(in no order)

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Fabeldyrene (RIP, Kongeparken)
Ålgård, Norway

 

Ninja Mystery House (Toei Studio Park)
Kyoto, Japan

 

Le Defi de Cesar (RIP, Parc Asterix)
Plailly, France

 

Radiator Springs Racers (Disney California Adventure)
Anaheim, CA

 

Droomvlucht (Efteling)
Kaatsheuvel, Holland

 

Dodonpa (RIP, Fuji-Q Highland)
Fujiyoshida, Japan

 

Badewannen Fahrt (Erlebnispark Tripsdrill)
Cleebronn, Germany

 

Taron (Phantasialand)
Brühl, Germany

 

Flight to Mars (RIP, Pacific Ocean Park)
Venice, CA

 

Den Flyvende Kuffert (Tivoli Gardens)
Copenhagen

 

Juvelen (Djurs Sommerland)
Randersvej, Denmark

 

Rise of the Resistance (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey (Universal’s Islands Of Adventure)
Orlando

 

X2 (Six Flags Magic Mountain)
Valencia, CA

 

Indiana Jones Adventure (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear (Fuji-Q Highland)
Fujiyoshida, Japan

 

Speed Monster (TusenFryd)
Vinterbro, Norway

 

De Vliegende Hollander (Efteling)
Kaatsheuvel, Holland

 

Arthur (Europa Park)
Rust, Germany

 

Gasten Ghost Hotel (Liseberg)
Gothenburg, Sweden

 

Adventure Thru Inner Space (RIP, Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Vandrotten (Bonbon Land)
Holme-Olstrup, Denmark

 

The Haunted House (Tokyo Dome City)
Tokyo

 

Journey to the Center of the Earth (Tokyo Disney Sea)
Tokyo

 

Haunted Mansion (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Mystery Island Banana Train Ride (RIP, Pacific Ocean Park)
Venice, CA

 

Ghostrider (Knotts Berry Farm)
Buena Park, CA

 

Blå Tåget (Grona Lund)
Stockholm

 

River Ride (RIP, The Pike)
Long Beach

 

Nightmare (TusenFyrd)
Vinterbro, Norway

 

Black Mamba (Phantasialand)
Brühl, Germany

 

Eejanaika (Fuji-Q Highland)
Fujiyoshida, Japan

 

Ghost Hole (RIP, Coney Island)
Brooklyn

 

Star Trek: The Experience (RIP, Las Vegas Hilton)
Las Vegas

 

The Great Movie Ride (RIP, Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
Orlando

 

Euro Mir (Europa Park)
Rust, Germany

 

Symbolica (Efteling)
Kaatsheuvel, Holland

 

Davy Jones Locker (RIP, Pacific Ocean Park)
Venice, CA

 

Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Universal’s Islands of Adventure)
Orlando

 

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Full Throttle (Magic Mountain)
Valencia, CA

 

River Quest (Phantasialand)
Brühl, Germany

 

Velocicoaster (Islands of Adventure)
Orlando

 

Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls (Islands of Adventure)
Orlando

 

Toutatis (Parc Astérix)
Plailly, France

 

Tower of Terror (Walt Disney World)
Orlando

 

Ragnarok (TusenFryd)
Vinterbro, Norway

 

Calico Mine Ride (Knott’s Berry Farm)
Buena Park, CA

 

