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Don Q Inn
‘The Don Q Inn of Dodgesville aka, Small Town, Wisconsin offers theme rooms for those seeking a different kind of hotel experience. There are rooms for all sorts of loser fantasies, called FantaSuites, like sleeping in a fake hot-air balloon in the “Up, Up, and Away” Room. There is an underground tunnel you can run through. There’s a room that’s the entire, dilapidated inside of an &47 plane that’s rammed up against the building. Then there is the “Northern Lights” room with a bed in an igloo; “Tranquility Base”, is a sort of space station; “The Geisha Garden”, which oddly enough has a bed and not tatami mats. But it’s “The Swinger” room that really got us and we’re almost too disturbed to even describe this one.
‘Upon arrival when we opened the door of the room and first thing we noticed was a “gross odor” about the room – we believe it was the smell of mold and the room had lots of flies. We keep killing them but there always seemed to be another one. The room was DARK. It had a dark (almost black wood ceiling) with more of that wood on parts of the walls. The DARK carpeting was so thin we think it was outdoor carpeting and OLD. The bedspreads were also DARK and under them the beds were adorned with blankets that were at least 25 years old.’ — Hotel Chatter
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Henn-na
‘The receptionist at the Henn-na Hotel in Ginza, Tokyo, is looking at me blankly, smile fixed on her perfectly made-up face and eyes blinking in a disconcerting, shutterlike fashion. Then she speaks – first in Japanese, then in an English translation. “Welcome to the Henn-na Hotel. Please use the kiosk machine to complete your check-in.”
‘It’s hard to find good staff these days. So Japan’s H.I.S hospitality group, who own Henn-na (which translates as “weird”) in the heart of Tokyo’s upmarket shopping district, have taken a revolutionary step and installed very lifelike androids to look after the check-in process. And so far, no-one is complaining that the machines have ousted human employees.’ — Japan Nut
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Null Stern Hotel
‘Null Stern Hotel is an abandoned Swiss nuclear shelter that’s been converted into a hotel. “Null Stern” translates to “zero star”, and that rating is earned because guests don’t get much more than a bed and hot water. You’ll even have to share your room with up to six other people. On the plus side a night only costs ten dollars, but this hotel isn’t designed just for travelers on a budget. Its creators are marketing it both as a social experiment and a chance for guests to get to know their fellow travelers on a more intimate level.’ — Hotelville
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The UFO Hotel
‘This entire project is the dream of Alien Fresh Jerky proprietor Luis Ramallo, who lures an estimated 750,000 lovers of dried, spiced meats a year off of Interstate 15 and into Baker, which sits between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. “We are tremendously excited about developing the first authentic UFO Hotel in the world, not just in America,” he says. “There are tens of millions of Sci-Fi and UFO fans in the world who have been dreaming of a venue just like this. They will finally have it.”
‘Aside from the alien-themed everything, the best part of the hotel might be the opportunity for guests “to twist various dials and hatch handles” on the way to their rooms. “If they turn the wrong one, a warning light and siren will flash, just like on an actual spaceship.” JUST LIKE ON AN ACTUAL SPACESHIP. When they’re not setting off sirens, guests can also take advantage of “unique photo-ops throughout the spacecraft with alien crew members re-charging themselves in pods.” This hotel cannot come into being soon enough. Rooms are expected to start at just $300 a night. (“[A]n incredible bargain for a one-of-a-kind experience,” Ramallo says.)’ — la.curbed
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Haoduo Panda Hotel
‘The Haoduo Panda Hotel, which lies at the foot of Emei Mountain in southwest China’s Sichuan province, is the first hotel of its kind in the world. The rooms are decorated with panda pictures and cuddly toy pandas sit on the beds, tables and chairs. The staff even dress in panda costumes to entertain the guests. The hotel will officially open in May with room rates from 300 ($48) to 500 yuan per night.’ — The Independent
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Maya Hotel
‘The $209 million Maya Hotel located south of Cancun, slated to open in 2026. This pyramid-shaped hotel will float in the crystal clear Caribbean waters with the help of a new composite material, normally used in the defense industry, which is billed as six times lighter and ten times stronger than steel.’ — Five Star Alliance
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CasAnus Hotel
‘A hotel in Belgium is offering tourists the chance to stay in a accomodation designed to look like a colon. The CasAnus Hotel offers couples an overnight stay for 120 Euros – around £100 – complete with a double bed, shower and central heating. It was originally created by Dutch artist Joep Van Lieshout, but the structure was renovated into living quarters and now sits on the grounds of the Verbeke Foundation Art Park. The hotel is run by owners Geert and Carla Verbeke-Lens, who say the hotel is ‘extremely popular’ with couples. It is utterly silent and pitch black at night, so bring a torch if you want to creep around at night.’ — collaged
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Tianzi Hotel
‘The Tianzi Hotel in Hebei Province, China is the largest image hotel in the world. Shou, on the left, is holding a peach that contains a suite. Enter the hotel through his right foot. Built in 2000, this 10-story building depicts Fu, Lu and Shou—Chinese gods symbolizing good fortune, prosperity and longevity.’ — collaged
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Waterhouse at South Bund
‘Like something from a Hitchcock movie, each of the 19 rooms in this converted Shanghai warehouse hotel comes with peepholes in the walls and the door, so visitors can “spy on” guests as they pass by (or vice versa). NHDRO, the interior design firm behind the hotel, claims that this voyeuristic approach to living harks back to the traditional Shanghai residential alleyways called “longtangs” (弄堂). Among these labyrinth-like communities, neighbors would peep into each other’s houses.’ — collaged
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Amethyst Hotel
‘Purple amethyst crystals formed inside rocks provided the inspiration for this ambitious hotel design, proposed by Dutch studio NL Architects for an island off the south coast of China. “Amethyst Hotel is, in a way, a Marriott Marquis hotel sliced in the centre, exposing its magnificent interior,” they added.’ — dezeen
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Hotel de Sal Playa
‘In the dining room of the Hotel de Sal Playa in Bolivia, the salt is always on the table. In fact, at the world’s only hotel made of salt, the salt is the table. Located near the famous Uyuni salt mine in the southwestern part of the country, Hotel de Sal Playa’s roof, and bar are built of salt. Even the floor is covered with salt granules.
