*
p.s. Hey. Fwiw, I made this post at the height of my sickness. On the downside, it might be a bit more ragtag than my usual stacks. On the plus side, it has some particularly trippy, intricate stuff going on in there if you spend time with it. In grander scheme of things, who cares, it's just a blog post, I guess. ** Misanthrope, Twinkdom remains within your grasp, should you seek it. I, alas, have the choice between being 'as is' and being wizened. My ring is at your ready. Oh, yeah, I do kind of remember that woman's question. No, the vast majority of people will never get it or don't want to, and I'll never be past the point of caring, but I'm almost as resigned as I can be. New theories are wonderful weapons against resignation, so tell me someday, yeah. I don't think there were any actual amphibians hidden in that post, but I can't be absolutely sure, so trust your instincts. ** Billy Lloyd, I did indeed. As did Yury. Your work is going to be the LSD in the world's water supply, man. But I guess acing college is important too, so, yeah. Sadly, the Disneyworld Toad ride is no more. It was replaced with a Winnie the Pooh ride, apparently, which is just shocking. So, you should go to Disneyland/LA instead for all kinds of reasons. Bon day! ** Kyler, Ha ha, awesome. That scene on the train is my favorite part of the musical. Oh, yeah, Iowa Writers Workshop. Is it still cranking out almost nothing but conservative stuff? It seems like you don't hear about it as much as you used to. That's probably just me. Oh, okay, I'll go watch that clip to see my almost-mother sing then, and then I'll probably get suckered into the totality, you just watch. ** Bill, Mr. Toad is still there in Disneyland and just as sublime as it ever was. They only retired the Disneyworld derivation version. Haunted Mansion is still there. Just don't go between Halloween and Christmas when they completely fuck it up annually with a banal, stupid Tim Burton makeover. Glad the Carlsen photos stuck. Cool. How's everything going down there? ** David Ehrenstein, I don't remember that about 'Wind in the Willows'. I don't think I had any gaydar yet when I read it, not that I have much gaydar even now maybe, I don't know, ha ha. ** 5STRINGS, Moscow? Tread lightly if you go there. It's kind of hellish on earthish. Freud, what a dork! You watched a lot of stuff. 'The Pianist' ... the Polanski one? Yeah, ugh. Still have never seen 'The Dreamers', weird. I don't really like Michael Pitt, but that shouldn't stop me. May your day today catch the virus of awesomeness. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Oh, aren't you nice. Above the Weather? That's news to me, I think. I'll go listen. Others should too, I reckon. Everyone, it turns out that Rewritedept has a second band in addition to the legendary one that shares his name, and they're called Above the Weather, and you can go hear what they sound like right here courtesy of bandcamp. Join me in this discovery? Oh, crack, the miracle drug, the prayers' answerer. Very cool about the Anderson post, man, yeah, awesome, thanks! Oh, I just got far enough down in the comments to see that you've gotten sick. Dude, hugs. Mine sucked. It's still not completely gone yet even. I hope yours lets you finish your book, obviously. That would be an almost nice flu. ** Heliotrope, Mark! Wow, my post opened the sweet floodgate right there, nice. I sort of remember the topic of Toad arising on our conversations when we were young, now that you mention it. Me, I hardly remember the book. I read it too young, maybe. I remember the illustrations. Who calls you Marquee? Can I call you Marquee? Too bad, if not, 'cos I'm going to. So, I think you're probably in Joshua Tree now, and how fucking fragrant is that idea. Man, obviously, have the great time to which you are destined. And I guess, being me, I'll concentrate on the positive bit of your physical diagnosis. We'll hike, you and me. From my LA pad to a restaurant. Can't wait. Assuming that I might not see you until your shoes are full of sand, how was great was it? Love from me! ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. Nope, I haven't checked Paris Grindr. I've never been into hook-ups. Weird, I guess. For me, it's almost always been either falling crazy in love or prostitutes. If I check Grindr, it would just be to study the way horny people signal each other. Maybe I will for that reason. Yeah, I see the cut-up thing, yeah. I'm digging it. I hope you got the sleep that your body was asking you to give it. ** Steevee, 'Cold Water' is great too, yeah, totally. Okay, I have not seen any of those three films you mention, so they are where I'll start. Thank you very much, Steve. I think I might very well be able to find those books at the bookshop of the Cinematheque, which is a very good store, no surprise. Oh, I was interested to see you mention Kôji Wakamatsu on FB 'cos tomorrow's post is about five of his relative contemporaries, and he's only not in there because I spaced on him until I saw your mention. ** Will, Oh, man, thank you, really! Disneyland is worth the lines. It's just being there that's a lot of the pleasure. Plus, they have this Fast Pass thing so you can evade the lines on some of the more popular rides. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Ha ha, yes, very nice about Toad's dandyism. I like your beginnings of an idea. Seems like more than just the beginnings. Yeah, promising. Let me know how it develops. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Oh, yeah, after mentioning that '7 Wonders' thing, I googled to see if my list was online anywhere, and it isn't. I don't remember all of them. The ones I remember: Charles Ray's 'Rotating Circle'. Zion National Park. I think Robert Pollard. Hm. I'll call my pal Joel, with whom I made the list, and see if he remembers. I actually ended up making the Kevin Ayers post yesterday, so it'll be here, uh, not next week but at the beginning of the week after. I don't know that Pete Townshend album. Is it recent? On The Who? I think 'A Quick One', 'The Who Sell Out', and 'Live at Leeds' are pretty much total genius. Not so into 'Tommy'. 