy's History Of Rome, Fonzie had Arnold's Drive-In, and I have Roger's Profanisaurus Rex.

When the vicissitudes of life begin to wear on me, I find it refreshes my mind to peruse and contemplate definitions such as Jehovah's stiffness (a lasting erection that appears at an inopportune time), gentleman's relish (an exceedingly polite term for jizz), and German cornflake (a scab from genital herpes). After several pages my eyes are watering too much to read further.

This quote from Machiavelli sums up my feelings about this book better than I can express:

“When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold I strip off my muddy, sweaty, workday clothes, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. ... And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death: I pass indeed into their world.”

Todd Nemet

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9625642-roger-s-profanisaurus





More examples:

ex files n. A wank bank folder containing the most filthy memories of sexual depravities enjoyed with previous partners.

gentleman's toe pumpn. The frantic but pleasurable wiggling of the toes, about 15 seconds after the
jester's shoes, that helps out the last drops of jitler.

dad dressed as Bradn. The male counterpart of a Whitney dressed as Britney.

access time1. n. The time taken between requesting and receiving data in computing. 2. n. The time taken for a woman to produce enough moip to allow smooth penetration without feeling like one is scraping one's giggling stick on the Great Barrier Reef.

stroker's coughn. The retching gag reflex of a lucky lady who has bitten off more than she can chew.

spooge stickn.Gut stick, fuck rod. The penis.

http://www.viz.co.uk/profanisaurus.html





Roger's Profanisaurus is billed as "the king of swearing dictionaries" and there is some truth in this, as far as British English goes. It has come out available in several editions, each larger than the last, the latest containing 8000 or more rude words and phrases.

With over 8000 four-letter entries, Roger's Profanisaurus is surely the foulest-mouthed book ever to stalk the face of the earth.

Some of the entries were originally published in Viz. Viz's method for compiling this book seems to have been to collect entries from the Viz-reading public and collate them. To be pedantic, it's not quite a dictionary, more an utterly foul funny book. Many of the entries are improbable and disgusting, and are clearly inventions of the submitter, rather than actual common usage. That said, basically all of modern British obscene slang is explained, so the book will be useful to those needing to become familiar with it. The choicer of the invented phrases are passing into usage, especially among those dedicated enough to possess a copy.

Though some entries are excruciatingly funny, many are merely dull and dirty repetitions on a few basic themes. Do we really need hundreds of different disgusting phrases for each possible variation and combination of the following?

Copulation
Homosexuality
Defecation
Sexual organs
Assorted normal and abnormal, seasonal and occasional bodily fluids
Drunkenness
Attractiveness and Repulsiveness

Mild ethnic slurs on the Welsh, Scottish, French, and other traditional foes of Englishness. Apparently so, given the British psyche.

Many of the definitions are either not informative as a dictionary would be due to lack of content:

Fudge packer:n. One who packs fudge.

Or are too obscure for a serious dictionary due to referring to other definitions:

Red tien. To finish oneself off with a sausage sandwich after having had enough of the cranberry sauce.

But in some entries the euphemism rises to admirable levels of repulsiveness:

Nether eyen. That single unseeing eye, situated in the nether region, which cries brown, lumpy tears.

Some are just momentary wit:

Kurskn. A giant dreadnought mouldering at the bottom of the pan.

And some are racist:

Glaswegian Siestan. a night in a police cell.

Or sexist:

Hairy brainn. medic. The small, wrinkled organ, about the size of two plums, that governs a gentleman's thought processes.

The name of the book is a play on Roget's Thesaurus, and the foul-mouthed Viz character Roger Mellie.

The following editions have been produced:

Roger's Profanisaurus: 1998
Second edition: 2002
Profanisaurus Rex: 2005
Roger's Profanisaurus IV: The Magna Farta: 2007

There is a poorly maintained website at http://www.viz.co.uk/profanisaurus/profan_index.php

http://everything2.com/title/Roger%2527s+Profanisaurus





The publishing of an updated edition of Roger's Profanisaurus, Viz's invaluable lexicon of rudeness, confirms the tribute paid by Ade Edmondson's Von Richthofen to Blackadder. "How lucky you English are to find zer toilet so amusing. For us, it is a mundane function. For you - zer basis for an entire culture." Indeed, it's a culture that's evolved to a dizzyingly baroque level in the Profanisaurus. Who would have guessed, for instance, that "vote for Tony Blair" is now defined as "To rush enthusiastically into the cubicle expecting big things, only to get a pathetic little fart?" If you want to know what Ghandi's flip-flops, Bungle's finger and licking a nine volter allude to, then buy the Profanisaurus and laugh till snot dribbles down your lips.

However, the Profanisaurus, rich as it is in additions to the mother tongue, represents what you might call the maximalist tendency in obscenity. Even now, there is a great deal to be said for the minimalist tendency - the cluster of b, f and c-words which which have served us faithfully for centuries.

It's as futile to repress or forbid foul language as it is to repress or forbid breaking wind. We are steeped in the stuff - from the bell hooks and Shere Hite of high literature to the prole-ish world of football (Danny Shittu, Kuntz, Arce, Windass, Dou Dou), it is ingrained. Debates about the morality of swearing are generally futile - the supposed misogyny of the c-word, for instance.

Granted, in America it is deployed as an ultra-strength alternative to "bitch". In Britain, however, it has no such connotations. Rather, along with the b and f words, which swearologist Geoffrey Hughes categorises as "voiced bilabial plosives and frictives", it's a word ideally phonetically shaped for emotional release, as is the word "a-choo!" to sneezing.

Swearing was not invented by Shaun Ryder. Chaucer deemed it big and clever to swear copiously in The Miller's Tale, while Ben Jonson's plays are rife with phrases like "fackins" and "shit on your heads".

A 1601 parliamentary ban on coarse language, however, led to the apparent extinction of swearing, with the sole exception of Robert Browning's use of the word "twat" in 1848's Pippa Passes - he thought it was a nun's garment. Come the groundbreaking Lady Chatterley case, however, in which the prosecutor, brandishing the expletive-ridden novel, asked, "Is this the sort of book you would allow your wives and servants to read?" a permissive era was supposedly born.

So swear - however, with discretion. A bodily function it may be but public swearing is as deplorable as public urinating. I would suggest that when driven to distraction and deadly expletive build-up kicks in, simply excuse yourself from the room. Create a euphemism. Tell your Mum, kids, or employer that your are "just going out to season the air", perhaps. Then step out to your gazebo, potting shed or even broom cupboard and bellow, profanely and profusely. Better out than in.

And swear properly. "Shoot" or "Fishsticks!" won't do the job. Nor will whimsical infantilisms like "bottom", "poo" or the dreadful "wee". It's arse, shit and piss, you hear? And they must be delivered with unbridled gusto.

It has been argued, by Lenny Bruce, by Stephen Fry, by the makers of South Park (who deliberately used the word "shit" 162 times in a recent episode) that swear words can and will, through repeated use, lose their potency, much as "damn" did. Fortunately, this shows no sign of happening. We need good, crisp, potent swear words and if that means sustaining a culture of mild hypocrisy, censorship and repression then so be it. The toxins of everyday life we absorb cannot properly be expelled with obsolete, once-considered-naughty phrases like "Odds bodkins" or "dash your eyes". Fact: in the Japanese language there are no swear words. The result? Kamikaze, Hari Kiri and game shows involving snapping turtles and exposed genitals.

This cannot happen here. Long, therefore, may swearing be considered debased, disgusting, evidence of a poor vocabulary and all the rest of the bullshit the Christian right drivels at us. Bring on the asterisks!

David Stubbs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/sep/28/referenceandlanguages


cumdownn. That feeling of soul-crushing worthlessness that follows a sherman, as inevitably as night follows day.

romancing the bonen. An evening in alone with a meal, a bottle of wine and some soft music, followed by a top shelf stick vid.

oil the bat v. To polish the pork sword, wax the dolphin.

tail gunnern. A rear admiral. Arse bandit at 6 o'clock.

turbot for teaexclam. Announce-ment that the fish supper is served. 'Never mind that tug, Sidney. It's turbot for tea.'

fuglyadj. Fucking ugly.

http://www.viz.co.uk/profanisaurus.html





To sign off, here’s a few clips of children reading from the Profanisaurus:













*

p.s. Hey. _Black_Acrylic, d.l. and master of one of the most interesting realms in the universe of aesthetics, has our floor today, and he uses it to bathe 'Roger's Profanisaurus' in whatever light this place gives off. Personally, I'd never heard of 'RP' before, maybe strangely, so I'm forever grateful to him. See what you think and say stuff in return, please. Otherwise, I'll note here that, after a couple of okay-ish nights, my sleep problems have made an inexplicable return, so here's a warning that I'm kind of re-zonked today. Re-zonked? Kind of out of it again. Apologies in advance. ** 혜민, Hi! Ooh, nice. Everyone, via 혜민, here's a lovely miniature birthday dessert table. I thought the miniature birthday dessert table was a fine response and addition to Z.'s presents. I hope you can express your favoriteness to your favorite. I'm sure it would please him enormously deep inside. Oh, and I got your email/Day. Thank you so much! It's really gorgeous! I'll assemble it in the blog's back room and let you know when it'll appear right away. So kind of you! ** Squeaky, Hi, Darrell. Thanks for your HB to Z. I'm the lucky one. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. I was so afraid you were linking me to Lionel Richie. Thank you for not doing that, ha ha. Always nice to see VK get some spotlight. ** Scunnard, 'Hard to tell where the poem begins and when a new poem is happening through the translation': Nice, very nice. I'm spaced/sleepy, but I'm otherwise just fine, thank you. ** Grant maierhofer, Hi, G. I'm okay, just, as I've said too often already, out-of-it-ish upstairs. Punk festival in the woods: there's something sonnet-like about that combo. I don't think I know Mankind. I've gotten so out of it re: pro-wrestling since I've been over here. Curious about that bigger project. Roggenbuck's stream of thoughts and grace on the phrase- and sentence-level is enviable. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Z. reads the blog, so I imagine that he got your HBD wish straight from the source. But I'll tell him just in case. Oh, sure, maybe John would find Bieber du jour fun to work with. And since John is having hell's time getting funding for a new film, Biebs' involvement might seem particularly helpful. John's taste in such things is much harder to predict than you would think. I can't figure out if sleeping like a devil means you slept especially well or poorly, probably because I slept like a devil last night. Bowling, fun. You not bowling, not fun. Hurt your arm in a toilet stall? Um, how? Dare I ask? ** Rewritedept, Fancy? Oh, I guess some were. But I'm not sure exactly what the dictionary definition of fancy is, so maybe they all were. Yes, gifts when he gets back. I'm amazed that you and your friend know who Foghat is. Never would have guessed their stuff could survive its immediate time and place. Sorry to hear about your brother. It stressed me out just reading that. My weekend was good. The meeting with my agent was most pleasant. I did get some writing done. Etc. Thank you for asking. One of these days, I'm so going to buy a Tobin painting and a Bob collage. I actually organized and set up what would have been the first ever gallery show of Pollard's collages at an LA gallery, Peres Projects. It was all set to go, but then Pollard decided he wanted to have his first show in NYC, so the plan fell by the wayside sadly. 'Circumambulation': no, not yet. ** Tosh Berman, Thanks a lot, Tosh! Uh, oh, it took me a couple of weeks off and on to find/assemble the images and then organize them. Anyway, yeah, thank you so much. ** S. Hi. How nice of you! Z., if you're reading this, d.l. S. made you a birthday gift/stack as part of his ongoing Emo stack project, here, and everyone, you're free and encouraged to have a look too. ** Querik, Whoa! Hi, my almost but thankfully not long lost friend! It's so sweet to see you! I'm so sorry to hear of your stress-related problems, but I'm so happy that you're mending. And I'm most curious and excited to see your new work! I can't remember what the Tony Duvert post looks like. Hold on. I'll go find it. One sec. ... I'm not sure if I found the right photo or not, but, if I did, it's a close-up photo of Mr. Duvert himself, so maybe you look eerily like him? I just saw your second comment. Thank you a lot for the link to your site. The new works do look very different and really quite amazing! I'll be poring over the work and catching up greedily in a bit. Everyone, d.l. Querik aka Adjoun aka the Dutch artist Erik Visser is a completely superb artist and a big favorite of mine, and, after having been away from the blog for a while, he has just returned and brought with him a link to his site when he shows his drawings, and you really should take this very golden opportunity to either acquaint yourself with his work, or, if you're already a fan like me, to catch up on his recent makings. Go here. Such a pleasure, man! Please do stick around if you feel like it. That would be so great! ** Thomas Moronic, Thanks a lot, man. My weekend was very good except for the sleep thing. 'Really flat thing going that is also kind of overwhelmingly emotional': cool. That's a tough one, but, as someone who's tried for that and both failed and succeeded at different times, it's a very good effect if you can get the flat to muster it up. Nice. ** Bill, Hi, B. Thanks for wishing a happy one to Z. I thought the dangling arms might do your trick. Well, to be honest, I hadn't imagined that in advance, so I'm actually saying, yes, understood, and my mental laziness did a detour. Or something. Paris has cooled off, yes, fantastic! Don't know Max Barry's stuff. Hm, your description of the book was very charismatic, and, hm, it might just be my thing. I'll look for an online excerpt. Thank you muchly, as always. ** Martin Bladh, Oh, my pleasure, my honor. Thank you! ** Jebus, Hi, man! Me too, on the sparer ceilings. Oh, wow, that video you made. Holy shit! It's awesome, thank you so much! Everyone, the knock down/drag out fantastic artist and music maker and d.l. Jebus took the birthday ceilings post and made a visual collage video from it that you really should watch, and you can if you go here. Wowzer! Yeah, I'm watching my step more closely now, and trying to get this sleep problem solved somehow. It's like jetlag without the jet. It's weird. Oh, awesome, thank you a ton for letting me in on your new songs and vids, and for the tips on the latters' sources. I'll go attempt to gain fake full wakefulness with some more coffee once I finish this thing off, and then I'll luxuriate. The very best to you! Everyone, also, Jebus-wise, he has this fantastic music project called New White Light, as some of you may know, and NWL has a slew of new tracks and related videos newly up and watchable, and I highly recommend you check out as many of them as you can. They are 'Ring Death', 'Silver Skin', 'Black Dwarf', 'Vincent', 'Observing the Cries', 'Blood Queen', 'Grasshopper', and 'Stomper'. Choose one, choose them all. Greatly looking forward to it! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Thank you for the HBD wish for Z.! Thanks, re: the post. Yeah, I have read Celan, not all that recently, though. I thought he was pretty incredible, and I think I liked the later work the best? I'm pretty sure I did. But 'impenetrable' has never been a negative for me. I'm going to go reread him. Maybe do a Celan post or something. Thanks, man. How is the new novel working? ** Steevee, Hi, Steve. I have no idea about Nile Rogers' sexuality. I guess maybe keep in mind that he was surely quite aware that the gay audience was key to the success of a lot of the music he was writing and putting out back then, so it might just be savviness on his part. But I don't know anything about his personal stuff. ** Sypha, Hi. I haven't listened to Talking Heads in a million years, for no real reason. I remember thinking they were pretty great all the time up through the 'Remain in Light' album, and then they started dropping off quality-wise and getting less interesting and more and more self-conscious and cutesy. I'm in the minority that thinks 'Stop Making Sense', the film, is really irritating. I think seeing that film back in the day is what put me off them. ** L@rstonovich, Hey, buddy! You good? Yeah, right, about that TP. I think I might have liked 'Against the Day' more ultimately, but I'm not sure. What's going on with you, man? How's your summer been? Love, me. ** Okay. _B_A has a thing for you to look at, etc., and I hope you will get to that. I will try yet again to catch up on my sleep tonight, and, whatever happens in that regard, I'll see you tomorrow.

_____________

Boogie, 18
My name's Chris but please call me boogie, im 18, I did have a previous account but deleted it when I went into a massive depression (which i'm still in atm).

NO is never a word I use.

I am awesome but when I look in the mirror I look like a shadow.

I like to play with men who are proud of me.

Please nobody over 80.







__________________

coreyhayden, 21
Used to be into making films but now I'm just looking for a guy to take me down. I'm crazy.






___________________

likedrug, 21
When she stares at your mouth, kiss her.
When she pushes you or hits you like a dummy cause she thinks shes stronger than you, grab her and don`t let go.
When she ignores you,give her your attention.
When she pulls away, pull her back.
When she steals your favorite hoodie, let her keep it and sleep with it for a night.
When she looks at you with doubt, back yourself up.
When she looks at you in your eyes, don`t look away until she does.
When she says it`s over, she still wants you to be hers.

I was named CHRISTIAN NICHOLAS FORD SALCEDO.





___________________

Targetpractice, 19
Limitless slave here for its
Extreme, Brutal MASTER to be
abused, tortured Mentally, Physically, Emotionally everyday until
it scream, cry, shiver, beg, cramp, faint, pass out only for its master, with gratitude
as it is completely useless, 24/7, Limitless, slave, fag, pig, object. A piece of shit.

By meaning Limitless :
Anal torture (Toy, Stretching, Destroying)
Asphyxiation (Pass out, Heart stop, Revive after too long wait = Brain Damage)
Animal play (Dog/Pig/Horse Etc. bottom)
Auctioned off
Bareback (Poz to very ill Top)
Medical Play (surgery include brain operation, amputation, organ donor, ETC)
Pain (SEVERE)
Whipping / Brutal Whipping
Shit (eating, playing , repacking)
Breaking Bone
Snuff (play or REAL)

My only limit that can not be discussed is forced feminization. I will not participate in that.

As Slave is Young. Prefer Old MASTER'S
But again Slave is Slave. NO OPTION .
ONLY EXIST TO SERVE THEN DIE.






___________________

FeedthePiglet, 23
EVER fantasize about feeding a boy your scat?
Please don't judge me.
Extremely professional clean cut boy here.
It's one of the hottest things in the world and the great thing is no one will EVER KNOW.





_________________

alechateslife, 19
im alec I hate life and I need someone to talk to

i was on this site before called subboi but I deleted my account instead of deactivating it by mistake i know it was stupid of me

hope your all well





____________________

anythng_:p, 25
i looking for father - now im in psychiatric klinik in Opava, i hawe invalid rent for panaroid schizofrenie.
Im special Guy for special people. am also good in sex and also too emotional. luxury company for you.







___________________

redroad, 22
i am straight and have always hated gay and bisexual men, but this seems to be the best way to receive the extreme abuse i fully deserve. i want to wish i never went this far, but i want to never be able to return to my current life. i deserve nothing but the worst. i want zero pleasure from this ... and that will be the last time i use "i want".





____________________

ethan_nasty_slave_rawr, 19
what would you do if I shrank down to only three inches tall right in front of you? You'd be like a giant, and I'd be completely helpless, and umm....

not sure what the hell I'm doing.





_________________

passivefistfuckboy, 24
Want to warm your hands?





____________________

WURKIT, 22
maggot into:

GUNMEN, NAZIS, KNIFEMEN, NATIONALISTS, SS, POLIZISTEN, SATANISTS, BUTCHERS, SURGEONS, GRENZTRUPPEN, GESTAPO, PARAMILITARIES, et al, ad infinitum

kidnap, arrest, interrogation, isolation, hypnosis, asphyxiation, brainwashing, burial, violence, mind control, impersonation, regression, retardation, water-boarding, slander, target practice, autopsies, snuff, chloroform, grunge, gunge, bondage, cages, cells, crates, trunks, KO, GOM, BD, HH, 88, WAM, BAM, SLAM, Thank You.

Age: 22
Date of Birth: 30 August 1991
Zodiac: Virgo
Height: 4' 11.1"
Weight: 102 lbs
Country: USA
City: florida
Eyes: brown
Hair: brown
Occupation: bag boy
Education: some high school
Religion: catholic
Marital Status: divorced
Kids: 2





_______________________

SunshineSmile, 23
hi Dad,

Arab here... but looking very European Looking like a twink lol

currently i'm doing my AS levels so plenty of time on my hands.

I love the look of guys with stretched out balls .. like halfway to their knees and would love to find a guy to help me with that. I think the way they feel walking would be awesome to have them swinging around the whole time.

Deleting my account as giving my ipad away.






___________________

alone, 19
hi iam deaf live in foster home

need an out

where is love

i want realy men no lie

sometime life no nice becouse people lie






_____________________

Elliott, 24
slave shipped to BKK ready for dirty use

from exciting country Czech republic

in company with the Master who own it and he order it to find some to slap the fuck outta it

its interesting

note: its humble request to all pls do not kill it other wise it will fuck ur happiness







____________________

ScaryMovie5, 24
I'm a guy with a fetish for shitting myself. I love to dump a big load into my jeans, and wear it. I really get off on the feeling.

I'm looking for guys who are willing to keep me tied to a chair in some tight jeans, and make me shit in them constantly over a long period of time. Not just for a couple of hours, but days. I would stay in the chair fully clothed, gagged except for when you need to feed me and maybe make me suck your cock. Obviously my cock would be yours to use over and over as you wished. Any bowel movements would go right into my jeans and I would have to stay there sitting in it, and adding to it regularly.

This can go on for as long as you wanted. Then if you want me to get my ass wiped by your big cock feel free.





___________________

rapemesohot, 20
Just break up with my boy-friend
I am so said,I need be embraced,kissed and raped.





_______________________

Suffocation, 24
You: party dude, uninhibited, aggressive, angry.
Me: party dude, uninhibited, wanting to be choked out, snuffed. etc.

No "ifs ands or buts". A group shows up, ties me up, fucks me up, an snuffs me, and leaves me here.

Take me out, and stop stalling.








____________________

obeysthecock, 18
18 yo ;0 LOL into drugged intergenerational fucking. Get me WIRED to my eyeballs and im YOURS in every way. Love an old man drugging me up so he can have his way. LOVE IT. You cld ask my stepdad if you dont BELIEVE me but hes OBSESSED W/ME and WULD KILL US BOTH. unless.... you and he fuck me TOGETHER. thats such a GREAT IDEA. ill ask him!! if the "last online" thing on my profile keeps sayin july 6 2013 he probbly killed me for asking him.

he broke my arm!!!





______________________

Fuck_my_boyfriend, 21
My younger boyfriend needs raping hard bb. He just sits around writing shit like this-

"Rotting on earth and burning from the inside.Resting with a old hammer and a knife.Breathing poison and lies.I see no light only the blood in my hands.I see no more life and the worse has to come.I dream with a world full of emptiness and coldness.where everything bleeds,dies, rots and falls until the last end.The last drop has fall and now i see a lake full of blood."





_____________________

Seeking_Beneficiary, 23
I'm a wealthy young man who needs some pain and 1st world problems in my life. I've become too complacent in my success and arrogant. I seek a thug who is by virtue of his clothing and demeanor and hygiene visibly lower class. I will take you out in my Ferrari California and make it romantic with a $20,000 bottle of Pernod-Ricard Perrier-Jouet. You can humor me or misuse my inebriation to have sex should you find me as attractive as I find myself. I'm passive for anal if that's convenient with you. Then when I'm tipsy you can cut the tires, rob me and get down with the violent stuff.

I don't like time wasters since I'm very busy with my business.

So if you want a slice of a rich life...





_____________________

Yourinferiorfriend, 24
it is a young russian with some kinky thinks.
it seeks a Satanic ChemPig.
it is tired of being enslaved by fear.
it cant handle itself anymore.
it is ready to turn its back on its sobriety and revel in addiction to 666 and chems.
it is interested in "whatever".
so, what do you maniacs like to do?






*

p.s. Hey. My sleep issues continue, so my apology for my fuzziness does too. Oh, I feel a little weird mentioning this, but the great writer/d.l. Chris Dankland has done a Dennis Cooper Day on his amazing Neato Mosquito Show site, and he and his talent have typically made a really cool, visually terrific, smart thing out of me and my stuff, so you might check it out for those reasons, if you want. It's here. ** Michael_karo, Hi, Michael! It's a true boon to have one of your too rare visits! Dude, so go to Japan. It's as amazing as you have imagined. I did see some of your pix on FB. Beautiful! Lucky you to get to see Detective live. I'm still and hoping for a Paris date or two. Yeah, Jim is super awesome, in and out, top to bottom. Love back to you from my moderately warn, hazy skies-overlaid part of the world. ** Grant Scicluna, I'm counting on that not lasting thing. It's been a strangely clinging condition, but oh well. I'll watch for those films you liked. I noted their titles, and I'll go check Paris's agenda with fingers crossed. Bad news on the new Almodovar. I've heard bleah things about it. Not sure if I'll bother, especially since it would be French subtitled, which is tough even in great circumstances. Best to you, G. ** Empty Frame, Hey. Yeah, I'm clueless about that kind of stuff, but it doesn't seem to me like a tumblr site would be bad idea or would be frowned upon by curators or anything. I can't imagine. Ha ha, I like my cameo in your dream. Nice. Thank your subconscious for me. Alex Ross is cool. Good writer/thinker and a swell guy to boot. Hooray for your chirpiness. I've got an insomniac's loopiness instead, and yours sounds much, much better in theory. Those sites look really trippy, yeah, The ones you linked me to. Ha ha, Blogger Spellcheck just changed linked to oinked. I'll go look at them in about, mm, a minute since your last comment is the last comment. Yay! Love to you and to yours and to everything else there is to do with you. ** Querik, Hi! I know, the population here is in constant flux as always with the handful of hearty long-termers. I love your new drawings! Wow, really different, but so you too, but opening all these new vistas. I was blown away. Great, great, maestro! That sounds tough, yeah, the depression. Mm, no, I've never had long term mental problems, as far as I can tell. I went through a bad depression when I was working on a painful and ultimately failed novel last year, and I have fears and stresses that come and go, but I think I'm pretty lucky to be a mostly upbeat and optimistic guy. Strange, that. Those fish sound beautiful. Maybe I can find a video online of that phenom. I'll look. I'm oddly not as up on porn at the moment as I have been. It just hasn't been of its usual great interest to me for some reason, although I do think I'm finally going to make that porn film I've always wanted to make before too long, as a collaborative project now. Everyone, or, rather, anyone: any good tips on recent/current porn that you care to pass along to the great Querik? ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. **  Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Oh, third person, yeah, okay, yeah. Flat/dense in the third person is easier and more malleable than in the first person maybe. Sounds amazing, man. Exciting to hear about it. Keep me up on how it goes and how you're thinking inside/behind it. ** Steevee, Hi. It takes a lot to get me to a doctor. We'll see. It just feels like jet lag that won't turn me loose plus stress about something that I can't figure out, so hopefully it'll break any day now, but thank you a lot for your concern. Great about Friday. Link us up, please, of course. ** _Black_Acrylic, Thank you so very much again, Ben! ** Grant maierhofer, Hi, buddy. Very cool about the physical books, and nice to get a look at them. Everyone, the writer of note and d.l. Grant maierhofer's forthcoming novel has become a physical entity, and you can see it in his very own hands on video if you just click this. Superb, man! ** Rewritedept, I guess I'm a fool for the city, but not with a British bluesy rock soundtrack. Good luck on finding the new place. Enjoy the Lips, as I'm confident you will. I like 'This Must Be the Place' or whatever that song is called. That's the only later Talking Heads I can remember that I like. Foghat were pre-glam, not post-glam. Sotos like Pallahniuk? Hm, I'm going to see if I can wrap my mind around that. I can't right now. Flying Burrito Brothers, yes! I was listening to them yesterday too. Weird. Gram Parsons: best singer ever. ** Misanthrope, Ouch! Likely story, but ouch! Oh, that's what you meant by devil. Well, then I didn't sleep like a devil, but rather like the opposite, except the opposite would be like God, I guess, and I definitely didn't sleep like God, although I do imagine that God probably has a lot of stress. Japanlag? Nah. Maybe I have Bloglag. I saw what you did there, man. You clever SOB. ** H, Hi! Yes, I got the revised Day, and, yes, it's even more great. I've replaced the old version with the new one, and it'll launch on the same day as the previous version would have: Friday, the 9th. Thank you so, so much! ** S., Hi, man. 'La Maison' is one of AR-G's toughest, I think, yeah. Great and tough. Excellent about the novel taking up your brain and time last night. Hope it de-pissed you off, at least at yourself. Kisses back. Oh, ... Everyone, does anyone know where S. can watch 'Only Lovers Left Alive'? He wants to know. Can you help him? ** Jebus, I really like the new music a lot. I'm into the new direction. I'm not sure that, in my sleepy state, I can identify or describe the newness of said direction, but I felt it, and I was/am highly approving. ** L@rstonovich, Hi, L. Yeah, the new and maybe not so new by now job. Sweet. Money rolling in, it's only fair. Summer hibernation, that's only fair too. Amazingness can wait. It has all the time in the world or something. Love to you, man. ** Gotta go. Sorry again for my lack of sharpness. It's that day when slaves rule the blog. Master them in your inimitable fashions. See you tomorrow.

