Books (fiction)
in no order
Natalie Leger Suite for Barbara Loden (Dorothy, A Publishing Project)
Jack Cox Dodge Rose (Dalkey Archive)
Joy Williams 99 Stories of God (Tin House Books)
Tobias Carroll Transitory (Civil Coping Mechanisms)
D. Foy Patricide (Stalking Horse)
Thalia Field Experimental Animals (A Reality Fiction) (Solid Objects)
Kenward Elmslie The Orchid Stories (Song Cave)
Lily Hoang A Bestiary (Cleveland State University Press)
Jeremy M. Davies The Knack of Doing (David R. Godine)
Grant Maierhofer Flamingos (ITNA Press)
Lance Olsen Dreamlife of Debris (Dzanc)
Thomas Moore In Their Arms (Rebel Satori)
James Tadd Adcox The Map of the System of Human Knowledge (Civil Coping Mechanisms)
Jeff Jackson Novi Sad (Kiddiepunk)
Zachary German Thank You (AVF Press)
Brian Evenson A Collapse of Horses (Coffee House Press)
Jarrett Kobek I Hate the Internet (We Heard You Like Books)
Szilvia Molnar Soft Split (Future Tense)
Michael J. Seidlinger Falter Kingdom (Unnamed Press)
Gary Indiana Tiny Fish that Only Want to Kiss (ITNA Press)
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00032]](https://denniscooperblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TinyFishthatOnlyWanttoKiss-389x600.jpeg)
Danielle Dutton Margaret the First: A Novel (Catapult)
Chris Dankland Weed Monks (Gumroad)
Angel Dominguez Black Lavender Milk (Timeless, Infinite Light)
Jim Krusoe The Sleep Garden (Tin House)
Gary Shipley You With Your Memory Are Dead (Civil Coping Mechanisms)
Troy James Weaver Marigold (King Shot Press)
Marguerite Duras Abahn Sabana David (Open Letter)
Matthew Simmons The In-Betweens (Civil Coping Mechanisms)
Ben Tanzer Sex and Death (sunnyoutside)
Stig Sæterbakken Don’t Leave Me (Dalkey Archive)
Lucy K Shaw WAVES (Gumroad)
Matt Bell A Tree or a Person or a Wall (Soho Press)
Books (poetry)
in no order
John Colasacco Two Teenagers (Horse Less Press)
Jane Wong Overpour (Action Books)
Jos Charles Safe Space (Ahsahta Press)
Pierre Reverdy The Song of the Dead (Black Square Editions)
Christine Friedlander Avant Gauze (Magic Helicopter Press)
John Ashbery Commotion of the Birds (Ecco)
Renee Gladman Calamities (Wave Books)
Donald Britton In the Empire of the Air (Nightboat)
Adam Fitzgerald George Washington (Liveright)
Tyehimba Jess Olio (Wave Books)
Juliet Escoria Witch Hunt (Lazy Fascist Press)
Kim Yideum Cheer Up, Femme Fatale (Action Books)
Joseph Kaplan Poem Without Suffering (Wonder)
Alice Notley Certain Magical Acts (Penguin)
Will Alexander Alien Weaving (Anonymous Energy)
Ocean Vuong Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press)
John Godfrey The City Keeps: Selected and New Poems 1966-2014 (Wave Books)
Felix Bernstein Burn Book (Nightboat)
Anselm Berrigan Come In Alone (Wave Books)
Stephanie Gray Shorthand and Electric Language Stars (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs)
Bill Berkson Invisible Oligarchs (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Joanna C Valente Marys of the Sea (ELJ Editions)
Ted Greenwald The Age of Reasons: Uncollected Poems 1969-1982 (Wesleyan Poetry Series)
Books (nonfiction)
in no order
Robert Gluck Communal Nude (Semiotext(e))
Robert Bresson Bresson on Bresson: Interviews, 1943-1983 (NYRB)
Brian Oliu I/O: a Memoir (CCM)
Sara Tuss Erick AUTOMANIAS (Good Morning Menagerie)
Melissa Broder So Sad Today (Grand Central Publishing)
Robert Walser Girlfriends, Ghosts, and Other Stories (NYRB)
Molly Brodak Bandit: A Daughter’s Memoir (Black Cat)
Janice Lee The Sky Isn’t Blue (Civil Coping Mechanisms)
Alyse Knorr Super Mario Bros. 3 (Boss Fight Books)
Ramsey Scott The Narco-Imaginary: Essays Under the Influence (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Lynne Tillman The Complete Madame Realism and Other Stories (Semiotext(e))
David Toop Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom (Bloomsbury)
Keith Morris & Jim Ruland My Damage (Da Capo Press)
Penny Goring hatefuck the reader (5everdankly)
New Juche WASTELAND (J.J.R.)
