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‘Led by former Generation X member Tony James, the new wave group Sigue Sigue Sputnik raised selling out to an art form. The concept behind Sigue Sigue Sputnik was simple: the band adopted a postmodern, ironic style and sound, and marketed it to the hilt, saturating the media with slogans and interviews. James didn’t even intend the band to be musical; he recruited Martin Degville, Neal X, Chris Cavanagh, and Ray Mayhew partially because they lacked extensive musical experience. After a publicity campaign designed to solicit a record contract, the band signed with EMI; they released their first single, “Love Missile F1-11,” in early 1986, and it hit number three on the U.K. charts. Sigue Sigue Sputnik sold the space between tracks to advertisers on their debut album, Flaunt It. Despite the massive marketing campaign, the album fell on deaf ears, as did the more serious follow-up, Dress for Excess (1988), which featured the slogan “This time it’s music” on the album cover. The group split soon after.’ — sputnikworld.com
Sigue Sigue Sputnik ‘Love Missile F1-11’ (live)
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‘We’ve sent some turkeys to the Eurovision Song Contest in the past, but the smiley, sparkly, high-haired twins Jedward might just have what it takes to win next Saturday night. It’s a relentless charm offensive that has involved answering such incisive questions as: “Do you ever breathe?” The pair have also been extremely busy jumping around, doing cartwheels, wearing sparkly jackets and stage gear inspired by Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson while explaining the philosophical aesthetic behind their trademark blond quiffs: “It’s like angelic halos and like a flame.” In their debut rehearsal this week, Jedward’s performance was as visually arresting, enthusiastic and madcap as some of the more successful entries in recent years. And at their first press conference, when asked to sing an a cappella version of the song, Jedward appeared to be singing in tune without the aid of special effects.’ — Irish Times
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‘Specimen are a British band formed in the 1980s. Their music has been described as spanning many different genres of music, including glam, goth, punk and post-punk, and the band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the Gothic movement, both musically and stylistically. The band formed in Bristol, England during 1980. Their first show was at a street party celebrating the wedding of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. In 1982, the band relocated to Soho, London, where they would play many shows at the infamous club known as the Batcave. Specimen’s vocalist Olli Wisdom founded and ran the club during 1982-1983. Unusual for a keyboardist, Jonny Slut became the face of the band and its most famous member, due largely to his striking image and fashion sense. While the band were together, they never released a full album, only singles and a mini album. However, in 1997 two full-length compilations were released featuring various Specimen songs.’ — Wiki
Specimen ‘The Beauty of Poison’
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‘Originally intended to be the second coming of Jesus, The GazettE is the result of a tumultuous set of aglaphotis-related accidents that completely botched the original concept. At the end of all the mess, it turned out that the resulting being was not our lord and savior, but a pagan deity inspired by four basic doctrines; Red, Yellow, Purple and Blue. What religion this deity is pagan to, exactly, remains a mystery. While the fractions of the god themselves have existed since forever, the band was only recently begun in the late 20th century due to the recent invention of cross-dressing. The group has now become popular in the underground of Japan, America and The Czech Republic, mostly among 12 year old girls. They are currently featured in countless examples of Yaoi fanfiction, which they will deny reading or supporting if asked. After appearing on numerous magazines and engaging in plenty of fanservice, their fame finally had absorbed enough of the fangirls’ life energy to achieve ‘super sayan’ mode, thusly becoming super fame.’ — uncyclopedia
The GazettE ‘Akai One Piece’ (live)
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‘In mid-December 1972, Jerry Brandt, Carly Simon’s former manager, overheard a demo tape being played by Clive Davis at CBS Records. Davis rejected the tape as “mad, unstructured and destructive to melody”, but Brandt was quick to step in. Jobriath later remarked “that coming from a man who discovered both Patti Smith and Barry Manilow…so much for sanity and structure!”. Brandt located Jobriath in California, where he was living in an unfurnished apartment and working as a prostitute. Brandt became smitten with Jobriath, not only as an artist but romantically, and made no secret of it. Brandt signed Jobriath to Elektra Records for a reported $500,000; allegedly the most lucrative recording contract of its time. The label’s president, Jac Holzman, later remarked “I only made two mistakes when I was at Elektra and one of them was Jobriath. It was just so over the top and crazy.” A huge marketing campaign and media blitz ensued, including full-page advertisements in Vogue, Penthouse and Rolling Stone magazines, full-length posters on over 250 New York City buses and a huge, 41’ by 43’ billboard in Times Square. All featured the forthcoming debut album sleeve design by noted photographer Shig Ikeda, which featured a nude Jobriath, made to resemble an ancient Roman statue. Plans were announced for a lavish three night live debut at the Paris Opera that December, at a cost of $200,000 and a subsequent tour of European opera houses. Jobriath informed the press that the show would feature him dressed as “King Kong being projected upwards on a mini Empire State Building. This will turn into a giant spurting penis and I will have transformed into Marlene Dietrich.” Elektra, concerned about spiraling production costs, postponed the Paris Opera shows until February, later canceling them due to expense.’ — championstudios.com
