Michael McClure once called Jayne Mansfield "the perfect mammal." He had a point. However I believe that honor belongs to Lambert Wilson.





Why? It's quite simple. He's French. He's Gorgeous. He's a peerless performer in both comedy and drama, and he sings Sondheim.

In short he's everything I want in a man



(Lambert and his wax effigy at the Musee Grevin)



(Lambert with Agnes Varda)





(Lambert kissing director Xavier Beauvais at Cannes)



Here's his IMDB c.v. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933727/?ref_=nv_sr_1

According to it:

"Lambert Wilson was born on August 3, 1958 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He is an actor, known for Of Gods and Men (2010), Babylon A.D. (2008) and Catwoman (2004).

He is the son of actor Georges Wilson

He is half Irish, half French.

He screen tested for GoldenEye (1995) for the role of James Bond 007, appearing in test footage opposite Maryam d'Abo (Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights (1987)) as Tania Romanova, re-enacting scenes from From Russia with Love (1963).

Was featured in a series of artsy Calvin Klein ads featuring Christy Turlington for Eternity in 1991, as well as a poster ad for Eternity in 1998.

He is a French citizen.

He shares birthday with Mathieu Kassovitz, TV presenter Vincent Perrot and Martin Sheen.

He sings in a show called "La Nuit Americaine" in Paris.

As a singer, is a baritone.

When Lambert was a child, his father used to tell the journalists that he lived alone, while he was a married family father, to protect his family from the paparazzi, that's why Lambert and his brother grew up tranquilly.

As a singer, he recorded two albums: "Musicals" and "Demon e & Merveilles".

Attended London's Drama Centre from September 1975 until December 1977, leaving before completing the acting course in order to make his professional theatrical debut in Paris in a play with his father, Georges Wilson.

Mother is named Nicole and used to be a photo model.

As a narrator, he has worked under the direction of some of the world's greatest conductors including Rostropovitch, Prêtre, Mazur, Dutoit, and Ozawa.

Performs on stage in both French and English, and co-starred in "A Little Night Music" with Judi Dench for the Royal National Theater in London in 1996,.

Has starred in two different films whose title is Sahara. First in Andrew V. McLaglen's movie (1983), starring Brooke Shields. And in Breck Eisner's movie (2005), starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz.

Appeared as Pangloss/Voltaire/Martin in the new John Axelrod production of Leonard Bernstein's opera Candide. Production played at LaScala June 20, 22, 26, 28 and July 4, 6, 10, 13, 18, 2007. [June 2007]"

Here he is (looking unspeakbly luscious) in a Clavin Klein ad.



(Eternity -- Calvin Klein)


Here he is singing Gershwin



(Fascinating Rhythm Lambert Wilson with Stephy Haik and Maria-Laura Baccarini)


Lambert reads Lamartine:



(Lambert recites "Le Lac" par Lamartine)


Here he is in the trailer for Andre Techine's Rendez-vou. I wonder if Andre "got anything off of him"



(Rendez-vous trailer)


An interview



(Lambert Wilson interviewed in English)


Shopping:



(Lambert Wilson goes shopping)


A recent film:



(Bicycling with Moliere trailer)



(Lambert Wilson et Leslie Caron)



(Pas Sur La Bouche Lambert Wilson)



(Lambert Wilson on Alain Resnais)


Politics:



(Lambert Wilson on Haiti)


Being biligual Lambert frequently makes English-language films, the most famous being --



(Lambert Wilson The Matrix Reloaded)


(The Matrix Reloaded fight scene)


Because of his bi-national career I see Lambert here in L.A. quite a lot. More than I do you, Dennis. When he's here for any length of time Randal Kleiser throws a party for him. At the one I went to last year Lambert asked me "Is every gay frenchman who lives in Los Angeles here?" I glanced around and said "All the really good-looking ones."

Here's one of the most outre items in Lambert's canon.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JreMxF0zKb8
(The Belly of An Architect)


And here's the gayest:



(Comme les Autres)




*

p.s. Hey. Today the estimable David Ehrenstein goes libidinal and weak in the knees re: the French star of stage and screen Lambert Wilson, and you are invited to investigate the means and ways and test the persuasive powers of his objet fixe. So have at that until tomorrow, thank you, and kindest thanks to you, Mr. E. Otherwise, a heads up about the blog's upcoming schedule. On Friday morning I go to a very small town near Le Mans, France for three days to participate in the shooting of a scene of Zac's and my film. This means that there'll be rerun posts and short, pre-programmed, 'greetings'-styled p.s.es on Friday and Saturday. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. Thanks, glad you liked Chapter 2. I was kind of especially happy with that one. Understood re: the 'alt lit' discussion. 'Nuff said. Mm, I don't think I've read Jean Daive, and certainly not that Celan book you mentioned. I've written the name down, and I'll investigate as soon as I have more than a minute to myself, maybe tonight. Thank you! ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you so much for today! I think I caught the typos. If I missed any, give a shout, and I'll do more corrections when I am home again tonight. Don't know if that's Tony Holland's head/hands. It was just floating out there in the sea of gifs sans info. ** White tiger, Hi, Math. Oh, shit, sorry. My brain was in a rush and confused yesterday, as it is again today. Okay, nice project you and Michael have going on there. Nice name too. Ha ha, thank you for the welcome home. My few minutes here are being quite pleasurable. Have a super swell day! ** Sypha, Not surprised by who recommended 'WB' to you, no. He's a known ChabonHead. Oh, thanks for spending all that time with 'Gone'. I still haven't even seen a copy. It's fucked up. Leif Garrett had it going on in the way that teen idols were required to have it going on back then. Fad Gadget, right. Good eye. There's also the guy in Factrix in there before Factrix. I can't remember why I put Rick Wakeman in there. I think maybe because he looked kind of like Leif Garrett at the time or something. Thanks about the '120 Days' consolidation. Yeah, I liked how it pointed out all the mistakes and implausibilities in the narrative. It was your birthday? Whoa, happy birthday a day late! $18 for 'ToW' isn't a bad deal at all. Cool. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Thank you so very kindly about my gif novella. Yeah, it's almost a bit absurd how complicated I tried to make it and how long that took me. But, yeah, it's an interesting form to work in, I think. Filming is going really well, yeah. The scene we shoot this weekend is really complicated, so I hope I can continue to report positively re: the filming next week. But I'm pretty sure that'll be the case. Zac's a genius, and Michael's eye/camera combo is godlike, and our performers are currently getting rehearsed into walking-talking maestros, and our sound guy is super amazing, so ... Yes, I read your interview with Paul. It's great, man! Everyone, the one and only Thomas Moronic has interviewed the masterful Paul Curran about his masterwork of a novel 'Left Hand' over on the addictive Fanzine site, and, of course, you are very hugely encouraged to go read the results. It's called 'THE DISRUPTED & AMPUTATED PROSE OF THE LEFT HAND: A CONVERSATION WITH PAUL CURRAN'. Here. ** Kier, Hi, Kier! Aw, thank you a lot! I'm both strangely and understandably very excited that you're going to Kongeparken on Saturday! I want to hear all about it. Photos? You're so lucky! The park is so lucky! Hooray! ** Robert-nyc, Hi, Robert. Yeah, the baby cake was pretty trippy. Cool. Glad it got you all infanticidal and cannibalistic and stuff. I read that there's a new Freddy movie in the works but without Robert Englund which seems ridiculous to me, but I guess you never know. But what a dumb idea. Is Clive Barker involved in the new 'Hellraiser' movie? In fact, what is Barker up to? I haven't read much about him and his doings lately. ** Keaton, Mm, no, it's not about murdering a sandwich artist, but what an interesting interpretation. Thanks, buddy. I don't know for sure that 'Tool Box Murders' is worth seeing. I think there was a remake. Lot of drills involved, I think. Awesome about the meme post, man. You're saintly. ** Paul Curran, Wonderful Fanzine interview, man! Thank you a lot about the novella. That means a ton coming from you. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Thanks a whole lot for the good words, my friend. I haven't sunk into the World Cup. I literally wouldn't be able to right now, if I could. But it's showing constantly in just about every single store and restaurant in Paris right now, so I've seen a collage. ** Steevee, Hi. Yeah, the SPT album doesn't seem to have a huge amount of staying power. ** Rewritedept, Hey. 'Gone' is sold out? Weird. Maybe I'll never see a copy. Extra posts/days are only a massive boon at the moment, so thank you a ton. Cool that 'The Green Retard' is pleasing you in progress so much. Thanks if you send the 'TGR' thing, but know that I sadly won't be able to even glance at it until late next week, probably. My Tuesday was good. All day rehearsals with the performers in the upcoming film scene. Very hard work, but it went well, and it's going to be all day rehearsals until we leave on Friday. ** MANCY, Hey, man! Thank you so, so much! Oh, you're about to move now. That'll scatter your time/mind for sure. Awesome: as soon as I get any kind of break from the film thing, meaning next week I fear, I will devour your new videos. Exciting! Everyone, the extremely good artist who often works with video named Stephen Purtill aka the blog's own MANCY has, in his words, 'a couple of new things on my vimeo page - source documentation for two installations, so they are kind of skeletons of themselves, or like whats inside without the skeleton maybe,' and anything by Mr. P. is imperative to observe and digest. So go where said videos are, meaning here. Great to see you! ** Okay. Mr. E. has your senses covered for today, so react accordingly. Now I'll go rush out the door, meet up with Zac, walk the 20 minutes to Point Ephemere, climb the stairs, unlock Atelier #1, await the arrival of our two performers, and then rehearse with them until nighttime arrives. See you tomorrow.

Books (fiction)
in no order

1. Joshua CoreyBeautiful Soul: An American Elegy(Spuyten Duyvil)


2. Edouard Leve Works(Dalkey Archive)


3. Molly Gaudry We Take We Apart(Ampersand Books)


4. Cassandra Troyan Blacken Me Blacken Me, Growled(Tiny Hardcore Press)


5. Paul Curran Left Hand(Civil Coping Mechanisms)


6. Alain Robbe-Grillet A Sentimental Novel(Dalkey Archive)


7. Juliet Escoria Black Could(Civil Coping Mechanisms)


8. Shane Jones Crystal Eaters(Two Dollar Radio)


9. D. Foy Made to Break(Two Dollar Radio)


10. Laura Ellen Joyce The Luminol Reels(Calamari Press)


11. David Peak Glowing in the Dark(Aqueous Books)


12. Michael Seidlinger The Fun We Had(Lazy Fascist Press)


13. Roxanne Gay An Untamed State(Grove Atlantic)


14. Robert Coover The Brunist Day of Wrath(Dzanc Books)


15. Joseph Riippi Because(Civil Coping Mechanisms)


16. Matty Byloos ROPE(Small Doggies)


17. Kyle Muntz Green Lights(Civil Coping Mechanisms)


18. Lance Olsen Theories of Forgetting(Fiction Collective 2)






Books (poetry)
in no order

1. Mike Bushnell OSHO(Scrambler Books)


2. Jerome Sala The Cheapskates(Lunar Chandelier Press)


3. Melissa Broder Scarecrone(Publishing Genius)


4. Kevin Killian Tweaky Village(Wonder)


4. Lucas De Lima Wet Lands(Action Books)


5. Spencer Madsen you can make anything sad(Publishing Genius)


6. Beach Sloth It Would Be Great If ...(Peanut Gallery Press)


7. Lonely Christopher Death and Disaster Series(Monk Books)


9. Dodie Bellamy The TV Sutras(Ugly Duckling Presse)


10. Bunny Rogers Cunny Poem, Vol. 1(Small Batch Books)


11. The Yolo Pages(Boost House)


12. Penny Goring Love Tester Deluxe(Peanut Gallery Press)


13. Robert Fitterman No, Wait. Yep. Definitely Still Hate Myself(Ugly Duckling Presse)


14. Fanny Howe Second Childhood(Graywolf)


15. Mike Young Who Can Make It(Big Lucks)






Music
in no order

1. Alex G DSU(Orchid Tapes)


2. Young Widows Easy Pain(Temporary Residence)


3. The Body I Shall Die Here(RVNG)


4. Amen Dunes Love(Sacred Bones)


5. Holly Herndon Chorus (RVNG)


6. patten Estoile Naiant On(Warp)


7. Wild Beasts Present Tense (Domino)


8. Thou Heathen (Gilead Media)


9. Xiu Xiu Angel Guts: Red Classroom(Polyvinyl)


10.Actress Ghettoville (Werkdiscs/Ninja Tune)


11. Guided by Voices Motivational Jumpsuit(GbV)


12. Various Boring Ecstacy: The Bedroom Pop of Orchid Tapes(Orchid Tapes)


13. Death Grips niggas on the moon(soundcloud)


14. Container Adhesive (Liberation Technologies)






Film
in no order

1. Jean-Luc Godard Adieu au language


2. Jonathan Glazer Under the Skin


3. Wes Anderson The Grand Budapest Hotel


4. Claire Denis Les Salauds


5. Shirley Clarke Portrait of Jason






Art
in no order

1.Inujima Seirensho Art Museum (Inujima, Japan)


2. Teshima Art Museum (Teshima, Japan)


3. James Turrell Open Sky(Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima, Japan)


4. Vincent Fecteau @ Matthew Marks Gallery (NYC)


5. Stanya Kahn Don't Go Back to Sleep (SUSANNE VIELMETTER LOS ANGELES PROJECTS)


6. Oscar Tuazon's 'A Corner Door' Gallery (Los Angeles)


7. Paradise Garage(Venice, CA)


8. Tony Greene: Amid Voluptuous Calm(Hammer Museum, West Los Angeles)






Internet
in no order

espresso bongo
FUCKED BY NOISE
William Powers Youtube Channel
NEW WAVE VOMIT
Western Beefs of North America
THE NEATO MOSQUITO SHOW
Cutty Spot
Harriet: The Blog
Fanzine
Alt Lit Gossip
shitty youth
{ feuilleton }
Isola di Rifiuti
pantaloons
Beach Sloth
HTMLGIANT
Tiny Mix Tapes
UbuWeb
Other People with Brad Listi
Joe Brainard's Pajamas (The Sequel)
If we don't, remember me
Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets
THEM, a trans* lit journal
giphy
The Wonderful World of TamTam Books
bright stupid confetti
Illuminati Girl Gang
Shabby Doll House
Grand Text Auto




*

p.s. Hey. So, tomorrow and Saturday you'll get rerun posts and quick, minimal, non-interactive p.s.es because I'll be away doing the film shoot. On Monday, new posts will return along with me/the p.s. in its usual form, and I'll catch up with the long weekend's comments then. ** David Ehrenstein, Merci again to you, Mr, E! ** Kier, Hi! Thank you in advance for the photos! I'm excited! I have a squeezy albino crocodile toy that I bought at a crocodile farm in southern France. Yours and mine should hang out somehow. Whoa, I hope that show uses your notebooks! That's great possible news! Let me know the scoop. Super cool! For me, yesterday was another long day of rehearsals for the upcoming film shoot. And today will be the same again since it's the last chance for Zac and I to polish the scene, which is really, really complicated, before we take off tomorrow and need to start shooting as soon as we get to where we're going. It's was a good day, just more than a bit pressured. Oh, man, have such a blast at Kongeparken! Love, me. ** Robert-nyc, Hi. Oh, maybe the new 'NoES' was only in the works at some point. It's true that I haven't read a peep about it in ages. The Barker films are always better when he directs them. He's a weird director, and his films are always kind of hit and miss, but they have some kind of obsession in them whereas when he produces the films of his works, it seems like he's very hands off, and anything can happen, mostly degrees of okayness. Great about your new poem! I might not get to read it until next week, but I look forward to that majorly. Everyone, Wunderbar poet Robert Siek who goes by the moniker robert-nyc in this joint, has a new poem, 'Grand Union', up at Painted Bride Quarterly, and you should totally go read it, no? Yes. Thanks, man. You'll definitely get some kind of opportunity to see our film. It has at least a limited theater release and a DVD release already lined up. But when that'll happen, good question. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. No, I didn't see the 'NoES' remake. In fact, I don't think I even knew it came out. Weird. How was it? Should I indulge? ** VanceMan, Hi, VM. Welcome to the blog, and thank you very much for seconding Mr. E's inclinations and opinion. Nice to meet you. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. I looked up Jean Daive, and his work seems interesting. I'll look into it after I get through this insanely preoccupied period. Oh, no big about the non-agreement about the lit. issue. Non-agreement is often fruitful. Yes, for sure, about post-work-accomplished pleasure. Nothing like it. It's strange when the work is preparatory, as it is right now for me with the rehearsals, because it's just basically putting feelers out towards the hopeful accomplishment or something. But yes! ** Keaton, I remember when Sears was the big dog. I remember when it seemed like everything. It was Home Depot and Wal-Mart and Toys-r-Us and etc. in one quaint package. I got arrested shoplifting at the one down the street when I was 12 years-old or something. ** Steevee, Hi. ** Misanthrope, Yep, the other titles are no better, nope. I'm so glad that LPS is free and enjoying it. I do remember about your neck, and it's still messing with you? I totally recommend an osteopath, if you're into that sort of thing. Those guys are fucking magicians, I think. That is a crazy household you've got going on there. Cool, man. ** Mikel Motorcycle, Hi, Mikel! Really good to see you! Thanks a lot about the horror novel post. No, it has no relationship to our film. Or not consciously. It was just a gift for Zac. Very cool about your music project! I'll go check that out as soon as I get the merest second of film-unimpaired consciousness. Thanks! Everyone, the superb artist and longtime d.l. Mikel Motorcycle has something you should check out and think about. Here he is to intro/explain: 'I just put out some demos for one of my music projects and there's some overlap [editor's note: with White tiger/Michael Cameron's music project that you were alerted to the other day] here. If they resonate with you or any other musicians around here and if there's collaboration interest please get in touch. This project is basically a mix of creepy Primal Scream/Ladytron-ish synth-based stuff and guitar-based heavy psychedelic stuff (Black Angels, Warlocks, Spiritualized etc). I put them up to get a group together, whether I stay in San Francisco or make my way to Berlin, but I'm open to remote collaboration also. The SoundCloud demos are here.' Major encouragement to explore that, guys. I would love to have that guest-post you mentioned! Yes, very much, if you don't mind! That would be great! Thank you so much! ** Sypha, Hi, James. No, I still haven't even seen a copy of 'Gone'. Big mail/postal fuck up, apparently. Ugh. Ha ha, the less I think about how my mind worked when I made that scrapbook the better. Ah, youth. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Yes, I got your email. I think it'll start running on Monday. I'll let you know if it doesn't. I'm going to try to set it up in the few minutes of freedom I have between now and then. Thanks so much! My day was definitely not mellow. Just rehearsals, and more of the same today. They went great, but mellow they weren't. I never saw 'Dumb and Dumber'. I can't imagine a mood that would make me want to watch that, ha ha. I did see 'The Jerk'. I think I remember liking it even. Steve Martin, wow, uh ... I don't think I've seen a movie with him in it since 1980 or something. ** Okay. I must now scramble towards my door and go do rehearsals and then pack to leave for Le Mans very early in the morning. I kind of threw together this mid-year favorites list with limited brain clarity, so I probably forgot all kinds of favorite 2014 so-far stuff, but there you go. Like I said, the blog will see you tomorrow and over the weekend, and I'll see you in my real, fully rendered form again on Monday. Have very fine long weekends.

----


I have already lost, Kingdom after Kingdom, province after province, the more beautiful half of the universe, and soon I will know of no place in which I can find a refuge for my dreams. -- Gerard de Nerval

The first moments of sleep are an image of death; a hazy torpor grips our thoughts and it becomes impossible for us to determine the exact instant when the "I," under another form, continues the task of existence. -- Gerard de Nerval




*

p.s. Hey. I'm away in the woods near Le Mans, France today helping shoot scene #4 of Zac's and my film, as I will be until Sunday night. So, enjoy this rerun post re: the ultra-great Nerval, please. Thank you!

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The Mercado de Sonora (The Sonora Market), inaugurated on September 23, 1957, is located within the commercial center of Mexico City. The market, a labyrinth of stalls that cover a few city blocks, has arguably the highest concentration of shamans, santeros, voodoo and stalls offering the implements of witchcraft and black and white magic in the world.





Stalls are flooded with a seemingly infinite variety of powders, sprays, soaps and incense that claim, through bright colors and illustrations, to help one find a job, money or love, to ward off evil spells, cast hexes, or help children do well in school. The dozens of brujas and brujos (female and male witches), chamanes (shamans) and santeros (priests of the African-based santería) attend clients within the market.





Working out of stalls, many of them the size of a large closet, these healers perform limpias (spiritual cleansings), healing rituals, initiations and predictions. All the materials needed for these and other ritual practices are sold in the hundreds of small botánicas within the Sonora Market, while the birds used in the ritual sacrifices can be bought live and squawking a few yards away.





To kill a man, explains Alejandro Rozos, a warlock who practices his craft in one dark corner of the market, all you need is a black cloth doll, some thread, a human bone and a toad. Oh, and you must ask the devil permission, in person, at a cave in the hills outside Mexico City where he is said to appear. Assuming you have these things, plus the green light from the prince of darkness, you simply lash the doll to the bone, shove it down the unfortunate toad’s throat, sew up its lips and take the whole mess to a graveyard, reciting the proper words.





“The person will die within 30 days,” Mr. Gallegos said matter of factly, as if he were talking of fixing a broken carburetor. (The toad dies too, by the by.) “There exists good and bad in the world, there exists the devil and God,” he went on, turning a serpent’s fang in his rough fingers. “I work in white magic and in black magic. But there are people who dedicate themselves only to evil.”





"There are many charlatans here, people who walk through the market and say 'I'm the chief wizard,' but they don't deliver," said veteran shaman Jose Luis Martinez. Martinez and a handful of other shamans who say they can barter souls to the Devil for wealth or power as well as intervene with God for good health or love say most practitioners are just putting the tourists on.





Martinez has two stalls. In one, a bleeding Jesus swoons on a cross over a white altar lighted by white candles. In the other, where Martinez keeps ancient tomes of dark magic like "The Supreme Book" (El Libro Supremo) and "The Anti-Christ" (El Anti-Cristo), a furious red devil rages above a black altar. "I could not take you to the dark stall for a cleansing because you would be terrified by such a gloomy place," Martinez said.





The dark side of wizardry, known in the trade as the esoteric arts, is full of danger. Politicians seeking political revenge, the avaricious who desire unlimited wealth and the hate-filled who want an enemy to die in a car crash have to sell their souls to Lucifer.





As a shaman, Martinez said, he acted as an interlocutor, taking clients to a cave in the mountains filled with vipers where they could strike a personal deal with the demon. But it requires a lot of strength. "The evil spirit is so ugly, with long hairs on his face and fingernails as long as this (about three inches), that you cannot look him in the eye because you would be paralyzed with fright ... and then he would take you away," Martinez said.





In a conversation full of legend and lore, he sighed at the sacrifices a shaman has to make to serve the dreams, both evil and good, of his clients. Sitting in the waiting room of his stall, the walls decorated with tinsel Valentine's hearts, a photograph of the sacred mountain and a small notebook with a bosomy girl on its cover, he said he had had to offer the souls of seven of his family to gain the powers he possessed.





"It's a hard life, so full of sacrifice," he said. But he insisted there was more good than evil in his trade, saying God created the Devil and therefore God was dominant.













EL MERCADO DE LA MAGIA: "MERCADO DE SONORA"


A walk through Mercado de Sonora


Supermana at El Mercado de Sonora



Stalking Light and Life: Interview with a Mercado de Sonora Healer

'At the beginnings of time, there were two parts that controlled the stability of the planet: the good and the bad. Since these are two extremes, a fusion becomes a saint... the balance.

'Saints desired more power so they discovered red magic and green magic.

'Red magic is a very powerful energy, and uses blood from sacrifices or donations.

'Green magic is based on nature; herbs. It does good or bad to the humans. There are very powerful herbs that may kill humans, so everything depends on what is used.

'Most of the people doing this, are not aware of the foundations of how to handle magic. A lot of them have read literature from undocumented sources that worked for a particular case, and most likely won't work for other cases.

'Black magic by itself does no harm... you need to have a combination: a duality.

'There are four main types of magic: Black magic, green magic, red magic, white magic: four elements: Water Earth Wind and Fire.

'Many recipes or preparations just use a couple of types of magic, without considering the others... for the product to work, you need the presence of four... it's like a two-feet table.

'I'm 53, and I've been doing this since I was 12. There's nothing I haven't read... but many don't know a thing. I was taught by ascended teachers whose names I can't mention.'

(the entirety)













----




*

p.s. Hey. I'm still away helping shoot Zac's and my film. Instead of me talking and the usual post-related newness, here's an old tour of the mysterious Mercado de Sonora to hopefully keep you somewhat occupied this weekend. I will see you on Monday.

the current lineup of cursive. l-r: matt maginn, tim kasher, ted stevens.


cursive are an american rock band from omaha, NE. they record for saddle creek records.

cursive formed in 1995, after the breakup of slowdown virginia, a band that featured tim kasher, steve pedersen and matt maginn. they teamed up with drummer clint schnase and released two singles for saddle creek records, the disruption, and sucker and dry, in 1996 and 1997, respectively.



a disruption in the normal swing of things.


sucker and dry.


in 1997, the band also released their debut full-length LP, such blinding stars for starving eyes on portland, OR, based indie crank! records.



ceilings crack.


after the movies.