‘The hotel was built in 1993 by a salt artisan who saw a mint in the number of tourists looking for places to stay while visiting the nearby mine, which is one of the world’s largest of its kind. The lodge has 15 bedrooms, a dining room, a living room and a bar.
‘The hotel walls are made of salt blocks stuck together with a cement-like substance made of salt and water. During rainy seasons, the walls are strengthened with new blocks, while the owners ask the guests to avoid licking the walls to prevent deterioration.’ — collaged
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Flush Hotel
‘Sim Jae-Duck built the $1.6 million toilet bowl-shaped Flush Hotel in order to raise awareness about cleaner sanitation around the world. This live-in restroom is over 400 square meters in size, and is located just south of Seoul, South Korea. The most amazing part about this giant toilet is not the design, but rather how much it costs to stay here for one night: $50,000. It must be said, though, that the proceeds go to provide poor countries with proper sanitation.’ — collaged
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The Sun Cruise Resort & Yacht
‘The Sun Cruise Resort & Yacht sits perched high above the shores of Jeongdongjin, a South Korean tourist town which, according to the South Korean government at least, has the best sunrise in all the land. Measuring in at roughly 540 feet, the cruise-ship themed resort has 211 guest rooms. Its rooms feature port holes to give an authentic experience, and the sounds of waves crashing against the boat plays out over loudspeakers. The piped soundtrack of bird calls adds to the illusion of being at sea. The resort opened in 2002 as a way to give tourists who didn’t have the money to go on a cruise the experience of being on one.’ — collaged
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Can Sleep Hotel
‘Every August for the past 30 years, thousands of partygoers have flocked to the Dyrehaven, a magnificent beech forest next to Denmark’s Lake Skanderborg for the Skanderborg Music Festival, or Smukfest. Here, the creative juices flow just as freely as the beer. In lieu of living in a tent, some lucky attendees sleep in one of 114, two-story aluminum Royal Unibrew beer cans, enlarged to 12.5 feet high. Covered in golden, bubbly wallpaper and furnished entirely by Ikea, the first floor features a small living area and a minibar that’s replenished each day. When the dweller’s ready to turn in, he climbs the ladder to a circular double bed and pops the skylight.’ — moco-choco.com
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Lloyd in the Sky with Diamonds Hotel
‘The Curtis Hotel in Denver, a DoubleTree Hotel, has created a $50,000 floating bounce house hotel, billed as “the world’s only floating pop-up hotel room”. Guests will stay the night suspended more than 22 feet in the air in an inflatable hotel room that features a bed, a couch and a small bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet. The hotel stay includes luxurious airport transportation via limousine, stocked with cocktails and munchies, a set of Swarovski binoculars, a Tiffany diamond necklace & earrings, a 60s themed party for 100 friends, and the butler service of Lloyd, the hotel’s spokesrobot who will give you bottomless Mimosas and Bloody Marys and iPad mini loaded with the Stargazer app.’ — collaged
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Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn
‘Indigenous owned Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn is deluxe accommodation located in Jabiru, approximately 2.5 hours drive from Darwin and ideally located for visitors to explore the north of Kakadu, including Ubirr, Cahills Crossing and Magella Creek. The hotel is uniquely shaped to represent Kakadu’s most famous inhabitant, the saltwater crocodile. Relax in a spacious air-conditioned room, unwind in your private courtyard, by the shaded outdoor pool or take in the landscaped interior garden view from the balcony. After an adventurous day, dine at Escarpment Restaurant and Bar.’ — travelnt.com
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Tate & Lyles Edible Hotel
‘The world’s first hotel made entirely from cake will welcome guests for one night only in London. More than 14 artists spent 2,000 hours baking and 900 hours decorating the hotel with over 600 kilos of sugar. It has three floors and eight rooms. Guests of the hotel will be encouraged to eat their way through windows and walls clad with 2,000 macaroons. The hotel contains a rug made from 1,081 meringues hand-stitched together.
