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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! You made it through and back! I’ve been fine. I finished a new draft of the script that I’m excited about, and I’m waiting for Zac’s feedback. Yes, we’re going to SF (and nearby LA too) for the festival screening. Already dreading the jet lag, but it should be cool. It’s a big queer festival, and I’m curious to see how that goes since it’s not a hugely queer film. Or I mean it’s coincidentally queer in one aspect, but it’s not about that. The escorts live on thanks to love! Love congratulates you and all of Austria for your Eurovision triumph, G. ** Steeqhen, Pikmin is special. It’s one of the few games that Miyamoto still has a heavy hand in. Glad your illness is dying out in your biology. Unless someone trustworthy ever infiltrates the Kremlin, the helicopter prostitute incident will always be a question mark, you’ll be presumably happy to know. ** julian, Blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction is definitely interesting. It’s a bit of a trope in France where autofiction is pretty much the most employed genre right now, but the vast majority of that ‘fiction’ doesn’t experiment with the idea in any particularly interesting way. Favorite disaster movie … that’s hard. They don’t really stick around in my mind afterwards. Among recent ones, I liked ‘San Andreas’ pretty well. Basically, the less time they spend on back story and the characters’ interpersonal goings on and the more time spent on over the top CGI madness, the better. Yes, Zac and I directed a music video for Xiu Xiu that Jamie was the star of, but the record company rejected it so it never got released. I like him. He’s a very complicated guy, no surprise. ** PancakeIan, Thanks for attending to Carsten’s post. Oh, right, Megan’s a doll or something, I remember now. I think the only recent horror movie that I actually loved was ‘Skinamarink’, but it’s more of an experimental film that coopts horror, I guess. Disneyland and Ecstacy were actually a wonderful combination. It made the park seem like the unearthly, heaven on earth type of place it aspires to be. I just saw Walt walking down the main street with a group of people, mostly kids, so my guess is he was taking some important person or potential financier and their kids on a VIP tour. Haha, OJ looked guilty, no doubt. I’m on the search for the van Dantzig book. Happy Monday. ** Steve, Wunderbar! Everyone, The fifth episode of Steve’s ‘Radio Not Radio’ podcast is now out: here. He says, ‘Feast upon it like a raccoon at a trash can full of food!’ And you should! Really, about ‘Pavements’? I love them so much that I’m going to keep my hopes up nonetheless. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, maestro. Hm, so maybe I’ll just go ahead and read that book you mentioned. Although even meh true crime does have its pleasures. ** Carsten, Thank you ever so much again from amidst the afterburn. ARTE’s fine, but they’re not Anthology Film Archive, if you know what I’m saying. Their online offerings are more adventurous than their programming. I’m still absorbing the post’s totality, and I don’t have favorite poems as of yet. ** jay, Hey. Your bf’s laptop aced the job. I’m happy that ‘Adorable’ got a grip on you. Yeah, she’s an excellent prose stylist. I hope your holiday is peaking as I type. ** Misanthrope, Yep. Because Alex prefers your booty unscorched? My weekend was fine. I hope the office is twice as interesting as ‘The Office’, which I’ve never watched and thus have no idea what I’m talking about. ** RYAN / ANGUSRAZE, Hey. I read your message, if you’re referring to the one I read, and I responded to it, I think. Cool, being an inspiration is a dream that I daren’t even dare to dream. Oh, right, I need to send you my email address, sorry. I was in a writing jag, and that tends to eat everything else. Will do. ** HaRpEr //, I watched about the first, oh, two-thirds of Eurovision before I bailed on behalf of sleep. I was actually rooting for Austria. It was so over the top and going for it full board with the b&w and operatic caterwauling and everything that I relented. I think I liked Switzerland okay, or is that one where the trans-y guy ripped his wig off and everything? But mostly I just thought, ‘Do people actually still listen to all of this rinky-dink, low end nightclub-intended pop/techno junk?’ French speaking hosts here, yeah. I didn’t understand them so well, but they seemed fairly enthusiastic about everything and not that snarky, unfortunately. Obvious luck re: the reading, and don’t get too nervous. Also very curious how you are received. Oh, cool re: Gluck. My favorite is ‘Jack the Modernist’ which I think is going to be reissued soon. ** Darbz 🕷️, Cool, I get to read you from the confines of NYC. It sounds like it’s going really well. You’re really getting around, pal. Nice. Naruto Ramen: noted. God, I do love Ramen, and it strangely hard to find great Ramen, it’s weird. I hope today brings you even more sparkling input. Have so much fun! And I’ll be biting my nails in anticipation of more. Hugs, love, me. ** Right. I haven’t done a piñata post since years ago when Zac and I were prepping ‘Permanent Green Light’, which has a piñata component, so I figured it was more than high time. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
That first pinata… dark. I love how a lot of these photos seem to be candid photos in the dark, makes it feel like a snuff film for the pinata. So many are horror movie characters as pinatas, what do you think is the reason? People love to hit them? A funny/eerie disconnect between the childhood pinata and the terror of the horror movie? I got a bit transfixed by the one pinata gif of the black alien head thingy with the purple exposed head… is that even a pinata??
