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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Welcome back to your other home away from home aka here. My weekend was okay, not horrible, sometimes good. I recounted it yesterday to Lucas. Clearly I need to find that Toyin Ibidapo book if for no other reason than to hang out with love. Love making me feel less stressed about the racket a mouse is currently making as it tries to find a way to escape our humane trap until my roommate wakes up and relocates it, G. ** Shirley, Actually, my friend who sexed with Manilow is a he, which I don’t think is such a huge surprise? ** Misanthrope, Restored posts have two places in heaven. I don’t think pickleball is a thing over here. What is very popular here, as you may know from your visits, is Pétanque. Assuming that we are sadly in a post-Nadal world, Alcaraz is probably my favorite. ** Jack Skelley, Juice Newjack – Your Hitchcock spiel was a very fun and enlightening read. Well, of course they ate up ‘Myth Lab’. That title is so edible if nothing else. Wow, your launches, sweet! I don’t think mine is going to launch except in the purchase -> book arriving sense. Thank you about ‘Flunker’, sir of sirs. We’re going to have to be careful not to pat each other on the back too often in our confab. We don’t want readers thinking, ‘Get a fucking room, dudes.’ xoxo, Doltish Den. ** _Black_Acrylic, He’s great. ‘Black People Are Cropped’ is a book of just his posters/drawings a la the ones in the post. The best book on his work is ‘William Pope.L: The Friendliest Black Artist in America’, but I just checked, and copies are going for $430! So, never mind. Ugh, similar shit here because the Far Right did scarily well in the EU Parliamentary Election on Sunday and now Macron has announced a snap French Parliamentary election, and everyone is stressed as hell. I too hope Scotland wins big time. As usual it’s taking me a few days to spend time with the new PTv2, but it’s a’coming. ** Lucas, Hi, Lucas. It rained for about 10 minutes yesterday, but otherwise it remains pretty clear skied. I hope your rain was similarly a blip. Dude, first of all, you couldn’t possibly talk too lengthily about an amusement parks to me. My friends are alway wary to mention amusement parks around me because normally shy me will pontificate about them for hours. Anyway, I’m so happy you had a blast. The photos are awesome and take me back. The last time Zac and I were there we stayed at that very themed, in-park Rooksburg Hotel if you noticed that. ‘Maus au Chocolat’ is a very sweet dark ride, I agree. Great that you’ve broken the ice on your amusement park-filled future, one hopes. Next I recommend Efteling in southern Holland, my favorite amusement park in the world, full of amazing rides that are not intense and scary at all. Thank you for the wonderful report! Super yay! ** Steve, We watched the original Dutch/French version from ’88. It was not much, to put it mildly. The 20th: not too, too far away. I managed to finally find enough online stuff to make a Shu Lea Cheang Day, coming up soon. I think we’ll hear from one of the festivals in early July, another in August at the latest. As I strongly suspect our film is not destined for any kind of actual theater release in the US apart from in a limited way in a few big cities, I don’t think that downturn will make much difference. Or maybe it could actually help? ** Cletus, Yes, indeed! I’m honored if my stuff inspired you/it at all. ** Harper, Hi. Right, when I used to take poetry workshops in college, it was not uncommon for other aspiring poets in the workshop to say they were going to quit writing because they would never be as good as Shakespeare. Maybe a better word than rival is role model? I know that’s what Rimbaud was to me, big, big time. I can’t even imagine the quitting smoking hell, or rather I actually can. I guess toughing it out somehow is your only option? It’ll be huge if you make it. When I quit, I remember realising how smoking organised time and killed boredom so much. I remember that being one of the very hardest parts. Bon courage, as they say over here. How was yesterday and, well, today? ** Darby, There’s a slight difference between the way Americans say ‘falafel’ and the French do. A kind of ‘richness of tone’ when pronouncing the vowels or something. Um, I always see editing as a long term process, so I just kind of clean the prose up and then refine it afterwards. It’s pretty intuitive. Just working on it in whatever way keeps you riveted. I