Fiction
(in no order)
Kay Gabriel A QUEEN IN BUCKS COUNTY (nightboat)
Hesse K. DISQUIET DRIVE (Pilot Press)
Navid Sinaki MEDUSA OF THE ROSES (Grove Atlantic)
Lauren Cook SEX GOBLIN (nightboat)
Juliet Escoria YOU ARE THE SNAKE (Soft Skull)
Kristen Felicetti LOG OFF (Shabby Doll House)
David Kuhnlein BLOODLETTER (Amphetamine Sulphate)
Valerie Werder THIEVES (Fence Books)
Snatch Wylden SLASHER REDUXXX (Cloak)
Estelle Hoy SAKE BLUE (After8 Books)
Danielle Dutton PRAIRIE, DRESSES, ART, OTHER (Coffee House Press)
Grant Maierhofer PISSANT… BIB… DOLLAR TREE PARTS… WE SHOULD BECOME THE PITILESS CENSORS OF OURSELVES… (Inside the Castle)
Max Restaino COYOTE (Amphetamine Sulphate)
1-wing 2can, et al 2-BYTE βETA Ei8ht ½-LOOPƨ (Calamari Press)
Jeremy Kitchen MR. CRABBY YOU HAVE DIED (First to Knock)
Katharine Haake WHAT HAPPENED WAS (11:11 Press)
David Leo Rice THE BERLIN WALL (Whisk(e)y Tit)
Fernando Pessoa A VERY ORIGINAL DINNER (Sublunary Editions)
Stacey Levine MICE (Verse Chorus Press)
Christopher Owens “DETHRONE GOD” (Sweat Drenched Press)
Zebulon House THE PSYCHIC SURGEON ASSISTS (Calamari Press)
Charlene Elsby VIOLENT FACULTIES (Clash Books)
Logan Berry ULTRATHEATRE: VOLUME 1 (11:11 Press)
Poetry
(in no order)
Joyelle McSweeney DEATH STYLES (nightboat)
Emily Hunt STRANGER (The Song Cave)
Sabrina Tarasoff, ed. FUN TO BE DEAD: THE POEMS OF BOB FLANAGAN (Kristina Kite Gallery / Pep Talk)
Ted Rees HAND ME THE LIMITS (Roof Books)
Oscar d’Artois THE ISLAND (Shabby Doll House)
David Trinidad SLEEPING WITH BASHO (BlazeVOX)
Stéphane Mallarmé A ROLL OF THE DICE (Wave Books)
Alice Notley BEING REFLECTED UPON (Penguin)
Zoë Hitzig NOT US NOW (Changes)
Charles North NEWS, POETRY AND POPLARS (Black Square Editions)
Cletus Crow PHALLIC SYMBOLS (Pig Roast)
Kendra Sullivan REPS (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Maria Hardin CUTE GIRLS WATCH WHEN I EAT AETHER (Action Books)
Wayne Koestenbaum STUBBLE ARCHIPELAGO (Semiotext(e))
Charalampos Tzanakis ALL OUT IN THE OPEN (Sweat Drenched Press)
Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers UPSTAGE (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Alan Felsenthal HEREAFTER (The Song Cave)
Nonfiction
(in no order)
Cynthia Carr CANDY DARLING: DREAMER, ICON, SUPERSTAR (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Anne Carson WRONG NORMA (New Directions)
Ted Berrigan GET THE MONEY!: COLLECTED PROSE 1961-1983 (City Lights)
Brad Gooch RADIANT: THE LIFE AND LINE OF KEITH HARING (Harper)
Valerie Hsiung THE NAIF (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Mike Corrao SURFACE STUDIES (Action Books)
Chris Zeischegg CREATION: ON ART AND UNBECOMING (Apocalypse Party)
Richard King TRAVELS OVER FEELING: ARTHUR RUSSELL: A LIFE (Faber & Faber)
Steve Finbow GRAVE DESIRE: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF NECROPHILIA (Infinity Land Press)
Serge Daney FOOTLIGHTS: CRITICAL NOTEBOOK 1970–1982 (Semiotext(e))
Music
(in no order)
7038634357 TIMERS (Bus)
Richie Culver SCREAM IF YOU DON’T EXIST (Participant)
Kali Malone ALL LIFE LONG (Ideologic Organ)
Rip Van Winkle THE GRAND RAPIDS EP (Splendid Research Records)
Meth Math CHUPETONES (Reel Life Entertainment)
claire rousay SENTIMENT (Thrill Jockey)
Kee Avil SPINE (Constellation Records)
Kim Gordon THE COLLECTIVE (Matador)
Guided by Voices STRUT OF KINGS (Rockathon)
Morgan Garrett PURITY (Orange Milk Records)
Still House Plants IF I DON’T MAKE IT, I LOVE U (Bison Records)
Moor Mother THE GREAT BAILOUT (Anti)
Pet Shop Boys NONETHELESS (Parlaphone)
Loren Connors & Chris Cochrane ARTEMISIA (Infrequent Seams)
Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Wendy Eisenberg THE POSSIBILTY OF A NEW WORK FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR (Other Minds)
Charli XCX BRAT (Atlantic)
Locrian END TERRAIN (Profound Lore)
NPVR 33 34 (Editions Mego)
Film
(in no order)
Jean-Luc Godard SCÉNARIOS
Leos Carax IT’S NOT ME
James Benning BREATHLESS
Harold Crooks & Judd Tully THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER: THE ART & TIMES OF DAVID HAMMONS
Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson RUMOURS
Steve Reinke SUNDOWN
Simon Liu LET’S TALK
Radu Jude DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
Wes Ball KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Art
(in no order)
Matthew Barney SECONDARY (Fondation Cartier)
Peter Fischli & David Weiss (Pinault Collection)
Allen Jones FROM THE GODS (Almine Rech)
Alan Vega CESSPOOL SAINTS (Galerie Laurent Godin)
Rob Pruitt x Lizzi Bougatsos HELP ME LIFT YOU UP (Air de Paris)
LA BANDE DESSINEE US MUSEE (Centre Pompidou)
Internet
(in no order)
SCAB
ASTERISM
zlibrary
The Wire
GAMESCENES
Internet Archive
VK Video
PLAY THERAPY V2.0
otherppl
WAKE ISLAND
Mattazine Society
pixiv
{ feuilleton }
SHABBY DOLL HOUSE
too scared to tell my mom
espresso bongo
X-R-A-Y
Art and Trash
Legsville
Rhizome
Theme Park Review
ok.ru
Musique Machine
Original Cinemaniac
ANGUSRAZE
PEPPERLAND SPICERACK
Beaucoup
Expat
SOAP2DAY
Volume 1 Brooklyn
Experimental Cinema
The Los Angeles Review of Books
3:AM Magazine
largehearted boy
pantaloons
Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets
giphy
The Wonderful World of Tam Tam Books
Hobart
Ubuweb
*
