* (restored)

Think martial arts and a hundred Bruce Lee films spring to mind. Martial arts means the Far East, right? Wrong. There’s an elegant, deadly and very French system of foot-fighting which has nothing to do with Hong Kong or Thailand. Born on the rough, port-city streets of eightteenth century Marseilles in southern France, picked up by the fencing upper-classes (to this day, matches commence with an ‘en garde!’ from the referee) who combined what started as various vicious kicks and open-handed slaps (very French, eh?) with Marquess of Queensbury rules English boxing thus introducing the closed fist and it’s now practised by the Foreign Legion and is the French national sport (yes, we all thought that was shopping, I know).

And it’s called “Savate (pronounced sa-vat) Boxe Francaise”.

 

So what is it? And why the big long title? Like I said, it’s basically two things. The boxe francaise bit is fairly self-explanatory: French boxing. The Savate bit is more obscure and for me, a lot more interesting. It’s foot-fighting or “fencing with the foot.”

 

The term savate is one of those French words which translates weirdly. Literally, it means ‘old shoe’ or boot. So far so helpful, right? There’s a couple of schools of thought on the derivation here. Like, it conjures up the rough street hoodlums – boot-boys? – and brawling sailors who initially practised foot-fighting in working-class Southern France. Other people say it’s an ironic reference, stemming from the idea that the oldest shoe can still deliver the most vicious kick. But whatever its actual source, savate is street-fighting – perhaps even on-board ship-fighting, since there’s a theory suggestion its open-fistedness stems from the fact seamen practitioners had to keep their hands open and free to grab onto something and thus stablise themselves should their vessel roll in heavy seas.

 

NB ‘chausson’, as used in the above depiction, is a term for the slipper-type footwear apparently worn by eighteenth and nineteenth century French sailors.

 

So what’s so special about Savate?

Where other fighting systems focus on speed, power and the athleticism of those involved, Savate favours accuracy of target and includes a lot of low kicks – to the shin, the side of the knee, the back of the knee, the front of the thigh. Blows to these areas are subtle yet completely disabling: you sweep the inside of your foot against your opponents, you may not injure him but you do knock him down as effectively as with any punch.

Not only are these kicks deadly accurate, they have great French names:-

A fouette (foo – ett – ey) is a whip-like kick, executed with the point of the foot and used to target specific areas e.g the side of the knee. And here it is in action:-

 

A coup de pied bas (coo di pyay bah) is a low sweeping kick, executed with the side of the foot to the opponent’s shin or ankle – designed to literally sweep the foot from under him. I could find no footage of this kick anywhere which may imply a fall in popularity – it does look a bit weird and feels awkward to execute. Still, it’s a shame cos the sweep-kick is so characteristic of savate and so effective.

 

A chasse (cha – say) is a side-kick, delivered with the sole of the foot to a low, medium or high target. Yeah, kicking your opponent in the head is always impressive, but step out with your right foot and deliver a chasse with your left to the back of an opponent’s calf and instant dead leg. Voila!

 

Despite the fact that the modern sport of Savate Boxe Francaise does now incorporate traditional English-style boxing, its foot-fencing aspect remains dominant: one of the savateurs’ favourite kicks – a revers frontale – involves knocking down an opponent’s gloves. Get his hand out of the way and he can’t protect his face. And this is what it looks like in action:-

 

The guy in his underwear who looks like Charlie Chaplin in this 1899 photo is Charles Charlemont. His anti-clockwise revers frontale is going to smash through his opponent’s left-hand guard. And look at Charlie’s his own hands. This is signature savate: one arm held out and curved upwards for balance, the other protecting the chest and mid-section. Practical, functional and so damn elegant. By the way, they dropped the long underwear, but competitive savatuers now wear rather fetching full-length lycra unitards.

They look like a pair of French poofs, I hear you say?

Have a look at this lot:-

 

This one’s just a wee taster.

So why do I like savate? It’s a great combination of the elegant and the completely scrappy – a real product of its roots. And I like that it got those two almost diametrically opposed sources: the contained grace of fencing and the full-on Marseilles street-brawling. It’s bouncy, almost like dancing. It’s a great cardo-vascular work-out. And it’s a bloody effective self-defence tool.

