* Halloween countdown post #15
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Is that true? ** Steve Erickson, Hey. Everyone, Mr. Erickson says, ‘My interview with music video director Zev Deans is finally up, after some snafus earlier this month.’ Making it less political sounds like a refreshing move to me personally. That Bertrand Bonello comp: interesting! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Sorry about the comments viewing issue. I get the feeling that problem wasn’t yours alone yesterday. The post got gargantuan traffic, just so you know. Thank you so much again! ** Kyler, Hi. Never had one of those. Just that recently yanked tooth. You certainly sound untrammelled and like yourself. Cool about the great publishing news. I await the first of your alerts. ** Kenyaton, Bud. I’m okay. I don’t think the big time and I will ever unite, but no prob. Right, hm, huh, yeah, kind of intrigued to read that Rimbaud book. I’m sure I can find it here, maybe even at that tourist trap with bookshelves Shakespeare & Co. I sometimes think I should’ve sued Little Caesar Pizza when they swiped that title, but then I remember that I swiped it too. Halloween on the beach is such a peculiar idea, I like it even. But not even remotely close to how much I like seeing that word Halloween all green and kind of glowy in your comment. And soon, so very soon, I’ll get its booty. Everyone, the mighty Kenyaton has made a rare update to his blog in the form of a ‘Halloween Story’, and some of you already know what skill and wickedness inevitably results when he weds his head to wordage, much less regarding Hallo-motherfucking-ween! So make your Halloween season much moreso by clicking this post-haste. ** Huh, quiet. Okay. The Halloween countdown continues today. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hi!!
Thank you for the titles! I’ll make sure to check all of them out as soon as I can! Based on their plots, I’m the most interested in ‘Shéhérazade’. Especially because I adore films with great amateur actors/non-actors. Thank you, really!
My foot still isn’t in perfect condition but I think I can cautiously say that it’s getting better now. I’m hopeful!
How are you? How was your week?
Mine was work, work and some more work and I’ll spend this afternoon and tomorrow at yet another book festival – working, for a change. The timing is especially bad because Anita got a job offer and she’s moving to Prague this Sunday and we don’t have the chance to say a proper, long goodbye. We’re planning to meet up after my shift today but only for a little while. And I mean, sure, Prague isn’t that far away and we met last Saturday, knowing full well that that was gonna be our last whole free-style day for a while, but it’s still really sad, on a completely selfish level.
Have a great, great weekend, Dennis!
That’s how I see it.
The scariest movie ever made
Dear Dennis, hisashiburi! It’s been more than two years since my last comment here, I think. Sorry for the long absence. I am still following the blog, although work and family make it hard to keep up with the substantial daily posts. In April our daughter Martha was born, so I am spending more time than ever in Tokyo, while my work is still in Germany – and I have a work-related favor to ask you: I will do a seminar on queer slash feminist approaches to theater, dance and performance in the upcoming winter semester, and I would like to show “Them” to my students. We will read Leo Bersani’s essay “Is the rectum a grave?” about how the US administration and mainstream media did everything to make the HIV crisis worse in the 80s, and “Them” seems like the thing to watch then. I found a 20 minutes excerpt and some shorter clips on Youtube, but is there a video of a full performance that I might use in class? This would be greatly appreciated. My email is [email protected] All best, Kai
Hey Dennis, I loved the Tzuan Wu day. Consider me a new fan. Often watching people being scared is more interesting than looking at the scarer.
Have you seen the movie A Dark Song? Not unflawed, but a lot to like.
Off to Chicago soon; sorry about the short note. Have a good weekend.
Bill
You are too kind. Hope you enjoy the story. I def advise reading that book. It’s right there with “wanting to disappear”. These posts remind of the concept of “permutation”, I think it’s the correct treatment for phobia. I’m Hallowpsyched, I get all horny and crazy when it’s almost Halloween. My town outlawed a ghost story over a hundred years ago, it’s illegal to speak the ghost’s name or to tell the story. Carving a punkin today. Haha, you are prime-time in my world, brilliant and badass as ever. I’m so beach spoiled now, almost got ate by a shark it turned and came up out of the water just in front of me. A lot of bites this year. The beach is Halloweenie, the old hotels, tourists, beaches are creeperish. Can’t believe all the hype for the Halloween movie. Trying to think of when I’ve been the scardest. That unknown victim of the Candyman looked pretty scared. Weird dream, I chased the voice of Hunter Thompson into a closet with a stick and a hand handed me an old Valentine card I had made for someone. xoxo
hey dennis
haha, thank you for your reply and your tale of felix gonzalez torres travels through the body of a dog
whats cooking ? today i got in the post RAPEMAN first album (again) on cd this time ( i don’t really buy that whole vinyl trumpshit ) i just finished sue prideaux bio on nietzsche which was okay, no where near her book on strindberg which was excellent, so now im starting on karl ove’s book 6 which is weary to be honest but there’s tiny sparks, its fucking slow so far ( i’ve done the other 5 ) so i took a break and started gary indiana ” i can give you anything ” and within the first page i thought im back ! i can hear his voice and it just flows of the page
and mmh, maybe try to make some work, haha, fuck it, i can’t complain dennis
i was just thinking at your scared post when was the last time i actually had a natural fright, i mean a real aah !, not a film or a book, just an around the corner ” ooh fuck ” maybe a glimpse when i trot out of the shower, haha
have you been scared / had a fright ? recently ( beside your bank balance )
love you big d, a,x
Funny how all these repeated anguished expressions just become funny after a while… or is it maybe just me who’s the monster here?
