Fiction
(in no order)

Gary Lutz Assisted Living (Future Tense Books)

Christopher Higgs As I Stand (Civil Coping Mechanisms)

Aimee Parkison Refrigerated Music for a Gleaming Woman (Fiction Collective 2)

Christopher Kang When He Sprang From His Bed, Staggered Backward, And Fell Dead, We Clung Together With Faint Hearts, And Mutely Questioned Each Other (Green Mountains Review Books)

Meghan Lamb Silk Flowers (Birds of Lace)

Ashley Farmer The Farmacist (Jellyfish Highway Press)

Scott McClanahan The Sarah Book (New York Tyrant)

Eugene Lim The Cyborgs (FSG Originals)

Kenward Elmslie The Orchid Stories (The Song Cave)

Constance DeJong Modern Love (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Mat Laporte Rats Nest (Book Thug)

Jennifer Scappettone The Republic of Exit 43: Outtakes & Scores from an Archaeology and Pop-Up Opera of the Corporate Dump (Atelos Press)

Grant Maierhofer GAG (Inside the Castle)

Alissa Nutting Made for Love (Ecco)

New Juche Mountainhead (Nine-Banded Books)

Elizabeth Ellen PERSON/A (Hobart)

Mitch Sisskind Do Not be a Gentleman When You Say Goodnight (The Song Cave)

Leonora Carrington The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington (Dorothy, a publishing project)

Nathaniel Mackey Late Arcade (New Directions)

Jen George The Babysitter at Rest (Dorothy, a publishing project)

Ron Padgett Motor Maids across the Continent (Song Cave)

Mathew Rohrer The Others (Wave Books)

Henry Hoke Genevieves (Subito Press)

Lidia Yuknavitch The Book of Joan (Harper)

Jac Jemc The Grip of It (FSG Originals)

Ken Sparling Hush Up and Listen Stinky Poo Butt (Civil Coping Mechanisms)

Julien Gracq A Balcony in the Forest (NYRB)

Dodie Bellamy & Kevin Killian, eds. Writers Who Love Too Much (Nightboat Books)

 

 

Poetry
(in no order)

Susan Howe Debths (New Directions)

Deborah Kuan Lunch Portraits (Brooklyn Arts Press)

Clark Coolidge Selected Poems: 1962-1985 (Station Hill Press)

Jerome Sala Corporations Are People, Too! (NYQ Books)

Kevin Killian Tony Greene Era (Wonder)

Clark Coolidge The Circus (flow)

Renee Gladman Prose Architectures (Wave Books)

Douglas Crase The Astropastorals (Pressed Wafer)

Mónica de la Torre The Happy End / All Welcome (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Rosamond S. King Rock | Salt | Stone (Nightboat Books)

Bill Knott I Am Flying Into Myself: Selected Poems 1960-2014 (Farrar Straus & Giroux)

 

 

Nonfiction
(in no order)

Peter Cherches Autobiography Without Words (Pelekinesis)

Kate Zambreno Book of Mutter (Semiotext(e))

Andrew Ervin Bit by Bit: How Video Games Transformed Our World (Basic Books)

Michel Leiris Nights as Day, Days as Night (Spurl Editions)

Juliana Huxtable Mucus in My Pineal Gland (Wonder)

Michael Seidlinger Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves: Bookmarked (Ig Publishing)

David Ehrenstein Playing the Third String: Weeding in the Garden of Cinematic Delights (CreateSpace)

Jarett Kobek Soft & Cuddly (Boss Fight Books)

 

 

Music
(in no order)

Guided by Voices August By Cake (GbV)

Chino Amobi Paradiso (NON/UNO)

Helena Celle If I Can’t Handle Me At My Best, Then You Don’t Deserve You At Your Worst (Night School)

Oxbow Thin Black Duke (Hydra Head)

Tobin Sprout The Universe and Me (Burger)

Emptyset Borders (Thrill Jockey)

William Basinski A Shadow in Time (TRR)

Pharmakon Contact (Sacred Bones)

Wayne Koestenbaum Lounge Act (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Sendai Ground and Figure (Editions Mego)

Skullflower  The Black Iron That Has Fell From The Stars, To Dwell Within (Bear It Or Be It) (Nashazphone)

