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Welcome back to DC’s Writers Workshop. This is the tenth in a series of days on the blog where writers who are part of the blog’s community will present work-in-progress in search of the opinions, responses, advice, and critiques of both readers who don’t normally post comments here and local inhabitants of this place. I ask everyone to please read these works with the same attention you give the normal brand of posts here and respond in some way in the comments section below. Obviously, the closer your attention and the more you’re able and willing to say to the writer the better. But any kind of related comment is welcome, even a simple sentence or two indicating you read the piece of writing and felt something or other about it would be helpful. The only guideline I’m going to give out regarding comments is that any response, whether lengthy or brief, praise filled or critical or anywhere inbetween, should be presented in a spirit of helping the writer in question. I’ll be responding to the work too in the Comments section towards the end of the weekend. So, I guess all of that is probably clear. Giving support to the artists of different kinds who read and post on the blog has always been a very important aspect of this project, but this workshop series represents one of the first times that aspect has been made formal. This weekend’s features Math Tinder — writer, artist, author, blog/site proprietor, and one of this blog’s longtime distinguished locals. She asks for any thoughts, support, or criticism you can give her. I thank her greatly for entrusting her work-in-progress to us, and I thank you all in advance for your kind participation. — D.C.

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p.s. Hey. Even though it’s mostly a coincidence, a writers workshop seems like a really good way to get this place restarted properly. And Math’s piece is probably the shortest work we’ve ever featured in the workshop context, which makes the plunge a relatively gentle one, which somehow seems appropriate too. So, please do dive in and give Math your feedback on her piece over the weekend. Much appreciated by her, of course, and by me too. I’ll add the two cents of my response late in the weekend. Thanks, Math, and thank you in advance, everyone! Yeah, I’m back in Paris and kind of spaced out and feeling curiously rusty via a vis this p.s. writing business. I’m not used to sitting down much less typing. I’ll do my best, but, yeah, expect a spacey p.s. today, and sorry. The vacation was pretty great, even if I think we stayed in each place about a day and a half too long, but, nonetheless, it was definitely a vacation, and I’ll be parading a slideshow of trip pix here on Monday for better or worse. Anyway, I’ll start catching up from where I left off last time. ** Pre-Thursday ** Polter, Thanks for laying out how you found my stuff. Its trippy and very Xmas-y reading that. ** Bollo, The worst was a 9 euro double espresso. The pizza was or is much, much better in Rome than in Firenze. I don’t know if it’s the local style or whatever, but every pizza we ate in Firenze was just a dry, burnt crust with a sloppy soup of barely cooked ingredients and sauce poured atop it. Oh, shit, about the reference. I was barely internetted while in Italy, so, ugh, sorry for the bad timing on my part. ** Little foal, To be a looky-loo, what you wrote to Polter was great. Harmony Korine, yes! Agreed, of course. Oh, your liking of Von Trier doesn’t bother me. I liked ‘The Idiots’ except for the last fifteen or so minutes. And Yury likes ‘Dancer in the Dark’. It takes all kinds or whatever they say and whatever that means. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, D. Wow, Jim Nabors, that’s a name I haven’t heard or come across in a long, long time. And thanks a lot for the Lynne Tillman link. ** Jax, I got my second wind in Firenze. It lasted a couple of days. I think my legs are probably kind of muscular by my standards. Yury is someone who hates sitting still. Hence, my improved if sore as shit legs. But it is on amazon.co.uk. Sorry about the price. I muttered quite a whoa when I saw the asking price. Art plus CD books, what can you do. ** Misanthrope, Do a lot of characters die at the ends of my books? Hm, I guess in, uh, ‘Closer’. And … ‘My Loose Thread’. And if video game death counts, in ‘God Jr’, but I think that’s all? I mean if you mean death with a capital D. Hm. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hi, man! So nice to see you and your unfolding days again! Yeah, where did Kier go? I liked your day report squib, of course. The blueberry vodka and the ‘Hoarders’ marathon particularly. Envy on the latter, yuck on the former. Well, I have too many days full of too many things to report. It’s a blur, and I’m a very spaced out me this morning. I’ll just do yesterday, is that okay? Even though it was a blah day and not representative or anything. So, let’s see … we woke up in Hotel Fiorini in Firenze/ Florence, which is where we stayed. I thought the hotel was okay bordering on not so hot but doable, and Yury thought it was depressing. I had the hotel’s free breakfast, which was kind of really bad — instant coffee, store-bought cake thing, dry rolls, butter — but free. Then Yury woke up, and we packed and checked out and left our stuff and walked around for a couple of hours. We’d pretty much seen everything there was to see by then (photos on Monday), and we were both kind of tired and ready to go home, so we ended up having double espressos at a cafe on the Republicca and watching other tourists walk around. I would say the breakdown on the tourist population while we were in Firenze would be, oh, 70% Italians, 10% Americans, 10% Russians, 5% French, 5% Japanese. Then we got a taxi to the airport. Firenze has the smallest airport for a fairly big city I’ve ever seen. There’s just one tiny, packed terminal that you have to kind of herd your way through shoulder to shoulder with everyone else and very slowly. It was more weird and interesting than awful, though. The flight was 90 minutes. I read magazines and Yury took pictures out the window of the plane with his iPhone. He took so many photos on our vacation — over 4000 — that his iPhone kept crashing, but it’s okay now. Paris was kind of gray when we got here. It looked very French and good, though, after all that Italian everything. I mean, the Italian everything was really nice, but we both decided we like French everything better, not that it’s a contest or anything. So, we got back here. There was some mail including an invite to Oscar B and Kiddiepunk’s wedding. And a couple of books. I plugged in my computer and enjoyed having the internet as second nature again, and Yury went shopping, and then we ate and stuff, and I fell asleep early ‘cos I was pooped, and I’m still pooped right now, but I think I’ll be normal-ish in a day or so. That’s logical. Okay, man, how was your weekend? ** Tender Prey, Hi, Marc! I’m back on the horse and everything, I think, and I’ll get on you-know-what pretty straight away. ** Math, Hi, M! It’s your weekend, pal. Hope it goes great. I think it will. Thanks for being in the spotlight. ** Colin, Hi, Colin. Thanks for saying how you found my stuff. It’s really cool to know how that worked. It’s strange and a privilege. Oh, Kevin sent me you-know-what while I was away, so I’ll get on that imminently. ** David, Greetings, sir. ** Sypha, Yeah, I think not having sex helps one write about sex or write well about sex or … something. Spaced out, sorry. Nice to see you! ** Steevee, Hey. ** Alan, That’s between me and my hairdresser. Oh, well, then I’m very pleased to have a avoided that Crypt. No, seriously, I feel like an idiot for missing that. I blame the sun. ** Thursday ** David Ehrenstein, Hi again. Oh, I can see that my gayness is interesting, sure, and I would guess my not being that interested in my being gay is part of what makes it interesting. And, of course, like you, I’m quite thrilled that my gayness helps preclude my ‘fitting in’, and I count my lucky stars for that, although, yes, having basic rights is beyond worth fighting for. So, yes. Thanks a lot for the link to the thing about Tim Dlugos. I remember that whole situation with Philip and the Gray Gallery’s chickening out very well. I so hope to get the chance to see the finally completed collaboration. Lovely. ** Bernard Welt, You like them mouthy. That’s interesting. Me too, I think, sometimes. ** Squeaky, Yep, Math fiction, and there it is. It’s great that you guys shared your works and that you met Scott. Oh, yes, that anti-drug and anti-sexual adventure thing is so boring and self-indicting. I get that a lot with reactions to my books and almost always and only from middle-aged gay guys. All that nose