Andrew Durbin, Dodie Bellamy, Cecilia Corrigan, Amy De’Ath, Lynne Tillman, Jackie Wang Say Bye to Reason and Hi to Everything (Wonder/Capricious)
Henri Michaux A Barbarian in Asia (New Directions)
Sarah Jean Alexander Loud Idiots (Gumroad)
Daphne Oram An Individual Note Of Music, Sound And Electronics (Anomie)
Simon Reynolds Shock and Awe (Day Street Books)
Films
in no order
Kirsten Johnson Cameraperson
Chantal Akerman No Home Movie
Albert Serra The Death of Louis XIV
Bertrand Bonello Nocturama
Philippe Grandrieux Malgre la nuit
Terrence Malick Knight of Cups
Guy Maddin The Forbidden Room
Patric Chiha Brothers of the Night
Christophe Honore Les malheurs de Sophie
Steve McQueen Ashes
Apichatpong Weerasethakul Cemetery of Splendor
Benedetta De Alessi Kuo’s Eyes
James Benning measuring change
Johnnie To Three
Terrence Malick Voyage of Time
Music
in no order
Thomas Brinkmann A 1000 KEYS (Editions Mego)
Bully Fae Defy a Thing to Be (Vague Terrain)
Moor Mother Fetish Bones (Don Giovanni Records)
Katie Dey Flood Network (Joy Void)
LAFMS Box Box (Box Editions)
Puce Mary The Spiral (Posh Isolation)
Guided by Voices Please Be Honest (GbV)
Secret Boyfriend Memory Care Unit (Blackest Ever Black)
Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1-3 (Nonesuch)
Pita Get In (Editions Mego)
The Body No One Deserves Happiness (Thrill Jockey)
Frank Ocean Blond(e) (Boys Don’t Cry)
Rhys Chatham Pythagorean Dream (FOOM)
Fat White Family Songs for Our Mothers (Fat Possum)
Wire Nocturnal Koreans (Pink Flag)
Surgeon From Farthest Known Objects (Dynamic Tension Records)
Klara Lewis Ett (Editions Mego)
Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place You’re Doomed. Be Nice. (Temporary Residence Ltd.)
Burning House Anthropocene (Bandcamp)
Autechre elseq 1 (Warp)
Collapsible Shoulder e v e r y w h e r e (Bandcamp)
Carl Stone Electronic Music of the Seventies and Eighties (Unseen Worlds)
Youth Code Commitment to Complications (DAIS)
Sissy Spacek Disfathom (Helicopter)
Marcus Whale Inland Sea (Good Manners)
Prostitutes Ghost Detergent (Spectrum Spools)
Tim Hecker Love Streams (4AD)
Matmos Ultimate Care II (Thrill Jockey)
Art
in no order
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster 1887 – 2058 (Centre Pompidou)
Kerry James Marshall Mastry (The Met Breuer, NYC)
Abraham Cruzvillegas Autoconcanción (Regen Projects, Los Angeles)
Non-fiction (The Underground Museum, Los Angeles)
Vincent Fecteau (secession, Vienna)
New Juche Gymnasium (JJR, pdf)
Richard Hawkins Norogachi: Ceramics After Artaud (Greene Naftali, NYC)
Tony Conrad Loose Connection (Campori Presti, Paris)
Kai Althoff and then leave me to the common swifts (MoMA, NYC)
Samara Golden A Trap in Soft Division (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF)
Oscar Tuazon Shelters (Chantal Carousel, Paris)
Jennifer Pastor Show (greengrassi, London)
Mark Beard Safaris (Musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris)
Internet
in no order
Rhizome
Musique Machine
Max Echo
The Creative Independent
Fanzine
Entropy
Real Pants
Queen Mob’s Teahouse
dark fucking wizard
HTMLGIANT
The Chiseler
espresso bongo
nicolashaujolly
Experimental Cinema
The Wire
FUCKED BY NOISE
Keyframe
{ feuilleton }
The Los Angeles Review of Books
Solar Luxuriance
3:AM Magazine
largehearted boy
Bookforum
THE NEATO MOSQUITO SHOW
Cutty Spot
pantaloons
Beach Sloth
Tiny Mix Tapes
UbuWeb
Harriet
Open Culture
Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets
giphy
The Wonderful World of Tam Tam Books
ISOLA DI RIFIUTI
Shabby Doll House
*
p.s. Hey. So, there are my favorites from 2016 as far as I can remember, and it would be awesome if you could hit me back with at least some of your favorites from this year. Thanks a bunch. ** David Ehrenstein, I of course heavily second your kudos about Kenward’s work. And thank you for the link of Kenward singing. Someone really needs to upload the impossible to find Kenward Elmslie Visited, an album of Kenward (and guests like Barbara Cook, Elaine Stritch, Estelle Parson, a.o.) singing his songs. Do you have it? Extremely recommended, especially for Kenward’s rendition of my favorite of his songs, ‘They’. Everyone, To get the full wonderfulness of Kenward Elmslie, I highly recommend you use this link provided by Mr. E that takes you to a video of Kenward singing his song Who’ll Prop Me Up in there Rain’, taken from the documentary film ‘Poetry in Motion’. ** Sypha, Hi. That would be a bit of luck I definitely do not need. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Yes, yes, high hopes about the boy. I guess Zac will alert me when we know if the boy and his father are willing to talk with Zac on Sunday or not. Good, good, that you’ll have a bunch of quality time with your brother. Do you go visit him in Amsterdam? Maybe you’ve said before, and I’m forgetting. Sorry, if so. Well, I tried with the Tino Sehgal show at least. I metroed over to Palais de Tokyo. There was a massive line to get into the museum. I waited in it for about forty minutes. The line barely moved, so I gave up. Oh well. I ended up taking a very long walk back home, and the was nice. Yeah, when I am in a situation where Xmas gifts are a must, I’m a perfectionist about it too. I do miss the mindgames part of doing that, but I can use it on making blog posts or something. Today I need to do a bunch of work, so I will, and then tomorrow begins the rehearsals of Gisele’s new dance piece. There’s no text in the piece itself, but Gisele has asked me to construct characters for the 17 dancers and an overall, complicated narrative that they will follow, which will mostly be invisible to the audience but will create and structure their actions and stuff. The piece takes place in a dance club in some unidentified town. It starts with people entering the club at opening time and ends with them leaving the club when it closes at 2 am or whatever. The time is obviously consolidated since the piece will only be maybe 90 minutes long. Anyway, that’ll be my weekend, I think. How will yours pan out, or, I mean, how is it panning out, or … how did it? ** Jamie, Jamais! I can’t believe I’ve never used that one before. Yeah, it’s weird, every time I’m in the UK, no matter where I’m staying, there are always sites that I’m not allowed to access on my computer or whatever. Your country can be a little spooky sometimes, if you don’t mind my saying so, ha ha. Me too re: the boy actor. Yesterday I was told that we might not get the