The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Author: DC (Page 27 of 1085)

Happy birthday to me.

1.
Randomly organized stack of me-related stuff (top to bottom): (1) me reading ‘Dear Todd’ on the Poetry Spots TV series in the early ’90s. (2) Trailer for Gisele Vienne’s film of ‘Jerk’ (3) me interviewed for Hilda Magazine about ‘Little Caesar Magazine’. (3) promo video for ‘Them’. (4) me reading ‘Container’ at the New Museum. (5) Trailer for Zac Farley’s and my film Permanent Green Light. (6) Harper Perennial’s trailer for Ugly Man. (7) ‘Dennis Cooper and friends, San Francisco 11-16-11’ by Michael Karo. (8) My sequence from The United States of Poetry series on PBS. (9) Traduire Dennis Cooper. (10) me talking about Ugly Man on Olive TV. (11) Trailer for Zac Farley’s and my film Like Cattle Towards Glow site. (12) Excerpts from ‘Jerk’, the theater work. (13) Japanese promo video for ‘This Is How You Will Disappear’. (14) Frank Jaffe reading works of mine. (15) Promo video for ‘Read Into My Black Holes’. (16) me reading my stuff at the Soft Targets Magazine launch event. (17) ‘Frisk (An Adapted Scene)’ by danielisuploading. (18) Brief excerpt from ‘Kindertotenlieder’. (19) Me and Ryan Trecartin: Artists on Writers | Writers on Artists (20) Video about ‘Last Spring: A Prequel’ at the Whitney Biennial. (21) Trailer for Dan Faltz’s Weak Species. (22) Me reading ‘Face Eraser’ at the Poetry Project. (23) Trailer for Everett Lewis’ film Luster feat. poetry by me. (24) Trailer for David White’s Oliver Twink. (25) Excerpt from David Bobee’s Dedans dehors David. (26) Trailer for Christophe Honore’s Homme au bain. (27) me reading ‘Dear Secret Diary,’ at the New Museum. (28) Fear of Poetry – Dennis Cooper From Tiger Beat to Eileen Myles



























2.
Randomly organized stack of old musical things that make me happy today: (1) Cheap Trick ‘He’s a Whore’ live. (2) Wire ‘Mr. Marx’s Table’ live. (3) Superchunk ‘Slack Motherfucker’ live. (4) Drive Like Jehu ‘Here Come the Rome Plows’. (5) The Melvins ‘Joan of Arc’ live. (6) The Contortions ‘Flip Your Face’. (7) Pinback ‘Talby’ live. (8) Sebadoh ‘Got It’. (9) Robert Pollard ‘Subspace Biographies’ live. (10) Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band ‘Big Eyed Beans from Venus’. (11) Iceage ‘You’re Blessed’ live. (12) Fugazi ‘Rend It’ live. (13) Spirit ‘Aren’t You Glad’. (14) Guided by Voices ‘Little Whirl’. (15) New Pornographers ‘Letter from an Occupant’. (16) Wall of Voodoo ‘Factory’ live. (17) Love ‘August’ live. (18) Chic “My Feet Keep Dancing’. (19) Tricky ‘Diss Never’ live. (20) Pavement ‘Grounded’ live. (21) The Quick ‘Teacher’s Pet’. (22) Destroyer ‘Tintoretto, It’s For You’. (23) Sparks ‘My Baby’s Taking Me Home’ live. (24) Death Grips ‘Get Got’. (25) Glenn Branca ‘The Spectacular Commodity’. (26) Eno ‘The True Wheel’. (27) ABBA ‘Elaine’. (28) Dwight Twilley Band ‘Looking for the Magic’. (29) Pink Floyd ‘Corporal Clegg’. (30) Tobin Sprout ‘The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin’. (31) Cheap Trick ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ live.































3.