Great Ghost Train (Prater)
Vienna

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** scunnard, Hey. I guess send it to my email. You have it, right? I’m not sure what you mean by ‘spec changed’? I’m reasonably flexible here, so if you have an ideal launch date or tight area for the launch, I can most likely accommodate it. Yes, my Gif panels are yours, and you can put them in whichever launch vehicle you like. Cool. ** Carsten, Hi, C. Uh, well, yes, the waiting for the yesses or nos is no fun. The only good thing with film festivals is they do ultimately give you an answer because they have people assigned to the ‘response’ act, unlike submitting to publishers where you might never hear back at all. No, no problems at the US airports for us, that time at least. Wow, the move is so soon. Make sure your car has enough coolant, haha. That’s exciting, man. You doing any last Germany bucket list things before you make the escape? ** Sypha, I really liked the new Anderson. But I had really liked a couple of those recent short films he made and ‘Asteroid City’ too, so it wasn’t big leap for me. Top notch, though. My very faves are still ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, ‘Life Aquatic’, and ‘Rushmore’, I think? Obviously very excellent news about the impending new book by you. Great! Excited to hear about it and then swallow it. Hooray! ** SP, I liked things on ‘IAM’ too, for sure. A friend made an edit of the album, and that’s what I tend to listen to. I’m just disappointed that he went the route of the usual rap artist with all the big name collabs and the obvious airplay chasing tracks, etc. rather than getting tighter and more daring. But hey. Ears peeled for that new one. Curious. ** Hugo, Hi. I think being entertained is enough with his stuff. ‘Dino Crisis’, no, never played them. Zac probably has. I’ll ask. How Guyotat managed to get into that mind-space and sustain it at such a high pitch in his early work is one life’s or at least lit’s great mysteries. It’s rain rain rain here. Semi-loving it since we could easily have been at 40 degrees right now. Okay, I won’t go back and try to find that email. I’ll be good. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey! First, because I spaced on emailing you, I’m launching your post on this coming Saturday. Thanks again! Rain here too. Heavy when it’s happening. If the traditional weather patterns are destined to fuck with us from here on out, I’ll take this weirdness. I still haven’t actually heard Kneecap. I’m going to rectify that. Obviously I’m on board with their politics too. ** jay, Thanks, I’m glad you got delight from Arnold’s stuff. The Tokyo horror fest rejection was kind of a fait accompli or whatever. It was just a shot in the dark because showing the film in Tokyo would be so dreamy. Excellent about the short-listing. I’m willing myself to be the Zeus of good luck if you need it. When will you know? Yeah, I would need to go back and look at the ending of the Dazai to have a thought on the last line. It’s been too long. And … I don’t seem to have a copy on hand. Very hearty reading you’re doing there. ** tom, Hi, tom! Excellence itself to meet you. Thanks much for coming inside here. Very much agree with you about Arnold’s work’s prescience. I’m lucky to have never had a really bad trip in a crowded social setting. Weird trips, for sure, but my bad ones were so bad that the merely bad ones just seem interesting by contrast. I’m pleased if Derek and I help steward you back. I’m working on a new film where one of the characters takes some old LSD from the ’60s and thinks it erases who he is but the people around him just think he’s still the same afterwards but more boring. Enjoy the hike. Where? And the role. What is it? News on a NYC screening as soon as we’ve got it locked down. Thanks again for the lustrous visit. ** julian, The artist doing the graphic novel is Sylvain Bordesoules. He has published a couple of very good graphic novels here in France. I think the plan/hope is to do the ‘God Jr’ gn in French and in English. What’s your favorite thing about San Diego? Even though I grew up just north, I haven’t spent a ton of time there, not enough to unravel its distinctive qualities. ** Uday, You made it. The blog’s weird demons lost. Yay. I don’t think RT is going to get a theater release in the US. It’s just too strange to get something like that, especially in this unadventurous time, I think. So we’ll just show it there as much as we can, and then it’ll go to streaming, I guess. It’ll get released here in France, at least. We’re looking to do Halloween screenings in the US, but nothing’s cemented yet. Fascinating reading and thinking you’re doing there. I need to up my mental game. Thanks for the bakery scented wish. You too. ** lotuseatermachine, For me it makes it more impressive, but I’m not sure I can explain why. I do prefer art that has lots of fingerprints on it. ‘Mountainhead’ is a good New Juche starting place, yes, especially amongst the books that are readily available, I think so. ** Steeqhen, Beanbag … like a chair? I most associate that word with these little bags full of dried beans that people used to (still do?) hurl at targets. They feel really good in your hand. Kind of sexy. I hope your prof + coffee suitably invigorated you. ** Diesel Clementine, Me too! Howdy! Film premiere went really great, thanks. What’s up with you? ** HaRpEr //, Really? There are people who like Pavement who don’t like Malkmus’s lyrics? That seems completely insane. I interviewed him once for a magazine and, yeah, big Ashbery fan. One of my life’s highlights was a big event at NYU held to celebrate my finishing the George Miles Cycle in 2000, and one of the events was a bunch of great musicians and artists and writers reading from my work, and Malkmus read some of my poems. Mindblowing. I have so many favorite Malkmus lyrics that I wouldn’t know where to start. You might hear back from Michael, you never know. Bu, yeah, prepare yourself that presses can take forever to respond and sometimes never do. It sucks. But it’s very worth trying, and, well, it’s the only way. I’ve looked at the door of 33, but, no, I’ve never been elite enough to be ushered in. ** Tosh Berman, Cool, I’m happy to have made the introduction. I want to see ‘Louder Than You Think.’ I’ll try to figure out a way to do that. ** Alice, Uneventful here too other than work and seeing the few friends that haven’t fled Paris on vacation. ‘Out of the Blue’ is terrific, yeah. And one of the few occasions to see the great Linda Manz in action. I don’t drink alcohol, other than barely sipping at a beer or wine in stressful social settings. It doesn’t agree with me either. I never play games with friends, in person or online. I’m a solitary player. Playing games is kind of like reading a book for me. I like to play games and get lost. I guess I have played ‘Mario Party’ a few times. Okay, that was fun. I’m happy you’re feeling creatively invigorated. I’m angling to get into that state too. It’s quiet here, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Wishes for whatever day ahead that you most, most desire. ** Darbz 🐸, Hey, D. I’ve been fine, just working my way through the summer. I did go to some galleries and museums while I was in LA, yeah, but I was mostly in SF, so I didn’t get too heavily indulge. That oOoOO video and music is really good! Thank you. Wow, that was really nice. White Ring: no, but I’ll find out what they are. Thanks for that. Boris! Cool. Anytime you have the Wain thing ready, I’m ready, Thank you yet again. I don’t put nutritional yeast on anything because I don’t have any and I never thought to do so. I’m guessing you think I won’t be sorry if I do? ** Nicholas., Fire Island … what obsesses you about it? I went there twice. It was too ultra-gay for me, but that was back in the day. The new server seems to be working so far, so I’m cool. I did not know the original guy who did STH, but I do know Billy, the guy who took it over when the original guy died and, well, who kind of let it die. I’ve never done poppers. Weird, but true. VHS cleaner … I don’t think I ever cleaned my VHS tapes either. Uh, I think there have been times when what I was writing ended up surprising me to some degree I think, yes. ** horatio, Super secret show? Pray tell once it’s no longer secret. Its funny: if you get to know Peter S — he’s a friend of mine — he’s kind of really not especially mysterious. But I think people who don’t know me think I’m mysterious too, but I’m not. Obviously. See: the post today. Barista is a totally doable job based on my many, many friends who use that method to get by. Much luckiness be yours. ** adrian, Hey there. I remember you, of course. It hasn’t been that long. And, anyway, my memory is a pretty good slave. You’re still Amsterdam, cool. I’m due a trip there, I don’t know when. It’s been ages. Maybe we can show our film there or something. Mm, I don’t know where else you can order ‘Flunker’. Hm, I’ll check and see if I can come up with anything. Sorry for the ordering issues. Lovely day to you too! Awesome to see you again! ** Okay. While the blog was down I got antsy or just self-indulgent one day and made the list up there to entertain and learn about myself. But then the other day I decided to foist it on you all. I don’t know what I expect you to do with it, but if you have favorite rides you want to share or if you have opinions or whatever on my fave rides, please come at me with them. See you tomorrow.

