Fiction
(in no order)

Derek McCormack CASTLE FAGGOT (Semiotext(e))

Blake Butler ALICE KNOTT (Riverhead Books)

Mark Gluth COME DOWN TO US (Kiddiepunk Press)

Cassandra Troyan FREEDOM & PROSTITUTION (The Elephants)

Gary Lutz THE COMPLETE GARY LUTZ (Tyrant Books)

Nathalie Léger THE WHITE DRESS (Dorothy, a publishing project)

Maryse Meijer THE SEVENTH MANSION (FSG Originals)

Meghan Lamb ALL OF YOUR MOST PRIVATE PLACES (Spork Press)

anon I’m us TEXTILOMA OR, THE POSTMODERN EPIMETHEUS (Calamari Press)

Ashleigh Bryant Phillip SLEEPOVERS (Hub City Writers Project)

B.R. Yeager NEGATIVE SPACE (Apocalypse Party)

Lidia Yuknavitch VERGE  (Riverhead Books)

Estelle Hoy PISTI, 80, RUE DE BELLEVILLE  (After 8 Books)

Robert Glück MARGERY KEMPE  (NYRB Classics)

Ken Baumann A TASK  (gumroad)

Golnoosh Nour THE MINISTRY OF GUIDANCE  (Muswell Press)

Josh Peterson SPRING RAIN, SUMMER HEAT  (Amphetamine Sulphate)

Chris Kelso THE DREGS TRILOGY  (Black Shucks Books)

Damien Ark FUCKED UP (Expat Press)

Christopher Zeischegg THE MAGICIAN  (Amphetamine Sulphate)

Lucy Ives LOUDERMILK, OR, THE REAL POET; OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD  (Soft Skull)

A W W Bremont HEY BOY  (Rebel Satori Press)

Karolina Zapal NOTES FOR MID-BIRTH  (Inside the Castle)

Thomas Moore ALONE  (Amphetamine Sulphate)

Breka Blakeslee PROBABLY IT WILL NOT BE OKAY  (Publication Studio)

Elisa Taber AN ARCHIPELAGO IN A LANDLOCKED COUNTRY  (11:11 Press)

Pierre Klossowski THE SUSPENDED VOCATION  (Small Press)

Edwin Stevens SEAGULLS  (Very Bon Books)

Audrey Szasz INVISIBILITY: A MANIFESTO  (Amphetamine Sulfate)

Never Angeline Nørth SEA WITCH (Inside the Castle)

Lee Rourke VANTABLACK  (Dostoyevsky Wannabe)

Brad Fox TO REMAIN NAMELESS  (Rescue Press)

Ariana Harwicz FEEBLEMINDED  (Charco Press)

Douglas A. Martin WOLF  (Nightboat Books)

Douglas Payne IF YOU HAVE GHOSTS  (Amphetamine Sulphate)

Joanna Koch THE WINGSPAN OF SEVERED HANDS  (Weirdpunkt Books)

Andrew Durbin SKYLAND  (Nightboat Books)

Michael Seidlinger DREAMS OF BEING  (Maudlin House)

 

 

Poetry
(in no order)

Joyelle McSweeney TOXICON AND ARACHNE (Nightboat Books)

Elaine Equi THE INTANGIBLES (Coffee House Press)

Lonely Christopher IN A JANUARY WOULD (Roof Books)

Paul Cunningham THE HOUSE OF THE TREE OF SORES (Schism 2 Press)

No One 4IER X-FORMS (Calamari Press)

Sun Ra SOMEWHERE AND NOWHERE: POEMS (Arts Libris)

Bernadette Mayer MEMORY (siglio)

Matthew Rohrer THE SKY CONTAINS THE PLANS (Wave Books)

Bob Kaufman COLLECTED POEMS (City Lights)

Big Bruiser Dope Boy AFTER DENVER (11:11 Press)

Valerie Hsiung YOU + ME FOREVER (Action Books)

Joseph Goosey PARADE OF MALFEASANCE (EMP Books)

Tony Towle MY FIRST THREE BOOKS (Vehicle Editions)

Fanny Howe NIGHT PHILOSOPHY (Divided Publishing Ltd)