wrinkling and holier than thou moralism and blah blah. It’s shocking, really. Or maybe shockingly not shocking? ** Bill, Thank you, Bill. About my slaves. We’ll have to compare notes about Italy. Any further Recollets news or reason for me to query them on your behalf or anything? ** Sypha, I’ll finally get a my first decent look at my Facebook wall today. Cool if Melissa posted there. Thanks for the alert. Interesting and unfortunate about the new Current 93 album, or about the recent ones. Sounds kind of like he’s doing what Coil/Peter C. did in that project’s later phase, releasing and rereleasing a lot of so-so stuff and treading water for income or something? ** Math, Great response to the slaves, my pal. I loved that. Thank you! ** Alter Clef Records, Well, hey there, Nick! I’m kind of tired out and spaced. Italy was very cool, though. Worth the come down. Yes, a little kiddie told me you might be at the wedding thingeroony in July with a musical instrument of some sort in tow. I’ll be there too. Whoo-hoo! Very cool about all the new projects and product. I can’t wait to hear or read or both all of them. Talk soon, yeah, and love to you too, pal. ** Allesfliesst, Hey, man. Dresden, interesting. My only knowledge of it has to do with the Nazi era stuff. Oh, and that band Dresden Dolls. Sounds, you know, really nice and luxurious. Dude, I’ve been doing almost nothing but art appreciation for ten days, not to mention the large quantity of Madonnas involved, so my nerdiness makes yours, uh, whatever. Less nerdy at the very least. But I bet I’m more tan than you are. ** Syreearmwellion, Hey. That was the only picture of magnet4haters. Makes you wonder, right? Makes you suspicious too. Well, if you can get a satellite cable thing that gets MTV Italy, you’ll get a bunch of rugby, but it’s like a reality show thing where, I think, Italian teens are sent if they’re bad or get arrested or something. It was hard to figure out. That Gold Panda vid/song was nice. Thanks for that. ** Steevee, Thank you kindly for that. Steve. There’s a new Burzum album? Like new new? I didn’t know that. I’ll definitely get it post-haste, of course. What do you think of it? ** Jax, Legs feels like I’m walking in a lake but without the cold and getting wet part. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Yes, thank you, wonderful, thank you! You made my imagination feel like home again. I would say a lot more if my brain wasn’t so strangely tired. And my arms too. I don’t know why my arms are tired.Oh, wait, from carrying my busted backpack and laptop all over the place, of course. You are super-okay! That is awesome news! ** Casey McKinney, Hey, Casey! What a pleasure and a treasure! Oh, I’m back where the internet is almost free now. Yes indeed, about Blake Butler’s new novel, right? Well, you read my blurb, and I meant it. Killer novel. If the earth doesn’t shake before it, the earth is dead. You personally are reviewing it for Fanzine? If so, wow, cool! Yeah, sure, when there’s a galley or whatever of my novel, I’ll make sure they send you one. Awesome to see you, man. When is your kiddo going to be old enough to allow that long promised trip to Paris? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi again, Ben. Can’t wait for the new YnY. The event looks cool and trippy. What’s that fish thing? Everyone, courtesy of _B_A, pix from the launch of event of the imminently forthcoming issue of Yuck ‘n’ Yum are here. ** Creative Massacre, Hey, pal! Thanks, yeah, the trip was pretty good. How have you been? ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Yury really liked the trip for the most part except for the hotel in Firenze and the, in his opinion, utter lack of stylishness and unacceptable hair cuts and colors of the Italian people he came across. Hm, I would say a willing slave is far more interesting than an unwilling one, but remember I’m a anarchist, dude. Oh, yeah? How about, just off the top of my head: ‘Now, I’m gonna love you / Till the heavens stop the rain / I’m gonna love you / Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I’? Defend that. ** Okay, now, please oh please give your attention to Math’s work this weekend and leave respective comments between now and Monday. Thank you so much! I will go try to wake up or readjust to life or something now, and I will see you in the comments area come later Sunday, and I will see you back here on Monday.

