‘Bernard Faucon was one of the first photographers in the second half of the 20th century to systematically create and master the constructed image. Nonetheless, he declines Christian Caujolle’s characterization of his work as “an approach to time in the context of photography and life that investigates the feeling behind contrived settings, the deceits of photography in its relation to reality, and its manipulation of truth and forgery, which confronts the medium’s limits and defies them.”

‘Faucon’s best known work is an interrelated series of photographic tableaux made largely in the 1980s that re-create and evoke the experience called childhood, particularly the boys’ tradition called summer camp. Every photograph is carefully staged, down to the smallest detail, and uses life-like mannequins of boys who so closely resemble their real-life counterparts that it is hard to tell them apart. Bernard Faucon is an anomaly: Like other artists and photographers who utilize overtly artificial methods, he inescapably works with “constructs” and “concepts”. Yet he is not a Conceptual artist; his point is ambiguous rather than explicit or philosophical, as all Conceptual art photography is. Indeed, he has no desire to make a point at all. Instead, he wants us to relive what he cherishes and loves the most: Childhood, its particular experiences as well as the universal emotions it evokes.

‘As Faucon has put it, “The idea of fabricating fictions, the idea of a possible equation between photography and the dummies, struck me quite out of the blue. Childhoods made of flesh and plaster, the many lights of the Luberon, the nostalgia and actuality of desires, crystallised together through the magical operation of the photographic record. The power to fix, eternalise in light, attest to the world the perfection of an instant. I would hurriedly set up the dummies , and after the shot, pack up and set off again. As they invested those places that bore the mark of my childhood I imagined that those little men freed from their shop-windows, released unknown forces, brought to light sublime, masterful evidence.”

‘Faucon has produced some of the most original photographs of the late 20th century. He has been at the forefront of the staged, surrealist school of photography since its inception in the 1970s and is now considered one of its leading proponents. One of Faucon’s most ardent admirers, Roland Barthes, the greatest European critic of the latter part of the 20th century, sees his work as a metaphor for the vertiginous experience: “The real in Faucon’s art is both the subtly delirious and the heightened awareness of the feelings they arouse in us: Freakish pleasure, irrational fear, unbridled fantasies, forbidden yearnings. It is a marriage of heterogeneous species of reality.”

‘In 1995, visionary French photographer Bernard Faucon stopped taking pictures. “One way or another,” the artist declared, “I had to eventually make true my claim to finish, my obsession with closing. This became The End Of The Image.” In a move that echoes Marcel Duchamp’s public exit from the world of art to play chess, Faucon has not presented any new work since his 1995 coup d’art.’ — collaged

 

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Media

BERNARD FAUCON FACING BEIJING

Slideshow of Bernard Faucon’s work from the ’90s

La liquidation du cabanon de Bernard Faucon, 4 et 5 mars 2006

 

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Further

Bernard Faucon Official Website
Bernard Faucon: Art & writings @ Agence Vu
‘True Fiction: Bernard Faucon in China’
Bernard Faucon, “The Most Beautiful Day of My Youth”
‘Cooking is Bernard Faucon’s second oeuvre’
Bernard Faucon @ tumblr
‘Sepia Dreams’
Bernard Faucon interviewed (in French)
‘The Polaroids of Bernard Faucon’
Books on Bernard Faucon @ Amazon
‘Ballade dans l’univers glauque de Bernard Faucon’
‘Evocation de Bernard Faucon’
‘La période bleue de Bernard Faucon’

 

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Interview
from Centurion Magazine

 

WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO THINK, FEEL OR SAY AFTER THEY’VE VIEWED A PHOTOGRAPH OF YOURS OR READ ONE OF YOUR WRITINGS?

What I expect from my public and from the person standing closest to me is appreciation. Not in the social sense of success, but rather in deeper sense: I want them to see, to perceive what I have within me – the singularity and uniqueness of my perspective of the world. Of course this uniqueness changes: it’s keen when we’re young, and it weakens as we progress though life.

AFTER RECEIVING SO MUCH PRAISE FOR YOUR ART AND GATHERING A FOLLOWING, HOW DO YOU PREVENT FAME FROM INFLUENCING YOUR ART?

