The blog of author Dennis Cooper

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p.s. Hey. ** Bill, Hi, B. It’s good: ‘Piano’. There are some backing tracks used in ‘Them’, but the great majority is played live. The music is all composed and tightly structured even though, yeah, it sounds improv. The score is almost exactly the original score from 1985. I’ll check out the Cecelia music, thanks a lot! ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Well, maybe your Amsterdam trip will be an accidental first step towards you moving elsewhere, the beginning of your sea legs or something. Zaandam, sure. Yeah, that’s close enough to the city proper. Yeah, let me know what you’re thinking of seeing and doing when they’re listed. The city has changed a lot since I lived there in the late-ish 80s, of course, but I’ll think of things that might still exist and be worth your visiting. I lived there for just over 2 1/2 years, from 1985 to 1988. My weekend was cool. We did a show on Saturday, off on Sunday, and I mostly stayed inside this weird apartment where they’ve lodged me worked on the film script revisions and wandered a bit. Three days left! Have a great today and all upcoming days until I see you next. ** _Black_Acrylic, Thank you a lot for explaining your art piece. That’s extremely interesting. I love that kind of heaving coding, and, yeah, I only admire the piece more now that I have a map. Very cool, Ben. ** Scunnard, Hey, bud! You’re in SoCal! Uh, hm, uh, maybe thank you but no on the index writing, ha ha. Such exciting news about the pub dates on your book. And not too, too far away even. Know that I would love to do a ‘welcome to the world’ post to celebrate and help announce its birth when the time comes. Have fun. Have you managed to get out and see any stuff that delighted you? ** JM, Well, I think that was an American review, and Americans can be very, very easily challenged by fiction, let me tell you. Ha ha, I think I secretly feel the same way about reviews that ‘get it’. Weird. Hm, interesting, about ‘Portraits’. I mean that it’s possibly better on the conceptual level. I mean, yeah. Me, I’m all top-loaded at the moment, and I can hardly remember the last time I wasn’t, and I’m concentrating on the ‘lucky me’ aspect there. Good day, sir! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Well, then I won’t even bother investigating this Peterson fellow. Trolling just seems a chickenshit medium. Whack-a-mole. ** Tom K, Hi, Tom! Very nice to see you, man! Awesome that you’re finishing your novel. Don’t be doomy about its prospects, though. Doom is poisonous. I saw an email from you, but I haven’t opened it yet. I will. Obviously, I’m sure I would love to have any post you’re thinking of. Love to you. ** KHt@n, I’m only worried that I will miss this weird apartment just because, you know, weirdness can get stuck. Really does sound like you need to move. Are you, like, actively hunting or, I don’t know, looking at rental sites or something? ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Oh, you’re coming too ‘Them’ tonight, cool, thanks. I hope it’s a good one. It’s different every night. I guess it hasn’t been bad in any way so far, but sometimes it kind of soars, and because the physical part is improvised within tight structures, it’s hard to predict when and how things click. ‘Redhead’ sounds very interesting, of course. ** Caitie, Hey there! My pleasure. I’m glad it was okay and, yeah, keep me up on what it becomes, cool. I only knew Michael Amnasan a little through Kevin Killian and Dodie Bellamy. He was very shy and hard to talk with, for me at least. I like his writing. I really like his first book ‘I Can’t Distinguish Opposites’. Sleep? I like it. It doesn’t generally give me too much trouble except that I get very bad jet lag. I need at least 7 3/4 hours per night or I get mentally winded. You and sleep? Take care. ** Right. This old, restored post is a really simple one, obviously, but I’ve always thought it was really nice. See you tomorrow,.

10 Comments

  1. Steve Erickson

    Here’s a list of my favorite films released theatrically or on VOD in the U.S. by this point (that rule leaves out forthcoming releases like SORRY TO BOTHER YOU & NOTES ON AN APPEARANCE and films still languishing without distribution like ALI AQA, THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL & I REMEMBER THE CROWS, but I will be honoring them at year’s end).
    1. DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN? (Travis Wilkerson)
    2. ANGELS WEAR WHITE (Vivian Qu)
    3. REVENGE (Coralie Fargeat)
    4. BLACK PANTHER (Ryan Coogler)
    5. ZAMA (Lucrecia Martel)
    6. THE GREEN FOG (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson)
    7. 24 FRAMES (Abbas Kiarostami)
    8. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (Morgan Neville)
    9. DISCREET (Travis Matthews)
    10. ARABY (Joao Dumas & Affonso Uchoa)

    • Steve Erickson

      On the Facebook music discussion group I’m on, someone posted “Vote whether David Bowie or Lil Pump is a better artist.” Damn, the trolling in the comments is hard, my favorite being “who would vote for an old pedophile over the greatest trapper of all time?” If anyone saying things like “Bowie never wrote a song as good as ‘Gucci Gang’ ” is serious…wow, I’m really old.

  2. _Black_Acrylic

    Nice stack of readers, it’s always a pleasure to see folk lost in the printed word.

    Today I posted 2 copies of the Yuck ‘n Yum Compendium to the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, and tomorrow I meet the guy from the DCA shop who’s wanting it for display on their shelves. Also Glasgow Zine Fest have gotten in touch to ask if we’d like to give a talk at their 2019 event, while Becca from YNY is taking Compendiums along to the forthcoming Zine Fair in Birmingham. So things are moving along, I’m happy to say.