1998 saw the release of the icebreaker 7", again on saddle creek. cursive broke up in 1998, as pedersen was moving to north carolina to attend law school and kasher was planning a move to portland with his then-wife.



pivotal.


in 1999, cursive released their 'final' album, a posthumous release entitled the storms of early summer: semantics of song. fun fact: the back cover of this album is a shot of the old A terminal at mccarran int'l airport in las vegas, NV. i remember it fondly from various field trips to the airport (i think i went to the airport three times on school trips in elementary).



when summer's over, will we dream of spring?


a little song and dance.


kasher found portland miserable, as he was having a hard time getting a band together and his marriage was quickly dissolving. the breakup of this relationship would form the basis for the songs that became cursive's breakout LP, cursive's domestica. when he moved back to omaha, kasher got the band back together. pedersen was still at law school, so they enlisted ted stevens, formerly of omaha folk-weirdos lullaby for the working class, to handle second guitar and vocals. domestica was released in 2000 to almost universal acclaim.



the martyr.


the radiator hums.


the game of who needs who the worst.



the domestica lineup. l-r: kasher, schnase, stevens, maginn.


in 2001, cursive added cellist greta cohn to the lineup. touring that year had to be cut short due to kasher suffering a collapsed lung mere days from home. after he recuperated, cursive recorded the burst and bloom EP, which was released that year.



fairytales tell tales.


the great decay.


in 2002, cursive released a split EP with japanese noise-poppers eastern youth, that further showcased their developing sound, 8 teeth to eat you.



excerpts from various notes strewn around the bedroom of april connolly, april 24, 1997.


may flowers.


am i not yours?



cursive, c. 2003. l-r: clint schnase, ted stevens, greta cohn, tim kasher, matt maginn.


2003 saw the release of the ugly organ, a concept album about dicks, art, starting relationships to fail them and the many other hazards of being or knowing tim kasher. it was released to universal acclaim, and the following two years saw cursive on tour more or less nonstop, including dates on: the plea for peace tour, with mike park (founder of asian man records), slam poet saul williams and denver-by-way-of-chicago emocore thrashers planesmistakenforstars; a summer jaunt with the cure on their curiosa festival, headlining the second stage; as well as an appearance at coachella where a very day-drunk kasher ad-libbed the words to 'milkshake,' by kelis, between songs when they couldn't think of what else to play.

(sidenote: summer 2004, i saw cursive four times, at the vegas date of plea for peace, coachella, the phoenix curiosa show and a secret house show they played as a party for fader magazine at which my friend alex and i were the only people there who seemed to know who the band was, leading to us getting to call their setlist that night)



art is hard.


the recluse.


butcher the song.


staying alive.


'a gentleman caller,' live video from the enhanced-CD portion of the ugly organ.


in 2005, cursive released the difference between houses and homes, a collection of out-of-print tracks from their early singles, as well as one track with the (at the time) current lineup of the band, which had previously appeared on a split with michigan's small brown bike (who were a formidable band in their own right). cohn left the band that year to pursue other musical interests, and the band went on a brief hiatus. when they returned, they decided to stay a four piece, though they began bringing patrick newbery as an auxillary musician to play cello, horns and keys.



nostalgia.


2006 saw the return of the band with the album happy hollow, another concept album of sorts, this time touching on topics like religion and the wizard of oz.



dorothy at forty.


bad sects.


big bang.


schnase left the band before the release of 2009's mama, i'm swollen to focus on raising his family. he was replaced for the time being with session drummer matt 'cornbread' compton, who had just wrapped playing and touring with matt skiba of alkaline trio's side project, heavens, before being replaced permanently with cully symington, who also currently drums for afghan whigs.



the current lineup of cursive. l-r: stevens, kasher, cully symington, maginn.



from the hips.


i couldn't love you.


cursive's most recent album is 2012's i am gemini.



the sun and moon.


drunken birds.




*

p.s. Hey. We're back, or, rather, I'm just back, I guess. In any case, the general newness is celebrated and marked by the first of two-day post shaped paean to the beloved earlier era band Cursive by the multi-talented d.l. about town Rewritedept. Please give his words and the band's input a thorough going over, thank you. And thanks, big R! Last thing: tomorrow there will be no p.s. other than a "hi" due to my being needed at the shooting of the final part of the film scene that I just spent the weekend away working on. But after Tuesday, everything should run normally here for the next while. Also, I need to be kind of very quick today because Zac and I have all-day audition starting very shortly, so my apologies for my brevity. ** Thursday ** Josh feola, Hi, Josh! Always great to see you, man! Thank you so much for the suggestions. I don't know most of those, and I will find out what's going on behind those links asap. I hope you're doing great. ** Jonathan, Hi, buddy! Excellent, excellent stuff entering your brain there. I'll seek out the ones I don't know. Definitely hope to see pix of that group show, and awesome that it went so well. A talk thing? Very cool. Everyone, amazing artist and d.l. Jonathan (Mayhew) did a talk recently about art, his and generally, and it was recorded, and you can hear it courtesy of him and Soundcloud incredibly easily, so please do that. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. Thank you. I peeked at that Agnes Varda house sculpture when I was in LA and when it was being installed. It was wonderful. Interesting about the new YSL film. I've read very mixed things over here. ** Keaton, Hey, man. Got your email. Thank you! I'll set it up for later this week, and I'll let you know the exact coordinates pronto. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! Understandable that school has been occupying your fingers and brain tentacles, but of course it's super happy news to hear about 'A Task'! ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. Thank you! And thank you much for the books list! And for your thoughts in general! Sorry to be in such a rush today. I kind of can't wait for Wednesday when I can think and type at the same speed again. ** Daniel Portland, Hi, Daniel! Cool, cool, cool, thank you! ** Kier, Hi, K. That seems really good news about the new psych. Yeah, I mean, of course it's scary, but almost everything important is, you know? Not that that thought is much help, sorry. It just sounds like a great step and victory at last to me, yeah, Lots of love. ** Steevee, Thanks very much, Steve. Sorry that my rush today is curtailing my ability to respond in typing form. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Oh, jeez, where else would your website be other than everywhere? I've been very curious about Trans ever since I read about it, and yours is first actual report I've seen. Great! I'll go get it, thanks! ** Sypha, Thanks, James! ** Kevin Killian, Hi, Kevin! My presence is so graced! I hope you guys had a really great time in LA. I saw some photos and little reports on FB this morning when I woke up. That was sweet at least. Tons of love to you! ** ASH, Hi, Ash! Glad you liked the Alex G. He's really something. Yes, Diggerland is on Zac's and my agenda for asap. I like 'Cool Planet' a bunch. I'm too forced-speedy today to say much about it. I think I like 'Motivational Jumpsuit' better if I have to choose between this year's GBV output. I'm not sure why. The production? Thanks a lot for your lists! ** Mikel Motorcycle, My pleasure, sir. Consider my fingers very, very crossed for you for sure! Oh, yeah, that Temples album is real nice. And great that you got to see AMT. I know, right? ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Oh, yeah, the Wild Beasts record is very good. I can see you maybe liking it a lot. ** Rewritedept, I'm still absorbing the Swans album. No doubt it'll be on my year-end list. Oh, and thanks a lot for today and tomorrow! Oh, shit, I'm glad you caught yourself before your relapse got too deep. Definitely best to nip that shit in the bud while it's still just a shortish period of annoyance to do so. Hugs, man. ** Friday ** David Ehrenstein, Howdy. ** Bill, Hi, B. They have colleges for every writer/artist weirdo you can think of here. It's amazing. Thanks a lot for the list. I'll do a copy and paste and use it as a shopping list as soon as I'm not simultaneously exhausted and on the run. Wednesday maybe. ** Unknown, Hi, Pascal! Really, really nice to see you! Thanks! Wishing you the best too! ** Keaton, Thanks, big K. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Thank you a lot for the lists! ** Steevee, Wow, good luck with that. ** Toniok, Hi, man! I love your lists too! I'll check out everything on yours that I don't know. Thanks about the film thing. It's going really well, and I'll be able to think about it and say more when the next break comes along. ** Saturday ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. No, I've never been there unfortunately. I've never even been south of Baja in Mexico, which is really strange. Cool, I'll go try to find that book, thank you. And, again, to you, to everyone, I apologize for my severe rush today. I'm just kind of a high-speed haze of a person today. ** Kier, Hi, K. I have to say that's so sad about Fabeldyrene. Zac and I are in mourning. We're going to try to find out what happened to it. Zac has the park owner's email address. But I'm glad you had so much fun there! Oh, I'll have to tell you what we loved about that ride once I get through the next couple of days, if that's okay. I'm fried at the moment. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, sir. Oh, uh, I'll try to see that show. My schedule is a bit insane right now, but I'll look into it, thank you! ** Keaton, Thanks, bud. It reminds of Les Halles? Ha ha, that's hilarious. Watching Lars von Trier, eh? Oh, lucky you, ha ha. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. No. No WC time yet. Well, I saw the last fifteen minutes of the Ghana/Germany match this weekend when were eating in a restaurant that was blasting it. Thanks for posting the photos. I'll have to look at them later on, but I look forward to it. ** Rewritedept, Keep at it. Stay strong, man. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli! My eyes only have time to skim everything this morning, but even so, your lists definitely are fun, and I'll get to have that fun very soon, lucky me. ** Steevee, No, I haven't hear the White Lung album yet. I'll try it. Thanks! Hope your conversation with the neighbor was plenty. ** Okay, I really, really apologize for that terrible p.s. I'll be much more relaxed soon. Please be with the band Cursive and with your host today and tomorrow. I will talk to you again come Wednesday. Take care.

the good life
the good life started as a solo project for cursive frontman tim kasher (though cursive drummer clint schnase played drums on several songs on the first good life LP, novena on a nocturne). their first album was released in 2000 on CA indie label better looking records.



the competition.


what we fall for when we're already down.


the next good life album, black out, was released in 2002 on saddle creek. this album found him being joined by bandmates landon hedges (on loan from bright eyes side project desaparecidos), jiha lee and roger lewis. it was recorded, like most cursive albums (most saddle creek releases, in fact) at presto! recording, by mike and AJ mogis.



i am an island.


some bullshit escape.


early out the gate.


next up was 2004's lovers need laywers EP. on this release, the good life lineup was shifted to include second guitarist roger fox and bassist stefanie drootin, with roger lewis remaining behind the drums.



leaving omaha.


entertainer.


friction!


2004 also saw the release of album of the year, a 12-track LP. the packaging for the record was based on a calendar, and the first pressing of the CD included a bonus disc of kasher's acoustic home demos for each song on the album. it's a concept album (something kasher seems to enjoy making), chronicling a romantic relationship.



album of the year.


you're not you.


october leaves.


the most recent good life LP is 2007's help wanted nights, an album based on an unpublished screenplay kasher wrote after moving to LA the year before.



here is the 'mean version' of the video for 'heartbroke.'


and here is the 'nice version.'


some tragedy.


the white octave
after cursive split in 1998, stephen pedersen moved to chapel hill, NC, to attend law school. studying to be a lawyer didn't sate his urge to rock, so he formed the band the white octave, who released two albums, style no 6312 on deep elm records, and their final LP, menergy on the now-defunct label initial records.



appeals for insertion.


the house is flatlined.


criteria
after finishing law school, pedersen moved back to omaha. the other members of the white octave stayed in chapel hill (drummer robert biggers and guitarist finn cohen started the group the nein), and pedersen found himself wanting to make music again. with the help of drummer mike sweeney, he wrote and recorded ten songs in his friend's basement, and released the first criteria LP, en garde on initial records in 2003.



mainline life.


play on words.


me on yr front porch (live in 2012).


for criteria's second LP, pedersen enlisted AJ mogis on bass and aaron druery on guitar. the resulting album, when we break, is a triumphant blast of math-rock-y guitar, shout-along choruses and other rock god moves.



kiss the wake.


prevent the world.


ride the snake (live in 2012).


criteria are reportedly working on a new album, slated for release in 2014 or '15.

lullaby for the working class
when cursive reformed in 2000, they tapped ted stevens, formerly of omaha indie groups polecat and lullaby for the working class to play second guitar.



here are two tracks from polecat's cassette dilly dally.


lullaby for the working class released three albums on bar none records, with saddle creek handling the vinyl releases, as well as releasing three EPs. their first album, blanket warm, was released in 1996.



good morning.


the wounded spider.


their second LP, i never even asked for light, came out in 1997.



hypnotist.


jester's siren.


descent.


lullaby's final LP, song, was released in 1999, after which they broke up.



inherent song.


still life.


mayday
mayday evolved from a yearly barbecue hosted by ted stevens and mike mogis on 1 may every year (hence the band name). the band featured several lullaby for the working class alumnus, as well as other omaha scene luminaries. their first album, old blood, was relased in 2002 on saddle creek records. 2003's follow-up, i know your troubles been long, was released on portland label greyday, and their final LP, bushido karaoke, came out in 2005 on saddle creek. unfortunately, there are no mayday tracks on youtube, so here is the saddle creek info page on the band, who i recommend highly (ted stevens is one of my all-time FAVORITE songwriters, he just has a way with chords and melodies that can't be beat).


slowdown virginia
slowdown virginia were the precursor to cursive. they started when matt oberst and jim robino left a group that tim kasher and steve pedersen were playing in called the march hares. kasher and pedersen recruited bassist matt maginn and drummer casey caniglia, and, from 1993-95, played shows in and around omaha, releasing their album dead space in 1994.



supernova '75.


whipping stick.


dave mustang.


ted stevens unknown project
in january, 2013, ted stevens released a one-song single on bandcamp.com under the name ted stevens unknown project. so far, there have been four songs released through the bandcamp, and ted has played some shows.

songs from ted stevens unknown project are available here.


tim kasher
in 2010, tim kasher released his first solo album, the game of monogamy on saddle creek records.



cold love.


there must be something i've lost.


2013 saw the release of kasher's second solo album, adult film, again on saddle creek.



you scare me to death.


truly freaking out.




*

p.s. Hey. As presaged yesterday, I'm off today helping finish the shooting of what will eventually be the 4th scene of Zac's and my upcoming feature film. But my absence should be no big because you have the second half of Rewritedept's Cursive post to explore all day, if you like. Enjoy, thanks, and biggest thanks to Rwrdt! I'll will see you in my usual form tomorrow.

----




'Jesse Dirkhising (May 24, 1986 – September 26, 1999) was a 13-year-old boy who was raped and tortured by two men in 1999. Dirkhising died soon after as a result of his torture. On September 26, 1999, police in Rogers, Arkansas, responded to a 911 call and went to the home of David Carpenter, 38. They also found Jesse Dirkhising, a 13-year-old boy from nearby Prairie Grove, tied to a mattress. Also present was Joshua Brown, 22. Police determined that Dirkhising had been repeatedly raped over a period of several hours.

'Dirkhising's ankles, knees and wrists had been bound in duct tape and he was gagged and blindfolded with his own underwear, held in place with a bandanna that was also used as a gag. He had been administered a sedative. He died in hospital shortly after being discovered, apparently as the result of positional asphyxia. The responding police officers would later testify that they didn't try to revive the dying Dirkhising because they had left their disease-deterrent masks in their police car. The affidavit has much more detail on the Dirkhising's death.

'The Arkansas State Police recorded in their affidavit a statement by Brown that he was Carpenter's lover and that he had been having consensual sex with Dirkhising for at least two months prior to Dirkhising's death. He claimed that on this particular night, they had been playing a sexual game. He said he returned to the candlelit, littered bedroom after eating a sandwich to find that the boy he'd tied to the mattress, gagged with underwear and sodomized wasn't breathing.

'In March 2001 Brown was found guilty of first-degree murder and rape. He was sentenced to life in prison, and this sentence was upheld on appeal by the Arkansas Supreme Court in September 2003. In April, Carpenter pleaded guilty to similar charges and was also sentenced to life. Subsequently, Carpenter claimed on the Fox News Channel that Brown was solely responsible for the rape and murder of Dirkhising while Brown claimed that Carpenter was the director.'-- Wikipedia








Who was Jesse Dirkhising?: Media Tune Out Torture Death of Arkansas Boy
Joyce Howard Price, The Washington Times
'Most of the nation has not heard about two homosexual men who face the death penalty in Arkansas, charged with raping and torturing a 13-year-old boy to death last month. The brutal crime against Prairie Grove, Ark., seventh-grader Jesse Dirkhising -- who was raped repeatedly and suffocated with his own underwear in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 26 -- was reported by news organizations in Arkansas and also covered by newspapers in Oklahoma and Tennessee. But the boy's death did not receive national media attention. Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the Media Research Center, said he is not surprised. "Nobody wants to say anything negative about homosexuals. Nobody wants to be seen on the wrong side of that issue," said Mr. Graham, who sees "political correctness" at work.'

Homosexuality Is Not Normal
Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy In Media
'There are important lessons to be found in the Jesse Dirkhising case. One is that the homosexual lifestyle frequently involves practices that are both revolting and what follows may not be suitable for children. Josh Brown and Davis Carpenter, the killers of Jesse Dirkhising, were just doing what Carpenter, who is thirty-eight years old, had been doing for years -- inflicting physical pain on others for kicks. Sadomasochism is celebrated in homosexual literature and art. Those who engage in it are not described as sick "monsters." There is a tendency to try extreme perversions in search of thrills. One, called "golden showers," is urinating on a partner. Another is using objects to sodomize a partner. In Jesse Dirkhising’s case, his tormentors used cucumbers, a banana, a sausage and a douche bottle. These practices are shown in the celebrated Mapplethorpe photographs. During the 1993 Gay Rights March on Washington, an exhibit in the Mellon Auditorium, a federal building, featured whips, chains, bondage devices and electric cattle prods as instruments of sexual pleasure.'

Murder Ignored The Sound Of Silence
Dana D. Kelley, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
'So why the stone silence from gay groups that can and do howl at the top of their lungs over tragedies like the Matthew Shepard murder in Wyoming? You'd think that GLAAD and GLSEN and the rest would be eager to condemn such acts. Average, fair-minded folks grossly underestimate the radical, extremist advocacy of gay activist groups.'

Why is a torture session by gays being ignored
Michelle Malkin, Jewish World Review
'One of the nation's leading gay magazines, "XY," is targeted to readers as young as 12. It features photo spreads of half-naked men and publishes profanity-laced articles supporting lowering the age of consent. Instead of universal condemnation, the North American Man-Boy Love Association (which advocates normalizing and decriminalizing sex between adult males and boys) receives praise and sympathy from liberal magazine writers and literary critics.

'NAMBLA is the subject of late-night comedy monologues and the beneficiary of pro bono legal aid from the American Civil Liberties Union. Opponents of the group are smeared as right-wing homophobes; they and others who have criticized the media for ignoring Jesse Dirkhising's death are tarred as anti-gay propagandists.

'Political correctness is slowly suffocating our sense of public outrage over behavior that is perverse, coercive, and wrong. This is why the brutal death of Jesse Dirkhising has been met with deaf ears and a cruel collective shrug.'




*

p.s. Hey. ** Monday ** David Ehrenstein, Morning, David. Oh, yes, I forgot that Les Halles played such a big part in 'Out 1'. Wow, I really want/need to watch that again now that LH is second nature. And I haven't seen that Marco Ferreri, but I'll def. run it down. Thanks. ** Kier, Hi, Kier! The busyness was good busyness, yes, thanks. We didn't actually get to ride Fabeldyrene because it was only for people under 12 years-old. So we just watched it and daydreamed. Mm, it was a very strange ride, very sort of psychedelic. It was a kind of distorted, weird carousel with suspended, sort of monorail-like cars. The cars were giant, fucked up bugs. On the front was a smiling bug face, and on the back was an insane, nightmare bug face. The cars sort of lurched rather violently around this wending track, and, every once in a while, they would turn sharply and stop dead, and the riders would be facing a giant mirror. The car would stay there making the riders look at themselves in the mirror for a weirdly long time then lurch onwards, stopping again at another mirror. There were maybe 10 mirrors in all. It was just a really strange ride that seemed to be more about trying to make the kids riding it feel weird and uncomfortable than have fun. Never seen anything like it anywhere else. Great that the show is a sure thing! Awesome! I hope everything went well with the psych! ** Keaton, Not your thing, eh? Gross Magic? News to me. Nice name. Mexican food is the best whether enclosed in parentheses or not. I didn't see 'Nymphomaniac', but prosaic would seem to be a guarantee. Oh, did you get my email? Can you send me that thing today? Thanks. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Yes, I saw your email! Thanks so much! I'll set it up and give you the launch date tomorrow. Very cool! And, as you can see by the rerun today, I'm beyond sorely in need of posts, so, yeah, fantastic in every way. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli. I saw the Pierre Huyghe show. It was really fun and good. I think I went to see it twice even. I hope it has the performance aspect in its Cologne version. You'll know what I mean if it does. Let me know what you think. ** Misanthrope, Sweet reading you'll eventually get to there, duh. All is good here, yeah. I've been running around and doing the film thing for ten days straight, but now I get a bit of a break for a short while. Hope all is super-great in/with you. ** Rewritedept, Hi, C. Thank you again so much for the two-parter! Some nice downloading you did there. The Vapors was a funny (in the good way) punchline of a final entry. ** Tuesday ** Bill, Hi, B. Film is chugging along, yes. We're talking to the producers in the next days, and I'll see if I have a green light to post/say more about the film. Would logically seem so. Lisbon, wow, you're all over the place. The contemporary art museum there was quite good as a recall. As was the fashion museum downtown. And, the Bica tram, yes. Somehow I missed that puppet museum while I was there, I don't know why. Was it cool? ** Antonio Heras, Hey, man! Good to see you! Sure, you can email me the favor, of course! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. ** Steevee, Well, good news about the successful surgery, and hopefully the pain will have run its course by today. I haven't heard the Lana Del Rey album. What I heard of her first one didn't interest me at all, but another try seems reasonably in order, I guess, although I don't think I can ignore the lyrics if they're cringe-inducing. I'm one of those listeners who tune into the text aspects immediately. But, okay, I'll tiptoe into a sample. Thanks for the opinion/alert. ** _Black_Acrylic, That does sound like a total fudge. Predictably so, I guess. Urgh. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Well, if it's any consolation, remember that the post will be out there accruing hits and silent admirers amongst the googling masses steadily for as long as Blogger exists as an entity. Really glad to hear you've passed through the withdrawals and are your chipper, freed-up you again. Key word: free. Free is always infinitely better than not. The filming went really well, yeah. Exhausting, of course, but we got everything we hoped. It is weird how others' dreams are kind of inherently uninteresting. Well, to me, I should say. Except when the dreams are strange or complicated particularly, or if I'm especially fascinated by the dreamer. Mush and peachy stuff back at you. ** Jonathan, Hi, J. Yeah, the film is going really well so far, thank you. I have the Soft Pink Truth record. Yeah, I like it. I kind of burned through it quickly though. But it's a clever, fun thing, I think, for sure. Wow, that mix-tape looks really, really intriguing. Huh. I have some free time today for once, so I'll soundtrack that thing in a while. Thanks, man! Everyone, the superlatives-accruing artist and d.l. Jonathan Mayhew made a ... wait, here he is to describe it: 'oh i made this a year ago for a project im not sure is happening still. its a mixtape trying to describe an artist, its been in hiding since i made it and its a bit ropey technique wise cause it was done minus headphones but still it might be fun :)'. Let me add that the artist spotlit by the mix is the late, very great Mike Kelley. That subject matter plus the chance to hear Jonathan's amazing sensibility at work is plenty of reason to go listen. It's here. On the flip is where I'll see you too, man. ** Okay. As you can see by the fact that I've given you a rerun today, I am not anywhere near caught up on my blog making yet. I will be soon, and, in the meantime, you might get another rerun or two as I reach for my goal. The rerun today is a bit of a dark one, for better or worse. See you tomorrow.

