*
p.s. Hey. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Your day sounds kind of ideal. Mine was alright, fairly productive, with a bunch of film-related stuff re: its premiere that wasn't much fun at all but is apparently necessary. Fancy today! ** David Ehrenstein, Joyce Haber is a name I haven't heard or thought about since I first started shaving, I think, wow. That gush of bullshit about the new Franzen novel in the New Republic was kind of shocking. ** Squeaky, Hey! Yay for lurking! It's so gentle and yet impactful in some mystical way. Busy is good. I'm with you on that, D. Man, when/how can I see that film you made? Is it for galleries, theaters, online, all or none of the above? Sending you love in return! ** Steevee, Cool. Everyone, here's a rich and meaty looking article by Steve "Steevee" Erickson about the cinematic chestnut and landmark 1985 film 'My Beautiful Launderette'. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! Mega-thanks again for yesterday. Traffic was through the roof! Where you are sounds beautiful and cozy and remote, which are an excellent mixture of adjectives. Have tons of fun, serene and otherwise. ** Bacteriaburger, Hi, Natty! Oh, well, I'm very glad you did, both because saying hello is a joy and because, obviously, I needed to know about your new book! And so does everybody else with eyes to read. Everyone, Natty Soltesz, who goes by the name Bacteriaburger when he frequents this place, is one of the very best, funnest, smartest, etc. writers on sex, explicit and otherwise, that we have in this world of ours. Perhaps you are already, like me, a member of his cult following. If so, if not, he has a new book just out called COLLEGE DIVE BAR, 1 AM, which is cause for celebration as well as ... how to put it ... excitingly squalid (in the best sense) sensations within, but not exclusive to, the mid-lower part of the human body. Which is to say, go look at said book and then, if you want my two-cents, score it. Congrats on the b'friend! And on the imminent move. Tennessee! Wow, I don't think I've ever been there. It seems like a quiet and nice place to be. And Memphis is from there. Man, you sound really good, and it's really good to see you! Love, me. ** Etc etc etc, Hi, Casey. Thank you! It was great, and I'm very grateful. Okay, yeah, follow-up questions here are okay, obviously. First two ... 1) Rap is not a genre that I'm inherently drawn to. I mostly only check things out in that realm when I read interesting praise about some artist or if some artist is recommended to me. Obviously, there are artists in that area whose work interests me and that I enjoy and study, but I can't think of anyone in Rap whose work has been particularly impactful on my art practice, no. I've never really been that drawn to music based in storytelling, and I'm not so interested in artists who use text in music as a place to vent and as an attitude modulator. And, honestly, pop stars interest me but only as a collective thing. I can't think of any pop star who particularly interests me on his or her own. I use them in the gif work sometimes, but it's because gifs featuring them have the ability to cause the gif work's blurriness and rampaging energy to freeze and focus for a moment because of their immediate recognizability and due to the particular meaning they import about 'cuteness', artificiality, impossible to realize desire, etc. But what particular pop idols do in their music or acting or careers or whatever never grabs and effects my art making. 2) Like I said or tried to say last night, there are many ways to fuck with the inherent comedy of the gif. There's not one overall strategy because each work and sequence within the work is completely particular to me, and each causes a need to play with the comedy in a particular way. So, some sequences are built so that conflicting imagery is strangely or uncomfortably swallowed by the comedy, and others are built so that the comedy becomes a background tone that functions only as ... anything from an expression of shyness to a qualifier of what's going on in the work or sequence in an overall way. When I'm working on the gif works, I'm kind of like a jeweler with a sequence of jewels before me that need to be cut and polished, each in necessarily unique ways. I treat the gifs that use real life people and incidents in a completely different way than the fictional or abstract ones because their impact is completely different. If someone real in a gif is having an accident, say, the person in the gif really experienced pain or embarrassment or whatever else. Even though the gifs fly by the reader, those recognizably real, non-fictional gifs immediately have a more forceful impact a la news. Ideally, the viewer immediately understands that I'm not as in control of those gifs' meaning. Mixing them with fictional gifs can create a really exciting, confusing, disruptive movement and trajectory. They have to be employed carefully. About the tragic thing, generally, the gifs created using real people amidst something bad happening have already been made into comedies. That is usually the goal of the gif maker. So my interest is in fucking with, subverting, intensifying, etc. that preset tone. Okay, I hope those answers helped. Thanks again, man. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Yeah, I'm always surprised when I remember or find evidence of John Updike's support for 'experimental' European literature. Sometimes it has made me pick up Updike's stuff again to make sure I wasn't missing something, but I never have found his work very interesting. It's a strange thing, no? ** Bill, Well, it's highly possible that 'LoS' played here and that I just missed it. Especially since it has no doubt been given some French title that has no relationship to the English one. I will check to make sure, in other words. Wow! Video of your gig! Holy shit, yes! I'll watch that in a bit. Cool! Everyone, you have a really golden opportunity today to watch and hear the great artist and d.l. Bill Hsu in a recent concert wherein he made sonic and visual work with James Fei on reeds and Gino Robair on percussion. Rare opportunity, folks. And I highly recommend you take full advantage. The video is right here. ** Misanthrope, Yeah, yeah, ha ha, of course, about Morrison's impeccable everything inside you. I know what that's like. Glad you feel at least much better. On the road then, good. Well, choreographed as much as possible is probably a better way to put it. A dangerous dance piece. ** Sypha, That's funny about 'Halber Mensch'. I ended up listening to that whole album yesterday. What a hell of a record that was/is. ** Right. Today I thought it would be nice to look at a whole bunch of people, famous and otherwise, reading in black and white. See you tomorrow.