Randomly organized stack of miscellaneous things that create happiness: (1) How to make cold sesame noodle. (2) Pierre Clementi in Partner. (3) The scary sheep. (4) Charles Ray ‘Ink Line’. (5) Greg The Hammer Valentine wishes Dennis Happy Birthday. (6) Vincent Kartheiser montage. (7) Robert Bresson Le Diable Probablement excerpt. (8) Pacific Ocean Park. (9) Bill Murray in Kingpin. (10) Fujiko Nakaya ‘Cloud Parking’. (11) Eric Rohmer Perceval le Gallois excerpt. (12) Sunrise in Los Feliz. (13) Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. (14) How to make a liberty spike Mohawk. (15) Matthew Barry in La Luna. (16) Helen Adam ‘Fearless Junkie Song’. (17) Peter O’Toole’s scream in The Ruling Class. (18) Pierre Guyotat. (19) Snowing in Paris. (20) Michel & Sven ‘Der Tischdeckentrick’. (21) (nostalgia) by Hollis Frampton. (22) The Clearest Ghost EVP’s Ever Recorded. (23) Eddo Stern ‘Emoticon’. (24) Jacques Tati Mon Oncle excerpt. (25) Samu l’Italiano (26) Frightening Scary Zombie Chinese Knock Off ‘It’s a Small World’ Dark Ride (27) Smack Nightclub, Leamington Spa 2010 – LED Room (28) Terrence Malick The Thin Red Line excerpt. (29) Ryan Trecartin’s ‘Temple Time’ (2016). (30) Redrum vsTornado Mer. (31) Orson Welles The Magnificent Ambersons excerpt.































 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Larst, Hi, L. Nice: that label. I feel like people have been talking about ‘Gris Gris’ a lot more recently, and I guess that’s why. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I used to collect records, so maybe that’s why the post’s idea made me warm. It’s really terrible in LA. I know a lot of people, mostly artists, who live in Altadena, and the city is basically completely wiped out, so I think they all must have lost their homes, and it’s really horrifying to imagine. Hole, nice. And based on a quick search, it seems yesterday’s love came via a band called Deap Lips? True? Oh, wait, I just saw that Deap Lips is The Flaming Lips under an alternate moniker! Never mind. Solved. What is this feeling called love? What is this crazy scene I can’t work out no how?, G. ** James, Right? You would need to have a very clean nose and good lungs to take full advantage of a spinning coke plate. I love ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ too. I think it’s my favorite Wes Anderson. Well, I just hope your Pink Floyd album pre-dates ‘DSotM’ for your sake. I’m sorry to hear about your semi-colon addiction. I think you should go to rehab. Haha. Your parents are trying to mind-trip you into being in denial. I think I’m nice, but I am very capable of fucking up, unintentionally for the most part though. ‘Astute self-awareness is so incredibly unarousing’: except that astutely self-aware porn stars can exude sexiness inordinately if you like the idea of bringing that sort of overconfident type down a notch. Don’t you have that option they do in the States where the university can in some cases pay for a student’s education if they think you’re worthy but financially unqualified? I haven’t read your story due to an overabundance of life activities yesterday, but I remain highly excited to, and it is the weekend. You’re welcome, and so am I. Countdown to Saturday. Keep your chin up. ** kier, Hi. Oh, it’s really bad, the fires. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s huge. Where I live remains safe at least at the current time. No, I don’t have a record player. I do in LA, but that doesn’t do me any good. I’m keeping in mind that lots of snow has its downside. It’s been so long since Paris got snow that it’s easy to be all Pollyanna about it. I need a long term visa to stay in France. The US just changed its policy re: US people visiting the EU. They’ll need visas to come here starting in May, so I can’t live here like I have been anymore. Thursday was okay. I had coffee with someone from the blog, and that was good, and the rest was mostly figuring out the visa stuff. Insane amount of luck getting through the final show-installing stretch. Big up from newly older me. ** Lucas, Hi. I don’t have a record player or a CD player. I’m a slave to mp3s. Uh, I think I decided that Genet’s stuff was overly self-indulgent and his lush prose was too much like perfume or something. I don’t feel that way anymore, no. Don’t question your capabilities. That’s your brain lying to you. Or probably mostly your emotions lying to you, I guess. ** _Black_Acrylic, I believe I knew you like vinyl, yes. Psst, some of those ‘LPs’ in the post were actually 12″s, but tell anyone, okay? I don’t know Mort Garson. I like Sacred Bones though, so … ** Steeqhen, Hi, S! It was very lovely for me to meet and spend time with you too! I totally bailed on buying records when CDs came in, and now nobody seems to have any respect for the CD, but if CDs are coming back into style, that’s excellent