TV series answer on Tuesday after all. Maybe next week sometime. I have to say these continuing delays by the powers that be are obnoxious, not that beggars can be choosers and etc. I think when the decision comes down, they’ll tell our producer who will tell Gisele who will tell Zac and me. Then, if it’s a yes, I assume there’ll be in-person meetings with the TV channel honchos and stuff. I don’t know what an Abba-esque winter coat is, but, being a big Abba fan, I can only imagine it’s sublime in a way that only the cleverest people can detect. John Samson … the name doesn’t ring a bell this morning, but I’ll investigate. Cool. A storyboarding workshop sounds very interesting and even exciting. At Tramway no less. Nice, man. Enjoy that and every other thing, little to giant, that comes your way this weekend! Santa Clausian love, Dennis ** Alistair, Hey, Alistair! Stuff’s good with me. The new movie is starting to gear up quickly, and we’re basically in the early phase of finding the crew and a casting agent and things so we can move forward in a realer way. So happy you liked ‘Orchid Stories’. Kenward is an utter jewel, as is the great Jim Krusoe. Jim’s new book is in my favorites list up there, and, if you haven’t read it, highly recommended. Citizenship at last! Yury is finally applying for French citizenship right now, which seems like a slam dunk, I think. Yes, I saw about your book coming out in Fall ’17. That’s so very, very exciting, my friend. New you! I can’t wait to read it. Enjoy your holidays way down under. Yeah, I’m sticking to Paris for the big X. Way too much work on the agenda right now to be able to get away. Love to you! ** Steevee, Hi. No, I don’t think that would be a good idea. My books, or my reputation as an author, really has nothing to do with the topic and subject our new film. I think alerting him to that history would only be self-destructive. I think the issue we’ll probably have to deal with is the fact that our very different first film isn’t something that’s appropriate for a 15 year-old to watch much less appear in. Luckily, since Zac is technically our film’s director, I think he will be the situation’s intermediary more than I am. We’ll see. Apparently the boy’s father its a jazz musician, so we’re hoping he’ll be more open-minded than your average father. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Good, cool, about the positive Tai Chi class experience. I don’t know much about Tai Chi apart from having watched people do it from afar, but the discilpline involved is beautiful and looks quite difficult. Ha, the Brexshitters Card box looks cool. ** Larry Delinger, Hi, Larry! Thank you very, very much! That’s very kind of you to say. I really appreciate it. Have a fine and lovely weekend! ** Jeff J, Hi, Jeff. Thanks again, man. I’m very happy with how it went. I think it did raise awareness not only of that book but of Kenward’s work in general, which is very important, I think. And I’m thrilled if Michael and Song Cave were happy with it. They were both so generous. Oh, gosh, there isn’t a poetry book by Kenward that isn’t pretty amazing. Mm, maybe I would say either ‘Tropicalism’ or ‘Moving Right Along’ are good places to start. Good question about why he’s less known than his peers. One reason is his work’s absolute uniqueness, surely. It’s related to the work of his peers, but it really operates within an imagination and world that is only his own. It’s kind of visionary in that way. Another is that, age-wise and in terms of when his poetry started being published, he’s kind of inbetween the first and second generations of the New York School, and the categorization of his work has been confused. Also, his talents and mediums are so various, what with his work in music and theater, that the variety within his body of his work may make him harder to nail down. I don’t know. It’s a mystery and a crime to me that his work isn’t widely known and hailed. I’m stuck re: the apartment hunt right now because I have to set up a French bank account to be able to rent a place, and that’s a hassle of a process that I’m trying to figure out and get through as soon as I can. Have a great weekend! ** Okay. So, yes, if you want to check out what made 2016 especially rich and rewarding for me, you have the weekend to do that and, please, to also tell me what made your grades. Thanks! See you on Monday.
Now available in North America 
*
hello again! hope you’ve been well. looking forward to catching up on my reading in the next couple of months, college doesn’t give you much spare time to read what isn’t already assigned to you. same goes for film, really. so i’ll for sure be checking out a decent amount of those you’ve listed. as for music, though, Youth Code’s record might be my favorite of the year. got to go to their album release show here in LA, Sara is such a ferocious performer. Wreck and Reference opened for them and their new album from this year is wonderful too. aside from that, Elysia Crampton, Demdike Stare, serpentwithfeet, Raime (and about everything Blackest Ever Black put out), and Arca’s “Entrañas” mixtape were some of my other favorites. cheers, hope you have a good weekend
Weerasethakul put out a new movie?? Where was I? I will get right on that. I need to see Knight of Cups too! I usually keep on top of films but books, not so much, i.e. I’m just now picking up things like Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts. I am reading Ocean Vuong’s book though! Great stuff. And everyone here in ASU MFA land tells me Matt’s book is really good, but I still haven’t read a whole book of his. Boo hiss.
I shot you an e-mail a week or two ago re: blog post ideas, just FYI. 🙂
Dennis! Here I am merging from baby limbo land to say thank you for putting ‘Kuo’s Eyes’ on your list!
Hope everything’s great over there!
Much Love
Hi!
Aaaah today’s post is gold!! Thank you so much for it! I’ll put together my own list and share it here, too!
Please let me know how everything goes with the boy! I keep my fingers crossed!
I’m really happy about it too! No, we haven’t talked about this before. I haven’t been there so far but yes, I’m definitely planning to visit him! Maybe in the next semester.
Sorry about the Tino Sehgal show. Ever since you mentioned how big of a crowd it attracts I’ve been thinking about what was that show I wanted to see a while ago and couldn’t, for the same reason. I just can’t remember it.