don’t know. You’ll find your rhythm, the main thing is not worry about it or think there’s one right way to do it because there isn’t, I guess? Your vocabulary is/was lovely. Okay, gotcha, on the role playing weirdness. Yeah, I feel that. I even have a hard time when couples call each other by their intimate pet names around other people. Like ‘snookums’ and ‘bunny’ and words like that. I hope the migraine backed off. You said nothing wrong, that’s for absolutely sure. ** Justin D, Hi, Justin! Interesting about your condiments dislike. Yeah, I can see that, even though I think I’m okay with them. I mean I squeeze mayonnaise on my French fries. Sorry if I just made you urp. I really don’t like asparagus. I don’t even know why, but I can’t stand it. And cooked carrots too. And beets. And of course any meat or fish or fowl thing being a vegetarian and all. I’m curious about but quite wary of the new Araki, for no doubt similar reasons. How was today? ** Oscar 🌀, They might be better. But I’m a Francophile, so don’t trust me. Here’s a film called ‘Hi Nanna’ which, as I understand it, is a cheapo Indian remake/ripoff of the great and famous American experimental film ‘Hi Oscar’, based, as I don’t need to tell you, on the filmmaker’s mind-blowing experience of saying hi to you and you saying hi back to him, which the film brilliantly reenacts for 90 minutes which just magically fly by. ‘Hello Chaos’ looks like a score. As obviously is ‘TCFoKA’. Nice trip. The painting … Long story short, there’s this young American painter, Kye Christensen-Knowles, who very kindly donated some funds to our film project, and we became friends, and he’s doing a series of portraits of people, and he was in Paris and asked if he could do one of me, and I said sure, so he came over and took photos of me that he will use to do the portrait when he’s back home in NYC. He’s cool. ** Right. Today I give you a whole bunch of people pretending to be shocked. Sounds fun, right? Maybe it is. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Cool to Les Diaboliques (sic., I’m sure) on this list! I do remember that movie almost shot for shot, I really recommend it to anyone here who has an interest in film!
I did have a slightly odd experience recently that you might find interesting – I live with a cannula in my stomach and leg for medical reasons, etc, and for some reason while I was sleeping next to my boyfriend they both began bleeding profusely. Really weird for him to wake up to both of us covered in my blood, I’m completely fine but it may have been a bit of a shock for both of us! I’m sorry to say one of your books has been pretty thoroughly bloodied though. Hope you are doing okay in France today, despite everything.
Hi!!
Thank you, it’s really nice to be back!
Ah, right, I didn’t go through the whole P.S.! I actually think zLibrary is alive again; at least it was the last time I checked. There’re just a bunch of fake sites out there, so maybe it’s best to look up the current address on Reddit or Wikipedia or something.
I think you’d like Toyin Ibidapo’s “Cult of Boys.”
I’d say poor mouse, but it’s actually very lucky; it just doesn’t know it! I hope your roommate has relocated it safely by now!
Love feeling shocked by how little shocks him anymore, Od.
Dennis I think you are mistaken
‘She ate meringue and did the cha-cha’
I bet you stood in line to see Oklahoma the musical expecting it to be about Timothy Mcveigh
I can’t quite…. well I’m…… it can’t be true….. not my Manilow
you might want to include a snap shot of me here in shock I truly am
or I don’t believe it !
It was about Timothy Mcveigh
I remember having a mint chocolate chip ‘I scream’ before the final performance
I got de Edvard Munchies
Oh I love all the musicals
x Bobbie Whyagent
Hey Dennis, I’ve never played A Dark Room but Adam (my partner) says it’s a good one. Incremental games are definitely not for everyone, so don’t hate me if you find it terribly boring lol. Btw, I still use ZLibrary through Tor Browser. Unsure if it’s back on the surface web though.
Fun fact: The mayor of New Orleans has just declared today (June 11) Back That Azz Up Day in honor of the Juvenile song.
Difficult to know how shocked Simon Cowell is there, what with all the Botox freezing up the muscles in his face. Or maybe he looks completely different nowadays. I just don’t keep up with celebrity gossip. Do you ever read the Popbitch email? It’s a weekly update about the peccadilloes of the famous, but I don’t even recognise who the stories are about most of the time.