* all quotes from Maurice Blanchot






"She was present, already her own image, and her image, not the remembrance, the forgetting of herself. When seeing her, he saw her as she would be, forgotten. Sometimes he forgot her, sometimes he remembered, sometimes remembering the forgetting and forgetting everything in this remembrance."







"Neither the content of the words nor their form is involved here. Whether the work is obscure or clear, poetry or prose, insignificant, important, whether it speaks of a pebble or of God, there is something in it that does not depend on its qualities and that deep within itself is always in the process of changing the work from the ground up. It is as though in the very heart of literature and language, beyond the visible movements that transform them, a point of instability were reserved, a power to work substantial metamorphoses, a power capable of changing everything about it without changing anything."







"To write of oneself is to cease to be, in order to confide in a guest – the other, the reader – entrusting yourself to him who will henceforth have as an obligation, and indeed as a life, nothing but your inexistence."







"A writer who writes, 'I am alone' ... can be considered rather comical. It is comical for a man to recognize his solitude by addressing a reader and by using methods that prevent the individual from being alone. The word alone is just as general as the word bread. To pronounce it is to summon to oneself the presence of everything the word excludes."







"Could it be that the meaning of a word introduces something else into the word along with it, something which, although it protects the precise signification of the word and does not threaten that signification, is capable of completely modifying the meaning and modifying the material value of the word? Could there be a force at once friendly and hostile hidden in the intimacy of speech, a weapon intended to build and to destroy, which would act behind signification rather than upon signification? Do we have to suppose a meaning for the meaning of words that, while determining that meaning, also surrounds this determination with an ambiguous indeterminacy that wavers between yes and no?"







"Art requires that he who practices it should be immolated to art, should become other, not another, not transformed from the human being he was into an artist with artistic duties, satisfactions and interests, but into nobody, the empty, animated space where art’s summons is heard."







"I refuse this speech by which you speak to me, this discourse that you offer me to attract me to it in calming me, the time in which your successive words last, in which you hold me back in the presence of an affirmation, is above all this relation that you create between us just by the fact that you address speech to me even in my silence." -- "Who are you?" -- "The refusal to take part in discourse, to make a pact with a law of discourse." -- "Do you prefer tears, laughter, immobile madness?" -- "I speak, but I do not speak in your discourse: I do not let you, speaking, speak, I force you to speak not speaking [je t'oblige à parler ne parlant pas]; there is no help for you, no instant in which you rest from me, I who am there in all your words before all your words." -- "I have invented the great logos of logic that protects me from your incursions and allows me to speak and to know in speaking through the peace of well developed words" -- "But I am there in your logic also, denouncing the oppression of a coherence that makes itself the law and I am there with my violence that affirms itself under the mask of your legal violence, that which submits thought to the grip of comprehension."







"Language can only begin with the void; no fullness, no certainty can ever speak; something essential is lacking in anyone who expresses himself."







"Attention is impersonal. It is not the self that is attentive in attention; rather, with an extreme delicacy and through insensible, constant contacts, attention has always already detached me from myself, freeing me for the attention that I for an instant become."







"To wait, only wait. Waiting, strange, equal in all of its moments, as space is in all of its points, similar to space, exerting the same continuous pressure, not exerting it. Lonely waiting, which was in us and has now passed to the outside, waiting for us without us, forcing us to wait outside our own waiting, leaving nothing more to wait for. At first intimacy, at first ignorance of intimacy, at first ignorant moments side by side, touching and without relation."







"The law of the return supposing that "everything" would come again, seems to take time as completed: the circle out of circulation of all circles; but, in as much as it breaks the ring in the middle, it proposes a time not uncompleted, but, on the contrary, finite, except in the present point that alone we think we hold, and that, lacking, introduces rupture into infinity, making us live as in a state of perpetual death."







"Narrative is not the relating of an event but this event itself, the approach of this event, the place where it is called on to unfold, an event still to come, by the magnetic power of which the narrative itself can hope to come true. That is a very delicate relationship, no doubt a kind of extravagance, but it is the secret law of narrative."






"What is written comes from no recognisable source, is without author or origin, and thereby always refers back to something more original than itself. Behind the words of the written work, nobody is present; but language gives voice to this absence, just as in the oracle, when divinity speaks, the god himself is never present in his words, and it is the absence of god which then speaks."







*

p.s. Hey. ** Thomas Moronic, Stunning, man. You often make my making of those slave posts way more than worth the effort on your lonesome, and yesterday was a peak. Thank you. ** h, Hi! Yes, the new version is great. Impolite, you? No, no way. I'm mostly and almost only interested in the texts of the slave and escort posts. The photos are like context and juxtaposition and bait. I always capitalize the first letter of d.l.s' names when I do the p.s. I don't know why, a show of respect or something, but I've made your 'h' a small one today, as per your wishes, and understandably. I haven't done a 'Niagara' day re: Butor. I think I've done a Butor-centric post or two. I would love such a post when the time becomes right. When I was in Buffalo that one time for the New Narrative conference, a bunch of us drove up to Niagara Falls. It was, I guess, yeah, if I remember, kind of nice, but I can't remember well. Sure, I'd love to go up there with you if I ever do a reading or event in Buffalo again. Cool, nice idea. ** David Ehrenstein, They were festive, weren't they? Thank you. You liked the Almodovar? I think I'll wait for the DVD, mostly for the aforementioned subtitling issues that I face over here. ** Cassandra Troyan, Hi, Cassandra! Awesome that you came in here. Very cool. I know, Targetpractice, wasn't that weird? I'm glad someone/you caught that. That's how he got in the batch. Big congrats on the second edition of 'ToB'! Great news! The first week of October ... I think so, or I think at least for the first several days of October. I have a o.o.t. trip happening around then whose dates I need to figure out, but I think so. It would be so great to meet! Take care! ** Rewritedept, Ha ha, what, you don't think the narrator of 'TMS' is a bottom? I'm not saying whether he is or not, but it's interesting that you thought he isn't. Yeah, having thought on it, albeit fuzzily, I still don't get the Pallahniuk/Sotos comparison, but I stopped reading the former's books quite a while ago, so maybe he has headed in a direction that would make that combo make sense in a way that I don't know. The only thing that's kind of helped with the sleep problems is a big dose of Valerian Root. It's not the cure, but it's giving me a bit more sleep than I was getting. I don't want to take actual drugs/chemicals unless I absolutely have to, but we'll see. Falling asleep isn't the problem, it's waking up at 4:30 in the morning every day like clockwork. I do have a busy day today, yes. How psychic of you. ** Steevee, Yes, I wondered about that imprisoned thing too. Hm. And ditto on the 'Arab' twink's face obscuring thing. Nice calls. Cool re: the early Fassbinder box set. There are some terrific films in that set: 'Beware Of A Holy Whore', The Merchant of Four Seasons, 'The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant', ... I think John has looked into European financing. The thing is, strangely, John's films aren't a big deal over here, critically or in terms of box office. Certainly not in France, which really surprises me. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. That friend of yours whom I met when you were staying here -- tallish guy, pony tail (think?), whose name I'm forgetting -- was here at the Recollets yesterday, and we bumped into each other at the cafe. Like I told Rewritedept, I'm doing Valerian Root. It helps a bit. I saw the Manning verdict when I work up. Sucks, yes, for sure. No surprise whatsoever though, unfortunately. There was no way they weren't going to use him to send a message. But, yeah. ** _Black_Acrylic, Really nice about the paid writing gig, man. That meeting or rather those meetings are tonight? Hope it all goes really well. Let me know. ** Misanthrope, Bloglag it may be then. There's only one cure for that. You think God is sad? I was thinking more a horny sociopath with an evil smile on His face. I can't imagine John doing a Kickstarter thing, but everybody's doing it, so why not? ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Thank you so, so much for the Neato Mosquito thing. I'm really, really honored. Those short stories you're working on sound super intriguing and exciting. I'm so glad to hear that you're working hard. I'm working mostly on a new novel, and, after a lot of wandering and head scratching, it's finally starting to come together and accumulate wordage now, and I'm hoping that stays the case. And I'm early on in working on the next Gisele theater piece. And I'm early on in working on two collab. projects with my friend Zac: a book about our Scandinavia theme park trip and a porn film. Cave mode, nice. I'm in cave mode too at the moment. It feels good, doesn't it? No, I haven't checked Scott McC's wikipedia page, but I will in a few minutes. Thanks for the alert. Really great to see you, man, and great luck on getting the stories finished by Sept., and thank you again for your very kind and amazing NM spotlight. ** S., Wild paragraph there, S. Sharp. Write like crazy, for sure. That's the ticket. ** Okay. So, as you see, I've started one of my scrapbook things for my new novel, and I'll likely be posting pages from it here now and then. As usual with these things, I don't know how much good these scrapbooks do outside of my own head, but I'm posting them just to see what happens. Probably especially in today's case since it's a background- and reminder-oriented construct mostly. Anyway, I hope there's something in there for you, whatever it is. See you tomorrow.

'It is not known for certain who invented the first ice cube tray, a refrigerator accessory that can make and remake small uniform ice cubes.

'In 1844, American physician, John Gorrie, built a refrigerator to make ice to cool the air for his yellow fever patients. Some historians think that Doctor Gorrie may have also invented the first ice cube tray since it was documented that his patients were also receiving iced drinks.

'In 1914, Fred Wolf invented a refrigerating machine called the DOMELRE or DOMestic ELectric REfrigerator. The DOMELRE was not successful in the marketplace, however, it did have a simple ice cube tray and inspired later refrigerator manufacturers to include ice cube trays in their appliances as well.

'During the 1920s and '30s, it became common for electric refrigerators to come with a freezer section that included an ice cube compartment with trays.

'The first flexible stainless steel, all-metal ice tray was invented by Guy L. Tinkham in 1933. The tray flexed sidewise to eject the ice cubes.

“Flexing the tray cracks the ice into cubes corresponding to the division points in the tray, and then forces the cubes up and out. Pressure forcing the ice out is due to the 5-degree draft on both sides of the tray.”

'The inventor was the then vice president of the General Utilities Mfg. Co., a company that produced household appliances. The McCord ice tray as it was called cost $0.50 in 1933.





'Later, various designs based on the McCord were released, aluminum ice-cube trays with a removable cube separator and release handles. They were eventually replaced molded plastic ice cube trays.

'Today, refrigerators come with a variety of ice cube making options that go beyond trays. There are internal automatic icemakers and icemakers and dispensers built into refrigerator doors.' -- collaged



____
Media


The Proof Parade


Ice cube trays


Personal Ice Cube Tray (Patent-Pending)


Stalagmites in Ice Cube Tray



_____
Further

Ice cube @ Wikipedia
The History of Ice Cubes
Ice cube trays @ eBay
'How to Remove Ice Cubes From a Tray'
'8 Ways a Simple Ice Cube Tray Can Help You Drop Pounds'
'Ice Cube Tray as Sunburn Soother'
'Make Nigiri Sushi Quickly in an Ice Cube Tray'
'Reinventing the ice cube tray'
'The clear facts about ice cubes'



____
Show































































































































































































































































*

p.s. Hey. ** Michael, Hi, Michael! Wow, this is really nice! I've wondered how you are and how you're doing. Cool. I'm doing good and better than good for the most part. Tokyo, yeah. It's unbelievable. There's so much of great interest there. What kind of things are you interesting in there, off the top of your head? I can try to steer you in good directions, if you like, sure. London and Paris too? Maybe we could meet up while you're here? I'm not totally sure if I'll be here or not, but, three weeks from now, maybe, yeah. Thank you, kind sir, about the scrapbook page. Yeah, really good to see you, man! ** h, Hi! The link takes me to a page where I can't see the Acker thing, but I can download it there, it seems, so I will. Thank you! Everyone, h passes along a link to a page where you can download a lecture by the great Kathy Acker that is in three folders and includes many clips, and, obviously, that's a very tempting offer right there, and here's the link. I hoped that you would think my Blanchot quote fest/scrapbook page would be okay. Thank you, that means a lot! ** Armando, Hi, A. My and the blog's pal Kiddiepunk was just highly recommending 'The Bling Ring' to me the other day. Wow, definitely have to see it, obviously. Thanks so very much the tip and for your beautiful, infectious enthusiasm for the film. ** Scunnard, Thanks a lot, J! ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul! Aw, thanks so much, man. How's Tokyo doing? I'm guessing it's crazy hot there right now? I miss it a lot. And how's everything and anything with you? ** Empty Frame, Thank you about the scrapbook page. That's interesting about that quote's fount-like relationship to your EF name. No, I didn't check out Mushroom Burial Suit in detail yet. Or the QR grave stuff. Thank you for reminding me. Between zonedness and running around, it slipped in a sublayer of my plans, but I have time today, so I'll get there. Painting cracks in the ice ... I don't know what means, but I think I'm envious. ** David Ehrenstein, Ha ha, NPH should hire you as his PR guy and pay you lots of back wages. I saw that cannibal ventriloquist thing, yeah. It has hoax stamped all over it, but maybe not. Pretty interesting either way. I had one of his Christian/ ventriloquist video clips on my blog at some point a while back. ** Alter Clef Records, Hi, Nick! Great to see you, buddy! I'm good. I've been doing a ton of stuff. Lengthy trips to Japan and Scandinavia, novel-in-progress, new Gisele piece and then another to-be new one, working on some collabs, happy, etc. Things have been great. Your mom met Anger, trippy. Shit, I'm so sorry about the break up with Joe. You sound okay about it, though, or maybe that's just the famously stiffer of the two lips that your countrymen are famous for? Nice, nice other stuff you're up to. Excellence to see you, N! ** Steevee, Oh, I guess I was thinking of another box set of early Fassbinder, hm. Maybe there's a European one that's different. Great about the Ebert's site's seriousness. Monday it is, then. The link to the young French homophobes' supposedly homoerotic thing didn't work, but I know what you're referring to. Those guys are notorious over here, no surprise. ** Thomas Moronic, I did, I did. Win win for sure for the recipient (me) too. Thank you about the scrapbook page. Yes, I just saw the Day you sent this morning. It's fantastic! And what a great topic! I'll set it up and get back to you. Thank you so much, Thomas! ** Rewritedept, If you go into TMS's secret passages, and not that you should, the narrator's bottom status is fairly well-defined, but I define that from a privileged position or whatever, obviously. I'll take your word on the S/P comparison. As long as it makes sense to you, what else matters. I love Indian food. Z. and I sought out and ate a lot of Indian food in Japan, and very successfully in most cases. I don't think that scrapbook page is going to give you any clues about the novel. It's way behind the scenes stuff. The first two or three scrapbook pages will probably be of that nature. Going back to main sources and trying to find a new way to learn from them re: this particular project. I did run around all day yesterday. Today, I might run around too, or maybe trot around, and a lot closer to home than yesterday. Pollard says the GbV reunion might be done and over, but we'll see. Enjoy your stuff. ** Scott mcclanahan, Hi, Scott! A great honor and pleasure to have you in this humble abode, sir, and thank you a ton for the kind thoughts. ** 'Matt', Hi, Matt! Super good of you to take the time to come in. It's very good to see you! Thank you about the scrapbook post. 'The Pyre' is for sure going to NYC, and we, or, rather, the powers that be behind Gisele's throne, are trying to set up some kind of US tour at the same time. Holy crap! A fellowship study with Florian Hecker -- 'the real Hecker, as Peter Rehberg refers to him -- and road managing Keiji Haino's tour? That's amazing! Wow, are there any, I don't know, interesting stories or experiences or anything you could pass along concerning either of those things? Wild, very cool! I'll check out the clip, etc. re: the documentary you scored. Nice to see that it's gotten funded and beyond. And, cool, thank you for the link to your smoking piece. That'll be the next thing I do much less read once I launch this post. Everyone, distinguished and long time but only recently returned d.l. 'Matt' is a superb writer, music maker, and all kinds of other things, and he has written a piece about smoking that's very impressively titled 'Sometimes a Cigarette Is Just a Cigarette, or, the Phenomenology of Natural American Spirit' over at the always key Hypocrite Reader site, and that's your cue to help yourselves out by exiting here and going there in order to read it. I found and started visiting/reading Hypocrite Reader just a a short while back, and I totally concur with your high props for it. Do stay in better touch. I mean, if it suits you. That would be really great for me. And I would love that flexi vinyl if it's no trouble. Great pleasure, man! ** S., So it seems. Thanks. Wow, you responded to the gifs. That's interesting. I didn't expect that kind of response. They're half-clues and half-clouds on my end of things, but not in the usual clue/cloud way or something. Sweet! ** Statictick, Hey, N! What a total boon, man! Yeah, the George novel didn't make it, unfortunately, but there's a new one happening. I'm keeping what it is on the very down low for the time being. I think it needs complete privacy in order to happen so far. I read about what's happened with your mom thanks to FB. I'm so sorry for all of that, my friend. I really hope for the very, very best for her and for you. Please be here and share whatever feels right whenever you like, okay? Lots of love to you! ** Grant maierhofer, Thank you, sir. Awesome about the arc! And re: the video of you and the Trocchi gift as well. You have a great day too! Everyone, First, you can see/hear a clip of the awesome Grant Maierhofer reading from his excitingly forthcoming novel 'The Persistence of Crows' here, and, courtesy of him, you can watch a short (29 minute) documentary film about the great Alexander Trocchi, whose birthday it was yesterday, by going here. Double trouble. Get into it. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Good news that the first meetings went so well. Hm, yeah, what does it mean? It seems like it means something good, but I don't know why it feels that way, or, hm, maybe I do. ** Grant Scicluna, Thank you, Grant. Great luck with all your emails. I've got some of them to try to pare down myself. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. The Blanchot quotes come from various of his books. Most, I think, were from 'The Space of Literature' and 'The Writing of the Disaster', but I think I borrowed from maybe five of his books total. Right, it's promo time, of course. Keep your strength and confidence up for that. I've never seen 'L'Ange'. I certainly know of it. I had thought it was super hard to see, but, in doing a search just now, I learn that it and Bokanowski's other films are somewhat newly on DVD, so maybe I can. I've heard it's very strange and worth seeing. ** Bill, Thanks, Bill. Francis, that's it! Yeah, he was with this guy whom I met at City Lights when I did my last reading there, and whose name I've also forgotten. They were passing through the Recollets and on their way to Point Ephemere. Curious to hear about that Lindsay Hunter. It's on my to-get list. ** Misanthrope, If only my new novel were that. No, actually, I think it could be pretty great, if I don't say so myself, based on how it's going so far, but I'll say no more. I always made scrapbooks for my novels from the very beginning. The only one I didn't do one for, and quite purposefully as an experiment, was 'My Loose Thread'. But, yeah, I started making them in relationship to what I was writing in 1981. Your process sounds good. I wish I didn't have to do all these weird things to be able to write a novel. I just can't do it any other way. God's versatile, yes, I've heard that. It is sad about John's problem. It's completely nonsensical, but so many things are. ** MANCY, Thank you so much, man! You good? ** With that, bye for now. Consider the art of the ice cube tray today if you feel so inclined. See you tomorrow.

______________________




Bushwick Review: You have said that, “Both my writing and my art centers around the self [female] in relation to the external… I feel as if the female self is always under a certain pressure to perform externally and often her internal needs/wants are sacrificed to play out this role that she is cast in.” I am interested in this statement and would be interested in hearing you expand on it, if you wanted to.

Gabby Bess: I think the best way I can elaborate on that statement is to link you to this video of Nicki Minaj talking about the concept of ‘bossing up’.

I think that its still true that women have to work harder and do more to be perceived at the same level as their male counter parts. I love when Nicki says, “You have to be a beast. That’s the only way they respect you.” I think that writing from a female perspective is so valuable because it is still under those constraints. It is constantly proving itself. It is trying to go against being thrown into the ‘feminist art’ ghetto or the ‘chick lit’ ghetto. I look at the line up for most lit mags and I see maybe three or four, if that, female writers sprinkled amongst the men. What is their excuse? We’re not hiding. We’re not hard to find. We’re here. As anyone can see by looking at the 25 female names on the contributors list for Illuminati Girl Gang, we’re right here.

It breaks my heart at the end of the video, after she completely slays everyone and comes across as such a badass, so intelligent and aware, when she says, “Don’t use this footage. It’s just going to make me look stupid.” She has this look of exhaustion on her face and I just want to hug her and say thank you.

BR: Can you mention some favorite female writers and artists that have been on your mind recently? Can be living, dead, close friends or super famous.

GB: Lately I’ve been really getting into Tracey Emin. She was recommended to me by my friend LK, another hard-working lady who edits the lit mag Shabby Doll House. I love Tracey’s installation work, particularly Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (1963 – 1995), (1995). I just love that piece because it explores themes of intimacy, voyeurism, and sexuality in a very open and honest way. Which I feel I aim to do in a lot of my work. Through the medium of a tent the piece creates a ‘private’ space within the public context of a gallery which I think really speaks to the notion of women having to always carve out their own little safe spaces.

As far as women writers, I just went on an amazon binge and felt really proud of myself for supporting my contemporaries and only slightly bad for spending $100 so quickly. I just bought Ana Carrete’s Baby Babe, How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti, and Green Girl by Kate Zambreno amongst some other things. I read those three within the span of two days and they all made me feel very good to be a woman writer.








Gabby Bess Alone with Other People
Civil Coping Mechanisms

'What Gabby Bess captures with her words is the beauty of a fragile time and place. In this collection, she evokes what it means to be young, to be a woman, to have both feet firmly planted both in this world and the virtual. She asks fascinating questions like, ‘Is anyone moved by the plainness of raw skin anymore?’ She makes you trust she has the necessary answers with intelligence and confidence. In this book, Bess builds an identity for herself and tears it down and builds herself anew. It is breathtaking to behold.' -- Roxane Gay

'Gabby Bess’s Alone With Other People orchestrates an impressive catalog of young human want with a uncompromising style. In the span between its first phrase The sex can be rough and its last sentence, Panic., the reader forward through a virtual rolodex of self-inquisition shaped by boredom, horror, aspiration, fear for future, wonder, lust. There’s a lot of intense light coming off this book full of screens and suns and large black dots.' -- Blake Butler


Excerpt













_____________________




1. He wore rubber bands to see me after I mailed him a poem about how I like how he wears rubber bands.
2. He rides his bike so tall the handlebars are above my shoulders.
3. I once told him I snored and he said that was OK and he woke me up several times sounding like a lawnmower.
4. He lets me braid his hair when we watch TV.
5. He wants calluses on his hands and never gets tired when I quote the line “the hands only do rough work.”
6. He looks like all my favorite actors, only I didn’t realize this until my heart had made a decision.
7. We’re both only children.
8. He went to my thesis reading and then met Bekki at Whole Foods and they talked about me.
9. He leant me his swim trunks so I could do yoga while he went running and my big quads ripped the crotch open and he was OK with it.
10. The smile on his face when he came home after his run and while still afraid of what he’d say when I showed him the ruined shorts, I thought briefly, “This is what it’s like to have someone come home to you.”
11. He has to have an indestructible phone case because he is, in the charming ways that boys are, a boy.
12. He’s inspired a series of poems that aren’t about him specifically, but rather alternate universe version of him.
13. Once we were writing and drawing together and he apologized for throwing small fits when the drawing wouldn’t come. He said he had a very tortured approach to his art and we talked about how every time I have to type a new word something swells in me like it’s going to sob at the impossibility of it all.
14. I once read him Frank O’Hara’s “Having a Coke With You” and although he’s not familiar with poetry he sleepily told me he liked Frank’s rhythm and he was so right. -- Eric Tran

(cont.)







Eric Tran the Whole River Melting
self-published

'Eric Tran, B.A. is a Masters of Fine Art candidate at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in creative writing. He currently lives in Wilmington, NC and was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.

'He completed his B.A. degree at Stanford University in English, Human Biology, and Feminist Studies. He was involved with the Sexual Health Resources Center, the LGBT Community Resources Center, and Queer Straight Alliance.' -- med.stanford.edu


Excerpts

My Boyfriend, Who Doesn’t Remember Faces

My face, everyone’s face, is clear and still, the surface of a pond. He only knows green, can recall every shard of olive in a stained glass window, every teal traffic light we’ve sailed right through. I want our world to be a constant hue of jasmine, so each new spring bud morning, I try to make myself greener for him, greener than any Pantone swatch. I build our house from palm fronds so he knows the way home. I balance a plate of avocados on my head at cock- tail parties. I stitch together shirts of guava skins for every family picnic. My cologne is muddled magnolia leaves, shredded dollar bills. Some days I’m just a celery stalk. But even then he pretends to mistake someone else for me, a pair of sea foam eyes for the mold I let grow in my beard. He traces the lines in their hands until I can’t take any more and blow dark camo smoke out my ears. He waits until I’m a big storm of jade and fury and only then does he pull me close, only then does he say, There you are, my little cactus—where does the sun point today?


Your Boyfriend, Asleep

Your boyfriend, who straightaway fell asleep
after two gin and tonics, ice melting sleepily
in his glass, gave you no choice: you weren’t at all sleepy
but who can say no to such a man sleeping
and wrapped in your right arm—also falling asleep—
while your recited “Where You Go When She Sleeps,”

into his neck? Look, listen: he’s a child when he sleeps
and when you were young, you slept
fitfully, kicked, fell out of bed. Falling asleep
now is impossible, but you put the lamp to sleep
and how could you ignore the sleeping
god beside you, limbs and hair sprawled like a sleepy

flower greeting the sun? You haven’t slept
in your bed in weeks, traveled cross-country, sleeping
on couches, in doorways—why is your first action to sleep
together, lips close but not kissing: You can’t talk asleep,

murmur Come back when he rolls away, pray to Sleep
herself: delay morning, which when you wake from half-sleep
is still not there. Your boyfriend, who fell asleep
after you returned from San Francisco, where the sun sleeps,
can so easily fall back into sleeping
when he turns. If the earth could heal so easily when sleeping

fault lines tore the ground, we could all sleep
easier knowing the future was OK. The benefit of sleeping
men: there’s no doubt of the next minute, fears sleep
coiled around in your gut, but his solidity in your arms, asleep,
is a stopgap against it all, against the questions that slept
on your heart and lungs. You can drag your finger sleepily

across his chest, show him where the universe is sleeping
now, but wakes in gasps. Here we are, you say, against his sleeping
ribcage, rising and falling like civilizations. Here, your worries slept
like angry lovers, too scared to leave. Here, even sleeping,
you thought of ice melting under your feet. Here, sleep
was a great empty silence. Here, sleep

is a pause between your days, an inhale for words that slept
when you were afraid to say how green his eyes were, even when sleepy,
half-shut. But now, full of breath, what will you tell him while he sleeps?











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'It’s not exactly easy to get your hands on the work of Peter Sotos. Most people probably wouldn’t even want to. His work traffics in a range of subjects that most average readers—even those who fancy themselves to have transgressive tastes—would find viscerally repellent: a meeting-ground of violence and pornography so limitless it becomes difficult to tell what we’re actually reading. The narrative voice takes on the personas of serial murderers, rapists, child molesters, hate mongers, and others who inhabit space far outside the range of what even the most edgy thinkers would consider tractable terrain, mostly rendered in a first person that strands the reader in a mindset that he probably doesn’t want to be in. That Sotos also frequently takes for his subject real-life criminals and victims—exploring, for instance, the violent murders of Lesley Ann Downey in his nonfiction work, Selfish, Little—there exists a line between the most grotesque extensions of fantasy and reality that challenges the presumptions of free speech and exploration of horror in such a way that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to name for sure the sort of ground on which Sotos forces us to walk.

'Some more direct context about Sotos: He was a member of the seminal noise band, Whitehouse. He is 62 years old and lives in Chicago, where he has been arrested for possession of child porn, after publishing on the cover of his zine, Pure, a picture from a photocopy of an underage boy involved in sex. His books are printed mostly in severely limited runs, making obtaining them rather pricey. Sotos makes no bones about his infatuation with objects that push him beyond the limits of experience. He is open about his interest in snuff film and bestiality porn, and talks about them freely in a way that glorifies their ability to depict “how you look when ugly.” He is not heartless, although he does get pleasure pleasure from viewing these things, and he isn’t afraid to make himself complicit in the acts that he describes. All of this makes reading him, or even just thinking about reading him, one of those experiences that allow a window into a place much of our culture seems interested in playing footsie with—think of Dexter, or films like Seven and Silence of the Lambs but that when considered more directly take obscenity to a level of actually feeling—as a reader, you feel somehow ashamed, complicit just for holding the book. ...