‘Sugar fanatics will also be able to chow down on windowsills built entirely from fudge, a bath filled with caramel-coated popcorn and 20 kilos of marshmallow garlands. Bedside tables at the hotel even have edible books and there is edible art on the walls.
‘Guests will have the chance to enjoy a Pirates of the Caribbean room with a treasure chest full of edible pearls, ginger-spiced doubloons and cutlasses and a Mediterranean-inspired bedroom with 10 meters of edible bunting. There is also a British-inspired golden syrup sugar room and a South Pacific room with a two meter-high Easter Island statue made entirely from chocolate mud cake.’ — Opposing Views
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The Nakanoshima Hotel
‘Where else can one enjoy room service while on the toilet than in Japan? The Nakanoshima Hotel is a small, but luxurious, fully functioning public bathroom. Located in downtown Osaka, fenced by two rushing rivers, this one-room facility boasts an ivory-sheeted bed, a stylish desk, fresh-cut flowers and a prominent opening in the wall marked with a male figure on the right and female on the left. Through this opening, a stream of citizens flow in hopes of emptying their bladders. Stay if the idea of waking up to a cleaner mopping up urine from the tiles is intriguing to you. Crafted by Tatzu Nishi, the hotel is his celebration of the everyman’s commode. On the other hand, it is thoroughly disinfected and designed to be comfortable even though you can still hear people using the toilet in the other side of the wall.’ — Purple Travel
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La Villa Hamster
‘If you want to know what it’s like to live like a hamster, than look no further than La Villa Hamster. Tucked away down an unremarkable side-street near the centre of the western French city Nantes, La Villa Hamster offers guests the “unique” opportunity to live the life of a rodent. The hotel has all basic amenities essential for a rodent such as containers of organic grain, a metal water spigot activating by pushing a giant lever with your foot, and a double bed accessible only by a step ladder and a crawl space, a bathroom with a giant vat of wood chips, a giant troth for a sink and a working human-sized hamster wheel. Villa guests are also given hamster masks to wear during their stay. The owners are now looking for properties in Paris and in London with the intention of expanding the experience across the channel.’ — collaged
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Faralda NDSM Crane Hotel
‘Soaring above the derelict shipyard-turned-edgy artist community NSDM-werf on the northern side of the IJ river (a free 10-minute ferry ride from Amsterdam’s Centraal Station), a vivid red, yellow and gunmetal-grey industrial crane contains a TV production studio and the Faralda NDSM Crane Hotel Amsterdam (faralda.com). Its three fantasy-world suites perched at varying heights – Free Spirit (35m), Secret (40m) and Mystique (45m) – are swathed in shimmering fabrics, with freestanding baths, bold objets d’art and vertiginous views. On the crane’s rooftop, you can soak in the outdoor hot tub or plunge off (attached to a bungee cord).’ — collaged
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The Spitbank Fort Hotel
‘In 1800, the Lord Palmerston, the British Prime Minister at the time, commissioned the construction of several forts at Sea Portsmouth to protect the harbor from invading French forces after the news that Napoleon III had become Emperor of France. The attacks never materialized, but the forts continued to strengthen with weapons and maintained throughout the century. Decommissioned in the 1980′s and most were sold to individuals, and one of them was transformed into a luxury hotel. The Spitbank Fort has everything one would want to enjoy the holidays. Luxury furnishings in the eight suites, impressive surroundings with pool, bar, restaurant, sauna and specially designed decks for guests to enjoy the sun.’ — loststateminor.com
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Love Villa Hotel
‘Love hotels are rife in greater Bangkok, since Thailand is one of the affair-iest countries in the world. But most of them are pretty dated and you wouldn’t really want to see them in bright light or sobriety. However, Love Villa, a new-ish property in Nonthaburi that’s about an hour and a half drive from downtown Bangkok, looks pretty modern. The 40-room hotel has been open just over two years. Its theme is “Communism”. Low-lit in red and black, the rooms feature light-up hammer and sickles behind the beds, surrounded by stars, gun-filled war rooms, and on one wall a Hitler mural.’ — collaged
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Shimao Wonderland InterContinental
‘The $555 million Shimao Wonderland InterContinental is an epic 380-room, five-star, underwater-cave hotel-meets-sports-complex currently being built into the side of a partially flooded Chinese quarry. Located thirty miles from Shanghai near Tianmenshan Mountain, the S-shaped hotel from British design firm Atkins will be a “groundscraper”, since it’ll jut only 50 feet above the quarry but drop 19 stories below it. If all goes to plan, it’ll eventually be part of a huge theme park, as well.
‘Instead of draining the quarry, they’re gonna fill it up to create an artificial lake for water sports. They’re also installing a futuristic waterfall that cascades over the hotel’s façade. And that there’ll be rock climbers scaling the surrounding cliffs. And bungee jumpers leaping off of them. So, wait, if the hotel is now sitting in a lake, doesn’t that mean…? Correct, the two bottom floors will be entirely underwater.’ — InterTravel
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Null Stern 2
‘One open-air hotel, called Null Stern, eliminates walls and a roof altogether. Located in the middle of the Swiss Alps, The Null Stern concept simply consists of a double bed with an oversized backboard, a small floor area, two bedside tables and a pair of lamps. The nearest toilet is 10km away. In German, the hotel’s name translates to “zero stars.”