Jobriath ‘I’maman’
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‘After Bill’s parents divorced at his age of 7, Bill and Tom were raised by his mother. Gradually influenced by his mother-s new boyfriend who is a guitarist, Bill got interested in music (later on his mother married Gordon). When Bill was 10 years old, he founded a band with the help of his stepfather. He began to play the song that he wrote by himself in a club. During his teenage days, he was considered as a fancy dressing boy among his classmates in his hometown, because he wore the suits and clotheses that he made manually. Soon after, Gustav and Georg joined in their band and they worked very hard under the name of Devilish. However, there were rarely good performances. Fortunately, Bill participated in a show program called Star Search. In the show, he sang “It’s Raining Men”, and he lost in the quarter-final, which drew the attention of a famous producer. He grasped the opportunity to be a super star and finally the band signed a contract with Universal Music Company in 2005. Then after they made their debuts, Tokio Hotel created a big sensation not only in Germany but also all over the world.’ — ultimatetokiohotel.com
Tokio Hotel ‘Darkside of the Sun’
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‘Il est des gens que vous pensez / savez / imaginez inabordables, pour plusieurs raisons : à cause de leur notoriété, à cause du poids économique qu’ils représentent (genre là, 300 000 exemplaires pour Mister Mystère, le 5e album du bonhomme en question, si l’on compte Labo M), à cause de leurs collaborations si nombreuses que leur agenda se rapproche davantage de celui d’un ministre de la période De Gaulle (à l’époque où les élus bossaient pour la nation, et non pour raconter des conneries à la télé). -M- (Matthieu Chédid) fait partie de ces intouchables. Enfin … faisait partie.’ — le-hiboo.com
-M- ‘Chedid’ (live)
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‘Meet the strangest known band from the pre-punk dayze of glam. Formed in LA in 1973, Zolar X made a name for themselves by playing pulsating rock that both forecasted punk as well as saluted glam… and also by claiming they were from outer space. A sound like no other and a story as out there as The Monks. We’re talking commitment here – spacesuits, Spock ears, even antennae feelers – onstage, on the street, and wherever they made the scene. ZOLAR-X spoke their own language, and insisted they really were from outer space to anyone who could get past their unique hairdos long enough to listen. A teenage Jello Biafra rolled his eyes when he saw Zolar X featured in Lenny Kaye’s Rock Scene, but never forgot the band. Years later a semi-official bootleg appeared, and everyone Jello played it for was floored – the missing link between Chrome and The Stooges?’ — Punknews.org
Zolar X
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‘Seremedy is a fresh, young Visual Rock band from Sweden that aims to shock the one-sided, monotone western music-market with their extravagant, androgynous looks. Combined with a modern metal/pop sound, they’ve developed a two-sided view on the world. One side is heavy and dark, aggressive yet melodic. The other is more colorful, cheerful and happy. Starting for real with a complete line-up in January 2010, they’ve been gaining an ever growing number of fans from all around the world. Only 6 months after their formation they played their first show abroad in Moscow, Russia. In Sweden they are already an established, popular act among the various Japanese Pop-culture Conventions such as UppCon, MeuwCon, WhateverCon and ConFusion.’ — ninetonenation.com
Seremedy (live)
‘Haysi Fantayzee were formed in 1981 by fashion photographer Kate Garner, former Animal Magnet member Paul Caplin and Jeremy Healy, a well-known face on London’s club scene. Together they set about injecting a sense of fun and adventure into the music scene, wearing outlandish, self designed costumes and dreadlocks, and writing songs that married sexual subversion with deliberately disposable and cocksure dayglo pop. Their ”Dickensian Rasta” look was an immediate hit and saw their debut single ‘John Wayne Is Big Leggy’ rise to #11 in the national charts. In their brief career they would also enjoy chart success with ‘Holy Joe’ and ‘Shiny Shiny’. Their outfits were often designed by Garner. The two singers looked like distorted mirror images of each other, with similar hair and make-up. In a 1983 interview with David Maples on the Los Angeles-based TV show “MV3”, Jeremy Healy accused the singer known as Boy George (George O’Dowd) of stealing his infamous look.’ — Trustthedj.com
Haysi Fantayzee ‘Shiny Shiny’