news for my voluminous CD collection. Thanks for alerting me to Cian’s kindness. How was the rest of your yesterday, and, well, today too? ** jay, Hi. I’m okay, just worried about LA friends who are too busy scrambling around and so on to be bothered with a check-in call yet. I like CDs too, but they don’t make for such interesting gifs, unfortunately. Audrey was dressed in her schoolgirl outfit, but it was quite cold, so most of that was covered up by a large, heavy coat. But I could see it under there. Great, another ‘Autoportrait’ fan. It might be one of those books where you can almost judge a person by whether they get/like it or not. Maybe. Maybe not. That anime sounds pretty good. Hm. Thanks, buddy. I hope your Friday is like a discotheque without the fascist groove thing. ** Derek white, Derek white! It’s very awesome to see you here. I’m a serious fan of your work, as I think you might know. I’m in Paris, so the fires are distant, but a lot of my friends are in hell or approximate to it. Yes, about sasha hawkins! My current email is [email protected]. You could send me a pdf or something if you want. Thanks a lot for, well, everything. It’s really a pleasure to meet you. Have a happy my birthday. ** Justin D, Thank you! For the sentiment and for the two-part entertainment. Haha, ChatGPT writes like the robot it is. Actually, it sounds uncannily like the birthday text my sister just sent me. Oops. Anyway, thank you, pal. Do something inordinately fun today. I order you to. I’m the birthday boy so I have that temporary power. ** Misanthrope, Yeah, I understand. Old friends are of high value. Just, yeah, keep your eyes open and your instincts attuned. Maybe that’s just how she manifests her insecurities, but that doesn’t make it okay. Aw, thanks bro. Ditto re: you and your younger gifts. ** Steve, Hi. Wow, I hope this place really is starting to thaw out. There are signs. I’m in touch with some LA friends, yes, and I’m relying on second hand info mostly because I don’t want to add to seemingly affected friends’ no doubt onslaught of worried queries. I don’t know, some artists work very hard to sound dated, and considerable numbers seem to find that cool. ** Måns BT, Bonjour via megaphone, Måns! Thank you about the blog, my friend. Well, you sound like you’re fully back to your old self, or, if the plastic bag’s liquid changed you, it seems to be a minor change. If you see that girl again, please tell her thank you from Zac and me. We loved that event. Evangelion rebuilds … no, I haven’t. Hm, okay, tempting. I’m okay. Creative and fun, not so much, mostly just business-y stuff with the film and a visa I need to get. But I think creative stuff will be back to encroaching on my being starting as soon as later today? Are you feeling creatively up to speed? xo from you-know-who: me. ** Dan Carroll, Hi, Dan. I don’t have any kind of player right now, just my laptop, It kind of sucks. But I was most into CDs until I got deprived of physical manifestations of music. So, I get you. Nice: that new and large and helpful material. Not to mention painting outside on a porch. It’s too cold here stand very still outdoors at the moment. Even just opening a window to smoke a cigarette is kind of perilous. ** HaRpEr, Oh, thanks. Yeah, that fated and ultimately mildly dreadful annual day of the year has arrived. Quin is great. Really quite great. Lots of her books. No, I can see why one Pym felt like enough. Unlike Quin, say, Pym’s books are kind of many slight variations on the same basic thing. Wise thoughts on the values of way back when writing-wise in the UK. I feel like the interest in that period or work is on the rise, but that may be mostly the case outside the UK amongst those of us who aren’t associating that period with real world contextual stuff out of ignorance. What a funny rule: no ‘bamboozling’. Thoughts on how to ace that? The problem is the vagueness of the that, no? Weird. I was a big record collector, especially during the early punk era. I really should sell that stuff or something, I guess. I have, like, every slight variation on every 45 released by most of the late 70s bands. ** Dev, Thank you, Dev. Apparently something did eat your first comment. I wonder if it exists in some structural outlying dimension of the blog. I’m sorry about your bug, but happy you are bug-free. Efteling is dreamy. Still no concrete plan, maybe in the next couple of weeks, I’m guessing. Yeah, Efteling aka Holland is, mm, four hours drive from here. Crazy, right? It’s not much more of a hassle than driving from one part of LA to another. No, I have nothing to play physical media here in Paris. I don’t even have a DVD player. I only have a Switch, but I download my games there too. I think about changing that, but I also think about how I’ll then want to buy a bunch of CDs and LPs, and then about where in the world I would