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p.s. Hey. ** Charalampos, Hi. I don’t know, the images all look fine from this end. I would prefer our next film to be in English, but financing films in the US is very tricky, as we so thoroughly found out with ‘RT’, so it might end up being in French, too early to say. Just looking at people from the side can lead to big surprises when they turn to face you, often. Great writers should be acts of encouragement to young writers and never points of comparison. Avoid buying the hierarchical model always. A bunch of the best fiction writers started as poets only if you ask me. Hugs, etc. from breezy Paris. ** _Black_Acrylic, Yeah, he’s an incisive if askew chronicler of his era in the best way. What are those Zoom meetings like? Is it a matter of sharing life stories and support via your relatively common physical situation? Is it possible you could find comrades there who are similarly physically saddled yet have your aesthetic interests in some respect, for instance? I guess it doesn’t thwart your other friend/comrade-making opportunities? I’m just kind of riffing here. And being my usual bright sider type. ** Carsten, Hey. First, I got the email/post, and it’s really fantastic, and it set up properly, I think, and I’ll launch it here a week from today, on the 17th. Thank you so much for such an amazing gift. A few of these publishers you mentioned I don’t know. I’m a big fan of Ugly Duckling. There are others for sure. I’m really mentally locked into finishing the new draft of a film script at the moment, but I’ll think/search thereby when my brain breaks free. Despite the vexing hunt, it sounds like you scored on the new place. Apartment or actual house or … ? I forgot where you’re headed exactly. Lisbon? Sweet, man! ** robert, Hi, robert! It’s great to meet you! Thank you about my writing. Amazing, the Yalkut mini-retro. Was it a public thing or a thing you did for yourself? Always such a pleasure to meet a fellow lover of ‘experimental’ film. Work like Yalkut’s is kind of my intake mechanism’s bread and butter. If you feel saying anything about you and what you do/like/etc. please do. Happy weekend. ** Alistair, Oh, good, re: the usable link. I think the other Alistair you saw might be the writer Alistair McCartney who’s a friend of mine and who pops in here on rare occasion. He’s originally Australian. Could Alistair be a more common name there? Whew, about your cat’s nomad-like demeanor. ** Happy Pancake, Hi. Just butting in your comment to Alistair to say hi and thank you. And to tell you that I unsurprisingly like your name. And theoretically your mom’s cat too. ** julian, Hi, j. Luck with the packing. Packing can be nerdy fun. Where are you headed? Even though I don’t like parties I hope you went, well, assuming it was a good party. I’m trying to finish a draft of the script of Zac’s and my next film, and I’m very close, so I think I’ll be in my apartment gazing in the direction of whatever muse I have and typing for most of the weekend. The Godz were pretty cool and underratedly influential, yeah. Enjoy whatever your next two days cough up. ** Bill, It’s cool stuff. Nice new book pile there. I have a pile too, but it’s been sitting here for a week or two. Said announcement will be coming in a mere few days! ** Steeqhen, If anyone ever offers you a Sudanese falafel, which unfortunately seems only available in Berlin, kill everyone standing in-between you and it if necessary. Obviously work those job connections if you have any. As I’ve no doubt said, I don’t have any social media on my phone or even music platforms, and the world just rushes in when I’m outside, and, oh, it’s good. ** HaRpEr //, ‘The Malady of Death’ is great! And very short. Highly recommended. ‘For the New Novel’ kind of changed everything for me when I first read it. I was in the last stages of trying to figure out how to write the Miles Cycle, and it was one of the very final pieces of the puzzle. I actually have a spotlight post on a big Nouveau Roman novel (by Pinget) coming up on Monday. Pinget is possibly my favorite NR writer. Well, him and R-G. His book ‘Fable’ is my top ten novels, if you can find it. Simon’s great. My favorite of his is ‘Triptych’. I actually thought Nolan’s first film, ‘Memento’, was interesting, but that’s it. I read that he’s making a film of ‘The Odyssey’ right now, which induces brain death even to contemplate. Phew, not your evil twin … I was worried there for a second, haha. ** Right. So, a friend of mine cajoled me into restoring this old post for reasons he would not disclose, so y’all have a really easy and nerdy and possibly somewhat vaguely entertaining local weekend ahead of you if you so choose. See you on Monday.