'I feel sure that a majority of you are now asking, “Why would anybody want to hear about this stuff? How could anyone but child pornographers be interested in or even open to reading the work of someone who is OK with child porn?” I’m not the sort who rubbernecks at the scenes of accidents, but I can say that reading Peter Sotos stills my body. There are very many other people in the world. I have a mother and a father and friends and loved ones, and they exist in the same world as these things. There is something about the feeling of opening a window into a space that you would never touch with your own hands that can make you feel like you are being pressed down on by something very heavy and very black. I believe that thinking about these ideas makes one not less human, but more: careful and considered in a way that ignites awareness of something that is, if not in us all, certainly around us.' -- Blake Butler, Vice








Peter Sotos MINE
Nine-Banded Books

'Against a densely imbricated skein of documentary fragments and confessional annotation, Mine advances a sustained, interlocutory investigation into the ulterior etiologies and malignant narcissism of underground pornography. “How dare you cling to the idea that there’s something to be understood.”' -- N-BB

Peter Sotos is one of those rare writers who can say, ‘The words I write are me,’ or at least as close as anyone can come to communicating who they are in words. -- Thomas Ligotti

We do not find in Sotos the customary delusions about childhood misery and wounded lives. For this latter-day homo sacer, wounds are not to be healed but poked and worried until they bleed. Sotos is literature’s outcast, carrying stigma like a rat carries plague. -- Mikita Brottman


Excerpts


Click these words


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I have to pin the words down, cut them out and place them as far as possible from the dunce economy. I’m not an exegete. But I take the words and ideas and stutters and stick them somewhere far more successful. You’ll understand this, finally, when I demean myself enough to tell you what I do with the words that these mouthy pigs just repeat often enough to tell you that they stand behind them. It’s not what I take, or who I take them away from. But where I put them. Not rewrite them. Not change or charge the context. I identify them. I don’t, idiot, masturbate with them. I can’t imagine wanting to do anything without having these words fully included. I wouldn’t even consider doing anything without them. The cunts that make cartoons out of their ideas. Little collages and signatures and slack versions. Strippers and songwriters and female’d max factors. I live all over them. I write through them, use them, come away with little more than a dangling possible.

…

What I do is inescapable.



Peter Sotos Reading @ St. Marks Bookshop, NYC


'Victims'


'Pure Filth' Trailer




*

p.s. Hey. ** Rewritedept, I know a couple of people who have phobias about eating in front of people. Seems tough, but it's weird/interesting/good how people can edit themselves into people whom other people can consequently edit without even thinking twice about it. Out of respect, I guess. I thought the ice cube tray post was one of my most intellectually challenging ones ever, ha ha, but I get intellectually challenged by the strangest things. That's interesting: I have a fetish for odd numbers, and even numbers kind of rub me the wrong way and bore me for some reason. I always tend to think that cognizance of one's own fucked-up-ness is a positive thing, yes. Your bandmate is a fool if he doesn't get into GbV, but I respect prioritizing the new. I think that's really healthy or something. A bagel sounds good. Maybe I'll get one. I can't eat even cooked onions due to eternal holdover effects from a bad case of acid reflux in my 20s. I listened to the True Widow once. I liked it. It didn't drive me crazy or anything, but I'm going to hear it again, maybe today. ** œ, Hi! I don't even have an ice cube tray. It's weird. I guess I'm just never in stores that sell them. 'The thought-oriented emphasis on the obscure feels semi-religious': Interesting. I have to think about that. I'm so unreligious that it never occurred to me. Anyway, great words of yours about Blanchot, of course, of course. I'm going to do the Acker talk today. Exciting. The only argument that she and I ever had was about Genet. ** Alter Clef Records, Hi, Nick. Tokyo was insanely amazing. Tokyo is weirdly closer and easier to access than you would think, or that thought occurred to me upon arriving there. Yeah, ugh, yeah, about the break up with Joe. I look forward to how your art makes mincemeat of that. But, yeah, hugs. The new novel's premise is totally under wraps, at least for now. I guess the scrapbook pages do or will give something away, but maybe not. Cool about the long awaited package. Hope the screening last night went great, as it surely must have. I'll have the best day I can manage to, although the heat wave suddenly returned yesterday, so that's standing a bit in my pleasure's way. ** David Ehrenstein, I'll check out that clip. No ice cubes on my crotch, mid-frolicking or anytime, thank you. I just found a slave for next month's post who offers a 'menthol blow job' that only he can do. ** Martin Bladh, Hi. Marvin is always very busy. If you don't hear from him in a week or so, let me know, and I'll check in with him. I think he's worried about cracking the book's spine by laying it out flat enough to be scanned. He might have a point there, I'm not sure. Anyway, hopefully you guys can reach a good methodology. ** S., Wintery Emo stack! Perfect timing. The air is as hot as vaporized bacon straight off the grill here today. Everyone, S. puts/finds Emos in a winter wonderland in his latest stack, and there are visual and tonal things to contemplate galore as a result. ** Steevee, Oh, yeah, I heard bad buzz about 'The Grandmaster'. I feel like he lost a step some years back and hasn't quite hit the mark since, but ... how was it? ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul! Thanks, man. How nice to think that Tokyo would miss me. How interesting to think about how it would manifest said 'missing'. I can not sort it. 29 degrees, not bad, but, jeez, you guys do get the serious humidity. It's 34 here and semi-humid, so I suspect we've got it worse. Very cool about the funded book! And, mainly and obviously, about your note scribbling re: the new novel. Oh, when does your novel come out? Is there a date yet? ** Sypha, I must admit that I'm not in the least surprised that the cat ice cube tray particularly won your heart. I'm sorry to hear about your pink eye on top of the other maladies, but your productivity while under internal fire is, as always, remarkable. Naturally, I don't have a clue what that George R.R. Martin book is, or its TV show relative. Fantasy books, long or short, remain one of my big weaknesses. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh! Always a true pleasure. Oh, man, the crying a lot, so sorry. Being a lifelong lazy ass about jobs, I don't know, but I hope there's a mental exercise that can put its current overlording status in perspective. I guess I'm mostly always friendly, but well-adjusted is another matter. I don't think I'm that. Not having written in a year does not free you from the writer identity, dude. I've gone longer than that a few times. Blog posts are a lot better than $140 an hour. Sounds crazy, but they are. You are and have always been paid up in full, my man. Love, me. ** Eli Jürgen, Hi, Eli. Informative, cool, thanks. That fridge with automatic ice cubes function is one of my dreams too. I've never ha one. It's so weird. Like I said above, I don't even have a boring, normal ice cube tray in my tiny fridge. And it's like hell outside, and semi-hell-like even inside. Wtf?! ** Misanthrope, I was just telling DE, I think, about the slave I found who offers a unique-to-him 'menthol blowjob' to his potential masters. Maybe you're the guy. Right, precisely, about whatever works. I admire your short story writing relaxation. I can't write short fiction. I don't think I've ever written a short story that wasn't a failed novel piece. There are a zillion reasons to hate on the writing I'm doing re: the novel, but I have that editing fetish, and I just rely on that and let myself go sloppy and wild and as bad as I want until I get to that point. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Ha, thanks. Yeah, give me the word on 'L'Ange'. That would be cool. I think I might be seeing 'Only God Forgives' today. Very curious about that one. I actually just put together a gig post featuring some of the music I'm listening to right now. I.e. things like new stuff by Grumbling Fur, Daniel Menche, Teenage Guitar (the new Pollard pseudonymous LP), Young Echo, Innode, Kaffe Matthews, ... Old-wise, hm, I got off on a lengthy Psychedelic Furs listening kick the other day. They were really so good when they were good. And you, listening-wise? ** MANCY, Hey. Been better? Sorry, man. Like ... you want to say why, or ... ? I hope whatever ails you inside or upstairs gets the fuck out of you without haste. Hugs from me. ** Okay. There are the most recent-ish three books that I read and loved. Check them out. See you tomorrow.

'French actor Patrick Dewaere (1947 – 1982) was a promising and popular European film star in the 1970’s. In 1982, the actor shot himself. He was only 35 years old. He made his film debut at the age of four under the name Patrick Maurin in Monsieur Fabre/Amazing Monsieur Fabre (1951). More small film roles followed in La Madelon (1954, Jean Boyer) with Line Renaud, and En effeuillant la marguerite/Plucking the Daisy (1956, Marc Allégret) starring Brigitte Bardot and Daniel Gélin. Taunted by his schoolyard friends for his young film endeavours, he learned sensitivity and isolation at an early age. Other films during this period included Gene Kelly's The Happy Road (1957) and the comedy Mimi Pinson (1958, Robert Darène) with Dany Robin.

'As a young adult in the early 1960’s, Patrick appeared on French television and in the star-studded war film Paris brûle-t-il?/Is Paris burning? (1966, René Clément). In 1968, he joined Café de la Gare, an experimental theatre troupe where he remained for nearly a decade. The performers also included such future stars as Gérard Depardieu and Miou-Miou. He became romantically involved with Miou-Miou. A child, Angèle Herry-Leclerc, was born to this liaison in 1974, but the couple broke up after only two years. After initially appearing under the pseudonym Patrick Maurin, he finally opted for Dewaere, which was his grandmother's maiden name. In this period he played small parts in films. The best was the art house hit Themroc (1973, Claude Faraldo), an absurdist black comedy starring Michel Piccoli as an urban caveman.

'Patrick Dewaere made his breakthrough in the cinema with his major role in Bertrand Blier's anarchic comedy Les Valseuses/Going Places (1974). Gérard Depardieu and he played two young rebellious petty thugs who team up with Miou-Miou. The three earned instant ‘anti-hero’ stardom with their roles. He followed this with the romantic comedy Lily, aime-moi (1975, Maurice Dugowson), and the crime drama Adieu, poulet/The French Detective (1975, Pierre Granier-Deferre) as Lino Ventura's sidekick. Despite Dewaere's obvious talent for comedy, he was often successfully cast as a fragile, neurotic individual. He earned marks for his off-balanced role in La meilleure façon de marcher/The Best Way to Walk (1976, Claude Miller). In Italy he appeared in Marcia trionfale/Victory March (1976, Marco Bellocchio) with Michel Placido and Franco Nero, and in L'ingorgo - Una storia impossibile/Black Out in Autostrada (1979, Luigi Comencini) about the biggest traffic jam ever seen. He starred again with Depardieu in Blier's Oscar-winning cross-over comedy Préparez vos mouchoirs/Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978, Bertrand Blier).

'Infinitely more interested in searching out complex roles than fame, his work in films were more often than not experimental, low budget and quirky in style. He appeared innately drawn to playing sensitive, scruffy, miserable neurotics, misfits and losers. Examples are his characters in the socker drama Coup de tête/Hothead (1979, Jean-Jacques Annaud), the Georges Perec penned Oulipian detective story Série noire (1979, Alain Corneau), Un mauvais fils/A Bad Son (1980, Claude Sautet), Hôtel des Amériques/Hotel America (1981, André Téchiné) with Catherine Deneuve, and the critically-acclaimed Beau-père/Stepfather (1981, Bertrand Blier). Unlike his counterpart Depardieu, Patrick's fame never branched out to Hollywood, but he was recognized consistently for his superlative portrayals. Amazingly, he was nominated for seven César awards (the French Oscar) but never won.

'Shortly after the release of Paradis Pour Tous/Paradise for All (1982, Alain Jessua), a black comedy where his character suffers from depression and commits suicide, the actor shot himself with a rifle in a Paris hotel. He was 35 years old. At the time he was working on the Claude Lelouch's film Édith et Marcel/Edith and Marcel (1983). A shocking, inexplicable end to friends, fans and family alike. -- collaged



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Stills








































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Further

Patrick Dewaere @ Wikipedia
Patrick Dewaere @ IMDb
Patrick Dewaere Myspace Page
Patrick Dewaere page @ Facebook
Memorial page for Patrick Dewaere
'La maison de Patrick Dewaere'
'Patrick Dewaere: Je Suis Mort'
'Patrick Dewaere, une vie, le dernier rebelle du cinéma français'
'Patrick Dewaere, mort il y a 30 ans et toujours aussi présent'
'Une biographie sans tabou de Patrick Dewaere, trente ans après sa mort'
'Patrick Dewaere: F comme fêlure!'
'Patrick Dewaere : 30 ans déjà…'



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Extras


Patrick Dewaere: Documentaire


Luc Lagier 'Wer war nochmal Patrick Dewaere?'


Patrick Dewaere: The Last Interview


Patrick Dewaere sings 'L'Autre' (1978)


Francoise Hardy & Patrick Dewaere sing 'T'es pas poli' (1971)



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Lettre de Gérard Depardieu à Patrick Dewaere




Cher Patrick,

En ce moment, on n'arrête pas de nous bassiner avec l'anniversaire de mai 68. Vingt ans après. Après quoi ! Une émeute de jeunes vieux cons, voilà ce qu'on pensait tous les deux, des batailles de boules de neige…

Cette drôle de révolution aura au moins permis de changer les uniformes des flics, et à Bertrand Blier de tourner Les Valseuses ! Ce fut un véritable pavé lancé à la vitrine du cinéma français. Avec Miou-Miou, nous avions fait sauter les derniers tabous. Les Valseuses ! C'était notre bohème à nous, un temps que les moins de vingt ans ne peuvent pas connaître. Qu'est-ce qu'on a pu faire chier Bertrand sur ce coup. On ne dormait pas, on débarquait au petit matin sur le plateau avec des têtes de noceurs, de débauchés. On était heureux comme des cons, comme des enfants faisant l'école buissonnière. C'était la grande voyoucratie, un mélange d'inconscience et d'insouciance. On piquait la D.S. et en avant la corrida nocturne. C'étaient de drôles de nuits. On avait l'impression de travailler, d'étudier nos rôles, de répéter pour le lendemain. Ben voyons ! (…)

Comme Romy Schneider tu confondais ta vie et le métier d'acteur. Tu supportais mal les duretés de ce milieu. Tu étais sensible, sans défense, presque infirme devant le monde. Je te voyais venir avec toutes ces mythologies bidons autour du cinéma, de James Dean ; cela te plaisait, ce romantisme noir et buté. Tu la trouvais belle la mort, bien garce, offerte. Il fallait que tu exploses, que tu te désintègres. Tu "speedais" la vie. Tu allais à une autre vitesse, avec une autre tension. Ce n'est pas tellement que tu n'avais plus envie de vivre, mais tu souffrais trop, de vivre. Chaque jour, tu ressassais les mêmes merdes, les mêmes horreurs dans ton crâne. A la fin, forcément, tu deviens fou. Dans Série Noire, tu te précipitais contre le pare-brise de ta voiture. J'ai toujours mal en repensant à cette scène. J'ai l'impression d'un film testamentaire. Tu te débats, tu te cognes contre tous les murs. Il y avait l'agressivité désespérée, l'hystérie rebelle de Série Noire. Il y avait aussi la résignation accablée du Mauvais Fils. Ces deux films, c'est toi.(…)

Je te le dis maintenant sans gêne et sans en faire un drame, j'ai toujours senti la mort en toi. Pis, je pensais que tu nous quitterais encore plus vite. C'était une certitude terrible que je gardais pour moi. Je ne pouvais rien faire. J'étais le spectateur forcé de ce compte à rebours. Ton suicide fut une longue et douloureuse maladie. Quand j'ai su que c'était fini, je me suis dit : bah oui, quoi. Rien à dire. Je n'allais tout de même pas surjouer comme les mauvais acteurs. Et puis je te l'avoue, moi, bien en face, je m'en fous. Je ne veux pas rentrer là-dedans. Je suis une bête, ça m'est égal, la mort connais pas. Je suis la vie, la vie jusque dans sa monstruosité. Il ne faut jamais faire dans la culpabilité, se dire qu'on aurait dû, qu'on aurait pu. Que dalle. Il y avait un défaut de fabrication, un vice, quelque chose de fêlé en toi, Patrick.(…)

Malgré tout, malgré moi, je crois que cette lettre, c'était pour te parler de la disparition de mon chat. Il faut subitement que je te parle de lui. Quand il est mort, je me suis mis à chialer comme une pleureuse de tragédie. Je ne pouvais plus m'arrêter de pleurer. (…) J'avais toujours pensé à un chat en pensant à lui. Un chat est un chat. Quand j'ai pensé "Il est malade", j'ai pensé à un être. Ca m'a fait un mal terrible. (…) Je l'ai enterré dans mon jardin. Le matin, je le retrouvais avec sa tête sur ma poitrine. Dès que je sentais sa présence, j'étais en paix. J'avais ce chat à qui parler. C'est complètement con. On ne peut pas expliquer la complicité. (…)

Des moments de paix, d'abandon, nous en avons eu aussi ensemble, Patrick. Un vrai repos des guerriers. Avec toi, j'aurais aimé avoir une aventure. Te braque pas. Pas l'espèce de sodomie à la godille des Valseuses. Là, ils font ça par ennui, parce qu'ils en ont marre de déambuler. Les mecs se serrent à force de traîner ensemble. Ils s'enfilent parce qu'ils commencent à douter d'eux-mêmes. C'est le problème de la délinquance mal exprimée. On retrouve toute cette misère, toute cette frustration dans le courrier des lecteurs de Libération, dans les récits de taulards.

L'homosexualité, c'est sans doute beaucoup plus subtil que ce qu'on en dit. D'ailleurs, je ne sais pas ce que c'est, à quoi ça ressemble. Je sais seulement qu'il existe des moments. Ils peuvent se produire avec une femme, un homme, une bouteille de vin. Ce sont des états de grâce partagés.

Ils me font penser à une prise réussie au cinéma. Il y a toujours une part d'irrationnel dans une prise réussie. On travaille des heures, on passe son temps à refaire, à reprendre, à modifier, puis soudain c'est la bonne. On ne comprend pas pourquoi, mais c'est l'éclaircie, c'est la bonne. Je ne peux pas m'empêcher de penser, Patrick, que si tu n'étais pas parti, c'est peut-être toi que j'aurais embrassé dans Tenue de soirée.



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"Lettre de Patrick Dewaere à Gérard Depardieu"








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15 of Patrick Dewaere's 24 films

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René Clément Is Paris Burning? (1966)
'Although primarily credited to Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, the script was the result of several writers - alongside Marcel Moussy and Beate von Molo, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost and Claude Brulé also contributed - and there are a few somewhat jarring shifts in style as a result. Despite the political dilution that one suspects was a consequence of getting both the essential co-operation from de Gaulle's government and the equally essential dollars from Paramount, it does a good job of making the constantly shifting strategies and increasingly chaotic events accessible while keeping the momentum up, but as with most spot-the-star WW2 epics, it's the vignettes that stick most firmly in the mind: a German soldier, his uniform still smouldering, staggering away from a blown-up truck only to be ignored by a businessman blithely going to work as if nothing were happening; a female resistance worker delivering instructions for the uprising being offered a lift by an unsuspecting German officer after her bike gets a puncture; French soldiers picking off Germans from an apartment whole the little old lady who lives there excitedly watches while drinking her tea.'-- Trevor Willsmer



Excerpt



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Claude Faraldo Themroc (1973)
'Themroc is a 1973 French film by director Claude Faraldo. It was produced by François de Lannurien and Helène Vager and its original music was composed by Harald Maury. Made on a low budget with no intelligible dialog, Themroc tells the story of a French blue collar worker who rebels against modern society, reverting into an urban caveman. The film's scenes of incest and cannibalism earned it adults-only ratings. It was the first film to be shown in the UK's Channel 4's red triangle series of controversial films in 1986. This extraordinary romp uses no language whatever, except gestures and grunts.'-- Rovi



The beginning


Excerpt



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Bertrand Blier Going Places (1974)
'Going Places (1974), Bertrand Blier's stunning, picaresque tale of two aimless punks who casually steal sex, handbags and cars, was the movie that vaulted an obscure hunk named Gerard Depardieu into transatlantic stardom, the film that established novelist and aspiring filmmaker Blier into an influential director. When Going Places zoomed onto American screens in the summer of 1974, critics dismissed its sexism and amorality while defenders praised the film's eroticism and spirit. Looking back at the politically and sexually polarized 1970s, it's easy to equivocate that one woman's misogyny was another's eroticism; one man's amorality was another's elan. What Going Places is about is two men who aggressively assert their liberation at the same time they pine for the return of mother love. It's about men who want to go places, but whose fondest destination is the womb, as the movie's memorable last image suggests.'-- Philly.com



Trailer


Excerpt



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Maurice Dugowson Lily, aime-moi (1975)
'If French cinema has made a colossal impact on film enthusiasts all over the world,it is because it has been able to capture all kinds of themes. French people have made films about all subjects which have any link whatsoever with human beings. This is the reason why we can say that in French cinema, we can find both big films and small films. Maurice Dugowson's film Lily, aime-moi is one of those little films about ordinary people who are usually forgotten but sometimes appear to be of interest to astute journalists. This charming film is the beginning of a tender yet successful collaboration between a great French actor late Patrick Dewaere and its director Maurice Dugowson. After the success of this film their director, actor tandem was seen in F comme Fairbanks. The main theme of this film is daily lives of ordinary people which is shown in great detail. The biggest surprise of the film is that it is not a love story even though there is an extremely charming woman in it. A film to be seen by anyone who is interested in minuscule lives of ordinary mortals.'-- collaged



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Claude Miller La meilleure façon de marcher (1976)
'Claude Miller's most important work is today stronger than it was in 1976. It's a must, the French cinema at its most ambitious, at its deepest, at its best. And nothing intellectual, nothing to do with the nouvelle vague pretentiousness, "la meilleure façon de marcher" is accessible to all those who have eyes and ears. It features one of the strongest actors confrontations which can be seen on a screen: the sadly missed Dewaere and the subtle Bouchitey literally live their part,they are so real we have the very rare feeling of knowing them intimately. So intense Bouchitey's performance was that afterward he did not get the roles he did deserve: the directors stayed with the picture of a "drag queen".'-- collaged



Excerpt


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Pierre Granier-Deferre The French Detective (Adieu poulet) (1975)
'In the French city of Rouen an election is marred by a fight between the supporters of two of the candidates. In the fracas a man is beaten to death and the killer then shoots a passing police officer! The officer has time to warn his colleagues that the killer is Proctor (Claude Brosset), a well-known thug whose brother is campaigning on behalf of law and order candidate Lardatte (Victor Lanoux). Commissaire Verjeat's (Lino Ventura) pursuit of Proctor is hampered by Lardatte for whom he has a personal dislike and misses no opportunity to humiliate. As a result he then finds himself with a very short time to capture Proctor, since he faces a promotion and a posting outside of Rouen, which will take him off the case. Verjeat is sure that this is courtesy of Lardatte and his police contacts! To cap it all, his sidekick, the eccentric Inspector Lefevre (Patrick Dewaere), implicates them both in a case of police corruption.'-- collaged



Trailer


Excerpt



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Maurice Dugowson F comme Fairbanks (1976)
'Superbe hommage au cinèma, plus particulièrement à l'âge d'or du cinèma amèricain! Maurice Dugowson capte la France giscardienne, la crise et donc la morositè! Le rèalisateur pense tout d'abord à un film de cape et d'èpèe puis il travaille sur un autre scènario abordant les problèmes de vie quotidienne comme le chômage sur fond d'aventures! il en parle à Patrick Dewaere qui donne son accord, même s'il s'interroge sur la nature de son personnage dont il redoute qu'il soit trop nègatif! Dugowson le rassure en lui disant que ce n'est pas son personnage qui est nègatif mais le monde qui l'entoure! C'est le film le plus douloureux de Patrick qui venait de rompre avec Miou-Miou. il devait faire sembler de l'aimer alors qu'il n'ètait plus ensemble! Ce fût très dur pour lui et pour Miou-Miou aussi. Une fêlure apparait avec ce "F comme Fairbanks", Patrick, ne sera plus jamais le même. Malgrè tout ça il se montre extraordinaire de bout en bout (la scène du cheval est vraiment incroyable, tout comme son numèro d'èquilibriste et sa crise de nerfs en plein spectacle). Un vèritable chef d'oeuvre sur un personnage en dècalage avec son èpoque et un Patrick Dewaere gigantesque et d'une très grande fragilitè.'-- Allocine



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Alain Corneau Série noire (1978)
'I've seen quite a lot of movies in my life. Particularily when I was between 12 and 30 yrs old. It was quite a long ago and "my kind of cinema" has little to do with the current one. But I can say I saw hundred and hundred of movies. And among them, the one living in me everyday of my life is Serie Noire with Patrick Dewaere. Patrick Dewaere was at the time my favorite actor so far, and is still now, 28 years after he killed himself with a gun. The greatest loss in all French cinema with the premature death of Jean Vigo I think. When I feel bad (often) he's the one I talk to in this place they call my head. Here I sorted the pictures from this incomparable movie (with dialogues from a great French writer, Georges Perec, a story driven from a Jim Thompson book, A hell of a woman, the best cinematographic adaptation this fantastic writer benefited) in the scenaristic order.'-- Scoptophilia



Trailer


Excerpt



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Bertrand Blier Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1987)
'Raoul (Gerard Depardieu) and his wife Solange (Carole Laure) are eating in a restaurant when Raoul expresses concern with Solange's apparent depression, as she eats little, suffers migraines and insomnia and also sometimes faints. He finds another man in the room, Stéphane (Patrick Dewaere), to be her lover and hopefully enliven her again. Director Bertrand Blier wrote the screenplay planning to use Dewaere and Depardieu in the leads, having previously worked with them on Going Places (1974). The familiarity meant the men were comfortable together. David Denby of New York believed the film was made in the spirit of the French New Wave. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was named the best film of 1978 by the National Society of Film Critics.'-- collaged



The entire film



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Jean-Jacques Annaud Coup de tête (1979)
'Like other young men in his soccer-obsessed town, a belligerent and rebellious factory worker Francois Perrin plays on a local team. His obnoxious tendencies endear him to no one. Trouble brews when a woman cries rape and the team's star player becomes the chief suspect. To protect the valued kicker, the team owners decide to frame the boorish Francois for the crime. As a result, he loses his job, gets booted from the team and tossed into jail. Shortly thereafter, the team is en route to a key match and their bus gets into an accident (in one of the story's comical highlights) that disables half the team. Now desperate for players, the owners arrange to get Francois temporarily released. The rest of this lively French farce follows Francois as he gets sweet revenge upon all those who wronged and rejected him. The screenplay was penned by distinguished writer/director Francis Veber, who is best known for writing La Cage aux Folles.'-- Rovi



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Philippe de Broca Psy (1981)
'This modest, lovely comedy boasts most of the elements we expect from farce - a country house setting, suspended from 'reality'; a cast of stereotypes supporting a hero who becomes increasingly emasculated by sexual complications, involving his wife, his mistress, and a homosexual; the intrusion of unexpected characters, in this case a trio of gangsters; intricate plot twists, involving much running about the house; repeated deferral of sexual gratification; and, after all seems lost, a happy, if weary, ending. Patrick Dewaere, who would commit suicide two years later, and is most famous for his films with Gerard Depardieu for Bertrand Blier (LES VALSEUSES, PREPAREZ VOS MOUCHOIRS), is wonderfully helpless as the titular hero, Marc, a psychotherapist who holds weekend group sessions for the timid, repressed and dissatisfied in his wife, Colette's country house.' -- IMDb



Excerpt


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Claude Sautet Un Mauvais Fils (A Bad Son) (1980)
'After serving five years in an American prison for drug dealing, Bruno (Patrick Dewaere) returns to France clean and sober to begin a new life. His angry father, Rene (Yves Robert), blames his son's shame for his wife's death, and Bruno soon strikes out on his own. Switching from construction to bookstore work, Bruno begins a relationship with Catherine (Brigitte Fossey), another fragile recovering addict, and the pair struggle to maintain their sobriety. Few French directors were capable to maintain all through their artistic trajectory, such tenacity, constancy and dedication around the feelings and well known frailties of the ordinary human being as Claude Sautet.' -- eventful



The entire film



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Bertrand Blier Beau-père (1981)
'A sensitively handled study of pedophilia, told with a comic flare. Remy is a lounge pianist who loses his wife in a car accident. His fourteen-year-old step-daughter, Charlotte, wants to continue to live with him, but her biological father, a drunken clubowner, doesn't feel that this is right. She tries living with her father, but misses the comfort of Remy and eventually runs back to him. Her father relents and accepts her wish to live with her step-father. What begins as a simple reunion of father and daughter quickly takes on a whole new meaning when Charlotte confesses her love for Remy one night.' -- Sasquatch Video



