The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Scale Model *

* (restored)

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A Canadian guy named Joe has been digging out the basement of his house using nothing but radio-controlled scale model construction equipment… since 1997. At an average rate of eight or nine cubic feet of earth moved each year, the process has been absolutely glacial. But what do you expect when every morning he drives his little excavator on its transport truck down to the basement, unloads it, and then uses it to dig out the basement walls. Then Joe uses the excavators to load R/C trucks and they work their way up a spiral ramp to the basement window where the soil gets dumped outside. Then, once it’s outside, he uses bulldozers to consolidate the pile of excavated dirt.

 

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Tom McKenzie tweeted an image after finding a model of the Taj Mahal made from toast at the end of his street near Queens Road Peckham station.

 

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The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety Research Center, a $40 million hangar of destruction in South Carolina, is where experts can destroy full scale scale model houses with rainstorms, hail, tornadoes and wildfire. The 21,000 square foot test chamber is as tall as a six-story building, and big enough to accommodate nine 2,300 square foot model homes at the same time.

 

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There are two things that are incredibly difficult to represent in scale — water and flight — but difficult doesn’t mean impossible. A Tamiya 1/350 King George by Chris Flodberg, is my pick as best build of the year. I have never seen the action of water captured as realistically as Chris has done on this model. You can practically hear the sound of the water rushing over the deck of the ship. You can see the ship being tossed from side to side over the waves. Just an amazing example of scale modeling.

 

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Wim Delvoye Concrete Mixer (scale model), 2013. Laser-cut stainless

 

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This model Titanic sinks like the way it happened irl

 

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Emilio Ruiz del Río was responsible for many of the special effect foreground miniatures for David Lynch’s film Dune. These pictures are from his personal collection, and were kindly supplied by his son-in-law.

 

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Phil Collins saved Mark Lemon’s scale model of the Alamo from being lost to history. Visitors to San Antonio can see the model at the History Shop on E. Houston Street. Narration by the rock star helps walk you through the story of the historic battle.

 

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Bringing a semi to a Scalextric party

 

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A 75-meter-long ice pool at Aker Arctic Technology Inc’s ice laboratory, in Helsinki, Finland. The company specializes in the design, testing, evaluation, simulation and development of icebreakers.

 

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I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND ANY OTHER ON THE NET. CHECK OUT THE ORIGINAL ON GOOGLE IMAGES TO SEE JUST HOW GOOD THIS IS……….. A PERFECT ALMOST LIFE SIZED REPRODUCTION OF THE SAD DEFORMED FORM OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS MEN IN ENGLISH HISTORY. THIS IS A ‘ONE OFF’ HAND MADE REPRODUCTION MODELLED IN GREAT DETAIL. A message to those of you who are already familiar with my work…… I know this figure is more expensive than I usually list – but an enormous mount of time and materials has been invested in getting it right. Otherwise it would be an insult to someone as important as John Merrick. IT IS AN ORIGINAL. THIS IS A UNIQUE PIECE OF ORIGINAL WORK. A UNIQUE HAND MADE PIECE OF GENUINE FLESHKRAFTER ART. THE PHOTOS SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS ABOUT THIS DISTURBING FULL SIZED ITEM. THESE DETAILED AND UNIQUE REPLICAS HAVE A REAL LEATHERY FINISH AND LOOK JUST LIKE THE REAL THING. THEY MAKE A UNIQUE AND UNUSUAL FLOOR ORNAMENT OR WOULD NOT LOOK OUT OF PLACE SURROUNDED BY ANTIQUITIES. I AM A PROFESSIONAL ARTIST WITH SERIOUS WORK IN MUSEUMS ALL OVER THE WORLD.

 

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Walt Disney proudly recapping where Disneyland was in 1966. Check out the working “It’s a Small World” scale model clock.

 

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This is my 16th K’nex roller coaster, featuring a cable launch, volcano theming, and an industrial control panel. Krakatoa took 2 months to build from start to finish. The ride concept was inspired by Volcano: The Blast Coaster and Intamin’s hydraulic launch system. The ride is automated with an Arduino Uno, 6 micro servo motors, and 1 contact switch. The control panel uses Allen-Bradley buttons and switches, and it allows you to run the ride with 2 trains in either manual or automatic mode.

