Here – let her speak for herself.
(French and Saunders and Dusty)
Now let her sing for herself (more or less.)
(“A House is Not a Home” Dusty Springfield)
(Dusty Springfield “Bits and Pieces”)
(“Sometimes Like Butterflies” Dusty Springfield)
(Dusty Springfield “A Brand New Me”)
(Dusty Springfield “Come Back To Me”)
(“I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten” Dusty Springfield)
(Dusty Sprngfield “The Look of Love”)
(Dusty Springfield “Haunted”)
(Pet Shop Boys / Dusty Springfield “What Have I Done to Deserve This?)
(Dusty Springfield “Nothing Has Been Proved”)
(Christine Keeler 2013)
And finally. . .
(Definitely Dusty)
*
p.s. Hey. Postmeister David Ehrenstein is back to wield the power of the blog slot in a most sharing style. Today, he almost wordlessly turns your attention to the sublime songstress Dusty Springfield via some of his video picks to click among her oeuvre. The idea is to place your fingertips on the indicated triangles and let her wash over you, I think, and I suggest that you do just that. And then type related stuff in our comments. Thank you. And thank you a ton, Mr. E. ** les mots dans le nom, Hi. Oh, I actually them before and after fun. Well, not that life isn't continually fun, 'cos it is, but I mean Japan was a reading break. Best of luck with your busyness. Mm, cold soba, yum. Thank you! Have an excellent Wednesday. ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you so much "in person" for wisely and generously foisting Dusty on us. Yes, RIP: Pete Seeger. I met him once when I was about 15 at a big antiwar rally in LA, and he was, as everyone always says, incredibly nice and inspiring. Only about three or four of the photos in that post were by me. The rest were found. I used my iPhone camera. ** Marilyn Roxie, Hi, Marilyn! That makes a lot of sense about your motivation to cam, yeah, and of course I'm really happy to hear that it's helping and working, and that there are some fragile twinks whom you are helping and vice versa. That's really cool, Marilyn! Thanks a lot, and big respect to you. ** Torn porter, Hey. Yeah, we'll sort out a meet up. My weekend's a bit work-filled, but there'll be room, for sure. Cool. Penny Goring is doing really interesting work, yeah. Really pushing it and pushing it very curiously and well. 'Jerk' is playing in Japan soon, yeah. Gisele's work has been shown there a few times, and hopefully more times to come. I'm not going down there for that show, but Gisele gets to tag along, or, rather, I guess the piece gets to tag along with her or something. We didn't check out the gallery scene while there. We tried to figure that out, but it was hard. There doesn't seem to be a very organized online way to figure out that world/scene, at least in English. The Japanese artists I've talked to say that, in fact, Japan, or its government, is not very supportive of artists and art making at all, outside of supporting museums and large institutions. At the same time, everything there seems infected and formed in some way by art and developed aesthetics. Weird. See you soon indeed. ** Sypha, Yeah, right after I typed that I wished I could play 'Metal Gear Solid', I remembered that it involves heavy fighting, and I changed my mind. I would like to watch someone play it for a little while, at least. Oh, that scrapbook page. No, that wasn't related to the imitation '120 Days of Sodom' novel that I wrote and then burned. I wrote that when I was about 15, and that scrapbook was made much later. As for the three guys at the top, hm. I know the guy on the right was from a porn magazine. I think the middle guy was too. I have no idea where the guy on the right came from. I don't think he was killer, but I don't remember very well. Trivia: the boy at the bottom in the middle ("Zephyr") was, at that time, a minor teen idol who, later in his life, wrote the scores for many of Derek Jarman's films and is now a respected experimental sound/music artist: Simon Fischer Turner. ** Etc etc etc, Hi! Sailor Moon is still a real thing there. We saw lots and lots of Sailor Moon merch and stuff in our store exploring. Mm, there is something remotely LA-like about Tokyo, I felt, but really more the "LA" in, say, 'Blade Runner' than the real LA. Got your email. Hope you got mine. Nice to see you, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, Quite a terrific interview, Ben. And I thought your left eye looked just fine. The honor was mine, my friend. ** Steevee, Hi. Is the Cineaste review anywhere that I can read? Yeah, it's weird and a drag that Daney's so under known in the States. Or I guess he's known, but the chances to read him are so rare-ish. I love his writing on Bresson, of course. His writing on Bresson is what really helped me understand and fall in love with Bresson initially. ** Gary gray, Oh, well, actually, the hand thing wasn't painful at all after the initial huge ouch as the hot water smashed into my skin. So, I fear it wasn't so sexy. Sorry, ha ha. That's super weird and interesting about the praying mantis snuff sex ritual. Jesus. Nice. ** Paul Curran, Oh, right, that bar we went to after the opening. That rings a visual bell. Me too, on the books-acquiring at a distance thing, although in a much less hampered way than you. That's why I read so many eBooks and free download books these days, I guess. A really cool indie bookstore in Japan is kind of a genius idea maybe? Doesn't it seem like it could be very cool and catch on or something? I don't know. ** Misanthrope, Oh, I see. You were just exercising your notorious sense of humor, and I was rendered loutish in my response due to my notorious fecklessness or something. Hand's much better. Well, according to the dossier provided by the company that is taking us to Antarctica, there are such activities as hiking, tromping around, kayaking, visiting a research station or two, etc. I think it's about "becoming one" with the place or something. I imagine us doing a lot of nothing much or dramatic and thinking, "Wow'. I imagine it being like the opposite of being in the desert. But no doubt we'll end up going to see the penguins and seals and whatever other life is down there. ** Rewritedept, Hi. I know that unicorn mask, or I've seen it around. It's weird/good. My hand's almost okay. The weird thing about the hand at the height of its awfulness was that it was really heavy. The blister got even more gigantic than it was in those picture before it burst, and the hand was bandaged. I could type, but my track pad was very confused and acted screwy. Excellent reads you have going on there. And films. I'm sort of whatever about 'The 400 Blows', but, yeah, it's supposed to be a classic. You mentioned that Afghan Whigs have a new album. I was never into them or Dulli, so ... I don't know. I'm happy for you. Ah, ingenious transportation method, and so practical as well. ** Keaton, Technically, I don't think Japan is east of Russia, but I could be wrong, and I don't feel like checking google maps for some reason. Food's killer there, man. Hope you get some writing done soon too, natch. ** Right. Dusty Springfield has a good portion of your next 24 hours covered, if you want them to be covered. Enjoy. See you tomorrow.