p.s. Hey. I would sure like to know your favorite things from the first half of this year, if you feel like it. As always with these posts, I’m sure there are things I’m spacing on that should be listed up there. ** Steve, Oh I’d love to see that, obviously. I guess I’ll keep my eye on the local art listings. Not in pain is a very good start. Obviously, a cool breeze of commiseration about the hot outdoors. Fantastic about the Bresson/Film Forum stints! I wonder if they’re newly struck prints. ‘Lancelot du Lac’ could really use one. Thanks about the weekend’s writing. I’m on it. I hope you’re as right as rain and maybe with actual rain come Monday. ** jay, Hi. Thanks. There’s something physically about art galleries that truncates one’s attention span, or it feels like that. Like you’re not supposed to hang out even if the works asks you to. Maybe it’s the people behind the desk. I wish there were a lot more artists working with gifs, but, yeah, it’s good that there are some, and who are doing rangy things with them. Ooh, a stalker fetishist. Pretty demanding, but not without conceptual interest. Thanks for filling me in the ‘dap me up’ blank. No doubt that will come in handy. I hope your weekend is freedom-filled. ** _Black_Acrylic, Have they removed the Stonehenge paint? Best of luck to Scotland and their fans including you tomorrow. ** dwt, Sometimes the blog can be eerily coincidental. Congrats on the job! Well, hopefully their sweetness is the real deal, and they’ll smile and shrug once your chest is un-mysterious. Seriously, though, good luck with the reveal. As ishes go, I agree that good trumps bad. Cool, thanks about the posts. Can you characterise your web art? Very interesting. It’s chilly and raining here, which I am so appreciating given the other option circa late June. I know the guy who did the vocals on the ‘I Wished’ audiobook did his best. He wrote me a nice note. But I’m too scared. I have a very particular idea of how my work should be vocalised, rightly or wrongly. Still too much rain for the sewer tour. And I think that place will be dead to the public until the Olympics are over since it’s right in the path of the triathlon. Fine Saturday and Sunday to you! ** Dominik, Hi!!! Cool. Oh, I decided to eat pizza instead of that ice cream, I can’t remember why. But when we inevitably get a heatwave, I’ll make a beeline. My friend Ange works at the Louvre, and he told me the lines to see your gif are a mile long. Surely, love was capable of killing your migraine. Yes? Ugh. Love sentenced to 40 years in prison for murdering your migraine. Luckily he’s a genius escape artist, G. ** Don Waters, Hi. Ah, great, snagging is one of the blog’s favorite accomplishments. Oh, sure, I know all kinds of great artists of every stripe who have kids. Speaking of accomplishments, both having kids and being an artist at the same time is a pretty big one, at least theoretically, or at least to someone who’s only one of those two things. Jazz is great, Well, maybe a minority of jazz. But that could be said about all genres. Having neither a turntable nor anything that plays Cds, and being, thus, a download/ streaming only guy, record stores are mostly just frustrating locations for me. So, I don’t know. I walk by some pretty good looking ones sometimes. I’ve only been to Portland when I was reading at Powells, so maybe three times, or four rather? I liked Portland a lot though. I’d like to just go there to go there. You seem really happy there. ** Lucas, Hi, Lucas. Yes, more whenever you’re prepared! Those balloons and that flower looked kind of sad, or at least melancholy, which I liked, of course. I like melancholy. But I’m glad the ceremony wasn’t. Yay! And I hope you and your pals celebrated that big step with appropriate festoonery. I’ve never seen ‘Barbarian’, but, like you, I’ve heard good things. How was it? Excellent weekend to you whatever it entails. ** Steven Purtill, Hi Steven! Well, you already know that I think you should do more gif work. Like a lot more. At your convenience, of course. Oh, shit, about the anemia. Get the powers that be to solve that ASAP, for sure. Thanks about ‘Flunker’. You’re well represented in my faves list up there, of course. So lovely to see you. I hope you feel so, so much better very, very quickly. ** Harper, Hi. Yeah, my mom was kind of evil. Unlike your mom. I’ve never had any problems what that supposed protein issue. But I’ve always eaten tons of Mexican food (beans) and seitan and stuff, so maybe that’s worked? Yeah, me too, I don’t know that I’m so different than I was when I was much younger. More mellowed and realistic and confident maybe. And god knows I’m still writing about most of the same things I wanted to write about as teenager, so hopefully that’s not a bad thing. Don’t sweat that, is my advice. I guess it just means that what you wanted to write about is important enough to have remained important to you. Hm, yeah, could go either way on contacting the past people. I’ve done that, and it’s been a real mixed bag, as they say. ** Gumm, Well hi there, G! I’m okay-ish. How are you? How’s summer starting? Missed you too. ** Uday, Hi. I actually know what Tosca sounds like, strangely enough. No, thanks for the rain, really. We’re raining today, and I’m starting to really appreciate that we’re on that end of the weather scale considering the, yes, broiling rest of the world. They’ve closed the metro stations around me because I live two blocks from four Olympics stadiums, and they’re trying to prevent terrorist attacks because there’s a lot of worry here that such things are a distinct possibility. Thank you about the weather. I think I would like it to stay a little chilly but stop raining. What would you like? I’ll try to will whatever you want your way. ** R🪜fe, Hi! Good to see you, bud. When I