Now available in North America 
Cool that the 2009 Leeds festival had a place to bury strangers, could have come in handy at the time. Back in the 90s there was a thing going on called the Heineken festival at Roundhay Park in Leeds which was free, probably owing to its booze sponsorship deal. Pulp were headlining that one and it was exciting to see them on the cusp of their imminent Britpop fame. A teenage me was impressed.
I appreciate your brightsider comment! Resolved to assimilate, that’s me. Last night I saw this film which imo happens to be quite good, or maybe it just chimes with my sense of humour somehow.
First off, I’m glad you like the blog post & that its length is acceptable. It was a pleasure doing it. Thank you so much for hosting me.
Re. the poetry publishers: please, no sweat. Concentrate on your script & your work. This can wait.
No I’m moving out to Malaga, Spain. A small town 20 minutes east of Malaga actually. I love that area of Andalusia. Malaga itself is beautiful but cramped, but once you go east there are all these little coastal (& hillside) towns that have been spared the commercialization & over-tourism of the west side. When it comes to Andalusia I’m with Lorca, it’s a magical land. I even wrote a poem about it. And the climate is quite similar to LA’s. Can’t wait to call it my home.
The place we have lined up is actually a house, because I’m moving out there with a group. I’m definitely staying for good, but they’re not sure yet, so we’re starting with a 10-month-lease & take it from there.
Wishing you a good & productive weekend.
Hey Dennis,
Some of these backstage passes seem like a deathwish; backstage at a Motley Crue or Marilyn Manson concert? Yikes. I never knew Marilyn and Hole went on tour together, strange. I feel like the majority of people who got a backstage pass to a Hannah Montana concert were probably men trying to perv on Miley, same with Justin’s tour too tbh; as someone who grew up with her and saw her whole “crazy shtick”, 1) it really was not that crazy and 2) she was getting upskirted by Perez Hilton at 16 and having countdowns to her 18th birthday online, so i feel like it’s telling that when she started being sexual is when people were suddenly up in arms about her, as if people weren’t trying to sexualize her since she was a young teen. She seems to be pretty good now though, and that ‘crazy’ time helped make my favourite album by her, Miley Cyruz and her Dead Petz, a free mixtape-esque project with The Flaming Lips that is both trashy and really poignant.
Taylor’s reputation tour, I think I’d love to be able to have gone backstage for that, just to find out if she was chainsmoking in secret as I’ve heard she was. Also the Dangerous Woman tour by Ariana — it’s weird to remember that that tour ended up with a terrorist bombing. It’s such like a pivotal moment in her career, with her response to it leading to this 5 year period where everyone forgot she was a ‘diva’ and respected and pitied her for how much she had dealt with (especially the whole Pete Davidson relationship and Mac Miller’s overdose/potential suicide), and made her a bonafide A-list superstar celeb. Not to say she used the tragedy for her own gain, but that people love to watch a celebrity suffer and then treat them according to their response. Most of that goodwill went out the window though once she took a break and then broke up some marriage. She’s gotten deathly skinny too, which is just like this elephant in the room that nobody wants to speak about. In the human side I pity/worry for her, but in my love of reading into celebrity lives as a fiction or recapitulation of blueprints or archetypes, it’s fascinating.
How are you today (or i guess this weekend)? I’ve been coming down with some sore throat and opted to go to my parents place for the weekend. I’m not sure if I’m going to go to that poetry night now on Sunday, but maybe I’ll feel good enough for it tomorrow.
