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p.s. RIP Daniel Johnston ** David Ehrenstein, Happy to have made the introduction. ** Bill, Hi. Me too, busy, still in the saddle, barely, but in it. I thought ‘High Life’ was truly awful, for the reasons you mention and more. I think it was my worst film experience of last year. Well, that and that massively overrated Safie brothers film. Which also starred the never-not boring Robert Pattinson. Yeah, what in the world was Denis thinking? ** Brendan, Indeed about Robert Frank. Wonderful filmmaker too. Oh, yes, when Google killed my blog they killed my email address too. My new email is: [email protected]. Can’t wait to see the works! ** _Black_Acrylic, I’m very glad you found her films interesting. Thank you. Yeah, obviously, it sounds like a great idea for you to do a tete-a-tete with her. I hope it happens. ** Armando, Hi, man. Yes, very sad news about Daniel Johnston. So great. ** KeatonGoesFishing, If you catch a manatee, throw it back. So, I really, like your songs. All of them. They’re like ‘Suitcase’ GbV but evil. Love the sonics. Really like the lyrics, maybe especially in ‘Boy Song’. And in ‘Drag Song’. But, yeah, I like them all. Perfect lengths, obviously. Thanks a lot for letting me imbibe, man. I sometimes wish Halloween scared me rather than just turned me into a wide-eyed super nerd. Even when I was so young that getting scared by stuff was de rigeur, I was all about the merch. Realist can be okay. More than okay even. With, yes, the right sauce, I guess. May I suggest Alfredo? I have a feeling that even one bite of a Candy Korn Oreo will be three bites too many but I want to know. If you bite one first, report please. ** Misanthrope, My pleasure. Hope the sack let you hit it the moment you struck. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. That’s for damned sure. I did see that you bailed on Twitter, and I’m not on there and barely ever look at it, but when I do, and whenever I hear anything about it, it just sounds like ugliness incarnate. Whoa, great about the Bressons. Is that official and sanctioned? Doubt it. They keep saying that there’s a new struck print of ‘FNoaD’, but I saw the supposed new print at the Cinematheque last year, and it was definitely not new, just less fucked up than the usual ones. ** Corey Heiferman, Glad you were interested in her films. Oh, very nice about that new theater. Very nice indeed. The editing supervision: We are, by necessity, having to the edit the test footage we shot of the TV series to give to ARTE even though the actress was dying of cancer at the time and gave an understandably very wrong, dark performance of something that’s supposed to be a weird comedy. But they need to see what the show is going to be like, and that’s all we have to show, so it’s a tough situation because what was shot was not at all like the show is going to be. So that’s what’s being done. Gisele its doing that with an editor. She has called Zac and me in twice to give our opinions. We keep trying to get Gisele to do her best to edit in such a way that it will at least remotely resemble the kind of, I don’t know, ‘I Love Lucy’ on acid thing that it will be, and she keeps wanting to make it look like a lost episode of ‘Twin Peaks’, which is not what the show will be. So we again urged her to try to make it resemble what the show will be like, since that’s the ‘trailer’s’ entire purpose in existing, and she keeps wanting to do what she wants to do and not what’s required, and it’s her call ultimately, but I fear she’s asking for trouble since ARTE has yet to give us the official green light to go ahead and shoot the series. So there’s an overly long explanation of what’s going on. This TV show project will be great, but it’s just been one hell upon another to create. Okay, I’ll check next time I’m near that deli in the Marais, and if they miraculously offer that treat, I’ll let you know. I’ll even take a photo. ** Right. Today is … well, you can tell. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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RIP Daniel Johnston indeed.
J
Mardik Martin R.I.P. </A.
Saw Matt Tynauer's new doc "Where's My Roy Cohn?" last night at a special screening at a Jewish Film Festival. The audience was filled with seniors who well recall the events depicted. Among other things it's the best film made to date about Donald Trump. It opens stateside on the 20the. Not to be missed under any circumstances.
Dennis,
Nice stack of scream queens. I don’t think I’ve screamed since I was 8 years old, but that’s growing up in Phoenix for you — it was always too hot to scream. I finished my new novel! I finished it last Sunday. My trusted reader, Angelo, will be tearing into it once he’s finished reading a late Ballard novel he’s currently entangled in(Cocaine Nights). Hopefully reading my novel right after Ballard doesn’t color his judgement in any way! I’ll be sending it in pdf form to my editor, Anita Dalton, in the next few weeks. I’m dragging my heels because well, you know, the world hasn’t seen it yet and like a baby, I’m just not ready to give up that rattler and teething ring just yet.
I see you are nearly done with your new novel??!!! And is it just about ready for your trusted reader? Is this beta reader personage someone you have trusted with your novels in the past, if you don’t mind?
Me and the wife are going to Madrid for two weeks in late October and I am more than excited! Have you ever been? If so, any recommendations on what to do or see while there? Happy Thursday Dennis!
Much love,
James
This is a fine cathartic day. Dennis. I’m sure I could use one when the weekend rolls around.
Sorry to hear about the continuing TV project drama. This sounds like a delicate situation.
I tend not to see mainstream horror movies, but a fellow Brian Evenson fan recommended 10 Cloverfield Lane. It’s fun, mostly for the main character’s uncertainty about what’s really going on, and John Goodman’s usual propulsive performance.
Bill
Here’s my review of Seth Price’s REDISTRIBUTION: https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/stories/2019/20/seth-price-redistribution-film-2019-09-12-gcn.html and my YouTube playlist of the post-punk program I presented at Anthology: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpR8rk68He40Dn2xWCaaLBzmJshglYNgP
Rarefilmm.com is a bootleg streaming/download site, so I don’t think the Bressons are authorized. However, maybe they’re transferred from legit releases somewhere in the world.