clicked the link, I got a 404. Drat. Any chance you could re-up it? Thank you much in any case. ** Justin D, Happy you loved it. I did, obviously. And especially those cloud formations ones. They were my favorites. I’m almost tempted to do that with the credits on our film, but I won’t. I hate summer, so I totally get your blues. Sorry. No, I went for pizza instead. But I will. When it gets actually summery. Right now it’s still kind of spring-y. I envy you so fucking much about that Blizzard, I can’t even tell you. Sighhhhh. Have a very non-blue weekend. There must be a way. ** Oscar 🌀, It’s true, I might have gotten my time difference wrong. Damn. Haha, luckily I love misspellings as you can no doubt tell by the escort and slave posts. Somebody got mad at me at me yesterday and started to say, ‘Go take a hike’ except before their mouths got to the ‘ke’ I yelled ‘Oscar!’. Happy that the gifs caused emotional frolicking in you. Let’s see … the film was kind of irritating. The art didn’t happen because the place where we were going to see art was having a press-only preview, and we didn’t qualify. I decided I wanted pizza instead of ice cream. The pizza was nice. The meeting was okay, with some art people who donated some funds to the film and who might just help us out of our current crisis by giving a little more, although I’m not counting on it. How was whatever you did today, or, wait, this weekend? Oh wait (again), you saw Troye Sivan. I’ve never seen him, but I did have a coffee with his ex-boyfriend who did not have good things to say about him as a boyfriend. How was his act? ‘Flunker’ isn’t hugely malleable, is it? But maybe after the book comes out, getting ‘flunked up’ will become a viral thing. Maybe? ** Okay. Do spend at least a minuscule portion of your weekend casting your minds back on the things you’ve liked most this year. See you on Monday.
Now available in North America 
*
huh, i maybe missed out the new Apes movie because it looked like a sort of hollywoody CGI thing, but if you got something from it I’ll check it out! i honestly kind of loved Love Lies Bleeding this year, it definitely wasn’t an amazing film but i definitely enjoyed myself. somehow i missed the new Carax release, another one for my list.
my local cinema was screening Death in Venice recently, which was a pretty fascinating watch. the chances you haven’t seen it are probably sub zero, but it’s one of those strange movies that’s kind of irrevocably warped by the response to it.
and yeah, stalking fetishism is definitely a new one to me, im not even 100% sure it was a sexual fantasy – whether or not that’s weirder is up to you. but yeah, apparently i managed to fulfil that for him, so that’s interesting? anyway, bizarre interaction.
and yeah, you’re right about museums – i read somewhere that on average people look at paintings for 5 seconds on average, which seems unbelievable. but yeah anyway, i often find your blog slightly makes me consider art a little more, particularly your idea of sorting things by no criteria other than form. so so much more to think about.
glad to see you also like the new Charli album too, have a great day!
Hey Dennis, such a treat that you did one of these posts mid-year. My add is “Ein Soft”, a double album of out-there Israeli music ranging from free jazz to harsh noise.
Volume 1 –
https://mazkeka.bandcamp.com/album/ein-soft-vol-1
Volume 2 –
https://mazkeka.bandcamp.com/album/ein-soft-vol-2
And Alëna Korolëva’s “Premonitions”, which along with her earlier work opened my mind up to the possibilities of field recordings.
https://f-o-m.bandcamp.com/album/premonitions
And for internet, the Public Domain Review.
https://publicdomainreview.org/
I had a very good week. It’s Hebrew Book Week in Tel Aviv so I stocked up on books, mostly new poetry and hung out with old and new literary friends. Two of my Hebrew poems were published in a web magzine. It’s a small audience but one that I’m very happy to reach. Have some other submissions I’m waiting to hear back from / am about to submit. I sent out invitations for a poetry + film get-together on my roof next Thursday. I have no idea how many people will show up and what texts/films they will bring. Even if only a few of my besties show up I’d still consider it a success.
Something DC-worthy even happened at work this week. I went to a serious lecture about using sequences of emoji to encrypt text so you can securely send sensitive information to Chat GPT. Felt like fiction, all of these cyber security experts talking about emoji.
What are your favorite coffee shops? Is the place we sat near After 8 Books one of them? I’m starting to appreciate my already-favorite neighborhood coffee shop even more. Great mix of people to chat/flirt with and it’s also easy for me to focus there if I’m working on something.
Feldman and Wolff are always great. Have played Feldman’s early pieces for string quartet which are brilliant. And I played a Wolff piece for 3 unspecified players. It was the piece that was the most enjoyable to put together in my career, although difficult at the same time. I saw him at a Cunningham performance and told him how much fun I’d had doing it and he just lit up and beamed.
I am super happy to see All Out in the Open and could not believe my eyes. I think about this book every day and feels like a mystery to me even after five years day and night of creating it I hope that’s not sounding weird. It is very interesting that this era continues in my soul after release?