I did Savate for five years. I trained, amongst others, with the guy leaping into the air below – Salem Assli, who originally played football, of all things. I didn’t compete but I sparred and still have my ring licence. I did my shoulder in while training don’t do it any more, but I dunno: it still just presses my buttons. And I hope it presses yours.

 

 

Here’s a variety of links:-

This is footage from the 2007 European Assault championships in Belgium. ‘Assault’ denotes an emphasis is on form, technique and accuracy.

 

‘Combat’ savate is, as the name implies, the ring sport. You can have a look at the 2007 World Combat Savate championships here:-

 

In this one, the foot-fencing aspect is really distinctive, eh?

 

This shows both assault and combat savate – just to prove it can be lethal, despite the spandex and the bouncing around, check out the guy writhing on the ground:)

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David, Hi. Kristen said to thank you, well, everyone actually, you included, for your great responses to her show. You may just win Xmas if you keep celebrating like that. So sorry you’re feeling shit. It is that time of year. I’d siphon off some of my solid enough health for you, but, hey, don’t have a clue how to. Drat. ** _Black_Acrylic, Awesome, thanks for the Guardian link. You know I’m like a duck to that water or like a lamb to that slaughter or something like that. I sure hope you guys get a Xmas fair disaster this year. I haven’t come across one yet. How’d the writing go? Be patient with yourself, if you need to hear that. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Your heart probably feels warm because SCAB makes my heart so hot it radiates. A drama queen dachshund, nice. I suppose that can get angsty, but it’s pretty like a cartoon. Have fun with Anita today! I’ll keep the blog fluffed up for you until your return. Love in the form of a 17 year old Emo boy who stops you on the street and says, ‘Szeretem a kedves embereket. Az utóbbi időben túl sok volt a negativitás, a stressz, az aggodalom. Csak pár kedves szóra, és egy kis szeretetre vágyok, amelyet egy ideje ritkán kaptam meg… ennek ellenére nem vagyok kiéhezve a szexre, nem is keresek szexet. Csak fontos szeretnék lenni valakinek,’, G. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. It’s not? When I think of Todd considering subject matter, Peggy Lee is not the first thing that comes to mind, but of course I don’t know him. I’m liking your take on Mr. Christ. I’m in the ‘he never existed’ camp. ** Misanthrope, You’re right! Well, aces to you on your fix-it-up skills, man. Me, I dread the arrival of spring every year around this time. I like to shiver in modest volumes. ** T, Hi. I don’t know who came with the term ‘torrent’, but it’s a goodie. It has the exciting rushing implication, but it’s also little scary sounding, which is appropriate. Something that might help your fiction! That’s my blog’s ultimate life dream. I think I’ll go for gallery-goer for my Tuesday, just to be safe. I hope your Tuesday goes all savate on your Monday. xo. ** Jeff J, Hi, Jeff. Oops. I sure wish I or at least my hosting site understood why that delay happens because it’s just so annoying. Yeah, I’ve been into Mike DeCapite’s stuff since the 80s. He used to be tight with Richard Hell, and Richard was a big supporter and got me into his writing. He also contributed a lot to Richard’s zine ‘Cuz’ as did I, so we shared space. A nostalgia exercise? In what sense? I mean I’m sure people are buying it out of nostalgia, but I think the work itself is strong, and it has the genius they always did in an expectedly steadier, older place. It reminds in a way of that first Steely Dan reunion album ‘Two Against Nature’, which has the fundamental great qualities they had in their heyday with a certain knowingness or becalmed inner voice or something that’s less fiery but still works impressively. Thank you so much about ‘IW’. I’m glad you liked the Fleur Jaeggy. I totally spaced or it would’ve been in my list. She’s been a great find. I don’t know that Rone Shavers book, I will definitely seek it. That sounds quite exciting. Yeah, I’ll bet that Hemphill boxset is really something. Thanks, man. You good? Writing? ** Steve Erickson, Ah, the magic of Facebook, ha ha. Yes, the Dumont is really good, isn’t it? I was very wary based on the trailer, but, as so often, the trailer was the distributor’s money seeking distortion. Ha ha, yes, Macron often seems like a stand up comic doing a Macron impersonation, but without the laughs. He is not the world’s most sincere person, let’s just say that. ** Bill, Glad a few broke through. I’m making my way into the music, and, yes, so far I’m liking it all. Thank you again! ** Brian, Hi, Brian. As I said up above, Kristen (via me) thanks you/everyone for liking her show. I assume it’s the long, full length ‘Ludwig’, yes? It’s something. Wow, well, I hope you like ‘PGL’. Thanks for having it in your paws. Oh, man, strep, no fun, I hope it stays locked within him, poor him. Most people I know who’ve gotten the booster felt little to nothing, but a few have gotten whomped, albeit briefly. I’m about to schedule mine, but I’m trying to make sure I don’t have much to do the following day or so. I am kind of in a tunnel, so thank you. I hope you’re now boosted in only and every sense of that word. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark! I don’t think I know Claire Rousay’s stuff? I’m not sure. I’ll investigate. Thank you. So excited about what you’re working on, so naturally. And very nice about the new friend. I’ve become good friends recently with this young guy who I think will play the main role in Zac’s and my new film. He’s great, and that’s been boon in these days, so high five that front. Take care, my bud. ** Okay. Today I thought I’d give you a kind of change of pace and restore this quite old post by a beloved and long lost d.l. of this place, Jax. See you tomorrow.