Do you think that music has remained open to formal challenges to this day? I can point to examples of a few fairly leftfield albums and songs that were big hits in the past few years – Frank Ocean’s BLONDE, Tyler the Creator’s IGOR, Lorde’s “Royals,” Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” – but the artists you post on Gig Day tend not even to be “semi-popular” in the Robert Christgau sense. In the ’90s, there was a period when the post-rave scene was open to screeching noise or dense collages as long as they were set to a dance beat, and well into the 2000s, Timbaland, the Neptunes and Missy Elliott were making and producing music that was both weird and pop, but it feels like things have gotten much more conservative. Talk Talk would likely get more applause going from THE SPIRIT OF EDEN to IT’S MY LIFE than the reverse in 2019.
Oddly enough, despite having joined Twitter a few years ago, it’s only been in the last few months that I’ve ramped up my activity on there (as I prefer Facebook)… this is mainly because of James Nulick’s presence on there, ha ha. I felt bad for him missing out on all the content I usually post on FB, so…
Hoping to see IT: PART TWO over the weekend.
Hey,
Oh. Rest In Peace Mardik Martin (September-16-1934 – September-11-2019) indeed.
Hey,
Oh, Rest In Peace Mardik Martin (September-16-1934 – September-11-2019) indeed.
Oh yes that’s right! I remember that one now. Okay I sent it. Hope you like.
Let me add my scream to this post, at least in spirit.
B
It’s clear you’ve not yet seen Twin Peaks: The Return or Laura Palmer would surely make an appearance here.
Although her name by this point is Carrie Page, it’s kind of a long story haha.
My sale of CDs, DVDS, books, et. al. is still going on. Write me and drop by.
Didn’t really know where to go with this theme but settled on the best screaming on daytime TV: The Price is Right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAp7Y3uxGM
It was helpful to read about what you’re going through now with the editing. How artistic differences arise from circumstances, not just sensibility. Best of luck!
Are incandescent lightbulbs still popular in France? They’re not popular here in Israel but at least they’re still available–they’ve been all but banned in the states. I was surprised and delighted to find them at the hardware store (with Made in France on th box). They made my flat instantly feel homier.
I thought you might enjoy this anime-inspired Israeli music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJSk3sh3zlo
@SteveErickson thank you for the introduction to rarefilmm.com. Looks like a real treasure trove!
Thanks, Corey! They have a great selection, although I wonder how long it’ll take before the copyright police shut them down.
Manateez! They’re almost as exiting as Penis Gourds. Poor things, they get chopped up a lot in the rivers because of the shallowness of the water. Really weird creature. They look like Wilfred Brimley or something kind of. They’re like a real mermaid. Really? You’re too sweet. I know they’re bad, but a good bit of work went into it and of course many years of being me. Haha, Ohio Rocks! I was hoping some of the evil would shine through. I love Halloween stuff. Remember Halloween 1 78 or so when the only mask in the pharmacy was the Shatner mask, voila! Each year the costumes are a little different, not sure how you say it, differently styled/themed/motifed. Talk about a sauce with pastabilities! You have me tempted now. I have this pre-Halloween, it’s going to be a Gushers Halloween. Watched IT twice in the last couple days, the original all the way through for the first time and then IT 2, which is a remake of the original. Oh my sweet Jesus, the IT gayboy scene on film is fucking horrendous. Nice looking gay kid from NY smarts off to the locals, gets beat half to death and thrown in the river and IT fishing him out and bites out his armpit. Sickening. There’s a great lengthy cameo by Stephen King in the movie. The characters are hard to keep straight in the new ones. Men without qualities these days our Holywood boys. The lead guy is way too big/Hulk for that movie. The kid version of Bill played by Jaedon Martell in this film, has always been to die for, TigerBeat for days. And Finn Wolfhard plays Ritchie. Going through a movie phase. Asking myself some hard questions. “Do I just think that all movies look like nostalgic bad versions of antique shops these days?” “Am I on gel-tabs?” “Do people learn to be 30 when they’re 5 now?” “What is the obsession with Superhero movies.” I was kind of over Batman at people sitting in the isles. A Joker origin story. And I’m sorry not in the burning birds. Lovely boys, but no. I was always so jealous, I wanted to be the one who called Drew Barrymore, “Hello, Sydney.” A great movie of my better years. Kind of always hated Scream and kind of always thought it novel. Now to dive into to these screams. Thanks again, front-row tickets for you.
Hey, man;
What up? How’s it going? How you doing?
Damn. What a week. First Daniel Johnston; now Mardik Martin. So sad. And motherfucking orange shitler still alive and tweeting. Oh well. Such is life.
Got any plans for today? Doing anything in specific?
Good day; good luck,
Hugs,
Your friend,
a.
Dennis, So everybody screams. Interesting to see it isolated like this by itself.
I got to sleep around 11:30 and woke up at 5:30, with one wake up at 4:00. Ugh. I was aight, though.
So music…so many instruments, so many combinations. Then there’s Soundcloud and Bandcamp, now legit avenues for getting heard cheaply. And Spotify…anybody can put a song on there.
Books…words on paper. What more can one do? Publishers who look only at bottom lines. Self-publishing hasn’t taken off quite the way we expected, I don’t think. And even with self-publishing, you usually still have to pay something to read it and it might suck.
I agree, though, that musicians before have paved the way, making experimental stuff more acceptable and almost demanded. Experimental lit…the casual reader probably says, NOPE. At least with a song, you’re investing a few minutes. Books, you have to invest a lot of time that most people don’t have.
I wonder what can be done in fiction or poetry that hasn’t been done before.