* (restored/expanded)

 

‘Martin Arnold has constructed a cinema machine – not simply a custom optical printer or recycling system, but a kind of mnemographic machine, an apparatus that writes and rewrites memories on the surfaces of film. Arnold’s cinema functions by incorporating exterior forces, an outside source of energy that presses upon the projected images. In turn, the machine exports text, forming a kind of open economy. …

‘Arnold’s cinema, however, is not a smooth machine. The breakdowns, short-circuits and gasps that define his cinema create a violently neurotic machine. (Neurotics, Freud reminds us, distrust their memories to a remarkable extent.) Arnold’s machine stutters and twitches from the moment it is turned on. This is due, in part, to the fact that Arnold’s cinema barely holds together under the strain of a constant tension between its elements. It is a machine that thematizes even as it reproduces the scene of its own breakdown, obsessively and compulsively.’ — Akira M. Lippit, Canyon Cinema

 

____
Stills

 

_______
Interview
from Avanto Festival

 

How did you end up making films after studying something else?

Martin Arnold: The thing is I was always interested in making films, and especially experimental films. I got interested very early because back then the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna was very active in showing all kinds of classical avant-garde works – let’s say Kubelka, Kenneth Anger, Brakhage, Michael Snow – so you really could see these things in this town. The only problem back then, and I think it’s somehow still a problem, was that the Arts Academy didn’t have any classes for film or media, so there was no chance at all to study these things so I enrolled in psychology and art history. I always made films when I was a student, smaller projects, but essentially I never really liked them that much. So then at the end I finished the studies and I thought that I would never become a film-maker because the movies were so bad! I was sad, you know, but then I came up with pièce touchée. The film worked well and from that point on I was a film-maker.