‘”The star is not the hotel but each guest,” the hotel’s co-founder, Daniel Charbonnier, told Business Insider. “We got rid of all the walls, and the only thing left is you and your experience.”
‘Null Stern launched with one bed in July 2016, and it opened its second in early June on the Göbsi summit in Appenzell, Switzerland. Staying the night will set you back AED 1, 100 ($274).’ — collaged
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Karostas Cietums
‘Originally built in 1900, Liepaja’s notorious Karosta Prison in Latvia spent its early years as an infirmary, before becoming a Nazi and Soviet military jail from which World War Two prisoners made desperate attempts to escape. Some were sentenced to death, and the prison has since featured on television amidst claims of regular hauntings.
‘Now renovated as a hotel and tourist centre, there is quite simply no better place to experience an authentic ‘prisoner’ life…except that you get to leave at the end of your stay!
‘Simply sign a consent form, and you can experience an ‘Extreme Night’ in the Communist-era prison, complete with enforced exercise and insults from the guards, cleaning duties, prisoner rations and an iron-clad cell complete with bed, toilet, a small dresser…oh, and cast iron bars on the door.’ — Host Unusual
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p.s. Hey. The estimable filmmaker and writer Lily Lady and I had a conversation about Zac Farley’s and my imminent film ROOM TEMPERATURE and other things for TalkHouse, and you can read it if you’d like to. ** Thomas Moronic, Hey, hey! I’ll look for the Huggy Bear book. Did you ever see them live? Were you old enough back then? Final days on your new novel is ultra-exciting news! Keep that nitpicking going as long as you need to. And I didn’t realise your Kiddie Punk book is on the cusp! Whoa. I’ll hit Michael up. Enjoy, enjoy!!! Love, me. ** jay, Hi! No, I don’t think that novel influenced me, but his work in general probably did. He’s a huge fave. Haywire legs. I’m getting Jerry Lewis vibes. But sorry for the timing, but happy you made Paris count anyway. That push-pull can be kind of ideal. As long as the pull doesn’t get pushed too far, I guess. Enjoy home, and love from a familiar place. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Haha, love was actually quoting the original and infinitely better Gram Parsons version. Madonna! And I didn’t recognize it. Which I’m kind of proud of, haha. What happened to the “You feel my heart beating” blues?, Where is that “Anywhere you go, I will go with you”?, Call that old fashioned love tickle last year’s news, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Even I saw that famous The Word appearance. It seems like they were kind of built to splinter, but it’s sad that they did. ** Misanthrope, Vomiting sucks. Well, actually the opposite of sucks. Sorry, dude. I hope working cured you. Is that even possible? Hang in there. ** Steeqhen, You could start there, but it might be better to start your R-G experience with one of his early classics like ‘The Voyeur’ or ‘In The Labyrinth’. Congrats on the exam acing. Ecstatic, dreaming, and intelligent: what a combo! You sound like you have the short term future sorted. Thanks about the screening and scripting. The script is finally getting pretty close. Big mid-week! ** Sypha, Yes, your Robbe-Grillet phobia is very well known around these parts. Oo-er yourself! ** Jack Skelley, Hey. Yes, his films are fantastic. Knowing that Vic Mizzy had input does add some pos points to AF, okay. Lily Lady and I talked about ‘RT’. Link at the top if you haven’t seen it. Pawn takes King. ** Lucas, Hi. Um, Saturday morning could work. I have to do the blog in the morning, but we could sort something out. Let me know. And feel better. Yes, ‘ASN’ is on archive.org. I should share this publicly. Everyone, I forgot to put a link in the post yesterday indicating that the o.o.p. and hard to find ‘A Sentimental Novel’ is free and readable on archive.org aka here. ** James, Like I’m sure I’ve said, I never imagine people looking at the blog on their phones and never compensate for that possibility when I build posts, which is dumb of me since the contemporary world (except me) wants to do everything on their phones. Anyway, you seem to have figured out a way. Well, then, may you remain a gay verbiage magnet. I watched a documentary about the making of ‘Half Life 2’ last night, and I didn’t have to dance at all. It was relaxing. Hm, I actually can’t think of a moniker for GbV fanatics. There must be one, or I guess I would know if there was. How strange. It’s refreshing to know there’s someone out there who doesn’t love ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’. (I’ve never read it.) I hope WiFi is back in your corner. ** Adem Berbic, Well, hello there, Adem, old pal. No way, that’s amazing about Charlotte and Pilot! How great! I’m happy it sprang to my mind at an appropriate moment. So cool! Yes, After8 stocks Pilot. Hesse K did their launch for their Pilot book there not so long ago. Hm, no, I don’t think I have any paper preferences. Not so flimsy and thin you can see through the pages though, please. Something that won’t turn yellow in a year. In other words, not the paper that Serpents Tail used to use when I published with them. My old ST books are far more crumbly than readable now. Me? Working on the new film script and finishing the last polishing of ‘RT’ and preparing for