I had this dream last night that was a story of me traveling to different planets and trying to survive or do some task, eventually leaving me traveling across the United Kingdom on train, ending in Manchester and leaving my suitcase on a train. Some of the planets were hotels, one was a cave with horses and black widows, and this beam of light with grabby alien creatures existing deep in the cracks, another was a field that had the atmosphere of a thunderstorm, but the raindrops let out bursts of flames. There’s something poetic about that whole excursion, borderline a Dante’s Inferno, Season in Hell, type journey. So for now, I’m going to update a poem every time I have an interesting dream and try and see if I can transplant that world or story into language, using music or my surroundings as a rosetta stone.
Sudanese falafel, noted!! I think that the music issue is totally just a problem of my generation, having access to listening to music whenever we wanted. I should get used to listening to nothing to give my brain a break, but damn am I addicted to listening to music. I wish I was either a singer or a really good instrument player which would mean my voice doesnt really matter, because words are so powerful when given the coating of music.
Hi Dennis, I like to pretend that this is all the personal collection of backstage passes belonging to one person with extremely eclectic (and sometimes shit) taste in concerts? How’re you?
Hi, Mr Cooper. I apologize for unceremoniously dropping in on your blog, without officially introducing myself . I hope I didn’t scare Alistair away by being too forward.
I’ve been thinking about commenting for some time now . But I’m not a writer, and most people here seem to be doing that professionally, or are studying writing.
I guess I’m what one would call a ‘failed’ musician , who ended up spending over 20 years working at Disneyworld ,Florida, doing various things. Which was quite the experience.
When I was in grad school, I came across a NY Times book review of ‘Try’, and managed to track it down. Your novel spoke to me in a way that nothing had before it . Over the years, I lost touch with what you were up to. Until about a year ago, when I stumbled across this blog, which I’ve been following ever since. I’ve also been trying to go through most of your work . So far, I’d say my favorites are Closer, Guide, and I Wished.
Thanks about my user name. Happy Pancake came from a rather silly incident when I was performing at this music festival , Tanglewood, in Massachusetts, a long time ago .
All those backstage passes are quite daunting………everything from Disney to Dolly Parton . Your content is so varied and informative. I loved the Bernard Faucon photos, they were so beautiful and haunting. And Lukas Haas……..I remember him from way back in his ‘Witness’ days, which dates me, alas.
Anyways, thanks so much for taking the time to chat. It feels so meta to be ‘speaking’ to a famous author . Not something I have ever done before.
Hi! I want to thank you for introducing me to Anna’s Archive. There’s a lot of books I’ve wanted to read but haven’t been able to afford before, so this is wonderful. I can’t wait to start reading some of these books. I’ve heard a lot of good things.
Glad to help, buddy . This guy from the UK, who was a regular commenter here until recently, introduced me to the Anna’s site. Without paying a fee one has to wait a bit for the downloads. But even so, it’s usually only 5 to 10 minutes. And they seem to have all of Mr Cooper’s major works, except Flunker. I just finished Ugly Man, one of his story collections, and am going through Idols at the moment (poetry) .
Hope your cat keeps allowing you to write freely !
I tried posting here yesterday, but the blog ate it.
Wasn’t there a very early L.A. punk band called Backstage Press? You have to wonder which backstage scenes were debauched orgies/drug binges and which were just people trying to work. Barry Manilow definitely fell into the former!
I got my adapter and cable today, so reliable Internet access has returned.
I’ve felt much better today. (Yesterday, I could barely get out of bed.) I made it to see FRIENDSHIP in the theater. I saw Joel Potrykys’ VULCANIZADORA last night, and the two films are very different variations on the theme of male friends pushing each other to their worst behavior.
Packing was kind of hellish but it was nice to see the room empty at the end. I’m headed first to Seattle (leaving tomorrow), then San Diego which is home. The party wasn’t much of a real party, which was good because it meant I got to hang out and talk with everyone, especially the cute guy who invited me. If your muse is in a direction, which direction is it? I think if mine were anywhere it would be a straight shot down underground from wherever I’m standing at the moment.
I didn’t realize backstage pass design was a thing, not being the kind of guy who gets access.
Hope you’re enjoying the weekend, Dennis. Just saw an excellent dance performance today:
https://www.sfiaf.org/2025_suichu_megane
The trailer on YouTube is very impressive.
