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p.s. Hey. If you haven't yet gotten your animated Xmas tree gif this year, feel free to grab one off my lot. You're welcome. I'm going to take Xmas Day off, so I'll see you again on Friday, and have excellent Xmases, okay? ** Scunnard, Howdy. I'm pretty sure my Xmas will be such a non-entity-like thing that the gaskets in my head will remain in whatever their normal working conditions are. I mean, I wish something would blow. Do yours up, though. ** David Ehrenstein, The law of averages says that I will probably if not surely give Henry James a try again someday. It'll just take some mood as yet to be determined. Bonnest of Xmases! ** Tosh Berman, He did, didn't he? KD, I mean. Glad you liked it. Have a really sweet, productive tomorrow! ** Bill, The airport? Where are you off to now? All the way across the world again? Oh, I've wanted the new Stephen Graham Jones myself. Congrats. I hope your Xmas has a very pleasant amount of bells ringing in its background. ** Steevee, If you check it out, let me know. It's too complicated to try to watch it from over here. Sucks about Earthlink. I honestly didn't know they were still in business for some reason. ** Sypha, Hi, James. That's okay, I figured you were work-swamped. Hugs re: the toll that's taking on your health. I guess tonight must be the last of the heavy stint? Oh, yeah, you said it is. '700 pages to get the plot in motion', ha ha. Between '700 pages' and 'plot', I'm never, ever going to contemplate reading that. Wow, about the Norman Mailer. In theory, that is a truly horrible combination: Mailer snd 'La Bas', but hey. And in the 70s, Mailer still sort of had it going on creatively, so ... Curious. New Nick Land, cool. Thanks. I'll look into it. Merry Xmas! ** Magick mike, Hi, Mike! ** Keaton, Jeez, you must have figured out an amazing google search term to be able to compile that particular Xmas array on your thing. Pore over it, you know I will. Okay. Everyone, if you like your Xmases ... what would be term ... not transgressive, but ... well, definitely transgressive, but that term so ... something, tired, spend an unforgettable few minutes of your Xmas being visually and psychologically in league with Keaton's 'Shaking Your Presents'. NSFW, etc. Wow, who needs a Buche? The Paul McCarthy thing was wild, I guess. I'm telling Kier about it below. I think it's more fun to make up the conversations I hear around me here, or that's my defense. A pear! I don't like fruit that much, but I love pears! Sweet! You get out there too! Warmest Xmas tidings! ** _Black_Acrylic, Merry Xmas, Ben. Oh, the Paul McCarthy was interesting, intense. I guess I should say what I'll say about in the Kier slot. Fine tuning, yes. There's always that. Still, it's so close I can feel it knocking on my brain's door. Cool. ** Kier, Hi, hi! Gorgeous, gorgeous photos! Everyone, go look at some stunning photos Kier took in mystically gorgeous Bardufoss, Norway. Here and here.'The animals bit': I like that. The words, the thing that springs to mind due to that choice of words. Your day(s) were cooly busy and great sounding. I don't remember about 'Three Nuts for Cinderella'. What a strange title. So, it's like the Norwegian way of spending Xmas watching TV like the 'Wizard of Oz' is in the States? I'll see if I can see something of it. Oh, yesterday. I did some work, okay. The rough cut of Scene 4 is proving to be kind of controversial among those couple of people who've seen it, loved a lot and then really not loved a lot. So there was some contemplation about that. I walked around. I talked on the phone. Then I did the Paul McCarthy talk thing. It was intense, really intense. I thought it would be kind of just be me talking about the LA art scene and about my experiences with Paul and stuff like that, but the interview was 90% about me and my work, and the guy was super into trying to pry me wide open about what I do and why I do it, so it felt like I was being aggressively psychoanalyzed in front of an audience. It was very, very weird and disconcerting, but interesting too, and people seemed to like it a lot, but, wow, I was not expecting that at all. All the talk events re: the Paul McCarthy show are being transcribed and published as a book, so I guess I and whoever else who wants to see what it was like can someday. It felt like a total blur at the time, and it still does. Then there was a small 'power dinner' afterwards. Gisele came, thank god. And it was, like, the head curator at the Pompidou, a curator from the Musee de l'Art Moderne, some philosopher I didn't know, some big wig from Canal Plus, and other people, most of them really nice. Italian. I got out of there as early as I could, though. It was late then, and I slept. The End. Tell me how Xmas Eve and Xmas were for you, okay? I'll try to do something interesting. Big love, me. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli. Cool, glad you liked it! I'm, like, the only person in Paris who hasn't gotten a bad Xmas cold, it seems like, knock on wood. Enjoy Berlin! No doubt! Really, that's weird about the new blog entrance. I'll go see if I can find out what that's like. ** Cal Graves, Hi. Oh, cool, Mike Patton, nice. Everyone, yesterday's post brought this to Cal Graves's mind. I'll make a concerted effort to find a stream or torrent or something of 'The Innocents' by tomorrow morning. Whoa, that question is weirdly huge, gosh. So many ways to go. I want Terrence Malick to call me up or email me or something and say, 'I want to make a film of your novel "My Loose Thread". The financing is in place. The deal is set. It's all ready to go. All you have to do is say, "yes".' What do you want for Xmas? ** Misanthrope, G-ster. I do not, I repeat, do not want to be fisted by Zuckerberg or by anyone else for that matter. So keep your password to yourself please. You need sleep, I need coffee. What a world! Merry Xmas, George! ** Hyrule Dungeon, Hey, man! Really great to see you, pal! Everything's up with me, and it's cool mostly. Yeah, excited about the gif novel. I'm very cool with it. You did tell me about your press, and I've been excited ever since. 'Game fiction', very nice. I've read so little. Hardly anything, it's weird. Some porny 'Link' stuff. I can't remember what else. I didn't see that headline, but I followed that Slenderman thing back when the girls were arrested. Very fascinating, even though I have no idea what Slenderman is. well, I know a little, the barest basics. I do know about Creepy Pasta. I've been wanting to spend a lot more time there. God, I hope I never stop feeling like every book teaches me how to write a much better book. That's for sure. That would be the end. Having fun outside of the fun of fiction writing is good. And missing writing is nice and very useful to the writing too, to a point. You know I recommend living in LA. LA's vastness allows for that singular phenomenon of which you speak. No, it's true. Amazing place. I don't know that band, thank you. I'll let it accompany whatever it is I do after I do this. Hey, man, really, have a great Xmas! ** Rewritedept, Oh, right, tail wind. Duh. I'm not the pet type at all, but I get it completely, I think. I'm incredibly not ready for the move, no. I'm hoping I can make them give me some more time. I haven't even thought about it, I've been so busy. No, there are not cool neighborhoods in Paris where rent is cheap. Definitely not. I'm staying here in Paris, though, whatever it takes. Uh, ouch. I mean, about your, you know, balls. Happy Xmas and Eve! ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! Xmas joy to you! I know about the collab., and I know Michael is psyched and excited, and, from what he's told me, it sounds way amazing. Ooh, your stories in that collection also sound incredibly exciting! The way you described IC-B's prose not only makes sense, it's kind of revelatory. Absolutely yes, I agree! Beautiful! I love Steven Milhauser. He's one of my very favorite American fiction writers. What are you reading? Yeah, I love his work a lot. ** So, yes, I hope your Xmases do everything you want them to do. Truly, sincerely, hopefully. I'll figure out what mine is going to be and then do that, and I will see you in, what, 48 hours, roughly? On Friday.