Part 1
Part 2
Little boy reviews Lottie doll
Guy reviews Lottie dolls
Stargazer Lottie in space
my scene kennedy doll
Man owns 9000 barbies
Barbie man
Realistic baby doll collector
My fake baby documentary
My scene dolls boxed collection
Bratz doll haul
Jpopluvr1000’s Q and A
All my reborn babies
Silicone baby care
Morning routine for 10 reborn babies
Childsize reborn doll: dayout with mommy
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p.s. Hey. Today the very talent-enriched poet and d.l. in excellent standing aka Ferdinand has devised a pretty and nagging guest-post for all of you lucky readers out there. Please enjoy, and, as always with guest hosts, do find related words within you to share with the guy in charge to show him you care. Thank you, and thank you totally, Ferdinand! ** Liquoredgoat, Big D, top of the morning to you. When the difficult tag is placed on Ashbery it is a manifestation of the taggers’ laziness and conservatism, point blank. Oh, how cool, you’ll be in the new SCAB! How awesome both for you and for the great SCAB-maestro Dora! I have to second Burroughs and you on that thought. I am well enough, thank you, and I hope you are utterly well. ** David Ehrenstein, I did! And it cost a decent portion of my soul, but it was worth it! No models planned in ‘Genesis’, wow. The mind boggles and explodes. Fuck. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. ‘Black Beauty’ is very good, but I haven’t found it to have the depth/staying power of Lee’s earlier, best work. Well, I don’t think there’s any problem whatsoever on addressing psychedelics in the post without having done them. I write about things I’ve never personally done and will never do all the time. Go for it without hesitation, I say. It’s pretty unusual in my experience to have a full-fledged freak out on mushrooms, although all psychedelics are 80% about the mind involved so anything is possible. I think the rule of thumb with psychedelics is if you’re afraid to take them don’t because psychedelics will exaggerate whatever you’re feeling. As I’ve said, I had two very, very bad mental breakdowns on LSD, but it took having a second one to get me to give them up. Very cool news that you’ll be writing about music. ** Misanthrope, Hi. I don’t believe in evil. I think all ‘evil’ can be deconstructed into understandable causes. I just think the word evil is a convenient, colorful term to use when describing something or someone who’s especially horrible. When people accuse someone of being evil, it’s almost always an emotional reaction, I think. What can be done to get LPS to go to his classes regularly, anything? ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! How cool that Liquoredgoat aka Douglas has a piece in the new SCAB! My astral-projected angel is still there on your shoulder and will remain there, lightly as a feather, until you have no more use for him. Sucks about your stubborn cold. Colds are such weird and mysterious illnesses. Fight it with everything you’ve got. Okay, understood, about the job not feeling right for you. Always trust your instincts, for sure. I’m going to California to do the conference and the reading but, while I’m there, I want to hang out in California for a while and do Halloween. I’ll probably be over there until the end of the month. I’ll probably be able to do the p.s. for at least part of that time. I’m trying to figure that out now, and I’ll know better in a day or so. But I won’t have any time to make new posts, so I’m having to line up a whole bunch of restored posts to cover that period. Yesterday, I mostly worked on the new film script and started getting ready for the trip. No word from Sundance yet. Last night Zac and our friend Bene and I went to see the great documentarian Frederick Wiseman show clips from a lot of his films and talk at Theater Odeon. That was fantastic. He’s in his 90s and totally sharp and lively and still making films, and, man, being like him in your 90s is something to strive for. How and what was your Tuesday? ** Sypha, Ha ha. I only put her GIF in there because I knew it would please you. Seriously. Yeah, a deserted landscape might be the way to go, brevity-wise. Or maybe it could about someone locked in a prison cell or, uh, in a bathroom? Ha ha. ** Lynne Tillman, Lynne! Maestro! Dear, dear friend! I’m honored to have you here in my odd home away from home. On the non-invitation, I suspect it’s because they have little money/funding. I’m only going because I was traveling to California around that time for Halloween anyway, and I’m stopping through there on essentially my own dime. I wish you could be there! Yes, I can’t wait to see you here in Paris! I’ll email you my phone number in a sec. Plans are that I’ll be back in Paris as of the morning of November 1st. Lunch with Aaron Peck would be excellent! Thank you, Lynne, and a huge amount of love to you! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Yeah, poor Britney, although that wild, downward spiral phase is kind of what gave her some kind of weird cred, I think? Nice about the fine visit with your mom. Another reason that I guess I will see ‘BR2049’. Sorry about Scotland. The Netherlands, who I always root for due to having gotten into soccer when I lived in Amsterdam, knocked themselves out too, sadly. ** H, Hi. Thank you. I’m very happy to hear you’re making very good progress with your work. My shoulder thing is improving very, very slowly. It’s strange, but good. Yes, I’m going to San Francisco on Thursday for a conference about New Narrative and then staying in California for Halloween. Take care. ** Bill, Hi. I get to SF on Thursday evening. The conference starts the next morning. I’m being put up at some place called The Women’s Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley campus. Haven’t seen ‘Super Dark Times’, only heard of it and of the ‘River’s Edge’ comparison. I doubt it’ll open here. Maybe I can catch it while I’m in Cali. ** Okay. Please continue to enjoy Ferdinand’s post and make your feelings known, thanks. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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I wrote most explicitly about drugs in the choice of clips from Prince. He made an album-length homage to ’60s psychedelia, AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY, at a time when he was completely drug-free and publicly very anti-drug, I think this kinda proves my implicit point about “psychedelia” as a concept that is not necessarily tied to actual drug use, as does the fact that Outkast’s music got much trippier after Andre Benjamin quit taking drugs,. (I chose to link to the video “Raspberry Beret”: an obvious choice, but one of my other choices is not so obvious – an unofficial 9-minute remix of one of his songs that begins the words “this is not music, this is a trip.”) He went on to say pot leads to heroin in “Sign O’ The Times” and according to a New York Times article printed after his death, demanded that musicians he toured with not use it or even drink beer. But he became addicted to opiates after seeking treatment for pain and died as a result, I really think his hardcore anti-drug stance possibly contributed to his death; had he publicly sought out treatment for his addiction, he would’ve been massively shamed as a hypocrite on social media and the actual media, and I suspect this is one of the reasons he didn’t do so. I doubt he ever tried pot in his life, but had he smoked it and not done any other drugs (especially opiates like fentanyl), I’m sure he’d still be alive and making music today.
Great work Ferdinand.
You’re quite right about Prince, Steve. Typical of those Jeus-Mongers who denounce their past “sins” only to cosume themselves with the,
Frederick Wiseman’s work is not without interest — though I think it’s overrated. More important — I have a serious bone to pick with him as he owns the rights to Shirley Clarke’s “The Cool World” and has both tied up its continued distribution and blocked its video release.
Meanwhile . . .
Latest FaBlog: “She Almost Looks Human — It Must Be the Lighting”
On another matter. A few days back Mis mentioned something about a publisher he was dealing with. Mis, if you’re reading this tell me more about said publisher. I’m looking for a venue for “Raised By Hand Puppets” which is very nearly complete.
Some of the doll photos are quite disturbing… very seasonal post!
Good luck with the film submissions, Dennis. I’ll definitely try to get to your Sunday reading, and maybe to a little of the conference.
Bill
Hi!
My pleasure, absolutely! I’m honored to have it in SCAB!
Thank you!! I’m very optimistic!
It really does. I felt a little better this morning but by now it’s shitty again. But. At least I had a few almost normal hours so maybe that’s progress!
Oh yes, yes, I remembered your Halloween plans this morning and mentally noted that probably that’s why you’re planning a longer trip! Restored posts are just as welcome as new ones, for sure!
Sounds like Frederick Wiseman is a truly inspiring person, both as a filmmaker and a human being! I’m glad you went to see him and enjoyed the event so much!
I’m starting to feel a bit (very) boring but my day wasn’t much, again. Just the usual job seeking, reading, etc.
