Month: September 2012 (Page 2 of 2)

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Songs from Sleater Kinney (1995)

Songs from Call the Doctor (1996)

Songs from Dig Me Out (1997)

Songs from The Hot Rock (1999)

Songs from All Hands on the Bad Ones (2000)

Songs from One Beat (2002)

Songs from The Woods (2005)

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p.s. Hey. I thought a weekend-long concert might be nice, or, rather, Thomas Moronic thought up the concert, booked the late, great Sleater Kinney, and did a majestic curatorial number, and I just chose the slot, so don’t thank me. The pleasure is all yours and all thanks go to TM, and to SK in absentia, of course, and, yeah, enjoy yourselves. Otherwise, wow, quiet around here. ** Wolf, Hey. Yeah, sorry to lay all that on you. Mm, I think I need to let this happen full-force and not try to regulate it or find a way to rationalize it. This book, if it works, and whether or not I end up publishing it, needs to mine and fully represent what George and his death does to me or there’s no point. If it works, you’ll see what I mean, and I’m functional as a person and stuff, just hiding out more than I usually do. Plus, and this is kind of stupid, but so be it, the suffering is kind of the only way I can feel very close to George now in a powerful way that’s deserving of him, so I feel like what I’m letting myself go through is a humble offering of love to him, and it just incredibly sucks that he can’t feel it, but I don’t really have another option, if any of that makes sense. It might be really nice to chat sometime, for sure, ‘cos the aloneness part of this is kind of hell, but get your move organized and in place and done first, and we can chat when you’re settled. Thanks, my friend. Oh, good, that you like the first book ‘cos it’s totally free, and you can just click that link yesterday and get it, if you want. ** Dom Lyne, Hey, Dom! Very awesome to see you! Wow, okay, but ultimately that’s really fucking great that the treatment is finally happening, right, incompetent therapist guarding the door or not? It’s probably way too complicated to explain what the treatment involves, right? Wait, I just watched your videos, and I think I get it: intense therapy sessions. Now they think you might have autism too? You are so meta, Dom. Man, I don’t know, I have to mine my essential optimism and think that, whatever happens, the concentration on helping you intently and the gift to you of a location/time to work with yourself is some kind of fucking boon. But it’s been sort of forever since I was in therapy, and you’ve probably had enough therapy to make you mental in and of itself. Anyway, lots of love and respect and support through what’s coming up, and I’m here or email-able or Skype-able or whatever if you want some friend talk. And I’ll keep your video diary close. Everyone, the superb writer, musician, and much more Dom Lyne has started a video diary. Here he is to explain: ‘These videos will chart my progression through treatment for severe personality disorders. Currently I’ve been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Dissociative Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder.’ There are three videos up as of this morning, and they’re very powerful. I’m going to be following his diary, and, if you want to do the same, or if you just want to see what the diary is, it’s here. Take care and thank you a lot and hugs, Dom. ** Allesfliesst, Hey. Yeah, very well put and said about Stendhal. I’ve never read anything else by him. I wonder if I should. Oh, I think the world can be patient re: Buddha for a few more days. And that gander incident is like an infinitely classier and more believable ‘Jesus’ face in a tortilla’ thing. I’m bated, very bated. ** Cobaltfram, Hi, John. Fingers still crossed re: the Buzzfeed thing. All does not sound lost yet. I actually saw David Lynch writing in a Denny’s once, believe it or not. He was living in the hills just above my LA apartment for a while, and he was out and about. Speaking for me, writing in/from a dark, dark place, now or in the past to lesser degrees, does not mean the act of writing itself not a huge pleasure. The great thing about writing is that the pleasure of writing when you’re writing well seems like it can withstand anything. Yury is really busy with and preoccupied by setting up his fashion line/ business right now, which is lucky, and I don’t think my stuff, which I’m trying to keep to myself, is all that noticeable, or he’s waiting for me to bring it up. Only 12 days until … very nice. That should be major. I think I might have just gotten a year extension at the Recollets, but I’m not totally sure yet. We’ll see. That would be a huge relief. ‘F for Fake’, yeah, fantastic. Welles deserves every bit of his genius status in my book. All right, have a superb weekend, man. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. I’ve been wanting to watch or rewatch some Fulci lately. ‘Vivre Sa Vie’ might be the one, hm. Yeah, that was the troubled link, and, as I guess you saw, it’s just a boomerang that leads back here. ** Thickdick/ lolita Veldhoen, Thanks for giving me one last dose of your Thickdick phase, man. Dude, the blurb is yours. You can even used raised type and gilded lettering, if you like. I’m cool with getting older. I definitely wouldn’t mind a time machine with a de-aging app included for short return visits though. Mm, no, I don’t think I can agree with you on the over 40 problem. I mean, yeah, I have an anarchist’s hatred of generalizations and all that, and, if I think about it, which I guess I just did, everybody I know who’s over 40 is pretty awesome. I’m a lucky guy, though. ** Steevee, Hey, Steve. Yeah, I totally agree with you about WKW. I’m not 100% happy with ‘In the Mood for Love’, but it’s still happening there. But, yeah, prior to that, I thought he definitely among the most exciting directors working. Sure hope the blank CD behaves. ** Sypha, Yeah, total shockeroo about the no Madonna albums, right? Ooh, ‘The Magic Mountain’, one of the greats among greats, that one, if you ask me. I read the BEE thing on DFW, and a bunch of the commentary on the ‘feud’. I don’t know, Bret is obviously trying to rile people. I disagree with him 100% about DFW, but then I don’t agree with DFW’s dismissal of Bret’s work either. Whatev’ ** Robert-nyc, Hi, Robert! Thanks about my dark place. You doing ‘Annie’ is already helping me in my fantasies big time, man. It’s hard to imagine McDowell thinks he’s the black Tao Lin, but maybe he sees it as a foothold? Great to see you, R., and thanks for the kind words. ** Starlon H, Hey! Yeah, me too. I’m way into and excited by the new writers and work and sites and stuff they’re calling Alt Lit in general, and I keep finding really, really good writers scattered liberally under that rubric. I’m a big Tao Lin fan too, of course. Thanks for starting ‘TMS’. Yeah, the narrator is a tricky bastard, and it sounds like you’re getting him pretty well so far. Great weekend! ** Math, Hey, Math! Oh, pal, I’m so sorry. I’m fucked up/ depressed too. Weak but heartfelt high five. I’m pretty excited about that impending tarot deck, I gotta tell you. Yeah, even a right place can start to feel wrong and get to you. LA would certainly give you some real differences to start to work with. Van Nuys, wow, that’s, like, serious LA. Why there? Definitely give me the news and the link re: your new online thing asap. A jolt of you would be awfully welcome. Really happy to see you, my pal. Really, really great of you to bring yourself in here. So appreciated. Take love and have the best weekend you can. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Thanks about the place I’m in. That’s my thinking. I just need to get this first draft done before I crash or lose it entirely. You didn’t sound like Dr. Phil. You didn’t even sound like Dr. Drew. Dr. Seuss maybe. Fingers are already crossed, if you can’t tell, and they’ll stay that way until you’ve got that temp job in writing or behind a firm handshake or something. ** Jax, Hey, Jack! Thank you, pal. How did it go? Predictably, the stream did not stream here. I’m going to go see what I can find this weekend. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli! I know, I know, books, books, it just never ends. Lovely weekend! ** So, why don’t you climb back up and beyond this text now and let your ears have a turn, eh? Dreamy weekends to you all. See you on Monday.