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André Téchiné Hotel America (1981)
'Hôtel des Amériques (English: Hotel America) is a 1981 French drama film directed by André Téchiné, starring Catherine Deneuve and Patrick Dewaere. The film, set in Biarritz, tells the ill fated romance of mismatch lovers. This is the first of several collaborations between Téchiné and Deneuve, who became his favorite actress. Hôtel des Amériques quickly establishes the free-flowing narrative structure that Téchiné has become known for. Hélène and Gilles' relationship does not follow the conventional path of romantic films, instead carrying the unpredictability of real romantic struggles. Téchiné allowed his actors to improvise during shooting, and this lends the scenes spontaneity and a natural sense of awkwardness.'-- collaged



Excerpt



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Alain Jessua Paradis pour tous (1982)
'Doctor Valois has invented the “flashage”, a cure for depressed people. After having tested it on monkeys, he tries with a first human patient, Alain Durieux. This is great success, everybody’s happy except may be Alain’s wife, Jeanne, who’s worrying about the changes in Alain’s personality. Other patients use the treatment with similar successes, and Valois’s happy about it. But the monkeys are changing: non-cured ones are made mad by the overstability and stereotyped behaviour of the cured ones. So are the humans. When Valois realizes he can’t stop the process, he decides to “flash” himself. Shortly after the release of Paradis Pour Tous (1982), the black comedy where his character committed suicide, Patrick Dewaere shot himself in a hotel room.' -- collaged



Excerpt


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*

p.s. Hey. Just so you know, I got my worst night of sleep yet last night, so I hereby issue a warning vis-a-vis my relationship to lucidity and focus in this p.s. ** œ, Hi. Oh, I thought your thoughts on Blanchot were great, so, I don't know. I am weird, and I am sleepy, but I think I was right when I said that. Yeah, I had an argument with Kathy about Genet when we were both on a panel once, I think at Cal Arts, and then it extended into a brief letter exchange. I can't remember the gist of the disagreement so well. I was in a phase at the time of feeling like I wanted/needed to reject Genet because of similarities and dissimilarities in his work and mine. It was something to do with the ego of his writing, but in some elaborately critical way, which I think I saw as a big problem of his work, and which she didn't see that way. Or something. Totally understood about the effects of not sleeping enough, obviously. Oh, that bracelet you made for me is beautiful! Wow, thank you so much! I'm very happy, and my wrist doesn't even have to be involved, happiness-wise. Gorgeous work. Yes, wear it, please! ** Thomas Moronic, Thanks, T. The Gabby Bess book is very good. Her best work so far, I think. You're in London. Hope it was super fun. Raime djing must have been pretty swell. ** Paul Curran, The Tokyo subway is very odd. That constant switching from the JR lines to the 'regular' lines. And the stations, which are so complicated but also pretty logical once you get their hang. The Pasmo card thing is awesome. Mine still has a couple of thousand yen in it, for next time, I guess. New Cityscapes, not to mention with new work by you! Great! Excellent magazine, that. Spring, cool, not too long at all now. ** Martin Bladh, Thank you, and take care on your end too. ** Torn porter, Hi! Welcome to the blog! Really nice to meet you, and, yeah, thanks for being here. And for saying kind things about here and my stuff. Let's be sources for each other. You seem source-like. I was on Naoshima, yes. That might have been my favorite place in all of Japan, actually. It was incredible. My friend and I stayed at the Oval Hotel, if you know it. It's part of the museum, and it was seriously sublime. Yeah, I was there for three days. Amazing! We intended to travel to the other 'art' islands near it, but the timing was off, and the ferries weren't running at times that worked for us, but we're going to maybe go back this coming winter. I loved Japan so much. Where are you staying in Tokyo? Any highlights for you there or elsewhere? Are you there for fun or a project of some sort or both or neither? Obviously, it's really cool to get to talk with you, and I hope you'll come back, and, until then, enjoy everything. ** Steevee, Ah, too bad about 'The Grandmaster'. I'm not totally surprised. I will see it at some point since his films are always worth a watch, even when they're imperfect. I really wonder about the fact that his work fell off after he stopped working with Christopher Doyle. I wonder if that's a coincidence or not. It's funny to me that Americans who are suddenly Facebooking about the young French shirtless homophobe guys think they're doing that without irony. Their antics have been well known here for a while, and they're been interviewed and stuff, and they know what they're doing. They have an agenda re: the 'homoerotic' approach they take, but I can't remember the specifics, and I'm too spaced out to be able to paraphrase them even if I did have the specifics at my fingertips. I saw 'Baal' a million years ago. I can hardly remember it. I don't think I thought it was so great, but who knows. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. I did not know that about menthol cigarettes. In fact, I didn't think much of anyone still smoked menthols. I guess I thought they were a fad of my youth or something. Nasty things, if you ask me, but I smoke Lights. I'll have to pick up that Purdy shorts collection. Cool, thanks for the alert. ** MANCY, Hi. Oh, personal and relationship stuff, I see. That's hard. I'm sorry, man. You're right that that stuff resolves itself in time. That doesn't make the waiting any easier, though. Hugs. ** Rewritedept, Sweet about the great Lips show, and no surprise, of course. I didn't see your shirt on FB, but I'll try to remember to go look for it. Luck on the possible apartment. Uh, the weekend, uh, ... I'm sleepy. It cooled down, so I'll probably get out more. I have some errands to run and some birthday presents to wrap. I think I'm going to see 'Only God Forgives'. There's this famous candy and chocolate shop in Montmartre that I've never checked out, and I think I will. Novel work. I don't know. Should be okay. Yeah, I think I do that avoid thing sometimes when I'm feeling asocial. Depends on my mood. Usually, I like seeing people I know or knew. It can be emotionally nice. Didn't bagel up, no. It was too miserably hot out. Maybe today. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Never heard of 'La Casa Muda', but your description is enough to get me looking for it. Thanks! ** Sypha, Sotos at B&N, ha ha, funny mental image. I love fantasy video games. I mean, I'm a Nintendo guy, and that genre is their bread and butter. Yeah, see, it seems like the words 'Game of Thrones' are every other word(s) that come out of people's mouths these days, but I haven't watched it, and I have no clue what it's about or anything. ** Michael_karo, Hi, Michael. I'll bet the show was fun, but that's sad about the low attendance. Some of the eventually most legendary shows were barely attended, though, it seems like. I saw a few of the pix on FB, I think. Nice. Earthquake as waving hello to me. I like that. I have to use my hand to wave back at the USA. Our earth is rock solid over here. I agree with you that inattentiveness is a big world problem. As is over-attentiveness to the most banal, meaningless bullshit. Later. ** Misanthrope, No, I think unless you hit someone on the head very hard with one of Sotos' books, they're perfectly legal. His stuff is boring?! Ha ha, wtf, as if. Save the great cut words and sentences for future usage or turn them into haikus or extremely flash fiction, and you won't feel sad. Yeah, I don't think the novel is more important than the short story at all. People who say that are just size queens. Cool about the chat with the cool girl. People hate Twitter? Don't people hate social interaction media platforms in general? It's weird to hate a form. ** Bill, Hi. The Eric Tran is lovely, and it's free as a bird, and short too. Nice about the stumble. Did you get a copy of 'Number Two'? How it? I would guess it's pretty great given its father. ** L@rstonovich, Hi, L! Ice Tre, ha ha, good. Really awesome about the friend effect of the 'M&D' group. Yeah, I think Harry Smith hated me on sight. I have no idea why. Like I'm sure I've said, he immediately started playing these sadistic mind games with me, and I got so rattled and freaked out that the other people there ordered him to stop, which made him hate me even more. Weird, creepy guy. Great artist, though. A million and a half words under your eyeballs is very good. I heard a couple of tracks off that new 'secret' Sebadoh EP, and I thought they were actually very good. I was surprised. I stopped with 'Bakesale' too, although there are a few good tracks on 'Harmacy', all Lowenstein tracks, I think. Love to you too, man, duh. ** I think I made it through without seeming as wrecked in my brain as I truly am. Cool. Patrick Dewaere: I have this feeling that he's not well known at all outside of France, but I don't know. There's not much on him in English, as you'll see in the post. Anyway, I hope it's of interest. Have great weekends, one and all. See you on Monday.

'The oscillations between listening and hearing, thus, describe a movement between foreground and background, between an object of attention and its context, between one and many. Given that sound is a movement of air pressure, in a continual state of flux, listening must, in a way, negotiate the sheer intrusiveness of sound – its restless and itinerant behavior. If we were to listen fully, at all times, we would most likely find ourselves unable to do much else. In this regard, the ear is a natural filter, open at all times yet continually pushing back against sound, to defend the body against such oscillations and energies. Listening may register where we are, precisely by shifting focus, locating presence as a backdrop that comes forward at times, certainly, but which we might also force back or resist: we hear also so as not to listen. Listening, in this regard, is an act by giving attention to events and people around us, and by also spatializing ourselves, drawing us out and away from the greater field of sound.

'We are immersed in sound, as waves and oscillations of energy that envelope us, to touch a deep nerve. Sound, therefore, carries deep emotional force, often linking us to more ephemeral, ambient and embodied experiences. The self defined by listening is prone to a particular vulnerability, where the uncontrollable force of sound may invade the body, to haunt our environment with ambiguous and uncertain stirrings. Sound is, therefore, often a ghostly matter, linking to the spirit-world, to the dead, and other seemingly inorganic stuff. Sound, in other words, proposes that what lies underneath, or still and silent, may also at times, come to life.

'The self as membrane, where sounds and musics may pass, lends to harmonious mingling as well as forceful rupture, a tearing apart that also «pluralizes» and multiplies: noise might be the very force that ruptures all forms of representation, that splinters each space into additions, that causes every communication to fragment into an array of possible trajectories, in support of multiple narratives. Listening moves between foreground and background, focus and distraction, to link life and death, organic and inorganic, and provide a voluptuous route for the imagination as it weaves together fantasy and the real.'. -- Brandon LaBelle








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Grumbling Fur 'Under Fur Moon'
'Daniel O'Sullivan and Alexander Tucker are long time friends and collaborators. Both artists are veterans of the UK experimental underground: O’Sullivan as a member of Guapo, Ulver, and Aethenor (with Stephen O’Malley), and Tucker with imbogodom and as an eclectic (read: Yeti) solo artist. They have craft avant-pop assembled as one would a collage. This structural foundation is built up via an eclectic array of instruments, both acoustic and modified, to pulsating electronic sounds. Add to this mix the pair’s entirely modern shamanistic meta-narratives, and the result is a contemporary psychedelic pop delight. Yes, as their history attests, this is a group unbound from the restrictions of traditionalism and unafraid to shed the pretence of pure abstraction.' -- Thrill Jockey






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Baths 'You're My Excuse To Travel', live in Tokyo
'For mercurial L.A. music-maker Will Wiesenfeld, Baths has been a long time coming. The 21-year-old has spent the better part of his days living amidst "pleasant" and "unremarkable" in the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, so perhaps it's due to a general lack of local inspiration that Wiesenfeld's own work has never fit into a prefab box of its own. Over the last six years, under the handle of [Post-Foetus], Wiesenfeld has gainfully explored the intersections and outer reaches of both electronic and acoustic music. With Baths, his eclecticism finds its greatest focus yet, in a hail of lush melodies, ghostly choirs, playful instrumentation and stuttering beats.' -- anticon






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Daniel Menche 'Marriage of Metals 1'
'In its history throughout millennia it is fair to say the Gamelan has never had an encounter quite like this. Marriage of Metals is a devastating extension of the harmonic properties found in the instruments of Indonesia. Menche was granted access to a remarkable Gamelan studio where he was given full privilege to record any and all of these rare and ancient gongs. Most notably the gigantic “Gong Ageng” that’s contains the deepest of deep of acoustic bass. Daniel Menche took the raw source material from this Gamelan gong session and launches into a heavily processed yet surprisingly sympathetic 21st Century take on this unique instrument. Marriage of Metals comprises two side long works where the purity of the sound source exists amongst the entire din. Metallic rhythms bounce alongside synthetic pops swaying from reality to fantasy, from pure acoustic tonality to fuzzed out distorted clatter. A distant feedback squall is teased amongst the foreground creating a clamorous din.'-- Editions Mego






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Teenage Guitar 'Atlantic Cod'
'A press release notes that despite the Teenage Guitar record being delivered under a new moniker, "this is pure high-potency solo Pollard," and finds the Ohio rocker laying down vocals, guitars and pianos. Guided By Voices bassist Greg Demos, however, contributed drums to the set, while Joe Patterson occasionally takes up bass duties. The LP was recorded by Pollard at home on "a historic mid-'90s Tascam 488 cassette recorder," and apparently the sessions bring to mind mid-'90s-era GBV releases like the Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer EP. While lyrics were reportedly composed before Pollard hit the record button, "the music flowed spontaneously while the tape ran."'-- Exclaim






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Young Echo 'Jupiter Rise'
'Young Echo is a loose collective of Bristol producers that includes Vessel and Kahn, with an emphasis on the "loose" part. The group's members have a common hunger for borderless experimentalism, but that, and their unruly radio show, is the only thing they share—though they've existed for years, Nexus is their first actual release as Young Echo. Considering their individual personalities, from Kahn's fundamentalist dubstep to Zhou's meditative drones, it's hard to picture how they could all come together for a full-length. As its name implies, Nexus is where the group meets, but it's not a simple convergence. Instead, it's the uneasy centre of their already porous identities and projects, and ends up every bit the glorious mess it should be.'-- Resident Advisor






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Paul Metzger 'Of the Passing'
'The idea to have 23 strings on a banjo was not a single "light bulb moment." Some banjos have a fifth string, a higher string on the top end of it. Instead of just having a single accent string there, I added initially just one, another one and then a third one, just to see what would come of those sounds. Things that would become available to me by having some extra strings to use as an accent would then further inspire me to add something else to the instrument, or then play it in a different way than is expected. When I first heard the instrument and was interested in music, as far as a banjo goes, I liked the sound of the instrument more than the type of music that was being played on it. So I was listening to instruments from India and Iran and Afghanistan that have certain sounds that are really quite similar to what you get out of a banjo or a guitar, if it's played a certain way.'-- Paul Metzger






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Kaffe Matthews 'Mount Magnet'
'Kaffe Matthews has been making and performing new electro-acoustic music since 1990. She is acknowledged as a leading figure and pioneer in the field of electronic improvisation and live composition making on average 50 performances a year worldwide. Kaffe has become known for making site-specific sound works live, playing in the dark in the middle of the space, the audience surrounding her, the sounds moving around them. She uses self-designed software matrices through which she pulls, pushes and reprocesses sounds live, using microphones, a theremin, and feedback within the space; the site then becoming her instrument.'-- The Jogwheel






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Julia Holter 'World'
'Classical and not-so-classical-at-all: Julia Holter’s music lies at a crossroads similar to the one where artists like Arthur Russell or Laurie Anderson reside. It’s the sound of an artist who has clearly been trained—in this case at Cal Arts with Michael Pisaro and in India singing with harmonium under guru Pashupati nath Mishra—and one that has no problem forgetting everything previously learned, if needed. Holter’s songwriting stems from a mythological reverence of that which is incomprehensibly beautiful.'-- Red Bull Music Academy






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Innode 'Gridshifter 05'
'Innode enters the world with an audacious debut of rhythm and sound, space and silence and an astonishing blend of the acoustic and the electronic. Spearheaded by Stefan Németh (co-founder of Radian, Lokai) in close collaboration with Steven Hess (Locrian, Pan.American, Cleared) and Bernhard Breuer (Elektro Guzzi, Tumido), Gridshifter is an intense, astonishing sonic experience which navigates the line between formal structures and experimental interplay. Conceived as a series of crossbred experiments where, on one side, a human rhythm triggers electronic signals whilst on the other electronic textures sculpt a platform for physical human engagement. The stark dynamics and Human/Non Human interaction manifests itself as a thrilling expose of 21st Century rhythm and noise.' -- Editions Mego






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Vår 'The World Fell'
'Vår is the project of four best friends from Copenhagen. Each member of the band is involved in several other Danish bands and all four members are also accomplished visual artists. What began as the extremely lo-fi two-piece of Elias Rønnenfelt and Loke Rahbek recording on 4-track has evolved into an experimental noise/industrial/techno pop quartet. Exploring themes of love, loss, vanity, hope, fear, sexuality and friendship and drawing more on literary influences than musical ones (Bataille and Shaffer, specifically), the band craft music which cannot be confined by any singular sub-genre. Words like “industrial” and “electronic” fall short here; they barely begin to scratch the surface of this work. This is soundtrack music for a play that has only begun to be imagined and is light years away from being consummated.' -- Sacred Bones Records






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The Durian Brothers 'Planete Sauvage'
'German trio The Durian Brothers are Stefan Schwander, Mark Matter and Florian Meyer. They play two pairs of Technics 1210s, prepared with elastic bands, sticky tape and Post-it notes, with Schwander on a sequencer and delay pedal, looping and layering sounds to create polyrhythmic patterns. The trio live in Brussels, Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe, and meet for a day at a time to record music. Previous to their current split release with Ekoplekz's turntablist moniker on FatCat, they have also released a series of EPs under their own label, Diskant.'-- The Wire






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Idea Fire Company 'live in Brooklyn' (excerpt)
'Idea Fire Company was formed in 1988 by Karla Borecky and Scott Foust and continues to this day, despite the odds. IFCO’s goal has always been to create experimental atmospheres to open up a more aesthetic approach to both the world and one’s own life. We strive to evoke possible alternative worlds as a direct opposition to the paucity of life under The Spectacle. IFCO has always been an open concept. As such, besides core members Karla and me, IFCO has included Matt Krefting, Graham Lambkin, Meara O’Reilly, Mike Popovich, Dr. Timothy Shortell, Jessi Swenson, and Frans de Waard, all friends, like-minded thinkers, and fine artists. IFCO’s relatively small catalog is partly due to Karla’s and my participation in other aesthetic endeavor, but it also reflects our ever increasing determination to craft each release into a diamond. And we don’t like to make the same diamond twice.'-- Scott Foust






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Midday Veil 'Great Cold of the Night'
'Seattle multimedia ensemble Midday Veil began in 2008 as a collaboration between vocalist and visual artist Emily Pothast and analog synth head David Golightly (whose studies in composition and electronic music included courses led by Karlheinz Stockhausen), however the broad palette of Midday Veil's characteristic sound owes much of its shapeshifting audacity to the addition in early 2009 of Timm Mason—a multi-instrumentalist obsessed with modular synthesis, musique concrète and Middle Eastern melodies—on baritone guitar. In 2011, the band added Jayson Kochan on bass and Sam Yoder on percussion. In 2012, original drummer Chris Pollina left the band and was replaced by Garrett Moore (Brain Fruit, Particle Being Trio).'-- The Stranger







*

p.s. Hey. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Acid reflux sucked, for sure. The post-AR eternal maintenance routine is easy but annoying. I miss onion rings like you can't even believe. Uh, I did this and that this weekend. Got stuff done, which is something of note considering that these sleep problems just will not get bored with me and bugger off. Any job moves or ideas or leads or whatever? Oh, I saw your second comment. Glad that things are sorted and/or getting there. The heatwave broke, yes. It's not chilly, by any means, but the outdoors is a lot more doable. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. No, the Manif pour tous guys are not far-right violent thugs. They're mainstream conservative religious young guys who know their shirtless antics will get their thing media attention and who think it's an interesting and amusing strategy to try to turn on gay guys while simultaneously decrying them. Over here, people mostly just think they're funny jerks. Social media users and bloggers Stateside seem to be conclusion jumping and confusing France for Russia or something. Yury thinks what's going in Russia is horrendous, of course. Like a lot of Russians, he's mostly cynical and resigned about how little can be done about it barring some kind of revolution. Yeah, I read that about Ben Wishaw. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! Thanks, man, re: the sleep thing. It's totally weird. Never had this happen before where I can fall asleep with no problem but then wake up for good no matter what I do at about 4:30 am every day. I'm just waiting for my body clock's current pattern to erode or give out. Not much else I can think of to do. I would completely love a goofy blog post from you, if you don't mind. First, your sensibility is always god, and, second, these sleep issues are not so conducive to making blog posts, and I'm way behind again. Did you see Frozen Cloak, lucky you? Really great to see you, my pal. ** Steevee, Hi. Like I said to David, the US gay blogs and Facebook people can't seem to distinguish the Russian situation from the situation here or something. Yeah, in a nutshell, that's the basic idea: 'akin to young, attractive women going topless to protest porn.' It's not exactly like that, but it's near enough the comparison is useful when interpreting them. Never heard of Dreamwater, hm. Like I said, though, I can fall asleep just fine, it's the fascistic body alarm clock thing that's the problem, and I don't know what can be added to me to fix that, and I don't want to take sleeping pills in the mornings, if I can help it. Thank you a lot for the tip, though. I will look into Dreamwater, just in case. ** MANCY, Yeah, it's so easy to take the ability to sleep for granted. Ouch, man, on the tooth thing. I broke two teeth while eating nothing especially challenging -- tortilla chips in one case -- a couple of years ago. Weird, no? I hope your gig last night went splendidly. ** Misanthrope, There's just been a Dewaere bio published over here, and I would imagine it presents some kind of theory, solid or not, about why he killed himself, but I haven't read it. I think every suicide is eternally inexplicable whether one leaves a note or has some contemporaneous real world problem or not. Okay, understood about story not-vs. novel. That's curious because I can't think of a single smoker friend of mine who happens to Black, past or present, who smoked/smokes menthol cigarettes. I wonder what it means. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. He's a really good actor, if you ever get the chance to see pretty much any movie he's in. Cool about the completion of profiling. Ooh, form decision time. I love that. Yeah, obviously, hook us up when the results are are visible. ** Statictick, Hi, N. Thanks about the post. Thank you eternally for being you in all your myriad ways, man. That's sweet about your mom. Give her the best of all possible bests from me. Someone told me something vague about your 'in jail' thing. I didn't fully understand, but, Jesus, man. I hope the outcome of that is as close to circumstantial perfection as possible. Love to you too, bud. ** œ, Hi. I'm glad you like conversation with me. The feeling is mutual. I only don't wear bracelets because I don't have bracelets to wear, I think. I don't know. I'm so sorry about your health failings. I mean, how so, if you want to say? Oh, a post on 'Snapshots' would be great! I love that book, and it's among the least noted and discussed of R-G's books, I think. From what I see. I'm so pleased to hear that you're enjoying working. That state is one of emotion's greatest rulers. You have a great week too! ** Okay. Gig posts featuring music that I'm newly listening to, liking, and recommending tend to be the most skipped over posts among the constituency around here, but, hey, I seem to like making them, and this one is out of my hands, and the power is now in yours, and the rest is mystery. See you tomorrow.

* all words and images from Robert Bresson












“Bring together things that have not yet been brought together and did not seem predisposed to be so.”













“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.”







“Be the first to see what you see as you see it.”











"Let nothing be changed and all be different.”











"The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine."







"My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water."







“Models. Mechanized outwardly, Intact, virgin within.”







"Hide the ideas, but so that people find them. The most important will be the most hidden."







"Slow films in which everyone is galloping and gesticulating; swift films in which people hardly stir."







"The true is inimitable, the false untransformable."







"Avoid paroxysms (anger, terror, etc.) which one is obliged to simulate, and in which everybody is alike."







"No psychology (of the kind which discovers only what it can explain)."











"To forge for oneself iron laws, if only in order to obey or disobey them with difficulty."







"The real is not dramatic. Drama will be born of a certain march of non-dramatic elements."










“One does not create by adding, but by taking away. To develop is another matter. (Not to spread out.)"







"Let it be the intimate union of the images that charges them with emotion."














"An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it."







"Films can only be made by by-passing the will of those who appear in them, using not what they do, but what they are."








*

p.s. Hey. ** Statictick, Hi, N. Yeah, I'm a too-early riser of late, and the blog follows suit. Oh, gosh, thanks, man. I just ... I don't know. I hope you and she can take it as far from there as possible. Thanks for what you posted on FB today or last night -- the transatlantic thing is confusing -- and for the Antonio stuff. Love/loved him vastly. A bit better sleep last night, fingers crossed. I've never been an insomniac, thank goodness, and I'm not even one now. I just have a weirdly stuck body clock problem or something. Meditation doesn't work for me. I tried it for a while years back. My brain is too busy. Anyway, I'm not unusually stressed or anything, and that's why it's been so odd.  A cigarette sounds good. In fact, excuse me for a moment, or, in your case, until tomorrow. ** Bollo, Hi, J. Thanks. Oh, right, shit, I still haven't checked out the new Ben Frost and Le1f, stuff, but I've scribbled them down, so I will. Very cool reading you're doing. I don't think I know of Simon Critchley, unless I'm spacing, which is hugely possible. That starting fresh angle is the way to go, I think. I don't know if I think that the vacuum frustration creates around a particular work or more can be circumvented without giving the instigating work a temporary (at least) cold shoulder. Buffy! I got a wee bit more sleep last night, and that bad sleep thing is the only non-awesome thing at play in my life of late. Thanks! ** œ, Hi. I'm very happy you liked the Teenage Guitar track since that's by my living god Robert Pollard under one of his pseudonyms. The album that the track is from is similarly gorgeous. Interesting that 'Snapshots' is your favorite R-G. That's nice. Mm, I don't know why I don't wear a bracelet. I never buy myself things except in emergency. That's part of it, I guess. And I guess I seem to like having a bare bones appearance, partly, I'm sure, because my clothes/dye allergy leaves my outward appearance necessarily utilitarian. Thank you for talking as you did about your malady. Of course the reactions that you recount are bewildering to hear about. Selfishness takes such strange forms sometimes. A random day? Gosh, thank you so kindly! The smell of cooked onions ...I can't remember if I like that smell or not. I like the small of raw onions. I like anything that makes me cry, ha ha. ** MyNeighbourJohnTurtorro, Hi, Huseyin! Welcome to the inner sanctum of this place, and it's awesome of you to want to be here. Thank you a lot for saying that about the music post(s). You have a great favorites list on your profile. Anything you've heard of late that you recommend? Julia Holter, yeah. Her new album is a bit spruced up, but not in a bad way, and I wonder if that'll enlarge her audience, hard to tell. Yeah, please come back anytime, and thank you a lot! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. It's actually not hard to separate them if you look at them attentively and without seeing a generalized red. ** 'Matt', Hi! I can only imagine re: what you said about studying with Florian Hecker. As you might know, he performed as part of a festival called Teenage Hallucination' that Gisele Vienne and I organized at Centre Pompidou last year, and his set caused a riot. People screamed and yelled, and one audience member rushed onto the stage and tore apart the sound system trying to get him to stop, and two attendees tried to sue the Pompidou for the emotional distress caused by his piece. It was weird. Thanks so much for the link to your installation video. I just watched the first few seconds, and it looks great, and I'll take it off pause as soon as I'm finished here. Everyone, d.l. and supremely talented artist 'Matt' studied with the great Florian Hecker at MIT and made an installation called 'VERTICAL THEATER' as his final project, and you can watch a video of the piece by clicking this, and I highly recommend that you do. And here's a photo of 'Matt' and the legendary Keiji Haino taken during 'Matt's' stint as Haino's road manager. Amazing stories of your life on the road with Haino. Wow, so nice. Just yesterday, I was putting together a Raymond Pettibon post, and I found video of a weird collab. performance by Raymond and Haino in Germany, something I never would have imagined happening. And Aki Onda! He was living here at the Recollets for a while last year, and what an amazing guy he is on top of his great work. Thank you very much about the vinyl. Wow, yes, I would love very much to read your paper about Bresson and Heidegger, if you don't mind. Thank you! And what an interesting coincidence that we speak of that today. Really such a true pleasure to be able to talk with you again, man. ** Matty B., Hi, Matty! Oh, shit, the blurb. Sorry. I've been having sleep problems for weeks, and my memory is shot-ish. I'll get back to that today. The books you sent ... through the post? If so, no, I haven't gotten them, yet anyway. Weird. Congrats on the house! Any chance of seeing a pic of that chandelier? Yes, I know Tom Spanbauer. His work, I mean, not him personally. I hear he's a very good teacher, so that's cool. Other than the sleep thing, I'm doing great, yeah, thanks! ** Steevee, Thanks for linking me up with Dreamwater. I'll def. investigate it. Thanks about the day too. The Young Echo album is really nice, yeah? I was actually listening to some tracks from HARAFINSO just the other day, weirdly enough. Very, very curious sound. Maybe I'll spring for the album. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. The Vår album is probably the album I've played the most of any album this year. I don't know Helena Hauff. Thanks a lot. I'll spin the podcast. Everyone, the unimpeachable _B_A has a tip and a Yuck n Yum update for you: 'My new music fixation: I've just discovered the raw lo-fi acid of Helena Hauff this past week. Her recent Resident Advisor podcast is the best mix I've heard in ages, and there's a great interview with her here at Vice. ... Oh yeah the latest Yuck 'n Yum AGK teaser promo is out, and it contains some extreme Rachel Maclean!' Thanks, Ben. ** Alan Hoffman, Hi, Alan! It's great to see you! I only discovered Paul Metzger's work very recently thanks to the ever crucial Wire. Incredibly amazing work. I'm very enthralled, and a national treasure, yes, he would have to be. Thanks about the Patrick Dewaere Day. Oh, I'm so bad with email, and even more so of late what with the lack of sleep related inner space-enlarging problem, so thank you for the nudge. I did hear from Gene Gregorits, and I will write him back today, I promise. An audio surprise? Ooh, exciting. I will count the days even not knowing the amount of days I will need to count. Thanks a lot, sir. ** Rewritedept, Hi. I like tunes and anti-tunes. I go back and forth. Alway cool to hear GbV related talk. The aunt lodgings sound sorted and easy, so very cool. Well, that's what I do. Just get up, drink a ton of coffee and work. We only have one room with a loft area for the bed, but I'm pretty quiet. Iceage and Var are both great, so you can't steer wrongly there. I know how that is about a band, and re: True Widow, i.e. hitting the personal spot. I'll do some writing today, yeah, I think. And you enjoy all of your myriad stuff, yeah? ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! I'm good, sleep thing aside. My total pleasure about the music sharing, of course. You're writing/ revising a lot equals great, great news! And very sweet about the Lil B show and his generosity. So, I guess his recent health issues have been solved? I'd planned to see 'Only God Forgives' this weekend, but I was too dragged out from lack of sleep, and I had this feeling that I would just fall asleep if I tried to sit in one spot and look at something without doing things. Asap, though. I like Refn's films a bunch, and I'm excited for it. Really interesting: the Noh theater comparison and the rest of your Refn thoughts. Very beautiful thoughts, man. I haven't heard about Tao's deletion fest yet. Is that true about the factioning amount the 'Alt Lit' writers? Yeah, I guess it was inevitable, but it could just be a natural progression that will be productive in some way or clarifying or something as time keeps passing? Does it feel like an unnatural shift to you? I think I've only noticed vague traces of that shift in my observer and follower position. I have been wondering what's up with Stephen McDowell, who has seemed very glum and self-isolating or something in the things I've seen him post recently. And I have felt like it is a time of people hunkering down and working on books or projects at the moment, which is, ostensibly, a very good thing. Of course, it's very depressing to hear that there are people who are starting to 'see alt lit as this slightly embarrassing bunch of amateurs'. That's so wrong headed and conservative or something. Ugh. Thank you a lot for talking about all of that. I'm very, very interested in what's happening with the writers, and, as I said in the interview, both curious and concerned about the recent changes in externally paid attention and what will result. Take care, buddy. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! Thanks about the sleep. It got a little better last night, but it has gotten better before for a night, so I don't know. Thanks so much about the post making. I really, really appreciate it. Cheers supreme! ** Sypha, Hi, James. Urgh, I shouldn't complain since I have nothing but self-designed days to suffer through while tired. A day whipped up by you would of course be amazing, if that's possible and of interest to you! Thank you muchly, man. ** Right. Oh, there's another scrapbook page. Another fundaments rethinking and refreshing one. Hope it has something. See you tomorrow.