Personally, the public acknowledgement doesn’t affect me much; if it had, I would have mastered my career better. Many people all over the world may enjoy and collect my photographs, but the place I occupy in the art world is infinitesimal.

AS AN ARTIST, INSPIRATION IS A NECESSITY. WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION?

There’s no recipe for finding inspiration. Traveling and driving fast with the music turned all the way up aren’t always enough! You can go years without having a huge inspiration – it’s always a surprise when it comes. You have to live and accumulate joy and suffering, even boredom, in the sense of the Romantics. You have to know it all.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC FOR AN ARTIST TO HAVE?

Without hesitation: a sense of necessity. Produce nothing that doesn’t hearken to a compelling need for expression. Sincerity alone isn’t enough to guarantee depth in a work of art.

DESPITE THE PRAISE YOU RECEIVED, YOU SUSPENDED YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY IN 1997. DO YOU MISS TAKING PICTURES?

I suspended my 20-years’ work in photographical production for reasons of necessity, loyalty to my ‘first’ inspiration and to avoid repeating myself and getting bored. But photography still accompanies me more or less as the illustration of my life, my writing.

WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF BEAUTY? WHAT MAKES SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL?

For me, art has to do with beauty, and in my pictures I try to create the conditions that lead to that dynamic instant in which beauty and happiness come together in a balanced way. Because my work is collaborative and democratic, we can see these young people looking at their world in a way that reflects the unique beauty of their innocence. And then, during the exhibitions that followed the photo shoots, some would tell me, “This is the most beautiful day of my youth.”

 