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‘Versailles was formed in March 2007 with various well-known members from Japan’s Visual Kei scene. The supergroup always performs in aristocratic French gowns. As is the norm for Visual bands, all of the skirt-wearing members are actually men. Versailles signed with Germany’s CLJ Records, and released its first album Lyrical Symphony last Halloween. Versailles describes its concept as “the absolute Youshikibi (beauty of form) sound and extremes of aestheticism.” The prettiest of them all is guitarist Hizaki, who usually performs in a tiered red and gold Aristocrat Lolita gown and flower headdress. On Xmas, Versailles is performing at a Gothic & Lolita Bible loft party in Shinjuku.’ — lacarmina.com
Versailles ‘Ascendead Master’
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‘Late 1979 saw the release of Adam and the Ants’ debut album Dirk Wears White Sox. The title referenced Dirk Bogarde. The album was somewhat dark, with post-punk riffs and some vestiges of glam rock, as well as attempts to fuse this sound with funk and soul. Lyrically it attempted to address subjects such as fetishism, historical figures like Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy and Cleopatra as well as art history, particularly the Futurism movement. It gained a cult following rather than commercial success, leading a frustrated Adam to hire Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols) in the hope of more widespread recognition. In January 1980, McLaren convinced the rest of the band, then comprising guitarist Matthew Ashman, bassist Leigh Gorman and drummer Dave Barbarossa to leave the Ants and form Bow Wow Wow, fronted by Annabella Lwin. A new version of the Ants was formed. Without label support, the band carried out a major UK “Ants Invasion” tour, at the end of which, they signed a major label deal with CBS Records and began recording Kings of the Wild Frontier, having first rush-released the title track as a single. That album was a hit in the United Kingdom and put the band at the forefront of the New Romantic movement. The album reached #1 on the UK album charts on 24 January 1981.’ — Miceinfreefall.com
Adam & the Ants ‘Dog Eat Dog’ (live)
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‘Based in New York, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band in the vein of fellow New York band Sonic Youth and Texas experimental punk band Butthole Surfers. White Zombie was known for combining heavy-metal music with driving guitar riffs (as on “Super-Charger Heaven”), overlayed with lyrics heavily influenced by horror films and pseudo-Satanic imagery. Unlike other metal bands of the 1990s, White Zombie was almost exclusively a “fantasy” band, writing songs not about life but about the surreal. The group officially disbanded in 1998 shortly after the release of lead singer Rob Zombie’s solo album Hellbilly Deluxe. Malevolent megalomaniac or eerie artiste? Rob Zombie is a bit of both with spooky metal music that’s as colorful and kitschy as its comic art.’ — instructables.com
Rob Zombie ‘Dragula’
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of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes: ‘The pseudo-nihilistic punk rockers of the 70’s created an impossible code in which no one can actually live by. It’s such garbage. The idea that anyone who attempts to do anything commercial is a sell out is completely out of touch with reality. The punk rock manifesto is one of anarchy and intolerance. The punk rockers polluted our minds. People who wanna be artists have the hardest time of it ’cause we are held up to these impossible standards. We’re expected to die penniless and insane so that the people we have moved and entertained over the years can keep us to themselves. So that they can feel a personal and untarnished connection with our art. The second we try to earn a living wage or, god forbid, promote our art in the mainstream, we are placed under the knives of the sanctimonious indie fascists. Unfortunately, there isn’t some grand umbrella grant that supports indie rockers financially and enables us to exist outside of the trappings of capitalism….Selling out, in an artistic sense, is to change one’s creative output to fit in with the commercial world. To create phony and insincere art in the hopes of becoming commercially successful. I’ve never done this and I can’t imagine I ever will.’ — Stereogum
of Montreal ‘Beware Our Nubile Miscreants’ (live)
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*
p.s. Hey. ** Pilgarlic, Hey. Is it just me, or does Donald Ray Pollock sound like a serial killer name? I think I’ve decided I’m going to wait and read his novel first since it comes out soon and I’m in a novel mood. By the time 6 pm Paris time rolled around, I was so deadset on survival that it was already after 7 pm before I noticed. ** David Ehrenstein, Indeed it does. ** Dan Callahan, Hey. Oh, fantastic, I can’t wait to read your piece. That’ll happen the moment I’ve launched this parade here. Everyone, the very fine writer and d.l. Dan Callahan has written a piece on Terrence Malick’s sublime ‘Tree of Life’ over at Slant Magazine, and given the totally ‘can’t lose’ combo of Callahan and Malick, I urge you with all the strength and logic in my remaining body to go read it. Thank you a lot, Dan. Oh, and I’m very happy to see that your Barbara Stanwyck book has a set February 2012 launch date. All respect