 

Lyota Yagi
Sylvie Fleury
Kohei Nawa
Wim Delvoye
Mark Neville
Chu Yun
Carson Fox
Christian Lemmerz
Elmgreen & Dragset
Chen Hangfeng
THE KID
Tavares Strachan
Roman Signer
Debbie Reichard
Jessine Hein
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
David Marx
William Eggleston
Erick Swenson
Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz
Ma Qiusha
Arcangelo Sassolino
Jacques Flechemuller
Klara Lidén
GameGrumps
Chen Wenling
Norton Maza
Alison Moritsugu
Andy Mattern
Low
Cameron Jamie
Lutz Bacher
Makoto Azuma
Chuck Ramirez
Liz Magor
Philippe Parreno

 

___________
Lyota Yagi Vinyl (2005 – 2008)
Vinyl plays the melody of ‘Moon River’ (Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini) sang by Audrey Hepburn, on a record player from a record made of ice created with a silicon mould. In this small action the format dissolves at the same time it is reproduced, partly from the ambient temperature and partly from the friction generated by its proper process of reproduction. The music it produces is distorted until it is no longer recognisable, in the same way the record gradually loses its form and properties while it melts.

 

____________
Sylvie Fleury Here comes Santa (2003)
In her Xmas video, Here comes Santa, Fleury relentlessly smashes Xmas balls. The spiky heels explode hundreds of mirrored spheres reflecting everything that’s around and revealing their desperately empty center.

 

____________
Kohei Nawa Foam (2014)
‘Kohei Nawa used a mixture of detergent, glycerin and water to create the bubbly forms of his installation, entitled Foam. The large cloud-like forms were pumped up from the floor in eight different locations, creating a scene that was constantly in motion inside an otherwise black room. The artist experimented with different quantities of the three ingredients to create a foam stiff enough to hold a shape without being affected by gravity. “Small cells bubble up ceaselessly with the slight oscillations of a liquid,” said Nawa, explaining the process. “The cells gather together, totally covering the liquid as they spontaneously form a foam, an organically structured conglomeration of cells.”‘

 

____________
Wim Delvoye Twisted Jesus Clockwise (2012)
‘Delvoye brings together different styles from art history, primarily from the local tradition of Gothic and Rococo in a contemporary version. This is how his series of twisted sculptures function, made in bronze or silver, in which the body of Christ is rotated around an elliptical cross. The supporting cross sculptures are cast in different forms: circles, infinite Möbius bands or, as in the work presented here, in the form of a DNA double helix.’