To me, being an artist means you are able to step back and look at the world from a detached standpoint, it is a necessary process that all creative persons undertake, and therefore naturally sets us apart from the majority of the population; and having mental health problems puts you into an even smaller minority of society. But what would humanity be like without those that struggle with mental illness? In 1940, researchers at the McLean Hospital in Boston wrote; 'If we could extinguish the sufferers from manic-depressive psychosis from the world, we would at the same time deprive ourselves of an immeasurable amount of the accomplished and good, of colour and warmth, of spirit and freshness. Finally, only dried-up bureaucrats would be left. Here I must say that I would rather accept into the bargain the diseased manic-depressives than to give up the healthy individuals of the same hereditary cycle.'

I believe that the average person who lives their life trying to fit in with the latest phone, TV show, haircut and popular music is just in a permanent state of distraction; distraction from thinking, about how shit life really is, about how uninterested they are with their mediocre life, their boring job, their thrown away dreams. Maybe the closest ‘they’ come to exploring into other realms of consciousness is when they sleep.

Bruce Springsteen said; “You don't really choose the voice you follow; you sort of follow the voice that's in your head. You're lucky if you find it. And once you’ve found it, you're supposed to listen to it.” Is the popular music, the games, the TV shows drowning out the voice in our head? Are we trying to ignore the voice because it is something we cannot deal with? Artists certainly don’t distract or ignore the voice, we listen to it, we engage, and we interrogate every part of our somewhat miserable lives and find ways to deal with that through creative outputs. This is maybe why people on the creative path are so susceptible to mental health issues. In that sense, we are probably more in touch with reality than those without mental health problems.

“There is no reality except the one contained within us. This is why so many people lead such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.” Herman Hesse.

A lot of great art comes from unthinkable discomfort and the need to address those issues and answer questions which plague the mind. I strongly believe that you have to go to these impossible places of dark depression, you have to understand how it feels to be suicidal, you must recognise the dark force of immeasurable pain before you can come back and tell the tale; the idea is that you must first suffer if you wish to tell a story. But this is not yet fully accepted in society, the story you tell about being on the edge of destruction, the scars they see can make them recoil in horror. When speaking about my work I have seen the uncomfortable shift in the audience, the darting eyes and red faced apprehension. It has led me to research into society as a whole and how people react to the things they don’t fully understand.

I am now obsessed with the dark struggle between our subconscious and how we act in public. It is not deemed ‘normal’ behaviour to go round the streets pretending to attack other people, to stand and speak your mind about all the evil, venomous monsters which inhabit your brain; to act out the action scenes from your favourite films, using the uninterested public as your extras.

A reviewer of Federico Garcia Lorca’s work wrote: “Lorca saw clearly how the dead hand of socialisation sits heavily upon the passionate self that is the dark part of the human animal that most intimately identifies us as elements of the natural world. All of Lorca’s work centres relentlessly, perhaps obsessively upon the dark struggle between this sublimated consciousness and the socialised self.”

Speaking of hands, Rebecca Horn’s work, ‘Finger Gloves’ explores reactions to wearing gloves, altering her relationship with her surroundings as she can move things without feeling them and keeps a certain distance from the objects; putting a barrier in between herself and the world, keeping a distance from society. It is an interesting approach and made me think about the disguise I use to socialise, the extra layer of skin I pull down from my forehead to chin to protect my vulnerable self. Horn uses gloves as a defence mechanism to her environment and I use controlled and learn techniques to block all outside variables. The concrete barrier in my mind to ensure society does not affect my thought processes is concise and practised; I paint my face with red, white and black, zombie make up and club kid attire; I am an everlasting guest at a masquerade ball; constantly worrying about how I view the world and the violent beliefs that haunt my mind.

But we all think dark, evil, perverted thoughts, it’s just most commonly creative people who are not afraid to confront and use it for their art. It is the grey areas where artists, philosophers, musicians live. Most other people are just happy to get by in the black and white areas. It really affects how I look and process society; there are many times what I speak to friends and become extremely confused and anxious that they are speaking as an adult, planning out their remaining lives within the box of civilisation. It would be a living hell for me to conform to the norm, have a family, a ‘nine to five’ job and a mortgage. I need to live on the edge of life, teetering on the ledge as I swim in inspiration and regret. I need the depression, I need the mania, and I need the grey areas to truly live. Due to this logic, I often feel rejected from society; I don’t fit into the mould of ‘normal’ and struggle to engage with people who are deemed popular. I tend to get on much better with the outcasts and the vulnerable as I see myself within them. It is about identifying and having empathy for those similar to yourself. Knowing that I live in the grey area, dismissing the idea that everything is black or white is extremely satisfying and helps me to engage with my practice and my life.




*

p.s. Hey. Incredible artist and d.l. Lizz Brady, whose The Ballad of Sister Jude guest-post you surely remember from this past June, offers us this fascinating look/see into her impetus as an artist today, and your attention will be greatly rewarded. Please dig in and speak of your building thoughts to our guest host, thank you, and thank you a million for entrusting this to my blog, Lizz. ** Cassandra Troyan, Hi, Cassandra! Thanks so much, and that's interesting about the parallels in our task setting. I'd love to hear about the specifics of yours, if you feel like it. Yeah, 'LddBdB' is pretty great, even if I think Bresson hadn't totally hit his masterful stride yet. I have seen 'Léon Morin, prêtre', but not for a very long time, and that's fascinating -- the ties you mention -- so I'll make it a point to watch it again asap. All's well here, and I hope the same can be said re: you and yours. ** Jheorgge, Hi! Thank you, man. Yeah, I decided to get really back into Bresson and Blanchot for this possible new novel. It's true that they're never too far from my thoughts, but I haven't actually spent serious time in their churches re: my work in a while, and I think centering myself back there is a good idea. Wow, well, good about the lymphoma, very obviously, but I'm so incredibly sorry to hear about this HLH discovery. Man, so much love and strength to you right now, and, yeah, please tough it out as best you can, and hopefully bad health will be a surreal memory before too, too long. Great, I'm excited to read your story! And, by the way, I really liked the music you linked me to a short while back. Really beautiful stuff. Kudos! Everyone, super fine writer, artist, music maker, d.l., and much more Jheorgge has finished a new short story, 'A Goat-Fucked Causality', and, if you have a little time today, it would be incredibly well-spent here reading it. And if you want to see evidence of his talent in the visual realm, here are some new drawings of his due to be included in a forthcoming book of his work. Must read/sees there. I look forward to spending time with your drawings too in a bit. Thanks about 'TMS'. Yeah, you take incredibly good care of yourself, okay? See you soon, I hope. ** œ, Hi. Thank you about the scrapbook page. Yeah, I hate buying things for myself. I don't know why. I've always been that way. God, I'm so sorry about your health. I wish there was something I could do, or maybe there is? 'Mouchette' is amazing, and, yes, that scene is really, really something. Love and hugs. ** Scunnard, Hi, J. Any sleep you can siphon off and magically wing my way would be money in the bank or something. Uh what? ** Grant Scicluna, Hi. I'll take that as a yes, ha ha, thank you, sir. ** Kiddiepunk, Punkster! I'll take that as a YEAH!!!, thanks!!! ** Cobaltfram, You're back! Hi, John! Welcome, welcome! Did you get to see the comments on that piece you kindly posted here ages back? I think you became silent around then. No, you didn't mention that Chad was in the hospital. Jeez, I'm glad he got through that and is doing better. Holy crap! Well, I'm glad to hear about the impact, of course. I want to keep what the new novel is about under wraps for now. I guess whatever filters out through the scrapbook pages will constitute hints or something. I've started fresh, although there might be a bit of the failed novel involved in a transformed way, I'm not sure yet. Great about your book's forward chugging. No, I've almost seen 'OGF' a couple of times, but not yet. Soon for sure. I don't think 'TAoK' is over here yet. Or it came and went while my mind and/or body was elsewhere maybe. I really want to see it and will, in any case. Really good to see you too, man! ** David Ehrenstein, That he is! Good suggested Bresson trajectory to James. Sure wish I was there to see 'Imitation of Christ'. Everyone, if you're in LA, Mr. David Ehrenstein has an excellent suggestion: 'Andy Warhol's Imitation of Christ (1967) will be screening tomorrow night (for free) at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum in Westwood This is part of program launching William E. Jones Imtation of Christ book which is about Andy's film and the Thomas A Kempis original prayer book. Part of the 25 hour long ***(Four Stars, Imitation of Christ is being shown in its sort 105 min version. There is a 6 Hour cut as well. Be There or Be Square!'  ** Tosh Berman, Ha ha, hm, I don't know about that blog retitling, but it's a sweetie. Don't know if Bresson is/was Melville's age. I knew maybe a couple of writers who kept scrapbooks re: their writing like I did, but very few, or few that revealed that part of their process at least. Thanks, Tosh. ** Steevee, Cool, finally. I look forward to reading it. Everyone, the mighty Steevee has written an article for the Roger Ebert website called FRESH BLOOD: THREE GREAT DIRECTORS OF DIRECT-TO-VIDEO ACTION, and there is no question that you would be very well served by reading it, which I suspect you already know. Personally, I would not post the link on Facebook for the reason you mentioned. I mean if I were you. ** MyNeighbourJohnTurtorro, Hi! I'm so happy that you're here to stay. Cool. I only heard the new Knife album once. I need to start listening to it. I wasn't sure about it, but I was into way different kinds of things when I heard it. We're on the same page about the other things you're listening to. I'm listening to all of them as well. I like the Palms album. What's the beef with it? Julia Holter does seem to be weirdly tough for people, and I don't quite get why. How organized it is? The unusual way she works with formalities? Hm. Anyway, I look forward to much more talking with you for sure. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! So sweet to see you, man! Thank you a lot re: the scrapbook. I actually heard something about your maybe movement towards St. Johns College, but not that you applied. That seems like nothing but an awesome idea. Right, I remember that Aviva is from there? She bailed on acting? And she's happy? That's all I need to hear, clearly. I'll read that thing you linked me to as soon as this thing is history for me and born for everybody else. So excited for your 'Earthbound' book! Yes, I hope you did wish Michael a happy birthday from me. I just listened to his Tao interview yesterday, which I thought was great. I'm good. Been having weird sleep problems, but, otherwise, I'm working on stuff: novel, new Gisele piece, two collabs with my great friend Zac, traveling a lot. Yeah, things are really good. So good to see you, Ken! ** Gary gray, Hi, man! Thanks. Second guess myself? I'm not sure if I know what you mean. I guess I feel like I multiply guess myself about everything except the deep need at the heart of whatever. I guess I do have a lot of faith in my instincts though, on the other hand. It's a combo, I guess. And for you? New laptop, nice. Eric Copeland: Have I read him? I can't remember. My brain is kind of toasted of late. I'll go check. I'm very good in general, thank you, and you sound good, which is, you know, good! ** Grant maierhofer, Gosh, thanks, Grant! Like I think I've said here and there a bunch of times, most of my big influences come from mediums other than writing. That's where the innovative stuff seems to lie. Or it lies in the discrepancies between other mediums' methods/forms and writing's or something. That does suck about the poetry press going under, but yeah, there'll be another one. I'm well, and you sound quite well. ** Michael, Hi, Michael! Yeah, I'm not sure of my movements either, but we can try to sort it as the time approaches. Would be very cool. Bresson and Blanchot being spiritual doubles makes a weird amount of sense, and I had never even thought about that. Huh. I wonder if they knew each other personally. Best to you too! ** Sypha, Hi, James. Well, you should see a Bresson film, but obviously I would say that. Great that 'S&UT' is unofficially done. The line between official and un- is usually pretty fine. ** David Saä V. Estornell, Thank you, kind David! ** Thomas Moronic, Thanks and thanks. Heavy, yeah, I guess so, right? And sacred too, sure. Sacred makes a lot of sense re: the novel. Heavy does too, but mostly just in league with the writing and process part. I'll see 'The Canyons' at some point, but I feel a weird indifference about it in advance for some reason. Would love to read your thoughts on it, of course. That could easily be the dispeller of my indifference. Oh, your great guest post will go up on the blog on this coming Monday. Thank you so much again! ** _Black_Acrylic, Thank you, Ben. How did 'Paradise: Faith' sit with you? I have to find a way to see this trilogy. ** Bollo, Hi, J. Oh, very cool, thanks for linking me to the Le1f album. I'll be all over that today. Back to Norway! Oslo? ** MANCY, Hi! Well, more Bresson is an excellent idea, I think, unsurprisingly. Thanks about the music posts, man. I hope you're feeling better. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. The b&w thing has to do, I think, with some kind of tone that I think I need to work with as a starting point, and I think it's a measuring device idea, if that makes any sense. Cool music suggestions. I've just made notes. Yes, I was very lucky to see three of Reza Abdoh's pieces. And I knew him personally just a little bit. Amazing work, all over the place sometimes, but it hit incredible genius at times, and, yeah, it was terrible, terrible loss when he died. Guest-posts, sweet, man. Thank you! ** Misanthrope, Whoops, on the sleep thing. Or, I don't know, why would it be whoops? Sleep is good. I want some. Sure, I think that, like in case of some killing themselves due to having a terminal illness, it's more understandable. I just think that, in most or many cases, the person doing it may know why or may be killing themselves to avoid knowing why, but I think it's impossible for people who knew the person who committed suicide to know why. Just the basic 'no one really knows anyone else' thing plus the inadequacies of verbal expression to represent emotion fully or to be interpreted fully by the recipient plus other stuff. I did not know that about Newport. Weird. I really don't think Newport is big in France. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't ever remember seeing Newport cigarettes being smoked or sold here. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. Thanks much about the scrapbook pages. Mm, if the novel has a real world setting, it'll probably be Paris/Europe, but I'm not sure if it will have one yet. It's likely, but there are imaginary settings at play too, and that probably doesn't make much sense, I guess. Hard to explain and I'm hesitant to. I think this novel needs a lot of privacy, at least in the early stages, to happen. Very interesting about the alt it situation. Fucking trolls, ugh. I think I've read more about them than actually seen their antics up close. I'm glad to hear that about SMM. I think maybe he was just in a low mood and venting on FB for a few days or something. Exactly, I agree that what has been accomplished and innovated will have a lasting effect, whatever happens to the original gang of writers who created it. It's such an interesting time. I hope you have a sweet Wednesday too, man. ** Okay. Please give yourself the gift of Lizz Brady's gift until the next time we meet, meaning tomorrow.

'Process in art has always been a discussion, whether or not its an interesting discussion is a different story. New York-based Israeli Ofra Lapid has a fascinating process behind her series Broken Houses, which explores the concept of scale and illusion by creating incredibly detailed small scale models based on photographs of abandoned buildings she culled from the web. The series focuses on structures that have been neglected by their human counterparts and have fallen victim to weather and decay. They include crumbling miniature houses and neglected barns, some merely dilapidated, others completely collapsed.

'"I was very intrigued by these images in both the plastic level, their shapes and structure," Lapid says, "as well as in their subject matter, the idea of a typical house structure wearing down." Just as the photographers of the original images were moved to capture, and thereby arrest, the decomposing process, Lapid was inspired to rebuild and preserve the buildings before their total collapse.

'Creating these scale models involves building three dimensional panels, attaching the original photograph to each panel and then assembling the panels using tiny wooden "beams" to keep areas of the newly invented structure upright, creating a 3-D effect. She then photographs them again in front of a gray background. The sculptures are all sized around 12 x 14 inches. In several cases, the houses appear to be plucked straight out of their origins and transported to a photography studio. The end result is an array of stunning photographs, which feature homes that are sun bleached, with crumbling bricks, broken windows and doors hanging from the shingle.

'On the use of web-based images, Lapid believes it gives her the freedom to appreciate its image and context "namely, the story behind it, the subject matter. I enjoy manipulating the original photograph: erase; cut, copy, and paste; print; create crafty models; build something broken; create an illusion; change the meaning; emphasize something from the past; photograph a photograph; enlarge something that is very small; meet new people; discover remote parts of the world; be in many places at once; humanize the computer; settle conflicts."' -- collaged




The artist












Sideshow


Abandoned House Imminent Collapse


imminent collapse update


Imminent Collapse Update #3


The Real Monster House


Mt Airy Twin Arch Rd House Fire with Collapse


home video captures a building collapse with people still in it in Russia


Apartment building collapse




Further

Ofra Lapid's Website
Ofra Lapid @ Facebook
100 dilapidated houses
Residents want dilapidated house in West Deer torn down
Eerie images of abandoned farm houses where even the beds are still made
Planning committee discusses dilapidated houses in Ithaca
Flickr: Dilapidated Houses Group
The worlds most dilapidated houses
The Pease House
NO QUICK FIX: Dilapidated houses
Dilapidated house disgusts, frustrates neighbors
Abandoned Houses: One Block in Detroit
Dilapidated House Escape Game




Show





































































































*

p.s. Hey. ** œ, Hi. Oh, I'm not really a person who feels or harbors much hate. It takes a lot. I'm very logical and pragmatic about stuff most of the time. I only really hate people who hurt or take advantage of people I love and care about. I don't even really hate summer. That was just my California casualness with language. I just don't dig summer very much. I don't like other people's hatred so much as a general rule, I don't think. I mean, people can express hatred here if they want, and everything is interesting and instructive, but when things get heated here, it mostly just stresses me out and makes doing this more difficult, and doing this is intensive enough as it is, I guess. I'm glad you're happy! Happy comments, I like them. Love, me. ** Scunnard, Hi, man. ** Grant Scicluna, Hi. Great words back to Lizz. Pleasure to have peeked in on them. Those two are great quotes/ideas of Bresson's, obviously. It must be interesting to try to implement Bressonisms in film work. I'm so used to having to make the big translation of his ideas into the medium of writing where they feel excitingly foreign. Although maybe they feel foreign or out of the blue or something fresh/exciting in filmmaking too. You sound good! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. I can see some parallels between Bresson and Melville, but there are so many differences, as you point out. Yeah, Delon and Monnier only really had one quality in common, if you catch my drift. Ah, curious to see 'The Grandmaster' then. Hopefully it hasn't come and gone here already. ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. Less traumatic, oh yes. Anything would be less traumatic than the George novel. This one is consuming and very emotional, but, no, not traumatic at all. Not all that many people have read Blanchot, so I'm not surprised. He's good to read, though, that's for sure. Reading a lot is awesome. If I can ever get rid of my sleep problem and its effect on my concentration, I want to get back to doing that. Very, very happy to hear you're on solid ground, man. Things are going swimmingly on my end indeed. ** James, Hi. Awesome words/thoughts to Lizz. I got your email. I'll write to you. I'm just wiped out in the head a bit from sleep problems, but, yeah, I'll get back to you. The novel-in-progress is going very well at the moment, thank you. ** Rewritedept, All GbV is great, TVT era included. I love the TVT era stuff. Listening to Scratch Acid sounds good. I think I'll do that. Giant burrito, envy. You can get burritos here if you hunt diligently, but they're never big or truly great. Crazy or of note things of late? Hm ... oh, my best friend Zac got back after a month away, and we hung out, and that was the greatest thing ever. Other than that, just working and being bleary and stuff. Yeah, the porn film is back on. I'm making with Zac. He'll direct it. We're revising/tweaking the script I wrote five years ago or whatever. I should say the porn film will be on if we can get money to make it. Ha ha, no, I won't be in it. I wrote it, and I'll probably be sort of an assistant director to Zac. I think it'll be strange relative to almost all porn films. I mean it has complicated dialogues and people crying and committing suicide and all sort of challenging stuff re: the porn context in it. Yeah, I prefer the non-chronological GbV 'best of' album too, although hearing the songs in order is interesting as a trajectory graph of Pollard's developing ideas. 'Kicker of Elves' is a goodie, yeah. My faves change hourly, it seems like. ** Steevee, Hi. Nice piece on the Ebert site. Very sharp. Yeah, it's partly that umpteenth fatigue thing that lessens my interest. I'll see it, though. I'm not a big fan of Schrader's directorial efforts, but I'm curious to hear Bret's dialogues. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Cool and ultimately unsurprising that the Seidl was terrific. I just read an interview with Bennett on a Edinburgh-based website. That's why that happened, I guess. That should be a great show. Enjoy, enjoy! ** Bollo, Hi, J. The Le1f was excellent, so I'm very happy to get more. Thank you! Bresson's widow is very controlling about that can be used as extras, so there usually aren't a ton, although the recent 'A Man Escaped' Criterion DVD has some really great stuff included. That next show you're in sounds really interesting. Do you feel kinship with the other artists, or any of them? Cool, I'll watch the Simon Critchley video when I'm out of here. It's hot there still? It has cooled down to reasonableness here, for the moment. I think we drove through Lillistrøm when we were there maybe. Sounds really familiar. ** Misanthrope, Good about that sleep if not about the latest version. Five hours is a regular for me of late, and I'm one of those people who need at 7 1/2 hours to feel normal. Oh, the day approaches. I mean when Little Show goes. Oh, that's sad. Will he be able to come up and visit and stay with you guys on weekends at times and stuff? I know you will enjoy Killers, so I needn't even wish for that outcome. Figured that we're simpatico on suicide. ** Torn porter, Hey! Welcome back! The Bennesse corporation seems like it must own quite a portion of Naoshima. Their stuff is everywhere, and their funding decisions seem pretty cool. I just looked up Shodoshima and discovered initial stuff about it, like that its name translates as 'Small Beans' and about the olive trees galore and all that. And the Kankakei Ropeway. I'm kind of into ropeways. It sounds/looks beautiful and quiet. I think my friend and I will be going back to Japan this winter, and maybe we can go there, if we have time to travel. You stay in Roppongi in Tokyo. That's nice, central. There was so much stuff I liked so much in Tokyo, it's hard to know where to start. And a lot of our time was spent wandering around and coming across things like you did. Uh, oh, if you want to eat an amazing meal in a totally amazing context, eat at Itosho. Here's info on it. Totally singular experience. 109 Men store in Shibuya is a tight, tall building packed with crazy young Japanese fashion designer store-ettes. I'm a big amusement park aficionado, and it's two hours outside Tokyo, but Fuji-Q is fantastic, if you like that kind of thing. So much. I'll have to think more. Paris is great. Fantastic city, I love it, and life is good. Really nice to see you! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. The works of Reza's that I saw were 'The Law of Remains', 'Tight Right White', and 'Quotations From a Ruined City'. They were all fascinating, and I think 'Quotations ...' was probably my favorite. I really didn't know all that well. I talked with him at events a number of times. He liked the performance works that I was making with Ishmael Houston-Jones, and, at one point, he was interested in collaborating with us on something, and I met with him about that. I think I can only tell you what everyone probably says about him, that he was intense, very serious, and very, very intelligent. Amazing guy. Just so awful that he died so young, but he did make incredible things. ** Kyler, Hi, Kyler! 'Tight Right White' was great, right? I loved it too. Summer vacation in the park sounds A-okay. I'm really out of it 'cos I can't sleep good, so not in a good way. Fire Island, wow, I haven't been there since, gosh, the late '80s, I think. I hope you had a solid sleep, and good morning! ** S., Hi, S! Missed you, man. New stack! It's a very interesting one. Everyone, here's S.'s new Emo stack, and it has some penis and ass for those of you like those sorts of things, and it also some very unexpected stack parts for those you who like unexpected things. Mwah to you! Rawr! Yikes, about the collapse. I like confusion, but not when mixed with boredom and being stuck. Sorry, man. Probably some kind of crucial trial by fire thing that'll shoot you out the other side better than ever. That's what I reckon. But, yeah, tell me what's up or down or what have you, man. Lots of love. ** Okay. Got a show in the galerie today, and I hope you like it. See you tomorrow.

This is a precious little book to understand Roland Barthes and modern writings that happened in the cases of Roland Barthes and Alain Robbe-Grillet. The small volume of this book may cause people to underrate the quality of this book. But I went through many Barthes's own books before I get to this, and delightfully learned various "theoretic" sides of Barthes's work in this, more personable, but still finely trimmed, likable languages, while passing through hazy subjects such as memory, seed-bed of tics, cautiousness, contradictory personicity in/against the text, etc. One essay, 'Why I love Barthes'(1978) is written in the form of cordial dialogue between Robbe-Grillet and Barthes, and the book, followingly, presents other essays on Barthes, (Roland Barthes’s Choice, 1981, Yet Another Roland Barthes, 1995, and I like, I Don’t Like, 1980) in Robbe-Grillet's own appreciation and tangential, albeit heart-learnt, adoption of Barthes’s personcity in his writing. A trial in this book is to distance a literary friendship from a real friendship between them, and instead, to focus on the text in their lovingly drifting dialogue and their own writings, “Barthes” and “Robbe-Grillet,” both as novelists via the text-slippages and the text-persons. I found it an excellent book for an advanced reader of Roland Barthes, in the textual-proximity from his diligent and amorous reader, Robbe-Grillet, not to mention, discovering its value to approach a friendship of Barthes and Robbe-Grillet, understanding what a literary friendship would be like. Also, Robbe-Grillet's own essays display the emotions and the sentiments of the modern writer, in his attachments to small thingness such as the object-text, and catalogues of liking & disliking of them, in addition to the writer “Roland Barthes.” A great, little book for theoretic learning on writing and im/personal pleasure and felicity[bonheur], for modern melancholics, in detour of two writers, Roland Barthes and Alain Robbe-Grillet.