to you. ** Empty Frame, Hey. I’m good, thanks. I would have rushed to see ‘The Ladyboys of Bangkok’. Generalizing is for the birds, but I like Thailand-based ladyboys, at least in theory, and I hope to meet one or more of them someday. That Festival sounds pretty cool. I want to hear everything or lots at least about that ‘Haunted Houses of Brighton’ event please, pretty please? ** Chaitd, Hello there. This is a ‘welcome to the blog’ situation, am I wrong? Oh wait, iced tea … hm, having popped over to my FB news wall briefly this morning, maybe you’re not such a newbie after all. In any case, iced tea is my favorite oral lubricant, and milk for breakfast cereal only. ** Sypha, I’m with you on the going back to nature thing. A nice hike once in a while is okay. Hawaii is pretty. But that’s about it. Sure, the term blind faith works too and just as well, absolutely. Good luck with the Lady Gaga. ** Jebus, Hi, Jebus. Nice to see you. Always very happy to find someone talking with great positivity about Robert Pollard. For whatever reason, I was in love and obsessed from the first listen. A friend said he thought I would really like GbV back in the early 90s, and I bought the newest thing of theirs at the time, which was the ‘Japanese Spin Cycle’ EP, and it was like discovering part of myself or something. I guess Pollard’s genius and what he’s doing with it is so connected to the way I think about making art, and what I most want art to do, that the familiarity or something there allowed me to get the whole complex nature of his music from the start. But, ultimately, I don’t really know why it came to me so quickly. It was just like I was hearing both the perfect music and being shown that a form of greatness that I recognized and wanted to achieve within my work was possible and just far enough out of my talent’s reach to make me want to try really hard. Strange, but amazing. Thanks for asking me that. ** Robert-nyc, Hey, Robert! You’re the veritable sight for sore eyes, man. Awesome that you got to go to the Tim Dlugos reading. What I would give to have been there. I’m really hoping it was recorded and that the recording will wind up in some accessible place. Yeah, I’ll be in NYC for the book lunch stuff, and it would be great to see you! How are you doing? Tell me what’s going on if you have the time and don’t mind. ** Jeff, Hey, man. That was a beautiful and very wise comment and thought. Thanks a lot for imbedding it here. ** Steevee, The anti-piracy thing makes sense, yeah. ** Allesfliesst, Ha ha, yeah, that’s me in a nutshell, ha ha. I think when my horniness acts up, I give it a puzzle to solve and, given that it’s hard to solve a puzzle when you’re horny, I just end up monitoring its efforts, and that’s sex to me. Sometimes, mind you. ** Tender prey, Howdy, Marc. Yeah, I first saw it on somebody’s Facebook wall, maybe Oscar’s, and then I grabbed it. Oh, I think it’s fine. I don’t have any problem with it at all. I don’t find it difficult to look at really, and, even if it were, difficulty is cool. No, I like it. ** Alan, The Mike Young is terrific. It has always seemed from his poetry that he’d have this special, awesome knack for fiction, and sure enough. It’s a real honor that Christopher Higgs let me be in the second group of interviewees. I’m not so sure how interesting my answers are. One of the reasons I’m excited is that I’m in the same group with Dodie Bellamy and Eileen Myles who are my peers, age-wise, and both of whom I consider to be writer comrades of mine, and yet I suspect their answers to the questions will be really different from mine, and I can’t wait to find out. Yeah, I’m definitely good with the apocalypse not having happened. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! ** Andrew, Hey. But, see, that’s what I was trying to say. You’re talking about people having faith and trundling through life routines in a general way. I think that as soon as you start seeing people in groups, you’re losing sight of them. Each person has a specific reason for doing what he or she does, and their participation in societal routines and their adherence to organized religious beliefs is window dressing. You simply can’t know why those individuals fall into those things unless you know them well if even then. To even try to understand people in that way is a losing proposition, to my mind. I find it better to embrace the confusion and inaccessibility of their reasoning and then find that unknowability interesting. Yeah, the trouble you have finding a way to communicate must be really hard. Why don’t you try to be specific with the therapists? That’s what they’re there for and what interests them. Unless they’re creeps, they’re not going to judge you for that difficulty. Yeah, Flit has a good point, I imagine. Growing up so physically isolated from people whose interests are like yours would seem to naturally cause you to develop your social skills to suit internet communication, for instance. I don’t know. If you could get yourself into a less isolated situation and be around people who like, well, us on this blog, say, you might be surprised by how unstrange you really are. No, you didn’t come off as selfish in the slightest. There’s tons of room here for everyone to say whatever they want. ** Postitbreakup, Oh, man, I’m so sorry to hear about the lay-off. Shit. What’s your game plan now? ** MANCY, Hey. Thanks a lot for getting your work off to Five Years. I really wish you could be there, man. I’ll take lots of photos and stuff, at least. Great to read about your experiences with Pollard’s stuff. Thanks for that. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. iCycle, yikes, but of course. Yeah, you do see people pissing on the street — well, in the bushes and on somewhat discrete portions of walls — rather often here. I mean, not every day or anything. And they don’t seem drunk in many cases. Maybe it’s because everyone drinks so much coffee in cafes here or something. That walk you took was such a beauty. Another novel-worthy paragraph. Dasani bottle, ha ha. Even though that was true, making it a Dasani bottle is such a good touch, I don’t know why. I guess because I think of Dasani as one of the also-ran bottled waters. Is Dasani a place? I guess so, right? Even with your quibbles, you made me really want to see ‘Tourist Trap’. I mean … house of mannequins, how promising is that? Your neck was a hit. Is, I mean. Maybe you can use its power to get you things. Not that I’m suggesting you become manipulative. You started feeling sick again? Oh, shit. Maybe you should ask a doctor what’s up or something? I hope you’re feeling better now. My day: I finished answering those questions for the HTMLGIANT thing and sent them off. Mr. Higgs wrote back to say that they were fine, so I was glad about that. Then I walked down to this prearranged cafe to meet with Gisele before our meeting with the Pompidou higher ups. We sort of decided what we were vaguely going to propose for that festival, and then she caught me up on the stuff I missed by not being on the recent mini-‘Kindertotenlieder’ tour or being in Geneva for the ‘LS,AP’ opening. Everything was/is a hit and all that, which is great. Gisele almost got punched by some drunk, obnoxious German guy after the most recent ‘Ktl’ show, and that guy subsequently almost got punched by Stephen O’Malley, but Gisele broke up their fight. There are some new gigs for our theater pieces. Other stuff. Then we met up with the Pompidou guy and his, I think, assistant at this other cafe to talk about the Festival thing. He explained more clearly what the guidelines are re: what we can do, and that helped, and some of our proposals turned out to be too ambitious and some didn’t. Anyway, nothing is decided yet, but, so far, the idea is that we’ll show ‘Last Spring, a Prequel’ and Gisele’s 40 or so photographic portraits of the dolls in our work, and do a handful of performances of ‘Jerk’, and there will be a big Mego Records night where a bunch of the artists on Peter Rehberg’s label will perform, and hopefully there’ll be two performances of ‘Them’ if the funding for that comes through, and then we’ll curate a series of daily events/ lectures/ performances/ screenings, maybe 18 in all, and so now we’re working on figuring that part out. So, blah blah, it went well. We all parted ways, and I came back here and worked on the zine thing for while, but that went kind of badly and discouragingly. My HP editor sent me this fantastic blurb that Gary Lutz wrote for ‘The Marbled Swarm’, and that made me really happy because he’s as amazing a writer as America makes, so his high praise is really an honor. And I think otherwise I just did some blog stuff, ate, watched a little TV, and not much else ’til bedtime. How did Tuesday treat you, man? ** Killer Luka, So, so happy about the show being solo and about the gallery representation. Fuckin’ A! Such great news! You are very kind, but you are 100% responsible for all of that good, my dear. ** Misanthrope, Hey. Yeah, McClanahan is awesome, and ‘V’ is his best yet. I guess I was glad mostly because I like that Little Show’s big investment in the WWE is emotional as well. That seems important for some reason. That is part of it, yeah. The excuses. I guess it’s guilt. I guess you’re supposed to absolve them. I bet you did because you’re a nice guy. ** That’s that. I wanted to do a kind of flamboyant blog gig, but not just any flamboyancy-themed gig, this one. Why this one, you ask? Even if I fully understood my motivations, I’m not sure I would tell you. Or would I? See you tomorrow at the latest.
Now available in North America 
jedward. rlly? imma start a jedward LA based tribute band called Incesdennis.
ahah, nice. What happened to the Tokyo Hotel? They look ugly.
I like Versailles. Actually once I was in BHV and there was a video of this totally crazy looking Japanese band playing on a monitor in the 'manga' section, but I forgot their name. It wasn't them though, I would remember 'Versailles' I think.
Uhm, did I rush too much publishing the poster of the show on FB? I saw it on the FIve Years website and I was overwhelmed with excitement.
Heya D. I've gone underground since the show happened, but I'm gonna put together a blog day for you tomorrow, with pictures and witticisms tomorrow. Huge crowds attended, and everyone was very complimentary. We'll see what it all means in the next few weeks. I always get depressed right after big shows happen. I'm hoping it will end soon. I still can't sleep, but at least now I don't have to wake up anytime.
Tree of Life sounds amazing. I am going to rush to see it. My friend saw it at Cannes and had mixed feelings, but it sounds totally up my alley.
I'm taking advice. What the hell should I do next? I've got nothing to live for right now.
b
Hey Dennis,yes of course I will let you know where and when as soon as the dates for Ricci/Forte are out.