 

____________
Mark Neville Child, Jacket, Slaughtered Goat, Sweets, Painted Nails, Xmas Day, Helmand (2010) & Town Hall Xmas Party 1, 2 (2005)

 

____________
Chu Yun Sleeping with Sleeping Pills (2009)
‘Normally you have to crush it and put it in their drinks when they’re not looking, but artist Chu Yun is offering to pay local women to take a sleeping pill and crawl into bed for six hours. Per the job application, participants must be between 18 and 40 years of age, and willing to come to the museum, “consume a sleeping aid, get into a bed installed in the exhibition space, and sleep as many consecutive hours as possible”.’

 

____________
Carson Fox Iceberg Room (2016)
Fox uses her art to subvert the inevitability of time and temperature by playing God- she wants icebergs that will never melt, so she molds them from resin and holds on to them forever.

 

___________
Christian Lemmerz Judas Christ (2010)

 

____________
Elmgreen & Dragset Christmas in July (2010)

 

___________
Chen Hangfeng All that glitters … (2003)
Shanghai based artist Chen Hangfeng embarked on a trip to discover a unique village along the Mei Creek which is steeped in history and now produces more than 50% of China’s Christmas exports.All of them are handmade; some of the ornaments are designed and improvised by the villagers themselves, and most of the tools they use to make these Christmas ornaments are farming related objects. Cleverly they have managed to mix and match various farming tools together to work perfectly for Christmas decoration production.

 

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THE KID Do You Believe in God? (2013)
Half-Dutch, half-Brazilian, THE KID (1991) is a self-educated contemporary artist who questions restlessly since his early teenage years the notion of social determinism and the thin frontier between innocence and corruption.

 

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Tavares Strachan Me and You (North Pole Ice and Cloned North Pole Ice) (2016)
Bahamas-based artist Strachan brought back a chunk of ice from the North Pole and had MIT scientists create a clone of the ice with its identical chemical composition.

 

____________
Roman Signer Room with Christmas Tree (2010)
Roman Signer presents one of his “action sculptures” Zimmer mit Weihnachts Christmas Tree (Room with Christmas Tree) (2010), a decorated tree spinning on a motor that causes its ornaments to fly off and smash against the walls.

 

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Debbie Reichard Santa Appears in Toast (2006)

 

____________
Jessine Hein The Teeth of Jesus (2015)

 

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Mierle Laderman Ukeles Snow Workers Ballet 2012 (2012)
‘Echigo-Tsumari is one of the regions in Japan known for heavy snowfall. Snow covers the entire city in winter, preventing people and cars from moving around. Snowploughs steadily support the community, starting work at three o’clock in the morning in winter when everyone is still fast asleep, clearing snow from streets by around seven, before everyone else’s day begins.

‘Mierle Laderman Ukeles from Denver in Colorado in the U.S.A, visited Echigo-Tsumari in summer for the first time. Her project was an unprecedented performance, Snowploughs dancing to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. She cast thirteen snowploughs, including tyre dozers with gigantic blades for clearing snow from the street, rotaries for blowing off snow, and graders leveling piled up snow in order, to express the vigor of the people who live in the harsh natural environment.

‘“I suggested to the snow workers eight movements, comprising opening; rolling; “Romeo and Juliet”; spiral; zigzag; compliment to the audience; long diagonal line; and the grand finale. I refused to plan in advance. Despite a potential risk, I was certain that I would succeed by working with snow workers.” The performance in 2003 was staged once only and became legendary amongst local people as well as visitors to the festival. It was restaged for three days as the “Snow Workers Ballet 2012” in summer in 2012 nine years later, bringing the artist and snow workers together again.’

 

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David Marx Kyl21 (2015 – 2016)
After three years in development, designer David Marx is debuting Kyl21, a vegan-friendly, alcohol-infused line of popsicles intended for adult partygoers. Marx’s icy invention is the result of a collaboration with university scientists, a three-star chef, and a manufacturer of industrial nitrogen machinery with the goal of completely reinventing the form, function, and flavor of freezer pops. “In order to shape ice cream in such a unique and exact way, an ultra-fast production process had to be developed,” says Marx. This involved creating new multi-part molds that could handle the tight tolerances that the designs demand, developing custom alloys with high levels of thermal conductivity, and creating a flash-freezing process for the liquid to prevent expansion.