  3. Kyler

    I remember this stack of readers as one of my favorite posts of yours. Happy last 3 shows! Wish I could see it again, but have to work on these last days before the heat wave. You timed your return well Dennis! Hope to see you again – if not, safe trip back.

  4. Chris Dankland

    hi dennis !!

    i just scooped up some tickets to see Them on thursday night !! so jennifer and i will be there in the audience that night. we’re very excited !!

    sorry that i’ve been so out of loop lately, i’ve been pretty distracted with things — we just got back from vacation to phoenix, which is where we’re gonna move in few months. we’re both pretty tired of Pennsylvania, and we want a change. jennifer has an aunt that she is very close to who lives down there, so we spent some time with her, then drove to santa fe (which is an extremely boring town, imo– the only fun thing we did there was to drive two hours to Colorado to buy legal weed for the first time), then drove back to phoenix and spent a few days exploring the city and looking for apartments around phoenix.

    congratulations on Zac’s Coral Reef !! i read it and it was amazing — i haven’t had much time to collect my thoughts, but when/if you have some time, would u be interested in being interviewed about it for xray? i wouldn’t want to intrude too much on your time, which i know is highly busy, but i’ve built up a lot of thoughts about the gif books over the years and i’m curious to ask u some specific questions about Coral Reef, if you’re interested. (if not, no worries)

    i sincerely hope that we get to say hello to u after the show !! but i don’t know if you’ll have time or not. if u don’t, i totally understand and i’m very happy to see the show and cheer in the audience for ya. i feel so stoked that i’ll get a chance to hear u read and see the show !!

    talk to u later !! i hope you’re having a fun and satisfying week — take care

  5. Ke,E*e>on

    The apartment sounds kind of freaky. There is something weird about my copy of Them. It is near me right now, randomly in a box I didnt know was here. I will start looking for a new place in a few months. Making the Florida or no decision. Pretty sure its time to move to where pot is legal and completely change my life. Take a job with half the stress and half the pay. Trade the luxury for cement. Snap out of it and write. “No read book. Kill book!” haha. Been reading a biography of Custer and a book about Wu-style Tai Chi. I read the Custer book with great joy and a horrible sense of tragedy. I love the readers. I want to make love to all their minds as they read.

  6. Bill

    I don’t remember this day, but it of course has my whole-hearted endorsement. I still kind of miss the old “cute guys reading books” website.

    Just got back from “Hereditary”. Quite a few good ideas (check out the trailer, which I thought was super promising), but I thought the execution was bungled, ruined by a few cheap “startle” moments, and tired soap operatic gestures. There are some fine moments on the soundtrack, but it became too intrusive quite often. And the whole thing umm could be shorter.

    Bill

  7. JM

    inspired at all by james benning’s “readers”? either way, benning has a reading movie coming out soon 🙂

    i just watched dario argento’s “giallo” which is very bizarre, all about being an american and wanting to shift ur skin into that of an italian. crazy movie, as it reverses this idea textually i.e. the skin of an american movie holds an italian movie inside it, etc….

    i’m very antsy on the People end of things lately. meets without connects connects without meets etc. dog seems similarly antsy. zzzzzzzzzz because the top loaded stuff knows it’s irrational !!!

    j

  8. Caitie

    Dearest Dennis,

    My mother is a community worker, she’s not supposed to tell me stories because CONFIDENTIALITY but sometimes they slippery out. Last week she told me about how she met with this 21 year old guy who’s been kicked out of his house (currently homeless) without a job, money or food. His name is Dennis too – there is something deeply important about this, the names and the fact that he is out there on the street tonight in my town – in my spaces. The name Dennis has attached you two – like an umbilical cord attached to your mouths and hearts, feeding feeding bleeding and taking. It feels weird to be a spectator in this process – watching his homelessness through my mother, and watching your daily posts, trails you leave of yourself. Do you know why your parents named Dennis? And do you know any Caities in your life? Do you know any Olivias? I’m glad I’m talking to you now, it lessens the uh vertigo of watching it all turn over.

    Yes! I gather that Amnasan is a bit socially awkward there are clips on Youtube of him at readings and it seems to me that he doesn’t know how to talk – I mean that in the most complimentary sense, it’s a positive thing because it means that Amnasan has definitely found the right form. I don’t think he communicates how he wants to when it comes to speech and that’s important. I adore his work and I agree about ‘Cant Distinguish Opposites’ – it might be my favourite although I haven’t read his ‘Liar’ yet. The only Killian I’ve read is his ‘Argento Series’ which is completely gorgeous, and the only Bellamy I’ve read is her ‘When the Sick Rule the World’ which is again completely gorgeous – although I think her awe of Kathy Acker gets in the way of her doing something about her awe (hope that makes sense) – which not a bad thing, just a very evident thing.

    Sleep and I are ok, we shake hands and are very courteous but I occasionally will cheat and have naps 🙁 I don’t like that I nap during the day! Makes me feel LAyyyZEEE AND THERE’S SO MUCH ELSE I COULD BE DOING!
    Liking the term “mentally winded” by the way, never heard that before 🙂 too bad about jet lag, must be groggy.

    Sorry this is a particularly long message! Yikes! Look at all my gobbledygoo!
    Hope your day has been either cleansingly clear or meaningfully messy or however you like it most 🙂

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