The first few days after I met this guy I found myself stupidly waiting for a txt message or an email and eventually got a message from him, but that's it for now. I just don't want to be in the kind of situation where I'm expecting things to happen, where I'm looking for signs or expect him to do this or that. We don't live in the same city. And it's going to be hard to get to know each other well. And at this stage I don't even know if he wants to get to know me. Or at least I'm not sure. For now, all I can do is wait untill I see him again. Maybe I should expose myself a little more, and tell him what's going on, but that never works. Letting somebody know what you're feeling has never worked for me. I believe in spending time together and let the person know how you care in different ways. I'm not saying I'm using a tactic but why should I do or say something that would just freak him out? I don't know. It's best to see him. This time, strangely, I believe in destiny. I feel much more mature now and ready for a relationship, but that just means that I know it's only going to work this way for me. Does that make any sense? What do you think? There is a chance I'm still a little bit scared. Thanks a lot, Dennis. I'm sure I'll see you in Milan.
Playing guitar must be easy! Who knew the legion of fancy dressing men. Ca plan pour moi! Gazette guy sounds like Roxy music guy. That was Gladys Knight. Camp Bowie Scary Monsters guy I saw Frankie Fun of Naked Raygun do that strip device with one flight suit under another while he was singing my name, children. L. Kravitz should cover. All that Bernadette Peters hair is not missed however. Researchers: you cannot google an encyclopedic mind, but that's what you've got. Is there something to this reading books thing? I tried watching DVD's: You Weren't There "Chicago Punk" 77-84, but it's mostly bands, not fashion, not dancers, not hanging out on the sidewalk between 5 and dawn. But Silver Abuse, J. Disler's band is there, God bless her, not a Mother Teresa but a Juana de Dios of pre-slam Chicago earnest while retarded young poets. To author of Gig #7: wurd! 🙂 Thank you, Cap'm n' Phyllis
Hi Dennis
still on the Jedward kick? that song burns into yr brain. they were meant to 'sing' for Obama yesterday, bono too glad i wasnt in dublin in looked crazy busy. oh and by now most people will know that Enda Kenny or new dimwit leader robbed word for word one of Obama's speeches to introduce him.
new painting 80% done just need to get my nice designer tape from dublin so i can fix a few edges.
flights are booked even have a place to crash london yay soon
@Oscar i did the same once i saw yrs its even on my blog over excited but pr cant hurt just have to repost the show over an over till its on, thats what FB is for isnt it?
Yeah, I’m looking forward to Eileen Myles’s too. Am big fan of hers as well.
Just to let you know, that galley never arrived. I know you’ve done everything you could, but I thought I should mention it.
Dennis, well, I don't mind admiring nature from behind a window or in a picture book, and I used to like going up to Maine as a kid and spending a week out by the lake at a lake house my aunt rented every summer, but I think my idea of hell on earth would be living in a rainforest. I think when I did my Ligotti day I had a quote of his where he said he's rather live in a parking lot then the rainforest, and that's something I can agree with.
Oddly enough I got a Rob Zombie CD yesterday, at the same time I got the new Gaga. One of his greatest hits CDs. Which, really, is probably the only Rob Zombie CD I'll ever need to buy. Also got a book called "The Wasp Factory" by Iain Banks that I started reading last night. Repulsive but intriguing…
Two books I ordered on Amazon last night: Tony Duvert's "Strange Landscape" and Frederick Rolfe's "Stories Toto Told Me."
Hi Dennis. So first off, I have to say that I love Sigue Sigue Sputnik and you have now convinced me that I need to buy "Dress for Excess" on iTunes (if they have it). I remember listening to that tape in eighth grade and loving "Dancarama" and "Orgasm." I had a bad dubbing of the first album as well; all I remember is "Atari Baby." I just found their website, and little did I know they're still making albums. And of course i will always love Adam and the Ants. A favorite childhood memory is roller skating at the local rink to "Ant Music" with all these other kids and teens waving their arms over their heads to the song. Ha! Ha!
Anyway, I am fine and dandy these days. I moved in with my current boyfriend in Bushwick, Brooklyn, about 2 months ago and have been totally content with the situation as is. Couldn't stand living in Astoria, Queens, anymore, so I finally left. And yeah, hopefully you can find footage of the Dlugos reading; my favorite readers of the night were CA Conrad and Brad Gooch, although everyone really kicked ass. As for the writing career, I finally started writing again after having not produced anything new for the past four months. Um, in April the 2nd issue of that gay poetry journal Assaracus came out, in which I have 7 poems published, which was damn nice (think I might have previously told you about that), and now I'm getting ready to send out a manuscript of a full collection of poetry to a small publisher I like and see what happens. I'm figuring why not. I'm very lax about it all these days–very whatever happens happens. So yes, it will be cool to see you when you are in NYC again; perhaps another large dinner with you and other DC blog folk in NYC will be called for.