 

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William Eggleston various

 

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Erick Swenson Untitled (2004)

 

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Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz Alone (2013)

 

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Ma Qiusha from Warm Snow (2008)
Ma Qiusha’s 2008 work is like a momentary shelter for adults that soon vanishes.

 

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Arcangelo Sassolino Figurante (2010)
Steel, bone, hydraulic system, 29 ½ x 26 3/8 x 9 1/16 inches (head).

 

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Jacques Flechemuller various
Jacques Flechemuller moved to Paris, with his family, early in life. It was here he first became aware of art through the monthly calendars that were given out by the local post office. Everyone had calendars with images of kittens, puppies and happy family settings hanging in their kitchen. He looked forward to each new month and its accompanying image with blissful anticipation. This was the foundation for his awareness in the power of art to elicit pure joy. When it was made evident to him that these images, in fact, were not art, he was devastated.

 

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Klara Liden from Pretty Vacant (2012)
You enter Klara Liden’s portentous cemetery of trees and wintry imminence through a small door in a police-barricade-blue plywood wall. Immediately inside, you’re confronted with the startling sight of a space filled with discarded Christmas trees, all scooped up from the sidewalks of New York by Liden and her cohorts. A disruption of the senses comes, thoughts of the Brothers Grimm, the foreboding of forests, inchoate uneasiness. You see only a few feet in front of you. Still, there’s space enough between the trees to proceed. Make your own way in, push trees aside, slide through. To where? It’s too much of a conceit to be Dante’s Wood of the Suicides, where spirits of the self-destroyed speak only when wounded. Yet walking in Liden’s wood makes branches break and needles fall. The floor is wet with water spilled from tree stands and buckets. The air is cool; the windows may be open. A gray mist seems to rise with the pine smell as pungent and out of place as a taxicab air freshener’s.

 

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GameGrumps Rust: Christmas Carols (2014)
Rust is a multiplayer-only survival video game in development by Facepunch Studios for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. Rust was originally released onto Steam’s Early Access program on 11 December 2013. Rust was initially created as a clone of DayZ, a popular mod for ARMA 2 with the addition of crafting elements.

 

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Alison Moritsugu Logs (1998 – 2001)
In her log paintings, artist Alison Moritsugu chooses a literal meataphor—the remains of downed trees—as a canvas for her bucolic oil paintings of the countryside where that very tree may have once originated. The rough edges of the cut branches and trunks appear like windows into the past, telling a story that the tree’s rings alone cannot.

 

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Unknown 3 Xmas trees (?)

 

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Chen Wenling Cold (Red Memory) (2007)
The “Red Boy” is welcomed by Xiamen residents. “Red Memory” made Chen Wenling famous. It is show that Chen Wenling only regards the creation as the expression of his life originally. In that sterile world, the emaciated bean sprout like boys, may be are in hypoalimentation but they also have their own joy and sorrow. One exhibition of those boys held on the Beach of Xiamen Sea. With the sunshine, the beach, and the waves, some red boys diving into the sea, some cold to tremble with their arms circled, and some brave boys are handstand happily, and some feel shamed, covering their little genitals with hands.

 

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Norton Maza Untitled (2013)
A sculpture made by Chilean artist Norton Maza is displayed in an exhibition called “The Landscape and its Kingdoms” at the Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago October 2, 2013. The exhibition strives to portray Jesus Christ besieged by missile air strikes.

 

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Andy Mattern Driven Snow (2011)
Driven Snow is a series of photographs that focuses on the chunks of snow and ice that accumulate under cars during the Minnesota winter. A byproduct of weather and urban transit, these solid formations are a kind of temporary automatic sculpture somewhere between natural and human made.

 

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Low If You Were Born Today (Song for Little Baby Jesus)
If you were born today / We’d kill you by age eight: “If You Were Born Today (Song For Little Baby Jesus)” is a 7″ single by Duluth, Minnesota slowcore group Low, released in 1997. The song appears on their EP Christmas.