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‘The art of the tribute band involves creating as perfect as possible a representation of the tributed act. Many tribute bands go to great lengths to achieve this, both musically and visually. In some cases this involves seeking out vintage guitars, amplifiers and electronic effects, or having them specially built in order to capture the ‘authentic’ sound of the tributed act. Moreover, in many cases individual members of tribute bands attempt to emulate as closely as possible the image and persona of the musician they are portraying, learning to be him or her via repeated listening to live albums and/or viewings of film and documentary footage of the tributed act.

‘The success of the tribute band in achieving this aim is of course also highly dependent upon the willingness of the audience to buy into and go along with the ‘trick of illusion’ that the tribute band attempts to stage. The issue of audience reception also needs to be set in context. According to a leading exponent of postmodernist social theory, Jean Baudrillard, a centrally defining characteristic of the postmodern era is the dominance of simulacra. Everything, from works of art to significant historical sites and aspects of national culture is now experienced at the everyday level as a series of simulations. Tribute bands have assumed their place in a world where the replication and reproduction of objects and images is increasingly taken for granted and largely perceived as ‘normal’.

‘Already used to treating recorded sounds and mediated images as the primary text, from the point of view of the audience it could be argued that tribute bands are merely another medium for the enjoyment of their favourite music. The audience realizes that the tribute is not the ‘real thing’, but this is not the point. For decades, records, tapes and videos have had to stand in for the original. Tribute bands follow this pattern of standing in for the original, but with the added novelty of the flesh and blood dimension which they bring to the reproduction of the music. ‘ — Andy Bennett, ‘Even better than the real thing? Understanding the tribute band phenomenon’

Nearvana ‘Medley’

ZOSO ‘Kashmir’

Mr. Crowley ‘Medley’

The Smiths Indeed ‘This Charming Man’

Green Plastic ‘Paranoid Android’

Ovueen ‘Somebody to Love’

Sex Pistols Experience ‘Pretty Vacant’

Fascination Street ‘Just Like Heaven’

Mortallica ‘Master of Puppets’

Too Rex ‘Jeepster’

Bitchfits ‘Die die my Darling’

Absolute Bowie ‘Ziggy Stardust’

Fleetwood Bac ‘Go Your Own Way’

Feuerengel ‘excerpt’

