* (restored/Halloween countdown post #15)
*
p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, Oh, sure. If he even nibbles, I’ll be surprised. Good, glad the waiting time works. Just send it along over the next couple of weeks or so, I’ll set it up when I get some downtime in LA. Thanks, pal. ** David Ehrenstein, Ah, gotcha *punches myself lightly in the head* ** malcolm, Hi, malcolm. I’m pretty sure my friend/film collaborator Zac Farley and I will be going to see the event tomorrow night. That’s a great festival, and we’ve been too busy to go so far, so your event is a great nudge. Gosh, thank you so much for the really kind words about my work. That’s amazing, thank you. If I get to bump into Alexander at the event, I’ll say hi and tell him how I ended up there via you. This won’t surprise you, but relationships I’ve had that have read as the most unhealthy to people on their outside have often been the most valuable to me. And to my work. So, no askance input from me about your relationship with him, for sure. Intense love is the source of all sources. So, do you mostly do your creative work in film? What else have you made or been involved with? Yeah, come to Paris sometime. It’s great, I love it. I’ll show you the highlights. Great talking with you! ** politekid, Big O! I’m surprised too. Just one of those things. For some reason I always get her mixed up with Beryl Bainbridge, which makes no sense. But it’s literally the only thing of hers I’ve read. I’ll try your faves. I don’t know what I’d think if I actually saw her work staged. I saw a clip from the production of ‘Here We Go’, and it made me cringe it was so actorly and emphatic. I don’t know of Martin Crimp either. Another search on the way. Thanks about LA. We’re very psyched. We’ve been waiting to get to this point of physically starting the thing for three years. We leave on Monday right after I launch a last pre-vacation post. Research as in reading stuff mainly? Ace that cold. I think Serpents Tail is going to reissue ‘Jack the Modernist’. They’re doing this relaunching of ST ‘classics’ series, with ‘Closer’ among the first upcoming batch, and I think they said ‘JtM’ is in the works. Yay and sufficient antihistamines or whatever works to you, buddy! ** Dominik, Hi!!! The post was an education for me too. I guess you could scuba dive in a swimming pool? Might get old fast, I guess. Your love of yesterday could be me every day of my life. Love making it untrue that all of my t-shirts have holes in them, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Me too, re: investigating her further. Hopefully when you go in in-person you can get them to lock down everything you need and make them feel like total jerks that they haven’t yet. ** Steve Erickson, I’m one of this seemingly rare people who has no interest whatsoever in seeing what Harry Styles’s ass looks like. Everyone, Want to know what Steve thought of Harry Styles’s performance as a gay guy and the film in which he does that aka ‘My Policeman’? Click. There are few musical units that wouldn’t be improved by having Dan Bejar as their ghost writer. Where can I read your review? Oh, I guess I can find it on my own, duh. ** l@rst, L-man. No, I’ve never heard of David Biespiel. Sounds great. Well, everything you’re up to sounds great. You’re like the serious Renaissance Man. Obviously, I want to see as many souvenirs as possible. Yeah, countdown to Monday’s 11 hour 45 minute (ugh!) flight for me. Biggest Friday! ** Paul Curran, Hey, hey. Look up above, I’ve given your post a slightly creepier or at least more relentlessly creepy twin brother. Love, me. ** Tea, Hi. Ha ha, that’s a beautiful phrase: ‘resting bitch face’, especially since I can’t quite picture what that would look like. You deserve the R&R. I need to finish something so I can join you. In some way writing should always be practicing, no? I don’t know, that felt right when I typed it. I gave up long ago trying to make the sex in my work sexy. I think I just try to make it simultaneously clinical and sort of insane. Our something. ** Jeff J, Oh, wow, interesting about your longterm interest in her work and even directing a play of hers! I looked at some clips of productions of her plays online, and I kind of hated every single one of them. They just seemed to be trying to compete with her text’s inherent completeness by absorbing the language into ridiculously over the top yet utterly predictable theatricality or something. Right, I forgot about the pandemic’s hothouse effect. One thing for sure is that we’ll have to reimagine the haunted house since we can’t design and lay it out until we find the location and see how the home’s interior its set up. We have a placeholder haunt in the script that I hope against