Okay. Guess I should get moving. I'll be lurking. I really want to listen to Sputnik now. "Hey Jayne Mansfield superstar!"
I still haven't sorted out my iTunes issues. I'm going to call Digital Society tomorrow and see if they can help me. I thought manually adding numbers to each track would do it, but it didn't solve the problem.
Have you heard the Weeknd? If someone makes a film of GLAMORAMA, their album HOUSE OF BALLOONS would make the perfect soundtrack. It's R&B;, but it suggests a collaboration between Drake and a producer strung out on ketamine and aware of post-punk (one song samples Siouxsie & the Banshees) and dubstep.
Fabulous Bands!
Tokio Hotel has obviously seen Velvet Goldmine innumerable times.
Jedward area d delight. Saw them recently on Graham Norton. They're totally into the twin thing, completing each other's sentences and the like, and it's screamingly obvious that they sleep together.
As I trust you know, Moz is BESOTTED with Jobriath. He purchased the rights to all his music. Don't know what he plans to do with it.
Jobriath spent his last years a a piano bar singer/player. It was a complete 180 from the Glam eminence he was. And it is of course SO obvious that Lady Gag-me-with-a-spoon has ripped him off. More possibly than she's ripped off Madge.
Latest FaBlog: Fait Diver — Hommage a Jacques Derrida
No game plan, really, just back hunting for jobs in this dismal market. And although it's definitely good financially that I don't have to pay rent, living with my parents means guaranteed nagging about "have you found a job yet? what about now? how many did you apply for today?" from people who haven't dealt with the job market in like 20 years and have no idea how awful it is. not even a break. no vacation or anything, no taking a trip, not that i'd know where to go.
Another Sigue Sigue Sputnick fan here! Well, Love Missile F1-11 was quite good anyway.
@ Dennis, my review of the degree show has appeared online in The Skinny: LINK The editor amended it to explain who Bataille is, which is fair enough. It's not like it's one of those highbrow literary magazines.
Flamboyant – I like that word… funny, I used it in conversation the other night with a friend. I was having a long chat on the phone, which is something I realised I haven't done virtually since I got a mobile. And that's not entirely true – I do talk at length sometimes on the mobile, but weirdly it's qualitatively different from talking on the landline. And I used to love long telephone conversations with certain people. Anyway this friend was talking about himself, and describing something he'd done in vaguely self-recriminating terms, and I said "Maybe you were just being flamboyant." Which seemed to throw him, but I was oddly mesmerised by the way in which that word seemed to have tripped off my tongue out of nowhere, and how weird language is like that. So it was nice to see it again today!
And a great, choice line up of outre acts…
Oscar – no you didn't jump the gun… I was just taken aback as I hadn't seen it yet and then being pernickity and paranoid thinking people wouldn't like it! So yeah, great that you've got it on FB
Dennis – glad you like it!
Oh, it's really hard not to group people together. People are really into that thing, they love being into groups. I have a Medical Card, so I get what is basically 'Free Clinic Therapy' where you're given x amount of time to spill your woes, then a prescription, and then an apointment date for like months later.
Martin Degville from SSS was a very Leigh Bowery-esque figure in the late 70's and 80's Nightclubs. Of course, unlike Bowery, Degville sold his clothes at two seperate stalls on called The Dispensary and the other Yaya. Well LB did sell his looks on and off, but not like Degville. Degville's looks didn't age well though, it's all very Joan Collins in Dynasty 3000.
Jedward, they're kind of like staring into the void. They are captivating, terrifying, and most definitely incestuous.
There's this new-ish flamboyant band called Black Veiled Brides, or something, and they're really shitty I imagine. But what's important is that there are pictures of their peni all over the internets.
Sypha, what you posted yesterday was really interesting. I'm really into Magick and the Occult, but I don't know if I actually believe. I'm also really heavy into the idea of reality as our own personal illusion. I just, everything is very abstract. Even Science, and I need concrete things. So not having something concrete, and being stuck with my own thoughts so often, I end up dwelling on things that a 23 year old shouldn't really be dwelling on, and it all makes me panicky. I could probably get medication for the panickiness, but like I said I don't like how artificial anti-depressents make me feel.
Oh yeah, and I do want to stress that this Existential Crisis was in no way brought about by the now slightly delayed Rapture Saturday (because I'm pretty sure Jesus wants me by his side for Eternity) or Oprah going off the air, even if she is like the billionare aunt who never really gave me anything but really good stories about fourteen year old girls locked in their hermaphrodite step-fathers subteranian sex dungeons.
postitbreakup,
You know blessings come in all sorts of guises.