(HyeMin)




Four pages from my scrapbook of Why I love Barthes (1978)












My highlighted, four pages of my scrapbook from Why I love Barthes (1978)

1. A dialogue, an exchange between Barthes and myself, on a certain number of points that are close to my heart, though they’re still very vague in my head
2. The subject: “Why do I love Barthes?”
3. By “Barthes” → Roland Barthes’s Work
4. I still learn texts by heart, as an exercise.
I enjoy doing this.
Whenever I recite a text, generally, in bath, I have the sense that I’m caught up in a much less absent-minded, much more intimate contact, because I can read it absent-mindedly but I can’t easily recite it absent-mindedly. And it’s a much more intimate contact because, when I analyze it, I always feel that I’m eliminating the text.
5. The word “Barthes,” --→ The writer “Barthes”
6. There is, so to speak, not an identity between this person and his text, but on the contrary, a tense, contradictory relationship.
---- “Barthes” *in* the text/ *against* the text
7. Barthes forms the person text that in my view is very close, for instance, to Flaubert.

[I love]
8. In what I’ve just been saying there, already, appears, a certain nuance to the words, “I love”
My relationship to this work-personage, this text-persons, this text-body, a relationship of novelist to novelist ----defines a certain type of amorous relationship of emotional contact.
[Why]

9 . Everything I’ve just said goes against the notion of “Because”


→ I feel the intense need to replace it by the idea of “how.”


10. How does it feel when one of his texts is going round in my head?

How do I live with that text?
How do I live with that text?

[Dialogue]
11. Roland Barthes ----…. His stupidities
12. Alain Robbe-Grillet ---- If you want to say something now, Roland, interrupt me straightaway.
                                            Roland, interrupt me straightaway. I love being interrupted. Especially, when I’ve rather lost track of what I’m saying.
13. Roland Barthes ---- I ‘m not disagreeing. I am drifting.
      Alain Robbe-Grillet ----


14.Roland Barthes ---- I don’t know a single text by heart. And I will go so far as to say (quite obviously) not even any of my own.

15. Amnesia : Montaigne defined himself as outside memory, eluding memory
Amnesia: Montaigne defined himself as outside memory, eluding memory

16. I invented an allegory; I told himself that, arriving here, we’d crossed a Normandy river called the river Memory and that, instead of this place being called Cerisy-la-Salle, it was called Haze-over-Memory. In fact, my amnesia has a character that isn’t brutally negative. My memory lets me down, it’s a haze. I live in a sort of hazy mist, in the impression that I’m always having to struggle with my memory. It’s an idea that would have consequences for writing, writing could be the field of memory’s haze, and memory’s haze, this imperfect memory that’s also an imperfect amnesia, is basically the field of thematics; a theme is something, that’s a both forgotten and not forgotten, and so can’t be captured by structural procedures, precisely because it’s a phenomenon of intensity, or ‘more’ or ‘less.’
17. I’ll drift off at another tangent, this time more of a question: the presence of the body in my text; Jacques-Alain Miller has mentioned it. I don’t think my body is present in my text. I mean that it’s a mystery. I don’t think, for instance, that my bodily drives run through my text.
18.Alain R-G---- your body, for you, but I was talking about your body for me…Obviously, everything I said just now is something you can’t endorse, since, after all, you’re the other…
19.Roland B----You’re allowing me to have a body for myself.
20. Roland B----I read a novel that I like, I want to do the same thing, but I seem to have resisted, up until now, certain operations that are supposedly inherent in the novel. For example, the smooth surface, the continuum. Could a novel be written in aphorisms, in fragments? In what conditions? Isn’t the very essence of the novel a certain continuum? I think there’s a resistance here. The second resistance seems to be the relationship to names, to proper names, I don’t know, I wouldn’t be able to invent proper names and I really think that the whole novel resides in proper names ---- the novel the way I read it, of course, and I’ve said as much in regard to Proust. For the time being, I feel a resistance to inventing names, at the same time that I really want to invent some. Perhaps I’ll write a novel the day I invent the proper names for that novel. I’ve long thought that there was a third resistance, having to use the word ‘he’, the ‘he’ of the novel, the third-person character; but I’ve started to adapt to this difficulty somewhat by mixing ‘I’ and ‘he’ in Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes. As for the relationship between the figure of the thinker and the figure of the novelist. We ought to take another look at the case of Sartre, who has inevitably made a name for himself as a major ‘thinker’ and yet has written novels: but he’s not viewed as a real novelist.
21.Alain R-G ---- but a modern novelist, the one who refuses to accept the established order of the novel, the rules of its game, in other words its characters with their names, etc. …The problem of the name has been settled for a long time: I myself wrote a novel where there isn’t a single proper name, in the Labyrinth. Ah, actually yes, there is a proper name: Henry Martin, who appears in the last pages and has no relationship with the book. It’s perfectly possible to write a novelistic text without a proper name.
22. Alain R-G---- Ah, right. So let me try to explain what I mean by novelist: how, for me, the structure of development of an adventure in a novel relates to the structure of development of a conceptual adventure of thought. This, I think, is the difference between trembling and slipping. Just now I conceded that conceptual thought could tremble, but tremble around a fixed axis; in other words it needs a core of solid meaning that will stop it getting runny, like a Camembert.
The structure of a slippage, on the other hand, is totally different; it never stops abandoning positions that it pretends to have won. From Barthes’s first texts, which I found immensely inspiring, for instance the start of Writing Degree Zero, which I could still recite today, I noticed these slippages. In particular, in the rhetorical shape of these fragments of discourse linked together by “in other words,” which means that, “in short,” etc.
You start out from something firm. We know that a language is a corpus of prescriptions and habits common to all the writers of a period’ (that’s clear, that’s how it is), and it immediately starts to slip: which means that a language is a kind of natural ambience wholly pervading the writer’s expression, yet without endowing it with form or content. This is already a kind of swindle since, in reality, it-does not mean that at all. It’s an idea that’s slipped, and it’s going to keep slipping, from metaphor to metaphor. As a result, in a single page, you won’t have found your footing but lost it: the swimmer who thinks he’s in shallow waters so he can touch bottom will instead have gradually lost his footing completely, even losing the very notion of footing since he now sees himself floating out in the open sea. From the end of the first page, I’m floating, and if I do hang on to any firm idea that would be, for me, the essence of the text. No, that text can’t be separated out, in Sartre’s terms, into a content and a form, I can’t find anything in it apart from its form, it has no content other than this kind of slippage that has occurred. And this strikes me as characteristic.
Florence Auriacombe ---- starting from this distinction between trembling and slipping, I am reminded of the theme that’s been referred to, the contrast between aphorism and fragment.
23. The Barthesian fragment is always slipping and its meaning lies not in the bits of content that may appear here and there but instead in the very fact of slipping. ‘Barthesian thought’ (in quotes, since I put thinkers in a different category) lies in slipping and not at all in the elements between which the thought has slipped.
‘Of course not, he didn’t say anything, he kept slipping from one fleeting meaning to another equally fleeting meaning.’ And it was precisely in this very movement of slippage tat resided the functioning of the text, the pleasure I’d taken in listening to it and, for that reason, its importance.
24. Barthes as a modern novelist.
Modern Novel? ---- simply presents fragments which, to crown it all, always describe the same thing – a thing which is almost nothing. But the movement of literature is this slippage from one scene to the same scene that repeats itself, in a form that’s barely diverted, barely converted, barely inverted… I can sense that you don’t agree.
25. Roland B ---- I do agree, but you’re the modern novelist.
26. Alain R-G ---- I was convinced that Barthes hadn’t said anything about me, but quite the opposite, that he was starting to talk to himself, not rigorously, since that would contradict everything. I’ve just said, but in a free floating way, and that the novelist Barthes was already starting to develop in his texts.
27. Roland B ----… you develop your argument in order to set out metaphors, in other words felicitous expressions, in yet other words, as Blanchot puts it, expressions as various kinds of felicity[bonheur]. You set out the expression as something felicitous and that is enshrined in all the “in other words,” ‘which means that’ etc. On the level of these little operators of discourse, we could take the investigation much further, in one sense. They’re merely linguistic tics.
28. Roland B ---- What is the relationship between the linguistic tic and the operator of discourse?
We ought to mention a type of writing that never gets discussed, but that had a great importance for me as a seed-bed of these tics [insémination de tics] ---- Michelet’s writing.
……Michelet’s writing had a profound impact on me, it was a seed-bed---- in good ways, and ad, it has to be said. There are a lot of tics in Michelet, too. Actually, it’s the book of mine which people least talk about and which I can tolerate best.
29. Alain R-G ---- (Roland Barthes’s cautiousness[prudence])
“Oh dear, he’s really not taking any risks here, he’s got himself covered on all sides, and, yet again, he’s sheltered from attack



Buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Love-Barthes-Alain-Robbe-Grillet/dp/0745650791/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375049394&sr=8-1&keywords=Why+I+love+Barthes




My favorite images of Roland Barthes, the images of his work-space too























*

p.s. Hey. Today we have the pleasure and honor of overseeing the great HyeMin aka d.l. œ's fascinating introduction to one of the great Alain Robbe-Grillet's lesser known books about the great Roland Barthes, so it's a matter of greatness in triplicate. Enjoy, and please speak of your consequent thoughts to HyeMin/œ. Thanks, and thank you so much to our guest-host. ** S., I think that was the first time I've ever said or typed the word Rawr without just copying and pasting it from some escort profile, so ... that must mean something. There's always another side. I guess it's just whether it's so subtly different that you don't recognize it or something. The Mail Pouch paintings ... no, I don't think I know them. I'll do the google helpmate number with those words. Insomnia coffee, I am so there with you. Not to whine, but today I've not only got the sleep/haze thing, but my wallet and passport got stolen on the metro yesterday, so I'm temporarily penniless and sans identity, which way sucks yet somehow suits my currently semi-vacated self. Let's make the best of today under the circumstances. Deal? ** œ, Hi! Thank you so, so much for this amazing post today, my friend! I've never read that Gertrude Stein. In fact, it's kind of weird now that I think about it how little Stein I've read at all. I should try her again. I remember not liking her prose for some reason, but I don't remember why. Thank you again! ** Gary gray, Hi, man. Oh, I think I understand what you're saying. I think it's all about clarity, but it's tricky because language can only be clear about itself, and what you want to say is always only meshed into the language, so it's a matter of regulating and balancing that relationship, which is tricky too because there's the stuff you don't want to say/reveal, the stuff you can't reveal because language won't let you, and the stuff that language reveals without you realizing it. It's, like, how much do you want readers to see what's outside the window and how much do you want them to see the window too or something, and then there's trying to find the objectivity that will let you see what you're accidentally showing. Thinking or worrying about how people will interpret what you wrote is a slippery slope because you can't know, you can only try to finesse a representation that will seduce them into wondering how much of their interpretation is theirs alone and how much is being directed by you, the writer. Or something like that, if that makes any sense at all. Oh, Eric Copeland, Black Dice, got it. My brain's not so great right now. I haven't heard his new thing. I'll go see what I can hear today. Thanks! You did mention the zine project before, yeah. I was/am excited by the idea. 'Vaseline', nice. ** David Ehrenstein, Barncrash, that's nice. Yeah, Bill Jones' beard is a serious beard. It's cool, but he has this kind of great pointy chin that I think he undervalues. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Beautiful response to Lizz. Really, really glad the post yesterday was so useful, and your laying out of how it was useful was gorgeous. I mean, that's the highest compliment the blog can get. Thank you. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Cool, glad you liked it. I saw that video of the shrapnel firing and collapsing warehouse yesterday. Interesting. Everyone, if you haven't seen this, d.l. Bill points it out relative to yesterday's post, and I think you might very well find it interesting. You're in Berlin now, or touching down or thereabouts. Great! Yeah, please check in and say what's up when you can. And what exactly you're doing there. Safe trip! ** _Black_Acrylic, Thanks, Ben, happy that it interested you. I'll check out that Bennett interview. How was the gig? ** Empty Frame, Thank you, sir. You good? ** Oscar B, Hey, Osc-y! You missed the Paris boil, and now it's kind of amazing outside. Welcome back! Oh, Fanzine, good old and very wise Fanzine. Sweet! Everyone, This is very cool. The incredible Oscar B aka artist Benedetta De Alessi just had an ebook entitled 'Sunora' featuring a short story plus drawings by her published in Italy, and an English language version is available for us non-Italians thanks to great Fanzine site. You definitely want to see and read this. Go here for Part 1, and Part 2 will be up sometime today, and I reckon if you go there, it'll show you how to find Part 2. Very cool. Talk to you and see you ultra-soon, I hope. ** Scunnard, I eavesdrop all the time, so no sweat, not that you were sweating it. Hi. Other than insufficient sleep and no wallet/money and no ID, I'm actually doing great. That's not irony, I am! That's fast re: the move! What city? Can you say? Thanks for the seconding on Critchley. Once the chaos of replacing my missing everything get resolved in theory today, I'll find him. A book! That's interesting. I like that, naturally. Counterintuitive how, in what sense? Very happy to have you talk about it here. Please continue and please don't delete. Congrats on the really good news yesterday about that one longterm project! ** Dom Lyne, Hi, Dom! Really good to see you, my pal! Holy shit, Dom, about your recent life. I mean, wow, Jesus. I don't know what to begin to say about your friend. That's just unbearable to even think about. I'm so sorry, and that sounds so, I don't know, easy to say, but, yeah, I'm so sorry, my friend. I was really glad to reach the point in your comment where things turn for the good and maybe even great. I only and really hope the peace continues. Wow, Dom, that's ... intense. Lots of love to you. Lots. ** Sypha, Kickstarter doesn't allow money to be raised for porn or sexually explicit stuff. I'm not sure about Indiegogo, et. al, but I suspect their policies are similar. There's a producer who is interested to read the script once it's polished up, so we'll see if that leads anywhere. Really, about O'Connor? Interesting. I'm a pretty big fan of hers. I think she's a hell of a writer. But, you know, apples and oranges forever. ** Steevee, Hi. I don't think her writing is overly proselytizing at all, even if that was her intention, and I have no idea about her intentions. Her being a Catholic doesn't seem like a condemning thing in itself, does it? Bresson was a Catholic, as were/are all kinds of great artists. But I'm a fan of O'Connor's work, so ... Stiffness being a problem with 'Baal' fits with my admittedly hazy memory of it. The CD/soundtrack is kind of nice. Bowie does his best, at least. ** Statictick, Hi, N. I guess I knee-jerk think the imagery in Lapid's work must be potent or familiar at least to Americans kind of across the board, but, hm, maybe not. I'd like to see pix of your late friend's work. Awesome about your mom. She is one truly amazing person. That's been clear about her ever since you started talking about her here years and years ago. Much love to her. And to you. ** Misanthrope, You can't. Well, not easily. I hope for the very, very best for Little Show, and that includes an unexpected amount of time spent with you. You never know, man, you know that. MD is better than VA for you, isn't it? My geography in your squib of the US is very rusty, though. I don't buy that less sleep equals earlier death thing. It's too simple, and it speaks of 'the body' instead of the differentials of each body and individual genetics and stuff. Nah, I don't buy it. ** MANCY, Really glad you liked it, man. How was your gig the other night for you? ** Cool. Please turn your attention (back) to HyeMin/œ's post now, and thank you. See you tomorrow.

'At the Vent Haven Museum the unsettling amazement is unremitting. In one room you almost feel as if you have bumbled onto a stage surrounded by a peculiar audience, each listener gawking in silence. In another the figures are arrayed in rows like Pinocchios who have finally made it to school. Just as no two humans are smart in precisely the same way, no two of these creatures are dummies in precisely the same way.

'There is nothing quite like walking through the museum's three small buildings on a residential street here and finding yourself mutely stared at by 1,400 eyes and grinned at by hundreds of painted lips over leathery chins. You are sharing company with beings barely this side of cartoon, bearing long proboscises or protruding goggle eyes, shapeless torsos and eerie charm. Lining the walls are photographs of these very figures perched on the knees or cradled against the shoulders of the men and women who once gave them voice: dummies and their ventriloquists.

'The Vent Haven Museum grew out of the passion of William Shakespeare Berger, a Cincinnati businessman, who began accumulating the paraphernalia of the ventriloquist’s art in 1910. He later served as president of the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists and before his death, in 1972, endowed this museum, which began in his home.

'Ventriloquists, or vents as they call themselves, continue to donate dummies and photographs. In various rooms there are tributes to 20th-century vents like Edgar Bergen, Paul Winchell and Shari Lewis, along with displays about great dummy makers like Charles Mack, Frank Marshall and the McElroy Brothers. And while the 750 or so dummies do not seem overly impressed, their guild’s masters apparently are: every July more than 400 vents gather nearby for a “conVENTion,” which includes a visit to the museum to pay homage.

'Walk among the dummies though, and you can almost hear the nattering rustle of jests and jokes. Two heads from 1820s London, made with papier-mâché and glass eyes, have the intensity of fine sculpture, with expressions so strong, they could not have been that versatile. Others, demonstrated by Ms. Sweasy, seem like autonomous beings who might consider becoming vents themselves.

'But as Steven Connor’s 2001 book, Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of Ventriloquism, shows, such dummies are a recent phenomenon. The word “ventriloquist” comes from Latin roots alluding to speech from the belly — which means speech from anywhere but where we expect. The ability to throw one’s voice is cited by Hippocrates and alluded to in accounts of oracles. Cardinal Richelieu is said to have used a ventriloquist in 1624 to frighten one of his bishops. It wasn’t until the 18th century that it became widely used as entertainment. Modern ventriloquism was a rationalist rebellion against spiritualism; magic was turned into magic show.

'But it wasn’t until the latter part of the 19th century that the disembodied voice found a secure home in a puppet. Here it isn’t just the voice that is thrown; it is the imagination. Psychological realism generally trumps physical realism: the dummy gives voice to the psyche. It is really the dummy who vents, saying things the vent cannot.

'In horror films like Dead of Night (1945) or Magic (1978), the dummy, unleashed, wreaks havoc. On the other hand, vents like Shari Lewis cultivated the innocence of the thrown voice, while Señor Wences, with great virtuosity, turned a head in a box into an occasion for playful patter and farce. (Search YouTube.)

'In recent years ventriloquism itself has come to seem less central. But not at Vent Haven. It is hard to imagine another place so clearly evoking the manifold powers and passions of the inner voice, simply by displaying figures who are its empty vessels — signs awaiting significance.'-- NYT







































___________________




'Fear of ventriloquist's dummies is called automatonophobia. It also includes fear of wax dummies or animatronic creatures. This fear can manifest itself in numerous ways; every individual who suffers from the fear being different. Similar to automatonophobia is pupaphobia which is the fear of puppets. Since inanimate objects do not pose any real harm to people, this fear is considered to be irrational. The cause of automatonophobia is currently unknown though it has been theorized that the fear derives from the members of a society's expectations for how other human beings should behave. The inanimate objects associated with automatonophobia represent human beings, most being portrayed very realistically. People expect the same type of behavior from one another. These inanimate objects, though closely portraying humans, do not behave quite the same as real humans.

'The origins of automatonophobia can be dated to thousands of years ago. It has been said that through necromancy, or divination by communication with the dead, "...that ventriloquism finds its origins." At about 1500 BC the Israelites were outlawed from practicing necromancy. Even with the penalty of death enforced, the practice of necromancy still continued. Very similar to ventriloquists today, belly speakers arose. These speakers, or prophets, would pretend that dead spirits were speaking through them. To convince their audiences, the belly speakers would implement strategies that are still used by ventriloquists today. They would exercise tight lip control along with a voice other than their own. Necromancy, despite the many laws that were passed throughout the centuries, continued to flourish. Eventually it grew into a form of entertainment that the world associates with today.'-- collaged








































____________________




'I’m at the Vent Haven ConVENTion where, each July, hundreds of ventriloquists, or “vents,” as they call themselves, gather from all over the world. For four days, they attend lectures on the business, getting advice on AV equipment, scriptwriting, or creating an audience through social networking. They listen to a keynote address by Comedy Central’s ventriloquist-in-residence, Jeff Dunham, who exhorts his notoriously defensive colleagues to “quit complaining that people say we’re weird. We talk to dolls. We are weird, ok. Just own it.” They eat at a Denny’s off the highway and visit the creationist museum down the road. And they don’t go anywhere without the accompaniment of their alter egos.

'At the convention, the puppets are a slim but boisterous majority. They crowd in around you. They critique you. They grope you. They chatter continuously. Being around them approximates what it would be like to read people’s minds. It is a most unpleasant experience—a great deal more unsettling, of course, isn’t what they say but that they say anything at all. All over the hotel, in conference rooms, in hallways, at the bar, ventriloquism is practiced in its purest form: not as a stage show, but as an ongoing, unscripted social interaction, a live conversation between humans and their golems. At a drunken party one night, in the hotel’s “hospitality suite,” I witness one dummy operating another dummy, as the human source of both voices sits silently nearby, pretending to compose a text message. The mini bar has lips, which cruelly insult anyone who walks by, the origin of its voice impossible to determine. Almost as soon as I join the party, I am molested by a busty lady puppet, a faded showgirl. She swoons onto my shoulder. “Godaaamn,” she slurs. “Where have you been?” Her vent is a burly, unsmiling dude with a shaved head, a muscle shirt, and camo shorts. He smells strongly of whiskey. ...

'As I later learned, my brain was contending with the “ventriloquist effect,” first noted in a study in the 1890s but named by a research team in the 1960s. The basic insight, that “visual information biases the spatial localization of auditory events,” is a key finding in behavioral and neurological research. When it comes to spatial processing, human vision is, by dint of evolutionary adaptation, generally stronger than the auditory sense. (Which is perhaps why it’s infuriatingly difficult to locate a cellphone that is ringing two feet away from you if it’s concealed under a couch pillow.) Human perception, which functions by fusing simultaneous streams of sensory information, works on the assumption that if auditory and visual stimuli occur in proximity—close in both space and in time—they must be caused by a single source, the one you see. So when we watch lips moving in sync with an unrelated sound, our brain simply denies the confusion, the strange coincidence of these two events, and instead processes them as though they were one very normal speech act. Thus, a ventriloquist can modulate his voice to make it sound near or far, as though it were muffled in a box, or gurgling up from underwater, but he doesn’t actually “throw his voice” in any particular direction; he just tosses it to the audience and they—their eyes, their brain—place it in the lips of the dummy.

'Ventriloquists tend to think of themselves as living on the cusp of extinction. (Even the word haven in Vent Haven suggests this sense of besiegement). In conversation, they deal with their angst by talking nostalgically of the days of vaudeville and of the era when Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were household names, back when vents were appreciated. But the best contemporary practitioners know from experience that when a ventriloquist act is executed well it is as mesmerizing and oddly irresistible as ever. An audience for it exists, as it always has; vents continue to be disdained and admired. The rise of Terry Fator is a case in point. Fator was a struggling vent from rural Texas who made his way to America’s Got Talent. When he walked up to the mic, one of the judges rolled his eyes and said, “Oh no, a ventriloquist?” By the end of the performance, however, the judges and the audience were on their feet. Fator won the competition and went on to sign a $100 million contract to headline at The Mirage, one of the largest entertainment deals in Vegas history. As long as there are humans and decoy lips, the ventriloquist effect will live on.'-- Avi Steinberg, The Paris Review

























































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'When a skilled ventriloquist talks with the tongue without moving the mouth or face while sitting beside a figure (or “dummy”) that has a moving mouth, it looks like the figure is talking. It works because humans use their eyes to find sound sources. When the ventriloquist is not moving his mouth but the puppet’s mouth is moving, people think they “see” the figure talking.

'Sit in front of a mirror and make a slight smile with your lips parted. Make your teeth lightly touch. Your tongue should have room to move. If you see your tongue moving in the mirror, then change your smile until the tongue is hidden. Your goal is to breathe easily and read aloud these 19 letters without moving your lips: A, C, D, E, G, H, I, J, K, L, N, O, Q, R, S, T, U, X, Z.

'Practice the following sentences until they sound clear but your lips don’t move: “Hey, this rocks, dude! It is sooooo easy. Anything you can say, I can say, too!” If you sound muffled, try making your voice come from some higher place in your head as well as your mouth.

'There are seven trickier letters: B, F, M, P, V, W and Y. These letters normally require you to move your lips. To say them without moving his face, the ventriloquist borrows from the easy alphabet, some other letters or combined sounds to “fake” the tricky letters. Use these substitutions: B = D, F = “eth,” M = N, P = T, V = “thee,” W and Y = O+I

'B = D: Instead of saying “The Bad Boy Buys a Basket” the ventriloquist says, “The Dad Doy Duys a Dasket.” Try this in the mirror. At first, this substitution won’t sound right; but with practice, D can be made to sound like B. [Hint: When your tongue rises to the top inside of your mouth to make D, let it stick to the roof of your mouth a little longer before releasing. Also, say D but think B.]

'F = ETH: Instead of saying “Phil is a Frisky, Funny Fellow,” try saying, “Thil is a Thrisky, Thunny Thellow.” Say the “eth” sound but think F as you do it.

'M = N: “Mary Mashes Many Mangos” becomes “Nary Nashes Nany Nangos.” Make the N vibrate against the roof of your mouth. Keep thinking M.

'P = T: “Peter is a Practice Pilot” becomes “Teter is a Tractice Tilot.” Try holding the T a little longer, then release with a little puff of air behind it.

'V = THEE: “Vinnie Very much Values Victory” becomes “Thinny Thery nuch Thalues Thictory.”:

'W AND Y = O+I: W and Y are treated alike. By quickly sliding the letters O and I together you can say “O-Aye” and it sounds like Why. Try putting a fast O to the front of the following: “Why Would Wally Walk?” You’ll be saying “O-Aye O-ould O-olly O-alk?” Now drop the O (or say it silently in your head), and you’ll be saying a clean W sound without using your lips.

'In a short time, these substitutions become automatic. Practice for 15 to 20 minutes a day and in about a week you’ll see some serious results! Practice your ventriloquism with a relaxed puppet-like voice that is higher or lower than your own.'-- Boys Life Magazine











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'At the risk of making a blanket generalization, people who devote their lives to pretending they’re having animated, ostensibly comic conversations with carved and painted blocks of wood tend to be seen as losers, weirdoes, lifelong virgins, and shut-ins. Ventriloquism is generally considered both a much-maligned and increasingly anachronistic facet of show business and a socially sanctioned form of mental illness, where the deeply unhinged are rewarded for arguing passionately with imaginary friends despite being adults.

'Surely, one of the oddest things about the collision between the world of comedy and filmmaking is the meager supply of quality films featuring a protagonist who is a ventriloquist that aim strictly for laughs rather than fright. The ventriloquist's dummy has somehow managed to transcend from a figure of humor in real life to an icon of horror on both the big and small screen. If you take a moment for perusal of this disconnect, I think you will agree that it verges on the exceptional.

'It also raises the question of why audiences have found ventriloquist acts funny for as long as film has existed, but filmmakers apparently have not. True, the popularity of ventriloquism has waxed and waned over the years, but as an example of just well-liked this form of comedic entertainment can be, consider that one of the most popular radio shows of the Golden Age of Radio featured Edgar Bergen interacting with his dummy named Charlie McCarthy.

'Let that fact sink in for a moment. A man making his living by fooling people into thinking that an inanimate doll is having a conversation with him by perfecting the art of speaking without moving his lips became a radio legend. Of course, in Bergen's case, radio may have helped since he wasn't the best at keeping his lips from moving. But the weirdness factor remains in place: Bergen's massive radio audiences couldn't have seen Bergen if he'd been moving his lips in the exaggerated fashion of a diction teacher!

'Over the years, wildly popular ventriloquists who made audiences double over in laughter have included Shari Lewis, Jay Johnson, Willie Tyler, Paul Winchell and Jeff Dunham. You might be surprised to learn that legendary entertainers who performed as ventriloquists early in their career include Johnny Carson and Don Knotts.