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*

p.s. RIP David Thomas (Pere Ubu). ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. I hope you’re in the winner’s circle. ** jay, Hey. I wonder if I do know that author, but I trust your instincts. ‘Blue Prince’ sounds plenty exciting. Maybe there’s a youtube walkthrough by now. I’ll find out. Nah, the only Easter chocolate things I found were too corny, just bunnies and eggs and the like. Oh, well. At least today is still wide open. I hope your work and its surroundings are encompassing. ** James, You can watch ‘Lawnmower Man’ if you want to illustrate your mistaken identity moment, but I don’t remember it being all that good. I don’t think have an opinion on Satanism. I’m 100% religion-non-impacted, so it just seems like an elaborate style choice to me, I guess. That does sound fun and scary. I guess I’ll stay demure and post-trendy however. June, okay, share your mental gymnastics re: your scholarly destination if you so choose. The Trinidad and Gerstler books will probably end up in my next ‘5 books I loved’ post, so you can have a gander. Safe escape from Edinburg. Wait, you leave today but you don’t go home until tomorrow? How does that work? Thanks about ‘TMS’. Uh, that was a really especially hard novel to write ‘cos it was so god damned complicated, so, I don’t know, about four years, I think? Thank you, thank you. Wish your stubble a fond farewell for me. Well, I don’t know how fond actually. ** Steeqhen, It is greatly appreciated, be assured. What novel and what play? Any questions, obviously, feel free. Next week? You are so swift. Wow. That speediness + high attentiveness will serve you well in your hopefully lengthy life, as I suppose you can already guess. ** _Black_Acrylic, Lawn Lion. In other words, ouch! ** Dominik, Hi!!! You should make a film sometime. It’s really interesting. But make one that doesn’t cost very much money. That’s my sagely disclaimer. I’m organising the hours to house my SCAB/Baby Invasion double-header. Hopefully later today if the unexpected doesn’t become expectable. Yay about your/love’s friend’s visit. And on my end, love got his shoes. They’re shiny gray and they have already received two mild compliments. Haha, good question. Love arranging for you to be the set designer on Bernard Faucon’s next photo shoot, G. ** Måns BT, Hi! Oh, that’s wonderful news! I’ll tell Zac. Awesome! Um, I guess you can give them my email address, and you can have it too, of course: [email protected]. Of course Zac and I would love to come for the screening, yes. Wow, exciting! I guess we can sort it out by email. Thank you so much, my pal. That’s so great! Is the impure version of ‘Baby Invasion’ the one with the voiceover? I’ve now talked to five people who’ve seen it, and four of them greatly preferred the version with the voiceover. Thanks again! So cool. More soon! Have a huge day! ** Dynomoose, Dynomoose! Holy moly! How are you? I see your goings-on on Facebook, and you seem pretty okay. Anyway, I know, right. At Publix? I didn’t know you could be a sugar daddy and work at Publix at the same time. That escort was clearly a bargain. Love, me. ** catachrestic, Hey, J! I don’t think I’ve ever lived with anyone who killed someone. But years ago when I was younger and wilder, there was this hustler boy I used to see around NYC all the time. He was always with this really old, like 90 years old, man who seemed to be his sugar daddy. Anyway, I was kind of obsessed with the hustler. Then one day I saw him without the old man, and I picked him up. We were at my place doing our thing, and I asked him about the old man, and he told me that he and the old man were smoking crack the night before and the old man just dropped dead. He said it with a shrug. That made me feel pretty weird. Good old Internet Archive, cool, thank you for the alert. I ended up not seeing any French friends yesterday, but I am today, and the Tocqueville question is already on my lips. ** Steve, Good question. Norman Yonemoto and I co-wrote two porn screenplays that he wanted to direct back in his Jason Sato days, but they were way too narrative for the porn companies even back when narrative porns were a thing, so they never got made. One was called ‘Trick’ and the other was called ‘Boys from Outer Space’. And, yes, they were quite Sirkian. ** Carsten, Whoa, Carsten! It’s been many ages! Holy shit, hi, man. It’s curious because when I was in LA recently I drove by LA City College and thought about you and wondered if you were still in LA somewhere. That’s quite a catch up. Man, you’ve done a lot. And very interesting about your interest in and commitment to poetry. I’ll go find and bookmark your blog post-haste. Great! I can assure you that Zac’s and my films are free of plot and melodrama. Enjoy Spain. Yes, very sad about David E. My jet lag is in remission, thank you. Well, yeah, great to see you, my friend! ** James Bennett, Are you planning colourful risographic things? Awesome. You must be really headlong into the book making. My cheerleading function is at the ready should you need it. ** Thomas H., Hey. I’m glad you’re filling your time nicely. I want to see ‘Sinners’. Usually I wouldn’t be so interested in that kind of film, but that one intrigues for some reason. Cool that it’s a good one. Thanks for the link to your bf’s book. I’ll go check it out, and congrats to him. Everyone, Thomas H.’s bf wrote an intriguing looking book called Titanblood. Go take a look at it here. Early happy birthday! What concert are you utilising to celebrate? Hang in there. And happy, yes, Thursday. ** HaRpEr, I got your email/post, and it’s incredible (!), and I’ll write to you today. I don’t think I’ve read Peter Weiss either. ‘Marat/Sade’ is one of those things I just assume I’ve read but probably didn’t. Great about your story =ing excitement. Don’t take the rejections hard. You know that’s just subjective and probably political bullshit. ** Darbz, Yay about your surroundings! A pic, sure, my consent is granted even though it doesn’t need to be. Mum’s the word about your trip then. It seems safe to assume that those powers-that-be don’t know about this blog. I will give Ms. Bankhead a look. You make that seem imperative. And anyone with such a great name deserves examination. I’ll follow through on the Faetooth link/tune once I’m p.s.-freed. They sound plenty up my alley from your description. Thank you! My film’s on tube? Oh, you mean ‘Permanent Green Light’, yes, it’s true. ** Uday, I haven’t written a letter in so many years. Or received one. Wait, I have received a few. No, no ducks, but I didn’t get that close to the big park by me which is where they hang out. They only tromp into my neighbourhood when it’s flooding. There aren’t a ton of ducks in Paris, but they are here near the Seine. The only birds that descend on my apartment are pigeons, and they are very skittish. If I even move my head very slightly they freak out and flap away. Congrats on the positive reception of your translation! ** Nicholas., Hi. You sound really fired up for very excellent reasons. I’ll be a beginner and then much more, no doubt. Dinner: Capellini pasta with simple sauce which was actually two sauces, a kind of basilica/olive tomato thing and a kind of mushy mushroom thing. It was ok. You imbibed? ** nat, Hey. Yes, I think we’re fully on first name basis. I’m a novelist and not a screenplay writer, so you should be fine. My screenplays are not like scripts. They don’t even look like them. They’re just like sort of experimental fiction except all the descriptions are just hints. Are you started on the script now, or do you need a initial day or two to build it in your mind first? Yeah, those American auteur director guys didn’t get too far before quitting or selling out or something. Or just continuing to make movies even after their mojo had turned to meh like Scorcese. Strange. Fix your heater? Is that hard to facilitate? Sorry. ** Okay. Today you are invited to stroll through my galerie via your eyes and take in the arguably wondrous photos of Mr. Bernard Faucon. See you tomorrow.