How did you develop your film-making techniques of looping and stuttering images and sound?

MA: I was interested in using single frames, and I think the film-maker who influenced me most in this approach was Peter Kubelka who was very active in giving lectures in Vienna and always insisted that film was composed of single frames, and that we should think of film in terms of single frames. So that’s how I got interested in single frames. Together with a friend, I built my own optical printer which is a tool that you can use to re-photograph single images, single stills, from an already existing film. When I started doing these things I tried all kinds of structures like running it forwards, then running it backwards, then I even inserted breaks and worked with extreme time lapse and also slow motion. So I did all kinds of things and ended up with this continuous forwards and backwards movement because I found them the most interesting. I used popular movies like B-pictures in my experiments and felt that if you break the continuum – if you jump from frame 2 to frame 12, then jump back to frame 3 and then to frame 16 – then this would insert breaks into the movement of the actors. What I found convincing in these continuous forwards and backwards movements was that I didn’t actually break the gestures of the actors, but I could somehow extend them or change them, which means that I not only got to work in a formal way, but I also got to influence the gestures and the actions that we can see in the movies, so I could command somehow what was happening in the image.

Your films feel and sound like music or miniature musicals in many senses. What is your relationship to music?

MA: I’m not sure if I have a particular relation to music. I mean, like many people of my age I’m interested in American music of the 80’s like John Zorn and the people around John Zorn. I’m also interested in hip hop, although I’m not an expert. And of course I’m also interested in all kinds of sampling strategies. Although I think in terms of my films a lot of it comes from film itself. I was always surprised to find out that running a film backwards – all of these strategies – are very old. That’s what the Lumière brothers did at the Grand Café in Paris at the time when they first showed their films. And then there’s the Len Lye movie Doing the Lambeth Walk – Nazi-Style, where he used footage from Triumph of the Will. So I think a lot of it essentially comes from film itself.

 

______
Further

Martin Arnold Official Website
Martin Arnold @ Canyon Film Cooperative
Sixpack Films
‘To Mock a Killingbird: Martin Arnold’s Passage à l’Acte and the Dissymmetries of Cultural Exchange’
Martin Arnold @ Frieze Magazine
Martin Arnold @ MUBI
‘Wrinkles in Time’: Jonathan Rosenbaum on Martin Arnold
Martin Arnold @ Senses of Cinema

 

____
14 films

Piece Touchée (1989)
‘Piece touchee (1989) is a brief exegesis of a woman reading and a man coming to visit her. This footage comes from an unidentified movie from the 1940s, and opens innocently enough with the woman sitting in a chair enjoying her book. There’s no movement at first, but this is deceptive; an almost imperceptible motion starts to happen with her hand moving slightly up and down, a sign of the slight agitation that eventually explodes as something attempts to open the door. Suddenly this homely scene takes on the feel of a horror film, with what may be a monster repeatedly, terrifyingly straining at the door. Arnold builds on this arid atmosphere of entrapment and incipient chaos to the point where a kind of vertigo sets in. In a literally dizzying sequence, Arnold introduces maniacal flash-cuts and repeatedly replays and interrupts a scene in which the camera pans across the woman rising and the man walking; this will have some viewers holding their chairs.’

 

Passsage À L’Acte (1993)
‘Passage a l’acte (1993) makes a simple breakfast scene from To Kill a Mockingbird look like a surrealist nightmare. The 1950s family is the target here. Those who know the film will recognize the characters as a father, his two kids, and a neighbor woman, but the film transforms them into a crazed version of the postwar family. While “Mother” sits with a frozen smile and Father (Gregory Peck) reads the paper, sonny boy gets up from the table and opens and closes the screen door repeatedly. The slamming of the door sounds like gunfire, hinting at an unnamed aggression occurring somewhere just outside this sacred space of the ’50s home and perhaps at disturbing forces at work within this family. Arnold’s exploitation of these characters is pitiless; like an evil puppeteer he repeats a shot of Gregory Peck screaming words and parts of words to stultifying effect, while the son twitches back and forth with some unknowable frustration and the daughter makes gutteral noises that attain a kind of robot rhythm.’

 

Don’t (1996)
‘Commissioned for the 100 years of Cinema celebrations in Vienna.’

