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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. Thank you so much again for yesterday's amazingness. Being allowed to put the blog's signature frame around it was a privilege. Success is such a slippery target. It means so many things, many of them contradictory. In that sense, everything is perpetually under review, I guess. Which is nice, actually. Oh, wonderful, you've written on 'Cemetery of Splendour'! I can't wait to read that! Everyone, the man responsible for yesterday superb post, Mr. David Ehrenstein, has written a thing about Apichatpong Weerasethakul's work, and, in particular, about his newest,'Cemetery of Splendor', which is a really amazing film if you haven't seen it. Go here aka Fandor and be enlightened, please. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Schnitzler's fiction is pretty amazing, yeah. David's post made me intend to read more of him asap. I've never read his full length novels, for instance, only the stories and novellas. Have you? Thanks, and have a very swell weekend. ** Bill, Hi. Oh, joking. That's cool. It was a highly percolating experience to imagine what that could mean and entail re: your work, and that was big fun. Hooray for tapering. The opposite re: your computer scare. Oh my God, that's scary. Whew! Do you have enough time off this weekend to, err, get off? In any sense? ** Dóra Grőber, Hi, D. Ah, dreaded exams and their prioritizing. But Tuesday isn't so far off. I hope the exams go incredibly well, obviously! I only glanced at the site so far 'cos I was work-bound yesterday, but more this weekend, and I'll pay special attention to the comments. Awesome. I'm very happy you like what you found of Scott's work. Yeah, he's great. The texts for the new film are happening. They're no fun at all. They're schmoozes, basically, to get money from the moneyed. They're a log-line (paragraph-length film description), a synopsis (which is supposed to be about 2 pages long, but, at least in first draft, ours is close to 8 pages because everything in the film happens in the details, so you can't rush over them. Possibly a problem), a text where we have to explain why the film needs to exist and why we're the people to make it (incredibly ugh on that one, as I'm sure you can imagine), and bios. No fun. But necessary, apparently. My day was pretty good, mostly work, although Zac and I zipped off in the evening to this great annual experimental/electronic music festival Presences Electronique where we saw Puce Mary, who was absolutely incredible, among others. I hope your weekend isn't too overcome with exam-related stress and brain overactivity! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Oh, damn, about the rescheduling. Man, your frustration is very appropriate, as I don't need to tell you. I don't know the circumstances, obviously, but, really, these endless seeming delays are kind of ridiculous. If what I understand is correct, yeah, he has work to do, but, seriously, it seems like he could do it in less than a day very easily. I don't know. It does seem like it's more than high time to put some real, hopefully seductive rather than counterproductive, pressure on the guy. So sorry, man. I can only imagine how much that sucks. ** Steevee, Hi, Steve. Yeah, actually I've been listening to the new Cave of Anti-Matter album, and there's a track from it in the next gig post on Monday. There are a few tracks I quite like, and I think it's more interesting than the earlier CoA-M stuff, but in general I think there's still something ... I don't know, kind of middling and too settled about it or something. I haven't heard that new Laetitia Sadier yet. I love her and her voice and her lyrics, and I will for sure give that a listen. It sounds very intriguing. Thanks a lot for your tips and thoughts, man. ** Misanthrope, Hi. The one with the bubbly surface ... oh, the Hiorns? Huh, do you have a bubbly surface phobia? Would a bubble bath be like waterboarding to you? Ha ha? I didn't know that people don't automatically put passwords on their phones. That's interesting. Your three things list was like a very fine poem. Since none of the actual incidents were life threatening to you, I'll praise them for having inspired you to type. Sucks about the glasses, though. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Awesome about the Butoh show. Is there a revival of interest going on re: Butoh? That would be an excellent thing. What a sublime form when at its best. Well, I would say that in France you do get films operating in the mainstream, by which I guess I mean having actual wide theater releases and strong press attention, which would be considered experimental in some core way. Noe, sure, although, yeah, 'Love' was awful. Grandieux, Carax, and a number of others currently making films. I mean the new/last Akerman is in wide release in France right now. There is no doubt that 'LCTG' is facing the problem of being a challenging film in an unconventional way, yeah. In terms of getting it shown in the official channels that pre-release films are expected to travel, i.e. festivals. We're getting some excellent gigs for the film, but mostly by going around the festival circuit and approaching independent venues that host interesting films. So, anyway, yeah. When I try to think of American filmmakers who are making work from a thoroughly experimental place, I tend to end up in the art world, like I said. I mean, the first one who springs to mind is Ryan Trecartin who I think is kind of an incredible genius, but his work is entirely enclosed within the visual art context. And it's actually really strange, nonetheless, that I don't believe I've ever seen a serious piece of writing about his work in a film-only context. I think that, considering his talent and the fact that his works are very easy to think about as experimental films, he's a perfect example of the schism we're talking about. Hm, no, I don't think I have an understanding of why the great majority film critics have lost the interest or even ability to see form and content as wholly unified. I think that's at least to some degree true with literature as well. I don't want to diverge, but I think that's why my 'The Marbled Swarm', with a few amazing exceptions, was so vaguely addressed and understood by the American critics who wrote about it. Music is the only medium I can think of where exploratory criticism still exists on a fairly wide basis. In France, you don't have that same problem regarding film criticism, or not to the same degree. I don't know. A very interesting phenomenon, but I don't quite understand it. Do you have thoughts on what that might have happened? My back's improvement is too gradual to make me very happy, but, on the other hand, I am worlds better than I was last week. ** Okay. This weekend I made a literary gif work for Zac and for you. I hope you will enjoy it. I hope that, whether you do or don't, you might consider saying a little something in its regard. But if you don't, no problem, I'll be friendly and polite to you like I mostly always almost am. Ha ha. Have good weekends. See you on Monday.