A meme is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.




















































































































*

p.s. Hey. Today the blog seems to have managed to sweet-talk the masterful meme auteur and writer and d.l. Keaton to practice his art here in our very faces, and I'm very happy and proud of that fact, and I can only imagine you'll be the recipient version of me to some degree or other, aren't you? How about finding out and then saying stuff to Keaton. What do you say? Thanks, all, and most thanks to the K. the creator. ** Kier, Hi, Kier! Totally, it was wack. I'm trying to track down its current status and location almost as I type. Really awesome about the cool, helpful psych! Oslo, nice. Both times I've been in Oslo, I quite liked it. It seemed really livable, although the winter was intense, but then I guess your winter radar is a tougher thing than mine. Art school! I mean, that seems like a cool idea. Not that you need schooling for god's sake, but just to be able to live/work in that environment amidst hopefully interesting peers, etc. works wonderfully, at least in the fantasy realm. Good news!  Love, me.  ** David Ehrenstein, Howdy. ** Keaton, Man, thank you so much for heeding my plaintive call. I'm proud as punch, as my mom used to say. What a weird phrase. I can't parse it. And I did actually just try parsing it. I'm glad the post made you riff like that. You can't lose with French New Wave, or at least maybe 70% of the time. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. Sad post indeed, yeah. Fucked up. I love making the film, and it's also nice to now have a short while to catch up on other stuff and hang out and so on. Lovely, enriching thoughts and words on RB and on your reading and work in his regard. Yes, helping your immigration status is a great motivator. I went through that kind of worrying and working towards a decent status for years re: Yury's problematic status, which is still stuck and imperfect and being worked on by him. I truly do wish you luck to manage far, far more than just an ok health! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I'll have guest post news/date tomorrow. ** Steevee, Really glad to hear you're feeling better. ** Statictick, Hi, N! I saw on FB that your mom passed, and I'm so incredibly sorry, my friend. She really seemed so amazing to me always. And having lost my mom a few years ago, it's ... well, an indescribable experience, so personal, so complex. I send you a lot of love. And it's great about your and Brandon's planned experimental film. I'm making one of those collaboratively myself. I await the report with anticipation. Happy news too about 'Minus' being finished, yes! Okay, send me questions man. Really, really good to see you! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff! That's a lot of warring, differing things to be consumed by. Good news that you've reached the point in the external reaction phase that allows you to get in there and work on the detailing. Very happy to talk to you about it when/if ever the time feels right on your end, yes, of course. That Perec/Duvall film is completely splendid, yes. I still think that combo of his words and her voice is one of the most inspired ever. My novel has necessarily been a glimmer for the past couple of weeks, but now I have a short stretch to concentrate mostly on it starting today, and I'm looking forward to that a lot. Hopefully, like I said, I can start sharing more about the film itself soon. A guest post, wonderful, thank you so much! I'm very gradually starting to get back in gear with post making, which I hope will return the blog to normal starting next week, and guest posts are a huge help right now, not to mention one by you, which is really exciting, thank you, Jeff! Good luck with that mix of preoccupying stuff, and I hope your novel rises to the surface of it. ** Rewritedept, Semi-sobriety is weird too. Good weird, I think. Ha ha, you as that 'Temple of Doom' guy is a cool waking dream of a thought. I didn't have a ton of free time, it turned out, but it was mostly really good. Zac and I went to this great special effects store here, Pyro Folies, to check out and price fake snow options and fake snow producing machine options for an upcoming film scene, and that was fun. We met with a guy we've cast in the film. He's a young artist who also models, and his modeling agency told him he can't do the sexual aspect of his role, so we met with him to talk about either changing the role or shifting him to a non-sexual role. It was good, he's great. The evening kind of sucked because I got an emergency phone call that the IRS put a lean/block on my bank account because I'm so bad and confused about tax paying, so had to spend hours trying to sort that out. But mostly yesterday was good. Today I should actually get the free time to work on my novel, which is my current jones and goal. Man, sleep-ruining stress is like the worst thing in the world. Ugh. I can't remember the Vapors album, just the singles, although I owned the full-length back in the day. Neu! is really great, for sure. That bowling thing sounds like a lot fun. I hope it was. Mostly my plans are novel work and seeing pals and a lot of who-knows-style this and that for the next fews days. We'll see. Oh, shit, about your sister. Whoa, man, that's crazy, and I'm glad she's okay, and I hope she escaped with some new sort of caution mechanism in place. ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien! Wow, nice to meet you! I've been reading your writing and liking it a lot! And, yeah, some of your writing will be occupying the blog space this weekend. I'm excited and really happy to get to background-host it thanks to Postitbreakup's first-hand hosting. Lurking's cool, yeah. I'd do it here if I could, ha ha. You would think there'd be a power electronics thing knocked off the Jesse Dirkhising thing. Maybe there is. It isn't on youtube or bandcamp, or not in a form that google can figure out. Yeah, Martin's work is great, for sure. I have heard 'Dirge', yeah, it's beautiful. No, Josh didn't send the cover art. It's gorgeous, and I'll go insert it at the post's top as soon as I sign off here today. It's a real pleasure to get to talk to you, man. Feel very more than free to delurk and hang out whenever you like. It would be a real pleasure. Take care! ** Right. Please go be what Keaton's memes ask you to be for the rest of the day, if you have the time and inclination. I will see you tomorrow.

----

Brad Renfro in the fall of 1998

* This originally appeared in Time Out (New York), and it will reappear in Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, Obituaries (Harper Perennial, July 2010)


Brad Renfro is best known as a kind of teenager Marlon Brando, beloved of the Hanson crowd. Like River Phoenix before him, Renfro glares from the pages of magazines like 16 and Bop, seeming every inch the high-school outsider forced to attend the prom. The thousand of boys and girls who clog online newsgroups with Renfro-related posts love him exactly for this contentiousness. Well, and for his looks, which are as cute in freeze-frame as his on-screen behavior is moody and implosive.
----The more Renfro the actor ignores the needs of this fan base—choosing roles in R-rated fare like Sleepers and in indie-circuit films like Telling Lies in America—the more his young admirers long to mother, date and save him. Unlike Leonardo DiCaprio, who also straddles the worlds of puppy love and serious acting, Renfro has yet to toss his more innocent fans a Titanic-size bone. You get the sense that he doesn’t have it in him. His favorite word is real, and you can feel that in his work.
----Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Renfro was discovered while performing in a local public-service announcement. Beginning with his first film, Joel Schumacher’s The Client—made when he was just 11—and continuing with his new film, Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil, in which he costars with Ian McKellen, Renfro has turned in consistently fierce, willful, deep and increasingly nuanced performances that make it easy to forget that he only turned 16 this past July.
----But in person, he’s unequivocally 16—a not-especially-hip, not-quite-square, polite, jokey, intensely emotional young guy forced to give an interview in his agent’s L.A. office and visibly weirded out by the prospect. Having been intrigued enough by Renfro’s looks and style to name-check him in my recent novel Guide, it’s interesting to discover that while he’s as disorientingly well put together as I’d imagined, my urge to gawk is outweighed by caution in the face of his awkwardness. It doesn’t help that Renfro’s handlers seem worried that he might say something a little too real. At several points, we’re interrupted by office workers: One woman takes Renfro into the hall, and later, a wary-looking man plants himself in the room, his ears so perked, they’re practically vibrating.


Dennis Cooper: Your agent said you’re not feeling well.

Brad Renfro: It’s just stress. Being in L.A. does this to me.

DC: You live in Knoxville, which looks very nonstressful in pictures.

BR: Yeah, it’s cool, but it’s getting violent these days.

DC: What’s up?

BR: Well, this guy got shot last week outside a club, and he died. A friend of mine works at this café right by there. Luckily, she wasn’t there at the time, but the café’s windows got shot out. So it’s not too scary to live there yet, but for such a small town, that seems pretty hard-core.

DC: So where would you move, if you moved?

BR: Not here, that’s for sure. You can be young and stupid anywhere, but staying in Knoxville keeps me away from the business itself, the whole grind—everybody going out to eat and such. It keeps me real. ’Cause out here, there isn’t much reality. There really isn’t. That’s why Tennessee Williams stayed in the South.

DC: So you don’t have any Leonardo DiCaprio envy?

BR: No, no. He’s a great actor, and now he can’t do anything. It used to be I’d see him all over the damn place, and he wouldn’t get too bothered. But now, phew. Man.

DC: Talk about demystifying fame.

BR: No shit. I don’t know if the money would be worth it, either. Because he does make bank. He makes a lot of money. Hell, I haven’t even made a million dollars. But is $20 million worth no life? I don’t think so.

DC: You and he are both top dogs in the Tiger Beat scene. Does that have any value for you?

BR: No. I’m quite flattered, but I don’t know what to think of it. I don’t strive to be a teen idol, you know? But the teen-idol thing is probably why I’m able to pick and choose the movies I want, because I have those fans. Who says those teens don’t have the right idea? You’re always going to have those who look at you because you have interesting looks or whatever.

DC: It’s not like your films cater to that audience. For the most part, they’re fairly heavy. I guess Tom and Huck is kind of the oddball in your oeuvre, as it were.

BR: Yeah, well, I don’t regret making that movie, because my little sister loves it. It’s just that I thought I was making an American classic, and it was very Disney family. If you really watch, you can see that I’m not in the same damn movie as the other actors. I’m all hard-core and shit, and it seems like I’m bigger than the rest of them. There’s an edge there that doesn’t really fit, but to me, that was Huck. Who’s to say it was tobacco in his pipe, you know?

DC: Disney didn’t want a hard-core Huck?

BR: Not at all. It was constant friction. I just did it and got through it, because it was my job. But, you know, I maybe showered six times the whole damn shoot. That’s where I got this bad reputation, you know. How I’m, like, whatever…

DC: Trouble.

BR: Yeah, trouble.

DC: But you’re not?

BR: No, I’m not. I’m real. Real only seems like trouble if you’re not real yourself. Honest to God.

DC: You seem drawn to characters who have moral dilemmas.

BR: As in, like…?

DC: I think I’ve seen all your films, and from The Client through The Cure, Telling Lies in America and now Apt Pupil, you seem to play the wide-eyed kid with a secret dark side.

BR: Well, that’s me, but that’s also mankind. Someone asked me about Apt Pupil—you know, “Brad, are you saying people are evil?” And I go, “All people have evil natures.” And they go, “What about babies?” And I go, “What about when babies turn two and start fighting in the crib over a toy?”

DC: Babies are purely selfish beings.

BR: Exactly. They are purely selfish. I love children, but….It’s human nature to constantly be in a fight with your own being.

DC: So Apt Pupil must have played into your interests.

BR: Definitely, definitely. I was really excited to get that part. It was the only really cool film at the time. Well, there was that and American History X, as far as what was available to someone my age. And Bryan Singer’s great. Ian McKellen’s a genius to me.

DC: Your styles are so different, though. His acting is so capital-B British, really organized, and—

BR: I’m so off the wall? Yeah, I learned so much from Ian McKellen, but it wasn’t like I could learn the craft of acting. I’m sure you’ve heard of doing something and not knowing how you do it? That’s pretty much where I come from. What interested me about him was how he handled people. He makes everyone feel so comfortable. I tried to learn that from him, because that’s something I need to learn.

DC: How do you approach acting?

BR: Just saying the words and believing them. I literally believe what’s going on is really happening.

DC: Is it like fantasizing?

BR: Pretty much. I’m a person who doesn’t show a ton of emotion until it’s time. I ball too many things up—to the point where I cry for no reason. And I have to sit down and go, “What the hell is this for? Oh yeah, right.”

DC: So I guess I have to ask you about the whole Apt Pupil shower-scene controversy.

BR: I was there.

DC: A number of the extras, who are basically your age, said they were ogled by gay crew members during the shooting of that scene and consider it a form of molestation.

BR: I was there. I didn’t notice anything.

DC: So you don’t support the boys who brought the lawsuit against the film?

BR: No. As far as I know, it got thrown out of court anyway.

DC: Are you into politics?

BR: No. I don’t care.

DC: So you have nothing to say about the whole Clinton-Lewinsky thing?

BR: Oh, I can say a little something about that. I think the only place where Clinton went wrong was in being married. I just think he’s a man of the times. Fuck it. If I put myself in his shoes, I would have lied like a motherfucker too. And there’s the whole “If she only swallowed, none of this would have happened” jokes. But I shouldn’t get into that, I guess.

DC: Are you religious?

BR: I’m a firm believer in God. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for God.

DC: You never question that?

BR: Okay, here’s a great Bible verse. Jesus is sitting and eating with politicians and sinners, you know, one of them asks one of his disciples, “Why does Jesus sit there and eat with sinners and such?” And Jesus turns and says, “He who is not sick has no need for the physician, and vice versa.” I think when we’re all at our rock bottom, there’s nothing else but God. But I think all Christians have questioned Him at one time or another.

DC: Did you ever investigate Buddhism?

BR: I think any religion’s okay, except Satanism. I can’t think of anything in Satanism that could benefit you.

DC: But there’s something flashy about Satanism, don’t you think?

BR: I think it’s more powerful in the short term. That’s the trick that the Devil plays on you. It’s like, cocaine’s great the first couple of times, you know? I think that’s just the Devil. That’s how he works. I’m as firm a believer in the Devil as I am in God. I’m just not a supporter.

DC: So do your musical tastes run to Stryper and that sort of thing?

BR: Fuck, no. I’m into blues and jazz. Wes Montgomery, Buddy Guy, Electric blues and old-school, too. You got your Blind Boy Fuller, Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. And I still like punk, of course. Anyone who ever liked punk will never not like punk. It’s very easy to like. Being punk rock means not caring what people think of you. At one point, I did have green hair when I was 13 or so, but I thought it was more punk rock to be just kind of normal than to go and pierce my dick or nose.

DC: Are you into old-school punk or new-school punk?

BR: I can’t stand new-school punk. It’s so poppy, like Offspring or Green Day or whatever. I’m more into the D.C. bands—Fugazi, the Teen Idols, shit like that. And the L.A. late-’70s scene stuff—Descendents, Black Flag, Germs.

DC: At one point, you wanted to make a film about the life of Darby Crash of the Germs, didn’t you?

BR: Yeah. It’s funny. I didn’t get to do that. Some other guy’s doing it, I guess. It would have been cool to play a totally reckless punk. I think I could do that pretty well, but fuck it. Right now, I’m wanting to write and direct a film about a boy in a mental institution. He doesn’t speak, and the film’s about his theory that dogs are superior to humans and how there’s really no need for conversation in a perfect world, because everything would be about unconditional love. You wouldn’t have a need for verbal communication. I haven’t written it yet, but I have the thought.

DC: Do you write?

BR: I write poetry and stuff but not scripts. I just have to sit my ass down and do it. It seems a bit overwhelming, like writing a book of haiku or something. It’s a weird form.

DC: Do you have favorite actors?

BR: Steve Buscemi, definitely. I love him, because he just does his thing. Jack Nicholson, Chris Walken. Those cats are cool. I’d love to work with them. But, hell, I’d even work with Ann-Margret, you know? Who’s to say she’s not a genius? You never know.

DC: Do you ever approach actors or directors you like and ask to work with them?

BR: Just the normal shit. I mean, I don’t go, “Hey, I want to work with Stanley Kubrick. I’m going to chase his crazy ass down.” I don’t send fan letters. I don’t make picture collages and shit, like little strips from a magazine. “I’m Brad. I want to work with you.” No.

DC: I guess I’ll end this by clearing up a really common rumor about you. Did Joel Schumacher adopt you when you were making The Client with him?

BR: Fuck. That’s not true whatsoever. When I was 11, I made a joke that he was going to adopt me, or some shit, but that’s all. I think I liked the idea back then, ’cause my life was kind of hard or something. I live with my grandparents, pretty much always have.

DC: A lot of people think the rumor’s true.

BR: What a bunch of dipshits. These rumors, man. I’m like the [rumor] magnet; I don’t know fucking why. Supposedly, I’m doing some movie with Natalie Portman and Liv Tyler called The Little Black Box. I’ve never heard of that in my life. I think Milos Forman is directing it. It would be fucking cool as hell, but it isn’t real.

DC: I heard you were in the Star Wars prequel, too.

BR: Oh, yeah. Go. I’m all over the place. That’s cool. Wait a second. Ouch.

DC: What’s wrong?

BR: Shit, I’m getting a stress cold sore. [pulls out his lower lip] Look at this.

DC: Charming.

BR: Exactly. I’d better go do whatever with this.

DC: Well, thanks.

BR: Yeah. Have a good day, sir.






















*

p.s. Hey. With any luck, this should be the last rerun post you'll be seeing for a while. ** Nicki, Hi, Nicki! Wow, you're back with an awesome bang! I'm doing great, thanks, and news of your life's exceptional goodness is of the greatest kind! You're writing fiction again, whoa! You know me, and you know how happily that tidbit sits with me! Oh, ha ha, I think I can handle having you around here to say the ultra-least. Yes, please. My postal address is probably the same if the one you have is: c/o Centre International des Recollets, 150 rue du Faubourg St. Martin, 75010 Paris, France. I'm already dying of a copy of that book. Thank you so much! Lots and lots of love back to you! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. Quite the intriguing title on your new FaBlog post. I'll go parse the mysterious aspect of it when I finish up here. And I will immediately, even before my FaBlog visit, go read your 'TPoD' piece. Wow, sounds momentous, and no doubt it is! Everyone, the eminent David Ehrenstein has written what he terms one of the most important articles he has ever written, which is saying something, and he characterizes it as a cornerstone of his much-anticipated memoir-in-progress 'Raised by Hand Puppets', and it's excitingly called 'The Politics of Dancing', and wow, how many reasons do you need to click this and read it? ** Empty Frame, Hey, man! I'm great, thanks! Recovering from a heavy work spurt and de-spacing out by the minute. The film is going very well so far, yes. Really glad to hear that you're being not only productive but inspired in the control room. No, haven't tried the new Sleaford Mods album, but I've read excellent reports. Yours will push over the edge into tasting it later on. Thanks for the tip. My listening of late? I just put together a gig post featuring most of it, but, let's see ... the new Lower, Evian Christ, Wolves in the Throne Room, Communions, White Lung, Lone, Diane Cluck, Ernest Gibson, ... I'll look for/at the Guardian review of the Kristof. No, I haven't seen that ventriloquism piece in The Wire. It takes a couple of weeks for the new issues to get as far as my local newsstand, so it's probably a few days away. Cool, thanks! I hope your pal's birthday was a treat for you and him and for all and sundry. ** Bill, Hi, B. Mm, that pastry ... want. Gisele must know about that puppet festival. Or she'll want to if she doesn't. I'm seeing her today, so I'll ask or tell her. Porto! I liked Porto a lot, more than I did Lisbon for some reason. What are doing you in the conference? Huh, that paper does have an itchily interesting title. I'll go read it. Hm, yeah, there seem be a number of promising papers available on that site. Cool. Thanks a lot, Bill, and have a sweet time. ** Steevee, Hey, Thanks for the IRS commiseration. I've begun sorting it out. I've gotten the lean taken off, but now I have a bunch of fucking paperwork and document tracking down to do to prevent future damage. Oh, shit, about the pain relapse. Yeah, healing is alway really experimental, and often in the bad way if it's possible for experimentation to bad, which, of course, it most certainly is. Oh, you were right about that White Lung album. It's really nice. I'll go read your piece pronto. Everyone, here's Steevee's article on this year's New York Asian Film Festival. Go read, please. ** Kier, Hi! Ugh, school credits mess. Are art schools in Norway like they are in the US sometimes, i.e. they'll look around credits and stuff if an applicant is obviously really talented, as, duh, you are, huge duh. I did find out some stuff about the ride, but, for reasons that must remain mysterious for a short while yet, I have to hold off on sharing the news, but I will! My Thursday was my first low-key-ish day on a while. It was good. I saw Zac off to Nice. I hung out with Kiddiepunk and Oscar B. I worked on my novel. A publisher in Sweden wrote saying they want to publish 'The Sluts' in Sweden, and that made me a happy. Stuff like that. How was your Friday? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. First, your so awesome guest-post will dawn here next Wednesday. Thank you so much again! So weird to see what he really looked like. I would never have guessed in a million years. ** Sypha, Hi, James. It's okay about the quiet. I hope your vacation goes incredibly well whatever 'well' entails in such a context. Relaxation, writing, reading, looking at animals and rivers, and that sort of thing? ** Statictick, Hi. Stay strong. Well, you're just about the strongest guy I know. Consider the love platinum. Hone if you can and would find honing a pleasure only, and thank you if you do or even if you don't. Love, me. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. I'm happy to be delicately confusing, ha ha. Is getting on a tenure track very difficult? I know little about that process, but the word 'tenure' has difficulty built into it from my know-nothing perspective. I think the urge to marry is cool and legit, but it's never been a dream of mine. Good luck with your work. It seems really nice that you get to do it in bed. If my internet wasn't only available through a cord far away from my bed, I might even do the p.s. from there. ** Keaton, Thank you much, sir! I thought it was a super brilliant Day, and I'm most chuffed. Weekend's close, man. Closer over here, but I guess by the time you wake up and read this, you'll be as close to it as I am at this very moment. Trippy. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Always so good to see you! Thanks about the Fanzine interview. Juliet was an inspiring interviewer. Oh, yeah, I know that Tiger in the Tank song. I like it a bunch, and it was cool of them to do it, and I've been meaning to write to them and thank them for ages, and now I will. I hope everything is going incredibly great with you too, man. ** Kyler, Hi, Kyler. Okay, cool, about the blog post. Send it when you're ready and sure, and I'll do my part. Nice about the related Betsy Lerner post. The publication of a book will make one as crazy as one is ever capable of being, yes, I concur. Love, me. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, J. Hope all is really swell with you. ** Damien Ark, Greetings, Damien. Cool, it will be a true pleasure. Yeah, fictionpress wouldn't let me copy/paste, so I opted for taking screenshots instead by necessity. Hopefully it'll look cool and be as readable as it would have been. Thanks! ** Okay. Up there is an interview I did with the tragically short-lived actor Brad Renfro back in his early/mid days. I hope it's of interest. See you tomorrow.

Part II "Drugs"
Part III "Violence"




*

p.s. Hey. This weekend, the honorable writer and d.l. Postitbreakup introduces us to the work of a young writer, Damien Ark, who very happily has joined the fray of commenters here as of a couple of days ago. Please give him a big DC's welcome and support for his writing, if you don't mind and are so inclined. If the necessitated screenshot formatting of the text is hard on your eyes, just click the wordage and it should enlarge to a more vision-friendly scope. Thanks for your attention, everyone, and very great thanks to both Postitbreakup and Damien himself. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. First, that article of yours that you kindly linked us to yesterday was indeed quite extraordinary, and I too count it among the finest things I've read by you. Thank you, and much respect! I remember running into you just before the Brad Renfro interview, yeah. If memory serves, it took place in that funny building just east of Book Soup where they used to hold a lot of screenings, and may still do. ** Keaton, Hi. No, actually, he was maybe the most vulnerable, emotionally on-edge people I've ever interviewed, and I felt very protective of him the whole time. Really a complicated guy. Thank you for your sweet words, man. Have a great weekend doing whatever suits you best. ** Nicki, Hi, Nicki. My snuggly hugs, ha ha, thanks. It's cool: you're kind of singlehandedly getting people here to interact again, just like in the old days. It's been a while since the place has felt so community-ish. Thank you a lot. Gosh, you're making your fiction sound fucking imperative, my friend. Gimme. Lots of love to you too. ** Sypha, I think you're off to the woods today, no? Really, have a superb time. Ducks are nice. I like ducks the way you like cats. Well, maybe not as much as you like cats. Ugh, about jury duty. Tell them you're an anarchist. That will get you out of the duty in a second. ** Steevee, Hi, Steve. Obviously, I hope your body gets a move on, healing-wise, and I guess enjoy the artificial zoning as best you can until then. ** Empty Frame, Hi again to you, EF. Oh, cool, I'll hit the Wire site today, thank you! Yeah, Alex G is a real find, I think. Gorgeous weekend to you! It's drizzling here, so gorgeousness might take some extra added effort, but consider it done. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. Tenure does sound kind of musical, yeah. But I guess I've had so many friends in line for tenure at various universities, so the word immediately radiates the stress with which they always talk about their hopes of getting said tenure. You take care too. Fine weekend to you and all of yours! ** Kier, Hi, K. Oh, with money, gotcha, ugh, money. I hope you can find a way in or a loophole or something. Thanks about the interview. Yeah, I'm excited about the Swedish 'Sluts'. I haven't had a novel polished in Sweden in a while, so it's very cool. Wow, no wonder you're beat. Sure, 'Heathers' is terrific. I haven't seen it in ages, but yeah. I even like Winona Ryder in it, and I'm not a big fan of hers. Not to mention Christian Slater, who had such a cool quality back then. My Friday was nice, some meetings and friends-seeing. It was cool. Have a super good weekend! ** _Black_Acrylic, Howdy, Ben. ** Rewritedept, Yeah, but Eddie Furlong could totally turn it around again, so I think he's the much luckier of the two. I miss bowling. I haven't bowled in, like, a year or more. I just heard the new Boris. It's a good one, uneven, like all of their records, but pretty energized and stuff. I will try McClusky. And the Christian Fitness stuff too, via that link you stuck in your comment first. Cool. I hope your weekend rocks! ** That's it? Okay. Do spend some time reading Damien's chapter this weekend, please, and do feedback in his direction, if you can. Obviously, it would mean a lot to him. To Postit, too. Hell, to me as well. Thanks! See you on Monday.

________________

TheUnusualSub, 22
I'm an odd sort of duck to find on this website. Christian, conservative, and creative. Oh my!

Some condensed factuals about myself:

I am:
A Christian,
A republican,
Intelligent,
A business man,
A worry wart,
Paranoid,
Unnecessarily complex,
And confusing to all who encounter me

I hope to find:
Violent rapes,
Beatings,
Torture,
Life imprisonment,
Brain damage (or freedom as I call it),
Body damage,
Vegetative state

My interests:
Blacksmithing,
Drawing,
Singing,
Writing,
Pokemon,
Renaissance festivals,
Etc.

My drawbacks:
Both parents are cops,
Only brother is a cop,
Sister studies criminology,
Preachy,
Okay face with glasses,
Food allergies,
Ugly birthmark on leg,
Etc.