its upcoming premiere and trying to map out its future. That’s pretty much it. Great to see you!!! ** HaRpEr, Happy to have reinforced what was so already there. No, I don’t know the Gorelick translation. ‘A Tomb for Anatole’ is really lovely. The only Walsers I know are ‘Jakob von Gunten’, which is great, and ‘Microscripts’, which is very good. You’ve inspired me to read more. I’ll seek ‘The Assistant’. ** Steve, Interesting, I want to see that Fonda film. Back when I was more interested in acting, I thought Henry Fonda was the best American actor, although I don’t remember why. Yep, about ‘Your Jazz’. And yep, about those assumptions. ** Justin D, Hi. Yes, wildly reductive. It was strange, especially here in France where everybody should know a whole lot better by now. ‘I’ll never understand why people are so afraid of their own imaginations’: If I wasn’t allergic to non-organic clothes or more ambitious with my organic clothing, I would print that on a t-shirt and wear it every-motherfucking-where. Yes, about the Q&A. The screening is primarily for film students at the College where the screening is happening, but the public can come too. So we’re hoping for an interesting actual film-related questioning. Have a fine day? What did you do? ** Nicholas., We have a short teaser trailer that we’ll release as soon as we get the green light to announce the World premiere info. End of the month, I think. I’m neither pro nor con about trailers, although I never ever believe them. Wait and see, like you said. That stuff is out of your control. Best to leave the uncontrollable stuff to the fates. I did boyfriends until I realised that wasn’t really for me, and now I’m into being a solo act with good friends, and I like it so much better. But that’s just me, I guess. My dinner remains a mystery. Probably pasta of some sort. You/yours? ** Darby𓃰𓃰, Hi, D! Oh, Virginia, but, oh, Busch Gardens! That could be better than NYC, but I’m a bit prejudiced towards theme parks, of course. For me personally, I don’t think there’s any good reason to spend much time listening to anything Lou Reed did after ‘The Blue Mask’ (1982). Carole King … I mean, she did write some really good songs, and she’s skilled at what she does, but she does err towards the obvious and sentimental. I’m not much of a fan. Try Buffy Sainte-Marie’s ‘Illuminations’? No, I don’t really listen to music until I’m very awake and have gotten through the day’s p.s. because I have to stay focused. Then all bets are off. I don’t even drink cold coffee when the weather is boiling hot. What do you need to do to get ready for your trip, if anything? ** Okay. Today I’m taking it really easy on you, I think. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
A first – I actually showed my mother this blogpost. Well, parts of it. The love hotels with Hitler and the CasAnus made me laugh out loud. The Maya Hotel reminds me of the University of East Anglia. The Henn-Na hotel is, of course, creepy. The spaceship allures me, with its copious neon. The pandas are cute, but the employees in panda getup spook me a bit. The salty hotel seems. Saline. The crane seems like it’d be chilly. As does Null Stern 2. The lack of privacy of some of these, eek. But of course Nakanoshima gels with my taste for public loos. Spitbank looks pretty spiffy, if the kind of place that millionaires in a horror film would get stranded at. Nothing wrong with the blog taking things easy on its voyeurs.
Hi D-Dawg, from my phone once more, sigh. The blog works just fine on a phone, it just means my reading/responding layout isn’t as consistent/ongoing as it is on my laptop since there’s more scrolling up and down involved. Phones are handy things but I do love typing on my laptop. But circumstances, they’re being circumstancey in an inauspicious way. So I make do.
Somehow, I have remained involved with gay verbiage with him. We both find it an agreeable arrangement. Things only seem to be getting gayer. But he likes that. Hurr(g)ay. My, the world of teenage boys. How fascinating.
No documentary today. I’ve only played a little bit of Half Life 2, I think I got further in Half Life. There’s been less dancing on my end, but there was a little shimmying to Britney Spears whilst shaving. Oddly enough, I cut myself fewer times than usual.
People who are guided by Guided by Voices, hm. Glad girls/guys. Robot boys. Scientists. I don’t know if I’d make the cut as a member of the Teenage FBI. I was playing and singing I Am A Scientist and Tractor Rape Chain when I should’ve been sleeping last night. And then talking to a guy, when I should’ve been sleeping. See how in order my life is x_x !
Yeah, I mean, I really personally wouldn’t recommend it. Readers should read stuff and form their own opinions, duh. But it wasn’t my thaaang. Grossly overrated novel, in my opinion. I really didn’t/don’t see what there is to love about it. Oh, well. Next up for me is Ballard’s Crash. And I have yet to read today’s short story or poem, which must be amended soonish.
WiFi is *not* in my corner. Or my mother’s, or my brother’s, or my grandmother’s. But I’ve data. We might have a go at some router/modem fiddling to see if that improves matters, but I’m doubtful. See you tomorrow, when I’ve done/said/seen/felt/heard whatever. Tschuss tschuss.
Dennis, Haha, the opposite of sucks. I like that. You still got it! 😉
I think today is the first day I woke up and felt okay since Saturday. Fingers crossed it continues.