 

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An investment forum in Sochi presented the scale model for the new ski resort “Logo-Naki.” All went well until the guests noticed the tiny figures having sex, crashed skiers, dead animals run over by cars, and several suicides.

 

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The Iowa State University’s Tornado/Microburst Simulator can generate a translating microburst-like jet (6.0 ft diameter) and a tornado-like vortex (4.0 ft diameter) for model testing, in order to understand the effects of tornados on buildings and other structures.

 

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If there ever was such a thing as a dream job, it would be a lifelong Marvel comic book fan getting to work on The Avengers live action film. Well, that’s me. I helped build the model set for the Thor/Loki confrontation on a rocky cliff dubbed The Promontory. The following are progress photos from start to finish. It also is an example of many big budget movie sets these days that are a small section of real surface that get extended digitally.I was one of a crew of sculptors sent to Albuquerque, NM to be part of set construction.

 

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After leaving this page and stepping back into the build environment, it shocks how much the building across from you, with its cheap-looking touches of faux masonry or abundant technical supplies, starts to evoke similarities with this so called “horrific, dystopian, retro past aesthetic” concert hall by Isaïe Bloch. What or who influenced this project? IB: Ship dismantling, collapse, Ferropolis, postmodernism, Juliaan Lampens, Filip Dujardin, Robert Gilson, Étienne-Louis Boullée, Gehard Demetz. Whose work is currently on your radar? IB: Abhominal, kokkugia, Preston Scott Cohen, former Studio Prix students.

 

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12″ diameter cake, almost entirely edible with working train and tracks made of candies and sugar. This was made by myself. It features a station, “wooden” trestle bridge, five buildings all with working (inedible) lights and a working, edible water wheel. It took ages to build and was done as a fun to do cake project but I got a bit carried away.

 

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Martin Müller is a aeroplane modelling genius. He made this perfectly functional Airbus A310-200 at a 1:22 scale and flew it during an indoor airshow in Leipzing, Germany, three years ago.

 

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In the film Cleopatra (1963), when Cleopatra arrives in Rome, you can see the shadows of the movie set scaffolding on the black sphynx.

 

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Archaeological dig begins to unearth scale model of one of World War One’s bloodiest battlefields created by German prisoners of war.

 

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Designer Richard Clarkson created the Levitating Storm Cloud Project, which is placed on a Bluetooth speaker, floating a few centimeters above its base.

 

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A company specializing in creating custom props, mnfx, created these scale model works for Trex Decking & Railing as part of a marketing campaign. This scale model decks were constructed using actual Trex decking material that was milled down into 1:12 scale pieces and assembled into the models you see below.

 

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This is the world’s largest shake table earthquake simulator in Miki City, near Kobe, Japan. Measuring approximately 65 feet by 49 feet, the table can support 1:1 scale building experiments weighing up to 2.5 million pounds, like the million-pound seven-story condominium below, subjected to a simulated 6.7 magnitude earthquake.

 

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Movie sets


Inception


Star Trek


Godzilla


Torbruk


The Da Vinci Code


Goldeneye


Batman


Rear Window


The Medusa Touch


Blade Runner 2049


The Impossible


Battleship Earth


Escape from New York


Poltergeist

 

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Adam Savage Builds a Huge Scale Model of the Hedge Maze From Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

 

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Since the mid-1970s, American artist Jim Casebere has been making photographs of tabletop models which he builds in his studio. The subject of his work ranges from suburban interiors to institutional structures, inspired by political events or social issues. In his photographs, these models often give the impression of reality. Each image transports viewers into an ambiguous environment, evoking a sense of emotional place.

 

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The artist Peter Root, from Guernsey, spent 40 hours standing 100,000 staples on end to build his latest work of art: a scale model replica of New York City made from staples.

 

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Alec Garrard, 78, has dedicated a massive 33,000 hours to constructing the ancient Herod’s Temple, which measures a whopping 20ft by 12ft. The pensioner has hand-baked and painted every clay brick and tile and even sculpted 4,000 tiny human figures to populate the courtyards. “I’ve always loved making models and as I was getting older I started to think about making one big project which would see me through to the end of my life,” he said. “I have an interest in buildings and religion so I thought maybe I could combine the two and I came up with the idea of doing the Temple. I’d seen one or two examples of it in Biblical exhibitions, but I thought they were rubbish and I knew I could do better.” He says his wife Kathleen thinks he is mad. “She wishes she’d married a normal person”.