________________

Youngassslave, 18
I have never been with a guy but I want to try to be a slave boy and do anything you want of me and let you do anything you want to me I say if you are my master I have to do what you say no mater what even if it hurts me or you dont spare my life please that would be such a boner.







________________

Jose, 22
In sufference I rejoy





______________

analizeme, 20
Master i respectfully request to kneel before you and state my case!
i am a Mexican/American boy who was dealt a bad hand before i even knew the cards. My Father was killed, my Mother abandoned us when we were children, i dropped out of school in the 9th grade, i lived on the streets, in foster homes and in a "gang"
i spent most of my adult life in a cell! i have two strikes already! The next time it's for life. I'm afraid of that! But I'm more afraid of the outside world.
i don't want to go back! i need a Master and the control I've been conditioned to for my whole life!
i'm 135 pounds, 5- 9, 24 waist, hairless Azteca!
My "rap sheet' is long, i was a "wild child", but i see where that will lead me if I continue, either death or jail, i'm afraid, i need a strong Master and the control that will ease my mind!
I hope for good news from you all.





______________

StraightDisgrace, 24
I'm looking for someone to just take over everything. I am completely format table.







_______________

FggotISOPussySuregy, 23
I have been searching for 2 years to find a husband that wants his pussyboy bottom to get pussy suregery, but remain a boy. I will give a brief synapsis. I am offering "talents" of which I rather talk about in person and I am willing to become a cumdump whore for money and gangbang creampie pornos as a boy with a pussy between his legs. Im not interested in fully transitioning. II WANT TO STAY ON TESTOSTERONE or keep my tiny balls but get a pussy between my legs to get fucked in, I repeat I want to live my life on the streets as a boy with a pussy between his legs.







______________

tellittotheking, 18
I want to be peed on

I love





______________

TillDeathDoUsParty, 20
I want to used and abused to death.
I want to be wanted BAD and then killed when you want me as BAD as you can.
I'm not JOKING. People who don't like that I'm doing this MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.
I love to stab myself... blood turns me on. Guys who want to use a knife on me front of the queue.
You can take an hour, a night, a day, a week, month, months, but maybe not a year. Anyway you won't me BAD for even a day trust me.
You would need to put me on suicide watch until you kill me unless you're into me suiciding.
Suicide watch is not complicated to arrange, I've been on it 5 times in my young life.
I believe we all have demons who consume us over time. Some are faster than others. Mine was a little faster and consumed me whole.

10/06/2014: No longer available.







______________

Bunny, 19
Selfish, narcissistic, exhibitionist Asian boy. You know the type--I came to LA in hopes of being a porn star/gogo boy but not quite there yet.

Would love to "audition" for bear/dad/older, pose around like a slut (yerp…lol) and feel all sexy--then be pissed on, shown, exposed, raped, beaten. Yeah, I know…weird right? lol





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Fuckmeharddad, 25
I know this may sound clich�' but to be honest you changed my life. From the moment I saw you I knew you were a gift from God. You constantly shower me with unconditional love and you always understand my shortcomings without criticism. Just looking at you is enough to make me happy. My life is now full of promise, every day is worth looking forward to, and it�s all because of you. You made me become a better person. I never thought I could love someone the way I love you now. I know you hear this all the time, but I want to tell you again and again that I truly love you and my life would never be the same without you. I miss you every day.





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imdark, 18
hi im dark and i like dark .... so dont like me .♥♥ u like i hate you ... im cryz ... very cryz ... donte love me .... dark .... drops








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itsyourtime, 21
i am a slave who can treet a master that can never for get me and offer some money to his master as well so that his master can buy some food to eat so that his master will be strong to treet very good ????





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Rapemyasshole, 21
Get me wired and rape me senseless. u can get away with doing ANYTHING to my ass and cock.

In my current slutty slate, it scares me a lil how much id let u get away with when I'm wired...whether it's dominating rape or much much worse.

U could shock my nipples and cock repeatedly, needles, bees, and anything else u want to use...I'm all urs, too helpless and dazed to stop u. Feeling too slutty to want to.






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boyONfire, 19
slave.

No bb, extreme pain, permanent marking, vomit, scat, some creep tying me up and raping me, and things that would be weird for a GAY male.





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GOLD_PENIS, 24
Laidback skaterdude from Norway trying to earn some extra bruises!

I may not be Fred Flintstone, but I can make your bed Rock!

Hey bro, Im up for pretty much anything, and I love to meet new people and do crazy things and get fucked up!

Lets fly high, fly and fly high, I want to try poppers, I want poppers!

I have the face you can crush and the name you trust!







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destroynipples, 24
i can be anything, i'll be your everything. we can do everything, but we don't have to.





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Plasticdoll, 18
I'm just a piece of plastic which you can misused as cheap piece of shit. is your wish. I'm like a plastic puppet. I suppose any shape that you want. superficial, neon, drug-bitch like the whores from NEN comics. I like the emotionless function of insects, watching people getting abducted by aliens. I dislike sleep, the physical and mental need for ANYTHING, being abducted by aliens, losing my mind, Satan's attitude, getting shot in the head. tied me up and fuck me. dont forgot it or I FUCK YOU UP







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shrinkme, 21
i live with my stepmother
we recently relocated
I wish to become a real slave for 24/7/365
I have very extreme wishes like macrophilia
I want to be shrunk down for real and owned
That is why I am looking for a very, very tall, big man much older than myself
He should wish to shrink a young boy very, very small
and then torture him with tiny weapons
I do mean this seriously





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Pompei, 19
my search is very extreme and i can tell more about it when the right Master find me. basically i am looking for sort of like commitment. i am not related to anything law enforcement, you should not be also.







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Deepthroatfordays, 18
I'm a teenager in a rural area who loves to pick up kinky old men and then let them do whatever they want with me till I finally get what I want, which is their hard cock rammed down my throat till I get a big tasty cumshot blown all through my molecular structure






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slaveboy2012552, 21
been owned before owner died

looking to be owned and abused again and hopefully never be free at tool

i have to stress fisting lover
no mater what is your status i just want an owner who love holes

my holes have no speed limits
my holes have no dead end except the top of my skull
my holes have no road blocks inside that can't be punched out of your way
my holes have no muscles that can't be torn or teeth and tongue that can't be removed
my holes r best when slippery with my blood

i know none of this is realistic or practical unless ....
i know when you do that to me i will die
i know i cannot simply vanish without ruining your life with fear or prison unless ....

.... we both give up everything to have it








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ilike2sit, 22
24/7/365 as a sex slave and for use by you Master and to be used as a sex object on your website and where you have it showing to as many people and Masters as you wanted to in the most sadistic and brutal fashion and I know it would be FOR EVER with a REAL LEGAL CONTRACT, signed by me where I fully agree and submit and commit my whole life to you Master, NO WAY OUT, NO WAY POSSIBLE WHATSOEVER. If we go further and arrange this I would prove how much I mean everything I have said to you and if you tell me to do something you want in order for me to prove it then I could even send you my scanned photo card my driving licence, and card, addressed bank statements etc etc etc for you to have as a hold over me to potentially blackmail me and force me to never back down or try to go back on my word and if I ever did you would destroy my life with my family by humiliation through my photos I have sent you because really, it is the worst fear for anybody to ever find out about this what I do in life, I have not told anyone EVER and have been doing this on the secret side of life for 10 years since 12 years old, nobody knows, everybody thinks I am straight and totally opposite to this, this is a side nobody apart from the world of BDSM have ever seen in me, SO YOU COULD USE THAT IF WE AGREE AND REALLY WANT TO GO AHEAD WITH IT and once agreed then BLACKMAIL like that to my family would seriously ruin my whole life anyway as it stands. You would truly humiliate my entire life and break my spirit, it would LITERALLY be destroyed from the inside and once I am with you and it is time to end my life as it is now, I fully understand and realise that there can not be any ties or connection to it at all so you would need to send photos and videos anyway to my family once in your dungeon so that when the reality and extreme pain and regret kicks in, then I would have nothing at all to go back for, you would break my character and destroy my spirit and everything that I ever felt for and dignity and embarrassment about in life before. THIS WOULD BE REALITY AND NEVER JUST A FANTASY OR FORM OF ROLE PLAY, .... I would mean and fully understand every single important clause and thing in the contract and what it involves and I really know there would be NO WAY OUT EVER FOR ME, 24/7/365 CAPTIVITY, PERMANENT, NO ESCAPE EVER I would send you everything you may need or want if we agree and if you want in an email, over 200 photos of me being used as a gay sex slave, these have never ever been seen by anyone in my normal life, this really will break me from the inside out but this would be what fate intended for this life all along, I was born to be be destroyed, used, abused, owned, sold, raped, violently tortured and publicly humiliated and to be treat like the lowest ever piece of cunt imaginable AND this really would be FOR REAL, 24/7/365 you my permanent sadistic and evil Master where you have me there in your dungeon, literally forced and chained permanently and treat like a sex slave and pain pig whilst filled and pumped full of spunk and piss and where it is to be recorded on video and cameras and for you to have the legal permission to sell or distribute the photos and videos anywhere you wanted and where you would own the right to it all, NOT ME, ... I would be worthless and this is to be DRASTICALLY life changing and soul destroying for me & send videos to my EX GIRLFRIENDS WHO DON'T KNOW what I DO AT ALL OR ANYTHING AT ALL etc regardless, not to mention being GAY with it all too, NONE OF THEM HAVE ANY IDEA and this would change EVERYTHING FOR EVER and I WOULD BE YOUR PERMANENT COLLARED, TATTOOED AND BARCODED SLAVE FOR REAL, ..... THIS REALLY WOULD BE IT if we agree and if we REALLY DO DECIDE TOGETHER that this is the way it should be. NO WAY OUT EVER !!!






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Heartless, 20
i go by the name of Curt. i'm here to give you an erection and evil thoughts and make you think about torturing me and use that to fuel my self hatred which is massive

i am by NO MEANS selling myself into slavery because i want to. that's right, SELLING. if you pay off my debts (family, psychiatrist, hospital, friends, drug dealer) you own me forever

do i look like one of your friends? NO! i dont give a shit about your problem








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doe-eyed, 20
“Im okay Im okay now.
But you really need to listen to me
'cause im telling you the truth
I mean this im okay
Trust me...
Im not okay
...Well okay im not okay.
Im not o-f cking-kay”







*

p.s. Hey. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Awesome about the piece/performance. As always, I'll hope for any recorded evidence. Paul Prudence, yes, huh, hold on. *Googling* Oh, yes, I do know his work a bit, and I've been meaning to get to know it better. Anyway, congrats! You're finally headed all the way home. Nice long, productive trip, though. I hope the voyage itself was the epitome of smoothness. See any crap films rendered less crap by your captivity along the way? ** David Ehrenstein, Merci to you! A taller, equally blah looking but up-to-date new building, I suppose. Is that Tower Records shell still sitting there with some half-assed business stuck inside? ** Nicki, Hi. Thanks a lot for the kind, apt attention to Damien's fiction! Speaking of, your fiction as shetland pony? Wow, that's an image. Huh, interesting, about that site. Back when I used to look at yaoi and guro sites a lot, I was initially confounded to realize that women formed the majority of the makers and contributors. Everything is so interesting. Thramsay? I have never heard that term before. What a curious concoction of a term. Okay, well, I will certainly go google the shit out of that word and get my imagination wet in that new world. Ha ha, always happy to see someone else who thought 'Prometheus' was mostly nada. Semi-colons are the hardest punctuation for me. I'm so not inherently inclined to use it. It's like pulling out my own teeth when I do. Anyway, very, very interesting. I'll go become initially knowledgeable about this Thramsay in a bit. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh. Oh, shit, you wanted it in a writers workshop post? Well, Damien's writing was excellent enough that it never occurred to me to ask the fine people here to be its surgeons, if that helps. I'm too rushy this morning to give his piece the workshop treatment off the top of my head, but I'll try to think carefully and write something up in the next day or so. Dude, you did so awesome by giving Damien and us the gift of his writing, don't sweat it. Sad about the last dinner. What did you eat? Very excellent crit of Damien's piece, by the way. Wonderful to get to read your thinking. ** Kier, Hi, K. Yeah, it's weird to remember when Christian Slater was cool for a bit. I guess he's in 'Nymphomaniac'? If so, I guess that's 'cool', so maybe he's making a comeback. No, I've only had one ltd. ed. book of poems translated into Norwegian and published there, which I never even saw a copy of, and that's it so far. Norway is the Scandinavian country that my books have never been able to crack. Wow! That VK thing. It's so beautiful and mysterious and beautiful. Thank you, thank you! Can I share it? Everyone, go over here, which is the site run/maintained by the great artist and d.l. Kier Cooke Sandvik, and look at the thing/entry called VK 'cos it's stunning. Thank you incredibly kindly, my hero! Love from me! Wait, my t-shirt size? That's not creepy. Um, wow, Medium, I guess. You've got something for me? Oh, man, thank you, whatever it is! You're so the best! ** Keaton, Oh, I think it means just responding to the writing that has been contextualized within a workshop knowing that the writer is looking for a response that will help him or her improve said writing as opposed to responding to writing when you don't know if the writer gives a shit about what you think or not, or something. Iow, you responded correctly, I think. I like that word 'brewing' for some reason. It's kind of really soft but with nice, semi-rigid edges or something. ** Sypha, Hi. You can type on Nooks? I've never seen a Nook. Interesting. Lifesize duck figurines? Wait, the -ine means not life-size, right? ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien! Thank you, man! Yeah, I kind of spaced out or missed signals or something and didn't know that thew piece was to be a workshop post. I apologize for that, but, really, it's such a sharp, pretty impeccable piece of work that I imagine you would have gotten mostly praise rather than problem pointing-out if I had. Like I told Postit, I'm in a speedy mode this morning 'cos I have real world stuff I need to do, but I'll write out my more detailed thoughts about your piece soon. For now, it's just terrific. You're one of those born writer types who have the instincts of a god. ** Torn porter, Hey! Oh, shit, you're in the States! Did I fuck up my chance to see you due to the film madness? How's Florida? I've only been in the panhandle part. I hope Ratty feels instantly better and can join you there. Send her my very best wishes. You're making your movie, or about to? High five. Tell me much more. Things are great here. I've had a short break from the film that concludes today. Weldon Kees, interesting. I haven't read Kees in a really long time, but I thought he was pretty great. Why do you ask? Big hug and double cheeks kiss from France! ** Steevee, Ugh, sorry for the pain accompanying your transition from the hard stuff to the soft stuff. I hope you don't suffer too much, or, well, hopefully not at all somehow, between now and when your dental surgeon hopefully fixes that. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I didn't see the Holland game. I did dip in and out of a live blog report on the match. I feel bad for Mexico, but I am happy Holland moved forward. I never look at Twitter or, well, only very here and there, but Raymond Pettibon's feed is so great. The guy has so sussed the form. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Thanks so much for feeding back at Damien! My coffee is behaving strangely like decaf this morning, but, otherwise, things are good. How's your morning? What's up? ** Rewritedept, My weekend was okay. It rained and rained. I got some work done. I got a little wet, not unpleasantly. I saw some stuff. It was good. I haven't tried Christian Fitness yet, no. I got waylaid. I will today. The new Boris is nice, don't get me wrong. I think it's maybe their best in a while. I did see the announcement of the new TM/Kp book. I am, of course, excited like you. Hope your Monday rules. ** Okay. It's the last day of the month, so the blog gets overrun by slaves today, like clockwork. Pick and choose or be fully within however you choose to respond to their influx. See you tomorrow.

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LowerLost Weight, Perfect Skin
'Lower make intense music. Seek Warmer Climes, the Copenhagen quartet’s debut album, sparkles with the harmonic dissonance and high-strung urgency of their underground music forebears. But Lower ­– Adrian Toubro (vocals), Simon Formann (guitar), Kristian Emdal (bass) and Anton Rothstein (drums) – also channel the romance and drama of great singer-songwriters, from late-period Scott Walker to Bryan Ferry. The result is a hugely ambitious and affecting rock album that enters deeply personal and unusual sonic and topical spaces.' -- Matador






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HarassorWinter's Triumph
'Harassor are a rare gem glinting up malevolently from one of Los Angeles’ countless dark corners. The band was formed back in 2002, and after more than a decade of dues-paying and hell-raising, they've finally started attracting attention for their savage extreme metal hybrid. 2011 saw their inclusion on Southern Lord’s well-received Power of the Riff compilation, and two full-lengths later, Dais came calling to secure the rights for the trio’s fourth LP. The venerable experimental/noise label and the regressive-minded metal band seem like an odd coupling, but both parties seem chuffed with the arrangement and the result of their pairing speaks for itself. Into Unknown Depths is a delightfully dynamic approach to extreme metal’s usual grim-faced presentation. No two songs sound alike, but each one sounds deadly.'-- Kim Kelly






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Evian ChristFuck Idol
'Evian Christ's metamorphosis from primary school teacher to Kanye West collaborator has been swift and stunning. The 24-year-old, who first came to prominence with 2011's druggy Kings And Them mixtape, received an email last year requesting his services as a collaborator on West's Yeezus LP. His new EP Waterfall is his first release since. Stand out track "Fuck Idol" matches squalling synths with deliciously grinding percussion. Reminiscent in places of Pan Sonic's blocky brutality, Burial's sudden atmosphere shifts and Vatican Shadow's abrasive beauty, Waterfall is as brightly promising as it is stark and cold.'-- Resident Advisor






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Atki2Knock Knock
'Atki2 has long been performing his unique strain of dancehall, bashment, dubstep, and jungle, yet this is the first time he has released this style on its historical format of choice, 7-inch vinyl. Having co-promoted the Ruffneck Diskotek club night (a strong factor in Bristol‘s development as one of the globe’s most exciting hubs for dubstep and bass music) for nearly a decade with Dub Boy and other local cohorts, he is deservedly a much-loved and respected member of Bristol’s music scene. See his many releases on the city’s top labels such as Punch Drunk, Idle Hands, and Immerse, as well as further afield imprints like Shadetek and Actress’ Werk Discs, for whom he first recorded way back in 2005. With long-term partner Hanuman, Atki2 also helms Steakhouse Records, and the duo have been releasing bass-soaked music under the name Monkeysteak for several years.'-- frijsfo beats






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CindytalkGuts of London
'I mean, I think it is probably impossible to be any kind of… – what is the word I am looking for… intuitive sort of musician, a musician who improvises, without accepting that silence is every bit as important to the sound that you are making, if not in most cases more important. This is strange for certain people, myself included, who make a barrage of noise, but then, when you do create space and silence, it is much more noticeable. It’s a question about light and dark, and playing with both, of being aware of that. You can’t have one without the other. So yes, absolutely. I also think it is to some extent the Holy Grail to most musicians, a quest. When you are younger and fumbling around to find what you are looking for, I suspect one of the things we are all looking for is silence. I know that the older I’ve got – beginning life as a punk etc – that is certainly what I’ve been looking for, stillness, space, silence. Of the recent three albums I have released on Editions Mego, the most recent one is the stillest, the quietest, almost the most at peace with itself. The first two are much more fidgety, nervous, abstract, noisy, and frenetic and I have been looking for that space. I am constantly looking for a place where you can settle down inside, where something you are having to fumble about for, is there, not so much to have control over it, but to be at peace with it.'-- Cindytalk






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Ernest GibsonEverywhere You Roam
'Looking to genres like exotica, folk, and maybe even touches of doo-wop, Ernest Gibson is an artist who is deeply entrenched in musty old tricks and spells of time gone by, but uses that platform as a way of twisting and re-imagining the sounds of the past, assembling them into a completely new form. Something nearly unrecognized by the elements that went into it. Think of the way that Daughn Gibson stretches, samples, and loops his music to give it a time-worn vibe or perhaps the way that Dirty Beaches recreates older styles with thick, heavy layers of lo-fi modernism and you’ll be getting a vague idea of what Ernest Gibson is up to on his album. It’s sort of a cratedigger’s wet dream. A lot of the time Island Records feels like, perhaps in another life, it could easily be packed away in a box with other lost gems down in a dank basement somewhere, waiting for the day when that box falls down on some adventurous listener’s head.'-- Portals Music






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Wolves in the Throne RoomCelestite Mirror
'Long tracks and slow builds have been near-constants for Wolves in the Throne Room, the Pacific Northwest band that helped push United States Black Metal to wider recognition. As you listen to “Celestite Mirror”, the debut track from their forthcoming fifth album, Celestite, you might keep expecting for the hammer to drop, for the black metal to rush in. But don’t hold your breath: Celestite follows in the grand black metal tradition of trading blast beats and suffocating guitars for pensive synths and slow motion. For “Celestite Mirror”, Wolves in the Throne Room build from an eerie drift of synth glow and gentle bass-drum booms into a Vangelis-sized organ roar. Ahead of the halfway mark, they back into a Manuel Gottsching-like series of flickers and clicks, dispersing the darkness they once conjured.'-- Grayson Haver Currin






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Diane CluckSara
'After a seven-year hiatus, Boneset is the seventh album from modern folk artist Diane Cluck. Cluck's uniquely clipped, glottal vocals and harp-like acoustic guitar embed in rich textures from cellist Isabel Castellvi and drummer Anders Griffen. Recorded to analog tape at Brooklyn's Trout Recording, Boneset is comprised of songs written years ago, not so long ago, just recently, laid out in near-chronological order. Dark to light to dark, the album overends as a kind of mobius strip, songs seeded with birds, death, wealth, poverty, boldness and heart. "Diane Cluck is a virtuosic talent with an emotionality that feels at once ancient and alien. Her mastery of her voice as an ecstatic instrument is so compelling."-- Antony Hegarty (Antony and the Johnsons)'-- Important Records






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CommunionsSummer's Oath
'Communions is the Copenhagen-based rock band of brothers Martin and Mads Rehof, Jacob van Deurs Formann and Frederik Lind Köppen. They share a rehearsal space with Iceage and Lower at local DIY space and venue Mayhem, and recorded their debut EP, Cobblestones, between that epicenter of the city’s punk/industrial scene and Köppen’s bedroom. Communions are a band stuck between fun fun in the sun sun and their native Copenhagen's desolate punk movement. Perhaps that's why their music feels nuzzled by the comforting angst of pop-punk while still fraught with the yells of someone left behind in an abandoned asylum.'-- collaged






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Lone2 is 8
'Lone has stated that his two main role models are Boards of Canada and Madlib and Reality Testing sounds like a collaboration between those two. Madlib’s part comes into play in Lone’s expert beat making. The two singles released before the album’s drop, “2 is 8” and the 2012 house highlight “Airglow Fires”, combine ‘90s golden era hip-hop with slippery electronics. “2 is 8” is built around chiming brass and a languid synth that lazily slides around the song. The brass, when mixed with a sample of children screaming “YAY!”, make “2 is 8” sound like the soundtrack to the coolest episode of Sesame Street ever. “Airglow Fires” is a delightfully warm song that starts at a brisk, yet calming pace, before squelched keyboards come in and push the song to evolve into a dancer arena.' -- Pop Matters






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Sudden InfantWölfli's Nightmare
'Industrial minimal blues noise from Switzerland's most notorious wild man, produced by Roli Mosimann (Swans). The Cramps meets early Einsturzende Neubauten! Wölfli's Nightmare is a major shift for Sudden Infant, as Joke Lanz is joined here for the first time by a bass player and a drummer, transforming this long-running and often underrated industrial noise project into a more avant-garde leaning mixture of experimental jazz exuberance and politically-minded vocals. It's all very raw, sticking true to the industrial genre and punk ethics; the new formula seems to stick together well and gives birth to something which goes beyond Sudden Infant's past while sticking true to the project's vision and attitude.'-- collaged






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Philipp QuehenbergerUff Uff
'Viennese-by-choice, Philipp Quehenberger counts amongst the most innovative and multifaceted figures in the Austrian electro-landscape. The ethos of this “musician coming from somewhere in the grey zone between hardcore, techno, and free jazz” (quote Quehenberger) has always been marked by insatiable experimentation, deliberate breaks in style, and a good dose of eccentricity. And anyway, what’s the point of definite form and content if it only really gets interesting when the turbulent raucous noise hits the dance floor? Or to say it in the words of the artist: “I always wanted to be pop. But under my conditions.”'-- donaufestival.au






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copelandFaith OG X
'The clues start with the bewildering album cover, which features a strikingly abrasive, ice-cold stare from copeland, an image whose cultural implications find continuity in the music: “l’oreal” acts as both an affirmation of worth and a foil to the beauty corporation and its slogan (“Because you’re worth it”); “Fit 1” turns the objectifying Brit slang on its head; while “advice to young girls” suggests that an authoritative voice commanding empowerment is, by copeland’s own admission, a joke, even as it could be taken by listeners as a call-to-arms. With her tactics ranging from wincing sine-wave-damaged depth charges (“Faith OG X”) to the purposefully cliché (“DILIGENCE”), there’s no assurance that the listener is making a “correct interpretation” of its content (and my own here is clearly just one of many possible). But that she manages to evoke such contemplation on an album that’s only 30 minutes long, where half the songs don’t even contain vocals, is itself an incredible achievement.'-- Tiny Mix Tapes