Wow. The dance piece sounds very exciting! And even though your part isn’t an explicit text which is directly there for the audience, it feels like you’re the one who constructs the ‘skeleton’ of the piece. Please do tell me how things are going with it!
I have a cozy home-day today and tomorrow I’ll be at a Christmas fair selling my mother’s ceramics. It sounds pretty boring but I’m there every year with a very good friend helping out so it’ll be all okay.
I hope you have a lovely weekend and you get to work on everything you need to! Oh and: could you talk to your old friend?
Yes I have “Kenward Elmslie Visited” In fact it’s autographed as is my copy of the original cast recording of “The Grass Harp” — with its Joe Brainard cover.
I seond your enthusiasm for “Cemetery of Splendor,” but I love all of Joe’s work. Among recent films I cannot recommend Marty’s “Silence” highly enough. My review will be up on Keyframe shortly and I’ll be sure to link it. I also adore “Florence Foster Jenkins,” “Paterson,” and Warren Beatty’s utterly ignored “Rules Don’t Apply.” I should think the French will give it the respect it deserves.
Great Yury news.
I don’t think I made it clear that the film top 10 list I posted consists of films that got at least a week-long theatrical run in New York in 2016. There are exception to that rule, like MALGRE LE NUIT, which made your list and will make the expanded version of my list in Gay City News.
I always look forward to your end-of-year lists; there’s still so much I need to check out! My top music for this year:
Tim Hecker – Love Streams
Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition
Xiu Xiu – Plays the Music of Twin Peaks
Natural Snow Buildings – Aldebaran
VAPERROR – Acid Arcadia
2814 – Rain Temple
Autechre – elseq 1-5
Leonard Cohen – You Want it Darker
The Field – The Follower
Pleasure Model – Kendo Dynamics
Perhaps there will be a special “fuck Google” edition of I HATE THE INTERNET!
Hi Dennis,
This is terrific–so much stuff I’ve missed.
No One Deserves Happiness, though. The Body have been one of my favorite bands the past decade and a half and it’s amazing to see them still tweaking and expanding on their sound. Have you checked out their collab with Full of Hell from this year? Another favorite of the year.
Jenny Hval – Blood Bitch was probably the record I listened to most this year. Great atmospherics, melodies and lyrics. Highly recommended. For books, The Autograph of Steve Industry by Ben Hersey is a very funny and aching recent release (http://lithub.com/the-autograph-of-steve-industry/)
Alright, now I’ve got some books to buy. Thank you for the list, hope you are well!
Fascinating great choice of selections today. With respect to the literature side, I’m familiar with some of the titles, and at the moment I’m reading the Lynne Tillman book, which is very enjoyable. I also read the David Toop book (last week) – which is really great. I love Toop’s approach to music writing – and I do have the Krusoe book on hand, somewhere in the household. As well as the massive Simon Reynolds book on glam. And speaking of yesterday’s blog, I really need the Kenward Elmslie book. Thanks Steve for mentioning and doing the blog on that! Hate the Internet is great as well.
My top listing for music-related is here: http://toshberman.blogspot.com/2016/12/best-of-2016-what-i-listened-to-in-year.html
I mostly listen to older releases, just due that is “new” music for me. I have very little interest in music produced in 2016 – and I think that is more of a problem with me, than say the music/musician of today. Right now I’m re-discovering Musique Concrete – and it seems a lot of that music from the 1950s is being re-released on vinyl. So I’m a happy camper with respect to that.
And again, Thank you for mentioning my website on your list. I never take that for granted. It’s an incredible honor.
Awesome list Dennis. Glad you’re a fan of David Toop too. I’ve been meaning to read ‘Night Sky With Exit Wounds’ for so long now… Fav movie of the year? Like Cattle Towards Glow lol. I haven’t read a book released this year, but I did finish the Genet book I had (the thief’s journal) and have to say the last 50 or so pages of it were mesmerizing. As for albums, I spent too much time trying to catch up on 2015 and older music, so all I’ve heard are some Erstwhile EAI stuff. Hmmm. The Gerogerigegege’s “Moenai Hai”, the Taku Unami / Devin DiSanto collab album, and Retribution by Tanya Tagaq are my top three so far.
Thanks for the massive post as always! <3
Hey Dennis, been anticipating this one for months. Chock full of great stuff as usual. I’m so out of it, didn’t even know there’s new work from Benedetta, Thomas Brinkmann, Rhys Chatham, Carl Stone etc Argh, I have to get that Gary Indiana collection ASAP.