Maybe working helped? Because I worked all day and got a ton done and I do, fingers crossed, feel better. More work today, so maybe it’s the cure?
There are rumblings we’ll have to go back into the office full time on March 10. I don’t know. I didn’t think I’d do this, but I’m thinking I’m gonna look for another job, even if it’s a bit less money. I’m 53 and just can’t be spending 3 to 4 hours in a car every day. Fuck that. Really, it’s not the office, it’s the commute. Just hellish in the DC area.
I mean, the way I was feeling yesterday, I would’ve just called out. I have a lot of leave, so I’ll be using that. Like when I have a doctor’s appointment, or when my mom does, I’ll just take the day off instead of an hour. Fuck it. I ain’t care anymore.
Hi!!
Looking at these hotels makes me marvel at how strange a species we are. Which one would you most want to spend a night in?
Right, phew, that’s more like it – the Gram Parsons original! My bad. I don’t really listen to Madonna, but as a “Reservoir Dogs” fan, “Like a Virgin” is kind of a must. And today’s love is something completely new to me – and quite unexpected, haha. I wanna love you, but I better not touch (don’t touch), I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop, I wanna kiss you, but I want it too much (too much), I wanna taste you, but your lips are venomous poison, Od.
It would seem the Tate & Lyles Edible Hotel has more artistic merit than anything displayed in their namesake Bankside museum. Or maybe that’s just me being a philistine? I’ll shut up now. Would defo be interested to know what their Leigh Bowery show is like.
Some of these hotels are readymade horror movie sets. I would check out but never stay at the Henn-na. Creepy.
I’ve pretty much stayed at conventional hotels (umm, so far). But I can offer this fine movie:
https://letterboxd.com/film/hotel-poseidon/
Bill
I do enjoy staying at hotels, and for me it’s a very exotic experience, because I do it so very rarely. If memory serves, the last time I stayed at a hotel . . . it was the one that Misa and I stayed in at Jersey City back in November 2011, when we went to NYC to catch some of your readings for THE MARBLED SWARM. So yeah, it’s been almost 15 years ha ha. I like Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn.
While on the subject, one thing I like about a lot of the Asian countries is their obsession with absolutely monumental structures, esp. statues. Like there are some really great giant statues of the Buddha one can find out there. I especially like the statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva at Jiuhuashan.
Hey Dennis,
Hotels! Such strange places they are. Homely and terrifying. I used to love wandering the halls and hoping that someone would be around the corner to scare and/or chase me. That Swiss bunker hotel is a lot like the old bunker me and my friends stayed in when we visited my friend in Malmö last year. It was funny wandering the pitch black hall that people stored their bikes in, we kept trying to scare each other.
If I had to choose one of those hotels to stay in? … probably the Hamster one or the prison one, whatever that says about me!
Spent today resting and doing nothing after the past week or so of work, though I need to prepare myself for tomorrow night, where I’ll be joint-hosting this event with this Irish influencer Keelin Moncrief; her dad’s a big guy on the radio and in my head that family are like the Irish Kardashians, in terms of Keelin + her sisters influence on Irish youth. Need to come up with Qs even though I barely know about her so I gotta ask people who do! Also the article I was needing to write for a magazine was already written by someone else, which on the one hand is bad coz that was my only main idea, but on the other hand means I don’t have to stress my brain out with research about ozempic and eating disorders and skinny fashion returning! Instead I’m gonna do a fluffier piece about controversial outfits, plus i may be putting a piece about Grimes that I wrote a while back into the issue too. The photoshoot went well; we used a lot of fun props like a baby doll that was neglected by her celebrity mother model. We used a projector for backgrounds too of LA and paparazzi. I had one of a guy reading Rimbaud lying down, with the background being the field at the end of Irreversible. I was supposed to fill out a risk assessment for the shoot but I forgot and honestly i don’t really care if I get reprimanded; I can just say “I won’t do another photoshoot again” which is fine as I don’t have time to do the final year’s issue anyway. I loved it though, I adore creating, especially when I can be the ideas man instead of the actual talent!
I tried responding to the ARG post but for some reason it didn’t take, probably because unlike you, I was commenting from my phone. Alas, ARG is amazing, he was one of the many influenced discussed in the early stages of Chris Norris’ book Hunchback ‘88 which I published and was thrilled the second edition published by inside the castle found its way to you. I also enjoyed his wife’s novel The Image. Speaking of publishing I appreciate directing people to the book launch and our socials. This year we have Stevie Mannings debut full length poetry collection coming. Recently she had some newer poems (newer than the upcoming collection) appear about murdering and oppressing various male surrogates of herself told through the lens of various serial killers that are honestly genious.