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White Lung Face Down
'I'm someone who always needs to keep moving forward and challenging myself to do something more. If you're not going forward, you're just standing still, and who wants to do that for too long? When White Lung started, my goal was simple: "I don't want to be in my boyfriend's band anymore—I want my own band that I actually like, and I want to play with Anne-Marie because she's the fucking coolest drummer I've ever met in my life." To think about where it's at now, it's like, "Oh god, I'm a band person now! How did this happen? Like, fuck. I chose to live like a clown for the rest of my life."'-- Mish Way, White Lung







*

p.s. Hey. ** Nicki, Hi. Oh, well, it's a positive rush, well, apart from the p.s. impact, so its positivity is imperfect, I guess. I didn't have time yet to dip into Thramsay and get an initial, more fleshed out, personalized definition of it under my belt, as it were, but today's easy-ish, so soon I'll actually know what you're talking about in a mildly back room way, hopefully. But awesome, natch, if the post fueled your writing. I mean, higher compliments don't come in better nutshells or something. Ha ha, that's interesting: semi-colon as image. I wonder if that's why, or one reason why, I'm stand-offish about them, me being such a delicate flower and all that. Very cool about that book you're planning. Fascinating and needed, as you well know. In Japan, 'women-as-consumers/producers of gratuitously violent porn' is a long-standing tradition, as is w-a-c/p of gay porn and ambiguously pedophiliac 'gay' porn too. Anyway, you being inspired, major! Thank you! ** David Ehrenstein, It's amazing, or maybe, how many of the slaves I come across want contracts that they can't get out of it. It's a very common wish, and even more in the past year or so than previously. Slave profiles as litmus tests of broad societal anxiety trends or something? Almost everything is inside the computer now. Seems like nature (plants, trees, ocean, etc.) is the last hold-out. ** Bill, Hi, B. No, but I knew or at least suspected that you would suggest it could have been shorter. I think that, in that case, it needed the blather. The blathering was an unfurling mechanism. The blathering aspect was its key and inadvertent charm or something? ** Sypha, See, yeah, I've never played with one of those book reader things. I guess I imagined they were kind of dead like picture frames, but then again I never really imagined them fully. Huh. Geese are nice. ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien. Yeah, the uncomfortable funny and disturbed at the same effect of them is part of what excites me about them. It's an interesting combination, or at least when it's real, or I guess I mean when it seems real since I'm virtually positive that most of those slaves are just fantasizing aloud. More interesting than the usual faked up, predictable horror movie funny/disturbing thing. Those ads you made are really nice, nicely done. ** Kier, Hi, K. Ugh, dislikable co-workers. I have one at the moment. Is that true about pigs? Interesting. Oh, actually, yeah, I think there have been killers who deliberately used pigs to cover their tracks. But I guess since I know that they must not have been so successful. You have that little poetry book? Cool. No, they said they'd send me one, and then they didn't, and when I wrote and said, hey, where's my copy, they said they were sold out and no copies remained. I'll find one on eBay or something someday. I saw a picture of it. It looked pretty, I think. I loved the VK! ** Steevee, The self-described Republican slave was vortextual complex. I've seen the name Kratom, but I have no idea what it is. I don't think it's available in France maybe. What did your doctor suggest? ** Keaton, Yeah, I suppose it presupposes, but, yeah, so do I, you know, you know me. There are an incalculable number of how-to's. It's so fucking cool that way. Interesting that that gets on your nerves. Tropes are always bad. 'The Bastards' was okay. I like her work. It's not her best by any stretch. It's just nice to be in the presence of her doing her thing, basically. It was on the upside of okay and better. Happy ... oh, it became July yesterday. I spaced out. Pay rent. (Note to self). ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. I have wireless at home only when I use the Personal Hotspot function on my cellphone, and since the landline internet here is wildly imperfect, I sometimes do, but I don't want to get into habit of doing that for some reason. I don't know the reason. Weird. Frozen mochi: intense, nice. 'Double Dream' is a great Ashbery, yeah. I don't know if I could pick a fave book by him. I literally love every one of them. Even the so-called 'minor' ones like 'Shadow Train'. ** Rewritedept, Hi. It didn't rain at all yesterday. It looked like it was going to. The not fulfilling my expectation was nice. My yesterday was good. Zac got back from a trip to elsewhere, and we hung out, checked out the location for next week's film shoot: the interior of a World War II bunker which will be played in our film by an old, empty storage room in the subterranean parking garage of a big artists squat here in Paris. That, plus some work, was my day. I was in a monsoon in Vegas once. It was quite awesome. Hope your Tuesday rules too. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T!  So cool about your impending Kiddiepunk haiku book. Excited! Thank you in advance for the slave haikus, yum, maestro. ** Right. There's a gig composed of some musical stuff I've been into 'of late'. Share and share alike, as they say, whatever that means. See you tomorrow.

Welcome to a day devoted to someone whose work was somehow indefinable yet would often touch the giddy heights of greatness. Please give it up for the one, the only, Frank Sidebottom.









Christopher Mark Sievey (25 August 1955 – 21 June 2010) was an English musician and comedian known for fronting the band The Freshies in the late 1970s and early 1980s and for his comic persona Frank Sidebottom from 1984 onwards.

Sievey, under the guise of Sidebottom, made regular appearances on North West television throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, even becoming a reporter for Granada Reports. More recently he had presented Frank Sidebottom's Proper Telly Show in B/W for the Manchester-based television station Channel M. Throughout his career, Sidebottom made appearances on radio stations such as Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 5, alongside Mark and Lard.

The character was instantly recognisable by his large spheroidal head, styled like an early Max Fleischer cartoon. This was initially made from papier-mâché, but later rebuilt out of fibreglass.

Frank, usually dressed in a 1950s-style sharp suit, was portrayed as an aspiring pop star from the small town of Timperley near Altrincham, Greater Manchester. His character was cheerfully optimistic, enthusiastic, and seemingly oblivious to his own failings. Although supposedly 35 years old (the age always attributed to Frank irrespective of the passage of time), he still lived at home with his mother, to whom he made frequent references. His mother was apparently unaware of her son's popularity. Frank sometimes had a sidekick in the form of "Little Frank", a hand puppet who was otherwise a perfect copy of Frank.

He reached cult status in the late 1980s/early 1990s thanks to extensively touring the country. Performances were often varied from straightforward stand-up comedy and featured novelty components such as tombola, and a lot of crowd interaction. Sometimes the show also included lectures. Contrasting against the alternative comedians of the time, Frank Sidebottom's comedy was family-friendly, if a little bizarre for some.

Sievey was diagnosed with cancer in May 2010, and died at Wythenshawe Hospital on 21 June 2010 at the age of 54 after collapsing at his home in Hale, Greater Manchester. After it was reported that Sievey had died virtually penniless and was facing a pauper's funeral provided by state grants, a grassroots movement on various social networking websites raised £6,500 in a matter of hours. The appeal closed on Monday 28 June with a final balance of £21,631.55 from 1,632 separate donations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Sievey







Frank is, of course, just that: an invention, an artistic, musical and comedic outlet for the man who dwelled underneath the hardened paper and paste. Chris Sievey was the unnamed narrator to Frank Sidebottom’s Tyler Durden, a man who slept very little to achieve more, who cared not for money but for what he could make, and whom he could make happy. Mostly himself. Though sharing one body, Frank and Chris were always seen as two completely different people, even by those who knew them best. Frank's former manager, bandmate and roadie, Dave Arnold, played bass in Frank’s band for some time before his first meeting with Chris: "Frank made you suspend all belief," he says. "Even after I saw the transformation, it was still Frank."

Sievey was an immersive performer so committed to his act that it took on a life of its own – he made all his props and artwork by hand, and even worked on animated shows such as Pingu and Bob the Builder during his times away from Frank’s head to keep his creative juices flowing in any way he could. But he was at his happiest when reaching for that showbusiness star in his ill-fitting suit and disproportional mask, and his output was matched by his disregard for it. Arnold describes him as the "ultimate punk" in that he gave most things away for free or destroyed them (knowing he himself would have to remake everything). In his column in the anarchic comic Oink!, Sidebottom would publish his home phone number for people to ring him whenever they wanted; a free chat with a man who just loved to perform. Even at the height of his popularity during the late 80s, Frank would hire out his services to come to your house to entertain and in turn be entertained by whoever hired (£35 Manchester area only, an extra £2.11 if you wanted Little Frank as well). "He would stay for an hour or so, but if the conversation was good, i.e. space, then he would stay for longer," discovered Sullivan after finding one of the old newsletters Sidebottom would hand-write and send to fans.

John Stansfield
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/comedy/features/307084-can_we_frank_searching_for_frank_sidebottom









What got you started?
Getting a packet of pound-shop felt-tip pens in a Christmas stocking. I used them to draw pictures of the American civil war.
What was your big breakthrough?
Winning £8 worth of art materials in a competition at school. I did a picture of Scotland, with some trees and a lake. The next thing I knew, I had an exhibition at Stockport art gallery.
Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
Pink felt-tip pens. When I do self-portraits, I wear a pink tie. So I'm always running out of pink.
What one song would feature on the soundtrack to your life?
Guess Who's Been on Match of the Day? I wrote it after I went on Match of the Day. I document my life in music.
Are you fashionable?
Very.
Have you done anything cultural lately?
I'm preparing to go on The Culture Show on BBC2 to talk about surrealism. It's like the Blackpool Hall of Mirrors, but in paintings.
Do you suffer for your art?
Yes, when my mum tells me to tidy up and go to bed at half-past 10. But sometimes I climb down the drainpipe and carry on downstairs. I'm a rebel.
What's your favourite film?
Dr Who and the Daleks. TheDaleks are the best design of the 20th century.
What's the greatest threat to art today?
The Germans coming back and stealing it all, and then burning it.
What advice would you give a young artist just starting out?
Get some paper and pens. And forget the beret and the attic. You can do art just as well in a shed.
Is the internet a good thing for art?
Yes, because it tells people about it, but art doesn't look as good on a screen: you've got to see it up close. None of my artworks have frames, so people can touch them.
What work of art would you most like to own?
Peter Blake's cut-outs for the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album cover. I'd line them up in my living room to look like I had loads of mates.
Complete this sentence: At heart I'm just a frustrated ...
Peter Blake.
In the movie of your life, who plays you?
I don't know. Film4 is making one and they haven't cast it yet.
What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?
My mum told me to get a proper job. I ignored her.

In short
Born: Timperley, Greater Manchester, 1972
Career: The comic creation of artist/ musician Chris Sievey, Frank released his debut EP, Frank's Firm Favourites, in 1985. His drawings, models and animations are on show at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (020-7514 6000).
High point:"Supporting Bros at Wembley in front of 56,000 Bros-ettes. They didn't know who I was, but I won them over."
Low point:"Performing in front of 56,000 Bros-ettes who didn't know who I was."

Interview by Laura Barnett
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2007/jul/17/art1







There can have been few funnier sites than a middle aged man with a bulbous papier mache head arguing with a small puppet version of himself before treading on a microbe version of himself. Not only hilarious but also skewed and weirdly surreal.

Frank Sidebottom was one of the last of a breed- operating outside the rules and with a mind so brilliant that its restless genius was never appreciated. He put most modern comedians to shame. And now he is no more.

It’s hard to believe that Frank Sidebottom is dead. He seemed too surreal, too childlike, too cartoon strip to be bothered with tedious, boring stuff like dying. But it's true: Frank is no more because his creator Chris Sievey died of complications caused by cancer on June 21st.

Of course we must not mix the two of them up. There is no truth in the scurrilous rumour that Chris Sievey was Frank Sidebottom. I interviewed the pair of them on the phone for The North Will Rise Again, my oral history of Manchester book, and after about an hour of brilliant stuff from Chris I asked him about Frank, figuring he must know something about the nasally comic genius.

The phone went click.

Dead.

A few minutes later the phone rang and, oddly, it was Frank, coincidentally ringing to sort out an interview. Where Chris was full of funny stories from the fringes of the music scene, Frank was plain weird and hilarious, like a psychotic child running amok in showbiz and using his humour to tear apart the stupidity of that world that had snubbed him for so long.

His tales of Timperley - the Manchester suburb where Ian Brown and John Squire had lived in their youth - were brilliantly skewed piss-takes of the mundanity of the rainy day. I was once in a TV studio and watched him do this utterly mental, but utterly brilliant, musical set in Timperley with a pick up band of lunatics in cheap suits. It was like the One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest bus trip.

The bizarre tension when you confused the pair of them was something that unwitting journalists had often mentioned, and I wasn’t the only one with this experience.

Sievey hated talking about Frank.

There seemed to be some sort of rivalry between the two of them. Altrincham obviously wasn’t big enough for the pair of them, or maybe they were the same person.

Now we will never know.

Sievey did the publicity for Rabid records in Manchester; he was also produced by Martin Hannet very early on and did some artwork for John Cooper Clarke. He was already a key figure on the fringes of the scene, with his wild imagination and brilliant pop mind just too far ahead of everyone else plodding along in his wake. In pop, though, there are no awards for being great or first, and Sievey was eternally frustrated.

His band, The Freshies, were perfect pop-punk whose sole semi hit 'I'm In Love With The Girl On A Certain Manchester Megastore Checkout Desk' got to number 54 in the charts in February 1981 and was lined up for a Top Of the Pops appearance. Sievey was denied his dream opportunity when there was a BBC technicians strike - the story of his life.

The single is nowhere near their best song. His cassettes, which I have a bunch of, were stuffed full of great songs. Classic melodic pop-punk, the kind of stuff that sells millions these days but, back then, was too pop for punk and too punk for pop.

He even invented a very early computer game, but no-one know what he was going on about. Yet again, he was too far ahead. His fervent pop mind was a good decade in advance of everyone else: he also invented board games, songs, musical ideas, schemes and scams before eventually he invented Frank Sidebottom, his curious alter ego whose papier-mâché head, shabby suit and nasal twang were a perfect vehicle for a series of bizarre and weird gags that were dark, strange and utterly hilarious.

We heard about his cancer a couple of months ago, which was shocking, and were cheered by his never-ending gigs that continued and his Tweets that dared to take the piss out of his illness - including joking about his papier-mâché head losing its hair!

Two weeks ago Frank Sidebottom popped up at Bruce Mitchell’s (Durutti Column drummer and real Manchester legend) 70th birthday party at the Manchester town hall. He looked as fresh faced as ever with those big round eyes, showing little sign of the cruel disease. To be honest, Frank had remained unchanged since he burst onto the showbiz scene a quarter of century ago.

He even did a gig in my local pub the Salutation about a week ago. Funny as fuck to the end.

Manchester mourns another legend.

John Robb
http://johnrobb77.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/frank-sidebottom-rip/







Sometimes life’s poetry and pathos can be embodied by the most unlikeliest of things. Such was the case with Chris Sievey’s masterful comic creation Frank Sidebottom. So complete was Sievey’s command of the character that, on hearing the news on Monday of his death at the age of 54, I couldn’t help but think of poor Little Frank; what will become of him?

Sievey’s perennially daft boy-man with the oversized papier-maché head was so likeable and witty that a part of you really wanted him to be real. That desire to suspend disbelief and inhabit Frank’s world of garden sheds and tea with his mum was testament to Sievey’s considerable comic talent.

I didn’t know Sievey, but I did meet him once without his Frank head. He was recording something for a radio show I was working on. He put a clip on his nose – the sort you’d use for diving, I think – and for some reason I found that most simple of props fascinating. It was obvious really, but I guess I’d never thought about how or why Frank’s voice was the way it was – it was just the voice he’d been ‘born’ with, the voice you’d expect a head such as his to emit.

Again, you can only put that down to Sievey’s skill as a character comedian; as unlikely as it may sound, what he did was a kind of method acting, more Marlon Brando than Mike Yarwood. Sievey was, of course, renowned for only being interviewed in character when talking about Frank.

So, there I was, listening to Frank while what I could see was a very ordinary, scruffy-looking bloke in jeans and a T-shirt who’d obviously popped for a pint on his way to the studio (it was early evening). I can’t remember what Frank was saying, but I do remember smiling a lot.

But Frank Sidebottom – by accident or design – was able to do more than just make you laugh. By the sheer ludicrousness of what Sievey did, he managed to bring the po-faced down a peg or two as well, to cut through the way that so much that is really pretty trivial in our culture is treated far too seriously. When he parodied the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK as Anarchy In Timperley it was hilarious, not just because the notion of anarchy in a sedate, middle-class village in Cheshire is inherently comic, but because it also made you realize that the original was rather silly as well.

And so it is with Three Shirts On My Line, his just released World Cup charity record which takes Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and Ian Broudie’s Three Lions and wrings some humour out of an event and a sport that has a habit of thinking rather too highly of itself. Yet at the same time it feels like a celebration of being a perpetually disappointed England fan. Fantastic.

“The song just rolled off my tongue, faster than a fast-speed washing machine,” Frank told the Manchester Evening News to launch the record. “I asked my mum where my England shirts were and she said that she had washed them. I looked outside and there were three shirts on the line. I thought, that is a brilliant idea for a song. Thirty-five years of dirt washed out by my mum.”

There’s a Facebook campaign been set up to try and get the song to number one during the World Cup as a tribute to Sievey. The same group is also raising funds for his funeral; Sievey died virtually penniless and his family were struggling to raise the cash to give him the kind of send off he deserves. A substantial amount has already been raised.
Not that anyone can say that Sievey leaves nothing behind. There’s all those witty songs, all those YouTube clips, all that laughter and silliness. We’ll miss you, Frank. And Little Frank too.

Chris Sharratt
http://www.creativetimes.co.uk/articles/frank-sidebottom-remembered







In the summer 0f 2010 I conducted what was, to my knowledge, the last ever interview that Frank ever gave. This appeared in our art zine Yuck ‘n Yum:

A singular presence on the stand-up comedy and cabaret circuit, Frank Sidebottom can rightly be called an institution. His act takes in popular Manchester standards (his rendition of Love Will Tear Us Apart really is quite something), some traditional showbiz patter and also puppetry with his cardboard alter ego Little Frank, all performed by a man with a giant spherical papier-mâché head. Once seen, Frank will surely not be forgotten by anyone in a hurry. Emerging around the late eighties/ early nineties Madchester music scene, he spent many years appearing on regional TV and treading the boards at northern comedy gigs. After making something of a comeback around the turn of the 21st century, Frank has recently performed in a few art spaces such as Tate Britain to great acclaim and a viewing of his routine by some as a form of outsider- performance art. In May this year Frank shocked his fans with the “bobbins news” that he has cancer, but this he has borne with characteristic valour. A self-portrait titled ‘me as me after chemotherapy’ was posted on eBay, raising £480 for Cancer Research, and in an exclusive Yuck ‘n Yum interview we learned all about the world according to Frank Sidebottom:

During your fantastic showbusiness career you have performed at the CHELSEA art space and even at Tate Britain. Do you consider yourself an artist?

************ anyone can be for as little as a pound !!! that’s how much my felt-tip pens cost from the pound shop !

This year you’ll be playing shows across the world. Is there any place that you’re looking forward to the most?

*** new york is ace,... but then so is the isle of man !

In June you’ll appear at Glasgow’s Puppet Cabaret festival. What can your audience expect?

**************** a medium rate of semi-professional puppetry,... as long as little frank (my ventrilloquist puppet) doesn’t ruin it !

Do you ever argue with Little Frank when you’re both on tour?

*** don’t be swept along,... he’s only cardboard !

Who is your favourite artist?

*** myself,... and paul macca and billy childish are quite good at painting too !

Are you planning any more TV appearances in the future?

***** i’m planning loads,... it’s just a case of if the telly companies are planning that too !

We all know how much you’re looking forward to the world cup, but who do you think will win?

**** in the ideal world,... it would be “timperley bigshorts f.c.” (my sunday football team... but it will probably be 10 men from somewhere else !

During your long glittering showbusiness career what do you think have been the high points?

**** meeting the queen was o.k.,.. and supporting bros at wembley in front of 54,000 was quite good too !

Who would be your dream special guest on Timperley TV?

**** ringo ,... (only joking !!! i mean paul!)

Yuck ‘n Yum will be holding a karaoke contest for artists in September. What is your ultimate karaoke tune?

“see you later crocodile” (in swahilli)

Many thanks and all the best... Ben Robinson, Yuck ‘n Yum

and a big thank you to you ,.. and all at yuck ‘n yum
best regards
frank sidebottom

http://www.yucknyum.com/the-zine/?read=summer2010&pp=3











THE END... you know it is, it really is.




*

p.s. Hey. Today d.l. _Black_Acrylic aka the artist, editor, writer, and future Art101 impresario Ben Robinson does a full-fledged, wonderful number on the late, singular entertainer Frank Sidebottom, and I both learned and had my brain tweaked a lot during my building/previewing duties as this blog's workhouse, and I think you might very well experience something similar as this blog's raison d'être. What do you think? Please let _B_A and everybody else know in the form of your comments today, thank you. And topnotch thanks to our mighty guest-host! Otherwise, I have a bit of head cold today, it seems, so please excuse any zoning and cobwebbing that shows up in the p.s. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Wow, Baudrillard. I haven't heard his name in a while. It wasn't so long ago that he was the go-to philosopher guy. Art Center even put on a Baudrillard rave in Las Vegas. I guess Zizek is the ubiquitous thinker guy now, or maybe he's over too? Zizek seems so rock 'n' roll compared to Baudrillard, for better or worse. ** Jeffrey Coleman, Hi, Jeff! Thanks for the 'Ooh'. Much appreciated. Oh, Joseph Hammer, yeah. He's great. I should do a post on him. I should listen to him more again. I think he came out of LAFMS too. I'm pretty sure. I grew up with the LAFMS guys, as you probably know. I recorded a spoken word album for their label when I was barely post-teen, but luckily it never got released. I don't know 'Roadless Travel'. I'll start my getting back into his stuff there. Solid Eye is great, yeah. Interesting dream. Huh. Really, very intriguing. Thanks for the link to the clip. I'll hit it up a little later. Cool, man, thank you! ** Nicki, Hi, N. I like that word chuffed. I just used it the other day. I always feel like a little kid trying to pronounce a multi-syllabic word when I say it. Glad you liked the gig. Wow, ha ha, you had me there with that Ariana thing for a second. My head cold is an acuity blunter. Oh, it's a Game of Thrones-derived thing. Okay. I've never seen even a second of GoT. I don't know any of these TV show things that everyone is so hot and bothered about on social media these days. I'm weirdly kind of proud of that for some unknown reason. I mean I like that I don't know the references and that everything about those shows is just language. I like the 'look' and 'read' squibs you linked me to. I'm not sure about those dolls you can buy though. The cupcakes look really good though. That 'Cracked' thing looks dumb, yeah. Fan fiction in general always seems meh-ly or badly written, doesn't it? I always feel like the bad-seeming writing is a code that I don't understand, and I kind of like that about it. Refinement would de-edge or gut it or something, wouldn't it? Anyway, refinement, blah. Collective terms like that are always bullshit. I think that, for a lot of self-styled 'serious''literary' writers, writing while having a blast signals cheesecake, which is idiotic. But I shouldn't be trying to be smart when my head is clogged up. ** Sypha, Yeah, the only thing I know about Game of Thrones is that the actors in it wear what look like expensive Halloween costumes. You're a Nook subversive rebel guy, cool. Nice haul. I remember that Lou Reed album being not so good, but I don't remember well. Yeah, I'm going to NYC for the 'Kindertotenlieder' shows unless something bad and unexpected happens. ** Kier, Hi, K! My sucky co-worker is very useful and necessary to have around, so I guess it's worth it. I want to see 'Oculus'. I think I saw the second 'Paranormal Activity' movie. Maybe the first one too? Then I think I bailed on the franchise after that 'cos it was getting too formulaic. Actually, it was kind of too formulaic in the first one already. But I'll watch almost any paranormal-themed horror movie and not complain too much. Weird. Good morning! ** Keaton, You crack me up sometimes too. Synchronicity. I almost never wrote papers in school. I can't remember how I got away with that. Well, I didn't get away with it, I guess. What am I talking about? My head is fuzz. When I was a kid, kids called the police the fuzz. It was derogatory. I wonder how that happened. Fuzz doesn't sound very derogatory. Yay, mega-post! I'm excited! July 4th! Hook us up! ** Schlix, Thanks, Uli! You saw Sudden Infant? Cool, I haven't. I really love that copeland album. It's grown into a love affair. Communions are cool. A little retro. I'm not sure if I'd be so into them if they didn't look like they do, to be honest, ha ha. I only know that new Diane Cluck album. I only just discovered her. She's pretty great. I'll get the earlier stuff, thanks. No, I don't know Sum of R, but I'll click that link and get on knowing them shortly. Thank you! Really, Huyghe brought the walls of the Pompidou show? That's interesting. As I may have mentioned, they gave him the very worst space in the Pompidou, and he responded by kind of wrecking the place in a clever way. He brought the dog! Was there a guy wandering around filming stuff? I liked that show. Cool! ** Steevee, Hi, Oh, it's an herb. I'll look into it. Huh. I always do better with Tylenol over Advil, but they don't have Tylenol in France, only Advil. Or Advil among other stuff. Man, tough it out, and I hope your psych helps out with the toughing. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Yeah, that is a nice Cindytalk video, right? That's why I chose it over other stuff by them even though it's older. Steal away, man. Yeah, Communions has a little too much early Cure, etc. in their sound, but they look so ... Danish, as you put it. In all the right ways or something. Or something less nationalistic or something. Man, this head cold is trippy. ** Torn porter, Hi, Torn! Happy you thought this month's slaves were an above average batch. They kind of were. Luck of the draw. The place I was at in the panhandle was ... shit, I forget the name. They filmed 'The Truman Show' in the seaside town that I was staying in. Is that Seaside? You're doing a Kickstarter thing for you film? Cool! I'll chip in. I'll urge others to do so too. Let me know. Zac's and my film is going really well. We're prepping for the rehearsing and shooting of the next scene, which take place starting on Monday. And for future scenes too. Very busy, but, so far, we haven't had any major crises. Hugs from the 10th arr. of Paris! ** Phew, I made it. Now, Frank Sidebottom and _B_A's organizational and curatorial skills await you, so scroll upwards/ backwards and feast way, please, while I go blow my nose over and over and over. See you tomorrow.