Here’s what I enjoyed this year. Books:
Amber Sparks, The Unfinished World
Robert Lopez, Good People
Al Columbia, 23 Skidoo (reprint of work from early 90s)
Brian Evenson, The Warren
Jeff Jackson, Novi Sad
Jesse Ball, How to set a fire and why
Gabriel Blackwell, Madeleine E
Robert Gluck, Communal Nude
Brad Gooch, Smash Cut
Daniel Clowes, Patience
Sara Tuss Efrik, Automanias
David Keenan, England’s Hidden Reverse (new expanded version)
Matthew Cheney, Blood
Carlos Hernandez, The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria
Brian Evenson, Collapse of Horses
Jim Krusoe, The Sleep Garden
Thomas Moore, In Their Arms
Jimmy DeSana, Suburban
Recorded music (even more Berlin-y than usual this year!):
Marc Kate, Despairer (http://marckate.com/despairer)
Pale Horse, Badlands (https://jeremiahcymerman.bandcamp.com/album/badlands)
Radian, On Dark Silent Off (Thrill Jockey)
International Nothing, The Power of Negative Thinking (Monotype)
Wire, Nocturnal Koreans
Thea Farhadian, Tectonic Shifts (Creative Sources)
Swans, Glowing Man
Schall und Rausch, Vapour (Confront)
Pascal Battus/Dafne Vicente-Sandoval, Marne/Seine (Potlatch)
Chris Abrahams/Burkhard Beins, Instead of the Sun (Herbal International)
Heenan/Melbye/Windfeld, Flamingo (Barefoot)
Bagdassarian/Baltschun/Beins, Future Perfect (Mikroton)
Fredrik Ullen plays Sorabji’s Transcendental Etudes #72-83 (BIS)
Neumann/Sehnaoui/Thieke/Vorfeld, Nashaz (Al Maslakh)
John Butcher, RED trio (Clean Feed)
Michael Finnissy, Singular Voices (Metier)
Live music:
Michael Thieke/Biliana Voutchkova at Center for New Music (SF)
Francesco d’Orazio solo violin at Italian Cultural Institute (SF)
SFSound Ensemble plays Sciarrino at Center for New Music (SF)
Alessandro Bosseti/Thea Farhadian/Arcane Device at SF Electronic Music Festival
Chris Brown/Donald Robinson/John McCowen at Berkeley Arts (Berkeley)
Tony Buck/Magda Mayas at Center for New Music (SF)
AnimalNacht at Studio 8 (Berlin)
Oliver Lake/Donald Robinson at Outsound Summit (SF)
Arrington de Dionyso at Luggage Store Gallery (SF)
Shoko Hikage solo koto at private vegan dinner (Oakland)
And a few movies (oops, mostly older than I thought):
Eva Hesse documentary http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3601350
Coherence http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360
The Invitation http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2400463
The Incident http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3528756
Have a great weekend…
Bill
And of course, Like Cattle Towards Glow!
Bill
https://play.spotify.com/user/xescie/playlist/7HSVDZAc0LZczO8NP7Tl2B
Hey Dennis,
Thank you! All the love in the world to you and yours! Some favorites for me were all hovering around Numero Cinq. The work German Sierra’s been doing there in particular. I really enjoyed Frantumaglia as well, was gonna review it but I left my copy at home. Ditto Ed Atkins’ A Primer for Cadavers/everything Fitzcarraldo editions has been reissuing. I’ve been reading a draft of Anne Garreta’s new one for Deep Ellum as well, and fucking loving it. Her Sphinx was a big one for me this year too. Music, I love Warthog and Uniform and a lot of the harder stuff being put out by/around Sacred Bones. Puce Mary of course, was excited to see that on here! After reading Diarmuid Hester’s review/essay on it, rereading The Marbled Swarm this year was an amazing experience too. I’d actually just say Diarmuid Hester’s writing too, his essay on your work, on Pierre Guyotat’s, they’re fucking brilliant and mindaltering. I really didn’t watch enough films this year, so I have hardly anything to offer there, but I did enjoy Herzog’s newest. I dunno, having a daughter this year definitely threw off my reading and everything, but in turn that’s been amazing. Rereading Left Hand and Everything Flows earlier in the year was a powerful thing.
I love you and I hope this finds you well, thank you so fucking much sir!
Grant
hey man,
These lifts are a gift. Thank you, a lot of stuff to investigate. The list you made years ago ( your top 100 favourite books or something)…it was a whole education.
Literary highlight of the year for me was discovering Maggie Nelson’s work, especially the argonauts. Currently reading Counter Narratives by John Keene. Just realised they both came out in 2015…so i’m a lagging.
I want to get Jeff Jackson’s new book as well but (a) a bit skint and (b) I’m not sure i trust the postal system. Dang.
Hope you’re good man and I hope the tv show happens.
One of my favourite films this year was embrace of the serpent.
I can’t do a “best of music” list yet as I found out yesterday that a new Nine Inch Nails EP is coming out on Dec. 23rd, so I need to wait at least a few more days to hear that one.
Sadly the only new film I’ve seen this year is “Suicide Squad” (looking forward to seeing Oscar’s film as well… and the new Star Wars).
Some books released this year that I’ve enjoyed (* indicates a reprint/re-release):
“Divorce Procedures for the Hairdressers of a Metallic and Inconstant Goddess” (Justin Isis)
“Nightmares of an Ether-Drinker” (Jean Lorrain) *
“Age of Blight” (Kristine Ong Muslim)
“Consumer Guide” (Simon Morris)
“The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs” (Cylin Busby)
“England’s Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground” (David Keenan) *
“Nameless” (Grant Morrison)
“September” (Quentin S. Crisp)
“The Hurtin’ Club” (Martin Bladh)
“Sweating Blood” (Léon Bloy) *
“The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick” (Kyle Arnold)
“Marked to Die: A Tribute to Mark Samuels” (various/edited by Justin Isis)
“The Moons At Your Door” (David Tibet: editor)
“Penetralia” (Gea Philes)
“Tales of Pain and Wonder” (Caitlín R. Kiernan) *
“Novi Sad” (Jeff Jackson)
“The Searching Dead” (Ramsey Campbell)
“Skipping to Armageddon: Current 93 & Friends” (Ruth Bayer)
“In Their Arms” (Thomas Moore)
“The Voynich Manuscript” (edited by Raymond Clemens) *
“Rule Dementia!” (Quentin S. Crisp) *
“Against the Light: A Nightside Narrative” (Kenneth Grant) *
“The Tarantula’s Parlor and Other Unkind Tales” (Leon Bloy) *
“They Don’t Come Home Anymore” (T.E. Grau)
“Alien Existence” (Philip Best)
I’ll put Alan Moore’s “Jerusalem” and the reprint of H.P. Blavatsky’s “The Secret Doctrine,” even if I didn’t finish reading those (yet).