Ted Rees THANKSGIVING: A POEM (Golias Books)

Peter Dube THE HEADLESS MAN (Anvil Press)

David Grubbs THE VOICE IN THE HEADPHONES (Duke University Press)

Laura Theobald KOKOMO (Disorder Press)

Rachel Levitsky NEIGHBOR (Ugly Duckling Presse)

SJ Fowler I WILL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND (ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS) (Dostoyevsky Wannabe)

 

 

Nonfiction
(in no order)

Bruce Boone DISMEMBERED (Nightboat Books)

Johannes Göransson POETRY AGAINST ALL (Tarpaulin Sky)

Steve Abbott BEAUTIFUL ALIENS (Nightboat Books)

Danny Plotnick SUPER 8: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY (Rare Bird Books)

McKenzie Wark REVERSE COWGIRL (Semiotext(e))

Julia Bell RADICAL ATTENTION (Peninsula Press)

John Wieners YOURS PRESENTLY: THE SELECTED LETTERS (University of New Mexico Press)

Yetta Howard RATED RX: SHEREE ROSE WITH AND AFTER BOB FLANAGAN (Ohio State University Press)

Maurice Sachs WITCHES’ SABBATH (Spurl Editions)

Madeleine Gins THE SADDEST THING IS THAT I HAVE HAD TO USE WORDS: A MADELEINE GINS READER (siglio)

Jared Pappas-Kelley TO BUILD A HOUSE THAT NEVER CEASED (Sweat Drenched Press)

Jay Slayton-Joslin SEQUELLAND: A STORY OF DREAMS AND SCREAMS (Clash Books)

Laura Mulvey AFTERIMAGES (Reaktion Books)

Jeanne Gerrity & Anthony Huberman DODIE BELLAMY IS ON OUR MINDS (Semiotext(e))

Joanne Robertson & Byron Coley 1979 SONGBOOK (Tenderbooks/Bad Taste Press)

Wayne Koestenbaum FIGURE IT OUT (Soft Skull)

David Sudnow BREAKOUT: PILGRIM IN THE MICROWORLD (Boss Fight Books)

Zak Ferguson INTERIORS FOR ? (independently published)

Bett Williams THE WILD KINDNESS: A PSILOCYBIN ODYSSEY (Dottir Press)

Harry Dodge MY METEORITE (Penguin)

Gary J. Shipley STRATGEM OF THE CORPSE (Anthem Press)

Momus NICHE (FSG)

Justin Taylor RIDING WITH THE GHOST (Random House)

Johnny Ray Huston + Bradford Nordeen + Hedi El Kholti BECAUSE HORROR (Semiotext(e))

Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E: THE COMPLETE FACSIMILE (University of New Mexico Press)

Antonin Artaud SUCCUBATIONS & INCUBATIONS: SELECTED LETTERS (1945-1947) (Infinity Land Press)

 

 

Music
(in no order)

Yves Tumor HEAVEN TO A TORTURED MIND (Warp)

Destroyer HAVE WE MET (Merge)

Villaelvin GHOTT ZILLAH (Hakuna Kulala)

Tobin Sprout EMPTY HORSES (Fire Records)

Carl Stone STOLEN CAR (Unseen Worlds)

OTTO CLAM DAY (PLZ Make It Ruins)

Concrete Mascara PERENNIAL DISAPPOINTMENT (Malignant Records)

Aki Onda NAM JUNE’S SPIRIT WAS SPEAKING TO ME (Recital)

Vladislav Delay RAKKA (Cosmo Rhythmatic)

Ewa Justka UPSIDE DOWN SMILE (Editions Mego)

Thurston Moore BY THE FIRE (Daydream Library)

Oliver Coates SKINS N SLIME (Rvng Intl)

Zeroh BLQLYTE (Leaving Records)

Chris Cochrane THE INVENTION OF SHOES – VOLS. 1 & 2 (bandcamp)

Guided by Voices MIRRORED AZTEC (Rockathon)

Guided by Voices SURRENDER YOU POPPY FIELDS (Rockathon)

Tashi Dorji STATELESS (Drag City)

serpentwithfeet APPARITION (Secretly Canadian)