'How can computer games be abstract and without points of identification, and yet be interesting? - No matter how variable or even absent the protagonist in computer games, the player is always constant. The reader/ viewer need an emotional motivation for investing energy in the movie or book; we need a human actant to identify with. This is probably also true for the computer game, only this actant is always present - it is the player. The player is motivated to invest energy in the game because the game evaluates the player's performance. And this is why a game can be much more abstract than a movie or a novel, because games involve the player in a direct way.

'This discrepancy raises many issues. In a game, the player works to reach a goal. The thing is then that this goal has to mimic the player's situation. It seems, for example, that a game cannot have the goal that the player should work hard to throw the protagonist under a train. As a player, the goal has to be one that you would conceivably want to work for.

'Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou would serve as an example of a movie where it is hard to construct a coherent story due to numerous temporal skips and distanciations such as the actor's addressing the camera. This foregrounding of the discourse has a sense of immediacy that would make it ripe for a game adaptation - if only we could figure what the game should be about. And during the creation of Naked Lunch, William Burroughs writes the follow explanation to Allen Ginsberg: "[...] the usual novel has happened. This novel is happening."

'It may be obvious that the more open a narrative is to interpretation, the more emphasis will be on the reader/ viewer’s efforts now. The difference between the now in narratives and the now in games is that first now concerns the situation where the reader's effort in interpreting obscures the story - the text becomes all discourse, and consequently the temporal tensions ease. The now of the game means that story time converge with playing time, without the story/game world disappearing.

'Games rely on having goals that can be deciphered by the player and something obstructing the player's possibility of reaching the goals. Narratives are basically interpretative, whereas games are formal. Or, in cybertextual terms, stories have an interpretative dominant, whereas games have a configurative dominant. While readers and viewers are clearly more active than some theories have previously assumed, they are active in a different way.

'The idea of using experimental narratives to answer the opening question suffers from the problem that the very emphasis on interpretation and ontological instability that would make the narrative more immediate and thus closer to the game, in itself would make a game unplayable.'-- Jesper Juul







Compress Process
'For most of us, video game glitches are a nuisance--they’re visual hiccups that rattle the rhythm of the game and disrupt our immersion in the experience. But for Rosa Menkman, they’re the best part. The Dutch artist, currently pursuing a PhD in digital artifacts, revels in all things glitch, from overly compressed video files to unforeseen synthesized sounds. Her latest project, Compress Process, reverses the conventional relationship between game and glitch: It’s a surreal videoscape in which the only object is to mess things up as best and as beautifully as you can. The experience has the basic trappings of a video game--you can even "jump" by hitting the spacebar--but players will quickly find that that there’s not really anything to do in this game world, and there’s not really all that much to explore, either. Adding to the confusion, each movement you make smears and stretches the game environment, making it hard to lock down any sort of perspective or sense of space. And that’s basically the gist of it: You tool around aimlessly, taking note of how your movements shape the mesmerizingly weird visuals. Menkman supplies the disembodied head, you provide a little motion, and glitches abound.'-- Fast Co Design



[[Videoscapes :: Xilitla]]


I might, in the end, be no more than a reflection of your imagination








Painstation
'The concept of Painstation is simple. Two players eyeball each other over a table console. The left-hand is positioned on a sensor field -- otherwise know as a PEU, or Pain Execution Unit. When both players have made this electric contact, the game, and the real fun, commences. The game itself is based on the first-generation PC game known as Pong, or bar tennis, and is followed by both players through a graphics display in the center of the table. The player's right hand controls the bat, and the object of the game is to keep the ball in play as long as possible. In the original PC game, missing the ball resulted in nothing worse than a moment's frustration and perhaps a well-chosen expletive. In this revamped version, missing the ball is not only annoying, it is also very painful. Randomly arranged along both sides of the playing field are Pain Inflictor Symbols, each representing a different sort of pain. Depending where the ball hits, the player will feel sensations such as heat, punches, lashings by a wire whip, and electroshocks of varying duration delivered through the PEU. The game ends only when one of the players decides that the pain is too much to bear and lifts a hand off the PEU.'-- collaged



painstation








Memory of a Broken Dimension
'Video games are known to have some in-game glitches, and sometimes they’re even celebrated for them. But while most of the time it’s an error that players stumble upon, a new game called Memory of a Broken Dimension by xra uses glitches as part of the game’s aesthetic. It uses the FPS perspective to drive the narrative as you solve puzzles and explore an experimental environment. From the trailer it looks like it could be quite a baffling experience, as you wander around the monochrome world, struggling through its broken lands. The game is still in the early stages of development and details are scarce.'-- The Creators Project



Memory of a Broken Dimension SOWN2012 Dev video


memory of a broken dimension - walkthrough








SCP-087
'SCP-087 is a stairwell that doesn't end. All those who go down these stairs can hear a crying child roughly 200 metres down, which seems to get lower at the same speed as the person descending. As they descend further, a creature, currently known as SCP-087-1, stalks them down, usually coming from in front of the person, but sometimes behind them. SCP-087 features procedural generation of floors and events, so every playthrough is different.'-- collaged



SCP-087


SCP-087: 160 FLOORS COMPLETE WITH ENDING








Self-Destruction
'Self Destruction by Frank Force is a game about being trapped in a time travel loop and needing to kill all previous versions of yourself to progress. Each wave you’re actions from all previous waves are layered on top of each other but instead of helping you, they are the enemies that you need to kill. For this prototype I tried to keep it as simple as possible and focus on the fundamentals. It turned out to be a cool little experiment. The gameplay does concern me though, because it is so weird. I tried to add some balance factors like subtracting off a point each second to encourage faster play. I like how being able to destroy other bullets encourages the player to shoot more, which further dooms them.'-- Frank Force



Self Destruction - Rapid Prototype








The Path
'The Path is a short horror game inspired by older versions of Little Red Ridinghood, set in modern day. Created by innovative game designers Tale of Tales, The Path offers an atmospheric experience of exploration, discovery and introspection through a unique form of gameplay, designed to immerse you deeply into its dark themes. Every interaction in the game expresses an aspect of the narrative. The six protagonists each have their own age and personality and allow the player to live through the tale in different ways. Most of the story, however, relies on your active imagination. Six sisters live in an apartment in the city. One by one their mother sends them on an errand to their grandmother, who is sick and bedridden. The teenagers are instructed to go to grandmother's house deep in the forest and, by all means, to stay on the path! Wolves are hiding in the woods, just waiting for little girls to stray.'-- collaged



The Path - Gameplay


The Path: Rose Ending (Failure)








Elegy for a Dead World
'Developed by Dejobaan and Popcannibal, Elegy for a Dead World is a game that asks the player to be a writer. “I don’t think people realize how big of an ask that is,” said Ziba Scott of Popcannibal, going on to discuss the personal constraints we put on ourselves when it comes to writing and the way Elegy for a Dead World aims to encourage fearless creativity. According to Scott, there is no game to be “played” in Elegy of a Dead World. Instead, the player is plunged into three worlds, inspired by British romantics like Shelley, Keats and Byron. During their side-scrolling exploration of these fallen civilizations, players take notes in whatever form or style they wish, which are published onto the Steam Workshop for others to read. They can also read the notes, prose and poetry that other players have drawn from the same worlds. It’s a collaborative, exploratory and poetic writing experiment.'-- collaged



Elegy for a Dead World: Teaser Trailer








Glitchspace
'Glitchspace is a first person programming game that's centred around a visual programming mechanic. Set in a cyberspace world, you are trying to find a place known as Glitchspace - a by-product of cyberspace and its various glitches. A world that would allow for infinite possibilities, and access across all systems in cyberspace through exploitation. Through problem solving, it's up to you how you approach the in-game challenges; find glitches in the cyberspace world, and exploit them in various different ways, allowing for a emergent play experience.'-- collaged



Glitchspace - Greenlight Trailer (Alpha 1.1)








Vapour: Borders of Purgatory
'Skobbejakgames is a small game development team from Johannesburg, creating the most scary game ever in history, Vapour: Borders of Purgatory. We are a 2 man (Tiaan Gerber and Alexander Ehlers) indie game development team that are set out to raise the bar with each successive project. Just be wary of two things if you’re going to watch the video. The first is that it’s NSFW, as it contains gore, language and partial nudity. Secondly, if you’re willing to proceed, keep in mind that the footage is from a game that is, according to Skobbejak Games, still in its pre-Alpha stage. It looks really good being so early in development.'-- collaged



Vapour Gameplay June 2014








Luxuria Superbia
Luxuria Superbia is a prototype of a video game in progress by Tale of Tales. A vessel speeds through the veins of a plant and arouses the plant by touching the sensitive zones on the walls. An eventual climax gives us entrance to the multiple locks of the cosmos. Walter Hus in association with Brecht Ameel and Maarten Huysmans developed a musical system wherein a multitude of loops are triggered by the movements and levels of the players and by the zones you're traversing in the game. According to Tale of Tales co-designer Auriea Harvey, video games are no strangers to depictions of sex, but they often fail at portraying it in a meaningful way, either falling into the uncanny valley with awkwardly rendered physical representations of the act or cheapening the act itself by casting it as a “game,” where there is a “right” and a “wrong” way of doing it. Tale of Tales aimed to capture the essence of the erotic, rather than create a forward, soulless depiction like so many games before it.'-- Indie Statik



The Cosmos and the Cave 001


The Cosmos and the Cave 002








Césure
Developed by indie designer Noctuelles, Césure is described as a "tiny pure exploration game inspired by the more experimental works of Aliceffekt and Increpare [Stephen Lavelle]." As such, there are no objectives, puzzles, or anything one could consider to be a game beyond the ability to wander around exploring a malevolent sculpture-thing. According to the developer's Twitter, he "makes strange places and calls them games." You may remember Stephen "Increpare" Lavelle for his seizure inducing abstract rave simulator Slave of God, which Césure bears something in common with. While Césure is more interactive modern art than a game, it's pretty evocative modern art, so if you're up for some moody psychedelic zen-like exploration.'-- eurogamer.net



Césure








POP: Methodology Experiment 1
'POP: Methodology Experiment 1 is a game purposefully built in way that explores a different approach to the typical game development pipelines. In this experiment developer Rob Lach wanted to explore the inspiration music tends to intrinsically instill in us. He accomplished this by creating the music first, and during the music creation process he would determine that the the game that will accompany the music would be the first idea that popped into his head. In some cases it came together nicely, in others not so much. Built Using: Visual Studio 2010, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Ableton Live. Built on top of: Monocle Engine. Teaser Music: Modeselektor - Grillwalker.'-- collaged



POP - Methodology Experiment 1 Teaser


playing POP: Methodology Experiment One








Among the Sleep
'Among the Sleep, a new indie horror game, puts you into the booties of a two year old and presents a never-before-seen survival horror experience. The scary adventures of a defenseless baby wandering around an abandoned house, its dark attic and a surreal, but eerie Alice in Wonderland-like environment is truly unimaginable. Norwegian developers Krillbite Studios did a great job in bringing something innovative to this genre. The game’s scare levels is similar to games like Slender or Amnesia, but it’s more frightening because it presents horror through the eyes of a helpless toddler who’s only way of tackle is either to run away or hide behind an object to avoid getting spotted by a creepy strangers. The game focuses on object-interaction, which will help a toddler escape. You don’t have any access to weapons, so there’s a total survival horror games in our hands.'-- hub pages.com



Among the Sleep - Gameplay Teaser








Polybius
'The iconic legend of Polybius chronicles the mysterious appearance of a new, unheard of game in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon in 1981. Players claimed to experience amnesia, blackouts, seizures, headaches, nausea, night terrors, and there were even alleged reports of suicide. Some swore they saw a mysterious man in black collecting data from the machines. Some players stopped playing video games, while reportedly one became an antigaming activist. Eventually, the game vanished from arcades, though alleged photos of vintage cabinets appear on the internet from time to time, but no definitive proof of the game ever truly existing has ever surfaced—probably because the evil government covered its tracks. The supposed creator of Polybius is Ed Rotberg, and the company named in the urban legend is Sinneslöschen (German meaning "deletion/erasure of senses"), often named as either a secret government organization or a codename for Atari.'-- collaged



Polybius Gameplay - Cursed Arcade Game




*

p.s. Hey. ** Nicki, Hi. The cold seems a little better today, thanks. Maybe Tiger Balm is magic like they say. Thanks as always for talking to a bunch of everybody. ** Steevee, Hi. Ongoing sorriness and hugs about your painful recovering, man. ** Keaton, Words are all we've got here, meaning at this blog, I guess, weird. And emoticons, I suppose. There were lots of police when I was a kid, but back then being a kid meant police would mostly leave you alone because you were a kid. Nowadays they look for reasons to give kids the death penalty. I've only read some Zizek, here and there, but that seemed like enough. Lacan's the dude? Ha ha, spellcheck just tried to correct dude to diode. Yeah, it does seem like people think Lacan's the dude these days. Maybe he is. I like dry, I think. Maybe Zizek isn't dry enough for me. I don't know. When I was young, the cool hipster types of the day were always reading this guy Baba Ram Dass, who was like the guy who mostly successfully translated Eastern mysticism into hippie speak. I don't think I've read Rorty. Virilio's cool. I don't know about as president. President of what? Of the US, of everything?  I mean, why not, I guess. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Thank you again so much for yesterday. It got really big traffic. Cool about that documentary. Whoa, it got way beyond its funding goal. That's really nice. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. I was wondering where you were. With LPS, natch. Sounds fucking sweet, man. Thanks for propping Damien's story. Yeah, it was really good. Huh, I liked the present tense in it especially for some reason. I am for sure not going to read 'The Kite Runner'. You have completely de-sold me on it. Which is good 'cos I have no time. I am a lucky dog, though, reading the advance galley of Blake Butler's upcoming '300,000,000', and it is insanely great. I must have read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in high school, or pretended to, probably. I used to be really good at flipping through assigned books and bullshitting my way through book reports and stuff. I don't know why. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. Thanks. Head colds suck, but they also fade away, and I think/hope mine has begun to. You just made me really hungry, which is good. Although I'm hungry for nachos, which is sort of a controversially good thing to be hungry for. I love 'Three Poems'. Yeah, like I said, really, I think I love every single poem of his I've ever read. He's my 'greatest living English language writer' pick, if I had to. Grammar errors are okay. You should see the first draft of the p.s. every day before I go back and correct the typos, etc. ** Rewritedept, Hi. You hung out on the Strip. You rarely mention the Strip in your comments, and the Strip is 80% of what I know about Last Vegas. I almost stayed at Mandalay Bay the last time I was there, but we (Zac and I) stayed at ... shit, head cold fuzz ... that one with the big fountain show in front of it. Steve Wynn's ... something. I had really good Thai food in Vegas. At one of those Strip hotels. Can't remember which one. It was just, uh, south (?) of that fountain one. The one that has the James Turrell installation in its mall. Ouch. I didn't see the pictures on FB. I was probably asleep when you launched them. That stuff with your mom is so sad. I'm so sorry, man. That's really harsh on the heart. ** Kyler, Hi, K. I don't get colds very much in Paris, it's true, but there you go. I try to wash my hands when I get home from riding the metro, but I often forget. My OCD-like thing is brushing my teeth. I brush my teeth a lot. I did get your email/post, yes, and it's all set to go on July 8th, as planned. Hope it gets launched as planned. Yeah, Jeff's right, being as zen as possible about book launches will add years to your life probably. It's a stress city situation if there ever was one. Best to you and all of yours! ** Okay. With that, I direct your attention to 14 video/computer games plus one arcade game that do interesting things with the form's outer limits, I think. That's your day's dalliance or whatever. Hope it suits or more. See you tomorrow.

'Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s installations could be described as oneiric mises en scène. Mise en scène is the process of arranging actors and scenery on a stage or film set. Gonzalez-Foerster combines being a filmmaker with being an installation artist and the intersection of the two media in her work is of interest because in installation art the mise en scène becomes the work of art.

'Those who enter a mise en scène viewing it as a work of art enter an environment that is profoundly illusory because the illusion does not take place within the evidently immaterial confines of a two-dimensional surface but in a real, physical environment. One remembers the Surrealists deconstruction of photography. Here was a medium thatwas supposed to be a direct imprint of the real: the camera ‘could not lie’. But Surrealist photography showed that the photograph could be the stage for a profound dislocation of our habituated ways of seeing.

Something similar is happening in the work of Gonzalez-Foerster. We enter rooms that are real enough, and experience objects that are real enough such as ladders and artificial grass, but the overall experience is not real but hyperreal. Typically her work will use devices such as painting the walls of a gallery a particular colour to create the effect of a ‘colour field’ with its concomitant psychological effects; using physical materials on the floor such as sand or plastic grass; and using imagery such as photographs or video to introduce a nonlinear narrative dimension into the oneiric mise en scène. Gonzalez-Foerster speaks of these rooms in terms of ‘narrative’ noting that "colour is an entry into a narrative; the colour rooms and the clues they usually contain give a certain number of elements to which the viewer adds what she/he needs to comprehend the work, link those various existing elements. It is not quite like reading, although reading is a possible means of completion; rather it is a way to generate a narrative, therefore emphasizing the importance of interpretation."

'But to be more precise, we are not speaking about a linear narrative. We are describing something much more oblique and poetic. It appears that one of the purposes of Gonzalez-Foerster’s installations is to place the viewer in a situation in which she or he has to exercise his or her imagination. Now, of course, we always exercise our imagination when looking at art. But Gonzalez-Foerster’s rooms are more demanding because the data is not in one place as is the case in a painting or integral sculpture. And this splitting or fragmenting of the experience into parts differs from immersive experiences such as the instances by Janssens and Eliasson that have been referred to in this text. When we walk into Gonzalez-Foerster’s rooms we walk into a ‘picture’ as is the case in an Eliasson installation and we experience immersive-like sensory effects, such as the colour field of painted walls and the feel of sand or Astroturf under foot. But her work does not end at perceptual experience. Instead there is a demand that we exercise our imaginative-cognitive facilities.

The fact that we have to use our imagination, in particular, is significant because in the philosophy of David Hume (1711-1776) imagination stands in between ideas (thoughts) and impressions (sensations and feelings). It is Hume’s interconnection between bodily-sensory experience and ideas which is especially interesting for a consideration of installation art. In the context of Gonzalez-Foerster’s installations what is significant about such philosophical meditations is that sensation, perception and cognition are intertwined, and I think that Gonzalez-Foerster’s ability to integrate perceptually immersive experience with a demand on the viewer’s cognitive-imaginative faculties is a particularly significant feature of her installations.

'Another facet of Gonzalez-Foerster’s rooms is the way in which they can evoke an absent self that is entirely fictive. In that sense the absent self is an empty signifier that the viewer can fill. When the viewer enters one of Gonzalez-Foerster’s rooms she or he becomes akin to an actor on stage who can assume the identity of absent inhabitant. Or one could imagine a novel in which the author left a blank space for the reader to inhabit. One thinks here, also, of the strangeness of Paul Pfeiffer’s videos of sporting events in which he erases principle props and actors. Placed in such oneiric circumstances we reflect upon our identity as a species of construct woven out of a web of influences most of which have become distant memories.'-- Graham Coulter-Smith


_____
Further

Dominique Gonzales-Foerster Website
DG-F @ 303 Gallery
DG-F @ Corvi-Mora Gallery
DG-F @ Esther Schipper Gallery
'This was a red jungle.'
'Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's grand design'
'DOMINIQUE GONZALEZ-FOERSTER: public-personal space'
'Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, chronotopes & dioramas'
'Soy una escritora frustrada'
'Clothes as Personal History'
'interior gulf stream: Housing and studio for Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster'
Video: 'Soleil vert par Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster'
'DOMINIQUE GONZALEZ­FOERSTER'S TOP 5 PERFORMANCES OF ALL TIME'
'archive and quotation in the work of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster'
'Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster is taking the town by storm'
'Subjective Histories of Sculpture III: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster'



____
Extras


DOMINIQUE GONZALEZ-FOERSTER INTERVIEW EXTRACT


Gonzalez-Foerster installation at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall


Shortstory by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster


Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster / Atomic Park (2003)


Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster/Ari Benjamin Meyers/Tristan Bera interviewed




______
Interview
from Flash Art





Hans Ulrich Obrist:In a previous conversation, we spoke about moving into fields different from contemporary art. You mentioned Friedrich Kiesler. Let’s start from here.
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: I think one reason why Kiesler is less famous than other artists is because he never wanted to be only a gallery artist. He was doing architectural work and all sorts of things, such as windows for big department stores or gallery spaces. The methods he developed have indirectly influenced many artists who don’t even recognize it. Certain artists — such as Kiesler or Isamu Noguchi when making lamps and furniture — wanted to expand the field of experiences. But art history makes it difficult for artists to escape a linear way of developing a career, and usually these artists are rediscovered much later. The art world is very conservative when it comes to behavior.
HUO:You have implemented a lot of these expanded projects: a park has happened in
Kassel at Documenta 11, another park in Grenoble, and a house in Japan.
DGF: I always look for experimental processes. I like the fact that at the beginning I
don’t know how to do things and then slowly I start learning. Often exhibitions don’t give me this learning possibility anymore. With the house in Japan, I was constantly confronted with people; they were explaining to me, say, possible grids and at each meeting I was learning something new. I like meeting with people who are very specialized in their field. I don’t find these learning moments in art enough.
HUO:I always felt that routine is the enemy of exhibitions.
DGF: Yes. There is also something very slow in the art world. People build a stage for a concert in one day; they do more in one day than they do in a gallery space in a year in terms of activity. Of course each system has it’s timing, but once you have been dealing with other speeds it is really hard to go back to this slowness.
HUO:When I first came to France I was asked if I wanted a ‘plan d’evasion’! It was a card for buying tickets, like national flights’ tickets. There’s also a book by Laborit, Éloge de la fuite…
DGF: There is something very human in ‘escaping.’ What drives transformation is the fact that at a certain point an environment is not stimulating to you anymore. You feel you need a change; it’s a human drive to escape the too slow or too repetitive or too deadend situations.
HUO:Recently somebody told me about the great landscape architect Dominique
Gonzalez-Foerster! They didn’t know that you had an artistic background. There are
other people who see your films at film festivals and talk about this young filmmaker. Suddenly you are gathering a multitude of identities.
DGF: I don’t want the films to be seen as artist’s films or the garden to be seen as an artist’s garden. I think it is important for artists to develop their role as producers or directors, which means providing a public situation for an audience — an exhibition, a theater piece or a film serve this purpose too. And for that you get a fee.
HUO:There’s a recurrent question in my interviews... what is your unrealized project?
DGF: The thing I have been dreaming of for some years is a swimming pool on the beach. This is why I went to Brazil; I wanted to make it there. It would be a kind of ‘tropical university’: a place, a swimming pool, with some umbrellas to create shades. You sit in the water on the beach and discuss your ideas and projects! It has never been realized until now.
HUO: What is your next project?
DGF: Writing a science fiction novel together with Philippe Parreno, keep thinking about new sorts of public spaces and playgrounds as I did for the current São Paulo Biennale, working on an ‘opera/exhibition’ with lots of artists and friends for the Manchester International Festival, preparing a proposal for Skulptur Projekte Münster 07, and of course remaining unpredictable even for myself!



___________________
Balenciaga Flagship Store, Paris

'Balenciaga’s 60th directly operated store — boasting 40 feet of frontage on the bustling Rue Saint-Honoré — symbolizes how the company has quickly accrued critical mass in retail, which now accounts for more than half of its revenues. (Less than five years ago, it only had three locations.) Balenciaga’s space, formerly a gas station, offered the brand a vast, rectangular space of about 3,200 square feet spread over one level — a rarity in a city full of landmark buildings with higgledy-piggledy layouts. As in all Balenciaga units, creative director Nicolas Ghesquière and the French contemporary artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster collaborated on the interior concept. She calls the Rue Saint-Honoré store a “catalogue” of its key boutiques, each of which has a different color scheme and mood. Pedestrians strolling on Rue Saint-Honoré are surely to be struck by the store’s division into vertical strips — like a theater stage with its various backdrops viewed in cross-section.'-- WWD










____
Cinema

Belle comme le jour (2012)
'The story of Severine before she married Pierre and became 'Belle de jour'. Staying at the Hotel Regina next to rue de Rivoli, she goes to visit the Louvre and has a deeply disturbing conversation with a complete stranger.'