D Glare 4 Oscillators And 130 Samples At 130 BPM (Opal Tapes)

Anthony Pateras Blood Stretched Out (IMM008, 2017)

Alex G Rocket (Domino)

Huxley Anne Illum (Doom of Doom)

Jlin Black Origami (Planet Mu)

Stormzy Gang Signs & Prayer (Merky)

GAS Narkopop (Kompact)

Charli XCX Number 1 Angel (Asylum)

Blanck Mass World Eater (Sacred Bones)

Wire SILVER/LEAD (Pink Flag)

Shit & Shine Total Shit! (Diagonal)

 

 

Film
(in no order)

Bong Joon-Ho Okja

Michal Marczak All These Sleepless Nights

Alex MacKenzie Apparitions

Albert Maysles, Lynn True, David Usui, Nelson Walker III, Benjamin Wu In Transit

João Pedro Rodrigues  The Ornithologist

Makoto Shinkai Your Name

Chad Stahelski John Wick: Chapter 2

Ken and Flo Jacobs Ulysses in the Subway

 

 

Art
(in no order)

Peter Campus video ergo sum (Jeu de Paume)

Fujiko Nakaya & KTL NIAGARA REVERB#07150 (Centre Pompidou)

Jean-Luc Verna Retrospective (MAC VAL)

Ismaïl Bahri Instruments (Jeu de Paume)

 

 

Internet
(in no order)

Rhizome
Musique Machine
Max Echo
The Creative Independent
Fanzine
Entropy
Real Pants
Queen Mob’s Teahouse
dark fucking wizard
HTMLGIANT
TL;DR
The Chiseler
espresso bongo
nicolashaujolly
Experimental Cinema
The Wire
FUCKED BY NOISE
SOUL PONIES
{ 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
Hobart