 

Viennale Trailer: Psycho (1997)
‘Martin Arnold has adopted a fragment from the shower scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary thriller PSYCHO, rendering and composing it anew with the possibilities of digital retouching. The result is a short yet intense piece of contemporary aesthetics. Devoted mainly to density and omission, it visualizes the cinematic narrative on all its levels as a cinematographic and aesthetic mise en scène. Simultaneously, it reveals that a resolving adaptation of traditional cinematic forms can also create suspense, excitement and pleasure.’

 

Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (1998)
‘In Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (1998), Arnold stitches together a strange sexual scenario from three of the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney vehicles. In the opening scenes, Andy embraces his aging mother, but subtle repetitions give this homespun scene an unexpected erotic charge. Arnold brazenly rechoreographs Andy’s movements to make it appear he’s humping the old gal from behind. Meanwhile Judy is singing in another room, but it’s no ordinary song. She’s made to emit disturbing “peeping” noises, sing backwards, and lingers on phrases like a stuck record: “There must be someone waiting … waiting … waiting … waiting …” The effect is both comic and chilling, as she stands pathetically with outstretched arms waiting for Mickey, who, perhaps because he’s just left his mother’s bed, never quite connects with poor, frustrated Judy.’ — Gary Morris, Bright Lights Cinema

 

Deanimated (2002)
‘In Deanimated (2002), Martin Arnold subjects a legendary American horror movie of 1941 to radical cinematographic surgery. Actors disappear thanks to digital technology, leaving the cinematic space to become the actual leading actor in a precise and absurdly comical new interpretation. Arnold transforms the original movie The Invisible Ghost, in which a wife hypnotises her husband into a murder plot, into a study in the increasing disintegration of actor movies; at its close the camera’s eye wanders through sets devoid of human life where the lights literally seem to have gone out. Death becomes, in Deanimated, the fury of disappearence which gives witness to an “unbearable transition beyond existence” (Georges Bataille). The madness has been inscribed into the faces. The ecstasy of effacement, the annihilation of being, the hypostatisation of the inorganic, the searching glance, which no longer meets with any species of recognition – those are the relays which prepare the transition to a catatonic rigidity.’ — Thomas Miessgang

 

Shadow Cuts (2010)
‘Martin Arnold directs his deconstructive impulses to the heritage of Walt Disney. The resultis a neurotic re-animation that comes to life in the darkness between images, where the viewer meets his dreams and demons. How much do we miss when we blink our eyes? Intense repetition and subtle variations evoke surprising nuances from existing film material. Through a stroboscopic effect, Mickey and Pluto seem to have become involved in a veritable flashing light relationship.’ — Viennale

Watch an excerpt here

 

Soft Palate (2010)
‘SOFT PALATE is a neurotic re-animation of Mickey Mouse and Pluto that comes to life as Mickey’s sleeping body rhythmically builds out of the darkness one body part at a time.’ — CineCity

Watch an excerpt here

 

Haunted House (2011)
‘The frames of a 40’s cartoon film are dispersed into their original graphic elements by means of digital de- and reanimation, the character in the foreground as well as the house behind it. Mental connections to Freud and Lacan are most welcome.’ — MUBI

Watch an excerpt here

 

Tooth Eruption (2013)
‘Recomposing teeth gestures.’ — TMDB

Watch an excerpt here

 

Whistle Stop (2014)
‘Daffy Duck is caught in an animation loop. Martin Arnold dissects the industrial animated film production with its extreme division of labour, where body parts of the characters are isolated on different cels and moved separately, in loops and outside their habitat, separated from the background. Daffy’s beak wiggles, his wing hands flutter in the black void.’ — André Eckardt

Watch an excerpt here

 

Full Rehearsal (2017)
‘Arnold seems to discover psychoanalytic underbellies in the most popular form of post-war family entertainment, animation, and its most iconic characters.’ — Letterboxd

 

Background Check (2020)
‘In my blackouts you can still see cats twitching, mice spitting, and Marilyn looking down from the starry sky. In English we speak of events taking up space (“take place”), but what happens when the space is not a place, so to speak, but an empty space? A black hole.’ — Martin Arnold

Watch an excerpt here

 

Fluids (2022)
‘What does it mean when the background is no longer visible? What does a background erasure mean compared to a free-form select of the foreground? And is there a complete erasure of the background at all, or are traces always left behind that can at least be guessed at?’ — Martin Arnold