* (restored)

Roommates of the Florida teen who allegedly bludgeoned a 36-year-old man to death last week say the suspect was a Satanic male escort after an $800 debt.

Dillon O’Donnell, 18, was charged with first-degree murder Saturday in the death of William “Billy” Davis III, whose body was found in a pool of blood outside his home in Ormond Beach, Fla.

Dillon O’Donnell playing an online game.

On Monday, O’Donnell’s housemates told The Daytona Beach News-Journal newspaper that the teen had recently started working as a male escort and that Davis, who worked at a nearby Publix, was his second client. The friends said O’Donnell told them Davis was his “sugar daddy” and owed him $800.

The roommates, both brothers, had been sharing a house with O’Donnell for seven months. They said the teen routinely participated in devil-worshipping rituals and sometimes wore red and white contact lenses. They said he spray-painted the number 666 on the walls and on the side of the house. They also said they saw him waving a knife around the night before the murder.

Mr Davis, pictured, was O’Donnell’s second client who the teenager saw as a ‘sugar daddy’.

“He told me and my brother what he was going to do (kill Davis), but we thought he was kidding,” Richard DeForest, 21, told the News-Journal. “He was satanic so we thought it had something to do with that.”

After exchanging several text messages, O’Donnell and Davis made plans to hang out Thursday night. Davis reportedly picked O’Donnell up and brought him back to his house. An arrest report released Monday shows that early Friday morning, O’Donnell beat Davis with a concrete lawn lion before stabbing him several times with a folding knife.

In the yard at the end of a bloody trail, the ornament, a lion, was found drenched in blood.

The report also shows that investigators found O’Donnell’s picture on a dating app Davis had on his cell phone. The roommates said they think O’Donnell and Davis met and communicated via gay websites.

In the days before the murder, Mr Davis and O’Donnell had been texting each other, police said. The texting was initiated by Mr Davis, who at 10am on Thursday, asked O’Donnell if he could see him that evening. At around 10pm that night Mr Davis picked O’Donnell up from his home and took him back to his house.

Dillon O’Donnell’s escort profile photo.

Sometime early Friday, Davis’ aunt Shirley Davis noticed a man was trying to hard in the side yard of the property and called the police.

According to police, O’Donnell returned home after the murder. DeForest and his brother said they saw O’Donnell in his bedroom, wiping blood off his naked body. “When we saw him we didn’t even ask why he had blood on his arms,” DeForest told the newspaper. “I thought it was that devil-worship stuff.”

The scene of the crime.

In court, O’Donnell testified that he and Davis were new friends. They met on a dating app called Grinder. O’Donnell said he never wanted to hurt Davis and that Davis attacked him first after an argument about unwanted sexual advances. He said he was leaving when Davis pushed him down the stairs.

That’s when O’Donnell said he stabbed Davis with a knife. “He kept hitting me on my stomach, on the back of my head. I managed to cover up my face like I always do when I’m in any type of fight.” he said. “I’m sure he stumbled back and hit his head, and I was trying to defend myself.”

Dillon O’Donnell shown just after being sentence to life in prison.

Prosecutor Ed Davis said during his opening statement that a forensic exam of O’Donnell’s phone showed he had researched how to quickly stab someone to death. While Davis was stabbed, the prosecutor said it was the blow to the head from a 50-pound lion statue that killed him.