I go through the list now. I like that you seem to like Brat. Some big pop albums have this candy effect of being nice for two weeks or two days even but this is a grower with each day and major step up from her previous one. If you have any special faves tell. Maybe you did like all of it
Hi from the island Paros I came with my mom with electric company group like when I was little boy Like every day is the same
Next month is Flunker month and my birthday month also I will do my order as soon as I arrive in Chania. Such a good close to bday gift for me. Love from Paros I am going to the pool 😉
Also I want to add I missed the new Guided by Voices release entirely while listening to their discography like always in the past years. The album cover and title is full winner
Excited for the James Benning film the most from the film list
d-
home. dosed. just finished jerking off. that was nice. i’m moving house soon. been doing a lot of acid and watching nowhere lately. i don’t have a crush on anyone for the first time i don’t even know how long.
my favorites this year include the new four tet, moor mother, consumer electronics, shellac of north america, les savy fav, swami john reis, gbv and rip van winkle. prob forgetting some stuff. looking forward greatly to yr latest. been messing about with a little polyend tracker, trying to make some fucked up sort of jungle beats maybe. hope all is well in yr neck of the woods. love you. talk soon.
oh! the new pissed jeans in incredible, as is the new metz and the latest from savak. missing rick froberg terribly, might buy prints of his watercolors.
Thank you, Dennis, much appreciated.
Hi Dennis, I’ve looked forward to this and your year end lists for the past few years now, never disappointed, love to be put on to stuff I haven’t heard of yet.
Grant Maierhofer had 3 books come out in May, the Inside the Castle behemoth you have listed here, and also a writing craft book and memoir called SENTENCE-MAKING. Check it out! much love as always: https://feraldove.com/sentencemaking
Thank you so much, Dennis. And super excited to read the other poetry on this list. Can’t wait!
Hey Dennis. Talking about film, maybe you’ll like my new one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txSDgFT-Gqo&t=13s&ab_channel=BorjaCastillejoCalvo
Thank you Dennis for highlighting Cletus Crow’s Phallic Symbols. Very happy you checked out a Pig Roast publication. Much Love.
Hi!!
Thank you for the treasure trove above! And a special thank you for including SCAB again!!
Here are a few of the books/movies/series I liked best so far this year:
BOOKS
Come October by Damien Ark (This book absolutely blew me away.)
Death Valley by Melissa Broder
The Nice Guys by Charles Ardai
MOVIES
DogMan by Luc Besson
The Nice Guys by Shane Black
Femme by Sam H. Freeman & Ng Choon Ping
SERIES
Boy Swallows Universe
True Detective: Night Country
Boarders [Season 1]
Couples Therapy [Season 4]
Thank you for love’s great sacrifice! I really appreciate it. I hope he managed to escape by now! Love thinking twice about weighing down the tiny kid pool we bought for my dog with a flowerpot full of dirty water and rotting plant remnants in the kind of wind we’re having today, Od.
Books:
“Bolt From The Blue” and “Ash Before Oak” by Jeremy Cooper
“Mild Vertigo” by Mieko Kanai
“Fifty Sounds” by Polly Barton
“This Is Not A Novel” by David Markson
“Minor Detail” by Adainia Shibli
“This Little Art” by Kate Briggs
“V” by Thomas Pynchon
“Changing Track” by Michel Butor
“Crackling Skulls” by Roger van de Velde
“Alphabetical Diaries” by Sheila Heti
“Le Captive” by Christine Smallwood
“I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante
“Biography of X” by Catherine Lacey
“Ulysses” by James Joyce
“Dancing on the Edge” by Russ Tamblyn
“Limbo” by Dan Fox
“My Ears Are Bent” by Joseph Mitchell
“My Life in E-Flat” by Chan Parker
“Concerning the Future of Souls” by Joy Williams
“Image of the People: Gustav Courbet and the 1848 Revolution by T.J. Clark
“Really The Blues” by Mezz Mezzrow
FILM:
“Suzanne’s Career” by Éric Rohmer
“World of Glory” by Roy Andersson
“Songs From The Second Floor” by Roy Andersson
Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime by Alain Resnais
“Witness in the City” by Édouard Molinaro
“Antoine and Colette” by François Truffaut
“Robinson’s Place” by Jean Eustache
“Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes” by Eustache
“The World’s Greatest Sinner” by Timothy Carey
“Senso” by Visconti
“Le Notte Bianche” by Visconti
“Rocco and his Brothers” by Visconti
MUSIC:
Glenda Collins – “Been Invited to a Party”
Charlie Parker – “Bird in L.A.”
Buddy Rich And Alla Rakha – Rich À La Rakha
Michel Legrand – Sérénades Du XXe Siècle
The Pretty Things – “Emotions”
Slim Galliard – Opera in Vout
Lester Young – Blue Yester
Gene Clark – “No Other Sessions”
Charlie Parker – The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings Of Charlie Parker
Jacques Dutronc – Madame L’Existence
Edwyn Collins – I’m Not Following You
Edwyn Collins – Understated
All above are not new to the world but new to me these past six months.
Hi Dennis!
I’m always very bad about keeping up with anything new, but one movie that was released in 2024 that I did manage to see was Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft. I’m not sure whether it has premiered in Paris yet, but it was certainly an interesting thing to experience in a theater.
I also did read the most recent Peter Sotos book, but I found it rather underwhelming.
Hope all has been well!
hi dennis 🙂
had no idea there was a new 730… , google brings me to their website which brings me to an html page with links directly to the material? Something appealing about such a minimal lowkey distribution/release, a couple clicks from a central website, though imaginably not fabulous for “building an audience” or whatever. 730… has some material on *room temperature*? I’m sure that’s sweet.