Sadly, a few books I wanted to read this year won’t be out until very late December, so I’ll have to read them next year (I believe the first volume of Samuel R. Delany’s Journals has been bumped to next year as well).
Hey Dennis! What’s the ups? This day is fascinating and totally awesome as usual. That’s so great about Zac and your’s next film!(!!!!). Erin surprised me and bought me the DVD of Like Cattle, which I really loved. It had an sense of angles coverging in weird and complex ways that I’m still wrapping my head around. But yeah, totally fucking great
I’ve got what feels like a bunch of stuff going on. Mancy and I are doing a spoken word + music thing, a kind of audio zine that I’m psyched about, +I’m doing a book for Michael that will contain elements of a short film he and I are doing. The book’s based on my idea of writing a literary cover of a Hardy Boys novel. And then what I call ‘novel 3’ which is a spiritual book, though I dont know what I mean by spiritual.
Here’s my paltry lists
Websites (no order)
Paige Heinen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gazerlies/
http://www.Fivethiryeight.com
https://www.quantamagazine.org/
https://frompyrgos.blogspot.com
http://www.monsieurguerlain.com/
Albums (no order)
David Bowie, Black Star
Roly Porter, Third Law
Venetian Snares, Traditional Synthesizer Music
Clark, The Last Panthers
Tim Hecker, Love Streams
Julianna Barwick, Will
Wolf Parade, EP 4
Car Seat Headrest, Teens Of Denial
Moonface, My Best Human Face
Frankie Cosmos, Next Thing
Told Slant, Going By
Kjartan Sveinsson, Der Klang der Offenbarung des Gottlichen
Burial, Young Death/Nightmarket
Preoccupations, Preoccupations
Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam, I Had A Dream That You Were Mine
Tindersticks, The Waiting Room
Solange, Don’t Touch My Hair
PS- the only film I really have enough thoughts about to list, aside from Like Cattle Towards Glow is Arrival.
Dennis, so great to read these lists. The music list especially got me excited about stuff to investigate. Rhys Chatham is someone who’s entered my radarsphere just recently, someone i’ve been meaning to listen to. So cool about the new film forging ahead.! And thanks about book enthusiasm. I actually sent you an email too related to that, check it out when you get a chance. i’m not sure my book will exactly fit into any broad category of American writing right now, but I think i’m cool with that. Love Alistairxo
This has been for some time the only present worth receiving. Thank you so much for your generosity!
Thanks for including me, Dennis. You are very kind.
I always love the lists. Many things here on your and others’ lists that I need to get around to. I’m not super inspired to make my own lists this year, but a few things below. I think the big ones for me were your ZCP, Thomas’s book, and ‘Blond’
2016
Frank Ocean – Blond
Puce Mary – The Spiral
Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition
Dedekind Cut – $uccessor
Future – Purple Reign
RLLRBLL – Winnebagens
Clipping – Wriggle
Anything on Príncipe label
Clay Rendering Live
Youth Code Live
Inquisition Live
ZCP
Thomas Moore – In Their Arms
Joy Williams – 99 Stories of God
My dad died this year.
Ha meant ZFE, but all three really
Hey Dennis
Inspired to get the Walser especially. I like him a great deal and haven’t read him for years. Looks like the kind of book one can easily dip into also, which suits me at the moment cos I’m totally submerged in heavy work-reading and will be now until I go home. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back in March, if I can manage to finish up here by then.
Not in order,
Josef Winkler – Natura Morta
Josef Winkler – Graveyard of Bitter Oranges
Michel Houellebecq – Submission
DC – Z Gif Trilogy
Hans Henny Jahn – Bathhouse
Despina Stratigackos – Hitler at Home
Penny Goring – Hatefuck the Reader
Christoph Peschoux, Haing Khen Heng – Itinerary of an Ordinary Torturer
Benedict Anderson – The Fate of Rural Hell
Thomas Moore – In Their Arms
Pier Paolo Pasolini – The Divine Mimesis
Hope you get the apartment problem sorted soon
Best
Joe
music, some records I really liked this year (I didn’t get / listen to that many though) :
Suede – Night Thoughts
GBV – Please be Honest
Shirley Collins – Lodestar
Kristin Hersh – Wyatt at Coyote Palace
David Bowie – Blackstar
Radiohead – A Moon shaped pool
Boys Forever – s/t
…
thanks, good to see the blog back! 🙂
Hey Dennis – sorry being absent. I’ve got a couple of weeks of work now to catch up – yes! How’s everything going?
Thanks a million for putting my book on the list – so nice of you. And thanks to Bill, Sypha, Mancy, New Juche, for the mentions. So cool and very much appreciated.