How was yours? Any news about Sundance? Monday is fully, completely gone by now, after all!
@ Ferdinand: this was a very scary and interesting post, thank you so much! I watched the ‘My Fake Baby Documentary’ and it was truly disturbing. I don’t know, I just tend to find a certain type of dolls so frightening. I do have a bit of an obsession with Japanese/Korean ball jointed dolls (BJD), though. I find them absolutely gorgeous and if I had a lot more money than I do, I’d surely have a nice collection of them, haha!
I think in Part 2 some of those people may have been a bit too obsessed with dolls. But then again, like I always say, if you’re going to be into something, might as well be obsessive about it.
Dennis, yeah, I kind of figured as much about the GIF, and wondered if I should take the bait, then figured, what the hell. Actually, I’m going through one of those phases where I’m wondering if I should demote Gaga off by top 10 favorite musical artists list and replace her with Fleetwood Mac. I don’t know, I still like her but she’s gotten a bit blah in recent years… I think her biggest flaw is a desire to be adored by everyone. Once she started to see herself as a guiding beacon for LGBTQ it was maybe the kiss of death… sometimes I miss the Gaga of 2010 who didn’t seem to give as much of a fuck (or who was a bit more subtle about being a role model, at least). It kind of depresses me that she’ll probably never be as huge as she was in 2011 or so.
You jest but giving my intimate co-dependent relationship with restrooms I could probably write a whole encyclopedia set on that topic, ha ha
From this point, I have to start transcribing the interview I did with Morten Traavik, director of the “Laibach tours North Korea” documentary, this morning, and stop looking up Youtube clips, and I’m also waiting for my super to send over several assistants between 4:00 and 4:30 to do some work on my bathroom.
I need to chill out on the amount of time I’ve been spending on the black psych primer, but in addition to the hip-hop section, I’ve completed the parts on Prince, Love, Hendrix and Funkadelic and done bits of work on both classic and contemporary artists, although I have a long list of artists I still need to find YouTube clips for and write brief commentary on (I’m running out of ways to say “heavy guitars and eerie keyboards over breakbeats,”) I have discovered some contemporary artists who are doing to me what, to me, is a really interesting new version of black psychedelia that combines female vocals from black women in the neo-soul vein of artists like Solange, Erykah Badu and Janelle Monae with music that sounds like an update of the kind of sound often featured by artists on the British indie label Too Pure in the ’90s (the original home of Stereolab.) That reminds me that I need to look up the Scottish Too Pure band Long Fin Killie, who were led by a gay black man. I remember seeing them live in the mid ’90s, and their first two albums were actually distributed in the US by American Recordings/Warner Bros., but I don’t recall what they sounded like.
I don’t really blame Prince for his hypocrisy; I think he was about naive and uninformed about his views on the dangers of pot and probably shouldn’t have written that line about pot leading to heroin on “Sign O’ the Times,” which seems bitterly ironic now given how he died. By the time he developed a serious problem with opiate addiction, he had backed himself into a corner and couldn’t get out of it without essentially saying “I have betrayed everything I used to say about drugs.” How do you go on working and have people take you seriously after that?
@ Ferdinand, thank you for this post! I remember that My Fake Baby documentary from its UK TV broadcast the first time round, it’s a haunting watch.
Thanks for making it doll-lovers day here Dennis. I envy the enthusiasm of some of those doll reviewers. And yes some poignant and strange behaviour with some of the reborn doll collectors, even some O.C.D in those elaborate routines. @Dora Grober the Japanese/Korean ball jointed dolls (BJD) are beautiful, especially the male and androgenous types. Glad I could share the post here. @Black Acrylic isnt it..
The super’s assistant called the amount of clutter in my apartment a fire hazard, and in an hour I did a massive job of throwing out tons of paper. Honestly, I was lazy and let lots of junk accumulate, but having to do all this in such a short period of time was not fun. And he’s coming back tomorrow to replace my smoke alarm, which is not working even though I changed the batteries the last time it started alerting me to do so, but can’t tell me when. I called the super to try and make an appointment but got his voice-mail.