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** jay, Hi, jay! Thanks, cool to be back in this form. RT has been received very well so far, thank you. The Japanese horror festival said no. It’s not ‘horror’ really. We’re waiting to hear back from some European festivals. Hopefully news soon. There are some North American screenings that I’ll announce soon. Yay and no surprise about HaRpEr’s dissertation! How are you? What’s the newest on your fronts? ** horatio, Hey. Welcome back to us all! What’s the job? Fingers crossed and then doubly crossed for us both re: MIX NYC. Great about your art book project initiation. Peter S. treasures being mysterious about what he’s up to. Understandably, I guess. I suppose I’m interested in taking his work at face value. Its complications don’t seem difficult to access with close attention. Not sure about the political aspect. I know he’s into Andrea Dworkin, so there’s that, but people are so hellbent on looking for ways to legitimise their interest in his work, and I think there’s a fair amount of self-protective speculating going on. Curious to see where you land. I’ll find that podcast, thanks. Haha, thank you for drawing me, and of course I’m honored by its manner of destruction. Happy to support your film as best I can, of course. Have a wonderful today and beyond. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, B. I’ll write to you today about your post. We’re being really lucky on the summer heat front so far. It’s refreshingly rainy and dreary out today. I hope your blast is waning. ** Charalampos, We’re back, yeah. Thanks! Good to see you, natch. ** Jack Skelley, Great to see you last night my time. Apologies for the ‘Rashomon’ kvetching. Or any ill effect, I mean. I hope your daughter is rising to her feet as I type. ** julian, Hi, julian. Ditto. Thank you so much about ‘God Jr.’. It’s being transformed into a graphic novel right now, and I’m so curious to see what happens to it. I’m sure there’s some theme park/haunt influence in there, or as filtered and translated by the video game, which is a not dissimilar form, just with the added plus of being holographic, I think. Thank, pal. You good? ** Tosh Berman, Hi, T. Haha, no, I can’t possibly imagine our films being in-flight entertainment, wow. People do watch ‘serious’ if a lot more conventionally built films on planes and seem to get things out of them, so maybe? I watched the rather odious ‘Oppenheimer’ on my last flight, only because it was a time-eater, and I had no problem seeing everything that was wrong wth it. I love watching squished blockbusters where they’re robbed of the overblown spectacle aspect. They become almost purely mechanical, which is a boon because their machinations are the only aspect about them that interest me. Great to see you, bud. ** Carsten, Thank you, the beauty goes both ways. I know of Roadside Press, Driftwood Press, and Serving House Books but not well enough to have a bead on what they do. Great luck with the submissions! We’re in that phase with our film and, boy, it’s no fun. ** Steve, Hey! May the new server stay un-full. I saw about those floods, crazy. We’re between heatwaves here unless we get really lucky and the summer is as mild as summers used to be over here. Yeah, same about the Playboi Carti. I hope he learned his lesson, which I guess means I hope the new album is not a giant hit. ** Chris Kelso, The 22nd, that’s tomorrow! All the luck you need. Once you’ve shot a film and get what the process is like and so on, that aspect gets easier. Our films have gotten increasingly ambitious, so there are always new good and bad things that pop up. But I love shooting a film, it’s great. And the casting and the editing, etc. It’s just the fundraising and then trying to give the film a life out in the very restrictive world that films have to live in: festivals, screenings, eventual streaming if you’re lucky. Books are so much easier. Anyway, blabla, have an amazing first shooting day! ** Hugo, Hi! Pere Lachaise has a lot more going on for it than the catacombs, so wise choice. I thought the last hour of ‘Jurassic World’ was efficient, mindless fun. The first 90 minutes of character and plot development was kind of a drag. Zac is obsessed with dinosaurs and has much higher standards for these kinds of things, and he hated it. You’d have to ask him why though. Great luck with your new work! Nose to the grindstone and all of that. ** PL, Oh, right, Twitter’s censoriousness. I like that story. Incest is an interesting fetish, or its grip on its adherents is interesting. I’d have to think about a voyeur story. No doubt, but I’m blanking. Hope you’re doing well too. Sounds like it. ** Bill, Hey!!! Trip back was bad movie-filled and basically uneventful. I had the weakest jetlag I can remember having, mysteriously. That was the best part. Nice about