I haven’t finished making my lists yet – I’m writing them up and I’ll be posting a huge mega review of 2016 on my blog, the same as I did last year. I’ll let you know when it’s up. But for now, here are some of my faves (apologies for forgetting anyone!):
Anohni – Hopelessness
Autechre – elseq 1
Bianca Cassidy & the CIA – Oscar Hocks
Blithe Field – Face Always Towards the Sun
Blood Orange – Freetown Sound
Body/Head – No Waves
Cakes Da Killa – Hedonism
David Bowie – Blackstar
Prince’s death
Death Grips – Bottomless Pit
Field Harmonics – Corners
Frank Ocean – Blonde
Frank Ocean – Endless
The Ghost – The Hole
Glitterbust – Glitterbust
Gods Wisdom – Self Restraint
HEXA – Factory Photographs
Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
Marching Church – Telling It Like It Is
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
Owlbinos of Northfield – Dinoshur
Seth Bogart – Seth Bogart
Solange – A Seat at the Table
Sonic Youth – Spinhead Sessions
Jim O’Rourke – Steamroom 25
Weezer – Weezer (White Album)
Wolfgang Tillmans – 2016 1985 EP
Xiu Xiu – Plays the Music of Twin Peaks
Xiu Xiu – Tempesta Atsepmet
Matmos – Ultimate Care II
Immune – Breathless
400PPM – Just in Time EP
Lucrecia Dalt – Ou
Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition
The Julie Ruin – Hit Reset
Gemini Eye – The Is of Being
PITA – Get In
Beyonce – Lemonade
Youth Code – Commitment to Complications
Art
Donna Huanca @ Zabludowicz Collection
Richard Woods @ Eastside Projects
Janet Mendelsohn @ Ikon Gallery
Bethan McKnight @ 6/8 Kafe
Harmony Korine @ Gagosian
The Champagne Life @ Saatchi Gallery
Sergej Jenson @ White Cube
History of Nothing @ White Cube
Ariana Reines & Oscar Tuazon @ Modern Art
Paul P @ Maureen Paley
Dash Snow @ Annka Kultys
Prem Sahib @ Grand Union
Eva Rothschild @ New Art Gallery Walsall
Hans Op De Beeck @ Frieze London
Zilvinas Kempinas @ Ikon Gallery
Jeff Koons @ Newport Street Gallery
Books
Dennis Cooper – Zac’s Freight Elevator
Jeff Jackson – Novi Sad
Juliet Escoria – Witch Hunt
Zachary German – Thank You
Penny Goring – Hatefuck The Reader
Garth Greenwell – What Belongs to You
Michael Salerno – Teenage Satanists
Lynne Tillman – The Complete Madame Realism and Other Stories
Robert Gluck – Communal Nude
Jarrett Kobek – I Hate The Internet
John Ashbery – Commotion of the Birds
Martin Bladh – The Hurtin’ Club
Grant Maierhofer – PX138 3100-2686 User’s Manual
New Juche – Wasteland
Thanks TM, and thanks Dennis! Forgot to say so before!
Supremely rad to see Gods Wisdom make the list, damn
Thanks to David E for reminding me of Florence Foster Jenkins – yes, one of the best of the year. Also, recently saw The Best Worst Thing that Could Have Happened, a doc about the making of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along – really excellent! Also, best Gif novels of the year: uh, forget the author’s name, but these really ignited me. Other than that, I’ve been pretty illiterate this year.
Oh, The Crucible on Broadway, almost missed it, but a friend said I had to see it. I met Ben Whishaw waiting for the Fire Island ferry right after it closed. Very sweet guy and amazing actor as Proctor.
2016 was rough what with the fractured spine and all. But my 2017 promises much, espesh ART101 showing in January’s Filmwinter fest and potentially having driving lessons after that. So onwards and upwards and all that.
My fave records included Carla Dal Forno – You Know What It’s Like on Blackest Ever Black, and the lo-fi deep and trancey 45 ACP – Change Of Tone on LIES records.
Best art = the Katy Dove memorial exhibition at the DCA was a definite highlight, as was the Anthea Hamilton Re-imagines Kettle’s Yard show at the Hepworth in Wakefield.
I finally saw Like Cattle Towards Glow on Friday night and genuinely loved it! So that can be my 2016 cinema pick, wearing influences on its sleeve but still being something unique.
Today I went along to the Dundee Print Collective show at Dundee’s WASPS studios, which included my Sad Emoticon with Spinal Fracture artwork. The DPC seem to have a good thing going as lots of folk (including non-artists) had work in there and standards were high. My friend from the MS Therapy Centre came too and bought herself one of my prints.
Hello Dennis!
Lists! Yours are always a treasure! Thank you!!
My favorites (a lot of old things, I’m afraid):
Books
‘The Purple Cloud’ – M. P. Shiel
‘Difficult Death’ – René Crevel (reread)
‘Jesus’s Son’ – Denis Johnson
‘Trigger Warning’ – Neil Gaiman (have you read it?)
‘The Goodbye Look’ – Ross Macdonald
‘The Monk’ – Matthew G. Lewis
Music
‘Maniobra de resurrección’ – 091
‘Skeleton Tree’ – Nick Cave
‘GP’ – Gram Parsons
Cinema
‘El rey de La Habana’ – Agustí Villaronga
‘Knight of Cups’ – Terrence Malick
‘Cartoons’ – Michael Salerno
‘Cemetery of Splendor’ – Apichatpong Weerasethakul
‘Paterson’ – Jim Jarmusch
Greetings!!
I forgot ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ by Travis Knight, awesome.
Oh yeah books, duh. Here’s a list:
Derek McCormack – The Well-Dressed Wound
Gary J. Shipley – You With Your Memory Are Dead
Jeff Jackson – Novi Sad
Nathalie Léger – Suite for Barbara Loden
Andrew Hankinson – You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat)
Hey Denton Abbey! I’m just popping in to say hi, as I need to get to bed so I can be up bright & early to go to Newcastle tomorrow. Hope you’ve had a most pleasant weekend. All good here, got really high at a friend’s dinner party last night, which is not something I do too often these days, and it was delightful.
Bummer about the tv people. And it is kind of rude, I think, to keep people hanging like that & keep postponing the date. Disrespectful, at least.
Hope by the time you read this you’ve got that punk boy signed up for your movie.
Thanks for your list of cultural highlights & apologies for my lack of one. I promise that in 2017 I am going to write down every book, movie etc that I take in.
You got Monday plans? I’ll be in Casanova, looking like Bjorn/Benny.
Lotsof love to you,
Jamie
Dennis! It’s Xmas! Hope this list finds you well. What a year, huh? My reading has been to sporadic to prepare a list. I’m probably missing loads of stuff, but hey, speak soon!