How’s your day looking? Mine is probably just trying to do some simple writing, articles and the such, to occupy my brain, and meeting up with a friend later. I think I was first introduced to Pikmin through Super Smash Bros Brawl, which was my intro to many video game characters that a 8 year old in the late 00s would not know, like the Starfox series, Earthbound, F-Zero, Metroid. I know Brawl is kind of the worst Smash Bros, but I have so much nostalgia and love for the single player mode and the weirdly dark design of that game. Anyway, I always thought Olimar and the gang of Pikmin were completely adorable. I had a dream one day that I found a copy of Pikmin 2 in a shop, and then later that day I did, in fact, find a copy of Pikmin 2, which excited and terrified me! Maybe my dreams contain powers… I hope not coz I had a very unnerving dream this morning.
I’ve found myself listening to Radiohead a lot recently, particularly The Bends and Ok Computer. Which is weird as I’ve never been a big fan of The Bends, but something about the mid 90s rock sound is speaking to me. I really don’t care for High and Dry, but I think Fake Plastic Trees is a gorgeous little ballad, and then Street Spirit is incredible.
Not last night’s dream, but the night before was a weirder version of my own life; basically my roommate is moving out in June, and I’ll be getting her big room downstairs. My dream consisted of living in a different house, with a choice between two rooms: one long and thinner room, and another room with two beds. I couldn’t make my decision. There was also a giant spider the size of a hat, which at first terrified me, but then I was worried about incase something bad would happen to him. I think it’s about the stress of having to move everything downstairs. Not as much of a problem as moving houses would be, but I do have a bit of an attachment to my room.
Anyway, I’m off to have breakfast and start some work!
Hi!!
Piñatas!
Oh wow! The script’s new draft is already with Zac! That’s really impressive – and exciting!
Yeah, totally understandable about the jet lag dread! How long are you gonna be in the US this time? I’m always thrilled to find movies and series that include queer characters without putting any emphasis on their queerness, so I’m confident “Room Temperature” will find its audience at the festival.
Thank you! I never follow Eurovision, so I didn’t know about Austria’s triumph, but I feel a slight and delayed wave of pride, haha.
Love is a decreasingly cute young alcoholic at his wits end, Od. (Just keeping the escorts alive one more day!)
The Yuck ‘n Yum winter launch in 2011 featured a pinata as part of its festivities. Just goes to show this is not restricted to the the Spanish-speaking countries, seems anyone can get drunk and beat up on an inanimate object!
Further to the Timothee Chalamet chats around here, last night I watched A Complete Unknown (via my soon-to-expire Disney Channel subscription) and thought it was pretty good. Dylan was always a thing for my teachers and I remember us having to sing Blowing In The Wind during our primary school assemblies. Trying to rack my brains thinking of tunes to prescribe to future generations but sorry, I’ve got nothing.
Yeah, I agree that autofiction on its own isn’t a novel or interesting concept in 2025. What do you think makes for good autofiction? As a writer, I try to approach it kind of like Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz when she wakes up and says, “And you were there and you were there and you were there, too…” Does that make any sense? Or maybe it’s more like the prose is a play or movie and the characters are all played by actors who are real people. I tend to avoid disaster movies, because I get very bored by the action sequences. Devastating that your Xiu Xiu music video never got released. Hopefully one day it sees the light of day. It’s crazy that a band as uncompromising as Xiu Xiu would still have to bend to the will of a record company. Seems like a perfect collaboration.
Hi Dennis . Funny, I remember having a pinata around the house when I was a kid, but for some reason no one ever busted it open. Never knew so many kinds existed……everything from pancakes to penises.
I hadn’t heard of ‘Skinamarink’, but the trailer looks very retro creepy . Reminds me of this grade Z 70s horror flick I stumbled across on late late tv when I was a kid, ‘Necromancy’. It totally freaked out my 7 year old self……you’d prolly love it.
The way you describe Disneyland on E makes me wish I had got my hands on some when I was working at WDW all those years. I could use a heaven on earth type place in my life ! You should have tried joining Walt and his group of kids that time you saw him……maybe they wouldn’t have noticed, LOL.