 

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Cameron Jamie Kranky Klaus (2003)
Kranky Klaus forms part of a series of documentaries in which Cameron Jamie records European and American folk rituals. To his amazement, the director found out that while the Western established order of art may make room for an extensive examination of the folklore and ritual heritage of former colonies, the own history is being neglected. Kranky Klaus is in its form an ‘objective’ registration, although it often comes about in the middle of the action, of the so-called Krampus ritual in Austria. Men in hairy suits with large teeth and imposing antlers go from door to door around Christmas to chase and attack people as Krampus demons. They are in the company of a Saint-Nicolas-like figure who then calms the people down. The ritual dates back to heathen pre-Christian customs that preceded today’s less aggressive but totally commercialised Christmas activities. Krampus forms a kind of strange combination of Christmas and Halloween. To his observations of this striking annual phenomenon, Jamie adds a soundtrack by The Melvins, the controversial rock band from the Seattle area. Their long and loud chords put the typically Austrian event in a very electronic frame that has nothing to do with Christmas, but refers to an American street culture that also has its own rules.

 

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Lutz Bacher Snow / Hands (2012)

 

____________
Makoto Azuma Iced Flowers (2015)
The self-described botanic artist Makoto Azuma is trying to change the way we look at flowers. He’s used water and the stratosphere as backdrops for his exotic flower arrangements but now he’s experimenting with ice. In his latest exhibition “Iced Flowers,” Azuma locks floral bouquets in large blocks of ice and displays them like pillars. Placed in an inorganic chamber, the “flowers will show unique expressions that they do not display in everyday life,” says Azuma. The installation, held last week in Japan, was temporary by nature but the artist made sure to preserve the images.

 

_______________
Chuck Ramirez Eight Christmas Trees (1995)
‘With this display, Ramirez, the artist poses the question: Where is the line between decorative and fine art?”’

 

______________
Liz Magor Deer Eats a Gorilla (2004)
‘From the mental and physical contexts of retail consumerism to the spaces of the museum to the private, interior worlds of addiction and desire, Magor’s oeuvre has consistently combined a high level of conceptual and procedural rigor with the intense investigation of materials, ranging from twigs and textiles to rubber and polymerized gypsum.’

 

______________
Philippe Parreno Iceman in Reality Park (1995)
‘Iceman in Reality Park is another work in the exhibition, a manifestation originally created for the 1995 group show Ripple Across the Water in Tokyo. The work reappears twenty-five years later. The ice sculpture of a snowman is displayed on a plinth and melts over the course of a few days. It leaves behind the stones that were once embedded in the ice. The amplified sound of dripping water echoes throughout the exhibition space.’