hope that we can realise as closely as possible, but we may well need to totally reconfigure it. Otherwise, we always fiddle with the scripts once we’ve cast the roles and see what the performers’ strengths and weaknesses are. Ideally, we’ll be able to cast most of the main roles on this trip, and that’ll lead to some finessing, yeah. Otherwise, we’re pretty solidly happy with the script. We’ve been working on it for four years, so it’s pretty polished. Thanks for asking, pal. How’s your novel going? ** Brian, Hey. It’s good because it’s a play but I think it also works as just a text you can read for its beauty while play with it very freely in your head. That’s kind of rare about the texts of plays, I think. Agree about what’s actually scary in horror movies as opposed to what tells you, ‘I’m scary’. See, I’m so out of it about Hesse that I didn’t even know people still read him just to read him. When I was a teen, his stuff was a go-to for arty hippie kids. It’s kind of cool to know people still seek his thing out for pleasure. Obviously, I need to re-check him out and know what I’m even talking about. Today should be pretty clockwork okay for me, so I’ll gift you, oh, 80% of whatever luck I had in store. Now watch me trip and fall down the metro stairs and break my neck, ha ha. ** Niko, Hi, Niko. Glad my blabbing aloud helped. Yeah, you have to be careful not to tamper with the personal and deep stuff. If you’re that far long in your polishing, maybe you can concentrate on the feeling and stuff and let the style/structure leak like a dam a little. My last novel ‘I Wished’ was very personal and vulnerable, and it was really tricky to get the balance right, so I hear you. Thank you about ‘Period’ and ‘Try’. What you say about their builds is very true to my mind and wise, thank you. Please feel free to talk with me anytime if it helps. My true pleasure. ** h now j, Thank you, j formerly h! I intend to both be as productive as possible in LA (film) and have as much fun as possible (Halloween). Great, great luck re: your dream job. Hugs and kisses in meta-return, my friend! ** Okay. So it’s back to Halloween with a vengeance today. I restored that thing up top because I obviously like that kind of thing and because I thought it would make Paul Curran’s recent post feel less lonely. Have fun with the rampage if you can. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
*
Hi!!
Okay, I might be able to scuba dive in a swimming pool. It probably wouldn’t feel like a nightmare. But it wouldn’t be too spectacular either, no, haha.
Unfortunately, my love of yesterday was pretty typical of me too, although I’m trying my best to keep up with my mail. Even the unpleasant ones…
Haha, I know where your love came from. I find myself there from time to time too… Did he make an intact T-shirt appear miraculously from the guts of your closet…? Satan worshipper love reading Marilyn Manson’s autobiography and being mightily disappointed, Od.
hi dennis! so glad you’ll be there! means the world to me, truly. most of my creative work is in film, yes, but so far i actually haven’t done much. i call myself a “filmmaker who doesn’t make films” as a joke sometimes. i really badly want to write and direct. i don’t really have anything i’ve made that i’m proud of yet. i guess other than knife play, the short you’ll be seeing, but my role in that was mostly just coming up with the plot + applying all the fake blood you’ll be seeing. i gave full creative control to alexander. i do eventually want to shoot my own version of the same idea, but in a more narrative, realist way as opposed to alexander’s abstract experimental take on it.
but yeah, being 21, living in nova scotia, the pandemic, etc have kept me from doing a lot of things i’d like to do. i do write a lot, and i have a lot of ideas for films in my head i’d like to make someday, but so far most of what i’ve made has been lyric videos for songs i like. not even for people who want to pay me, just for my own enjoyment. it’s hard when you barely know anybody where you live, and even less people interested in acting. i’ve attempted to make several shorts starring myself as the only character but they always get really boring and sad so i stop shooting pretty quickly. i’m working on a script right now though that i actually got the idea for while reading i wished. alexander says it’s the best thing i’ve ever come up with. i feel really good about it and am gonna do my best to finally find some actors and shoot it in the winter. the dream is shooting it as an 80 minute film starring ethan hawke but i think ill make it as a 25 minute short film first as a proof of concept, you know? once i have a complete draft of the script i’d love to send it to you, if you’re interested.
