Hui Cao
Cao Hui
Alessandro Puccinelli
Hui Cao
Alessandro Puccinelli
Cao Hui
Hui Cao
*
p.s. Hey. A mysterious reader of the blog named Jamison Davey read my call for guest-posts and sent in what you see today without a word of explanation or a self-identifying sentence. I think it's a puzzle. I think in the process of figuring out. Want to try? If you do, or if you don't, I hope you'll enjoy the thing, and I send my thanks to Mr. or Ms. Davey, whoever you may be. Otherwise, I'm back from Amsterdam, obviously. I had completely amazing trip. People asked about it, so I guess I'll talk about it to whatever degree down below. First, I'll return to Chris Dankland's comment from Thursday as promised, and then I'll catch up in general. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. Did you write your 'wiki' piece? I'll go check your blog a bit later to see if it's up. 3am Magazine was a pretty key site, yeah. Still is, although it just has richer surroundings now. There were people publishing chapbooks online pre-Alt Lit, but it was pretty rare, and there was still the big 'loser' stigma about self-publishing back then, so you didn't see it so much, or you didn't get the kinds of alerts and directives to them that you now do. What you say about the current state of self-publishing seems really right and wise to me. I think you're right about Heiko Julien's ebook being a kind of turning point of sorts, or it seemed that way to me too. The macro thing seems quite new. There were collage works made before, with Photoshop or handmade then scanned, but they were usually illustrative rather than a thing made within the idea of the macro being a literary form. Basically, everything you say about the influence of Twitter and web/page design makes complete sense. I haven't read the Grizzly Bear article yet, but I will. Anyway, not such fascinating answers, but the dialogue is great, so I'm happy to talk with you about this in an ongoing way or whenever you like. ** Friday ** Scunnard, Late happy birthday, man! I hope you had to the fight escorts off. ** Misanthrope, It is worrisome, sure. Being disempowered sucks. Next week or this week for Rallo? Bring it on! ** David Ehrenstein, Top of the Monday to you, sir. ** 5STRINGS, Drag pageant, so ... how did it rate? You didn't flunk, I bet. Wedding? Wow, that's a lot of contrast going on there. ** Rewritedept, I like all the Replacements up through 'Pleased to Meet Me', but, for me, they never topped 'Let It Be'. I'll try to do a Replacements post of some sort, okey-doke. I'm not sure if I know what or who Mr. Show is, but you can make a post about them/him/it, yes, awesome. Awesome too about the mix. I'll go get it look. It's looks great in the list. Everyone, Rewritedept made a mix-tape that he kindly wishes to share with all of us. The tracklist is too long to repost in this context, but the mix is full of unexpected goodness in very numerous forms, so I say get it in your ears. Do that here. ** Wolf, I'm not surprised that the Toefl was a toughie. Yury failed it three times back in the day. Ironic, yes. Not that Yury failed it, I mean about what you present as ironic. I only got a skimmy my read on the meteor thing 'cos I was doing Amsterdam, but, among your multiple choices, I pick Ben_Davis19 as the power behind its throne. Big surprise. ** Bill, Yeah, didn't call ahead to the iLLUSEUM, which, yeah, turned out to be a big mistake, but it was nice enough peering in its windows. Did your scrambling pay off in post-deadline champagne swilling? ** _Black_Acrylic, Great news from the physio! Great, Ben! The MK show is incredible. Quite a large show. The late work upstairs was particularly incredible, not just because I hadn't seen most it before. Yeah, I think it's a really stellar show. You'll be very happy. I was extremely fortunate to get to see a couple of Mike's very early performance works. "Monkey Island' and another one, but I can't remember its title for the life of me. More on Mike as/if you like it. ** Billy Lloyd, Hi, Billy. Hm, did it work out with the friend you though might be suitable to help with the visual design? Did you dance and make out with Italians or their exotic equivalent? One so hopes so. Anyway, let me know how your Saturday and Sunday paid off. ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. Trip was incredible, thanks. I wrote about Mike and interviewed him a bunch, and there is one conversation with him in 'SiH', yeah. No, I don't think I have much loyalty to the Valentines Day brand that I can think of. It's no big deal at all over here, so it was easy to miss. ** Un Cœur Blanc, Hi! He did and was, I agree. ** Grant Scicluna, Hi, Grant. My pleasure on the stacking front. Excellent, excellent news about how well the meeting went, man! That's so great! Hm, well, if that 'A Herd' film thing is in my archives, I must have known about it at one time, but I honestly have no memory of that whatsoever. Weird. It must have happened back in the time when 'A Herd' was first published, so in '81 or '82, and, yeah, I don't remember a thing. Curious. ** Saturday ** _Black_Acrylic, Howdy! ** James, Hi, James! Really nice to see you! The Amsterdam visit was heavenly, thanks, but I didn't see your sensi comment in time, oops, but I might be going back up there ere long, and I'll make a note. ** Bitter69uk, Hi, man. Glad you're on the Tuesday Weld track. Oh, yeah, the Chet Baker hotel. I lived in Amsterdam for 2 1/2 years in the '80s, so, yeah, seen the place and the plaque. Thanks for thinking of my complicated pleasure. ** Unknown/Pascal, Hey! I recommend 'Play It As It Lays'. Probably the best film she ever appeared in, and possibly her greatest performance. Very sorry to hear about your mum. I hope she's so much better really soon. I'm doing great, thanks! I did get the SY zine, yes, thank you so, so much! It's really awesome! Hope things are going splendidly for you in every way that is allowable. ** Rewritedept, Not so busy really. Or not busy with the p.s., I mean. Yeah, Shadow Morton died. He did a lot more than just write 'Leader of the Pack'. He was one of the truly great auteurs of 60s rock. A major guy. His work with the Shangri-Las as a writer and producer is up there with most genius rock ever made, I think. RIP. I talk my weekend up just a few lines down. It was extremely awesome. Why Fort Collins? What's there? The other places I know and understand why in theory. My favorite Van Sant is 'Paranoid Park', I think. ** Postitbreakup, Thank you for talking to the folks, Josh. And a big, gigantic whoo-hoo on the job thing! Yes! And you start today? No, a week from today, okay. You should let yourself have a happy, celebratory week. You way owe it to yourself. ** Bollo, Really, the work in your show looks so incredible, man! Pretty blown away, even through the filter of jpegs. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T! My trip to Amsterdam could not have been better. I went with my dear friend Zac, and we saw the amazing Mike Kelley show twice -- it's really something and does his work proud. We went to this very weird museum out of town near the town of Leiden called Corpus where the building is in the shape of a giant sitting man, and you basically take a tour through the inside his body. It was trippy and weird and great. We went to the Amsterdam Dungeon, this touristy high end spooky house, which is actually really good. We saw a bunch of art and different things, and we had great progressive talks about art and the respective projects we're working on. We saw a lot of stuff, too much to list. Zac is my favorite person in the world, and it was inherently just so great to spend the time with him. I've come back very inspired and revved up, so, yeah, it was an amazing trip. Thanks for asking. And, obviously, if you could put together guest-posts, I would be thrilled and super grateful. Love to you, man. ** Pilgarlic, Hi, man. You're a Weldhead, cool. She rules in numerous respects. The coffeehouse situation there is the same as ever. Every street has one or ten of them, and nothing has changed at all. The 'news' about them being restricted seems to be a totally unfounded rumor, as far I can tell. ** Steevee, Hi, Steve. How was the Ruiz? ** Statictick, Hi, N. I'm so very sorry for your great loss. I'm so, so sorry to hear that. Major hugs to you. At least that's very good news about Hebb's enthusiasm. It would obviously be a total boon if Dynomoose wanted to reenter our fray. Very cool that you and James have connected so well! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. The Mike Kelley is going to NYC -- I don't know which museum -- and to MoCA in LA. I'm not sure if it has other stops. Mm, favorite Haneke ... maybe, even though it might be an odd choice, I liked 'White Ribbon' the best, off the top of my head. ** Sypha, That's a lot of Bowie. A lot of good Bowie. I wouldn't rush to get the later New Order albums. Severely diminishing returns after 'Technique' to my mind. ** Chris Dankland, Hey! Amsterdam was incredible, thank you. You're talking Robert Pollard! Happiness! Yes, a bunch of the early GvB songs are inspired by his teaching days. Most famously, 'Gold Star for Robot Boy', but a lot of them are in different ways. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. No, I don't think about that. About readers expectations re: 'the extreme', etc. I know that people associate me with that kind of content and presentation, but, no, the expectation has no bearing whatsoever on what I write. I don't feel obliged at all, and nor does it feel like a burden to me when I'm writing. When I read reviews that keep referring to me as the extreme writer guy, that can feel like a burden, but only in regards to the hassles my work has being received. But, when I'm writing, that stuff never crosses my mind. Did you think it would? ** Okay. We seem to be caught up and on our way again. Check out the thing in front of your faces today, make what you will of it, and I will see you tomorrow.