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This fall I’ll be teaching a creative writing workshop on short stories for the first time in about 20 years. I’d like to ask you, my friends who write, to give me the benefit of your advice–for free–by asking a few questions. If you are kind enough to answer them, why not do so as soon as you find time? Short, fast answers are much better for me than long deliberation.
Help me!

What short stories (and writers) do you think of as models, or ideal? Why?

What are some great online magazines or resources for people interested in short fiction?

Any great collections or anthologies of short fiction?

What have you had to learn as you wrote?

What’s the worst thing to do in short fiction?

Would you like to give this class an assignment?

If you’ve taught or taken a fiction-writing workshop or class:

What can a fiction workshop can do?

What makes a fiction workshop work?

Any exercises that really make a difference?

Any exercises or other activities that seem a complete waste of time?

What’s an exercise or experiment in writing fiction you’d like to try?
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p.s. Hey. So, today d.l. Bernard, the blog, and I ask for a little more access to your brain and a little extra something from the time you spend here. Please respond to any or all of Bernard’s queries, if you can and don’t mind. It would be of great help to him, and any thoughts and answers you can spare will be very greatly appreciated by Bernard, and by me too. Thanks a lot, everybody! ** Misanthrope, Hey. Oh, there’s probably some destructive force in my c.v., but it’s never intentional, I promise that. Well, if you believe the news, especially lately, the US is positively rampant with seductress teachers, so I’ll expect to see Davey sitting in some witness stand with a pixelated face any time now. I had lots of sex in middle school, but, hey, I’m Dennis fucking Cooper. Nothing too porn worthy, though. I predict he has pubes like a stray dog. ** Allesfliesst, Well, in that case I’ll send my henchmen off to you on the next plane east. Hardly any dialogue in any of Tati’s films, at least in my memory, and almost zip in ‘Playtime.’ I think I’m in love with your Buddha. I think my atheist days might have just drawn to a conclusion. ** David Ehrenstein, From what I’ve read — and thank you very kindly for the links to those reviews — the degree to which the ‘leftover footage’ is being judged primarily as such is a glass half-empty or half-full thing. I’m dying for it. And it just nailed down a French distributor, so, yes! ** Statictick, Hey, N! Yay, you’re fully reconnected! I know almost shit about this stuff, but aren’t there other ways to test you than an MRI? Or is an MRI the Zeus of medical tests? Dude, seriously, keep those spirits up. That’s very, very important. Lots of love, man. ** Jebus, Hi. English and Philosophy, very nice. Long term and deep input, that’s great. Well, yeah, I think that generalization about kids today being more self-absorbed, etc. than kids of the past is absolute and total bullshit. I think that’s just fear of aging, of the future, of death manifesting itself re: the easiest and least deserving of targets. When people say shit like that, I think it’s just embarrassingly self-incriminating. Same with the stuff about popular music not being as great as it used to be and the stuff about a life full of texting and the internet being a lesser kind of life and all of that stuff. I think that’s just cynicism at work, and cynicism is just a fancy name for conservatism. Or something. Oh, awesome, thanks for the link to your music. I’ll have a listen when I get done with the p.s. Yeah, thanks much, I really appreciate the share. ** Math tinder, Math! Well, it must have been to have dragged your amazing ass back in here. Any chance for a ‘how’re you doing” and ‘what’s going on”? ** Cobaltfram, Hey, John. I think if you can use an opportunity like an article to try to advance your practice and art, always take it. You know, always aim highest and then pull back if you have to and, worst comes to worst, you’ll end up both progressing aesthetically and getting a new sense of your own limitations, the form’s, and the form’s conventional audience’s. Fingers crossed. Let me know Ross’s reaction. Poem fest! Terrific! I’ll join in starting today. Everyone, a cool alert and gift kind of thing from Cobaltfram. Here he is: ‘The other night at work, it was super slow, and I scribbled out some poems. Some of them are super short and sort of ephemeral, but I figured I’d type them all up. They’re scheduled to post on my Tumblr over the next couple of days. If you’re interested, you can keep track of them here.’ Join me in keeping my eyes all over that, everyone, won’t you? Thanks for the ‘SIMP’ progress report, too. Sounds most promising. Oh, right, Labor Day. That’s why there weren’t any new reviews on Pitchfork yesterday. Tiny mystery solved. ** 5STRINGS, Hey. Can’t agree with you on Rick Astley, yuck, but what do I know? He wasn’t a mega-star because of the quality of his constructions, god knows. Heap on the road, yes, now you’re talking. Yeah, Labor Day, I totally spaced on that, like I told the cobalt one. That’s why half the American news stories yesterday were about unions. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Good move on the fundraiser page. I actually popped in here last night, saw your link, and watched the video. What a totally awesome bunch of folks you Y&Y; people are. Such an interesting group of distinct, cool people. Being able to put faces and voices, etc. to the project is only total boon. Anyway, I’m going to go contribute to the cause right now. Hold on. This’ll take a minute. Done. And now … Everybody, While the blog is in this helping out mode today, how about spreading some love and generosity towards d.l. _Black_Acrylic and the great zine project that he co-edits? I just did my part. How about you? Here’s _B_A to explain: ‘The Yuck ‘n Yum AGK now has a page at Sponsume which is here. There’s a video where you can see the Yuck ‘n Yum team in the flesh! Also, anyone who chips in £ for the 2012 AGK will get their names added to our sponsors song. So we’ll sing your name at the AGK, just imagine that!’ Go, go, go! ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. I did see that thing on Alt Lit Gossip, and also Frank Hinton’s great, longish thoughts on the matter. Yeah, you understood what I meant. I foresee or at least worry about the polluting of Alt Lit that will come when the establishment begins to define it, and when that definition is standing between the scene and writers and their intentions vis-a-vis the readers/writers at large, and what will happen when the establishment begins to pick and choose writers and people in the scene as its stars or as its most talented members based, undoubtedly, on traditionalist notions of what constitutes good versus bad literature. It’s inevitable that the scene won’t be able to completely control their identity and message in a pure way. And what will happen will be interesting and a real test and all of that. It’s like, I wonder what being a ‘Beat’ writer was like before the media got a handle on ‘the Beats’ and declared it to be a phenomenon at large, and the public image of ‘the Beats’ became gentrified and then cemented in that gentrified form, and that reductive image began to affect not just readers’ perception of the writers’ work and their scene but the writers and their efforts too. Worst case scenario? Maybe either that Alt Lit will become recognized, branded from the outside, and hyped as the official literary alternative, i.e. ‘alternative rock’ back in the ’90s, leading to a select group of writers and magazines and sites that will become stars based not on their importance to the scene and influence within it, but based on the flashiness of their acceptability, or that Alt Lit will be dismissed in a general way as lightweight and a fad and not literary enough, etc., whereupon the scene might develop from that point on in reaction to that dismissal, which could cause either a defiant solidification of whatever its aesthetic is at that point, thereby stunting its growth, or perhaps an impetus to meet the challenge to prove itself as ‘serious’, leading to a distortion within the work and the scene caused by an external imposition rather than a natural evolutionary process. I guess those seem like the worst case scenarios to me off the top of my head. Obviously, great idea for you to get your work seen in a variety of places. I think it’s important to be as ambitious as you can. And, yeah, being patient and letting the work itself determine the pace at which you finish books and gain recognition, etc. is really paramount. I think you know my trajectory as a writer. It was gradual and had highs and lows and lots of surprises, and I worked hard all the time and believed as completely as I could in my work and that I would get better and that what I did would be recognized, and I wasn’t ready to publish a novel until I was in my late 30s, which seems late to a lot of young writers, but it didn’t feel late, and the lateness didn’t matter at all. I think your optimism about Alt Lit is beyond justified. Like I’ve said before so many times, this is the most exciting and promising and quality-rich time in American lit that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve paid close attention to that kind of stuff since I was a teenager. Dude, the comment was so not long. Total pleasure and stimulation, and thanks, man. ** Aaron Kaye (formerly Hayden Derk), Hi, Aaron! Okay sounds good enough. A cold storage freezer … like moving things around and in and out and stuff? Or, I don’t know. I sort of have this cold freezer interest, I guess from horror movies, although the house where I grew up had a huge cold storage freezer in the basement that didn’t work, so maybe that. Yeah, I’m excited to read your new work whenever you’re ready to air it. Just let me know. It’s great to have you back, man. ** Kyler, Thank you, Kyler. It’s a pleasure and a big help. ** Sypha, ‘The Expendables 2’ is really charming, like I said. Total, deliberate, mostly sincere throwback to ’80s action movies, kinda meta, kinda ironic at times, ultra-violent in the way contemporary action movies aren’t anymore, super sentimental, … yeah, I don’t know why it works so well, but it did. Enjoy Madonna tonight. No doubt it’ll be a big, fun show. Tell me how it was. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! Oh, that tweet, ha ha. Dude, the word honor is barely the twinkle in the eye of how honored I would be to have my work exist in your voice. That said, I don’t think Grove Press has the slightest interest in lifting even the tip of a finger re: my books, at least for now. Can’t hurt to get my agent to query them, though. Thank you, man, whatever the case. ‘Neuromancer’, nice! So excellent, no? I kind of love that whole trilogy, although I guess ‘Neuromancer’ is probably the best of the three. I kind of decided to save ‘Cosmopolis’ for a future plane ride or DVD + bored night, and that sounds about right, no? You should see ‘Holy Motors’ when it opens there. That was the biggest eye opener I’ve seen in the last months. ‘The Master’ for sure. Very curious to see that one. Be with Tuesday in a big way, pal. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh, It was nice, yeah. That’s okay, just concentrate on getting past the breakdown, man, promise me. I know that you know, man, I think you just need to find the way to remember that you know, and you will. ** Right. Please help Mr. Bernard Welt out today. Any little help you can give him would be a big help. Thanks, you guys. See you tomorrow.