 

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7mm


4.75mm


3.2mm


2.4mm


1.6mm

 

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The Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division’s newly renovated “Indoor Ocean”, called the Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin (MASK) facility, helps the Navy to understand extreme maritime circumstances. MASK was built in 1962, and it’s still the Navy’s biggest wave pool: 360 feet long, 240 feet wide, and holds approximately 12 million gallons of water.

 

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There is a life-size chocolate statue of Vladimir Putin — and he’s the only one who’s allowed to eat it. The sculptor, Nikita Gusev, said Putin has the perfect personality to be personified in a chocolate statue. “On one hand the chocolate is soft and malleable, on the other side and it can be very hard,” he told Reuters. “It is very flexible, it can take any form. I think this material really suits [Putin] because he is like that, in different situations he can be different, sometimes soft, sometimes hard.” More than 150 pounds of chocolate were used in the creation of the statue.

 

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Addams Family Dark Ride model kit

 

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The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

 

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Free Shipping 1/6 Scale Movie Action Figure Model Toys Head Sculpt Accessories For 12″ Action Figure Model

 

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Scott Weaver’s piece, made with over 100,000 toothpicks over the course of 35 years, is a depiction of San Francisco, with multiple ball runs that allow you to go on “tours” of different parts of the city.

 

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Shakira Statue in Barranquilla, Colombia

 

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An Estonian start-up is offering a service to 3D print your unborn baby for 200 euro ($214) based on a 3D ultrasound. Customers receive the print to their door when they order. Timmu Toke, CEO of Wolfprint 3D, said the idea came after a friend wanted her unborn baby 3D printed but there were no services around.

 

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Walthers Cornerstone Skyview Drive-In Model Kit: Actually Watch & Hear Your Favorite Movies on the Big Screen Any Time! Simply Slide Your Tablet into the Screen to Bring Your Drive-In to Life – Remove at Any Time. Works with Most 7″ Tablets including Apple(R) Ipad mini, Amazon(R) Kindle Fire, Samsung(R) Galaxy Tab 2.0 and Many More (sold separately). Compatible with Tablets up to 7-7/8 x 5-5/16″ (20 x 13.4 cm) and from 9/32 to 15/32″ (0.7cm to 12mm) Thick . Enjoy Full Sound Quality from Your Tablet Through Open Ports in Rear of Screen.

 

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Dry Ice and LEDs Make Drifting RC Cars Look Even More Realistic

 

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At the San Francisco Bay Model visitor’s center in Sausalito, California, LEDs indicate the progress of fresh water from Sierra snows down the rivers and out to the bay and Pacific beyond.

 

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The largest small-scale model ever built, representing 41% of the US in miniature, was the Mississippi River Basin Model Waterways Experiment Station, located near Clinton, Mississippi. It was a large-scale hydraulic model of the entire Mississippi River basin, covering an area of 200 acres. The model was built from 1943 to 1966 and in operation from 1949 until 1973. In 1964, the site was opened to visitors for self-guided tours, and facilities included an assembly centre, 40 ft observation tower, operation observation room, and elevated platforms, drawing about 5000 visitors a year. The cost of maintaining the site as a tourist attraction was too high, so the model was abandoned and became overgrown.

 

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The Haunted Mansion

 

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Storefronts

 

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Action Figures

 

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Withstanding A Rogue Wave

 

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Welcome to ScaleModel World the greatest model show on earth. Scale ModelWorld is an annual exhibition held over two days every November. The show is organised and run by the International Plastic Modellers Society and since 1998 the venue has been The International Centre in Telford. Scale ModelWorld is without doubt the largest model show in the world encompassing all four halls of the Telford International Centre and is unmatched in its size and diversity which helps to attract the huge visitor numbers who come from not only the United Kingdom and Europe but from all over the world. Each year over overseas groups displayed and visitor numbers continue to grow.