Irma Vep EMBARRASSED LANDSCAPE (Gringo Records )

Wire 10:20 (Pink Flag)

Sparks A STEADY DRIP DRIP DRIP (BMG)

KTL VII (Editions Mego)

Soft Pink Truth SHALL WE GO ON SINNING SO THAT GRACE MAY INCREASE? (Thrill Jockey)

Klara Lewis INGRID (Editions Mego)

Moor Mother CLEPSYDRA (no label)

William Basinski LAMENTATIONS (Temporary Residence)

Julian Calendar CRIMSON STATIC #4 (Julian Calendar)

Ai Aso THE FAINTEST HINT (SOMA)

Judith Hamann DAYS COLLAPSE (Another Timbre)

 

 

Film
(in no order)

Tzuan Wu THIS SHORE – A FAMILY STORY

Charlie Kaufman I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS

Guy Maddin STUMP THE GUESSER

Mark Rappaport L’ANNÉE DERNIÈRE À DACHAU

O.B. De Alessi MUDMONSTER

Daniel and Clara NOTES FROM A JOURNEY

Pedro Costa VITALINA VARELA

Leslie Thornton GROUND

James Benning MAGGIE’S FARM

Pierre-Luc Vaillancourt RAW POWER

Jean-Marie Straub LA FRANCE CONTRE LES ROBOTS

Patric Chiha SI C’ETAIT DE L’AMOUR

Margaret Honda EQUINOX

Dietrich de Velsa EQUATION TO AN UNKNOWN

Richard Stanley COLOR OUT OF SPACE

Noel Lawrence SAMMY-GATE

Roy Andersson ABOUT ENDLESSNESS

Nick Toti KILL, KOBEK… KILL!

 

 

Art
(in no order)

Torbjorn Vejvi (Pio Pico Gallery, Los Angeles

Cindy Sherman (Fondation Louis Vuitton)

Vincent Fecteau (Galerie Buchholz, Berlin)

Jacob Kassay (Galerie Art Concept, Paris)

Ed & Nancy Kienholz (Galerie Templon, Paris)

SUPERMARKET OF IMAGES (Jeu de Paume)

Lionel Soukaz RACE D’EP – THE HOMOSEXUAL CENTURY, 1979 (Manifesta 13, Marseille)

Lecia Dole-Recio BOSSY BOTTOM (Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles)

Peter Saul ART HISTORY IS WRONG (Almine Rech Gallery, Paris)

Estelle Hanania IT’S ALIVE (Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris)

Keith Sonnier FILES, SHIELDS AND NEONS (Galerie Mitterand, Paris)

YOU (Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris)

Gregory Crewdson AN ECLIPSE OF MOTHS (Templon, Paris)

Robert Smithson PRIMORDIAL BEGINNINGS (Marian Goodman, Paris)

Penny Goring ESCAPE FROM BLOOD CASTLE (Campoli Presti, Paris)

Allen Ruppersberg THE MYSTERY OF NABOKOV… (Michele Didier, Paris)

 

 

Internet
(in no order)

SCAB
Profound Experience
Small Press Distribution
X-R-A-Y
{ feuilleton }
SELFFUCK
Invert/Extant
Please Kill Me
Wake Island
PlayTherapy/Tik Tent Radio
Rhizome
Theme Park Review
Evergreen Review
The Call
TOWARDS CYCLOBE
Musique Machine
Original Cinemaniac
Fanzine
Volume 1 Brooklyn
Queen Mob’s Teahouse
zoran rosko vacuum player
TL;DR
The Chiseler
Experimental Cinema
The Los Angeles Review of Books
3:AM Magazine
Alienist
largehearted boy
pantaloons
Harriet
Open Culture
Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets
giphy
The Wonderful World of Tam Tam Books
Hobart
Entropy