'Now let's look at some actors who have played ventriloquists in the movies. Erich Von Stroheim, Lon Chaney Sr., Michael Redgrave and Anthony Hopkins. Those actors assaying the role of the ventriloquist are hardly what you'd call icons of comedy. So what's the deal? Why is the ventriloquist and his dummy in real life right up there among such luminaries of the world of comedy entertainment as the impressionist, the clown, the insult comic, the cartoonist and the song parodist, but in the movies the exact same type of performer exhibiting the exact same talent is usually a psychopath suffering from some kind of multiple personality disorder?'-- collaged



'Magic'


'The Dummy'


'The Ventriloquist'


'The Unholy Three'


'The Ventriloquist Cat'


'The Pharmacist'


'Dead Silence'


'Tales From The Crypt/The Ventriloquist's Dummy'


'The Dummy'


'Devil Doll'


'Black Devil Doll from Hell'


'Joey'


'When A Stranger Calls Back'




*

p.s. Hey. A couple of quick things. On Monday morning, I have an appointment at the American embassy to apply for a replacement passport. I'm waking up so early these days that I should be able to do the p.s. before I leave for there, but, if there's no p.s. on Monday, that'll be why. Also, if it's of interest to anyone, Metazen, one of the very best literary websites/mags, will be publishing only work by previously unpublished writers during October, so if that fits anyone reading this, I encourage you to submit. The editors of Metazen include a bunch of cool people/writers, including a former d.l. of this blog (Janey Smith), the great Frank Hinton, and others. If you're interested, here's more info. ** œ, Good morning to you! Thank you again so much for the great post yesterday. It was a great pleasure for me and for here, and I hope the experience was good for you. There's a roughness to Stein's prose that I can't get my pleasure centers around, or which I haven't been able to enjoy in the past. But I am going to dig into something of hers soon and see what happens. Oh, I guess I didn't see the misty effect on the words, I'm sorry, and I'm not sure if I could have recreated it or not. I'm really quite a klutz with tech in general. Thank you again! Have a great weekend! ** Scunnard, Hi, man. Riffing and not really explaining, etc., as a strategy makes sense to me, sure, and I wouldn't know how to write academically or whatever if, well, you paid me, etc. It just sounds like you're thinking about the form like an artist, like a 'creative writer'. And there are figures like Avital who do that, and that's my favorite kind of theoretical writing, I think. Anyway, I think I understand 'counterintuitive' now. Newcastle, I see, yeah, I don't know anything about it apart from the 'coals' saying and some bands who originated there. Good weekend! ** David Ehrenstein, Morning to you, D. ** Martin Bladh, Hi. I saw your comment yesterday, and I wrote to Marvin, and he says he has been expecting to hear from you. He just said that he doesn't think scanning will be possible due to the spine issue, and that you should get in touch if you have a photographer to shoot the scrapbook or another plan, and that he will do his best to arrange for what you need. So, I guess you should figure how you want to do it, and let him know once you have, and then specific arrangements can be made? I haven't gotten the book you sent yet, but it's slow here. Thank you in advance for that! ** Bollo, Hi, Jonathan. Kind of confusing in the sky here too. We definitely seem to be settling rockily into fall, for which I'm grateful. I've heard about that Korea documentary. I've been meaning to try to find it. Cool. See you once it has flipped, yeah. ** Steevee, Hey. Oh, I didn't think you were. Sorry, my tired brain isn't letting me be very clear. I just meant that I don't think her work is particularly proselytizing. I just meant that I think that's not an accurate criticism of her work. I say try reading her to see what you think, if you have the time and inclination. Thanks about my wallet/passport loss. I don't know for sure how they disappeared, and a pickpocket makes the most sense, even though I don't remember anyone near me on the metro acting strangely or anything. I guess they could have fallen out of my pocket, but I can't really see how that could have happened without testing the laws of physics. ** _Black_Acrylic, Awesome about the gig. That festival sounds really fun in general. I love when festivals do that kind of set up in a charismatic space. Cool pix. Really make it cogent how it was to be there. Thanks! ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Dover, oh. White cliffs. I saw them from a ferry once. Sounds really pretty, etc. Very nice descriptive paragraph too, by the way. Have you ever written fiction? I forget. Enjoy, enjoy. ** Misanthrope, Meth labs are kind of dangerous. Maybe they could fall down an abandoned well or something. Ha, I bet you that I could find a scientific study or two that says less sleep equals longer life. Not that I plan to. The cool thing about science is exactly that it's always changing and being wrong and right at different times, as opposed to creationism, which is like 8-track tape of theories. ** Gary gray, Hi. Sorry about your bad day. My articulation is suspect at the moment too. Language is a lie, but you can do things. Its tools are limited by its essential incompatibility with thought and emotion, but they can be devised into things that work faultily in an interesting way, I think. Or into things that scream that something important is missing in a way that's charismatic enough to make readers try to figure it out. Or something. ** Rewritedept, Hi. The Mandalay Bay thing sounds very cool That's one of those Vegas hotels whose lack of a ridiculous facade causes it to bore me. Tell your sister I'm not sorry, ha ha. Uh, well, losing my passport and wallet and having no money or identity made the last 48 hours somewhat ugh, although I did have a great time just before that happened, and said losses will make the next 48 hours a challenge. So any fun will be limited, I think. Always happy to hear about your love life with GbV, man. It takes one to know one, or whatever they say. ** Okay. This weekend you get another post deriving in some way from the work and research I'm currently doing re: what will be my next theater work with Gisele Vienne, which is, yes, a ventriloquism-centric thing. Hope you like it. Have good weekends. See you in some form or other on Monday.

Introduction

I figured this video would be a decent introduction to Glenn Branca:





In the video, Branca talks about John Cage’s specific reactions upon hearing his work – evidently, Cage didn’t enjoy it. Branca must have been amused in some ways as he chose to put an interview, which featured John Cage talking about why he dislikes Branca’s work, as a track on one of his albums, which can be heard here:


Part 1



Part 2




I thought that might be an interesting place to start with this day – because far from wanting to set this up as a Glenn Branca VS John Cage fest, or anything like that – it does give some kind of context for where Glenn Branca himself may see his work fitting in. I dunno, I could be wrong, and maybe who cares? Basically, I love Branca’s work. It excites me. It inspires me. That’s my main motivation here.

I never get bored of seeing this clip:





And here’s another interesting interview with Branca:






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The Work


































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Writing

If you want the technicalities and facts about Branca, then you can have look at the Wikipedia entry.

It’s more interesting for me to read what Branca says himself. This is him talking about the current state of music, from 2009:


The End of Music
By Glenn Branca

We seem to be on the edge of a paradigm shift. Orchestras are struggling to stay alive, rock has been relegated to the underground, jazz has stopped evolving and become a dead art, the music industry itself has been subsumed by corporate culture and composers are at their wit’s end trying to find something that’s hip but still appeals to an audience mired in a 19th-century sensibility.

For more than half a century we’ve seen incredible advances in sound technology but very little if any advance in the quality of music. In this case the paradigm shift may not be a shift but a dead stop. Is it that people just don’t want to hear anything new? Or is it that composers and musicians have simply swallowed the pomo line that nothing else new can be done, which ironically is really just the “old, old story.”


Certainly music itself is not dead. We’ll continue to hear something approximating it blaring in shopping malls, fast food stops, clothing stores and wherever else it will mesmerize the consumer into excitedly pulling out their credit card or debit card or whatever might be coming.

There’s no question that in music, like politics, the bigger the audience gets the more the “message” has to be watered down. Muzak’s been around for a long time now but maybe people just can’t tell the difference anymore. Maybe even the composers and songwriters can’t tell the difference either. Especially when it’s paying for a beach house in Malibu and a condo in New York.

Of course, we could all just listen to all of our old albums, CD’s and mp3’s. In fact, nowadays that’s where the industry makes most of its money. We could also just watch old movies and old TV shows. There are a lot of them now. Why bother making any new ones? Why bother doing anything new at all? Why bother having any change or progress at all as long as we’ve got “growth”? I’m just wondering if this is in fact the new paradigm. I’m just wondering if in fact the new music is just the old music again. And, if that in fact it would actually just be the end of music.


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And here’s another piece he wrote for the NYT:

The 25 Questions
By Glenn Branca

I got the idea for this piece from mathematician David Hilbert’s well-known list of 23 “Paris Problems” (1900) that he hoped to see solved in the new century. Of course there is not the slightest connection between Hilbert’s list of problems and this list of questions. Not to mention the fact that many of these questions contain the answers simply in the asking.

1. Should a modern composer be judged against only the very best works of the past?

2. Can there be truly objective criteria for judging a work of art?

3. If a composer can write one or two or more great works of music why cannot all of his or her works be great?

4. Why does the contemporary musical establishment remain so conservative when all other fields of the arts embrace new ideas?

5. Should a composer, if confronted with a choice, write for the musicians who will play a piece or write for the audience who will hear it?

6. When is an audience big enough to satisfy a composer or a musician? 100? 1000? 10,000? 100,000? 1,000,000? 100,000,000?

7. Is the symphony orchestra still relevant or is it just a museum?

8. Is micro-tonality a viable compositional tool or a burned out modernist concept?

9. In an orchestra of 80 to 100 musicians does the use of improvisation make any sense?

10. What is the dichotomy between dissonance and. tonality and where should the line be drawn?

11. Can the music that sooths the savage beast be savage?

12. Should a composer speak with the voice of his or her own time?

13. If there’s already so much good music to listen to what’s the point of more composers writing more music?

14. If Bach were alive today would he be writing in the baroque style?

15. Must all modern composers reject the past, a la John Cage or Milton Babbitt’s “Who Cares If You Listen?”

16. Is the symphony an antiquated idea or is it, like the novel in literature, still a viable long form of music?

17. Can harmony be non-linear?

18. Was Cage’s “4:33” a good piece of music?

19. Artists are expected to accept criticism, should critics be expected to accept it as well?

20. Sometimes I’m tempted to talk about the role that corporate culture plays in the sale and distribution of illegal drugs throughout the United States and the world, and that the opium crop in Afghanistan has increased by 86 percent since the American occupation, and the fact that there are 126,000 civilian contractors in Iraq, but what does this have to do with music?

21. Can the orchestra be replaced by increasingly sophisticated computer-sampling programs and recording techniques, at least as far as recordings are concerned?

22. When a visual artist can sell a one-of-a-kind work for hundreds of thousands of dollars and anyone on the internet can have a composer’s work for nothing, how is a composer going to survive?
And does it matter?

23. Should composers try to reflect in their music the truth of their natures and the visions of their dreams whether or not this music appeals to a wide audience?

24. Why are advances in science and technology not paralleled by advances in music theory and compositional technique?

25. Post-Post Minimalism? Since Minimalism and Post-Minimalism we’ve seen a short-lived Neo-Romanticism, mainly based on misguided attempts to return to a 19th century tonality, then an improv scene which had little or nothing to do with composition, then a hodge-podge of styles: a little old “new music,” a little “60’s sound colorism”, then an eclectic pomo stew of jazz, rock and classical, then a little retro-chic Renaissance … even tonal 12-tonalism. And now in Germany some “conceptual” re-readings of Wagner. What have I left out? Where’s the music?

More of Glenn Branca’s NTY articles can be found here.


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To end, I enjoyed some of the stuff that Branca talked about in these last two interviews.







END




*

p.s. RIP: Allan Sekula. Hey. Today the blog is super lucky to have the wonderful writer and d.l. Thomas Moronic concentrating on Glenn Branca, one of the seminal current makers of music, and a big favorite of mine. If you don't know his work, and if you want a particular entrance, you could start with the piece that lured me in originally, i.e. an earlyish composition called 'The Spectacular Commodity', which is amongst the clips that Thomas has included up above. High volume is encouraged. Or you could start pretty much anywhere too. Thank you so much, T! Otherwise, due to my ongoing sleep problems, I'm up early enough to do the p.s, before I head to the American embassy for what I hope will be a relatively painless procedure resulting in a new passport. ** Scunnard, Hey. Yeah, me too. The more of them, the less merry or something. I think, for me at least, the mere hat changing, as it were, when changing mediums and tasks makes a lot of sense. There's certainly nothing about it that feels like a multiple personality onset. It sounds like you could love it there. I look forward to a grand tour once you get your bearings. ** David Ehrenstein, Very nice characterization of dummies' relationship to humans. Thanks, kudos. Everyone, Mr. E adds to the ventriloquism post with these recommended examples: Avenue Q, 'foxy' Charlie McCarthy, and, re: the McCarthy clip, Busby Berkeley. ** Gary gray, Hi, Gary. Really sharp thoughts there. Blanchot is really great about language's inadequacies without vagueing out into nihilism. Yeah, really interesting and a boon to have access to your thinking about this. Wei wu wei: oh, that's nice. What a nice term. That's a really interesting idea in which to try to ground thinking re: writing. Cool, thanks for sharing that. My weekend lacked glory, but it was all right. How was yours? ** Kyler, Hi, Kyler! I caught this bad sleep, early waking thing from you?! Well, how could you have known, even if so. Nah, I don't know what why the fuck this is happening. First and hopefully last occurrence of this nature in the history and future of my zzz's. A Burroughs dummy? Wow, maybe, I didn't catch that. A Burroughs dummy is kind of an inspired idea. Hunh. Nice quote. Everyone, via Kyler, here's Burroughs on ventriloquism. Go to the indented paragraph. Thanks, buddy. ** Misanthrope, You back? You okay? Oh, right, shit, it was your birthday. Happy belated Birthday, man! Semi-Creationism just seems pathetic. Swallow it or go confused, I say. Uh, anything is possible, but no plans at the moment to use ventriloquism in the novel. Still, as I'm going to have the topic in my head pretty thoroughly through the work for Gisele, it's surely possible that there'll be some collateral effect or something. Hope you're doing good, man. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Yeah, lost both or had them stolen. I'll never know which, I guess. Third time this year that I've had to get a new debit card and live on coins for a week and change all my online bill paying things and blah. Irrational fears can shape one into an original, very interesting person. Good eye on those seeming discrepancies in 'TMS'. They're purposeful, of course, and the spaces between the seeming inaccuracies and what would seem to be accuracies are indeed among the novel's secret entrances. Yeah, mm, maybe late this week. Let me get my current shit aka card/passport resolved, but probably, yeah. I listened to one, no, two Scratch Acid tracks. They sounded good, naturally. I didn't notice that guitar riff resemblance, but, if it's there, you can bet that Pollard made the resemblance for a reason. ** Steevee, 'The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear' sounds really, really interesting. I'll start looking for a way to see it today. Thanks much! I'm still skeptical that my wallet/passport were stolen. I'm always pretty aware of what and who are around me when I'm on the metro. But I am spaced out because of this never-ending sleeplessness state, and I guess the thief could have been incredibly good. There is apparently a real problem here with pickpockets. Gangs of youths, they say. Avoid standing near gangs of youths when on the metro or in crowded public situations, they say. That's in the news a lot, and people are constantly warned to be vigilant. I have been, but to what avail maybe? ** œ, Hi. Me a ventriloquist? Interesting. When writing fiction, for sure I am, since that's part of the nature of doing that task, but, out here, I feel more like I'm my own dummy or something. Thank you for your good wishes re: my passport, etc. thing. Re: the former, I only have a metro ride ahead of me, so, technically, it should just be an annoying breeze at worst. ** Will C., Hi Will! Wow, it's great to see you! I've been wondering where and how and etc. you are. 'Grueling it out': nice. I mean the words, not the effects of your having grueled, although you say it paid off, so ... I always imagine it would be intense to work for Fed Ex, but that's probably just because it's intense to send or await things with/from them. Filson clothing company. Hold on. Oh, I see. (I just googled it.) Strange that hadn't heard of them. Maybe their stuff isn't so present over here. Anyway, big congrats on that score. And about loving Seattle. That's easy to imagine. And the most congrats, of course, me being me, on the growth spurt in your confidence in your writing. Any projects in particular that you're working on or scheming to work on? Yeah, awesome to have you back, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Yeah, it seems like the new GV piece could be good, we'll see. The hand-puppet piece, 'Jerk', worked out well, and this one would be in some way a kind of maxed out, related yet different piece. I'll see what Drexciya are all about. I don't think I know of them. Thanks about the passport thing. Hopefully, it'll just be a small stress fest with related victory. ** Martin Bladh, Hi, Martin. Hm, I don't really know how many pages that scrapbook is. It's definitely the longest of the scrapbooks. If I took a guess, it would be pretty random. You might ask Marvin. He'll surely know. There are some photos of it here in the 'Closer' section, if that helps you guesstimate at all. Thanks! ** Grant maierhofer, Hi, Grant! Thanks, man. 'Breaking Bad' must be peaking or something. Every other FB feed item today when I checked in there seemed to be referencing it. Like I think I said here once or twice, I watched a few episodes dubbed into French on TV last year, and it just looked like better than average TV to me, so I guess I need to see the original at some point. Yes, I got your email this morning. The post is great! Thank you so much! I'll get it set up, and I'll give you the launch date very soon. Yeah, fantastic, thank you, Grant! Acconci rules. I'm good, more than good, just downgraded into merely good due to my recent wallet/passport losses and this weird sleep issue thing. But, mainly, I'm really good. You have the voice of someone who is very good too. ** That's that. Branca/Moronic have you incredibly covered today. Enjoy. Assuming I don't get deported or anything today, I'll see you tomorrow.

'There are two types of people at a typical Raymond Pettibon opening. One type is drawn to the epigrams and discomfiting punch lines buried in Pettibon's seemingly blithe drawings and paintings -- serious folks who like to be seriously poked in the eye by art. Then there are the cheerier souls who come to see another beach bum play with cartoons. Both were out in force at the Regen Projects gallery last Saturday for Pettibon's new show. A mix of the grave and the merry sipped glasses of cheap white gallery wine and walked in slow circles around Regen's big atrial room, some glowering, some smiling at Pettibon's waves, trains and baseball players, which were pinned to the walls as though they'd just been torn from his sketchpad (his preferred style of presentation).

'Pettibon loomed in the corner, looking as if he'd just been torn from something himself. Judging from his dirty white Jamaica tourist T-shirt, stained plaid-patterned trousers and sooty slip-on Vans, it might have been art or possibly something refuse-related. Despite being a walking antithesis of the L.A. gallery scene, the diffident Pettibon has assumed rock star status on that scene. Fans come to his shows wearing Pettibon T-shirts. They carry his books around. They vie for his bygone-feeling lithographs like archivists fighting over early Beatles LPs. And though possibly the least self-promotional artist in this or any city, Pettibon has lately become a sensation in the art world at large.

'He had a one-man show at the Whitney Museum of American Art last year and a spread in the New York Times Magazine. At the moment, he's in Venice (Italy) scribbling on commission in a palazzo. After that he'll be drawing something on the wall of a library in the Hague. At Regen, well-wishers unacquainted with his stoical manner approached Pettibon and tried to talk to him as he stood against the wall, circumspect as an Easter Island maoi. "Huh," he said to one man, with a halting nod, in answer to the man's enthusiastic drawn out point.

'A woman who'd just stepped out of a Porsche on the street, wearing a black T-shirt that read "Dior Addict" in large white letters, approached Pettibon with a crazed look on her face and a monograph of his perched in her hands like a votive offering. "Hi, Raymond, I love your work and I want -- " she began. Pettibon averted his eyes. As she talked, he drew a big wave in her book -- he likes drawing waves, and surfers, though in his vision water often has an minatory aboriginal look -- and signed it "Lovingly, Raymond Pettibon." The Dior addict left the gallery beaming and went outside to show off the book. Someone remarked on his intimate wording. "Maybe I'll give him my underwear," she said, joking, though one got the idea she might have already done so.

'In person, there's nothing phenomenal about Pettibon (except perhaps his height). He looks at once younger and older than his 48 years, wears his hair like an abandoned seaweed farm and rides the bus to and from his mother's house in Hermosa Beach, where he grew up. It's a gorgeous contradictory L.A. picture, like Gumby watching copulation or a nude dance scene in Abu Ghraib (both images in the show). Pettibon winces at compliments, even when they come from friends. Yet women now talk about giving him their underwear. "He doesn't have a lot of will to be a great artist -- he just a great artist," Shaun Kaley Regen, his gallerist, said. "I don't think things have changed very much for him. He seems like the same person I knew 15 years ago."

'In public, Regen looks after Pettibon in a warm, maternal way. After the show she held a large dinner party for him in the back garden of the restaurant Dominicks. About 60 collectors and curators, along with a few hipster hangers-on, stood around eating prosciutto and risotto balls. Pettibon hovered dutifully by the bar, drinking a bottled beer. Everything seemed OK. Suddenly, two women in string-strap tops took ahold of him and insisted that he stand between them for a picture. They leaned in and put their arms around him. He crossed his arms nervously and a surprised frown took over his face.

'Somewhat inconveniently for Pettibon, whose real name is Raymond Ginn (his father used to call him petit bon, little good one; his brother is Greg Ginn of Black Flag fame), he's a native son of L.A., so many Angelenos feel obliged to form an attachment to him. That the members of the Dior addict wing of his fan base often own his art doesn't help. "I have about 18 Pettibons," one collector said, as though he were discussing ties or skateboards.

'Meanwhile, Pettibon endures the social demands of his work, sometimes even gamely breaking the hermetic seal. In the corner of Regen Projects, before leaving for the dinner, a crowd had gathered around him as he stood against a door and squiggled little curios on invitations and odd scraps of paper. There was a wave. There was a tree. A woman nearly as tall as Pettibon, with a very small dog in her arms, elbowed through. "This is Stinky," she announced. Pettibon drew a dog. "What kind of dog is it, Raymond?" he was asked. "I don't know," Pettibon said with a sigh. "You've seen one dog, you've seen them all."' -- LA Times



____
Video


Artists Talk: Raymond Pettibon


Raymond Pettibon's video 'Sir Drone' (excerpt)


Raymond Pettibon's 'THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING: WEATHERMAN '69' (excerpt)


Raymond Pettibon Super Session Live at Bogart's


Raymond Pettibon lecture & performance at Beyond Baroque


Raymond Pettibon & Mike Watt / Riverside Art Museum


Raymond Pettibon: The Punk Years, 1978-1986 x Blood Beach


Lee Ranaldo on Raymond Pettibon



Raymond Pettibon & Keiji Haino - Sofiensaale, Berlin



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Further

Raymond Pettibon Website
Raymond Pettibon @ Twitter
PRETTY MUCH EVERY SINGLE BLACK FLAG FLYER DESIGNED BY RAYMOND PETTIBON
Raymond Pettibon @ David Zwirner
'HUMAN WAVE - THE VIDEOTAPES OF RAYMOND PETTIBON'
Raymond Pettibon interviewed @ Interview
Raymond Pettibon interviewed @ Bomb
Raymond Pettibon book @ Phaidon
'Raymond Pettibon - The Game of Words and Pics'
Raymond Pettibon @ Discogs
'Raymond Pettibon's High Line Billboard'
Raymond Pettibon's videos @ Electronic Arts Intermix
'Raymond Pettibon: Return to Disorder and Disfiguration'
Raymond Pettibon's studio'
'The Pettibon Story
'What Remains To Be Said'
'Album Covers by Raymond Pettibon'



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Covers















































_______
Interview
from The Believer




Believer:Books have also had a big influence on your art, and you’ve said that sometimes it’s not just a matter of editing the lines you put in but that the lines themselves become your context. Can you explain?

Raymond Pettibon: I think that was in reference to my drawings where the lines are actually cut out from the text and put in, although it doesn’t have to be. The distinction is hardly there. There are instances where lines in my work are borrowed or stolen from sources, mainly from books, or they become my own versions. A lot of the writing is my own, too. But if someone were to take each drawing and trace it back to its source, most of them could be traced back to a book or a text.

BLVR:You’ve also said that while you’re working the drawing seems like a chore and what you like best is the writing. Has that always been the case?

RP: Yeah, definitely. I think I always enjoy the writing more. If you saw every show or every book I’ve been in—and this is coming from someone who’s considered to have produced a gratuitous amount of work—you would see what I mean. But drawing is also one of my favorite things to do.

BLVR: Do you start a picture with drawing or with writing?

RP: There’s no set formula. Though I guess nowadays I tend to start with the drawing. At first, for some years, I didn’t at all. It was always the idea that came first, and the idea had the visual concept to it, and that’s when I came in and did the drawing. Now it’s a combination of the two.

BLVR:Who are some of your literary influences?

RP: If I was going to do any favors for someone who’s interested in the extent of my borrowing, I’d say, and this doesn’t necessarily mean these are my favorite writers, but Henry James would be the most obvious, both his fiction and letters. Also, right now I’ve been reading Emily Dickinson’s letters, though I don’t think I’ve borrowed anything from her poetry. Not yet anyway. Thomas Browne, too, and Ruskin. I borrow from noir, but that’s mostly visual. Mickey Spillane is an interesting writer in a way. His directness. Come to think of it, he started in comics, which figures. Again, I don’t mean that in a bad way. He was just so over-the-top and black and white with no shades in between. Today he could be writing for Commentary or Public Interest. But visually, noir was a big influence on me and still is.

There was a period when I was getting a lot of my images from television. And this might be disappointing to my fans, like, now the visual universe is phony, too, but I had this video recorder for a long time that took still images from television. They lasted five seconds, and I would take images from Peter Gunn and noir films of the thirties, forties, and fifties. If you look at TV in that way it’s almost always a shot of talking heads. The only interesting visual compositions are of some kind of violence, with guns and fists and bodies. It’s always one extreme or another. So it was less because I had some abiding interest in violence or gangsters, and more because that was what was visually interesting. And you could say that about any of my imagery, really. There’s not much of an emotional involvement or commitment to it. And that’s really saying something, because it’s those couple of years back then, with that recorder on my TV, that I’ll be paying for for the rest of my life. Once things hit the critical discourse they stay there and they replicate like viruses until they take over the artist. Seriously. Some artists go with that and become what they’ve been made to be. Some fight it and retool and redefine themselves. I don’t consciously do either. But that’s still going to be the first thing people think about me, whether they’ve actually seen the work or not. That’s not a major complaint. But it’s like with the punk thing: yes, I think it was very important in music, and I was there and all that, but now I’m going to be the punk artist for the rest of my life. Which is kind of amusing, and a comment on the press and the critics.

BLVR:People seem to like categorizing you.

RP: Yeah. It’s funny, because there isn’t such a thing as a close reading in the art world anymore. There used to be. There was a time when there would be a close reading of a painting or a sculpture to an almost parodic or ridiculous extent, but not anymore. I don’t mean to sound dismissive of the press, or to give you some anticritic diatribe. For the most part I think the level of writing in art is very high.

BLVR:But is it fair to say that noirish themes—depraved sexuality, violence, self-loathing, booze-addled women—run through your art?

RP: Well, yeah, there’s that interpretation. But as I said, that really has more to do with the formulaic qualities, the compositions, in noir. Personally, I don’t like violence and blood. I turn my head at anything like that. The thing is, there can be more interest in that sort of thing for me, and for many people, in works of art. Just the action of it, the violence inferred, tends to get a certain reaction that’s more interesting. On the other hand, I’m not Pollyannaish about it. I’m for opening the prisons.

BLVR:Do you think of your art as overtly sinister or morbid, or does it have more to do with hope and redemption? I don’t mean that in a biblical way.

RP: I don’t know if it goes that far in either direction, really, or begins or even ends there. I believe in redemption, sure, as much as we have it on earth. For the record, I don’t believe in any spiritual redemption. But my work is much more complicated than redemption or no redemption. I do feel it’s dangerous, both on a personal and a political level, to be anything other than forgiving. The stakes are just too high nowadays. I don’t want to express violence or anger or hate in my art. I want to express forgiveness. That’s the nature of my art in general. It’s expressing love and compassion, the kinds of things that don’t make sense in any other context other than emotive expression.

BLVR:Some of your drawings—and I’m thinking of works like the one of the pistol with the caption “My bout with depression lasted five chambers,” or of the old woman with the words “My mother was a monster who ate children”—have a sinister quality, or maybe it’s just dark humor. In any case, there’s this disjuncture between the drawings and the text that adds a lot of humor.

RP: That’s true for the most part. Usually it’s because the image and the text are at such a complete disjuncture from each other, or unrelated, almost random, so that one has nothing whatsoever to do with the other. But I don’t know how much I can say that’s conscious on my part. I’ve never been good at planning or directing my work towards specific things. Also, these sorts of things tend to get internalized to the point where they become second nature. It’s a technique for setting up conflict and resolution, perhaps, but I’m not filling in punch lines, like with cartoons. Eisenstein’s stuff was all about that clash of images, with montages and snippets of this and that. But that can become trite if it’s taken too far.

BLVR: Some of your drawings are much more “accomplished”—for lack of a better word—than others. Is that a stylistic thing related to the content of your drawings? Do you deliberately under-draw sometimes?

RP: No, I don’t think I usually do. Unless, maybe occasionally, if it’s for a certain affect in an individual drawing. I don’t know how often that occurs, but not often. But otherwise, no, I don’t try to under-draw. You might be thinking of earlier drawings. Some of my work can impress you as being from another person altogether. And in a sense it is. I have a tendency to think that some of my early work is better than anyone could have expected from me then, or even now. I think, if anything, for a while now my work is getting way too—I don’t know, it’s losing some of the best things that drawing has to offer, which is its easy facility and its ability to depict things with a few strokes of the brush without laboring over it and trying this and that, scraping, painting over. It’s not getting better. To its detriment, in fact, it’s losing something. And sometimes I sort of wish I could get back to the earlier drawing. But I don’t think that’s possible. It’s possible to try, but I think it would end up looking the way an artist’s work inevitably looks when he goes back to children’s drawings.

BLVR:Why do you think that is?

RP: I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s telling me. I’m missing the message.

BLVR:Do you think your creative process is becoming more deliberate as you get older?