I also love the Kim Gordon, Kali Malone, Morgan Garrett and Charli LPs. I saw Morgan Garrett a few nights ago and they’re fabulous live. I thought it was stylistically off brand for them to release through Orange Milk since OM is a powerhouse for hyperhyperproduced electronic stuff, but the live setup makes it make more sense; they do a bunch of laptop sound+light trigger stuff that interacts (I think) with an acoustic guitar w pickups, all while ~dancing with a flowy fit to nicely psychedelic effect. Recommend anyone seeing this go see Morgan Garrett if it can be helped! In the midwest / east coast the next couple weeks
i’ve spent the first half of the year in the boonies outside a mtn west city where the internet can maybe stream movies in the worst possible resolution, so access to seeing things has been shittier than ever… but spending the second half in NYC where i imagine i’ll get plenty of opportunities to catch back up haha. not to mention the galleries and readings etc etc. i’m excited.
a couple book/music/movie favs so far:
(I hardly catch books when they’re fresh like I can readily w movies and music smh)
J-K Huysmans – LA BAS
Nick Drnaso – SABRINA + ACTING CLASS
Renee Gladman – EVENT FACTORY
Samuel R Delany – DHALGREN
Tony Duvert – ODD JOBS
Victor Heringer – THE LOVE OF SINGULAR MEN
AG Cook – BRITPOP
Anastasia Coope – DARNING WOMAN
Death’s Dynamic Shroud / Galen Tipton – YOU LIKE MUSIC
Rafael Toral – SPECTRAL EVOLUTION (probably the best thing ever)
Valeska Suratt / Fishing With Explosives – SPLIT
Bertrand Bonello – THE BEAST
Ryusuke Hamaguchi – EVIL DOES NOT EXIST
Ulrich Seidl – SPARTA
Hey Dennis! I can’t tell you how much it means to be included above. I’m so happy that you enjoyed Coyote.
As for my own favorites of the year so far:
Creation – Christopher Zeischegg
The Backwards Hand – Matt Lee (highly recommend)
Violent Faculties – Charlene Elsby
Bloodletter – David Kuhnlein
Stephen King also released a new collection of stories last month and it’s some of his best work in a long time.
I have a lot of catching-up to do on movies, but I enjoyed Love Lies Bleeding very much.
Thank you, Dennis. This list gives us a lot to munch on. Appreciate it! Here’s mine, not necessarily new, but, lately:
Midst Press: watch poems get made start to finish. Must see!
Books:
Vexations, Annelyse Gelman (poetry)
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, Claire Vaye Watkins
Harrow, Joy Williams
Devil Makes Three, Ben Fountain
The Sluts, Guide (re-read), I Wished, DC
Man in the Holocene, Max Frisch
After Claude, Iris Owens
The Forensic Record Society, Magnus Mills (funny)
Karate Chop, Dorthe Nors
The Shards, Bret Easton Ellis
About Ed, Robert Gluck
Short Letter, Long Farewell, Peter Handke
Music:
Material Issue – Live in Chicago ’94 (for some reason, I’m into them now but wasn’t then?)
Others you already know…
Podcast:
West Cork (true crime in west Ireland from years ago)
Film (I’m waaaay behind on movies, probably):
Red Rocket (Simon Rex is great)
Triangle of Sadness
I hope you, or someone, can get some use out of this tiny list of goodies. Take care, Don
Hello Dennis!
Thank you for these wonderful lists! Some of my favorites so far:
Books
– Three Tales from the Life of Knulp – Hermann Hesse
– Obsession – Ramsey Campbell
– Little Boy Blue – Edward Bunker
– Cosmos – Witold Gombrowicz
– Writings – Yves Klein
Comics
– Kaze to Ki no Uta – Keiko Takemiya
– My Favorite Thing Is Monsters 2 – Emil Ferris
– Ashita no Joe – Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba
– Batman: The Long Halloween – Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
– Vagabond – Takehiko Inoue
Movies
– Monster – Hirokazu Kore-eda
– Furiosa – George Miller
– The Holdovers – Alexander Payne
– Ripley – Steven Zaillian
– Beyond the Visible, Hilma af Klint – Halina Dyrschka
Posts on DC’s
– Cigarette Day
– Mark Morrisroe Day
– John Waters Day
– 24 unfinished novelists
– Spheres
All the best!
The new Charli XCX album is exactly what I needed. I am mostly at least a couple of years behind with my media, because I build up a big backlog of everything and chip away at it. But some things that have really resonated with me:
LAUGHINGFISH, the final(?) Black Dresses album. Beautiful, grungy neo-industrial. Rook and Devi are phenomenal and raw.
(Another great electronic-music-by-trans-nerds project that seems to have wrapped up this year is FREE.99 – I’m so excited for what they do next, whatever forms they take)
Also been grooving to I’VE HAD A TOOTHACHE SINCE 2019, a neat little electronica EP by Nicky Flowers.
Imogen Heap released a surprise remix: LAST NIGHT OF AN EMPIRE (Loko Velocet Remix), which is pretty damn good. Cathartic and dancey.
Films I’ve loved this year have included I SAW THE TV GLOW, ROBOT DREAMS, HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, THE PEOPLE’S JOKER. But there are so many I haven’t explored yet.
I don’t think I’ve read any books released this year, but I’ve checked out a lot of zines and the like – I especially like the stuff Wiggle Bird Mailing Club sends me.
I suspect that everything I add to my to-check-out list, as usually happens, will be filed away to experience at some point in the next n years, by which time I might have totally forgotten how I heard about them in the first place.