 

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Long before the cast and crew of Zabriskie Point ever reached Carefree, a luxurious new housing development in the Arizona desert near Phoenix, the local citizens knew something out of the ordinary was happening in their parts. Over the weeks they had noticed a house being built several hundred yards off the main highway. As its form became more definite, they were astonished to see that it was an exact duplicate of the newest and most talked about dwelling in the Phoenix area, the $400,000 home of Carl Hovgard, tax research expert and founder of the Research Institute of America. However, they soon learned that only the exterior was being duplicated. The interior was just a skeleton. The mock-up was built in eight weeks by an MGM construction crew. A good deal of the material used in the original house was incorporated including a concrete slab roof, individually cast concrete blocks and stone for the entire front of the house. It cost more than $100,000. But its life was short. Filled with dynamite and gallons of gas and benzine, the house was guarded carefully and the exact time of the explosion was revealed to no one. Still, many local people lined the highway in front of the house in the late afternoon of demolition day. In ten seconds two-and-a-half-months’ worth of work vanished although it took hours for the fire to completely die out. There were, miraculously, no injuries and all 17 cameras operated perfectly. Michelangelo Antonioni would have two hours of footage from which to choose a few seconds for his crucial scene.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Jamie, Hey-ho, J. Uh, hm, I know they say ‘chewing the fat’. I’ve heard people say ‘chewing his cud’. Both of which seem different. I get it though, and I agree. My pleasure about the post. Yeah, excited to be close to finishing the film script and super anxious to lock it down because then we’ll have the always lengthy, no-fun fundraising phase, and I’m anxious to get that started. Yes, Zac and I will be there and pretty centrally ‘on show’ at the Lincoln Center event. Re: the TV show, we met with ARTE yesterday. They want us to greatly conventionalize the script and make everything more clarified, more explicit, make the narrative more direct, tie up every ‘loose end’, etc. — things our script is deliberately against doing. That wasn’t the slightest surprise to me because I guess I can be sort of a realist, but Gisele and Zac were shocked that they aren’t going to essentially let us do what we want and help us do that. As I think I’ve mentioned, Gisele has a very hard time compromising, and I’ve been telling her from the beginning that this project is going to involve a ton of compromise, but I guess she didn’t believe me. Me, I get practical. It sucks, and we have a ton of work to do, but I think, based on their specific suggestions, that we can find a way to satisfy them without ruining our project. Maybe, ideally. G. and Z. are taking a couple of days to digest the situation, and then we’ll talk and decide what to do. The producer problems are kind of on hold for a couple of days. So, yeah. I hope you can reengage your enthusiasm with your projects. I’m sure you will. Enthusiasm is the truth, right? Ennui and doubt are bad drugs. I think. Cool that the Writing Gang upped your interest. That Writing Gang is a sweet thing. Whoa, holy moly and awesome about Hannah getting the position! When will that start? And you’ll move there? What’s the trajectory? My Monday was just TV show overload. May Tuesday be like a walkthrough version of your all-time favorite movie. Colossal love, Dennis. ** David Ehrenstein, He was, and still is in absentia. Thank you about Lincoln Center. We’re thrilled to absolute bits. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Yes, Bob’s passing was … well, I guess I put it in that obituary in the post. There is in fact a book in the works of, I think, Bob’s collected writings that Sheree is overseeing. I think it’s pretty far along towards being published, but I haven’t heard a date or anything yet. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Yeah, Bob’s work was always about a lot more than mere self-violence and very much tied to his cystic fibrosis and his battle for control over his body with it. If France has HBO, I’m unaware of it. I’ll check to see if ‘The Tale’ will get a release here. You never know. Yes, Zac and I are thrilled and honored that you interviewed us about the film, thank you again so much. And if they’re into running the full talk, that would be a great bonus. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi, Dóra! I kind of laid out what happened at the ARTE meeting Jamie up above. Like I said, I wasn’t surprised. Basically, it’s Gisele’s call about what to do. I think we’ll do our best to give them some of what they want, hopefully enough. But, oh, ugh, it’ll mean so much work we’ll have to do. The meeting was so overwhelming that we delayed our talk with the producer until Wednesday so we can digest everything. Uh, no, I didn’t end up seeing art or movies. Later this week, though, I think, once the plans for the TV script are figured out. Nice that you hung with Anita, of course. Iceage concert! Say hi to Elias for me if you run into him offstage. Is anyone else playing at the festival that you’ll see and are excited to see? How was your day? ** Jes, Hi, Jes, welcome! And thank you very kindly. What’s going on with you? ** JM, Hi. I see, thank you very much for laying out your thoughts/take on ‘Speed Racer’. That’s very interesting. It’s been since the film’s original release that I’ve seen it, and I wasn’t thinking about it in that direction at all back then, and now I think I need to see it again. Yeah, thanks a lot. Fascinating. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Bob was a really swell guy. CF inspired his work, for sure, and it certainly effected his life pretty much every second. His life was not easy. Great that you’ll come see PGL, thank you! ** Mark Gluth, Hi. I will, jump in that is, but I do think I need to time it right while, at the same time, not being too cautious or precious with myself about the plunge. I think we can sort the ARTE thing. Gisele and Zac need to decide what they think we can and should do now. How great that you guys are coming to Paris, albeit a ways from now! At last! Of course I’d be happy to read with you. Let’s confer again a bit later in time about that because it’s hard for me to know what my schedule will be, especially where we’ll be with our new film and the TV series shoot and stuff, but, yeah, I think I’ll probably be here, and how ultra-cool! ** Cap’m, Hi, man! Of course I add my great thanks to yours on that front. I hope all is very well with you. ** Okay. I decided to restore today’s formerly dead post for reasons that I don’t specifically remember. See you tomorrow.