Noreturn (2009)
'Noreturn 2009 is a short film lasting sixteen minutes featuring a group of school children playing, reading, talking and ultimately sleeping in the cavernous space of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The film was shot during the last days of the artist’s installation for the Unilever Series commission for the Turbine Hall, entitled TH.2058. The beds, books, sound of rainfall, replica artworks and large LED screen that comprised the installation are all used in the film as props and staging for the children’s activities, which appear to be unsupervised, suggesting that the children may have taken shelter in the apparently abandoned space. The film’s soundtrack was specially devised and recorded by the musician Arto Lindsay, and provides a jarring acoustic accompaniment to the visual action.'



Trailer


Marquise (2006)
'Marquise is a film that features Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster‘s contribution for the 27th Sao Paulo Biennial in 2006, her work „Double Terrain de Jeu (Pavillon-Marquise)“. The installation consists of several plywood columns Gonzalez-Foerster added to the open groundfloor of a pavillion built by architect Oscar Niemeyer at the public park Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo. The film documents the work „Double Terrain de Jeu (Pavillon-Marquise)“ and fictionalizes it at the same time. While one sees the narrator, a small boy, walking through the installation space with his parents, he recounts the imaginary story of how these columns appeared to him at one point to be movable. But he cannot prove this im- pression to his parents. The film is edited with slight cross fadings, which may give the viewer the impression that the columns appear to move.'



Trailer


Parc Central (2005)
'A collection of 11 short poetic psycho-geographic portraits of cities and spaces from artist Dominique Gonzelez-Foerster. Ranging from the revisiting of a scene of Ming-Liang Tsai's 'Vive l'Amour' through the eyes of its protagonist, to a ticker-tape parade in Buenos Aires, from a reflection on the filmic qualities of Brasilia,to an observation of the observers of the 1999 eclipse in Paris. All soundtracked by a sensitive balance of field-recordings and carefully chosen delicate music.'





Atomic Park (2003)
'Atomic Park is a place in the White Sands desert (New Mexico), not far away from Trinity Site, where the first atom bomb exploded in 1945. This national park provides an ambivalent landscape, as well suited for a picnic as for ballistic tests. A white desert, like a natural exhibition hall every movement can provoke diverse interpretations. Like a faint echo we hear Marilyn Monroe's desperate monologue and accusation about man's violence from The Misfits (1961).'




Bashung(s) (2004)
'Alain Bashung, géant de la musique pop française, nous a quitté en mars 2009. Le plus primé des artistes pop français était considéré comme le meilleur chanteur depuis la disparition de Serge Gainsbourg. Il était aimé de toutes les générations. Sans compromis, excentrique mais toujours très humain et respectueux, il a mélangé tradition de la chanson française, surréalisme et rock & roll avec une dimension poétique abstraite et érotique. Ce dernier documentaire sur lui révèle son travail de création à travers des scènes de composition en collaboration avec d’autres artistes, de tournage d’images projetées en concert, de répétitions de spectacles, de scènes de concert et d’interviews de ses proches. Alain Bashung lui-même se livre à Pierre Lescure et nous aide à recomposer le puzzle de sa personnalité multiple.'



Excerpt


Central (2001)
'Gonzalez-Foerster has said that ‘I think I’m obsessed with a world through which one walks in spirit’. In one of her favourite books, Adolfo Bioy Casares’ Morel’s Invention (1940), the narrator - a nameless exile - pitches up on a tropical island inhabited by a group of sophisticates, including Faustine, a woman who instantly captures his heart. Like Casares’ novel, Gonzalez-Foerster’s Central ponders the gap between the viewer and the viewed. A sign, slightly weathered, tells us that we’re at the Star Ferry Terminal, Hong Kong. The camera cuts to a boat, then to the waterfront, then to various solitary souls standing on its edge. It’s all very melancholy.'



Excerpt



___
Sculptures & installations





Et la Chambre Orange, 1992







La bibliothèque clandestine, 2013






Tapis de Lecture, 2007














Three dioramas, 2008







Repulse Bay, 1999






Untitled, 2011Book: Robert Bolano's 'Los Detectivos Salvajes' and sand





Dominique Gonzales-Foerster as Edgar Allan Poe





Splendide Hotel, 2013






Bahia Desorientada, 2005





The daughter of a Taoist, 1991





Chandigarh book, 1996





Cité de la nuit, 1993





Moment Dream House, 2004






Human Valley, 2011








Une chambre en ville, 1996





T. 1912





Valise Biographique (Hannah Hoch), 1992











from euqinimod & costumes, 2014





Cosmodrome, 2000




*

p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. I've never read a full Lacan tome. Just things. He sure is important to a lot of writers and thinkers I love, though. That Oscar Wilde quote about Whistler is really great. My mom was really into Whistler. I think for her generation he was slightly cool to be into. His name has always connoted fustiness to me, but I've never paid that much attention, it's true. ** Torn porter, Oh, wow, you're in the same place. I kind of liked it. Everything was so white, the buildings, I mean. There was a pretty okay record store/cafe there. I don't remember much else in detail. It was nice to walk around in mostly, I guess. Hi to Ratty, assuming she's there now. Yeah, Turrell did an installation in a Vegas mall. Here's a thing about it. Right, I saw that google selfie thing somewhere yesterday. They're kind of really beautiful. Like super clean bad ghost costumes. Heart, me. ** Marilyn Roxie, Hi, Marilyn! Really nice to see you. How are you doing? No, I don't know those three games you mentioned, and I'll be excitedly off to investigate them in a bit. Cool. Thank you so much! ** Kier, Hi, Kier! Yeah, I hope the suckiness blows over or that ... what's the best case scenario? That they quit maybe? Awesome re: the great psych meeting. I haven't seen any of those horror films. I'm so behind. I don't have a working TV anymore. I miss how in the States there were always the endlessly horror movies-unrolling Sy-Fy Channel and Chiller Channel to flip to and zone out before. Starbuck from 'Battlestar', cool! I miss 'Battlestar'. My cold continues to upswing and gradually fade out, I think. It's really hot here suddenly, which doesn't help though. Being sick when it's hot is always horrible, which is weird, I guess, because it seems like theoretically it would be better, like the heat would help dry the cold out, but it seems like the heat just heats up the cold and makes it feel muddier or something. How was your Friday? ** Keaton, I didn't know or remember that Beckett quote. One or the other. Oops. Yeah, 'words are all we've got' seems like a bad way for writers to think especially. The less you trust or believe in language, the better the writing in my opinion, I think. I never use emoticons but I'm absolutely positive that Mac provides emoticons to whoever wants them. Cheap Trick were/are definitely right. Now sure about Burroughs. I'm more into adult hate, I think, although I'm not really into hate very much. Richard Albert, yeah. That guy. That square, blue book. I'll look up Rorty. There are socialist party posters everywhere all the time. You'd be very flipped out. There it is, I think: your 4th of July post. Wow, it's 4th or July. I didn't know that until this very moment. It looks really neat. I'll root around in it a bit later. Everyone, to mark the big 4th of July American shebang holiday thing, Keaton, whom you should all know from his brilliant memes post here recently, has created a special image/text stack over on his blog, and it's either called Lacanianism or Lalacan or both, and it runs the gamut from Chewbacca (sp?) to Billy Corgan, and, yeah, go caress it with your eyes please. ** Sypha, There are a lot of experimental horror computer games. It seems to be a big genre. They're all kind of the same, but they look really fun. Enjoy your last rural day. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Ah, you're old school. Is the Y 'n' Y compendium going to be in the classic Y 'n' Y form? Yes, everyone, well, a lot of people, are very hot and bothered about the France vs. Germany match today. I'll be squared away doing auditions for Zac's and my film when it's happening and trying to talk over the citywide yelling. ** Steevee, Thanks. Glad you've at least reached the tolerance phase. I think the tolerance phase is when it starts speeding up? ** Kyler, That was a cool arts camp. Or a confusing one, what with the Kate Smith assault. I don't know. My parents used to send me away to summer camps. They weren't very arty, though. One of them was famous because it had been the 'summer camp' in that movie 'The Parent Trap'. The other ones were on Catalina Island. Far-ish away, which was nice about them. You're on Gawker! Now you can say 'As seen on Gawker' about your book, which I think is only positive? Everyone, d.l./writer/mystic Kyler's imminent novel is squibbed on Gawker in an article called 'Cult Rush Week: Pretzels and Wine With Peaches Geldof's Sex Cult', and maybe you want to go experience that. Wait, no maybe. Here you go. Trippy. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff! Thanks. About the post. Yeah, those games are cool. Very cool that you've entered the right path in your novel. And that the path leads into the mountains is a nice double-duty thing. Great! No, I still haven't gotten it up to read any Bolano, although I can feel myself getting there. Mm, I would say the new Blake is more intense and uncompromisingly Blake than the earlier novels. More explosive. I think it's incredible so far. He's really going for it, and he's really getting it. I just read something very enticing about the Steve Lehman album. Yeah, I'll go score it. Thanks a lot for the tip, man. If you're not yet in the mountains, get there very un-problemmatically. ** Misanthrope, I've only read part of 'Moby Dick', but I thought it was really incredible, so I guess I disagree with you on that. The 'Mockingbird' movie is really good, though, I think, in my memory. See, I would have quit reading 'The Kite Runner' after about five pages. Have you read that Donna Tartt book that everybody's thinking is God and all that, 'The Goldfinch' or 'Goldfinch' or whatever it's called? I picked it up and flipped through it in the store the other day, and that was plenty, as far as I could tell. So, you're doing the 4th of July up all proper and everything. Have fun. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi.I played a little but of 'The Path'. I liked it. It's very slow and repetitive in this way I liked. We're try to rent a live wolf for one scene in Zac's and my film, if we can. The wolf just needs to walk up and sniff someone. I'm not sure if we can afford the wolf, though. We're checking it out. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Yeah, head cold. It's bettering itself. I'm still a little ugh and spacey and blowing my nose a lot. More bbq-ing and whatnot. The 4th of July lives! Cool, I guess. You guys have those great fireworks stores around Vegas, lucky you. I've seen all of those PTA movies. I liked 'Boogie Nights' a lot. I was okay with Magnolia' with certain qualifications. I really liked 'Punchdrunk Love'. My favorite thing in '1991: The Year Punk Broke' is Dinosaur Jr. playing 'Freak Scene'. My least favorite thing is Thurston showing us his dump. No, haven't seen the Lightning Bolt doc. Would like to. My Friday will be occupied by performer auditions for our film with fingers very crossed. Yeah, it was the 'Bellagio', bingo. Have a superb anniversary of America's whatever it is! ** Nicki, Hi, N. Wow, you're last today. Glad you liked the games post. Cool stuff, yeah. Well, Lacan only got talked about because someone brought him up. If someone doesn't bring up Spivak, she won't get talked about, which I guess is my argument not to delete. Besides, I wonder if anyone here has ever read her. I haven't. Complete lack of knowledge hampers referencing and discussing. So, go for it, is what I'm saying. I try to introduce people to artists and people they quite possibly don't already know all the time here. Take today's post for example. So, yeah. ** Right. My galerie hosts a show by the awesome French artist Dominique Gonzales-Foerster today. I also know her a little bit, and she's a great person. So, enjoy, do your thing, do your other things. See you tomorrow.

Holl New York, 188 Orchard Street
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Gaia, East Houston
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Block Headwear, 89 East Houston
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Grotto, 100B Forsyth Street
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Zulu's Coffee Shop, 77 Delancey Street
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Earnest Sewn, 90 Orchard Street
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Peels on the Bowery, 325 Bowery
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Dagny + Barstow, 264 Bowery
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inoteca, corner of Ludlow & Rivington
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Ben Ari Arts Ltd., 11 Avenue A
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Bowery Diner, 241 Bowery
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Links, 188 Allen Street
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The Steve Madden Warehouse, corner of Ludlow & Rivington
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Sheherazade, 121 Orchard Street
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Strange Loop, 27 Orchard Street
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Spur Tree, 76 Orchard Street
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John's Deli & Grocery, 37-39 Clinton Street
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King Glassware, 112 Bowery
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Boukies, 2nd Street
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Daniel's Leather, 130 Orchard Street
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El Sombrero, corner of Ludlow & Stanton Streets
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Freitag's Time, 1 Prince Street
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Mexicue, 106 Forsyth Street
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Tiny Fork, 167 Orchard Street
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aNything, 103 Allen Street
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Snack Dragon Taco Shack, 164 Orchard Street
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Bang Bang, 26 Clinton Street
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Rouge Wine Bar, 94 Rivington Street
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Pearl Paint, 308 Canal Street
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G&S Sporting Goods, 43 Essex Street
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Motor City Bar, 127 Ludlow Street
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Rochelle's/205 Club, Chrystie Street
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Salvor Projects, 172 Forsyth Street
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Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard Street
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Pulperia, 131 Essex Street
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Shalom Chai Pizza, 359 Grand Street
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Sheila's Decorating, 68 Orchard
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Plantworks, 28 East 4th Street
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Rocket Joe's Pizza, 61 Delancey Street
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Saro Bistro, 102 Norfolk Street
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Any Old Iron, 149 Orchard Street
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Elizabeth Street Parking Garage, 152 Elizabeth Street
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WD-50, 50-62 Clinton Street
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The General, 199 Bowery
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Dickson Hairshop, 137 Allen Street
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Family Recipe, 231 Eldridge Street
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Miss Hoe, 2 Prince St
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Home Espresso Bar, 250 Broome Street
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Circolo45, 45 Bond Street
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Zoe, 245 Eldridge Street
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Móle, 205 Allen Street
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Olympic Restaurant, Essex Street
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Todd's Mill, 162 Orchard
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Fried Chicken House, 108 Delancey
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Blessed Peacemakers, 149 Ludlow Street
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Bereket, corner of Orchard and East Houston Streets
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Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, 29 Orchard
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Preserve 24, 177 East Houston
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Philly's Cheese Steak, 191 East Houston
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Sutra Lounge, 16 First Avenue
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Hummus Shop, 101 Ludlow Street
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*

p.s. Hey. So, from Monday to Thursday, I'll be rehearsing and then involved in the shooting a scene in Zac's and my film. The schedule won't be finalized until this afternoon, but there will likely be interruptions to the p.s. during that time. I'm pretty sure although not completely positive that I'll be able to do the p.s. on Monday, at least, so it's likely that I'll see you then and will explain at that point how things will work, p.s.-wise, during that period. ** Nicki, Hi. Very happy you like the post/her work. And thanks a lot for the info and for the links re: Spivak. I'll start my investigation and knowledge gathering this weekend! ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. DG-F is quite well known and exhibited in Europe, but I believe she hasn't shown very much in the US so far except in some museum exhibitions here and there. The Pompidou is doing a big retrospective of her installations and performances this fall, if you'll be over here then by any chance. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. Cool. ** Kier, Hi! We hope so too. It's a matter of availability as much as of money. We might have to use this one breed of dog that looks extremely like a wolf. We're going to start hunting, as it were, and seeing what's possible this weekend. No, it was the first, ancient 'Parent Trap', unless they used the same camp in the remake, which seems doubtful. Well, definitely fingers crossed that the racist employee gets fired. My cold is almost gone away today, I think, I hope. I saw the 'Chernobyl Diaries', weird. Yeah, it sucked and sucked again. Have a super great weekend! ** Torn porter, Hi. The Turrell/Vegas thing is permanent. There one in the mall itself that's free and easy and available, and there's a 'secret' one that you need to make advance reservations to see. How was the parade? Has Ratty woken up refreshed today? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. The auditions went pretty well. The main one got fucked up, time wise, and has to happen today, and that's a bit nerve-wracking because it involves hopefully casting someone in the scene that we need to shoot next week. So, bit stressful around here. Yes, I heard France lose. All my friends were gleeful about it. 'Thank God, that's over,' etc. Great, exciting about the YnY compendium! ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. We're figuring out how expensive the wolf rental is this weekend. You get them through/with animal trainers. The same deal as with the trained owl that we use in Gisele's 'TIHYWD'. Glad you liked DG-F's rooms. ** Steevee, Hi, Oh, sure, they're just like trained dogs basically. We just need the wolf to walk over to someone and sniff him. Hopefully it'll be easy and really quick. Mm ... I don't think '22 Jump Street' has opened here, but I'm not sure since I'm positive the French title will have nothing to do with the American one. I'll check. Seems like a film that I'll end up watching on a plane flight. No, I've only read about the Eno/Karl Hyde album, one very positive review (Pitchfork, I think?) and one quite negative one (The Wire?). I'll overhear it. Thanks. Ugh, about the insurance thing. ** Keaton, A 4th poem! Coolness! Everyone, mighty Keaton wrote a 4th of July poem thing, and what better way to retroactively celebrate that big thang of a day. Go. Looking forward to it, man! ** MANCY, Hi, S! Thanks a lot, man. You've moved now, right? You digging it? ** Alistair McCartney, Hi, Alistair! How incredibly cool to see you! Happy ... 5th! Things are really good here. Really busy. Great stuff. No, France lost. Oh, well. I only sort of really vaguely cared. That such a sweet transmission that you're revising, and, yeah, that's the unpredictable and amazing part. I'm jonesing to get there with mine. I'm still in writing it phase, the part I don't like so much, ha ha. I like that Cat Power song too! Thank you a lot! Best of the very best with the revising and with everything else, my pal! ** Kyler, I loved that movie as a kid too. I used to sing 'Let's get together yeah, yeah, yeah' all the time. Wow, about the smoking at 15 onstage thing. I haven't seen the 'Mockingbird' movie since forever. I mostly remember how beautiful the b&w was. Do try to sleep. And remember that the first day is just first day of the book's very long life. ** Bill, Hi. Cool, thanks. Ha ha, I can't remember a Catalina movie that was actually set on Catalina, and I think I saw all of them at some point. Glad you're recovering. That is some nasty jetlag right there. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Uh, it makes sense? Wait, you're punning off 'dick', right, in which case, wait, it makes no sense at all. What?! My cold's basically history, which hopefully makes me make more sense. Yeah, I mostly never finish reading books, as I think I've explained before. It's actually fairly rare that I read a book to the end. Interesting story there about the ex-Navy Seal. I'm glad your 4th had all the trimmings! ** Rewritedept, My Friday was good. Auditions, complicated, but successful, I think. My head is clear-ish. Re: 'Magnolia', hm, well, for one thing I thought the rain of frogs thing was really obvious and literal and uninteresting. Hope your weekend rules the roost. ** Schlix, Thanks, Uli. Oh, right, the announcer at the entrance of the Huyghe show. That was funny. Lucky you to get to go to the Tinguely. That's a longstanding plan/dream. I've been thinking about hitting Basel soonish. I think Zac and I might head there to see that and ... something else I can't remember. Charles Ray retrospective maybe? I'll totally check out that artist who blew you away this afternoon. Thank you, nan, and have a great weekend. ** Right. Sorry to have rushed a little today. I'm helping my pal Zac move this morning, and I'm due inside the shower pronto. I hope the dead businesses haunt you like they haunted me. The blog will see you on Monday, and I probably will too.

'He is a master sculptor of music and lyrics which are notable for their imagery, grace, lucidity and aptness of phrase. A wonderfully overwrought blend of vocal histrionics, rock cliché, extended metal noize, pop sensibility, baroque eroticism, and visual vulgarity is the hallmark of his songwriting, arranging, and production work. Inspired primarily by the styles of Wagner and Spector, Jim Steinman the innovator proves over and over that he is far more than the sum of his influences. He is the premiere artisan of the "Epic Rock" style of his generation and the father of the "Power Ballad". He is to Hard Rock what the late director Alfred Hitchcock was to the thriller movie. He demands that his subjects hollow themselves out in much the same way as the Italian film director Federico Fellini insists that actors are and should be the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world. In this sense, Steinmans' not simply a songwriter or a producer but a director of theater. He is a non-conformist in a industry dominated by the predictable. He is an intelligent virtuoso boiling over with fresh ideas, explosive music and biting commentary. He is blending old and new schools of theater and rock and then taking it one step further. He is Jim Steinman. If God made albums, they would probably sound a lot like Steinman's.'-- collaged

'Most people don't like extremes - extremes scare them. I start at 'extreme' and go from there. [My songs are] anthems... calls to action, cries against passivity, initiations by fire, doorways flung open, altars uncovered.'-- JS

'I think rock and opera are probably closer to each other than to other musical forms...Rock and opera both make huge gestures, they're both about extremes in content and form. Each puts incredible physical demands on a performer. And each of them has a great mix of the sublime and the ridiculous, heroism and humor. Seems to me that people's barriers to enjoying both have more to do with sociology than actual music and performances.'-- JS

'To me, all good rock 'n' roll is I think by definition political. Rock 'n' roll at its best is about breaking down barriers, going past limits. If music can make a pulse go faster, make a heart beat stronger, that's in a way a political act. In a world full of cripples, the only pure revolutionary act is to get up and dance!'-- JS

'I disagree that music's only role is pleasure, that's just a by-product. Its main role for me, like all the arts, is to provide heightening and amplification. It should intensify everything. I think music should be like plugging yourself into a Marshall amp, it amplifies people, it amplifies images and allows people to see they can be amplified themselves. I think it allows people to see that there's more volume and feedback and sound inside them than they think, plus it allows them to see more volume and intensity around them.'-- JS

'It's been written that my music's violent, even though it's not a violent as a lot of other music, I think it's 'emotionally' violent. I just always thought that when treating love and sex in songs, it was pretty appropriate to treat them fairly darkly because they're pretty dangerous things. Sex and love are dangerous and good...'-- JS

'Sex was never "safe." In sex you reveal yourself physically and emotionally - and that's fucking dangerous.'-- JS








1977: MeatloafParadise by the Dashboard Light





1981: Jim SteinmanSurf's Up





1981: Jim SteinmanThe Storm/Love and Death and an American Guitar





1983: Bonnie TylerTotal Eclipse of the Heart





1984: Fire Inc.Nowhere Fast





1984: Barbra StreisandLeft in the Dark





1985: Hulk HoganReal American (Hulk Hogan Theme Song)





1986: Bonnie TylerHolding Out for a Hero





1987: Sisters of MercyThis Corrosion





1989: Pandora's BoxGood Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere Else)





1990: Sisters of MercyMore





1993: MeatloafI Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)