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. It’s that annual day where I lay out my faves of this past year and invite/encourage you to share some of your faves, if you feel like it. Would be cool. As always, I’m sure there are things I liked a lot but forgot when I was making the lists as well as things I’m sure would be there if I’d read/heard/seen them in time. Thanks! ** Conrad, Hi, Conrad! How good to see you! How are you doing? it’s interesting how forgotten he is considering how seemingly famous he was. He had his own postage stamps, for goodness sake. It’s interesting too to me because, as an outsider, it sometimes seems like every past French star who had even one success or two ends up being considered ‘legendary’ here. Anyway, curious, yes. And, yes, that Jean Rhys translation is an absolute must, isn’t it? Wow. I need to find that. And thank you for the link to the Agnes Martin doc. I’ll watch it straight away. Everyone, Conrad has a scoop for anyone interested: ‘Here’s a great documentary about Agnes Martin. I think it’s available for free only for a few days.’ I hope you’re doing great. An early Merry Xmas! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Hm, I’ll see what if anything I can find. ** _Black_Acrylic, Cool that he intersects with your zeitgeist. I love when that happens. ** Tosh Berman, I’d had a memory of you being a fan of Carco from somewhere, and then the review sorted that. He’s so forgotten here that it’s hard to imagine more of his stuff getting translated, but maybe he’ll get a cult following in the outer realms. Happy happy, Tosh! ** James, My total pleasure, obviously. Hm, well, I didn’t see that exchange since I’m not on Twitter, but is the person raising issues with you contributing to that site really ‘cancelling’? I feel like that term is getting pretty loosely thrown around. I mean if someone objecting to something automatically tags them as a censor, a whole lot of us are going to get bitten in the ass. Anyway, what is her objection to Terror House? Is the site anti-trans, or does it have troubling politics or something? What was her exact problem with you doing something for them? I know relatively little about the site. I got your email, as you know, and we’ve changed emails, as you know, and thank you. Try not to worry about the criticism. It can happen anytime to anyone for almost any reason. Bon Friday! ** Danielle, Hi, D! You guys definitely deserve an award. If I had an ‘in’ with any of biggie award givers, I’d sharpen my elbows and use them. How cool and very interesting that the class is vis-a-vis Iranians. Iran seems like a place where I imagine all kinds of really innovative and exciting culture stuff is happening that we have little access to. The new music coming out of there can be pretty great. Ha ha, yeah, I wouldn’t risk hell by trying to get my work into the prison. I have this feeling that Capedevielle would jump at the chance, and not just because he has a soft spot for rough trade. Coolest Friday in the world to ya! ** Maryse, Hi, Maryse! You’re welcome, and thank you for your great novel (see: above). As virtually always, I will have to wait for the event’s archiving since Paris time never lines up with 90% of the best Zoom events, or at least when you’re an early riser like me. Everyone, the mighty Maryse Meijer tips all and sundry among us that a special Zoom event wherein she will moderate a conversation between  author and recent DC’s star Damien Ark and Manuel Marrero re: Damien’s new novel ‘Fucked Up’ will take place on Dec. 17th @ 7 pm. You can find the details here, and find the Zoom link here. Thanks, M! See you soon! ** Nick Toti, Well, that is good news! Everyone, Mr. Nick Toti has a generous announcement, i.e. ‘We got the release issues worked out with David Shields’s publisher, so my new movie can come out without issue. It’s an adaptation of David’s forthcoming book “The Very Last Interview,” set during Covid Christmas. If you or anyone else would like to watch it, here it is.’ Look forward to it! ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Everyone, here’s Mr. Erickson. Listen up: ‘Xiu Xiu have released some bass and drum loops with the intent of producers remixing and sampling them. I’ve done my best with one of their basslines on this song, “Hog on a Walk”.’ ** Bill, Oh, yes, yes, I remember now. I should really find and restore that post, shouldn’t I? Yes, I should. ‘Done’ is in the works. Hang in there. We just got our new restrictions here. Basically, a freeze in place as-is order with a, yikes, new 8 pm nightly curfew starting on the 15th. 8 pm!?! ** Derek McCormack, That was such an amazing answer, Derek. Thank you, thank you! ** Corey Heiferman, Hi, Corey. Well, you certainly sound very fired up to make that post. Sounds like it’s going to be a killer. Uh, well, it was in the mid-80s, so let me force my memory to wander back there. I don’t remember throwing those notebooks away as being any big whoop. I vaguely remember regretting that I had wasted perfectly good notebooks because I was pretty broke at the time. I think I did pull out some phrases from them that I thought were okay. I was writing my novel ‘Closer’ at the time, and it’s possible some tidbits ended up there. No, it wasn’t cathartic. It was just like ‘oh well, that wasn’t very useful.’ I have at other times found myself on an intense roll where writing pours out, and in a few cases I ended up writing things I liked a lot and ended up using, albeit with a lot of subsequent refinement. One of my favorite things I’ve written, a short fiction piece called ‘The Ash Gray Proclamation’ that’s in my book ‘Ugly Man’ initially came barreling out of me. So, have you discovered whether that company is indeed excellent yet? ** Right. The post is introduced up north. Have a look. Add your input, if you so desire. See you tomorrow.