Music
Oranssi Pazuzu – Varahtelija
Nicolas Jaar – Sirens
Fat White Family – Songs For Our Mothers
Sun Valley Gun Club – Sun Valley Gun Club
Andy Stott – Too Many Voices
The Caretaker – Everywhere at the end of time
Gnod – Mirror
Autechre – elseq 1–5
Parquet Courts – Human Performance
Frank Ocean – Blonde
The Body – No One Deserves Happiness
Lifetones – For A Reason
Puce Mary – The Spiral
Death Grips – Bottomless Pit
WOODS – City Sun Eater in the River of Light
Aluk Todolo – Voix
Tim Hecker – Love Streams
Youth Code – Commitment to Complications
Films
Like Cattle Towards Glow – Zac Farley & Dennis Cooper
Evolution – Lucile Hadzihalilovic.
Under The Shadow – Babak Anvari
Cemetery of Splendour – Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Embrace Of The Serpent – Ciro Guerra
The Witch – Robert Eggers
Knight Of Cups – Terrence Malick
The Girl With All The Gifts – Colm McCarthy
The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos
Tickled – David Farrier & Dylan Reeve
Sing Street – John Carney
The Wailing – Hong-Jin Na
The Club – Pablo Larrai
Unfortunately, I can’t afford – either in terms of money or space in my apartment – to buy all the books I’d like to read, and thus I’m dependent on the NYC public library for my reading. For some reason, they rarely order books published by Civil Coping Mechanisms, and so my reading winds up being a bit more middlebrow than most of you guys. I didn’t read that many books published in 2016, but I would single out Brad Gooch’s memoir and Simon Reynolds’ SHOCK AND AWE.
BOOKS
hatefuck the reader by Penny Goring
Novi Sad by Jeff Jackson
Mickey by Chelsea Martin
Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird
An Indoor Kind of Girl by Frankie Barnet
watching fox news on mute by Austin Islam
Thank You by Zachary German
The Incantations of Daniel Johnston by Ricardo Cavolo and Scott McClanahan
Waves by Lucky K Shaw
Witch Hunt by Juliet Escoria
Pony Castle by Sofia Banzhaf
Loud Idiots by Sarah Jean Alexander
Hey Dennis – These end of the year lists are always a favorite. So many remarkable things here to check out. And thank you for including ‘Novi Sad’! Didn’t realize you’d had a chance to get to it. Honored to be included in such fine company.
Books I’d add: Derek McCormack’s ‘Well Dressed Wound’ (which maybe was on last year’s list?) and Amber Sparks’ story collection. Others escape me now. And there’s a large to-read pile.
I loved ‘Cemetery of Splendor’ and ‘Knight of Cups.’ Others that will make my film list: ‘Sixty-Six’ (Lewis Klahr); ‘The Lobster’; ‘Counting’ (Jem Cohen); ‘Francofonia’ (surprised how much I liked it); ‘Certain Women’; ‘Like Cattle towards Glow’; and ‘American Honey.’ Of course there’s a bunch on your list that I haven’t seen yet. Dying to check out the new Grandrieux, for instance.
What is the Steve McQueen film? Wasn’t familiar with it. And what are your thoughts on ‘Voyage of Time’?!? I had no idea that was out anywhere yet.
The new Ashbery collection reminded me, I’ve been meaning to ask you: Do you have a favorite among his last, say, 6-7 collections? I’ve fallen behind on his work and wasn’t sure if there was 1-2 collections that really stood out for whatever reasons.
Also: What is that Carl Stone electronic compilation? How highly do you recommend that vs. something new like the Puce Mary or Youth Code? Eying them all with some possible holiday money.
Also: Always appreciate seeing lists from everyone else, too. DLs here have excellent taste.
Dennis! This is such a special list, thanks so much for sharing. Glad to see some
DC’s included on it (congrats Tomas and Chris) plus the KJM mastery show. I don’t have much to offer in terms of a list, but some stand out smart shows for me were Nan Golden’s retrospective at MOMA, Agnes Martin at the Guggenheim, and Vito Acconci’s “where are we now (who are we anyway)” at PS1.
The salon is tomorrow night. Crossing fingers for a good crowd. I know you mentioned looking up Carol and Roarke. Carol doesn’t keep much of an online presence, but roarke definitely does. Hope you enjoyed his work! I’ll email you the poster just for fun, Carol designed it.
Have a super week, thinking of you.
Bear
hey dennis
thanks for including my book & neato mosquito in your list !!
there are a bunch of things u listed that i’m interested in
i read ‘Suite for Barbara Loden’ over the weekend, i enjoyed it — now i want to see that movie ‘Wanda’ — Have you seen it? i watched some clips online & it looked like the type of movie i’d be into. i really liked the parts of the book where the narrator goes to the abandoned religious theme park Holy Land USA, & the scene where she talks to Mickey Mantle. when i looked up stuff about the book it seems like it was a popular book in France, do u think so? i thought it had some extremely beautiful stretches of writing. it was cool how the author mirrored the actress mirrored the movie character mirrored the woman the movie was based on. what did u like about it?
thanks for all the good suggestions !! take care, have a good morning
In addition – Michael Salerno’s Cartoons series, and the work of New Juche both should be on my list, terrible oversight.
Yeah – the Cartoons series was/is incredible. Will be writing about that when I get to my year review.
Hi Dennis,
I wrote a chapbook in 2016 called Soft Split which you kindly said was one of your favorites that year. May I send you my novel to see if you’d be willing to blurb it? It’s called SHE and it’s about a woman who walks in the night through New York but it’s also about fathers and father figures.
It meant a lot to me that you read Soft Split and your continued support would be helpful while I’m trying to place the novel with a US publisher. But I recognize that you’re a busy writer yourself so no worries if you’re not interested.
I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time and for always promoting the most daring voices out there. This world needs it.
Sincerely,
Szilvia