1995: Bonnie TylerTwo Out of Three Ain't Bad





1995 Take ThatNever Forget





1996: Celine DionIt's All Coming Back to Me Now





1997: AnastasiaIn the Dark of the Night





2002: Opera BabesVittorial





2005: The Everly BrothersA Kiss is a Terrible Thing to Waste





2006: MeatloafIn the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King






*

p.s. Hey. Today, Mr. James Hodges, a trusty, silent (thus far) reader of this blog, has taken over the curatorial and booking duties of my ongoing gig posts on this one occasion in order to focus on the celebrated and calibrated bombast that forms the meat and potatoes of the producing/ songwriting/ performing auteur Jim Steinman, and, as an admirer of Steinman's big, self-conscious, pomo pop constructions, I am proud to sit in the wings today. See what you hear and think, thank you, and gratitude galore to you, James. Otherwise, beginning a little later this morning, the next short of phase of prepping and filmmaking on Zac's and my part will commence, and here's how I estimate that will affect the blog. My best guess is that a full p.s. is unlikely for tomorrow, but that depends on as-yet unknown factors re: not only a possible early morning meeting with our producers but also the early morning arrival in Paris of my visiting nephew and whether he will need me upon getting here or not. So, maybe a p.s. tomorrow, and a quick, short one, if so. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will be shooting all day and evening, and there will be rerun posts and pre-programmed 'howdy' style p.s.es on those days. After that, things should return to normal here until the next scheduled shooting period in mid-August. ** Kier, Hi, K. I'm certainly glad to hear that your friends from work turn out to be sharp, enlightened types. You rule. That's all there is to it. End of story. ** Thomas Moronic, Greetings, Thomas. No prob on the absence, and you're back with an amazing bang. Thanks for investigating the dead businesses. Yeah, strange melancholy there. Individually, and vis-a-vis the sheer number and pace. All of those closings have only been since January of this year. Lovely that you found the gig helpful, and that you were into Dominique's work. And the slave sonnets are weird beauty incarnate, even on the quick scrolling read necessitated by my imminent need to dash off to film rehearsals. Your poems too, wow, and I'll definitely savor them properly later tonight if my brain isn't too dead. Thank you! How's the new Morrissey? Evian Christ is really interesting. I'm not a Kanye West fan, but he can have a sharp eye for interesting artists to coopt sometimes. Right, about the Merzbow/Xiu Xiu collar. Me too, duh. Yeah, 'AG:RC' is my favorite XX album in a long time. So great. I, of course, am fully cognizant of Mr. Salerno's genius, yes. He's the cameraman/ cinematographer on Zac's and my film, as you no doubt know. Everyone, here's Thomas Moronic: 'If anyone wants to see the beautiful artwork that Michael has given me for my new book, Skeleton Costumes, they can have a look at the Kiddiepunk website or at the Goodreads page for the book which is here ...' ** David Ehrenstein, Morning, sir! I look forward to seeing/hearing Ms. Leibowitz pontificate. Always a joy. Everyone, re: this past weekend's dead NYC businesses post, Mr, Ehrenstein recommends you supplement that experience by watching this video wherein the sublimely sharp, funny Fran Leibowitz gives her take on what's happened to NYC. ** Tosh Berman, Yeah, the turn over in New York is really startling. There's something kind of amazing and exciting about it, but that requires an emotional detachment from what NYC used to represent, and that's hard. I'm going to do an LA post of that sort, or a section of LA one, and I'm curious to see if the pace of closures there is similar. I would guess not maybe, but the ranginess of LA almost might make the disappearances less noticeable, and I'm curious to find out. Thanks for the thumbs up on the new Eno/Hyde. I'll going to get it. ** Sypha, Hi. I didn't find 'MD' boring, that's for sure. Intensive descriptions of seemingly mundane things is kind of a fetish of mine anyway. ** Steevee, Yeah, the bleak aspect is bleak. And you're relatively right there in the thick of it. ** Nicki, Hi, pal. Sounds really grim in the UK. I don't think that precise thing is happening here in France. There's kind of an elaborate, admirable worker protection system/tradition here, relatively kind and humane relative to the kinds of cut-throat tactics I'm used to, at least. You finished the first installment! I will find the first free time in my next crazy busy four days to sink my teeth (?) into that. Awesome. Excited! Everyone, here's Nicki with something you really should do and read as soon as your schedule allows, and I would suggest now, even. Nicki: 'I have finished the first installment of my Thramsay-Cooper-inspired (c)lit! (Or that should probably be 'Sick Chick Fic'). I've just read it through and - although it starts off a bit shaky, and it isn't really a thoroughbred Thramsay - I kind of love it. My overarching plan is to do an MSM horror-porn in reverse but beyond that, I have no idea. Anyway, for anyone who's interested, it can be found here. (Don't say 'fnar' at the title - it's an unfortunate and unintentional double-entendre but fitting for a Thramsay).' Yay! ** Marilyn Roxie, Hi, Marilyn! Always really, really nice to see you! Oh, wow, that's great news about you starting at SFSU! In photography! I'll be really fascinated and happy to hear how that goes about the work you do there, if you ever feel like clueing us/me in. I'll go hear Space Funeral as soon as I get the first free minute. Thank you! ** Jeffrey Coleman, I peeked in one your writings to Sypha, if you don't mind, and thoroughly enjoyed them while making notes. Thanks! ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Sombre is a good, apt word. What are your impending projects? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli. Yeah, I want to. And before the Charles Ray show is down, although all this film stuff makes getting away pretty nigh on impossible. But I'm going to try. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. What is an electronic dictionary? Wait, I'll google it. Like pre-internet electronic? LA used to be pretty okay as far as having small fix-it stores, and I think that's probably still true since LA doesn't have that real estate crunch problem that NYC has. Of course in Paris there is no shortage of very old, funny, helpful little shops like that. ** Misanthrope, Hey. Oh, I don't know, I think jokes are the equalizer among communication possibilities. We're all equally shallow and deep when we tell or hear them. Maybe. Long, slow things are definitely up my alley, that's true. How dare you accuse me of being ass-centric! I challenge you to a duel! It's true that for every closing noted on that site, there was an opening of a business very like the ones that closed, except in the cases of the really old businesses whose function has basically become obsolete. Those are the saddest closings, I think. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Costa Mesa, wow. That wow is only because I haven't thought about it for a while. I used to go there a lot to do something I can't remember. Well, I hope she has a nice away time there, and I hope that absence does that 'heart grow fonder' thing. Listening? Mm, I've been into the copeland album. I had a track from it in the last gig post. And this and that, random tracks. My weekend was okay, complicated. Long story short, one of the performers Zac and I were counting on to be in the scene we're shooting on Wednesday flaked out, so instead of doing the normal rehearsals today and tomorrow, we have to figure out how to revamp the scene from a two-person thing into a solo scene. I'm sure we'll figure it out and that Zac will make something great from the situation, but it's stressful. That was kind of the 'highlight', ha ha, of the weekend. Oh, and the people who put out 'Gone' were in Paris, and I had a nice visit with them and got my copies of the book at the same time. Anyway, have a swell Monday, and I'll do my best to as well. ** Okay. Dig the gig today. Maybe I'll be back with the p.s. tomorrow, I'm not sure. In any case, you'll get a very happy post in the morning, as you will see. See you asap.

Hi everybody, I’ve waited a long, long time for this day. Thanks to all of you here who have inspired me, but most of all, thanks to our grandmaster Dennis, who has provided us with his modern-day salon, a place for artists to hang out and be our often weird selves. I’ve learned a lot from being here, being welcome here—and Dennis has taught me respect for all kinds of people and their different points of view. And that’s an important theme in my novel, being published today: the different points of view, the different perspectives that we all have:


















In a nameless town and a nameless country, THE SECRET OF THE RED TRUCK tells the story of Micky, a possible schizophrenic who finds God, his sister Viagra, a sensitive beauty who finds art, and a hot truck driver, Dave, who finds himself in a dangerous predicament. Through their misadventures and ensuing love triangle, our anti-heroes search for the answers, all hidden in the back of the Big Red Truck. If you think you know your mind, think again—but don’t think too hard. You might lose it after finally discovering…THE SECRET OF THE RED TRUCK.




“Writer extraordinaire Kyler James”
    — Dennis Cooper, author of THE MARBLED SWARM et al.


“Kyler James takes on time, madness, religion, incest, art and Freud in this allegorical novel with a mystery at its center so compelling, you’ll read it straight through. Nothing is what it seems and only the Red Truck has the secret! This is not like any book you’ve ever read or will ever likely read.”
    — Trebor Healey, author of A HORSE NAMED SORROW


“THE SECRET OF THE RED TRUCK is a one-way trip beyond the limits of reality. In this really great novel, where everything is alive, Kyler James weaves a unique grasp of love and trauma through crystal-sharp prose, to shatter everyday illusions and caress the damage into a new way of experiencing the world.”
    — Paul Curran, author of LEFT HAND


“THE SECRET OF THE RED TRUCK is built like a hall of mirrors, filled with constantly shifting identities, tales that change in the telling, and dreams that seem to be dreaming themselves. The novel is stripped of distractions and narrative niceties so that readers will be helpless to do anything but plunge headlong into its intoxicating mysteries.”
    — Jeff Jackson, author of MIRA CORPORA


“Sanity and truth are relative terms, and in this compellingly bizarre debut novel, Kyler James lures us inside the dark caverns of one man’s twisted mind—and makes it all seem real.”
    — James Gavin, author of IS THAT ALL THERE IS?:
The Strange Life of Peggy Lee





















*

p.s. Hey. Today we get to celebrate the dawning of the first novel by one of our very own, if that's not too trumpeting and possessive to say, and hopefully not, i.e. writer/mystic/d.l. and all around fine, uber-talented fellow, Kyler James. He has put together this special and exclusive way in, and please enter and party down in view of Mr. J accordingly. Thank you! And great thanks for the golden opportunity, Kyler! So, my plan today is that I'm going to start the p.s. early and in a most un-coffeed-up state, warning, and I will get as far as I can before I'm called away. And I'll be moving along quickly, sorry. So, if the p.s. cuts out before I reach everyone's comments, I will restart the next full p.s. that I have the opportunity to write wherever I left off. Unless I wake up unexpectedly early tomorrow, there probably won't be a real p.s. on that day or on Thursday, which are the film shooting days, but you never know, and I'll do my best. ** Kier, Hi, Kier! I know, it is cool about my nephew, and if I have to bail out of here, it'll be because he has disembarked successfully from his 6 am arriving plane and needs my immediate assistance. Cool about the house painting prep. How's the scaffolding? My pal Zac is kind of obsessed with scaffolding, and I seem to have been infected. Cool and thanks for restarting 'Godlike'. Have a super swell day! Are you going to be part of the painting crew? ** Jeffrey Coleman, Hey, Jeff. More over-Sypha's-shoulder fascination and pleasure, thanks! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. Thanks for liking/thanking Mr. Hodges and his handiwork. ** Sypha, Hi, James. Ditto re: what I said to Jeff. ** Nicki, I only got to dip into the beginning of your story, and I'll hopefully get a full-length incorporation before the day ends, perhaps, but I thought the writing was really sparkly and electric in this cool way I didn't expect. More soon. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi. Nice Meat Loaf story. 'Strange new mood': that's interesting. I'm very curious. This week will be a heavily occupied one, but everything looks good. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. How's stuff? What are you up to at the very moment? ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. I looked up electronic dictionary, and now I understand. I used to know people who had them, and that was pre-internet, so I guess I was wondering if they had been popularly replaced by cellphone/internet/google. Sort of like thesauruses. I used to carry a little thesaurus with me everywhere. ** Steevee, Hi. Don't know about that Orchestra Luna thing. I'm sure James does. I do know about the band. One of the songs in the gig was a 'Streets of Fire' thing. Really glad to hear that the pain is vamoosing. ** Gary gray, Hi, Gary. Really nice to see you, man! Being extremely busy has its charms, yeah. I'm there. I'm not giddy about the Death Grips break-up, but I think it's super canny of them. It's fascinating to me how so many people don't seem have a clue about they've been doing. That speaks to their strength, I think. Haven't heard 'Screenshot', no. The new Swans is something I'm strangely way behind on getting to know well. Wow, that experience you had. No, I don't think I've ever had anything like that happen to me, or not when I wasn't on a hallucinogen. A boyfriend, cool! Your three word characterization made him seem interesting/ admirable. The DMT-enhanced Death Grips are quite a curious interview subject, thanks no doubt in no small part to your brain. I'm making this film with my genius friend Zac. That's mostly what I'm doing, It's a lot. And writing my novel. The blog has never had a Front homosexuel d’action revolutionnaire day, no. Why do you ask? Welcome back! ** Misanthrope, Yes, George, a little filming is in the cards that I have been dealt. I've won every duel I've ever fought, just so you know, and, just so you know, the reason I've won all of them is because I've never fought one, unless heated arguments count, in which case, my win/lose ratio is a mixed bag. ** Kyler James, Mr. James! The superstar of the hour or, rather 24 of them plus eternity. Thank you for so kindly and lustrously birthing your book here, sir. The blog is the honoree. I'm glad the link to RS site will make sense. Yay! It's your fucking book's birth day, man. Enjoy every living thing about today, okay? Okay. ** Rewritedept, Hi. No, still no Christian Fitness. My time has been completely zonked from the outside. And from the inside too. So, CF and many other things are awaiting me in the wings, wherever the wings are. 'Gone' looks very good, yeah. They did a very nice job, I must say. Unrequited love is such a toughy. It is really good for writing, though. And books live longer than most beloveds. Anyway, yeah, sorry the crush has caught up with you, but, yeah, milk the wordage out of that sucker. Thanks about the filming. It should go way more than okay, I think. We'll see. Thanks! ** Okay, I managed to get through that before my nephew managed to buy the sim card that will allow his US phone to dial my French phone. Get into Kyler's book and its celebration please. I probably will not p.s. at you again until Friday morning, but, you know, you never know. The blog will see you tomorrow no matter what.

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p.s. Hey. Semi-surprise maybe, I have a little time before I head off to the film shoot today, so I thought I would do this. Not sure about tomorrow yet. ** Nicki, Hi, N. Thanks a ton for your good words to Kyler. Ha ha, that's pretty happy. There's nothing happier than a gif in my book, especially that one. I'm excited to read further in your tome, probably on Friday when I get a shooting break. Thanks! ** David Ehrenstein, Howdy, Mr. E. ** Kier, Yeah, he loves scaffolding. Oh, I'm not sure enough about the appeal to detail it, but I'll try to remember to get him to blurb his excitement today and let you know. He has the most amazing brain in the world, so it's probably a real big, complicated interest. With Cody, I guess we'll just hang out and look at stuff. Yesterday we did crepes at the famous 'best crepes stand in Paris' (they're huge, which I think is the 'best part) and ate pizza at his cool pizza place called Pink Flamingos that has these kind of trippy pizzas like an Indian food-themed one (Cody's) and an 8 cheese one (mine), and we walked around in the mostly rain, etc. You mailed me my thing? Oh, thank you, thank you! I'm very excited! You're so great! ** Kyler, Hey! I hope everything went happily on your end yesterday! The world is permanently richer now. I guess I did surprise you in addition to surprising myself? I hope we find a wolf too. It's all about whether we can convince the producers that it's an important enough 'prop' for them to pay for it. Not sure. Finding and pricing one is one of many imminent duties. ** Sypha, Oh, gosh, you didn't seem to be overly nerding-out about Kenneth Grant. It was super interesting and nothing but a learning experience. Yay about the possible future Grant post. That would totally amazing, of course! ** Gary gray, Hi. Oh, I think their influence will be felt. What they did may be only fully understood and appreciated in dark, intelligent corners right now, but that'll change. I think I posted something from that Gaahl interview here on the blog back on my Gaahl day way back when if memory serves. One man's dysfunction can be another man's source of wonder or whatever they say if they've ever said something like that. Your guy sounds cool, for definite sure. Enjoy, and let the love take care of almost everything, and trust it, man. Yeah, take all the time you want if you want to make that post. Thank you! You can always make it French or partly French or whatever. This blog has a lot of French readers, and I'm sure they would find that very refreshing. Boomeranging good vibes to you! ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul! How are you? Things with the filming are great. The usual headaches and stress around getting things prepped and paid for and all that stuff, but it's been really fantastic so far. What are you doing right now? ** _Black_Acrylic, Very sweet about the YnY reunion. Your agenda sounds kind of mouth watering. That Germany/Brazil rout was ... I don't know. Exciting, I'm sure, but I didn't watch it, even though Germany is my 'please don't win' team. But how about that Netherlands crew, man? ** All right, that happened, cool. Now, please take this old post to your hearts or to wherever else appropriate within the context of you. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow. The blog will.

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The set of texts and images below was originally built as a series of individual daily posts for my blog, the purest of treats. But as soon as they started to appear I realized, a little too late, that they didn't quite fit into my blog's particular structure.

Hopefully they'll work better here. Please join me in gazing through the still-dripping glass at these marvelous images.






"des mouches éclatantes / Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles"

Insect-verse. Rimbaud's poetry is the music of the swarm: quick and repeated agitation or vibration, a force field of unassigned frequencies ominous or lulling depending upon the context, resounding, resonating:

Des fleurs magiques bourdonnaient. Les talus le berçaient. Des bêtes d'une élégance fabuleuse circulaient. Les nuées s'amassaient sur la haute mer faite d'une éternité de chaudes larmes.

[Magic flowers hummed. The slopes cradled him. Animals of a fabulous elegance wandered about. Clouds gathered on high seas made of an eternity of hot tears.]

The immediate effect of the verb bourdonner (hummed) is a crowd effect, the multiplication of voices. Here the vague murmur of the flowers combines with the pluralization of all the nouns, the accumulation of the clouds, the repetitive movements of rocking and circulating, to culminate in the image of the high seas, whose waves, already multiple, dense and moving, are further broken down into "an eternity of hot tears." At each step the emphasis is on the multiple: each of the limitless number of drops that make up the sea made palpable by its individual identity as a separate tear.

from The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune by Kristin Ross






APRÈS LE DÉLUGE (After the Flood)

As soon as the idea of the Flood had subsided, a hare paused among the sainfoins and the swaying bellflowers, and said his prayer to the rainbow through the spider's web.

Oh! the precious stones that were hiding, —the flowers that already looked around.

In the filthy main street butchers' stalls rose, and barges were tugged toward the sea rising up in tiers as in engravings.

Blood flowed, at Bluebeard's, —in slaughterhouses, —in circuses, where the seal of God whitened the windows. Blood and milk flowed.

Beavers did their building. Glasses of black coffee steamed in the cafés.

In the still dripping big house with glass panes, children in mourning looked at the marvelous images.

A door slammed, and, in the village square, the child waved his arms, understood by weather vanes and cocks on steeples everywhere, under the glittering downpour.

Madame *** installed a piano in the Alps. Mass and first communions were celebrated at the hundred thousand altars of the cathedral.

Caravans departed. And the Hotel Splendide was erected in the chaos of ice and of polar night.

From that time, the Moon heard jackals howling through the wildernesses of thyme —and ecolgues in wooden shoes grumbling in the orchard. Then, in the forest, violet-hued, burgeoning, Eucharis told me it was spring.

Gush forth, pond; —Foam, roll above the bridge and over the woods; —black palls and organs, —lightning and thunder, —rise up and roll; —Waters and sorrows, rise up and release the Floods again.

For since they have vanished, —oh! the precious stones burying themselves, and the opened flowers! —it's a nuisance! and the Queen, the Sorceress who kindles her coals in the earthen pot, will never be willing to tell us what she knows, and what we do not know.

Arthur Rimbaud

translated by Enid Rhodes Peschel (and slightly modified)






"The banner of bleeding meat on the silk of the seas and of the arctic flowers; (they do not exist)"

The entities designated by the text of the Illuminations are essentially indeterminate: we do not know where they have come from or where they are going, and the shock effect is still more striking because Rimbaud does not even seem to be aware of this indeterminateness, and continues to use the definite article in introducing them as if there were nothing odd in this. The precious stones, the flowers, the main street, the stalls, the blood, the circuses, the milk, the beavers, the glasses, the big house, the children in mourning, the marvelous images, the caravans: these objects and beings appear (in "Après le Déluge"), one after the other, without our knowing anything about them, and without the poet noticing our ignorance—since he speaks as if we were informed.

Those devices which are supposed to keep a discourse coherent—anaphoric and deictic pronouns—are here used to the opposite effect. "Magic flowers buzzed. The slopes cradled him": who did they cradle? Or consider "this personal atmosphere," and "the embarrassment of the poor and the weak over those stupid plots!" ("Soir historique"): but there has been no previous mention of plots or atmosphere.

Rimbaud sometimes proposes two very different terms, as if he did not know which was more appropriate, or as if the choice were unimportant: "a minute or entire months" ("Parade"); "a small carriage abandoned in the woods, or rushing down the path" ("Enfance v"); "in bed or in the meadow" ("Veillées I"); "lounges of modern clubs or rooms of the ancient Orient" ("Scènes"); "here, anywhere" ("Démocratie").

Rimbaud has a very pronounced tendency towards abstraction, and this is made clear from the first sentence of the first poem: "As soon as the idea of the Flood had calmed down..."; it is not the flood but the idea of it which subsides. Rimbaud prefers abstract nouns to others. Not monsters, not monstrous actions, but "all the monstrosities violate the movements...." In the same poem ("H") there is not a child who observes, but rather someone "under observation by a childhood." The sea is not made of tears but of "an eternity of warm tears."

adapted from "A Complication of Text: The Illuminations" by Tzvetan Todorov






SOIR HISTORIQUE (Historic Evening)

On whichever evening, for example, that the naive tourist finds himself withdrawn from our economic horrors, the hand of a master animates the harpsichord of the meadows; people play cards at the bottom of the pond, mirror evocative of queens and favorites; there are saints, veils, and threads of harmony, and legendary chromatisms, in the sunset.

He shudders at the passing by of the hunts and the hordes. The play drips on the stage of sod. And the confusion of the poor and the weak over these stupid plots!

In his slavish vision, Germany raises herself on scaffolds toward the moons; the Tartar wildernesses light up; ancient revolts stir in the center of the Celestial Empire; on stairways and armchairs of rocks a little world, pale and flat, Africa and Western lands, is going to be built. Afterwards a ballet of well-known seas and nights, a worthless chemistry, and impossible melodies.
The same bourgeois magic at all points where the mail transport deposits us! The most elementary physicist feels that it is no longer possible to submit to this personal atmosphere, mist of physical remorse, whose ascertainment is already an affliction.

No! The moment of the sweating room, of the seas raised up, of the subterranean conflagrations, of the planet swept away, and of the ensuing exterminations, certainties indicated with so little malice in the Bible and by the Norns and which it will be granted to the serious person to inspect. —Nevertheless this will by no means be a result of legend!

Arthur Rimbaud

translated by Enid Rhodes Peschel (and slightly modified)




"One can never depart for liberty from a train station."

Perhaps no one understood so well as Rimbaud the futility evoked by that aphorism of the flight of the bourgeois tourist from what was his own creation. This can be seen if we turn to one of his last poetic works, "Soir historique" (Historic Evening).

The shifter "our economic horrors" establishes the present historical moment of the poem; the simple tourist is indicated precisely and by the whole rhetoric of vision and theater—the spectacle—which dominates the poem up to, but not including, the final paragraph: mirror, chromatisms, drama, stages, "before his captive vision," and so forth. The spectator in the poem is "withdrawn from our economic horrors," as befits a tourist who has fled the workplace for leisure; but the rest of the poem will erode the possibility of such a withdrawal.

It soon becomes clear that it is a whole spectacular panorama of world history that is being displayed before the tourist's captive vision. The tour guide's weary formulas ring out in the opening paragraph's revival of a waning aristocratic or feudal stage set: favorites and queens, hunts and hordes, you have saints, veils, etc.

The flood of geographic names in the third paragraph announces the triumph of the bourgeoisie. Rimbaud presents this triumph less as a movement of social homogenization than one of spatial homogenization, for while the rise of the bourgeoisie is indicated by a vertical, ascending topography (Germany goes scaffolding up, deserts light up, stairways, etc.), all this upward effort and energy results in a chilling spatial platitude: "a little world, pale and flat,""the same bourgeois magic wherever your baggage sets you down,""a ballet of familiar seas and nights, worthless chemistry."

It is as if in the face of the monolithic force of bourgeois spatial conquest, the social upheaval—the "event" announced by the title—could only be played out on a global scale. If administrative rationalization, if a total colonization of all social and cultural relations eliminates the possibility of exercising freedom, then nothing less than an apocalyptic reversal of this fate and a cataclysmic break in the continuum of history can set an emancipatory dynamic in motion.

Rimbaud's reply to Mallarmé's fetishization of the poetic text, best summed up by the latter's famous dictum "The whole world is made to end up in a book," occurs in the last line of "Soir historique": "There will be nothing legendary about it."

adapted from The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune by Kristin Ross






[all images except the last via Agence eureka]
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p.s. Hey. There's another late enough start re: the shooting today that I can do this, albeit swiftly. ** Nicki, Hi. Thanks, pal, glad you liked the composites. Oh, I don't feel obliged. I'm pretty good at spotting and warding off the obligatory. Wow, cool about all the hits. 'Desire is terrifyingly precise': huh, that's interesting quote. I think maybe, as a believer in confusion as the center and source of practically everything, I believe something like the opposite. But I think terrifying precision is a really good way to start thinking about representing desire. Wow, really fantastic thinking aloud about the nature, impulse, and face of your Thramsay writing, and of course re: the external/internal elsewhere. I'm going to reread that with a complete brain once I'm awake and have less than one leg conceptually out the door. Thank you for that! ** Bitter69uk, Hey! Nice to see you. Cool! ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul. Yeah, the thrill totally outweighs the stuff it takes to get there, for sure. Wonderful about the Canary Wharf show. I'll see if there's any evidence or pointers online. Strange how having a book born can change the bearings on one's writing in this fundamental way. Yeah, best to go with the influence for now and see where you lead yourself and how the abandoned things starts to look after the new direction becomes clearer. You never know. Such a weird, cool process. Thailand with the kiddo! Nice! Love to you, P. ** Sypha, Ha ha. 'Police artist composite sketches of 30 people who still read books in the 21st century'. High five on the jury duty avoidance. ** David Ehrenstein, That's very interesting and true observation, wow. ** Kier, Hi, K. Yeah, good pizzas at that place. If you ever come visit Paris and me, I'll take you there. I think yesterday that Paris in the rain started to get a little old. And it's raining still. I hate summer profoundly, but it is July, and this is a bit strange. I haven't seen 'Smiley Face', no. Let me know how it is. I'm not a huge Araki fan. Did the Netherlands win last night? I haven't had time to check yet? ** Steevee, Hi. Yeah, the Indian pizza was fully vegetarian. National Front members in France have been fined for hate speech numerous times. There have been two prominent NF politicians in court for that in the last few months. It just doesn't make the news outside of France because, unlike Varg, they're not known outside of France. ** Kyler, And again today I'm hurriedly here for better or worse. ** _Black_Acrylic, Oh, so the Netherlands did lose last night. That's sad. Definitely 'go Argentina' for me in that final match up. ** MANCY, Hey, S. That does feel creepy, but, since you won't be there 'forever', I guess there's a particular resonance there you can use your work maybe? I guess that's how pragmatic me would try to use it. Thanks about the post. Yes, right, about the copeland album? Cool. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. That's really interesting about the fatigue. Yeah, that's really true and very strange. Nice eye you've got there, pal. ** Okay. I'm off to the film set. Today I give you this really nice, wondrous old post made by the recently quiet but always prized d.l. Alan. Enjoy. See you tomorrow.