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Thank you, thank you. Optimism is my stock and trade, ha ha, so no problem. No, I missed the concert. I ended up Skyping internationally with an old friend instead, which couldn’t be beat. Did you fight off your laziness and attend the lecture? Interesting topic for sure. I think the heatwave begins to slowly fade away today, or we’re promised. Yesterday was still gross (weather-wise). I hung out with a visiting friend, and we saw the David Hockney retrospective at the Pompidou. That was interesting because it confirmed my opinion that he’s a totally mediocre artist apart from a brief few years in the late ’60s when moving to LA and maybe being in love seemed to bring something interesting out of him. Otherwise, I think he’s just a dabbler of an artist who’s into mish-mashing together tropes from painting’s past and who has almost nothing of his own. Art for people who think art died with Picasso and Modigliani and Matisse and those guys. I guess that sounds really harsh, oops, but what can you do. So I did that and not a whole lot else, I don’t think. I’m going to try to rectify that relative nothingness with I don’t know what this weekend with the help of the cooling skies, if they do cool. What did you do this weekend? ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Cool that you’ve conferred with Wurlitzer. Incredible stylist, superb writer. A new piece by you, great! I’ll read it over the weekend greedily. Everyone, our eminent blog pal David Ehrenstein has written a new article/think piece provocatively called ‘Why I Chose To Be Gay’, and reading it seems like a very awesome thing that you could do, so do. It’s here. ** Steevee, Hi. Theoretically, it doesn’t surprise me that the new Jodorowsky is that good. But then I think the dismissals of him as an old hippie, etc. and just dumb and self-indicting. It would surprise me if Alex Cox made a great movie this year, it’s true, but I don’t think Cox ever made films at the level of Jodorowsky at his best by a country mile. ** Bill, Yes, messiness is proving to be the total case. Giving up is starting to seem like the most sensible option. Ha ha, I can totally believe it about the soundless ‘Angelic Conversation’. I once saw ‘Sebastiane’, easily my very least favorite Jarman, in a similar situation, and I similarly thought, ‘Oh, it’s not so bad’. ** Wolf, Wowlf!!!!! You saw Oxbow, cool. I never have. I think I always miss their Paris visits. Yeah, the new Oxbow is really good. It seems like their ‘Forever Changes’ if that makes any sense, which it probably doesn’t. I don’t know Ho99o9 at all. Huh. I’ll check them out today. Cool, thank you! Have the most splendiferous weekend! ** H, Hi. Yeah, I painted and drew a lot through high school. I was more thought of as an artist than as a writer by the people at my school. But then I took some art classes in college and realized I had no talent in that area whatsoever. It just had been easy-ish to seem talented during the ‘anything goes’ psychedelic days of my youth. ‘Coming Attractions’, wow, cool you read that. A lot of those poets became greats later on, it’s cool. I did see and really like ‘The Ornithologist’, yes. It’s in my list up above. Excellent weekend to you. ** Scunnard, I’m still emitting hip-hip-hoorays with your name on them over here! ** Bernard, In the flesh! ** Amphibiouspeter, Hi. I was in Lisboa once for a few days and really liked it. There and Porto, which I liked even better for some reason. I couldn’t deal with the heat right now though. I’m from LA so I don’t know why heat seems like such an airborne torture device, but it does. Hope you like ‘Nog’. He’s a hell of a writer. Very good about your writing. Too introspective? How so? Next for our film is color grading, which starts early on Monday morning and will continue for maybe 8 to 10 days depending. Bon Saturday and Sunday! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I don’t think you’ll be sorry for scoring ‘Nog’. He’s great. I can still remember my driving lessons in high school, and it was a chore and an obstacle course. But then all that stuff becomes second nature. It’s magical. ** Jamie, Hi, Pajamies! Yeah, I like Beckett, sure. I haven’t read him in ages. I like his novels especially. It seems like his novels are his least sung work, which is weird. Friday was okay, heat aside. Lovely to see my friend. Good to solidify an opinion on David Hockney. Weekend … I’m meeting with someone today about a very interesting seeming new/forthcoming online lit/art project that he wants me to do something for, but I don’t know much yet or what he wants from me. Gonna see the new Bruno Dumont film on Sunday. Random stuff otherwise, at least in foresight. You? Wow, it takes Valium to knock down the Steroids effect? That’s interesting. Do you feel all chemical-ed out? I hope that does the trick. Jeez. I think the heat is down a bit today, but it’s too early to tell. It’s supposed to fade today and tomorrow, and then next week is supposed to be dreamy. Promises, promises. What’s interesting in your new hood? Are the in-laws there now? What else is good or not? Octopussyesque love, Dennis. ** Jeff J, Hi, Jeff. I saw ‘Glen and Randa’ but long enough ago that I have no memory of the screenplay at all. If I had to pick a favorite Wurlitzer, I think it would be ‘Drop Edge of Yonder’. Amazing news that he’s working on a new novel even slowly. I do want to see ‘Baby Driver’, yeah. Its seeming fun sounds like fun. Enjoy the mountains and your family and hopefully tolerably measured temperatures. For the new Gisele piece, there’s no dialogue or audible texts in the piece at all. There are a few jokes told in sign language (one of the characters/dancers is a deaf drug dealer). One of the dancer’s character is manic-depressive and rants to the other dancers, but only they hear it. I created characters for each of the 15 dancers. With the dancers and Gisele, we created back stories for the characters, and then the dancers learned how to inhabit their characters while simultaneously playing out Gisele’s quite complex choreography. Each character has a narrative trajectory that plays out through the piece. The trajectories intersect and are shaped/directed by the other characters’ trajectories. It’s all pretty organized and set, but there is room for spontaneity within given limits. So, yeah, my contribution is all under the surface, although the characters and their trajectories are visible to varying degrees to to viewer. If that makes any sense, ha ha. ** S., Hi, bud. Aw, thank you, likewise. Ocean swimming is nice. I like how the ocean is always the top. Seaworld … I think they have one or two very good roller coasters. When Zac and I were in Orlando, we could see Seaworld from our hotel window, but we didn’t go. Seems doable, yes. ** Sypha, You have no choice, ha ha. I love the new single! It’s raucous in a very original way. I really like it. ** Will C., Hi, Will! Yes, it’s been ages! It’s really awesome to see you! Life can happen, for sure, and I’m glad you’ve wrested control. What’s going on with you as of currently? Take care. ** Okay. Up there is, duh, lists of things that I would consider my favorites among things that were made in 2017 and that I’ve experienced thus far in 2017. I would be very happy if you guys want to share things that have been especially good for you in those categories or others post-December 2016, if you feel like it. No matter what, I’ll see you on Monday.