put them, and that stops me. Thanks, yes, the fires, really unbelievable. Have a great, great day and weekend too! ** Cletus, Good, I’ll be hitting you up for tips. Apparently the game has a lot of very challenging puzzles in it. The postcards in ‘Shame’ are addressed to Wolfe himself, aren’t they? Mine are. Maybe I got a special addition or something. ** Uday, Wonderful theory about CDs there. Wanting to be a baby, wear diapers, have your diapers changed, plushies, drinking baby formula from a bottle, etc. is so big right now on the master/slave sites, and it’s getting bigger and bigger. It’s almost bigger than guys wanting to lick other guys’ feet, and feet licking is massive. Weird days. But of course all power to the baby guys and to each one’s own. Hm, I don’t think anything has to limit you, no. My friend Zac is close with his parents, and he’s barreling along. No, I think keeping long term people close while chasing new people is possibly ideal? I don’t know. Very scary in LA. Luck to your grandma’s family. ** Bill, Hi, B. My apartment is not currently in danger, but I live at the foot of Griffith Park, so anything is possible. I have a number of friends whose houses burned down. Most of them artists. Paul McCarthy’s house burned down and he lost everything, decades of his art and art people gave him, and everything else. It’s really just terrible. Huh, yeah, Lucia Berlin, I can see that. Probably an influence on her, I would guess. I hope you’re doing way alright in SF. ** Okay. So, it’s my birthday, and I seem to have decided to mark the occasion by doing something I’m generally sort of allergic to doing, that is orienting the blog around my own stuff. And that’s what I did. And there you go. May my birthday bring you luck. See you tomorrow.

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p.s. Hey. I’m kind of rattled by the fires in Los Angeles, but let’s do this. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Bright Eyes, yes, I knew it sounded familiar. As does love’s current quote, but … hm. Support the power of women use the power of man support the flower of women use the word fuck the word is love, G. ** Steeqhen, Hey. I wrote to you shortly ago, hopefully see you soon. I’ve never been to Dublin, but I can believe that. My French friends say there’s something very French about the Paris suburbs, but I’m not French enough to see it. On the other hand, something will happen, and I’ll say ‘That’s so French’, and my French friends will say ‘No it’s not’. ** kier, Hi, kier. Cool, a library doing its job. I had a scarf, but I left it somewhere, so I’ve been trying to survive without it, but the winter became too wintery, and I realised I’m a wuss without a scarf. Humbling. Those sound like challenging circumstances in which to make a show, but if anyone can, you can. Exciting! Again, like I said on FB, I’m so thrilled with what you did with my gif novel. It opens up a new way of presenting them that I hadn’t thought about. Thank you again so much. Alight, I will extra specially try to see ‘Hannibal’. No, no snow. It’s been cold enough for it, but the rain is somehow still sneaking through. Grr. Yesterday? I had a coffee with Martin and Karolina who do Infinity Land Press and met the writer Audrey Szasz who was with them, and I met up with my friend Alex, also visiting from the UK, and I have to get a visa so I was figuring out how to do that, and I was stressing out about the LA fires, which are growing and not all that far from where I live there at the moment. So, big day, I guess. Fierce but not to the point of breaking your ribs-style hug from me. ** Misanthrope, Right, I’ve been a Timberlands guy for, hm, two years now? They make walking feel more substantial. Okay, well, heavy emphasis on the leeriness if you want my opinion. ** jay, Hi, jay. Me too, about charismatic but non-informative dialogues. They’re tricky to make, but I’m always trying. The Ethel Cain is on my hard drive, and now I just have to poke it. ‘Hitman’, ah, so you’re shooting people in those locations or looking for someone to shoot, I suppose. I knew there had to be some kind of narrative. Any ‘Autoportrait’ feedback yet? ** _Black_Acrylic, Wow, -16, that’s serious. I don’t think we’ve gotten below -6, and that’s bone freezing enough. I’m gonna buy another scarf. ** James, I like commas. I don’t like semi-colons. I avoid them when I write like the veritable plague. Ugly disruptive little things. Ah, so your parents are money-over-comfort types with at least a slight sadistic streak. Um, I can only remember maybe two times in my life when I’ve felt guilty for something I did. Hopefully that means I’m mostly really nice and not mostly really callous. I hate pubs. I think I’d like London a whole lot more than I do if going to the pub wasn’t a habit that people there don’t want to break. Hm, I think my gaydar is pretty