15 Comments

  1. Jamie

    What a post, Dennis! Delightful and delicious from start to end. Too many amazing things to name them all, but I have to mention that wee man and his Herod’s Temple – what dedication! – and the Isaie Bloch buildings do something weird and wonderful to my mind. I think you featured another building design by him in a previous post and it had the same effect. 10/10, gold star, thanks!
    Oyoyoy to your TV troubles. Great that you think you can satisfy ARTE without ruining it. I hope Zac and Gisele can come round to that too. Reminds me of meetings with animation companies where they told us that all the really cool things we wanted weren’t possible, or, more usually with us, affordable. Deflating, but then you start thinking round them and it gets fun again. How are you feeling about it today?
    Hannah’s new position should start in October. We’re having a bit of a time trying to figure out quite how things are going to work practically, but it looks like we’re both going to end up living in Brussels, but we need to have a long look at finances and all the other things that I spend most of my time trying to avoid thinking about. Maybe if Belgium win the World Cup it’ll seem even more appealing, but as I write that I can’t see how that would work. But I am supporting Belgium against France this evening. Sorry. I’m going to watch it in our local pub with my parents. Could be awful.
    A walkthrough version of my favourite movie? That’d be Spring Breakers and I’d like to be trapped in that day forever! Thanks for that wish.
    May your day be the opposite of your least favourite movie in every way.
    We are the world love,
    Jamie

  2. James Nulick

    Dennis,

    I remember this day. When I was a boy I had a metal Tonka truck, an earth mover, so props on the first few pictures. I also had a metal Tonka car hauler.

    My favorite book from 2018, so far, is Trip by Tao Lin. As for movies, I don’t get out much, but I did enjoy Unsane. I’m glad Steven Soderbergh came out of ‘retirement’ to make another film again, a film that shows just how ugly America is. I really liked Bubble, also an ugly American document. And Claire Foy’s hands in Unsane, Idk if they are really her hands or not. They are big, unwieldy, ugly, Teutonic. Her hands are bigger than mine! Soderbergh has a real gift for making people ugly, like the fat Weinstein character in The Girlfriend Experience (the film, not the series)..

    Peter Sotos has a new book coming out, it’s called Ingratitude. It will be released in August by Nine-Banded Books. The cover is disturbing, reminds me of my own near-abduction, so long ago.

    Much love to you, Dennis!
    James

  3. David Ehrenstein

    The Last Word in Scale models I “1941”

    It’s Marcel Proust’s Birthday

    As the saying goes “Life isn’t getting any longer ad Proust isn’t getting any shorter So Get Crackin !

  4. Amphibiouspeter

    Hey DC,

    Been absolutely ages – sorry. Love the scale models, there’s some great ones there, but I don’t think anything can top the toast Taj Mahal.