I’m reminded of one of my favourite articles of yours, your Keanu Reeves interview from way back in 1990(?), where one of the things mentioned is that Keanu, when recommended a book, will actually go away and read it and then want to talk about it. I resonate with that impulse very strongly: no piece of art exists in a vacuum, and if I read or watch or play or listen to something then I have a great urge to discuss it. Sharing these things creates webs of connection that can radiate far, far from their inception point.
What’s the last book someone recommended you that you loved? hated? I read Emma Cline’s ‘The Guest’ recently on the recommendation of a cousin and it left me with just an enormous shrug.
Films:
COMA
CRITICAL ZONE
DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED
THE FIRST OMEN
FLIPSIDE
HIT MAN
THE HUMAN SURGE 3
I SAW THE TV GLOW
RED ROOMS
Music:
1. Charli XCX-BRAT
2. Mary Timony-UNTAME THE TIGER
3. Kim Gordon-THE COLLECTIVE
4. Kali Uchis-ORQUIDEAS
5. DJ Anderson do Paraiso-QUERIDAO
6. Verraco-BREATHE…GODSPEED
7. Fat White Family-FORGIVENESS IS YOURS
8. Arooj Aftab-NIGHT REIGN
9. Vince Staples-DARK TIMES
10. Still House Plants-IF I DON’T MAKE IT, I LOVE U
I haven’t read enough new books to make a list, but FOOTLIGHTS would definitely be on it, as would Percival Everett’s JAMES. (The Taika Waititi film is gonna be so awful!)
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, eh? I’ll give it a shot when it arrives on Hulu.
How far do you have to walk to use the subway? If the summer gets any hotter, that sounds like an enormous hassle. (Going outside today felt like walking through a huge steam bath.)
Intriguing lists as usual, Dennis. Wow, a new Ted Rees, though I see amazon says it’s “unavailable”. And new Leos Carax and Guy Maddin, and Moor Mother.
I think I’ve been even more grumpy than usual with books and movies this year. Some items I might recommend…
Books:
Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Jessi Stevens, Ghost Pains
Daniel Clowes, Monica
Carter St Hogan, One or Several Deserts
Sarah Coolidge (ed.), Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror
Movies:
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
Vera Drew, The People’s Joker
Cameron and Colin Cairnes, Late Night with the Devil
John and Zelda Adams, Where the Devil Roams
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Sebastian Silva, Rotting in the Sun
Music (lots of good stuff already!):
Gastr del Sol, We have Dozens of Titles
Jerome Deupree/Matthew Shipp/Joe Morris, Travelogue
Matthew Goodheart, Five Apparitions
John Butcher, Fluid Fixations
Ruth Goller/Skylla, Skyllumina
Kyle Bruckmann, Of Rivers
Ned Rothenburg, Crossing 4
Radian, Distorted Rooms
Thomas Carnacki, Cadavre Isole
Tuerlinckx/Gerigk/Beins, Au Crepuscule
Stoffner/Butcher/Corsano, Braids
Frequency Disasters, Naize
Dorner/Allemano, Aphelia
Rob Brown, Oblongata
Bill
I forgot: Brian Evenson, None of You Shall Be Spared
Bill
Yay, these posts are such a nice resource to glean from.
Yeah, I was listening to this one https://youtu.be/U9ebtrTVgBM
I would be forever grateful if you bounced with me.
Would it be ok to email you my art ideas?
Here’s some music it you’d like
https://youtu.be/4s-F866Qtu8
https://youtu.be/KWvmVgiitHw
https://youtu.be/2DTLmBo-Q8U
https://youtu.be/pgh0Ntad14w
https://youtu.be/L5tnIow_FNg
https://youtu.be/XI8kdYyF6kM
https://youtu.be/ioM8K0jC_Dw
Idk if it’s weird but you’re how i’d like to be when i’m older, you’re still so open to new ideas.
Also I need to reread marbled swarm but one thing that i think about is how you mentioned needing to break away from all the interconnected blog writing in an interview, but one thing I feel like marbled swarm captures is the dissociated fractured onslaught of online spaces communication wise with this really human heart if that makes sense.
(also seeing diediecolor mentioned was a good surprise lol)
Have you heard of https://www.solidaritycinema.com/ Also a nice collection of films made available for the ppl.
How’s life going / The movie business?
hi dennis,
I was going to ask you about brat, I’m glad you liked it! it’s a great album. I haven’t been keeping up with any new releases outside of that, though, so thank you for this post. I told you I got really into godard, rivette and bresson early this year, right? favorites from them being respectively ‘la chinoise,’ ‘vivre sa vie,’ and ‘weekend’; ‘celine and julie go boating’, ‘la belle noiseuse,’ and ‘out 1’; ‘four nights of a dreamer,’ ‘the devil probably,’ and ‘diary of a country priest.’ I’ve also been loving apichatpong weerasethakul‘s films: ‘tropical malady’ is one of my new faves. music wise … I started listening to xiu xiu (duh), suicide, the sugarcubes, cat power, pj harvey and I think it actually started in december but I’m now big into the jesus and mary chain. I was going to see them in april but I got sick the day before the concert because my immune system always has impeccable timing. I’m aware these are all very basic picks but well! they’re great, what can I say?