In 2014, the then 20 year old Dillon O’Donnell was sentenced to life imprisonment. A jury took an hour Thursday to find O’Donnell, 20, guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of Davis, 38. Circuit Judge Margaret Hudson then sentenced O’Donnell to life in prison.

Video: Details Emerge In Ormond Beach Homicide

Video: Grand Jury Indicts Man In Ormond Beach Homicide

 

Comments

SIlkxxx -Apr. 19, 2012 at 5:36pm
Dillon Is bisexual, But he WAS NOT! a satanist! He was an extremely close friend of mine and my ex boyfriend. No one saw him doing this coming. Hes was quiet, yet very sweet and out going. You needed help he was there for you. He always had a gold cross on around his neck and spoke of getting a cross tattoo on his arm. He was very caring but his new roommate ended up somehow getting him of the wrong path. And someones sexuality shouldn’t have a matter in anything. I myself, I am bisexual and there should be nothing wrong with that. We gays are more caring and opened minded then any of you could dream you were. And someones religion shouldn’t have anything to do with a thing as well because in some way or form it all leads back to having faith there’s a god out there. Also i myself never heard anything about him being a male escort. If anything He did it on his own and didn’t go through a company! The media also twisted Richards (roommates) words. The house in witch Dillon lived in is just a whole bunch of young kids. They like to play pranks and have a lot of fake blood in the house so that’s why the roommate didn’t care when they saw blood on Dillon. And considering he’s a teenager he was in there teenage eyes thought oh maybe he’s taking some weird facebook picture. Never believe all of what you hear and half of what you see. Be more open-,minded. He was a great kid that in the last 2 months was turned down a dark road that ended quickly with him do this.

SLOWBIDEN -Apr. 18, 2012 at 9:12am
Totally offended that this newspaper put this in the faith section.

JT Brooklyn, Apr 16, 2012
The YOUNG ain’t always Pretty on the inside! 😉

hogorina -Apr. 12, 2012 at 4:10pm
“MODERATION OF A GENUINE DEMOCRAT

I live in a redone school bus, as a share cropper with eight children. Education from TV commercials. Wife is ex-pole dancer. Her father was a former dirt farmer. Both of us are Democrats. L.B. Johnson is our alter ego. Our ancestors came to America with hats in hands. We are born again mental slaves and trying to avoid the ghetto life.
Hobbies are fish’n and drinking. Medicaid saved our way of life with extra money for booze and idle time to enjoy the fruits of others. America is the land of milk and honey. Thank goodness for those tax payers of whom give us the good life, We love the Constitution and the rights to march for more bread from Uncle Sam.Further, two sons want to be lawyers and two want to be police officers. One daughter wants to be a firemen.One son wants to be a building inspector where the political graft is a Heaven on earth. Our motto is let the government do for us what we are too shifty-minded to do for ourselves My advice to the suckers of whom pay the taxes and fight wars is to study ruling systems via Machiavella’s ( PRINCE ). Bleed them for all it is worth. I belong to the global Interfaith movement and along with my peers.Religion and democracy is the going thing today. Imcidentally, my wife was expecting triplets before she hit the road.”

Dismayed Veteran -Apr. 11, 2012 at 3:10pm
“…a man was trying to hard in the side yard …” Is this a misprint or what really happened in the side yard?

jjkrkwood, Apr 11, 2012
The kid was kind of cute and had he not been insane might have made it in the work/world of escorting.

BobtheMoronsp -Apr. 11, 2012 at 9:32am
When you are a genetic dead end, it is natural to hate yourself and everyone like you. The futility of living weighs heavily on the ‘people’. Some channel their energy in to positive things, others disintegrate into insanity in one form or another. Being a genetic dead end must really suck.

mikee1 -Apr. 11, 2012 at 9:02am
Both are big DUMMYCRAPS. You see, in order to be a dummycrap today, you have to be a NEO-SATANIST, COMMUNIST, who supports all things PERVERSE. OR you have to be so stupid that you listen to them and are duped by them in your FOOLERY. iF THE dummycraps are not taken out of power in this country, the UNITED STATES will soon FALL.