RP: I don’t know. You can become too close to it while you’re doing it to have that remove from critical acuity. It’s like when I go out on the dance floor and the whole floor clears and everyone’s watching. I don’t know how I’m doing. I guess good. Maybe not. I’m joking, but what I’m saying is, it’s the same effect.

BLVR:So it’s about your audience’s response?

RP: Yeah, it’s about response, and the reaction shots before and after. But I’m pretty much on my own as far as audience goes, because my community of fans—I’m not sure if it even properly exists.




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Show











































































































































































*

p.s. Hey. ** Kyler, Hi. You think you got it from me? Sorry, man. Yeah, mine is asking for drastic measures at this point, which I will start tonight 'cos this weariness has no novelty left. Age-related? Nah, I don't think so, but wtf it is, I wish I knew. Passport thing went lengthily but smoothly, I think. Thanks. Get some zzz's and pass them on, please. ** Jeff, Hi, Jeff. Great to see you, man. Yeah, the 6th is super good. I hope you're doing really well. ** MyNeighbourJohnTurtorro, Hi! Busy bee is almost always a term that has good things going on behind it. My sleep is terrible, but thanks for asking. Oh, right, I get it, about the neg reaction to the Palms. That's not a very interesting response, no offense to your friends. I just got the Colin Stetson yesterday, but I haven't cracked it yet. Today, I think. The latest Burial is great, yeah, I totally agree. I haven't been listening to much, or to much that's new in the last days. I guess because of the sleep = no concentration thing. Mostly tried and true stuff guaranteed to try to perk me up like Pollard-related things and spiky pop oriented stuff. Oh, I have an advance of the O'Malley/Mika Vaino album that I've been listening to, and that's pretty fantastic. Sunn0))) were supposed to go into the studio in September to record the new album, but it got delayed, I think because Greg is tied up elsewhere or something. The next thing coming out is a live album. Gisele's booking people keep trying and trying to get our stuff to the UK. Some close calls, some possibilities in progress, but it's very tough because, other than 'Jerk', which has played there a few times, our pieces are quite expensive to stage. But, yeah, playing in the UK is a major goal, and hopefully venues there will both want the work and be able to afford it. Thanks a lot, man. ** David Ehrenstein, YES! ** Tosh Berman, There's nothing like Branca live, but I think the work is quite powerful in recordings too. The only Branca I have on vinyl is the early stuff, and to me it sounds great both on vinyl and CD/download. Again, age-related? I don't know. Mine definitely feels like it's a broken body clock issue, but I don't know. Thanks a bunch. Tosh. ** Will C., Hi, Will. Oh, okay, about Filson. I saw that they have stores in Japan, and I guess that made me feel like I must be out of some loop. Your head re: your writing sounds really well screwed on. Sometimes there's an electricity in someone's mentioning of the state of their current writing that totally transmits. Good, good, great! ** Rewritedept, Hi. 'Jill Hives' is always in my handful of favorite GbV songs. 'Under the Bushes' is an absolute must, not that everything they've done isn't. I like Kevin Shields' 'new album' baiting. I think it's a fun puzzle. The embassy took ages, but it went well, or I assume so. I'll know when the new passport arrives in the mail. Sleep thing is bad. Not jerking off for a while has a definite power re: the writing, I think. Not sure if it's a positive or negative one. I understood what you meant about 'HotH', yeah. ** Steevee, Hi. The embassy thing went okay, I think, thanks. Oh, 'The Butler'. How was that? ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. Crystals? Hm, I may yet get to the point where I would try that. Thank you. And for the Halloweeny wallet chain possibility. That's so nice of you. In the current, unrevised version of the porn script, there is a suicide, but it may or may not survive the edit/rewrite I'm doing with my friend/collaborator Zac. I don't want to say much about it or how it happens as it's still too in-process, and it would take a while to explain anyway, I think. It's complicated, and it's dependent on a narrative that's complicated, I guess. Thanks for being interested! ** Misanthrope, You've developed this new way to respond to posts whose sincerity level is thick as thieves. I am fried. I'm trying to do something about it. 'Unintentional rape': I'm trying to get my mind around that, but my mind won't cooperate. So, so sad about the Little Show thing. I keep feeling like he won't be there all that long. I don't know why. Has being fried given me psychic powers or the opposite? I'm sorry, G.  If you talk to him, tell him I say to build a convincing robot of himself, sneak out the door, and then call you to pick him up. ** Thomas Moronic, Thank you, my pal! It was heavenly. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I heard some of Drexciya. It's not at the center of my thing, but it sounded pretty interesting and cool. And that story of theirs, and the behind the scenes story too, are fascinating, yeah. Weird: that video you linked to is blocked in France. I wonder why. ** Flit, Hi, Flit! Discipline super helps with writing, yeah. The other way to do it is to take your obsessiveness and figure out a way to put it on a really narrow path. Sometimes I imagine my body is one of those machines that do one small task over and over, and that my hands and the keyboard (or a pen and paper) are the only thing my body can do, and that my mind/imagination are my programming. That kind of works sometimes. 'It is spanking': cool, yeah, that's good too. I almost never write in a linear way, no. I write all over the place and then half-let the form happen on its own and half-pay attention to what's happening in the writing, and usually a structure starts to come to mind, and then that dawning realization helps structure and boost the energy level of  the writing itself. Sometimes little linear things start happening on their own, and then I try to chase and sculpt the story that's happening on its own. Granted, I'm weird as well as sleepy at the moment, but 'both anal compulsive and retentive all stuffed tight in a miniature package' sounds a recipe for success to me. Dude, it would awesome if you want to workshop something here. We haven't had a writers workshop post in a while, and I miss that. Glad that you've been silently digging the posts. Sweet. Even the gig post, very cool. Keep on it, really, keep on it. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. I got your guest-post. It's gorgeous, and I even used my limited energies to set it up his morning. A handful of the images were very low res, but I managed to find higher res ones to replace them. Yeah, thanks so much! I've got it set to launch on Tuesday, the 20th, if that's okay. Really, it's a beauty, and I'm excited. That El-P/Killer Mike show sounds great. I'll watch for both or either of them vis-à-vis Paris. ** Martin Bladh, Hi, Martin. Okay, great. That's all really thrilling, and, yeah, let me know what's going on when the time is right. Thank you so much! ** Gary gray, Hi, Gary! Excellence re: your great weekend, man. What writing workshops in LA are you signing up for? Indie/privately conducted ones, or school context ones, or ... ? Thanks about the passport thing. I think I got through it without getting deported. A bit of nail biting until the thing itself is in my mailbox. Great Tuesday to you! ** Right. I was surprised to realize that I hadn't a Pettibon post here, so I made one, and there you go. See you tomorrow.

*

p.s. Hey. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Thanks for talking to the dudes. Pettibon's videos are pretty terrific, if you can manage to see them. There are only those two short clips online, which surprises me. Mm, I think Pettibon's work is amazingly not samey and predictable given the tight focus of his form. I feel like if you actually spend time with them individually, they're almost always incredibly rich and deep and fresh and singular in only the best way. Much more so, to my mind, than is the case with the great majority of artists who only make paintings or drawings or photographs or other things whose mode of public presentation is very familiar. ** Gary gray, Hi. I don't know of those two workshop programs, which doesn't really mean anything. It always depends on who else is in the workshop, and who knows. I hope they're helpful. I was going to recommend that you take the private workshop conducted by Benjamin Weissman, a great writer, but I checked, and it's already in progress and almost over, and I think he only does them in the summer. Let me know how the one-day one goes. Yeah, I'm lining up some amazing upcoming trips that will require a passport. Like Antarctica for sure in February, of all crazy places to go. And Japan again in January, I'm pretty sure. Etc. Bon day! ** MyNeighbourJohnTurtorro, Hello again to you, neighbor. It's weird and sad when that happens with old friends. It's so strange when people get dogged about the past and set in founded opinions and feelings and wary of the present. I'll never understand it. Yeah, 'Jerk' played in a few UK places, including Edinburgh, I'm pretty sure. Video documentation, I'm not sure. I'll ask Gisele. She has all that stuff. You should pop over to Paris sometime when we're doing something if that's not too daunting. The 'Jerk' farewell performances are happening here in November, but I think they're all in French, I'm not sure. You too on the weird sleep thing. We're not alone either. Strange. I wonder what's going on. Take care 'til very soon, I hope. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. Pettibon likes Celan a lot, so that could even have been a Celan quote. 'Strange Landscape' is fantastic, yeah. I wish someone would reprint it. Of course I'll like your chain. For sure. I'm excited. Thank you again. Very lovely lullabye too! ** Jack, Jack! Mr, Kimball! What a total pleasure to have you here, sir. Thank you! There is not a day that I don't visit and savor Pantaloons. I hope you are having the time of your life, maestro. ** Rewritedept, Hi. I saw what you said about 'HotH' and the Stones song, yeah. I don't own 'HotH', but I'll go do a youtube hunt for the tune, obviously. Phaidon should definitely do a Henson book. Yeah, his two great books are way o.o.p. and way expensive now. It's crazy. Oh, yeah? I kind of really like what's going on musically right now, but it's true that the wing I spend most of my time in is what you called experimental. In that realm, things are really hopping these days. Mm, I don't think I agree with you about the decay of song craft off the top of my head. I think the craft has just gotten necessarily more complex and referential and reactive and etc. due to there being so much history of examples out there maybe. If you want to hear newness and at least attempts at vacuum creation and originality, you always need to gravitate towards the 'experimental', I think. If you only want to hear trad-derived rock/pop songs, you're mostly going hear a lot of familiarity. Nature of the beast or something. I don't know. As I understand it, I think Raymond lives full-time in NYC now. I don't think he's in LA much at all anymore. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. I've never been able to take naps except when severely jet lagged or ill. My body/brain just won't turn off unless I'm so sleepy that I'm a zombie. What I really need to do is to fly to some other country with a vastly different time zone right now and confuse my body clock so much that it breaks its rigid pattern. But I can't, and I managed to sleep until almost 6 am last night, which is huge, so I'm going to try to do whatever it takes to use that momentum tonight. Thanks for the commiseration. T. Hope you got a nice nap. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Cool that you're a Pettibon fan. Yeah, there are a zillion books of/on Pettibon's work, but that Phaidon book is really one of the very best introductions, I think. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! So glad you liked it. I always think of Pettibon as a kind of ultimate writers' artist. I've been kind of surprised, actually, that he isn't mentioned and name-checked by alt writers hardly ever since I think there's some kind of deep, inherent connection between what he does and what a lot of those writers are doing. It's like he's the father of the literary meme in a weird way, for instance. That Phaidon book you found out about is very good and not expensive. I interview Raymond in it. Big internet hugs back to you, my friend. I hope all is great on your end, and that your writing is going really, really well. ** Steevee, Makes sense about the skipping thing. Well, it is summer, and even though I don't think editors take summer vacations the way they maybe used to, it does seem like they often the excuse of it being summer to take their non-sweet time doing their jobs. ** Jeff, Hi, Jeff. It's definitely possible that Branca's 6th was on my list, yeah. I can't remember precisely, but, yeah. How's that Antosca book? I'm curious about it. David Fremann: you know, that name looks so familiar. Hm. I'm kind of brain fried from sleep problems, so I'll have to go google his name to see if I've read him. If he's a pal and comrade of Peter's, it seems like I must have read him. Oh, you linked me to that forum, cool, thank you a lot! I'll start by looking there as soon as I get out of here. All the best to you too, buddy! ** Misanthrope, In front of the Sorbonne, you say. I think that's a little too Abramovician for me. Oh, you're the originator of the sleep problems! Curse on your first born! It is possible that I'm psychic, right? Anything is possible, right? And the messiness going on down there already makes it seem like the situation for LS is anything but set in stone. What are Bauer and The Mutineers? Jack Bauer? No, I haven't heard the MGMT. I'll try it. I'm not in love with their stuff, but I'll give it a go. Heck, I even tried out the new Gaga single yesterday, so, obviously, I'm an adventurous tester. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Thanks, man. No sweat on the low res thing. It was easy-peasy. Oh, man, another guest-post thing? Thank you, thank you! 'Leviathan' ... no, I don't think it was here, but I've been away a lot and could have missed it. 'The Grandmasters' opens here in ... September, I think? Did you see it? ** Robert-nyc, Howdy, Robert! Blogger, jeez, it's so fucked up, and it never gets its problems fixed. Really glad that post let you know about Pettibon's non record cover work. Me too, on the sleep thing going away. Weirdest thing ever, for me at least. Yay! About the book preorder availability! I like the cover. It's cool. Everyone, mighty poet and long term d.l. Robert-nyc aka Robert Siek has a new book of poems coming out pronto, and you can preorder it and feast your eyes on the cover by clicking this word, or, rather, these words. Do it! Oh, David White, sure. That's cool if not cool about the truncated party aspect, obviously. Take care. ** Flit, Hi, Flit. You got it! Polyrhythmic! Couldn't have put it better myself, unless I'd said dibble flash, but then you already said that too! If you yourself typing words here isn't a magic portion, I don't know what is. Awww, ha ha. ** Okay. There's a stack today. Do with it what you will. See you tomorrow.

_____________________



escort_slash_addict, 21
Dunedin, New Zealand

i think my first sex with a gay is i was only 15
i gay just approach me and i agreed
and it was fun
but sadly we lost communication

Dicksize M, Cut
Position Top only
Kissing No
Fucking Versatile
Oral No entry
Dirty No
Fisting No entry
S&M Soft SM only
Fetish Formal dress
Client age Users between 18 and 60
Rate hour ask
Rate night ask



__________________



Wish, 22
Las Vegas

Ten reasons to choose me

1. Im good looking

2. Im good in bed

3. Im a good kisser and i will suck your tounge till it dries

4. I can fuck you till your brains come out

5. I smell like a baby

6. I have a complete set of teeth and clean fresh breathe (i even bleach my teeth)

7. I have a cell phone number but I do not give out right now. Im going to buy another one that you can call me when I'm going to fuck you and empty my cock in you.

8. I speak English, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian and Bosnian.

9. I will make you sweat like a bitch.

10. Only two consecutive rounds of sex satisfies me. 5 minute break only and lets start again for another round - that's how horny I am.

Dicksize XL, Cut
Position Top only
Kissing Yes
Fucking Top only
Oral Versatile
Dirty No
Fisting No
S&M Soft SM only
Fetish Underwear
Client age Users younger than 60
Rate hour 20 Dollars
Rate night 120 Dollars



___________________



boy_of_street, 20
Lisbon

im not a totaly escort im not gay nor bi i just do gay things im not against gay people just im not gay im just the friendliest guy in town who loves sex w/ all gays and trying how to be like that..im just trying to be free.

Dicksize L, Uncut
Position Bottom only
Kissing Yes
Fucking Bottom only
Oral Bottom
Dirty Yes
Fisting Passive
S&M Yes
Fetish Sportsgear, Skater, Rubber, Formal dress, Jeans
Client age Users between 18 and 40
Rate hour ask
Rate night ask



____________________






FloridaDreamTeam, 32/22
Ft. Myers

Want the best of both worlds!? Double your fun with Florida's Hottest Couple: Vincenzo (32) and Landon (22). Vincenzo is a hunky sense of humor type of top guy with a big raucous cock. You've never met a more likable or hung mofo. Landon is a pessimistic Emo type of bottom guy with a little raucous ass. Give him one good reason to live, he'll give you three to die. Watch Vincenzo wipe the smile off Landon's face with one of his patented three hour "flyswatter" fucks. You have to see it to believe it. Try one for yourself! Or learn the technique and go double team on Landon (he can take two dicks at once, for a price) or have Landon all to yourself! Or Vincenzo for that matter!

Height: 6'2" (188cm)
Height: 5'8"
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Hair Color: Varies
Body Hair: Shaved
Body Hair: None
Weight: 190 - 210 lbs
Weight: 130 lbs
Eye Color: Brown
Eye Color: Gray
Tattoos: Yes
Tattoos: No.
Piercings: No
Piercings: Yes
Open To LTR: No
Open to LTR: No
Smoker: No
Smoker: Yes
Languages: English
Languages: English, Spanish
In Calls: Yes
Out Calls: Yes
US Travel: No
Int'l Travel: No
Price: Ask
Price: Ask



____________________



SleepingBeauty7, 19
Dubai

Nothing much to say ... just some metalhead looking for people with who to fuck.

Dicksize M, Uncut
Position Bottom only
Kissing No entry
Fucking Bottom only
Oral Bottom
Dirty No entry
Fisting No entry
S&M No entry
Fetish Sneakers & Socks
Client age Users between 30 and 50
Rate hour ask
Rate night ask



___________________




whateverilike, 24
Zoetermeer, Netherlands

i dont think v r here to find frnds n all dtthere r many other sites for frnds,admit it or not v r here for sex only. i don't know about anyone else but i m here only for sex.

Dicksize XL, Uncut
Position Versatile
Kissing Consent
Fucking Versatile
Oral Versatile
Dirty Yes
Fisting No
S&M No
Client age Users between 18 and 60
Rate hour ask
Rate night ask



___________________





HelpMeMannheim, 20
Mannheim

hi, i'm a pothea­d and and ­i love to ­write raps­. i was made ​​in Colorado, USA originally and I adore money money money. MONEY is my life. i am easil­y irritate­d. this is­ like my 4­th profile­. I like to go to cinema, to make deepthroat to my grilfriend, to fuck bitches, and to be seduced for money by older sirs with greedy asses. but please dont' ask me to kiss, no way, only for a great sum. i also only do meetings where I live. i also only do all-nite meetings becuz it takes me a while to get a hardon w/ sirs. i ­dont' give­ two shits if you don't like that. the price includes bed, pot, cigarettes, alcohol, and food.

Dicksize XL, Cut
Position Top only
Kissing No
Fucking Top only
Oral No
Dirty No entry
Fisting Active
S&M No entry
Fetish Leather, Uniform
Client age Users between 18 and 99
Rate hour ask
Rate night 250



___________________





NoahsArk, 24
Moscow

Im pur bottom and im here for get fucked from u! I like manly guy with medium dick size, and love to suck testy yammyeeee big dick lollipops ooffff! Fucking hot.... And also i like to eat the cums just like soft jelly.(if u have no aid's then)

Dicksize No entry, Cut
Position No entry
Kissing Consent
Fucking No
Oral No entry
Dirty Yes
Fisting No
S&M No
Fetish Sportsgear, Rubber, Skins & Punks, Jeans, Worker
Client age Users between 18 and 49
Rate hour ask
Rate night ask



____________________




Son, 19
Frankfurt

I'm on vacation with my dad he's here for work.

Minimum Booking Time

02 hours Home base of the Escort
04 hours Travel up to 100 km
12 hours (over night) – Travel within Germany
24 hours (over night) – Travel within Europe
48 hours (over night) – Travel world wide

2 hours Private Time 200,-
3 hours Private Time 250,-
4 hours Private Time 300,-
5 hours Private Time 350,-
6 hours Private Time 400,-
8 hours Private Time 500,-
12 hours Private Time 600,-
15 hours Private Time 800,-
24 hours Private Time 1000,-
48 hours Private Time 1500,-
48 hours Weekend 1200,-
72 hours Private Time 2400,-
Extra Day 350,-

Dicksize L, Uncut
Position Bottom only
Kissing Yes
Fucking Bottom only
Oral Versatile
Dirty No
Fisting No entry
S&M Soft SM only
Fetish Leather, Sportsgear, Rubber, Underwear, Skins & Punks, Boots, Lycra, Uniform, Formal dress, Techno & Raver, Jeans, Worker
Client age Users between 18 and 99



____________________




three_legs, 21
Sydney

Here to satisfy your hunger to get deep in someone.
Good communication skill, which is less found on this website.
A guy wid whom you wont feel ashamed to go in front of your Mom.
I dont look ugly.
I smoke and drink.
I gamble ocasionaly.
Basically .. i am the kind of persons who enjoys working with the different kind of personality.

Dicksize L, Uncut
Position Bottom only
Kissing Yes
Fucking Bottom only
Oral Versatile
Dirty No
Fisting Passive
S&M Soft SM only
Fetish Underwear, Formal dress, Jeans
Client age Users between 18 and 45
Rate hour 120 Dollars
Rate night 250 Dollars



__________________




WhatWhatWhaaat, 22
Kerry, Ireland

My thoughts are orderly and I plan my life in a systematic manner. I’m fond of hanging out with my chumps. I am blithe and a liberated chap, however I still have my curb and limits. I sob. I sob at the drop of a hat. I don’t like airhead people. The colorful personalities and varying egos is quite helpful in drawing a rough opinion as to how they simply under or overestimate each other. I am looking for someone who can keep me interested at all times. I don't know what sex appeal is. Do not contact me if you think I am too expensive. I will say "NO" to Old Guys (Above 25).

Tour dates
Cork 5th to 7th July
Galway- Salthill 8th to 14th July
Kerry- Tralee 15th to 19th
Limerick 20th to 23th July
Dublin 2 Grand Canal Dock 24th to 28th July
Cork 29th to 4th Aug

Dicksize L, Cut
Position Bottom only
Kissing Consent
Fucking Bottom only
Oral Versatile
Dirty No
Fisting Passive
S&M Soft SM only
Fetish Leather, Sportsgear, Underwear, Boots, Uniform, Formal dress, Sneakers & Socks, Jeans, Worker
Client age Users between 18 and 25
Rate hour 25 Euros
Rate night 50 Euros



___________________





have-a-great-day, 18
Bordeaux

I'm young.
-by definition. I'm just 18, so there you go.

I'm fresh.
- my mouth's fresh. My eyes are fresh, too. I taste fresh.

I'm fun.
-want jokes? want awesome jokes? want cool jokes? want corny jokes? whatever.

I'm good.
-not better, not best. I'm good. You do not even have to compare me with others, so there. I'm good. I'm not bad.

[Insert profile body here.

-
-
-
-

Plus a short essay here on my view in life, my reason and stand for things, etc. Also, insert something here to inspire the readers of this profile.

-
-
-
- ]

Addendum:
Guaranteed erection!
[self-explanatory]

Dicksize L, Uncut
Position Bottom only
Kissing Consent
Fucking Bottom only
Oral Bottom
Dirty No
Fisting No
S&M No
Client age Users under 45
Rate hour 75 Euros
Rate night 500 Euros



_____________________



bobyOka, 22
Jakarta

Nature has made us to enjoy, it does not matter how but I will help you without considering what others would think.

Fucking active / passive
Oral active / passive
Watersports no
CBT -
Fisting no
SM no
Bondage no
Dirty no
Kissing upon agreement
Massage active / passive
Safer Sex always
Rate / Hour 100
Rate / Night 450
Rate / 24h 900



__________________




MmmShawn, 21
Sacramento

my name is MmmShawn and i live in sacramento, CA

when u feel alone just search me and i can give u a big hug

i want to make you happy and i dream every day im so cute and happy

ill do lip kissing, body romance, ill suck ur nipples, armpit also, get deep short in my ass [get fucked]

what can you offer? Lets see..

Dicksize XL, Uncut
Position More bottom
Kissing Consent
Fucking More bottom
Oral No entry
Dirty No
Fisting No
S&M Soft SM only
Fetish Sportsgear, Underwear, Formal dress
Client age Users between 45 and 70
Rate hour ask
Rate night ask



___________________



pet_o, 21
Prague

I really don't feel like doing this.

Dicksize L, Uncut
Position Bottom only
Kissing No
Fucking No entry
Oral Bottom
Dirty Yes
Fisting Passive
S&M No
Client age Users older than 30
Rate hour 300
Rate night 1000



___________________




great_love3, 19
Vinkovci, Croatia

Smokers have smoking heart, Drinkers have an alcoholoic heart. I request you Plz don't eat sugar coz u aready have a Sweet Heart.

I'm looking for a rich man who like to get spanked in the face. I will be your lover and whore.

Dicksize M, Cut
Position More top
Kissing Consent
Fucking Versatile
Oral Versatile
Dirty No
Fisting Active
S&M No
Fetish Sportsgear, Underwear, Uniform, Formal dress, Jeans
Client age Users between 18 and 20
Rate hour 100 Euros
Rate night 500 Euros



___________________





tim_law, 20
Berne

m staxus TOPMODEL tim law frm porno

m a escort 2,coz of sum reason

please dnt msg me if u r bot or vers, i prefd tops onlyn coz of sum prob

i let u descover me

Dicksize M, Uncut
Position Bottom
Kissing Consent
Fucking No entry
Oral No entry
Dirty No entry
Fisting No entry
S&M No entry
Client age No restrictions
Rate hour 2000 Dollars
Rate night 6000 Dollars



_________________



ImaPresent4you, 18
Kópháza, Hungary

I am new here, im simple, plss look at me. i am just wondering why people here in this planet becomes fully aware of who they are.

Love is a mistake. it all just wasted.

Dicksize M, Uncut
Position Bottom only
Kissing Yes
Fucking Bottom only
Oral Bottom
Dirty No
Fisting Active
S&M Soft SM only
Fetish Leather, Rubber, Boots, Formal dress, Jeans
Client age Users under 45
Rate hour 217 Euros
Rate night ask




*

p.s. Hey. ** HyeMin, Hi. Oh, cool, I'm really glad the post had your password. Thanks! I can't remember what a sakura sencha is, probably due to brain fatigue, but I'll look it up, and it sounds pretty great. The immigration thing sucks. Yury has to go through that here in France yearly too, although France is fairly relaxed, at least if you're a Northern European. ** DavidEhrenstein, Ha, that was lovely, sir. Thank you. Very curious to see how great Blanchett is in the new Woody Allen. I think she's almost always pretty great. ** Sypha, Hi, James. Yeah, I tried the Gaga single. I think it's probably the weakest, dullest single of hers yet. I'm curious to see if this new "art' schtick she's trying to pull off will work. I guess it'll probably sell the usual millions, but the Damian Hirstian face paint and the mutual glom-on with the odious, opportunistic New Agey pretension master Marina Abramovic and etc. are so dumb. Sorry, I'm just not into her other than being kind of vaguely into the aforementioned state of curiosity to see if and how her career strategies pay off. Ministry is finally giving up the ghost? I can see why the MDMA tour DVD would be if interest, yeah. ** Steevee, Glad to see that the internet issue got sorted out within a single comments arena. Oh, you can talk about that stressful here, of course, as much as you like, of course. ** _Black_Acrylic, Thanks a lot, Ben. ** floats_ an_ oblique_ sash_ of_ sleepless_ weave, Hi, who are you? I don't understand. Oh, wait, I know who are you are. Never mind. Thanks for the Ponge link. I'll keep it to myself and use it hopefully before whatever's at the other end disappears, Thank you! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, a few were of teens forced to hold signs criticizing themselves in public because their parents thought humiliating them was an effective strategy or something. I'll go look for your email. Cool, thank you! His best since 'Happy Together'? That's a tall order. I'm more curious about it now, for sure. Best of luck getting rid of your cold, and your best wishes re: my sleep thing are much appreciated. ** Misanthrope, Words to live by there, George. I didn't know those Stephen Crane lines. Pretty good. The Gaga single is really uninspired and bleh. I was even surprised. I'm okay with MGMT, but that's about it. Yury's a big fan of theirs. Maybe that's what you remember. Poor LS, Jesus. I really hate adults sometimes. Oh, they're bands. I kind of figured that The Mutineers were a band since that's such a band name. After being traumatized by a so-called psychic telling me a dead loved one was always standing next to me or, rather, I think, hovering above me, I don't think I'll pass that shit on to my fellow human beings, but the money would be nice. No, I've never wanted to have kids. I've never had any interest at all in that. I'm of the 'my books are my kids' school. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Thanks a bunch about the stack. Let me pass on your ad. Nice! Also I'll put it on my Facebook wall. In fact, hold on ... Done. Everyone, here's the great Chris Dankland, and listen up: 'this is a really small thing, but I put together a promotional post for neato mosquito and I wanted to mention it here, in case anybody out there is into tumblr - asking people to reblog it to help me advertise the site a little bit. For anybody who's interested, here's the link.' Please help spread knowledge of the existence of NEATO MOSQUITO to the wildest winds, you guys, okay? There definitely arise bad days amongst the good ones when it comes to writing. Rule is to never take them seriously. My work goes okay. The new novel is gradually accumulating. And my other collab. projects are kicking into high gear or are about to. All is well. Best day to you, big C. ** Rewritedept, Oh, hey. Blogger is being a jerk with you? It's such a fucker. Tomorrow re: Skype might be tough. It's a running around day. Mm, maybe, but, yeah, I think tomorrow might be too tough for me. I'll barely be home, if all goes as planned. Take care! ** Okay. It's the day of month when a bunch of escorts ply their trade with you and when you have no way to respond to them personally even if you find their strategies effective. Always such a conundrum. See you tomorrow.