I know some ppl who took a course on teaching English as a second language (it's not too expensive or long or anything) and then easily got jobs abroad doing that. Demand is high. One guy went to Japan and Morocco. You don't have to know the local language.
great mix of joey hitting that mattress, scary / sexy and odd. just saying hello – listening to loud music forever – great email to Ben – let's keep urging him on – Joey's down, we have all the October boys on board – cool.
Have a great Wednesday
Oh wow, I haven't heard Rob Zombie in forever. And my friend really loves Of Montreal. I like what I've heard.
Hey Dennis,
Yeah, the tree looked really beautiful. I wished I had a camera, but at the same time I didn't, because if if did all I'd see was a tree with soggy flowers. And for some reason I've never liked Dasani. I just Wiki'ed it and it says the name was just chosen randomly. I've never really thought about it before, to be honest.
Oh yeah, definitely see Tourist Trap, if you can. When I was looking for the trailer I saw that it was all on Youtube, in parts which is annoying but still. It's worth seeing.
I don't think using my neck to get things would work. I'm sure I'd be trying to get some hot guy's attention and pull something in it while I was turning or something.
I felt a little sick today but not too much, so that's a vast improvement.
That's really great that the shows are a hit, of course. But the drunk guy sounds… I don't know. Out of place, maybe?
Wow, 18 sounds like a lot, along with everything else. You always have such an intense schedule, it seems. I'm glad it went well, though.
I"m sorry about the bad stuff with the zine. But yay! on the blurb. That's really exciting. For some reason I love reading blurbs. But I guess everybody does.
Tuesday:
Sleep.
Wake up.
Shower.
Crawled back into bed and watched Eyes of Laura Mars. It was okay, but the volume on my TV was up kind of loud and I wasn't aware of it, or had forgotten, so after I yawned and pressed play Barbara Streisand screamed the title song at me, so that was startling. I had another shock when Faye Dunaway woke up in her nice bedroom and then walked out in the rest of her ugly, drab 70's chic apartment, but the movie wasn't so bad. It was predictable and kind of stupid at times, but the fashion shoots looked entertaining and it was pretty much a giallo, so that was nice, but it made me want a real giallo, so I'll probably watch one when I get off here.
My friend called me to tell me about the nightmare she'd just had, but she'd just woken up, so she wasn't making much sense, but she made enough. Basically a small skinny guy was cutting her everywhere while she was in her bed, and she tried to run away, and her best friend who she kind of hates was in the corner laughing at her. After she kept talking about how her friend would do that too, the fucking bitch, what's wrong with her?, and things like that for a while until she eventually hung up after thanking me for being awake.
Read a little, which was nice, and then closed it and spent a while admiring how the book looks itself, which is strange because it's an old book club edition, which I normally dislike, but I don't know. It's compact size is fitting, I suppose.
After that I spent a lot of time thinking of my (yeah, I'm sorry, today wasn't really a good day) limbs as separate entities and how strange that probably was. So a lot of staring at my legs and arms and wrapping them around things, mostly the other leg/arm, 'they look so strange, is this a variation of people pointing out their 'problem areas' and do they think of their bodies like this?', things like that. I came to the conclusion they probably do, look up, grey outside, answer text and head to the computer. My friend/used to be guy wanted me to read a poem he wrote for his semi girlfriend, and I did, and I feel bad, but oh, god. I tried not to laugh but it didn't work. I told him honestly that I know nothing about poetry, so my advice wouldn't be the best, but that she probably wouldn't like her presence being compared to that of a keg.
Nothing nothing nothing, tornado sirens went off, so my family all crowded into a closet. My cat was scared and kept scratching me, and staying in safety lasted about three minutes, before it was agreed upon by everybody in my family that if we were going to die it wasn't going to happen together, so everybody got out and went their own way. The tornado passed us, though, so all we got was rain and lightning and a pixelated stuttering (the words sounded like scrapes they were broken up so much) weather man for an hour and a half.
And yeah. Oh, wait. Any hopes I had in the Carrie remake, which weren't much, went out the window when I heard Megan Fox wants to star in it. Okay, that's it. How was your day, Dennis?
Dennis, Well, Little Show has a good little heart. He cares about people. You should see him with little kids and animals: they LOVE him. He kind of reminds me of those dolphins who are so good with handicapped kids, how they get calm and tender all of a sudden and their heart rates drop and they nuzzle and hug the kids. He's like that.
Hahaha, if staring a hole through them and not saying a word absolves them, then I guess that's what I'm doing. That's the kicker: when they make some lame excuse, I just look at them -nothing mean mind you- as if I'm waiting for more, then they stumble all over themselves verbally to change the subject. Silence speaks volumes, I guess.
Tokio Hotel's still around?