[Suspended User] -Apr. 11, 2012 at 3:27am
the only people dumber than atheists are devil worshipers. (And their roommates.)

duke37, Apr 10, 2012
Does he kiss? I sure hope the first client, the one who wasn’t killed, writes a FULL review with all the details..

FreedomWitness -Apr. 10, 2012 at 10:22pm
Imagine in some states these two could have gotten married and adopted a child. Wouldn’t that have been great! Man are we diving to the bottom of the cesspool at an alarming rate.

lukerw -Apr. 11, 2012 at 4:03am
Water finds it’s own level… yawn!

progressiveslayer -Apr. 10, 2012 at 6:58pm
The elder rump rider of boys is dead and the younger rump rider will wish he’s dead after some hard prison time.

[Suspended User] -Apr. 10, 2012 at 6:02pm
People like getting naked in times like this both ways.

NancyBee -Apr. 10, 2012 at 8:35pm
The escort company did a terrible job checking ths guy out!!

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Thomas H., Hi, TH. My suspicion is that people think there’s something to ‘get’ from poetry when in fact it’s only what it seems to be. No harder than prose, just more shapely. Hugs about the lay off. That’s scary, or seems so from afar. Money, or rather lack thereof, is my biggest stress point. So are you having to hunt anew? I’m bad with email, so I might’ve missed yours. I’ll go search for it in the archives. Sorry. I know of ‘Castration Movie’, and I think someone might’ve even sent it to me, or part of it, at some point, but I never dove in. I’ll resurrect it, if I have it, and do so. Thank you! ‘Crow Cillers’ I don’t know at all. I’ll hunt that. Really, thanks a lot. Let me pass your thing along. Everyone, Are you by chance Canadian? If so, Thomas H. has a hint: ‘This Saturday is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, and a lot of bookshops across the country are doing special events and offers for it!’ Lucky you guys. xo, me. ** James, It’s true: a bit of his book was featured here before in a different context. Thank you on Paul’s and my behalf. I think the minor personal leakage I share here is the most personal I get on the internet. I never ‘share’ that stuff on social media. I guess I’m relatively demure. Wasn’t being demure trendy for about a month a few months ago? Your Pavement enthusiasm warms my cockles. Okay, I think you’re being sensible about the Durham vs. Edinburgh choice and that your strong lean towards Durham is healthy and wise and foresightful. So, good on ya. Decision made then? Can I go that far in my determination? I like that saying ‘a whale of a time’. It’s so outmoded as to be daisy fresh. I’m going to use it frequently today. I’m reading new poetry books by David Trinidad and Amy Gerstler. I am writing our film’s new script. That is all as of the current moment. You’re probably not writing, other than ‘online’, up there in Edinburgh unless you’re back home? ** Misanthrope, That boy needs a passport for sure. I hope you won or are winning the fight. ** jay, Yay! Wow, yay and jay are fraternal twins. Interesting. Satori-like, interesting too. Today is my Easter chocolate leftovers trawl. Booty picks if I get any. Thanks. I’m seeing an old friend who used to be my literary agent for most of my life/career and who is now into helping create utopian communities based on the use of psychedelic drugs, so that should be interesting. And you? ** Dominik, Hi!!! Me too, about my writing and fiction, but since a script is just the first step in the giant process of making films, it’s a little easier and less scary to share info on the preliminaries, so I will once the thing is more cemented. I think, I hope, my SCAB indulgence will happen today. Cool about ‘Baby Invasion’! I need to watch that badly. Maybe it and the new SCAB will make an appropriate double feature? Did love wrangle his missing friend into visiting, I hope? Love making his new shoes that are supposed to arrive today arrive this morning before he has to go out because his old shoes are making the smallest two toes on his left foot get scraped up and sore, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, You gotta love Kinder, man, right? And Kinder Bueno in particular. The cosiest non-elitist chocolate out there maybe? Munch! ** James Bennett, Hey, James. I might be jet lag free today, but I’m going to give it until the afternoon to be sure. Are risographs