I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to but my favorite books so far have been ‘the lover’ by duras, ‘the thief’s journal’ by genet and ‘on photography’ by sontag—I want to read more nonfiction this summer but I keep finding more and more novels I want to get to first haha.
my weekend wasn’t especially enjoyable but I’m doing well. I made this collage yesterday that I’m actually kind of proud of! maybe you’ll find it interesting to look at? I thought it might be a bit cluttered, so I fiddled with it and ended up with different final versions. I don’t know which one I like more. https://imgur.com/a/3Zfz8uJ sorry if it’s a little pixelated/low quality
I too hope your weekend was excellent and that this week will be even better ^^
I just watched ‘hail mary’ and I loved it; it might be a new favorite, too! I really need to watch more later godard
Thank you for including Play Therapy v2.0 in your list! Here are a few of my own selections…
FICTION:
Rebecca Gransden – Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group (Cardboard Wall Empire)
Max Restaino – Coyote (Amphetamine Sulphate)
NONFICTION:
Karolina Watroba – Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka (Pegasus)
FILM:
Pearl (Ti West)
How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker)
MUSIC:
Actress – Statik (Smalltown Supersound)
Consumer Electronics – Surge (Dirter Promotions)
Speaking of… the new episode of my show is online here via Tak Tent Radio! Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson says you can be surprised what the human brain can edit out when it can’t handle the truth.
It ends Scotland 0-1 Hungary, nae luck.
hey dennis !!
popping in to say hello & thank u for the list ! i always love these things. i copped ‘a queen in bucks county’ & ‘bloodletter’ – excited to read both, & i’m sure i’ll read some others on the list as the year goes on. gonna check out some of yr music picks today
thank u so much for having xray listed in the internet category, we always brag about it <3
i know days like this are busy for u comment-wise, i’ll catch up with u tomorrow or later this week 🙂 i’m excited for the new book of short stories coming out soon !! take care, sending hugs
Dennis, Great choices as always. Me, I’m still reading Belchamber, which I’m liking. But it’s slow going because of time constraints.
Have you sorted the Olympics yet? Get on it if not.
Just been hella busy with work and with Alex. We went to the Annapolis Mall last Wednesday. We both had off for the Juneteenth holiday. We worked out at a gym, went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and walked around and browsed and stuff. It was a fun day.
My company is shit. Finally got my health insurance back after going almost the whole month without it because they didn’t pay our premiums even though they it took it out of our pay. And they shorted us one paycheck because of their fuck up. We’re looking to get that money back. We’ve all put in complaints to the Department of Labor.
Otherwise, same old shit. Hope you’re well.
Get on that tennis, man. It’s the best sport in the world.
Hey! Lists are like my favourite thing. I have unfortunately not consumed so much that was released this year, and always find that I only get to books and movies the year after they come out. Music is different though. Anyway I’ll share my favourites of this year and also stuff that’s older that I’ve been digging as of late.
For this year:
Music:
Brat – Charli xcx
Diamond Jubilee – Cindy Lee (album of the year so far)
Here in the pitch – Jessica Pratt
For books I’ve obviously been talking a lot about Cynthia Carr’s Candy Darling biography which left a huge effect on me. I have read other books published this year but I can’t say they left any effect on me unfortunately. For movies, I really liked ‘I Saw the Tv Glow’.
Otherwise, stuff I’ve read this year that I love, (which I experienced for the first time):
Books:
Lord of dark places – Hal Bennett
Death sentence – Maurice Blanchot
Journey to the end of the night – Louis-Ferdinand Celine
The immoralist – André Gide
New Millenium Boyz – Alex Kazemi
Castle faggot – Derek McCormack
Mawrdew Czgowchwz – James McCourt
Time Remaining – James McCourt
Fassbinder: thousands of mirrors – Ian Penman
The Satyricon – Petronius
Mason and Dixon – Thomas Pynchon
The stories of Denton Welch – Denton Welch
Music (not just stuff I’ve discovered this year, but what I’ve been listening to):
Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg – Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
Low – David Bowie
Chipmunk Punk – The Chipmunks
The Fall (generally, particularly ‘This Nations Saving Grace’ and ‘Perverted by Language’)
Long season – Fishmans
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society – The Kinks
And don’t the kids just love it – Television Personalities
Please – Pet Shop Boys
OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES – SOPHIE
Tilt – Scott Walker
softscars – Yeule
Movies:
Pickpocket – Robert Bresson
The Devil Probably – Robert Bresson
The Outsiders – Francis Ford Coppola
SLC Punk – James Merendino
The Colour of Pomegranates – Sergei Parajanov
Lynch / Oz – Alexandre O. Phillippe
Sex, lies, and videotape – Steven Soderbergh
Stolen Kisses – Francois Truffaut
Vagabond – Agnes Varda
Alice in the cities – Wim Wenders
Cracked Actor – Alan Yentob
Hopefully by the end of year I’ll have read more from 2024?
Hey Dennis.
So jealous that you got to see the Godard. Was it similar to Droles de guerres or something totally different?
I don’t keep up with new stuff as devotedly as you, but I can say I loved/am loving in addition to some things you mentioned:
Poetry–
Deer Black Out, Ulrich Jesse K Baer
Information Desk, Robyn Schiff
Sphinx, Lilliane Guiraudon
Revue Transat’ 01 (a cheat because I’m in it, but there’s some really great stuff)
Nonfiction–
On Your Feet: A Novel in Translations, Jaqueline Feldman
Film–
Miséricorde, Alain Guiraudie
The Shrouds, David Cronenberg
Caught by the Tides, Jia Zhangke
Hit Man, Richard Linklater
Music–
Diamond Jubilee, Cindy Lee
i won’t let go of your hand, Adrianne Lenker
Bright Future, Adrianne Lenker
The Guiraudie film is so good that it will send me down a rabbit hole of his work this summer. His novels, in particular, sound really wild… Since it’s been a while, I’ll add that I’m really excited for Flunker and the film, it’s gonna be a good year…
Hello! ooh I saw MEDUSA OF THE ROSES! And im glad that’s there because I still have it in my list as a book I need to read. Same as Coyote! I just pushed through some needed stress reliving work and I have to go to bed soon but tomorrow i’ll get a better look and ask questions then? How you hate me if I did that be honest? I need good book suggestions.
