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p.s. Hey. RIP: Ellsworth Kelly. I knew Ellsworth a little because his husband is my old friend the photographer Jack Shear, and, in addition to be a very great artist, he was a really lovely, elegant man. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh! I'm sorry you feel that things aren't so great with you. You always have new things to say. People generally aren't the best judge of what's interesting about them. And interest is a wide, various thing. I get you about the anxiety of your parents moving, but, being from LA, an hour away is almost like a next door neighbor where I come from. Well, I'm happy to hear from you, man. Please don't feel like stranger-ness is a good idea, unless you insist. Love, me. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Yes, I owe you a pic of my buche(s) in return, and I'll try to send those today. I think the March release date is pretty loose and optimistic, but I'm not completely sure yet. Super interesting thoughts about what constitutes 'disturbing'. I totally get that. ** Sypha, Hi. I'm really sorry to hear that you've been hit with maladies. Xmas time has a weird habit of doing that to people. I know a bunch of sick pals. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. The Sinatra bio is a funny, good choice, not that I've read it, but if I own any books that are disturbing, or that, rather, disturbed me, they would likely be non-fiction. Fiction never disturbs me, or not by the definition that James laid out in one of his comments. I never read fiction without thinking constantly about it being output from someone's imagination, and what's in people imaginations never disturbs me, I don't think. Or at least when it's been illustrated and neutralized by being turned into prose. I can't think of a disturbing example. ** David Ehrenstein, 'The Arcades Project'? Disturbing, how? Just curious. ** Steevee, Hi. A number of people picked Stokoe's books. That's interesting. I hadn't heard of 'Starlet'. Huh, I'll investigate, thank you. ** Misanthrope, Interesting disturbing books list. This was an interesting exercise or challenge or whatever. Krampus report, if it happens. Right now it seems like the plan has gotten a bit wobbly, but we'll see. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. 'Overexposed', interesting choice. I haven't looked at that book in ages. I think I will. Everyone, Attention, attention: BLUE EYES update. Get your booties, or your bootys, your choice, over there. ** Aaron Mirkin, Hi, Aaron. I did a quickie search on Jordan, and I didn't see much, vis-à-vis his work itself. I'll figure something out. Exciting project: adapting one of his stage works. Yeah that sounds very, very interesting. My collaborations: With Zac, we're incredibly attuned, so working with him is like kind of working with an exciting, inspiring, missing part of myself in a way. I'm more language oriented, and he's more visually oriented, but there's a blurring there too. With Gisele, it's more about putting words to/inside her concepts, although she gives me a massive amount of freedom and leeway, and I work closely with her shaping the pieces themselves too in an assisting/dramaturgical way. I'm lucky in that, in both cases, there's this unbroken trust and understanding that makes the processes almost like second nature. I don't how common that is. Maybe it's always the case when a collaboration really works. ** S., Hey, man. Wow, Moscow is so incredibly not cute in my experiences there. But I know people who really like the place, so there you go. ** James, Hey mastermind and host! This was an extremely interesting weekend. Wonderful job at the post-making and the interacting. Like I said to Tosh, I don't think I've ever been disturbed by a book. But then I don't really understand why people think my books are disturbing either, so, ha ha. I don't think I ever fully suspend my interest in authorship when I'm reading something, so a book is never real enough to me to get mistaken with reality. Same with movies, TV, music, whatever. There are books that have been revelatory, very exciting, instructive, and stuff like that. But I can't think of a book that has ever shaken or reinvented my understanding of myself or my world view or how I think about humans or anything. I think I'm weird. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli. Wow, thanks, I think, for picking 'The Sluts'. Sometimes I wish I could see my work from an outside point of view because I'm always surprised. I guess every writer must feel like that, though. ** Liquoredgoat, I heard a track from the new Ulver. It sounded promising. I have not heard that recent Godflesh album, no, and I have heard a lot of good about it. I'll score it. It's odd that I haven't. Thanks! ** H, Hi. Your choices were very interesting and surprising, an excellent combination. And I'm always very happy to see 'HHU' get liked in any context. Thank you! ** Bill, Hi, B. Patricia Duncker's 'The Deadly Space Between': I don't know that. I'm very intrigued. I'll get it. Awesome. I'll go read about the Tarok tribe and the tattooing. Nice coincidence with today's post, which I only now realize might feature no facial tattoos whatsoever, which is strange. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. I've never heard of 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs' before. It sounds like '120 Days of Sodom' but I guess without the XXX. Oh, I just clicked over to the illustrations and saw that you made that comparison too. Huh. I grew up sans religion, so I missed out out on a lot of possible deep disturbances, I think. Like I've been saying up above, I don't think books scare me. I honestly can't think of a book I've ever read that scared me. Maybe when I was a teeny kid some fairytale scared me, but I don't remember. Okay, maybe the closest would be ... when I was doing research for the George Miles Cycle, I ordered this series of books from some dodgy mail order business that were instruction manuals on how to kill people. They were called something really prosaic like 'The Murderer's Handbook' or something. Basically, the books contained instructions on different ways to either kill people or to torture them without killing them. It was very detailed. Like, it said if you stab someone in some particular spot on their body, they will die in roughly 'this' many minutes or seconds, or they won't, and they'll feel 'this' amount of pain, and it described what the pain would feel like to them, or it said they won't feel much pain. Etc. Those books didn't scare me because it was very clinical and I was reading them to know how to depict violent or murderous acts authentically, but it did weird me out that people who weren't just weird daydreamers and writers like me might be buying those books. Oh, yeah, I read a number of books re: making sigils when I was working on 'Guide'. I know I read maybe two, three books by this guy Peter J. Carroll, who's one of the top chaos magic guys. I know I read his books 'Liber Null' and 'Liber Kaos', and maybe others too. I don't remember reading any books about casting spells. It's an exciting idea though. I've read a ton of books about how to do magic tricks, but that's different. Those ancient Egyptian books sound amazing. Right, you were say you're in a phase of reading ancient lit. Huh, that sounds really, really interesting. Is there a book or two you can recommend? 'The Egyptian Book of the Dead'? Is that a book? And I'll google E.A. Wallis Budge. Thanks a lot about 'Period', man. 'Magical spells is a cool literary genre': wow, for sure. What a great idea! I'm working with fairytales in my new novel, which is not the same thing but is somehow connected, maybe, I think. Thanks, Chris. I hope your week has begun perfectly. ** Armando, Hi, man. Great, awesome that you've gotten someone to get you those books. The poems in 'The Weaklings' were written very sporadically over a long period of time, ten years or more, so that was such a piece-meal process that I don't think of that book as being a whole project or whatever. I think most of my stuff at Fales is open the public, yeah. I think you just have to make an appointment and explain why you want to look at them. 'The Goners' is really great, yes! ** Rewritedept, Hi. My Xmas was nothing, blah, yes. Still haven't seen the new Malick. I need to find an accompanist very quick 'cos it won't be the theaters for much longer. I got absolutely nothing for Xmas. Not a single gift. I was and am bereft. My weekend was quiet, fitful, work-filled, nothing to steak of. Love your guts too, ha ha. ** Okay. Can I just say how awesome it is to see you guys interacting here so much. It's really, really cool and heartening. As for today, well, you see what I made. That's all there is to it. See you tomorrow.