for the last 2 years pretty much every video i’ve shot has been on tape using my parents old videocamera they bought a year before i was born. the second act of knife play was shot on it! i just love the look of tape and the process of filming and then converting to digital, even if my equipment sucks and the final product looks like shit sometimes. very inspired by gregg araki, particularly his film totally fucked up (sidebar: i found out the other day there’s a published editions of the screenplays of that film + the living end, featuring forewords by you and richard linklater, who’s before trilogy i’ve seen over 20 times (before sunset is my favourite movie ever… i’ve got to get to paris!) but i can’t find it for purchase for less than $800… i’d love to get my hands on one someday though), as well as my parents old home movies, todd solondz, john waters, agnès varda, jafar panahi, maddy ellwanger, etc
anyways, i could talk about so many other things, i could leave you a whole novel in this comment section, but i’ll cut myself off before it gets any longer. ill be back in the comments tomorrow night so you can let me know your thoughts about the film on sunday! very proud that an idea of mine will be shown on the big screen for the first time. feels pretty surreal. hope you enjoy! thank you!!
mate, you from NS, or there for school? i was born and raised there before moving to mtl. love to see some NS love on the DCblog.
born in antigonish and lived in cape breton for the first 18 years of my life before moving to dartmouth!
Mister Pickles for the win!
Satan in High Heels
I’m happy to see that Britney has sorted herself out in the years since the baldheaded nervous breakdown period shown here. Now that the conservatorship with her father has ended, she dances around nude on Instagram with emoticons covering up her rude bits and it’s somehow a lot more wholesome like this.
Re the flat, if the documents are still not there, then duplicates will be sent by recorded delivery on Monday. Once that is done then it’s just a question of paying for the thing and hopefully then, the keys will be mine.
This day is a huge sigil to summon the dark lord and have him bless your film shoot, right?
I tried watching an early ’70s documentary on the Church of Satan last spring, but it was surprisingly dull. Anton LaVey’s neighbors’ opinions about him quickly lose their comic value. But despite the CoS’ roots in libertarianism and ties to the far right, their members seem astonishingly pro-gay for that period.
I’m still writing my review of the new 1975 album, so it hasn’t been published yet, but my take on A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS is on Medium here: https://medium.com/@stevenerickson/how-to-remain-a-rock-star-and-get-great-reviews-in-2018-db1caabb0f47
Hail Satan.
How are you Dennis? Nice to see this Satanic stack of diabolical demons tottering terrifyingly on your blistering blog.
I watched PGL Last night and just want to say how much I loved it and thanks to you and Zac for making something so beautiful. What a movie! My heart and mind were reeling from the opening to the amazing ending and even today I’m still feeling under it’s spell. Seriously, everything about it really got me – the script, the performances, the direction, the overall look and feel, everything! – real magic. And lots of laughs! Hannah wants to watch the last half hour again this evening as she got distracted by work stuff and I couldn’t be happier to! I don’t know what else to say, but man, hats off to you and Zac and everyone involved. And now I get even more excited for Room Temperature!!!
Sorry to gush, but I had to share.
Hope you have a lovely weekend.
Permanently Green Love,
Jamie
oh yeah, looking up productions of Churchill is always… a gamble. i like to think Britain particularly has a problem with “theatricality” and the actorly, but maybe that’s a kind of flattery and it’s just everywhere. anyway, the best plays seem to be the ones that are impossible to stage at all. Martin Crimp is maybe the biggest grandaddy of experimental theatre here, except Edward Bond perhaps? though Crimp’s a little later — In Yer Face era. _Attempts on Her Life_ is his best (regarded) work. i don’t like his work much but to be fair i’ve never seen him on the stage, only read him. i do like the fact that he’s so polarising.