Bill
Hey I saw your comment today from Saturday! Thanks for the comment about my nose your so kind.
right now there is a 15mm septum inside it, the bigger sized rings but not like those huge ass ones and I think it goes good with my nose especially the septum. I suppose if you ever meet me I’ll have to put like one of those fake animal noses on so you don’t get distracted 😉
Yes as of this moment, it’s beautiful outside I can hear the heavy morning rain falling outside my window. I’m going to make breakfast so I don’t regurgitate my medication l. I might make coffee aswell although I think the creamer has expired and it’s raining so I can’t walk to get it but that’s ok. I’m just trying to be present in today. I’m going to try and go easy even if I feels like torture, and if my mind threatens me with accusations of laziness or useless i wont listen. I guess I’m just waking up with those awful same old sensations in my body and now I have a new goal for this month, and it has nothing to do with constant creation or crying over writing this book. It means so dearly to me but writing about what’s in it means being emotionally aware to it and becoming exhausted from the subject matters. I can write a long time but when I write subjects pertaining to things I still struggle with, silence and solitude of writing can feel like a prison, even though it is my haven.
I think I need to make a new goal like read alot of books this month and enjoy the world, making the book secondary, because the goal is to have it done 100% ready to be sent and whatever by November.
Who knows maybe things will be less stressful when I get back from NY. Who knows!
Yesterday I was at a show and I didn’t talk to anyone and I feel like I was so visibly paranoid but I did what I wanted. I went to the booth and i talked a minutes with the guy at the zine table introduced myself and everything, even did a hand shake. It’s called “immersed zines” and I bought one for 5$ and they do like local Wilmington Hardcore shows interviews and art. So it’s like obviously I am not socially incompetent it’s just the fact I approached art but you never know what to expect from the other people around you. People can be so terriblly cruel. It was a good show though! Rat Queen is like this very good hardcore local band and I was just jumping around getting the nervous energy out. I just remember the last show I went to in someone’s basement and I just talked the whole time and that approach drained me for 2 weeks.
Ooh fireball question:
Do you have a favorite glass artist/sculpture?
Hey Dennis! Wow, that Ariana Grande backstage pass is a pretty grim relic, that tour had a really serious terror attack that’s still a bit of a traumatic memory for the UK, although I’m not sure how well it’s known overseas. It’s pretty cool to see a piece of super mainstream memorabilia transmute into a nasty tasteless relic – like with all those pre-9/11 movies about exploding buildings and hijacked planes.
My weekend’s been pretty good. By this Friday, my degree is done (!), so I’m just counting down for that. My boyfriend’s also offered to host me in Japan for a week or so, and I’m sort of trying to navigate plane tickets at short notice, which is a bit stressful. Nightmarish, but obviously really lovely. Hope your weekend was excellent, see ya!
Hey Dennis!
Hope you’re well. This is a cool post today. I’ve never been backstage at a concert before, but I love the idea of being a groupie even though I don’t think I’m obsessed with any band or musical artist enough to be one. I was obsessed with the “Shit 2” post. Now that I’ve written poems about penises and God, maybe I should write a chapbook focused on poems about shit? Maybe that’s been done before tho? I loved the Bob Flanagan piece. My love of his work and persona keeps growing. Also, I mailed you my latest chapbook about two weeks ago. I hope you’ve received it and I hope you enjoy it.
P.S. Have you played any good video games lately? I took a couple month break from video games because they were taking up too much of my time, but now I’m back to playing them. I’m gonna be sober from alcohol for a while so I told myself as a reward I’d start to play video games again lol. Gotta have a little fun somehow haha.
Hi Dennis! Long time no message, got some great news! I finally found a record deal for my new album!! It’s with Bison Records, a bespoke label with very adequate resources, ran by one woman who also co-runs Cafe Oto’s label (a venue in london) the other bands on their label have had some great media coverage and reviews etc and their stuff is more formless and abstract so my mentality is ‘if she can do that for them, it’ll be a damn more easier to do it for me!’ considering my stuff is essentially pop structured.