Guns N’ Roses Real Tribute Band ‘medley’
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p.s. Hey. Happy Valentines Day to its willing participants. So, the deadline for Joy Division Day contributions is your bedtime tonight, and please send in something if you haven’t and if you’re so inclined. Thanks a lot! ** Empty Frame, Hey, man. Oh, it is that John Hawkes. Well, I guess my favorites of the ones I’ve read are ‘The Blood Oranges’, ‘Death, Sleep, and the Traveler’, and ‘The Lime Twig’. Oh, yeah, ‘Invisible Man’ is crazy great. Cool. Hope your weekend panned out beautifully. ** David Ehrenstein, Hey. Oh, I guess they meant the French-speaking Araki, and the comparison is probably loose. I’ll try to see ‘Heartbeats” if I can. Terrific post on the Losey film. Everyone, over on his FaBlog, David E. makes the case for eternity on behalf of ‘The Big Night’, Joseph Losey’s underknown remake of Fritz Lang’s ‘M’, and you would do well to head right over there and read/watch. ** Bernard Welt, Well, yeah, totally, on the US news re: Egypt. Shocking if predictable. Nope, haven’t heard or seen a peep from Lautreamont, not even on Facebook unless I’m missing something. Judy Davis is just insanely good in that Judy Garland movie. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Next Saturday, wonderful. Count me in. Where are you staying? Yeah, the ‘Dark Stars Rising’ book is real good. Shade spent at least ten years putting that together. Real labor of love rewarded. ** Pilgarlic, Oh, Sherman, fire, right, of course. Wow, my memory might be playing tricks on me, but I think during one of visits to Atlanta years ago, a friend pointed out Vaseline Alley to me, and I might even have a fuzzy mental picture of your abode’s facade somewhere in my banks. I was happy to see people giving you advice about the generics, and of course I hope your doctor can help you out big time. I would imagine on ‘Cops: In Russia’ they leave out the parts where the cops take whoever they want out to some remote spot and execute them, and their friends and relatives don’t make a fuss because … well, for the obvious reason. ** David, Interesting about the film’s Americanness. I hadn’t thought about that, and yeah. ** Postitbreakup, Hey. Hopefully, we’re beyond the visa crisis and injustice phase now, but I have no idea. Thanks for the petition idea. Honestly, the last thing in world I want to do is get my life caught up in the kind of media coverage, etc. it would take to make something like that work. I don’t know, right now I’m just holding out hope that he’ll get the visa, and that all of the years of crap will be over. If he doesn’t get it, then we’ll see. Thanks a lot for the thoughts and help to Pilgarlic. ** Dan Callahan aka Keith, Tell Keith his avatar made me happy. Yes, please link us up to Xavier Dolan piece on THND. Actually, I should … Everyone, are you familiar with The House Next Door, a wildly good and very addictive culture blog to which our pal d.l. Dan Callahan is a contributor? If not, you really should visit and explore it. It’s really something, and it’s here. ** Steevee, I hope ‘LBS’ gets a French release and even an earlier than summer one. I’ve never seen Allen’s films as proposing an objective realism. They seem like the dreams and fantasies of an auteur. I don’t see titling his film ‘Manhattan’ as necessitating an accurate portrait of Manhattan at that point in time any more than, oh, X’s ‘Los Angeles’ is problematic because it’s not an accurate LA in the mid-70s or, oh, ‘The Last Days of Disco’ is problematic because it only addresses the end phase of disco for a particular set of New Yorkers. ** Alan, Yeah, completely, about the Ashbery translation. His trans of Roussell and Reverdy, et. al, have been just splendid. Well, I was using the technical meaning of revolution, or one of them: ‘the overthrow of a government by those who are governed’. As far as the long term outcome, no doubt you’re right, but I just mean the intentions and actions and the immediate results of the people deserve credit. ** Matt/ Nicole, Will do on ‘Tron’. Interesting parallel there with ‘EtV, huh. Cool. Ha ha, yeah, wow, on that link/video. Very nice. Everyone, courtesy of Matt, and vis a vis video game space, and for your delectation on Valentines Day, check out ‘Best sex menu/bed in second life’ here. ** Amccartney, Hi, Alistair! Yeah, we’ve decided to try again. Yury’s in the strongest position he’s ever been in by far, and it would probably be a slam dunk if not for the three denials, and, as you know, I guess it’s going to be all about what interviewer/ decider he gets, and the outcome will be dependent on his or her mood and prejudices and sense of empathy, etc. There’s not much we can do at this point apart from dotting all the required i’s and hoping against hope. Your good wishes are very mightily appreciated, man. Lots of love to you, and I hope that neck gives you a break. ** Daveyhoule, Hi, Davey! Thank you again so much, man. It went great! ‘Vicki Christina Barcelona’ is one of my favorite Woody Allen films too. I guess my other faves might be ‘Manhattan’, ‘Zelig’, ‘Broadway Danny Rose’, ‘Deconstructing Harry’, ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’, and ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’. The word over here is that the new one, ‘Midnight in Paris’ is a real gem, but we’ll see. ** Sypha, Oh, that’s interesting and makes sense about your fondness for the thin line between ridiculousness and seriousness. Makes sense. ** Bollo, The General Idea show is really energized and wacked and beautiful. I wish you could see it. I’d imagine the catalog is pretty good. Their work is very reproduction-friendly, obviously. HVD right back at you. ** Kiddiepunk, Hi, M. What’s going on down there? I just noticed last night that someone here has a locked airport signal entitled ‘RecolletsInternetSucks’, ha ha. You good? Let’s talk and etc. and everything. ** _Black_Acrylic, Thanks, Ben, re: the visa thing. Come Thursday, I’ll let you know. I hope the YnY guys feel the magic of your ‘Trash Humpers’ idea. Sure seems like they would. ** Misanthrope, Hey. Well, yeah, his lack of range makes the minimalism. I like that. It’s all taste, like you said. Man, there are lots of really good movies being made now. France alone has a ton of amazing active filmmakers. The problem, as you pointed out, is in their limited distribution and the consequent lack of much media coverage, which means people have a really hard time finding them. ** Chris Cochrane, Hey. Yeah, the Paris ‘Them’ stuff is exciting. Yeah, I know you think we should do Utrecht, and you know I don’t but will if that’s the decision. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. Oh, is Bieber a Youtube kid gone viral phenomenon? That makes it a little more interesting. Just a teeny weeny bit, mind you. I think ‘Born This Way’ is a tired, completely unexciting, Madonna-infused, standard fare rehash. I’m kind of shocked by how weak and conservative and overly familiar sounding it is after all of that fuss. It’s not even ridiculous fun, it’s just so usual sounding and blah. Most of the characters in ‘Epic Mickey’ are really old, pre-me, from like the ’30s and ’40s. But, so far, Goofy and Daisy are there, and they’ve been dismembered, and their heads are being kept alive by a machine, and Mickey has to find their body parts and put them back together. It’s dark for Disney product, and it gets more and more interesting. ‘Damp concrete is alway unpleasant’: nice! Oh, that’s cool about your friend’s shirt’s compliment. Hm, I think I’m going to avoid ‘Let Me In’. It doesn’t sound like it’s worth it. Loved your ‘love’ dialogue, and, yeah, I’m glad she wasn’t driving that day. Effusive love and driving are a dangerous combination. I saw a few bits of the Grammys this morning. The Gaga and a few other bits. I guess the surprise about the Arcade Fire win is good ‘cos surprises are good, and Eminem’s acceptance speeches are always so boring. 30 hours awake? I’d be dead. Hope you crashed. My weekend: I didn’t get out much. In fact, I even forgot to go out and buy food for the weekend, and so I had basically nothing to eat last night unless stale tortillas and a few pieces of cheese count. I played a bunch of ‘Epic MIckey’ I just last night helped some pirates from ‘Pinocchio’ escape from jail and then ran around a seaside pirate port fighting things and doing tasks in order to open the way to an area where I think I have to fight Captain Hook who has been turned into a super robot pirate by some machine or other. I did visa related stuff. I was going to buy the plane tickets, but I’m so irritated that I have to buy them that I procrastinated until today when I will have to buy them. A lot of theater stuff happened that required a bunch of emailing and phone calls: ‘Them’ might get a great Paris gig. Gisele’s and my big upcoming maze piece ‘Last Spring’ might be exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, which would be just amazing ‘cos it would be in the museum and on display/usable for months, and it would be a really prestigious and all that. But it’s not a done deal yet. I really needed to get my haircut, but Yury was too busy to do it. He was also too busy to see ‘Black Swan’, so I don’t know when I’ll see that, if I do. As I’d suspected, ‘The Marbled Swarm’ is going to be really tough to translate, and my French publisher has already had two big translators read it then decide it’s too difficult for them. Yikes. The laundry room is still closed, and I’ll ask them about that and about the internet situation today. Gosh, I don’t know. It was a busy weekend, but most of it was spent in one chair or another. I’ll stop there and wait for your Valentines Day report, and thank you in advance. ** Dusty rose, Hey. Well, very few people get to write for a living, if that makes you feel better. I don’t quite make a living from it. Sometimes it’s okay, and sometimes I’m a stressed out broke person. Yeah, I like ‘Epic Mickey’ I recommend it as long you like that kind of adventure game format and don’t hate classic era Disney animation. ** We’re there, it seems. One more please on the Joy Division Day thing. I think the post today probably speaks for itself, no? Okay, I have a day ahead of theater rehearsals and visa worrying and related task-doing. What about you? Catch up with you tomorrow.