Have you heard the new single by Ka5sh? I’m not sure what to make of it. He seems like one of the few rappers who are doing emo/punk-influenced “SoundCloud rap” right – Lil Uzi Vert did a good job on “XO Tour Lif3,” but it’s by far the best song on his album and XXX Tentacion is a completely untalented psychopath – but I don’t think using Autotune to “sing” on this single is the direction he should be going in.
Ferdinand, dolls really creep me out. How do you feel about Cabbage Patch Kids?
Dennis, I sent you an e-mail with the galley for the book. When you have the time, I hope you enjoy it. It comes out next week, at which time I’ll be doing a book launch/reading. I’m very excited.
Ferdinand, I like this day a lot. I don’t like how they call those lifelike baby dolls “reborns.” That’s just fucking weird to me. But I like the idea of someone posing with a doll. There’s something sweet and sad about it. Sweet and sad tends to appeal to me.
Dennis, I like your answer to my question, and thanks for not being flip and saying something like, “Republicans” or whatever. It was a serious question, and I like your serious answer. It’s making me think, which is why I asked.
I don’t know what we’re going to do about LPS skipping all these classes. My next step is to write the vice principal and ask him to speak to him. Teachers and the guidance counselor already have. We have…till we’re blue in the face. His basic response is, “I don’t care.” Typical, I guess, which is depressing. I don’t want him to be typical.
Frankly, I think Kayla’s right: LPS’s girlfriend is a senior and probably has one or two credits left to graduate…she’s probably blowing off her other classes and he’s blowing off his to hang with her wherever they end up hang when they blow off classes. What I’m trying to get him to realize is that she and his other friends aren’t letting him get in the way of getting their shit done. They’re going to get good grades, graduate, go to college or a trade school, and get jobs and all that.
I guess it’s peer pressure as much as anything, and it depresses me that he gives in to it.
And even if he were to pass his classes with his grades, they’ll still fail him for missing too many days.
We’ll just keep trying to get through to him.
Dennis, have a great trip to SF and enjoy the conference! I go to NYC next week for my reading, but then come back with tim, and it sounds like you might still be in town– shall I message you on fb to see if you have time to hang? it would be fun to have a meal and catch up xo
By the way, did you see Eminem’s anti-Trump freestyle video that BET aired and posted? As problematic as many of his lyrics are, this was genuinely brave (telling his fans to fuck off if they have bad politics, for the first time I can think of since Kurt Cobain’s liner notes to INCESTICIDE) and hits all the points about Trump’s recent awful behavior with a tremendous amount of passion and righteous anger. Maybe the best thing he’s done since “Stan” – he really ought to record these lyrics over a Dr. Dre production and release it as a single. https://www.avclub.com/eminem-tells-his-trump-loving-fans-to-fuck-off-in-a-fer-1819345221
Hey,
How are you today? Got any specific plans?
LOVED the Satan Day. Thank you so much!
*WOW*, JUST *WOW* about your experience with Guillaume des Forêts!!! So he read the screenplay for ‘Genesis’, huh???!!! Fuck… BRESSON wanted to do that film for SOOOO long… Though he once said in an interview after the premiere of ‘L’Argent’ that his next film was going to be based on a completely original screenplay about two poor teenage girls from the country who save money in order to be able to go vacationing in the beach in the summer, and then events take a turn for the worse and everything ends EXTREMELY badly. And he said that he was going to make that film while waiting to secure the financing for ‘Genesis’… By the way, didn he happen to tell you if it’s true that as time passed he “directed” his models less and less and that he was very isolated from everybody else while making his films??? Or if any of your letters ever actually reached him?
Oh, well, then maybe it’d be best if you wouldn’t bother Madame Weingarten with my idiocies.
“I will ask our producer that question.” Thank you so, so, so very much. I appreciate it enormously. You’ve no idea.
So, I made this small “short film”. It’s “inspired” by and a homage and tribute to Benning and Warhol… Here it is: https://vimeo.com/237690825 …
Take very good care, please,
Good day; good luck,
A.