    I actually popped back today because I remember you had a good day of all the stuff people have made with roller coaster tycoon, and I just came accross one where a guy has made a functioning calculator. Thought I’d share: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RQGa0DPwes0&time_continue=342&ebc=ANyPxKqYKgHm8Di4WzCv53hx7YdrtQJ3UBKh5xVfcBwjfoTjmdTceJGYi6Xo9WgJeBfo5c72reaomXSz4aAMoIubHCnaApf1eQ

    Have a great day x

  5. Steve Erickson

    It’s a shame that your TV show will wind up being so watered-down. (I’m sorry if that sounds insulting, but from your description of the producers’ demands, it sounds like that’s going to be the consequence of them.) I tend to think of European TV as being freer than American – in the ’70s, German TV financed Ulrike Ottinger and Werner Schroeder films – but maybe that’s changed a lot.

    Are the Crass action figures real? That’s such an inspired idea! I should check out the Facebook page mentioned. Next, the Ex action figures!

  6. Bill

    Sorry to hear the ARTE project continues to be a drag, Dennis. Sometimes one has to significantly lower expectations…

    I loved this post before; great to see it revived. The Crass action figures seem to be real, but not available to the public:
    https://dangerousminds.net/comments/crass_anarcho-punk_action_figure_do_they_owe_us_a_plaything

    This will be one of many frenetic summer weeks, Dennis. Eek. Everyone needs a copy of this to keep them sane:
    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39313459-the-quay-brothers

    Bill

    Bill

  7. Jeff J

    Hey Dennis – Out of town with limited email so making this quick. Really enjoyed the Bob Flanagan day — the blog introduced me to the amazing slave sonnets ages ago and I’ve always been grateful. Nice to see these scale models as well.

    Congrats on the big NYC showcase for PGL – that’s fantastic! Can’t wait to see the movie and will see if I can swing a trip up for it.

    And on the other side of news, I hope things with ARTE improve. The project sounds like a bit of a sinkhole in terms of the amount of work that keeps being required.

    Been digging the new GBV – but it’s the first one I’ve checked out in a few years. How does it compare to their recent output?

    I made a big push with the new novel and finished the opening section, which is way too long and bloated. Seeing it all together gave me some ideas for trimming large parts of it and fine-tuning the voice going forward. So hopefully I can attend to that before long. Writing and arranging new songs with the band, aiming to do some recording early fall.

  8. _Black_Acrylic

    This is me back home in Leeds, where the heatwave is just as intense but it’s thankfully a bit more bearable right now in evening time. I loved yesterday’s Bob Flanagan sonnets and was grateful for the inclusion of his original texts. The man had such a remarkable way with language.

    Sounds as though the ARTE meeting turned out a qualified success, no? I’m sure negotiations and compromise must be big factors in creating anything for TV. Oh and congrats to France for making the World Cup final! I just hope England can make it through tomorrow as well.

  9. politekid

    hello again! jeez i disappeared once more, sorry.

    how is everyone?

    sounds like the show in NY went really well! i’m sorry to hear about the tv show above. though i’m glad you have a way to fix it — do you think you’re going to be able to get them to compromise too or is it a one-way conversation?

    beautiful post! (obviously i’d enjoy it.) and bob flanagan yesterday as well. quite odd to see him — i was ‘involved’ in a weird crowd last year who really held him up. the whole thing was unhealthy, i’m still processing it. but bob flanagan was fantastic. (which in fact reminds me of: i was writing an article on/hatchet job of kenneth goldsmith [long story] and i came across an interview with him where he explicitly name-dropped you, flanagan and kathy acker — ‘the world of punk writers’ — as inspirations. it struck me as odd? i dunno why, same crowd. [here it is: https://monoskop.org/images/4/44/Goldsmith_Guevara_Kenneth_Goldsmith_in_Conversation.pdf%5D)

    life is, well it happened to me again. left a job, got a job, so now i’m working retail in a couple of important but empty arts institutions. it gives me a lot of time to read. a friend of mine launched a spandex-based fashion line with a drag show, that was a lot of fun. my grandma had to go to hospital (she lives with my mum and me) — she’s ok now, but she is 99 (the sharpest 99yr old you’ve ever met), so it’s shaken us up a lot.

    the script is still slow progress (there’s always more to read) but i’ve actually started writing it! terrifying. and (not being as well read on theatre etc. as i ought to be) i’m still scared that i’m falling into cliches without realising. (the obvious answer is stop being scared of things, i guess.) another friend is very enthusiastic about doing another script of mine, which is gratifying, but he’s coming out of the polish avant-garde (grotowski et al), and some of his ideas are great and some of them… need work.

    this wasn’t supposed to be such a splurge, apologies. i hope you’re well!