 

‘Francis Carco embodied the spirit of his age; he was the Paris of the teens, twenties, and thirties. He will always be remembered as the underworld dilettante and latter-day boulevardier who sang of murky thoroughfares and drizzle-dappled pavements, and who solemnized for an entire generation the studied irreverence of the professional outsider, and the velvet crush of the demi-mondial “Life.” Carco was at his best in the role of “gutter poet.” But he was not merely a celebrant of lowlife, nor was he a moralist, for he did not judge his subjects, but presented them without preachification or prescription. He was simply a gifted poet who etched with words the vicissitudes of the damned and not-so-beautiful inhabitants of society’s darkest corners.’ — Gilbert Alter-Gilbert

‘It must have been glorious. Fresh memories of the fin-de-siècle, Lautrec, the Moulin Rouge, Bruant’s Le Mirliton. The belle époque confronted by modernity, industrialism, speed, the war machine. A period occupied by Proust and Apollinaire, Cezanne and Picasso. The latter years of l’affaire Dreyfus which produced, among other things, the concept of a vanguard role for intellectual and cultural workers in the socio-political arena.

‘And it was still a time when an artist could actually afford to starve in a garret just a step or two from the Seine — the particular vie-de-Bohème centered around the dilapidated bateau lavoir houses on the butte de Montparnasse and the tavern-cabaret known as the Lapin Agile, the latter painted by Picasso in 1905 . The old “laundry boat” building was housed, at one time or another during this period, Picasso and Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Utrillo and Modigliani, Bracque, Mac Orlan.

‘The writer Pierre Mac Orlan (born Pierre Dumarchey, he was known by this near-Scottish nom de guerre and loved to wear tam o’shanters) was a fixture at the tables of the Lapin Agile, where he entertained with his accordion and whimsical songs of women and seaports. Here he was joined by his young friend François Carcopino- soon known as Francis Carco – an aspiring lyric poet from the provinces, who was already working on his first verse collection, La Bohème et Mon Cœur.

‘In their early twenties – only a few years younger than Picasso and Apollinaire – Mac Orlan and Carco, near-destitute and as yet unknown, were among the junior members of this circle – but they were both in Bohemia for the long run.

‘Carco, in fact – and this is how I came across the name – became the unofficial historian of this circle, as well as the Bohemian milieu of the Latin Quarter. His numerous novels are for the most part set in the criminal underworld which surrounded, and often impinged on, his aesthetic enclave. His 1920s memoir, The Last Bohemia: From Montmartre To The Quartier Latin, offers detailed portraits of members of the circle, from Mac Orlan, Utrillo and Jacob to forgotten figures like the strange dandy-poet Claudien.

‘The tone of Carco’s reminiscences is reflected in the writing of a more recent French Bohemian figure. In a recent biography, Andy Merrifield emphasized the enduring attraction of Mac Orlan’s oeuvre for the political philosopher and activist Guy Debord; but nowhere have I seen any reference to the echoes of Carco in Debord’s books and films.

‘”What a lot of water has run under the bridge since our youth! How many faded dawns, how many days, weeks, seasons…I stir only ashes with my recollections – very fragile ashes which are lifted on the night wind and shaped like disembodied spirits, ghosts..”

‘”We derived nothing better; it seems so simple to live, to have friends and to work…The amiable ladies who shared our destinies at that time were not hard to please.”