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. You eagle-eyed longer term blog visitors may remember an excellent galerie show that Kristen Schull put together for us a couple of years ago. Happily, she has made a triumphant return to guest-curator duties to make us a new show for Xmas, and it’s killer. Wander about and check out the display today, please, and direct some feedback to its organiser if you don’t mind, and thank you a million, Kristen! ** David, Nah, I just dropped it and positioned it with my foot. Gee, thanks for wanting to Xmas card me. No one will believe I put you up to murder. Everyone knows by now that I’m a sheep in wolf attire. Thanks, the weekend wasn’t bad, and yours too, I reckon. ** _Black_Acrylic, No brainer pick, maestro. I need to read the Warner and Keenan. Noted. Thank you, my friend. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Aw, thanks. Peggy Lee? Seriously? That’s something to think about, if true. Weird, whoa. ** wolf, Wolfie! Needless to say I’m grinning ear to ear to see not one but two GbVs in there. I kept it to one merely out of discretion, although, psst, Cub Scout Bowling Pins is GbV under a pseudonym. Great list! That Floating Points thing would have been in my list if I hadn’t spaced out. Anyway, there’s a big handful of stuff on yours I haven’t yet creased with my ears, so I’ll get on that. I hope your week is starting with a roar. Love, me. ** Dominik, Hi!!!! Well, naturally, re: SCAB. Where would the year have been without it? Answer: nowhere. Thank you for your lists. I actually know almost all of them, which is super rare. Like minds? Don’t tell me you actually have a dachshund unless you already did and I forgot. Aw, either way. May he win the Golden Globe too. Love going back in time and causing Robert Plant to fail his audition to be Led Zeppelin’s singer, G. ** Sypha, Hi, James. I haven’t read a healthy potion of your fave books, no surprise, but maybe I just will before the grim reaper pops around. When I finally start playing video games again, ‘Twelve Minutes’ will be on my shopping list. ** Tosh Berman, Hi. Oh, well, ML-H does not come off well in ‘Get Back’, but I believe you. Aw, thank you, about ‘IW’. I need to read the Jones and Ellis books. I’m doing a podcast tonight that Ellis was recently on, and, boy, is he a talker. Dude, if I didn’t have art, fuck knows what would have happened this year. I.e., I hear you bro. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. So … is David’s car right as rain then? We’re supposed to get up to 48 degrees F here today, but it sure doesn’t feel like it so far. Brr. ** Bill, Hey, Bill. I’ve scribbled down the things on your lists I don’t know, which is quite a bit, especially on the music front, you devil. Thank you! Michael’s and Oscar’s film are just beginning their early lives on the festival circuit, so I suspect it’ll be a while before they’re seeable to non-festival goers. I’m just lucky enough to live across town from them. ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien! Housing instability and book accruing are such sworn enemies. I’m waiting for an English subtitled version of ‘Drive My Car’ to appear, so I can see it way over here. I don’t know most of your music picks, cool, and I’ll get on them. Peace and love galore to you too, pal. And big up to our mutual health (and sanity)! xoxo. ** Steve Erickson, Ah! Everyone, Mr. Erickson says ‘BAD BOY BUBBY is up (in English with French subtitles) on ok.ru. I’ll, of course, endeavour to see and hear the things on your faves list that I don’t yet know. Quite a few. Thank you! Thank fucking god Santacon has not caught the fancy of the French. ** Blair James, Hi! Well, thank you! All the very best to you! ** R.G. Vasicek, Hello, welcome to here, and thanks. I do not know that book at all, but I’m already hooked by the mere mention and title alone, so I will ASAP. ** Kiddiepunk, Hi, big M! How’s Australia? Warmer but less sparkly than here, I bet. Among other magnificent things, I hope. Big, earth leaping love! ** T, Hi, T. Thank you for including my book. I don’t know ‘Porn Carnival’, for instance. I’ll find it. Killer films list, I mean, what can I say? Jun Togawa youtube channel? Huh. Okay, I’m off. Thanks for your kind thanks. It goes both ways, buddy. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark. Always a super pleasure and much more to see you here. Or, well, anywhere. I’m okay. A bit frustrated with some things, but forging ahead. It’s pretty outsider least. Again, a bunch of unknowns on your lists that I have to make knowns. And I’ll do that. How’s stuff with you, rain and indoorsy-ness notwithstanding? Writing? Lots of love from the supposed city of that stuff. ** Chris Kelso, Hey, Chris! The honor is the blog’s entirely. Great list. Thank you., Riches galore. Dick Cavett! That’s an out of the blue one. Interesting. His old talk/interview show was pretty key when I was younger. Ha ha, happy that my voice had a soothing effect. If voices could have blurbs … ** l@rst, Hi, big L. Oh, wow, Theresa’s ceramics looks fantastic! Especially, on first peek, for me, the fruit bowls and soap dishes. Give her my respects, please. Thanks for the list, bud. I gotta read that Ellis one. Etc. Happy week ahead. ** Alexandrine Ogundimu, Hi, Alexandrine! No, thank you, such a wonderful book, and I’m aching for the sequel. From AS, I assume? Good luck with the agent hunt. That’s one of the toughest parts, in my experience, but hopefully not in yours. Thank you for sharing your favorites. I will hunt those that I don’t know. Take good care, and happy holidays whatever they entail. ** Brian, Hey, Brian. I haven’t seen ‘Despair’ since it was new, so who knows. I thought it wasn’t great then, but, I mean, Fassbinder didn’t make a film that isn’t worth seeing, and I suspect it’ll seem pretty terrific outside the heat of his voluminous output in progress. Aw, thanks about ‘Guide’. Eyes on the prize: the holidays. I think if I concentrate on the festive winds, I’ll feel them, so that’s my Monday plan. And yours? ** Okay. Thanks again, everybody, and now go scroll upwards and enjoy some visual stimuli vis-a-vis the Xmas proximity, won’t you? See you tomorrow.