  10. tomk

    hey man,

    I’ve been away a bit but from what I understand between you and Mark Gluth…is that you haven’t seen Twin Peaks yet? It was interesting seeing something again in a very structured and controlled way (even the manner in which it was released on Netflix in Peru was a week at a time) and the manner in which that allowed you to really absorb the piece(s)…There’s something in that I think despite it being, and I fully think of it in this way I think, an ’18 hour’ film.
    Also, I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen full stop and there was an interesting notion that emerged (which doesn’t ruin anything) while watching it regarding a strange relationship between Lynch/Malick…that I reckon could be pretty interesting and generative…and not just in the obvious moments where they touch/differ.

    Off to Spain on Friday and then London. School holidays!!! I’m knackered.

  11. tomk

    The gif of Walt Disney turning into/exploding (is turning into an explosion and is an explosion a turning in to) fireworks is hypnotizing/nightmarish/beautiful?

  12. Steve Erickson

    On a private music discussion group I belong to on Facebook, I did a brief post on the current viral meme of police departments making videos of cops lip-syncing to pop songs, said I wasted half an hour browsing through them on YouTube, and said they were all dull with one exception: a 2-minute clip of a cop in Tulsa lip-syncing an ’80s Bonnie Tyler song. So far, one person has responded, posting “there are no exceptions. all cops are complicit in state violence.” The group has 42,000 members, and while I had to agree to a long list of rules to join, I saw someone break one of those rules two days after I joined. The point of my post was not “cops are cool, and American police depts. are not guilty of systemic racism and violence in general.” I think that’s quite obvious. But are people that fucking humorless?

  13. Corey Heiferman

    I really enjoyed these. Here are three childhood favorites.

    Northlandz, probably the largest model train layout in the world:

    https://vimeo.com/166403522

    Panorama of the City of New York:

    http://www.queensmuseum.org/2013/10/panorama-of-the-city-of-new-york

    Mr. Rogers Gently Terrorizes the Neighborhood of Make-Believe:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8u4o9Ug12Y

    Congrats on the Lincoln Center event. Unfortunately I’ll be flying out of New York a few days before. Do you think sobriety can be just another addiction?

  14. Mark Gluth

    Hey Dennis, yeah, jump into TP when you feel fit to do so. I swear it wont let you down. And yes, much closer to the actual visit we’ll reconvene here and figure what the details can and will entail. So the ARTE thing is ‘good’ or ‘ goodish’? best of luck with that.

  15. Kyler

    Good morning, sir. Good to read about all your news, even though all of it is not so good. But not surprised about the TV thing. I’ve never had that much faith in TV and therefore watch very little of it. But Lincoln Center is just about my favorite place in NYC and it’ll be so good to see PGL and you all there. I’ve taken a 3-day vacation from the park, a much-needed break. But back to work today, Wednesday. It IS work and I’m very diligent about being there, though often the hassles and problems can overwhelm me. It’s not easy to put myself out there and expose myself to possible ridicule every day. The work itself though is always rewarding, greatly encouraged when I get to do it with a little respect.

    You may have noticed that I comment more when you’re in this country; and the reason is almost embarrassing to admit, but I think I’ve said before that my morning sleeping problem is exacerbated by the curiosity of seeing your response to me, which I no doubt will be challenged with this morning. I’ve tried to talk myself into, “C’mon Kyler, you’ll see Dennis’s comment later…no rush, get back to sleep!” And sometimes that works.

    Reading Edmund White’s new book, The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading – and liking it very much, more than I expected to. He writes so well, and it’s filled with stimulating ideas so far. That’s about it kid…I’ll try to sleep through your awaiting answer this time…ah, the suspense of my life at every turn!

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