'Who's Next' is obviously great, but I've heard it a billion times too many to feel much for it anymore. I do have a big fondness for the sort of later Who album 'The Who By Numbers' 'cos it's so emotionally raw and stripped back. ** MANCY, Oh, right, the mysterious and intriguing collaboration. Still ultra-interested to hear more about that when the time is right. Are you still enjoying school? Are you getting enough inspiration for and helpful feedback on your work there? ** Sypha, Yeah, maybe a big early teen or something. It is a little hard to believe a frog could do that, so your parents probably did ease your pain. One of my dogs, Abby, when I was really young suddenly attacked and bit a friend of mine, and the dog had to be taken away, and my parents told me that the police liked the dog so much that they made him a police dog. I guess it was a nice lie. 'Nightwood' isn't really that lengthy, is it? Maybe I'm forgetting. ** Bill P. in Chicago, Hi, Bill. Yes, spot-on thinking there about the ride. You should ride the Disneyland one someday. Its subversiveness is something, and its form is complete perfection. Weird about that De Vito thing. Weird that he would call himself Hanksy. I can't wrap my head around why he would have chosen a moniker so deliberately rip-offy, although I guess it's probably why people pay initial attention to his things. Strange. Van Akroyd?! Is that how your spell his name? This Hanksy guy is quite the card. Everyone, do you want to go check out stuff by this Chicago street artist Hanksy that Bill P. discovered the other day? Well, you can. ** E., Hi, e.! Oh, sorry about your terrible morning, but how cool that Toad circumvented it. So, Pitzer remains Pitzer, it sounds like. It was kind of less like going to school than having do school 'chores' every day before you could have fun. I wonder what dorm he's in. I was in Mead Hall. There was this one dorm whose name I don't remember that was the arty/druggy dorm. I don't know. Memories, weird. I think I saw your email in my mail box this morning as my eyes were beginning to part. Thanks! I'll go read it. I saw that Bangladesh concert movie in the theater when it came out. Watching it again is a very intriguing idea. Hunh. I might just do that. I hope your morning today is so great that it doesn't need to get turned around at all. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh. No, that thing in Metazen isn't representative of the rest of the book, or even of the section that it's from. It's hard to explain. If I ever finish the novel, and right now I'm thinking I might not, you'll see. Thanks. I think I will go see that 3D 'Chainsaw' thing. 'Not too bad' is enough with horror movies for me. Thanks. ** Slatted Light, Hi, David! Late 19thC? Yeah, I see what you mean. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You're a handy fellow to have around. How many times have you been told that? Infinitely, if there is any justice, which, of course, there isn't, alas. The secret Mickeys thing is kind of important discovery relative to Disney's artistry and the push-pull that it creates amongst its fabricators or something. Anyway, so pleased that you seem to have liked it the way I like it. I do like Tarantino, yes. Not having seen 'Django' yet, I'm intaking both the criticism and the raves but backgrounding them. I don't know what to do with analysis that doesn't come from experiencing the film itself. I resist that, for better or worse. Yeah, hm, I don't think we're on the same page about Tarantino. Your read is very interesting and complex, of course, but it doesn't register with my thinking about his work at all. I don't really see it as any more reactionary than all all kinds of things I'm in interested in to one degree or another, or else that aspect doesn't offend me. But I can't remember the last time I thought of a film or book or music that I thought was problematic due to its being reactionary. Yeah, I don't know, David, I just don't find the things that bother you about his work to be problems for me. I guess I find those problems to be interesting to think about and study. I think maybe I'm interested in having an initially personal relationship with art, and if it slaps me in the face, I think about why it does, and then I contextualize it to try to find out why, and Tarantino's stuff is devised in a way that sometimes interests me a lot. His gamesmanship is what I concentrate on. But then, you know, I like the present. I don't think it's completely shitty or shittier than the past. I just think it's a mess of the awful and of the awesome that's to be worked with and worked on like always. Or something. I don't know. Yeah, the George book is the problem. I'm still in the middle, the non-fiction part, near the end of that part. I don't know the exact problem. I think it's a huge, complex problem, both due to formal stuff that I'm very uncertain about, and, far more, an emotional problem, meaning writing it put me in one of the darkest places emotionally that I've ever been in my life, and it's very hard to make myself go back there, and, if I don't go back there, the book will die. So, I don't know. I suppose I'll go back there. I suppose it'll just happen. But the challenge I've created for myself with this book could be too much for me to handle. That's possible. I don't know. Anyway, it's always such a great pleasure and honor to have you here, man. Love, me. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. You should go to Disneyland. Really, you should. Go with me sometime. I'm like the Roland Barthes of Disneyland, in my own mind anyway, ha ha. Paris has Disneyland Paris, which is actually pretty great. At first I thought it was a bad Disneyland knockoff, but then I got the Frenchness of it, and it's actually pretty cool. The other Paris theme park is Parc Asterix, and it's actually really good and fun too. Man, I read your eBook yesterday 'cos someone linked to it on FB or maybe on Alt Lit Gossip. It's really, really beautiful. I love it a lot. You should do more in that form, if it interests you to do that. Not only was the writing and form and everything fantastic, but it feels really fresh and magical. I really, really, really like it a lot. Everyone, Chris Dankland has issued this new eBook, which is a kind of video eBook, called 'please please please, don't get your goddamn heart broken'. It's hard to characterize, but, whatever, it's really fantastic and beautiful, and I so very highly recommend that you click this and check it out. You honestly will be so glad that you did. Man, really, such good work! My hat is so doffed to you. I haven't watched 'Mumblecore' yet. I know, it's so true about the infectiousness of Tao's voice. His influence is pretty unbelievable. Anyway, I'm going to go watch 'Mumblecore' today. Thank you a lot for mentioning it, and, for, well, everything. And, again, serious kudos on the new eBook. Pretty amazing. ** Okay. I hope you like my apocalyptic stack. See you tomorrow.