*
p.s. RIP Johan Cruyff, Garry Shandling. ** H. Hi, H.! Thanks a lot for the great response to her work and to Ben's post! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. Well, on the day of the Brussels attacks, it was notably more quiet and stressed on the streets and in the metro, etc. Things started feeling more 'normal' yesterday. Ever since the attacks here in November, the security in Paris has been much higher and more obvious. When you go into museums or clubs or department stores or even big supermarkets here, you now get checked upon entering. And, in the train stations and bigger metro stations, there's a visible police/military presence. That's become normal, and I think it gives people a generalized confidence to some degree. But, and I don't know if it made the news over there, but yesterday a supposed imminent attack in Paris was supposedly foiled and some people arrested. So, it's an ongoing thing. But, you know, everybody is just getting on with it, and Paris is no less wonderful a place to be than it ever was. Let me try again to see if anyone here is going to the 'LCTG' showing. Everyone, if you who are reading this plan to go see 'Like Cattle Towards Glow' at the Sesion Continua festival in LA on Saturday, please consider giving the eminent Mr. Ehrenstein a lift. He also has some privileged information about the showing that will make your giving him a lift even more desirable than it already is. So, if that sounds good, please contact Mr. E. at his email address: cellar47@yahoo.com. Thank you! ** MANCY, Hi, S. Thanks. Very soon. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Well, writing itself involves a lot of juggling, so writers have that skill inherently maybe. Cool, I'm curious to see how your blog changes, for sure. The DVD of our film is out in Germany. The one for the US, UK, and France comes out in the summer. Oh, I didn't end up going to the zoo, sadly. My friends whom I was going with ended up having to do other things because they're going away for Easter today and had to pack and so on. But we're going early next week know. So all is not lost. It sounded like you were going to have a most pleasant day. I just ended up working and juggling, ha ha, yes, some stuff to do with our film. Quiet but okay. Today will be more social and external, I think, so that'll be nice. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! Yeah it went really, really well! I'm very happy! Thank you again so much! I was chuffed to see that she saw and liked and shared the post on Facebook! ** Steevee, Hi, Steve. Oh, cool. I'm interested in that Johnny To film, obviously. Everyone, Mr. Steve 'Steevee' Erickson has written a piece on Johnny To's film 'Office', which is getting a limited US release in 3D (!) albeit only in NYC at the moment. But, no matter, even if you're not near there, it's definitely a film to read about, and Steevee is the best doorway. Go here. The early stuff by The Body was maybe possible to categorize as 'sludge', even though that's kind of lazy, but they've evolved into a much more artful project over the years. ** Jamie McMorrow, Hi, Jamie! It's a very fine thing to see you, sir, and thank you for speaking about SLB's work and to Ben. I hope you're doing really well! Love, me. ** Sickly, Well, howdy, man! Oh, mm, send me an mail (dcooperweb@gmail.com) or a message at Facebook today and I can answer that question. So nice to see you! ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Uh, hm, I wouldn't say off the top of my head that SLB seems custom made for Gisele's work, no, mainly because Gisele needs performers who move to be incredibly strict, but then again I'm not Gisele. I'll send her a link to the post. Who knows. Wow, yeah, intense outcome on the shooting incident. Very sad. I'm sorry you had to see and then feel that. Hang in there as only you, George the man, can do. ** Brendan, Hi, B! How nice that 'Conference of Birds' brought me to mind. It's weird but I've totally lost interest in them, or I mean in their newer work. I should revisit that. 'The Witch' doesn't even have a release date in France yet! We've been grouching about that over here. I don't know what the fuck is up with that. It has opened pretty much everywhere in Europe except here. Yeah, I really want to see it, for damned sure. Yay, the 28th, awesome! Give me a heads up just before then if not even far before then. Greatness! I'm really glad you're painting, B. Paint on! ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Thanks a bunch for talking to her work and to Ben. My week's been pretty alright, all things considered. I of course don't know 'The Golden Legend' or those other books at all. I'm a super novice about everything Christian, even the great stuff like you're reading. Weird, don't know why, especially right now when you've made it sound so very interesting. Huh. Maybe I'll get it. Yeah, maybe I will. Mm, the fairytale thing. You know my new novel has a big fairytale thing, but what I ended up deciding to do is, rather than getting into reading all the different kinds of fairytales, sticking pretty much to studying Hans Christian Andersen. And the reason is kind of perverse because I find his writing very clunky and flat, which really surprises me given that it's writing intended to fire the imagination and given that it obviously has done that very successfully since his fairytales are massively famous and influential. So that got me fascinated with trying to figure out how his stiff, kind of weirdly rushed and uneven prose could work so well. So, that's basically the model I've been thinking about, and it's interesting enough that I haven't searched elsewhere very much in my attempt to figure out the fairytale form and how to adapt it. So, yeah, I can't even say that I recommend his work given its seeming problems. It just seems to speak to me for some weird reason. I don't know ancient Satanic or black magic books. Actually, a friend who's in Paris at the moment is way into that stuff, and I'm seeing him this weekend, so I'll ask him. And let me ask everybody. Everyone, Chris Dankland asks ... 'I’m curious if u or other ppl on the blog know about any ancient Satanic or black magic books? I’ve been hunting around for those a little bit, especially for medieval & ancient manuscripts. I started reading The Satanic Bible by LeVey & was pretty disappointed by that…it’s kind of corny imo. That book feels much more ideological than mystical to me, & the writing didn’t really hook me much…have u read any LeVey, do u have any opinions on him?' Can you give him some feedback on that. That would be great! I tried reading LeVey a long time ago, and I thought it was awful and dumb, honestly. Super great and exciting that what you're reading is generating so much excitement and inspiration. It does not get better. Yeah, I'll be very happy when politics as it's currently being played out retreats from so many writers' places and feeds. It's not that politics is uninteresting, obviously, but I just see the same arguments and viewpoints being said or yelled or shared over and over and over without much if any deepening or progressing. It just seems like this big fight that's stuck on the surface and is basically just using politics as an emotional excuse. That has gotten very tiring to me. But enough about that. Anyway, you sound so great Chris! That's so very good to read and to hear! Have a knock-down, drag-out great Friday! ** Okay. I made a new literary gif work for Zac and for you. I'm pretty into it, but what do I know ultimately? See if it's of interest to you. I hope so. See you tomorrow.