Violette
I got to Montreal & slept for a thousand hours
I’m still cold
I can’t go back to jail
I’m oft with a fucked-up hairline
Big ribcage
Broad shoulders
Sz.11 shoes
I spent the holidays
Drinking myself sick in nightclubs
NA is so competitive
I ended up drugging a cop
I ripped open his bank accounts & Forcibly feminized him at gunpoint
I sent a foot to Parliament The rest of him fit in a bag
No amount of money ever stood up to me
Men usually know
Not to approach me irl
Miami
I was in Miami for 48 hours I hate what it did to my hair I slept tucked in a loose sundress
Sweating thru my tape-job
Woke up to the sound of jacuzzi jets
Thick & sour in the room
I’d taken psychotic medicine on the flight & squirted eye-drops in a passenger’s drink
I saw his body in the corner of my eye
I injected him back at the hotel with strong solutions I drew in black marker on his chest
But I botched his breast-enhancement
Pulled away large slabs of eyebrow bone & yanked off his angular jaw Tlit a cigarette out of his face Put on a new uniform & left
High on ketamine for an overnight With his teeth inside my cunt
Rich Kid
I sold his library for small bites of rent
Ten thousand dollars on drugs
He used on top
& if he blacked out emasculating
I’d breathe him back
My private property
My private healthcare
My private solutions
I kept him drunk & chained up In a turquoise basement
I called The Mermaid Room
I considered eating him like a stereotype
He got too skinny
I needed him to work
We also have two new books in the work with your old friend Scott Treleaven. None of which has been officially announced so it’s a DC blog exclusive. Also your reading with fellow Toronto friend Derrick at the poetry project was incredible and I was so sad I couldn’t join in person, Kay did a wonderful job bringing the two of you together.
I don’t know about the state of the band, honestly. I think “reading poetry” was me subconsciously inserting sardonicism but yeah some time of spoken yelling, I guess. He has told me recently he does not like the songs and will rewrite them, as it stands they really are 20 minute arpeggio sequences with no vocals so I don’t quite know what that means. One rehearsal and he has said he is unsure about the direction of this band. I guess he likes my drumming though. Every guitarist I have worked with in the past has decided a song is bad and needs to be changed before it’s a really song at all.
There is a Youtube channel that reviews theme hotels that I watch sometimes: https://www.youtube.com/@aprettycoolhoteltour/videos
Also, Monday, I went to the surprise horror movie thing I go to occasionally (I hadn’t been in some time). I was so excited when Tokyo Gore Police started that I kind of squealed (I was beyond obsessed in high school and planned on revisiting) but they stopped it because that was apparently last week’s feature. I want to go back to watching more cheap Japanese cyberpunk stuff, it’s great, both the original wave in the 80s and the stuff from that second wave in the 2000s. Something about cyborgs feels more “real” when they are clunky, handcrafted chimeras. I have a fancy Steel Book DVD of The Machine Girl that I haven’t dug out in ages. It was Ginger Snaps 2, which is also great (I saw the first at one of these). I like the huge animatronic wolf puppets in the Ginger Snaps movies. I like when a creature looks puppeteered. Not even really a bias against CG but more so I counterintuitively believe that things in films where the seams show feel more real.
I went to a mostly drag variety show that was a fundraiser for a friend’s top surgery. It was okay. The best acts were drag kings. One did a routine to a pop-punk song I don’t know, like Fall Out Boy but not, something in the really dreadful runoff to that sound, I don’t know like All Time Low or the like, in teenage boy drag and stripped down from jeans and a letter jacket to a white tank and boxer shorts and then ended by taking out the packer and sucking it. Another came on in sequined dress, then tore it off and did this whole routine around having the most absurdly long dildo stuffed in their tight jeans that made it hard to walk or stand. That one had some preroll poetry(?) about bishounen in an anime-inspired setting captured by an evil tech oligarch that I assume was some form of political comment but I couldn’t really make heads or tails of it. Oh well, I suppose it’s different.
A stay in Love Villa Hotel – the perfect gift for the tankie in your life! The hamster hotel must do good business with furries.
Have you stayed at any particularly out-of-the-ordinary hotels?
It looks like I’ll have to visit my parents in the spring for further meetings with our lawyer. I’m dreading this. (My dad’s very hard to reach on the phone lately, so I’m not sure how to arrange it.)
Although METAL BOX is one of my favorite albums, I only just heard the 4-CD box set edition which came out in 2016. The band didn’t write any more songs than they needed to fill their albums, using remixes for B-sides, so there aren’t any huge revelations, but the Peel session and live-on-TV versions of “Careering” are savage. “Pied Piper,” relegated to a 1980 Virgin compilation, is very good.
Hi! Yeah, I’d definitely recommend that Walser. I’d say he fits into a category that a lot of my favourite writers fall into, that something about them is really impossible to talk about. Even just about who they are as people defies clear definition. I’d include Rimbaud, Jane Bowles, Paul Bowles too, Pessoa, I guess many would include Kafka. I don’t really know what exactly I’m trying to explain, but perhaps that in itself is an extension of what I’m trying to say? Maybe a moniker would be ‘artists who revel in confusion / instability’?