We’re currently mastering the album, then i’m off to London to design the cd art/back cover etc with a designer she’s paired me with, then I’ll be dinally doing shows in Europe, and possibly the US! Exciting times, I wanted to thank you for taking an interest in my work and following my journey all this time, I couldnt have done it without you!
I would love to work with you in some capacity for my next album, I have some ideas I think you would love (i think!)
Much Love! Let me know your address or if you have a PO box via my email and I’ll be sure to send you a cd or merch etc. or vinyl eventually
lots and lots of love
Ryan
ANGUSRAZE
Thanks for this post and thanks for your openness (a week ago now) to coming here in the fall logistics permitting. Sorry for the long absence despite signalling otherwise; the prospect of subcontinental war has drained me of will. On a lighter note, my one-and-a-half year disbelief in umbrellas (starting mere days before I became active on here) has been dispelled by the kindness of my professors. Moving out of my college room for the summer later this week, and so I’m beginning to pack mentally (reading books that go back to the library/into storage before I leave them behind) before I pack physically. Revisited Pasternak’s Safe Conduct and was touched, as always by his portrait, of Mayakovsky. Allow me to quote, in translation, a memorable few sentences here (no wonder EH loved it!): ‘And just as deceptive was the function of his yellow jacket. He used it not to campaign against middle class coats, but to combat the black velvet of talent within him, whose dark-browed saccharine forms began to trouble him earlier than they would less gifted men.’ What would a Dennis Cooper backstage pass look like?
Hey! I never knew how intricate backstage passes could be.
By the way I’ve been listening to the Um, Jennifer album an awful lot thanks to you. They have something really charismatic and theatrical about them that I really like. The whole thing about them being possessed by an ethereal being called Jennifer is very much the sort of mystique that entices me.
Great about the Pinget post. One of my favourite passages from ‘For A New Novel’ is about Pinget, describing how his novels constantly reinvent themselves and mutate as they go on, which was cool to read because that was something I was trying to do anyway without having the words for it, which is perhaps the benefit in reading this kind of thing?
Anyway, I had this kind of realisation this weekend. Since my assignments have been over I’ve been writing and focusing on my craft and stuff but my distance from everyone hit me. And as I was trying to sleep one night I thought about all my favourite artists and the lives they lived and stuff and relative tedium of everything is pathetic and that if I don’t meet some people soon I’m just going to wither away and expire. I’m trying to write this in a way that is less awkward than it feels. But I don’t know, I think I’ve wallowed in a kind of self-pity without knowing it, about not being to meet anyone I really connected with or shared any interests with at all during the time I was at university, but I’m sort of seeing that I could have tried a lot harder.
This is even more embarrassing but I keep being reminded of this vision I had of my future when I was a morbid socially inept kid, that it would all be different and I could meet fellow weirdos, and I’m so terrified that it’s just not going to ever happen if I don’t throw myself into something, somewhere, quickly.
I say all of this because I am hopeful. I’m an anti-pessimist by nature, and certainly not a realist. I’ve been dwelling on this stuff for a while, but it’s really hit me now. But unlike then I’m not going to wallow in it.
I think the slashes on my name might be sticking around for a while. Hopefully my name doesn’t end up novel length one day.
*Poof* Im back I need to just do a bunch of nothing after doing a bunch of something so that’s all I did long walks and nice weather and lots of working on Closed Practice. I have finally reached the final form of all this and its so funny I had to strip away all the stuff that was added and background it so all my mystical stuff is the core but in practice(Haha) its all really just tee shirts, confessions from someone who’s walked a few edges and made it back and that’s all I got oh and ass less chap sweatpants very important actually and in development. Whats been up? Working on anything new and actually what made you pick blogspot to carve out a killer blog on and whats kept you here all this time? Oh and if you could make one thing from the elder internet famous or big on the new net(think blogs forums etc. & stuff I missed) id say video game cheat codes and sharing them is something I miss! Alright I’ll brb so ttylxoxo!