hard/tricky? That’s exciting either way. I’ve designated one of my fingernails as the Ssnake-anticipating chewable nail. I do really like and admire the 50s Sirk films. ‘Imitation of Life’ might be my favourite, I’m not sure. It’s interesting how some filmmakers who are influenced by him, say Fassbinder, do such interesting things with that influence while others, say Todd Haynes (for me), don’t. There was a gay porn filmmaker in the 70s named Jason Sato — real name Norman Yonemoto — who made porns very influenced by Sirk. I’m not sure they totally worked, but they were very unique. May your day ratchet up your life. ** Steeqhen, It’s so wild and gratifying to see you talking complexly about my work. It’s really a boon, and I’m very chuffed. Yes, the haunted house in ‘Closer’ is related to the one in ‘Period’, and you’re a very rare person who read the books deeply enough to realise that. Internet Archive didn’t ask me, but, yes, I am totally happy that the books are there. I would read ‘Smothered in Hugs’ if you want to read my non-fiction. It has almost all of ‘All Ears’ in it and is more comprehensive. That’s weird, someone just blabbed to me about ‘Blue Prince’ yesterday. Must be a sign. Take whatever time you need on the DW post. I’m just pleased you still want to do that. Sure, we’d love to come to Cork, I’m sure. Just have to sort it all out. Cool! No worries, my brain is, if not fully awake, pretty close. ** Nicholas., Closed Practice, cool, great, thanks. I’ll go find it, which I assume is easy enough to do. Very, very curious sounding to say the least. Wow. I’m fine, no big whoop at the moment, mostly just coming back to mental clarity. ** Steve, Okay, happy it was painless at least. Everyone, Steve has three reviews of new things for you to read and use as pointers if you like. He reviewed Ghost’s new album SKELETA here. He reviewed Julien Baker & TORRES’ album SEND A PRAYER MY WAY here. And he reviewed Alexis Langlois’ film QUEENS OF DRAMA here. I’ll try to find REALM OF SATAN. Interesting. Thanks, sir. ** oliver jude, Hi! I see your email in my box, so it seems to have arrived. I’ll go make sure it downloads ok in a while. Thank you! Super interested to watch it. Nice of Jamie to give you the track. Dan Bejar let Zac and me use a Destroyer track in ‘PGL’ for free, which was so generous of him. I would think, yes, we’ll show ‘RT’ in NYC sometime this year, but I don’t where or when yet. ** catachrestic, Could be a good entree, yes. Oh, okay, serious revolution, gotcha. I’m a big fan of failed high ambitions, so I use the term more laxly, I think. I think I should read that Crane Brinton book. Maybe I can sort it out. Sounds like a possible pdf download from somewhere at least. It so sucks that zLibrary got essentially emptied. ** Bill, Watching movies is the only way I can get through a long flight. And I literally choose the lengthiest ones. Which explains ‘Napoleon’. Enjoy the wedding if that’s possible. I guess it could be if you either actually care or don’t care at all. ** seb 🦠, Hey there! Happy to see your green splotch! And you too, of course. Things have been good. Just film stuff for the vast part. All good. Legal troubles, eek. We had some of those with the film for ages, and we’re not in the clear, but we’re pretending we are just to get a break. I’m an odd person who, if I’m into something I’m writing, I just automatically commit to it and get obsessed with it. But only if it’s something I’m excited about. That never worked when I was writing journalism or things like that. So, I don’t know, get into the drug-like high of writing and let yourself turn into a junkie? The firewall is still being beastly?! Fucking hell. Sorry. ** HaRpEr, I saw your WeTransfer thing in my box. Yay! Thanks a billion! I’ll get to it and set it up asap, and I’ll write to you with any questions and stuff. I am sufficiently on the upswing re: jet lag that what you wrote wasn’t remotely gibberish. It sounds exciting indeed. Enjoy all of that excitement. So precious. ** Uday, In a letter, nice. Like, an actual written by hand and placed in an envelope and stamped and dropped in a mailbox kind of letter? It’s raining here, so all the pigeons are in hiding, but maybe an iridescent-necked duck? ** Right. Today the blog retells you an old story from years ago because … I don’t know why. See you tomorrow.