I’m doing voice therapy at the moment. It’s a very awkward experience. I hate my voice, I sound like Richard E. Grant and in my head I sound like… I don’t know, someone glamorous. It’s interesting. The voice is a muscle, so you can change it over time with practice. It’s actually not higher pitch that you’re supposed to aim for, but an adapted resonance. I’ve put off properly working on this for a while because there’s a weird transitional period in the process and I’m going to sound like Elmo for a while. When I was editing the film I basically got disgusted by hearing my voice and decided I finally needed to properly work on the voice training. Shit. It’s very awkward to say hello to someone you don’t know very well and you suddenly have a different voice. On the other hand, since the hormones are really kicking in, it might be more surprising for strangers to hear me with a fairly masc voice than a fairly femme voice.
Doesn’t help that I’m doing a reading tomorrow haha. It’s another one organised by a lecturer who pulls together a community of writers he knows and invites students as well. It’s hosted at one of the campuses. I had no idea what to read, but I think I’ve settled on something. Kind of confusing to explain, but it’s technically an exhibition, meaning that we’ve all also done a visual piece that has been put on the wall in an exhibition space where it’s hosted. But the thing we’ve all done involves writing. I know that sounds like typical art school stuff but it’s always a good opportunity to get out there etc.
By the way, hope the screening goes well tomorrow!
I would like to stay in one of those Japanese capsule hotels one day. I have the opposite of claustrophobia, I like feeling cosy. That’s why I don’t like the countryside – you get swallowed by it all. Even in the big empty spaces of a city it’s like you disappear, because you’re just another lunatic in a city full of mad people and no one cares as much as in the country or the suburbs.
Hey, Dennis! Thanks for the link to the interview—I enjoyed it thoroughly. The stills from ‘RT’ look stunning! ‘People still marginalize what I do, but I don’t think they think I’m a monster anymore. I meet a lot of younger people; they wanna meet me or have a coffee when they come to Paris. And I don’t think they think I’m gonna rape them or anything.’: This almost made me choke on my coffee this morning; too funny! Curious about your non-organic fabric allergy: is it brought on through only prolonged contact, or is it triggered by even just short-term contact? It sounds problematic, though I imagine you have it pretty well managed. I’m allergic to pollen and have some mild sensitivities to certain surfactants/soaps. My mom told me that she left me in the bathtub for a moment once, and I guess I tried to eat some soap or something, and when she came back, my lips had tripled in size. Of course, I have zero recollection of this. The Q&A: Nice! Maybe a kind soul in attendance will film it and upload it to YouTube. And may you and Zac be showered by a plethora of studious questions! My day was pretty humdrum, but pleasant enough—coffee, music, and a bit of work, then my bf and I went grocery shopping. We just finished dinner, and now I’m trying to decide what film to watch this evening. I keep putting off ‘The Brutalist’ due to its brutal runtime. That, and my bf telling me he has zero interest in watching a film about Adrien Brody playing an architect, haha—I might have to go it alone. p.s. These hotels are WILD. I always seem to get the best sleep of my life in hotels. I wonder why that is? Sensory novelty, maybe?
Hotels are great, wow. We have one big chain of them here in the UK, and they all are basically identical, at least inside the bedrooms – down to the phones, bedspreads, toilet products, et cetera – so it’s really easy to feel at home in them, or at least feel at ease. There’s something really nice about knowing the rough shape of a room before you enter it, without having seen it before, so you can go through the internal checklist of “oh, they have a black phone rather than a white one to the left of the bed” or things like that. I haven’t been in a hotel in ages, weirdly, but I think that’s because my current boyfriend isn’t someone who lives with other people, or a sort of shameful motel hookup guy.
Cool RT interview, thanks for sharing! It’s awesome how direct you are about saying shit like “I meet up with young people but they don’t think I’m going to rape them”, I know that if I tried to get that sentence out I’d have to pad it with hundreds of syllables to avoid being misinterpreted. Although, I suppose almost every interview with/article about you has that “despite being an author of sexually violent […]” preface so, maybe that functions similarly as a sort of warning label/disclaimer.
I did also end up watching some bizarre videos with my friends this evening too – this link should work. The moment I saw this I was like, hmm, maybe you’ll find this interesting. It definitely upset me in a really weird way that I’m sort of trying to place, I think it was maybe the sort of degenerative illness feeling it inspired in me. Jerry Lewis indeed, and Paris was lovely, thank you! See ya.
Hi Dennis. Thanks for the shoutout yesterday. I just read that interview with you, those stills from Room Temperature look really cool. Excited for your no-sex, no-violence movie. PG-13 perhaps? The family drama/dark comedy sounds more like God Jr. I loved that territory. I would’ve really loved to see that live action/animated movie idea with Laika. I also just found your Phil Solomon post from like 6 years ago, too. I heard about the films he made in GTA but couldn’t find any of his stuff. I saw he did experimental films and was like this is definitely someone Dennis knows. Did those influence God Jr at all?
With me, well I was finally able to move my 8×2 ft painting into the studio I joined. It’s gonna be a portrait of a scoutmaster, kind of a self-portrait. I was an Eagle Scout and so was my sister before she came out, so I’m obviously hyper aware of all the associations people make when they hear about that, but it was a net positive for me, partially bc I was around so many weird men and learned so much about the kind I didn’t want to be. So yeah it’s a little like a golem/dorian gray thing.