I cant remember if I asked but did you like the band Failure? What’s your favorite song from the album? Be honest, I am very clairvoyant. Well face to face. Would u like to read something I wrote sometime?
Hmmm not much else–oh hey this is very important but do you….😴
OH I forgot here’s this article I saw but haven’t read. Maybe you’ll find it cool. DUnno check it or not.
Also whats wrong with people? fucking Christ its getting so hot and there’s a bunch of brain-dead morons who just throw off their disposable vapes on the grass and imagine if they planted tasers around lots to zap people when they litter, like if they drop something a sensor goes off and if its not picked up within five seconds or i dunno. Just a vent because people are very dumb. Sometimes. I just think that would be fun.
Maybe im the brain-dead one. ops! forgot the link again!
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-dinosaur-ankylosaur-tail-weapon-aztec-war-club
I rather like the weather! People wish for constant moderation in climate but I like having the full range. Nothing that is extreme is evil, or whatever Seneca said. Which of Troye’s boyfriends did you have lunch with? I’m seeing him and Charli XCX in September (very happy to see Brat make your list!). Had the weirdest dream of being molested by Paula Abdul that I’m still disquieted by. Anyway, my favourites so far! Many rereads/rewatches/relistens here because I can never quite anoint something till I’m fully sure it holds up. I’m restricting myself to 40 so leaving out way more than I include.
Fiction:
1. Heimsljos (Laxness)
2. The Book of Lies Trilogy (Thanks for the recommendation)
3. Idgah (Premchand)
4. The Rings of Saturn (Sebald)
5. Sleepless Nights (Hardwick)
6. Try (Thanks for writing it!)
7. The Voyeur (Robbe-Grillet)
8. Eden Eden Eden (Guyotat)
9. In Youth is Pleasure (Welch)
10. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Tutuola)
11. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (de Assis)
12. Meghaduta (Kalidasa)
13. Kleinzeit (Hoban)
14. How Many Resurrections? (Kriseova)
15. Ret Samadhi (Shree)
Poets
1. Ghalib
2. Tsvetaeva
3. Rimbaud
4. Nerval
5. Pessoa
Nonfiction
1. The Pure and the Impure (Colette)
2. The Dehumanisation of Art (Ortega y Gasset)
3. Bartleby in Manhattan (Hardwick)
4. Alienation and Freedom (Fanon)
5. Regarding the Pain of Others (Sontag)
6. The Decay of Lying (Wilde)
7. Arcades Project (Benjamin)
8. On Love (Stendhal)
9. The Illiad or the Poem of Force (Weil)
10. Notes on Tricks (Lebowitz)
Music
1. Aaj Jaane ki Zid Na Karo (Farida Khanum)
2. Brat (Charli XCX)
3. The Excursions of Mr. Broucek (Janacek)
4. Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances/ La Mer (Patti Smith)
5. Javelin (Sufjan Stevens)
Film
1. Mahagonny (I saw it last year but I still think about it)
2. Love Letter to Edie
3. Last Year at Marienbad (third or so time I watched it but first time I enjoyed it)
4. Berlin Alexanderplatz
5. Devdas (1955)
Hi Dennis! Oh it’s the James Merrill workshop in my head just because we’re reading James Merrill. We’ve been working on The Changing Light at Sandover. I’m really sorry to hear that the Olympics have been turning your neighborhood into, it sounds like, an airporty fiasco. I can’t imagine being carded to just to get onto my street. I hope it doesn’t end up as unbearble as it seems and that the festivals are poising themselves to give you guys the wonderful news you should really be hearing.
Adding some things I’ve managed to be obsessed with lately 🤍
Books
La Medusa by Vanessa Place
The Stone Door by Leanora Carrington
The Anger Scale by Katie Degentesh
Counterillumination by Audrey Szasz
Bending the Bow by Robert Duncan
Changing Light 🌙
Movies
Sombre by Philippe Grandrieux
Map of the Bomb by Amanda Beech
Saltburn by Emerald Fennel
Art
Catalina Ouyang’s Trick at Lyles and King
Music
argon by Marina Cyrino
To Shape the End by Marks of the Masochist
Tissues by Pan Daijing
touched by an angel by klein
oh i’ve also been extremely obsessed with ai feith’s substack feithling! no pressure but everyone should read it 🤍
Always looking forward to these lists, whether all-time faves or yearly/half-yearly. I will say I am interested if you’d ever do one for works of theatre, but that’s likely a big one. Either way, here’s a bit of mine:
FILMS
Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)
all the words but the one (Nava Mau)
Challengers (Luca Guadagnino)
I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds (Benoît Chieux)
Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Untitled (damfilm) (Emmy Gracia Hernandez)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
MUSIC
Moor Mother – The Great Bailout
Charli XCX – Brat
Dean Blunt – Hackney Commercial Waste
Kamasi Washington – Fearless Movement
Kim Gordon – The Collective
christtt – WWW
Mach-Hommy – #RichAxxHaitian
Porcelain – Porcelain
BOOKS
Lou Reed: The King of New York by Will Hermes
Crushed & Crowned by Joseph Ross
Sluts: Anthology, edited by Michelle Tea
Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970 by Richard Brautigan
The Wild Creatures by Sam D’Allesandro
The Torn Skirt by Rebecca Godfrey
you want “mine for yours,” “tit for tat,” intercourse from a gentle female but you didn’t link my blog?
fiction: the novel coronavirus
poetry: Dancing on Spot premiere, third act
non-fiction: “American Fiction”
music: Tibetan chanting
film: Stella’s mask video for Blow-Up Arthouse International Film Festival (2 years ago)
art: Center for Mad Culture