good. I’m a fairly objective person as opposed to being a horndog whose evaluations are poisoned by wishful thinking. It sounds like university is a good place for you, definitely. At least a good starting place. So, good, glad you’re heading there. I wouldn’t say Catwalk walks are fancy. Or maybe a fancy-ish version of military walking? Okay, your teacher sounds very promising indeed. You wrote and posted a story! How exciting! I’ll read it greedily, but I’m slow, so give me a bit. Cool! Everyone, the mighty James has published a short fiction by him on his substack that you can go read. I think this our first opportunity to peek into the talent of our friend James, so it’s pretty exciting. Anyway, read it if you will, and do so here. Congrats! Later gator. ** Tyler Ookami, ‘All Hail the New Puritan’ is great. Does that count as drag? I too feel like I was spoiled by the work of amazing artists who worked with drag as an element of their work: Ethel Eichelberger, Vaginal Davis, Leigh Bowery, in addition to the people you mention, all of whom I’m a big fan of. It seems like drag as a form has become so focused on fashion/attire, ironic interpretations of pop songs, and cattiness/’tude in recent times. There don’t seem to be many drag artists using the form to disrupt themselves or their audiences. But I guess that’s the case with most performative art in general nowadays, I don’t know. Anyway, agreed. I don’t know Seiko Oomori, but that sounds really interesting, and I’ll chase it. Thanks! ** Uday, Hi. A political year. Well, good timing. Much needed. I think your approach sounds very reasonable and theoretically productive, yes. My friends seem to be okay re: the fires so far, but they’re growing fast, and a number of my LA friends had to evacuate over this past night, so it’s pretty scary. ** Cletus, Hey! It’s a beauty, that ILP Baudelaire book, yeah. I’m well, thank you, and you too, I hope and so it seems. We can maybe compare notes about ‘Lorelei’. I’m about, mm, a few days away from starting it. ** Charalampos, Hi. Like Barbara Pam in a way, yes, but, mm, more distanced or something. Efteling will happen, I’m not sure when yet. RP’s nose isn’t it, but it’s in the general area. Nice thinking about your drawings. I presume you’re drawing up a storm? Oh, sure, Nelson Sullivan’s videos are great and kind of invaluable. It would be really great if they were put online. I think they’re in the NYU archives, so I don’t know if that’ll happen. I’m in one of them for a fraction of a second. Love from P-ville. ** HaRpEr, Hi. I think my favorite Green is ‘Party Going’. Have you read that one? There was that era when the UK was producing the best writers in the world, the Green-Compton-Burnett-Quin-Rhys-Pym-etc. era, 95% of them women writers. What an amazing phase. And the vast majority of them were heavy on dialogue use, which is very interesting. Death stare because the lecturer knew you were right but was afraid to get his pre-planned plan derailed, my guess. The block of text has to explain the accompanying poem? Yuck. It can’t extenuate or obfuscate it in the guise of clarifying? ** Justin D, Hi. I’m most looking forward to seeing Will Guthrie, Entract, and a performance of Éliane Radigue’s ‘Occam’. I’ve been meaning to check out ‘Dragula’. Dominick recommended it to me ages ago. Okay, I’m going to make the move. Thank you. Do fill me in if you’re interestingly filled. Or even if not. Yes, the LA fires are extremely concerning. It’s getting very bad. ** dwt, Hey there, lovely to see you! Thank you so much about the posts. A few monthly freak outs sound doable. That’s about my rate, I think, and I’m serviceable. Totally agree with you about ‘The Lighthouse’. I need to find someone IRL who I respect who liked it that I can have a serious argument with. Take care! ** Lucas, Hi. I loved ‘Funeral Rites’, and it wouldn’t shock me if it influenced me. At one point I had to reject Genet because I didn’t want to write like him. The only argument I ever had with Kathy Acker was when she and I were on a panel together during my anti-Genet phase, and I went off about what I disliked about Genet’s stuff, and she got very upset that I would dare to criticise Genet, and she told me later that she had wanted to kill me. ** Dan Carroll, Hi. I’m glad you came back. The link worked. Thank you! I’ll investigate it and your work and your thoughts. The paintings at the top look great at a quick glance so far. Yeah, needless to say, max out the unemployment time while you’ve got it, which, you know, you’re doing. Enjoy the sun. We’ve had about, oh, 7 minutes of sun so far this year. My favorite thing about winter is how the sun becomes a valuable friend. Happy Thursday! ** Right. Today you get a fairly simple but ideally worthy thing to look over and consider. See you tomorrow.

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