OJ was the biggest celeb I had an encounter with at Disney. There were always some about, but usually they were being whisked around through secret hallways and private entrances, so one didn’t even know they were there . Before I exiled myself to Florida, I worked for a while at this huge movie theater in NYC . Bruce Willis and Demi Moore breezed by me during the premier of one of those ‘Die Hard’ movies. I checked Macauley Culkin’s ticket stub a couple times . He looked rather sullen. And Neil Patrick Harris scowled at me, once. But I suppose when one is famous, you earn the right to scowl.
I’m not sure what your preferred mode of reading is, but the van Dantzig novel is available on both the Internet Archive and Anna’s . I just finished a couple Yukio Mishima books. ‘The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea’, and ‘ Confessions of a Mask’. I like his stuff, but there’s so much homosexual repression in ‘Mask’ . ‘Sailor’ was more fun. They made a film of that one, and anglicized it. Kris Kristofferson played the sailor……….remember him , and his 15 minutes of fame ?
Piñatas!!! Love those!!! Makes me think of Tim from ’Permanent Green Light’, he would’ve loved this post.
I’ve been listening to Xiu Xiu like crazy lately, and now that I’m back on here I read that you and Zac directed a music video for them??? WTF?! That’s so cool! Sad that it never got released. Anyway that one would be able to watch it anyways?
Lots of stuff been going on lately. Me and some friends spent the weekend at one friends summerhouse and it was pretty fun. We were 10 people in a cabin in the middle of nowhere for 2 nights, it was great. I need to start saving some money soon though, next month I’m going to Berlin and I’ve spent most my money on cigarettes or useless crap. Eh, I’ll manage.
How are you feeling? What’s been going on? Heard you and Zac are writing a new film, how’s that whole process going? And oh by the way, I saw you sent Signe that screener, would you mind if I gave it a watch too?
Xoxo, Måns
A lot of fun those piñatas… at a friend’s work party in downtown L.A. there were disco ball-shaped ones filled with condoms, mini vodka bottles & lube (thankfully sealed). The office crowd went wild. What a dreadful evening it was…
My favorite piñata is the one below, from a passage in my poem Four Bound for the Spirit World:
Jacinta never made a secret of being a witch & still the white folks wouldn’t leave her be
“I am a bruja, not some party magician. I rewire circuits. It can get ugly”
“Never mind, the kids will love it” & sure enough the school collapsed
Now she makes her home in Florida
shacked up with Ramon
he’s out hunting crocodiles all day which she then turns into piñatas
The key is not to mess with it, for when they finally crack its skin the kids expecting candy showers get a gulletful of guts
When it comes to Eurovision I use an abstract form of logic I don’t really understand. Eurovision isn’t about performing a good song at all. It’s more about going to certain aesthetic extremes, if I had to label it, which I’d prefer not to because I think part of the enjoyment lies away from over analysis. I think that’s why it’s viewed so differently in America, because it’s not really about talent. It’s not about vision either. It’s about what it is.
Interesting what you say about pop music and ‘rinky-dink, low end nightclub-intended pop/techno junk’ because I’ve basically been thinking the same thing. I’m writing a lot about the rise of fall of hyper pop or whatever you want to call it. I remember there were these things stewing that seemed unbelievably exciting and then it sort of got played out some time after SOPHIE died, but then Charli became a worldwide superstar with the release of ‘BRAT’ which, as she said in interviews, she half-intended to be a last hurrah after her career slowed down and she considered becoming a mother, and it’s kind of a celebration of the whole scene she was a part of. Anyway, since that album was so big so many mediocre (or outright bad) artists have been co-opting the sound in a purely cosmetic/superficial way for a quick buck – which happens to everything interesting. Anyway, I could go on, but I’m thinking a lot about what’s going to happen there, and if I can let what I normally keep in the dark about certain specifics relating to my creative process into the light for a moment – try to capture my notion of whatever it is that captivates me about that music into a book.
Yes, it’s amazing that NYRB are bringing ‘Jack the Modernist’ back into print in September! I was literally just bemoaning its status as an out of print book. By the way, do you have any idea why ‘Shy’ by Kevin Killian is notoriously out of print? I feel like part of its mystique is in how original copies are basically collectors items. A lot of presses here and there and doing what they can to keep his other stuff in print, that Fellow Travellers Series imprint with ‘Spreadeagle’ for example. But yeah, I don’t know who owns the rights to ‘Shy’ and why they’re just sitting on it.
That penultimate piñata of the boy with the noose is terrifying but weirdly beautiful.