yes, research = reading, at least for now. i’d like to do some interviews too, but apparently any work which even grazes another human being has to be run through a couple of ethics committees, which, yeah, i guess that’s important. but i don’t like it. i have some stuff to write (and ofc i’ll be using the time to jumpstart my other projects). still, it’s all very up in the air. the first year of a phd is a completely mystery. i have a list of books to read several metres long, so that’s a start. anything tip top i’ll throw your way, or save ’em for the end of yr list. fantastic news about JtM — and Closer! (i know it’s not the important thing, per se, but in my personal experience the Serpent’s Tail classics sell v well over here. fingers crossed in knots.)
i’m psyched (through clouds of xylometazoline) that you’re so psyched. destroy LA!! leave it quivering!!
ps @_Black_Acrylic yesterday: haha, i’m flattered that you’re envious. i’ve definitely come across as way more ‘in a scene’ than i am.
“RBF” is definitely a wonderful phrase, ha. I just look unimpressed and tired all the time. When I was younger, people would call my mom and tell her that I’d looked unhappy with my Xmas gifts or whatever. But, in fact, it’s just how I look.
You should get some R&R after filming. Though I’m quite sure the process hardly ends there. And you’re totally right there re:writing and practicing. I had to produce a whole lot of garbage until I finally wrote something I’m proud of.
I’d say you do insane and clinical well. I enjoy the sex in your work—though not really in an erotic sense (the written word doesn’t do it for me in general). It shows a side of it not often touched upon, and I appreciate that immensely. I feel like I almost get to “sexy” with mine, but I just can’t think with my head and my dick at the same time. That seems to be the problem.
Hey Dennis – Nice Satan stack today! A fun scroll.
I’ve seen a few terrible Churchill productions as well. They were highly acclaimed but dreadful. I’ve also seen a couple of stellar ones, primarily of her earlier work. In those productions, the actors underplayed and the action was simple to the point of starkness. That seemed to do the trick. That approach worked well when I tackled Fen. So much is there in the language the performers don’t have to do much to activate it. Like Pinter, I suspect her plays only work on stage with a very specific stylization. I’d definitely recommend reading more of her work.
My trilogy is coming along, thanks. This week I finished a draft of the third book. Now I need to figure out how I’m going to tackle revising all three. First book needs a thorough rewrite, not sure about the others yet.
For the casting in LA, do you already have a line on any possible performers? How’re you going about looking for folks?
Ha, ha, Love it to hell and back, Dennis!!! Thanks for the cacodemonic companionship.. ALL HAIL! Love to you x 666!
Hey, Dennis,
As I may have mentioned before, in my midteens I was way into witchcraft symbolism and folklore—not religiously or anything, just as some aesthetic obsession—so today’s post proved a treat, naturally. And definitely an excellent chaser to the Curran post. Yes, the play isn’t done a disservice by being transposed into written text at all, unlike most plays (and certainly all screenplays). This edition also seemed unusually attentive to just the sheer visual quality of the text and the design and everything, which one doesn’t often see with standard transpositions of scripts to book format. Good stuff. Well, I don’t know how many people read him just to read him anymore. If I ever hear him mentioned it’s about “Siddartha”, which, given its perplexing semi-popularity among Econ/entrepreneur types, I’ve fully avoided thus far. Although apparently “Demian” (probably my fave) is huge in South Korea, interestingly. He’s a curious writer for me to gravitate to, because I don’t identify with the hippie stuff at all, certainly not the whole “spiritual” journey that’s usually talked about as being kind of at the center of his work. But he does sometimes capture that extremely early twenties feeling of not knowing what the fuck you’re doing or where you need to go pretty well, and I guess I need the comfort of that sometimes. God—or perhaps Satan?—forbid that even joked-at metro tumble; I’d rather risk it myself. May the weekend bring no similarly ill-starred omens.
Hey Dennis, I wanna ask one more thing, since you brought up ‘I Wished’. I can’t even imagine how much contemplation and fine-tuning it took to place all those interconnected scenes, references and symbols and hit them rhythmically in the right order to produce that novel’s passage – it has a pure sound that is very ambiguous, because as a reader I can trace the novel’s effect back to its inner elements, but actually it’s something in-between those elements that generates the effect on me. So I wanna ask, did you have any key reference texts, especially novels, by other authors which helped you find the way to build the ‘I Wished’ puzzle?