the gig. Where are you traveling to? Ah, urgh, about Crossroads. So subjective, that stuff. If I come across any interesting festivals in my festival hunting, I’ll pass them on. ** Dominick, Hi!!!! The festival was good, fun. RT went over really well, differently than it had at the premiere. The audience seemed to get more emotionally involved in the queer imbedded storyline, which was interesting and I guess not a surprise since it was a queer festival. I’m good. I’m still heavily involved in trying to get the film shown all over the place and finishing the script for the next film. All film, basically, and that will be the case for a while. It’s nice when ordinariness is a plus. I know how that is. Oh, you’re off! Enjoy the trip and your fam. I hope love jiggled your sleeping brain cells awake. Love explaining exactly how intelligent or not bunny rabbits are, G. ** scunnard, Hi, J. I’m fine. Just busy with film stuff as seemingly always. Great about the showcase. And about Jonathan interviewing you. Say hi to him for me. I miss that guy. ** Audrey, Yes indeed, I still remember you. You’re highly memorable. Good to see you! You’re here. Yeah, maybe we can meet up. Give me a shout with your schedule, etc. You have my email? denniscoopere72@outlook.com. Sorry about the rain, but it’s better than a heatwave, trust me. Thank you about LCTG. We’d love to show RT in Seattle. I’ll see what’s possible. I do like Silver Jews, yes, and I agree about Berman. He’s pretty incredible. I did see ‘Pavements’. I really enjoyed it while thinking parts weren’t so successful, but I love Pavement so much that I was blissed to watch it. Giant congratulations on finally being able to start hrt! I think everyone I know has had a really good experience when starting hrt. It should be very interesting and maybe physically strange a bit at first, or so I hear, but that’s so great. I’m very happy to see you, and, yeah, if I don’t see you in person I hope to see you back here asap. Love, me. ** HaRpEr //, Hey. The director gave Zac and me a file of ‘Castration Movie’. I’m just waiting for the free several hours to watch it. I agree with you about ‘Pavements’. They’re so fucking great. I just love them. And Malkmus’s writing was so on fire. I don’t know the situation, of course, but crashing at your parents’ place might be a stabilising thing right now? If that relieves you of the stress of job hunting, that’s big in and of itself. I’m not 100% sure, but I think Michael Salerno isn’t going to publish Kiddiepunk books anymore. But wait and see because he is a bit mercurial. Excellent about the work in progress. Classic books: I actually think Kathy A using ‘Great Expectations’ made for one of the best titles ever. ** Good Old Gee, Hey there! So nice to see you, pal. I’m good, busy with the RT rollout, and good. Mildish summer so far here, whew. Apart from some little trips for film screenings, I should be here most of the summer if you come. Love back, and kisses too, me. ** rewritedept, See the dentist as soon as you can. Teeth can be connected to the brain and stuff. I hate dentists too, but it’s never as awful as you think, I think. I’ve heard of Tropical Fuck Storm, but that’s it. I’ll investigate. Aster: I liked ‘Beau is Afraid’. The earlier ones I liked but wasn’t in love with. Great day to you too! ** Alice, Hi. Loveliness seeing you on my end too. Pere Lachaise is, yeah, kind of divine. I’ve hit it up numerous times, to wander and even for one funeral. Mm, no stories related other than not being able to find some famous grave I was told was there. I can’t remember whose. I’m happy you found After8 helpful, and S&Co is a swell place to be inside, for sure. Apart from the reading, what’s up with you. Not that reading such books isn’t more than enough. ** Steeqhen, And ditto. I thought about seeing Charli, but it was too expensive and then it was sold out. But the film distributor that’s releasing RT here is releasing a documentary about her next month, so I’ll see that at least. I keep a kind of really basic organiser thing where I note upcoming things and things I do on eventful days. It is real helpful. 7038634357 is great. Fantastic that he/they are playing there. I wonder if he/they are coming over here. Huh. Really great person too. Thanks for the list. I don’t know a bunch of them. I’ll search around. ** Sypha, Haha, well, I mean, your love of Gaga is not news exactly is what I meant. But interesting to hear she remains imperfect. Hey, my abiding GbV love is not exactly a secret, is it? Indeed: Wes for your birthday. You good? Writing? ** Gallows Fruit, My total and great pleasure, Joe. It seemed to go really well. Thank you, buddy. ** Right. Today I have revived my blog’s Day concerning the singular and amazing and crazy-making filmmaker Martin Arnold for y’all. Have as much fun as you can. See you tomorrow.