Happy today to get the new Amphetamine Sulphate book in the post, Jason Williamson – Happy Days. JW is in the mighty Sleaford Mods and his last effort Slabs from Paradise was an absolute banger.
My mum arrives in Dundee tomorrow to stay for a couple of days. I guess she’ll want to check out the V&A… dunno if I’ll go too but I’ll defo show her round the DCA’s Mike Kelley exhibition and on Monday we have tickets for the new Rachel Maclean film extravaganza Make Me Up.
I love the counterpoint between the movements within individual clips and the effect created by placing them in a row.
I think it’s true that all art is political, but right now the situation in America makes me so angry – and this seems to be true for half the country – that it’s really difficult to know how to depict a character whose politics I don’t share sympathetically. I think that aiming for a more straightforward thriller and letting the script’s ideas work more on the level of subtext is a better idea. I liked what that LA Review of Books article said about the politics of your work, such as how it points to the way the lives of gay teens aren’t valued, but you’ve never set out to express this as A Message About Gay Youth and it’s often implicit on the level of form, such as your respectful use of vernacular language. Anyway, I am now planning to meet with my editor Monday afternoon.
I saw BOY ERASED, which I’m reviewing for the Nashville Scene, yesterday. If you want to see a film which hits you over the head how awful about gay “conversation therapy” is, this is the one (I haven’t seen the similarly themed but lower-budget THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, released a few months ago.) It conveys one mood very well, but it seems to think that dim lighting and cinematography equal genuine seriousness. And it’s willing to show explicit rape but not willing to let its hero express desire for another boy beyond a PG level. (The scene in which a counselor played by Flea watches the hero urinate and makes creepy comments is actually more disturbing than the rape scene.)
I also interviewed Joseph Kahn, who has directed 100+ music videos and 3 feature films, yesterday. He’s one of the most successful music video directors in history, but after an unhappy experience with Warner Bros. on his first film, he’s saved up $3 million budgets from his videos to entirely self-finance his second and third films. (He also made a short”fan film” based on THE MIGHTY MORPHING POWER RANGERS starring and co-written by James Van Der Beek without licensing the copyright, on which he obviously spent several hundred thousand dollars; he said that he wanted to make a gory, irreverent take on a kid’s show before Hollywood was able to do a feature film adaptation.) He told me that BODIED has been rejected by almost every North American film festival and distributor because they found the amount of racist and sexist dialogue it contains (which I think is justified in context of what real rap battles are like and the fact that a white man’s hypocrisy is the film’s ultimate target ) offensive. Afterwards, I realized that it premiered 13 months ago and still hasn’t played publicly in New York, although it opens theatrically in the US on Nov. 2nd.
Dennis, Yeah, Chris Dakota is a bit of a…misanthrope, hahaha. But he’s kind of smart and funny too. I check in on his tumblr every once in a while. People are always asking him for nudes and he always has good comebacks. I like him.
Wow about the Necco Wafers. I can say that I never ate a one. They just looked like they’d taste so bad, though I agree that they were aesthetically pleasing. Wait a minute!
***BREAKING NEWS***
I just read an article from September 25, 2018, that Necco Wafers and Sweetheart candies will be saved! Spangler Candy Co., which makes the Dum-Dum Lollipops, has bought the brands and will be bringing them back! Woo hoo!
I still won’t eat those chalky fuckers.
But yes on the Milk Duds. I like them. I haven’t had them in a dog’s age -I actually just typed “god’s” first and had to backtrack- and don’t plan on it. My brother, who didn’t like chocolate, really liked Milk Duds. Such a great name, though.
Probably too late here but what the heck. This post got me thinking about how easily startled I am and the faces I must make.
Slightly belated thanks to Black_Acrylic for the Italo Disco post. I enjoyed the beats very much. Here’s an add:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVygzVBIMZw
Berlin was hipster paradise. A lot of what I sensed was missing in New York and Chicago and that Tel Aviv is just too small for is there. Yet I’m very happy to be where I’m at. Kind of cathartic. Right after the trip I submitted to a USA magazine and went to a poetry reading here in Tel Aviv, so something must’ve clicked. I’m glad to see that your travels went well.