‘Apart from the reference to work, this could be Debord recalling the nights of the Lettrists who haunted the Rue de Buci thirty or forty years after Carco. Of that street, Carco comments on its “exceptional atmosphere and setting.” He was a pioneer of psychogeography.’ — Wilfrid, Sign of the Pink Pig

 

______
Further

‘His Last Bohemia: The Novels Of Francis Carco’
‘Forgotten on my bookshelf: Francis Carco’s Perversity’ @ International Noir Fiction
Francis Carco posts @ The Wonderful World of Tam Tam Books
Francis Carco page @ Facebook
Francis Carco bio & info @ aquadesign (in French)
Buy ‘Streetcorners’
Buy ‘Perversity’

 

_____
Media

“Le Doux Caboulot” (1931): Francis Carco – par Georges Brassens

Francis Carco ” chanson tendre ” 1952

Valérie Ambroise – Il pleut (Carco)

Pierre Mac Orlan & Francis Carco 6 chansons de soldats (1950)

 

______
Gallery

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Ian, Hi, Ian. “The Loved One’ is excellent. I need to rewatch it. Note scribbled. Ha ha, I know that ‘South Park’ episode. I’m way behind on TV, it’s true, but I’ll always make room for ‘South Park’. Love back from festively lit Paris. ** David Ehrenstein,. I don’t know that movie, and nor did I know that Romain Gary directed a movie. Huh. ** Damien Ark, That would get rid of the obtrusive charm in that post. ** James, Hi. I have no idea if they’re real, actually. Thanks for the link. I read the interview yesterday. Cool, interesting guy. I’m well, you too I certainly hope. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Well, I know that John did have a Gacy painting at least years ago because I saw it hanging on his wall. But he might’ve purged. That is a very nice cover. And I look forward to discovering what’s inside it courtesy of you and yours. ** Bill, Thank you, kind sir. I don’t know Al Columbia at all. Comics are probably my blindest spot. I’ll scan that. Gracias. ** Corey Heiferman, Well, hi there, Corey. I’ve been wondering how and where you are. I probably would have gravitated to you as a little kid when I was a little kid. I’m so sorry about your dad. Yeah, hugs galore. That’s a very hard one. Here’s hoping the outstanding company proves it’s worth that adjective by doing the right thing by you. Jesus, that’s a lot words. Back when I was doing crystal meth I used to fill up notebooks by the hundreds. And toss them in the garage can once I came down. Anyway, sounds fun. And I would love that guest-post, certainly needless to say. The Pinault Foundation is an incredible space. I hope you can get here and eyeball it and Paris’s giant other assortment. Take care, man. ** Danielle, Well, well Daniele! Howdy, pal. I’ve been hearing about some already legendary letters that you and M. have been hurling at each other. I so love that you have an anarchism class. Art killing revolution … big question, yeah. Hm, off the top of my head, and speaking as someone whose art diet is hugely in the experimental realm, I would say art can be revolution’s hint or map or LSD or something of that order. I guess it depends on what revolutionary action means? I guess if one sees art in the way I just described, art inspiring artists to max art out in order to try to transcend art’s conventional strictures is a kind of revolutionary act, although, yeah, possibly happening within a closed circle. But I guess I see making forward pushing art in the hopes it triggers some kind of expansiveness in the reader/viewer as the only effective revolutionary act of which I am personally capable. Or something? But I’m more into the internal, I guess. Trying to rework readers/viewer’s thinking and letting the chips fall where they may. And social justice is one possible outcome, although probably not with my own work. I don’t know, big question, or at least for a not fully coffee-up yet me. Ha ha, what an interesting Gacy story. Worth doing something with. Hey, Derek McCormack, If you see this, go back to yesterday and read Daneille’s comment directed at you. Wow, great comment. My head is spinning fruitfully. Thank you a lot, Meijer! ** Okay. Francis Carco was a very famous writer in France at one time. Now he is rarely ever referenced and probably not read very much if at all. Interesting how that happens. Or interesting enough to make me make a post about him. And his stuff’s good, need I say. And a couple of things even made it into English. See you tomorrow.