I finally received the Bob Flanagan book today! Love how tall it is. More poetry books should be that tall lol. Thanks to the blog for introducing it. Also, Phallic Symbols is getting a couple of reviews soon. Kinda nervous but mostly excited.
hi dennis,
thank you for recommending that other amusement park! I looked at its website and it seems great, as it has two things I go crazy for: miniatures and kind of creepy/cute looking dolls (at least on the photo for the dark ride droomvlucht, I hope they’re prominent). actually I was looking at dolls on pinterest the other day and even started a board collecting photos of them, though I don’t have much so far. but, yeah, I can see why it’d be your favorite amusement park. I’m glad I have more time off this summer and good enough grades on my finals (got them today!) so I can excuse another trip maybe haha
how are you doing? I hope you’re okay enough given the election results in france; the ones here were shit too. it’s really bleak. let’s hang in there
I will watch FLUIDØ tonight and finish my article on Cheang. Although FRESH KILL seems far better than her other films, I appreciate her work more after watching it again and seeing IKU and UKI. She’s returned the same themes and imagery, including the concept of marginalized people being forced to scavenge in a landfill.
The Simon Cowell photo looks more like his attempt at O face.
Did you see that the Water From Your Eyes side project This Is Lorelei has a new album out Friday?
Institutions that show experimental films actually seem to be weathering the storm better than conventional multiplexes and arthouses. I’ve been to many sold-out shows of avant-garde films post-pandemic at Anthology. But the middle ground has been lost, and I wonder how long theaters can keep going without it. When you see the #3 movie at the weekend box office on a Saturday and there are only 20 people in the audience, this model isn’t sustainable. I hope there’s a rebellion and rejection of monopoly capitalism around the corner.
Hey Dennis. Yes, that’s what’s good about smoking, it relieves tension. It gives you something to do when you’re bored and it gives you something to do with your hands when you’re having an awkward conversation with someone. I’m brimming with a fair amount of pent up rage that would ordinarily pass out of me with a cloud of smoke so it’s like I’ve forgotten about what I even did with my emotions before I smoked. Gum and caffeinated beverages have become my attempts at substitutes.
Yesterday and today have been a total slog. I don’t think in my entire life I’ve ever been this stressed for this long. It’s been going on month(s) and I honestly feel bad bringing it up because I don’t like being a bummer and talking about something I’ve said all before. Every time I talk to someone I know I feel like I’m going to break down in front of them but I never do and I’m honestly shocked that I’ve almost kept it together. I know I can’t go five seconds without bringing up Rimbaud but my favourite quote of his is probably ‘the only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable’, somehow life goes on and doesn’t pause and that can be the most painful thing. That quote pops up in my head at random moments. The most painful things aren’t the things that kill you but the things you have to live through. I feel like everything is out of my hands. There’s this tiny fucking room in my place that’s impossible to rent out because it’s not much cheaper than the other rooms and my landlord is insane for actually listing it as a real room when I’ve seen bigger cupboards, but none of that means anything if I can’t get some money asap. I know I’ll get a job soon enough at the rate I’m applying for places, but I’m going to have to find something temporary or freelance or have to sell something if I want to stay.
Hey, Dennis. So, I meandered through ‘Autoportrait’ and dug that, and I absolutely loved ‘Man in the Holocene.’ Thanks for the recs! I’m working my way through ‘Dusty Pink,’ and while I love the title, not sure it’s built for me? Feels like the book’s punching me with ideas but I feel concussed by its tricky combinations. Maybe I’m just so used to linear narrative or something… Since I’ve so recently re-read many of your books, now I’m going through ‘Smothered in Hugs,’ too. Your piece about Nan Goldin made me want to watch that newish documentary about her, which I did. Pretty cool lady. I liked the doc. I write these little questions as I’m reading. Like, how’d you get so involved in writing about visual art? I’ve always associated your writing with music and now that I’m going through these essays, I’m really seeing the visual aspects to it as well. Anyway, just some thoughts. Take care, Don
Hey, Dennis! Great selection of GIFs. It’s comforting to know that there’s always a GIF for the times that language is inadequate. I imagine you have quite an impressive collection. My day was OK. I watched the much buzzed about Linklater film (‘Hit Man’). I should’ve trusted my initial instincts and skipped it, though. It was so mind-numbingly bland and unoffensive. Anyway, I’m off to take an evening stroll. On last night’s walk, I saw the most adorable baby raccoon. 🦝
Hi Dennis!
I told you I’d lose track of updates! You can thank my brain and my unpredictable schedule for not replying for a while. The wall of gifs took my ailing lappy to the brink of crashing from loading them all. Scrolling through them I did spot one that I recognised from somewhere very specific – that 3D modelled Jimmy Neutron-lookalike with the eyeballs poking out of his head. This is almost certainly from an old Garry’s Mod machinima artist/shitposter, MegaGFilms, best known for the Mass Effect “My brand!” video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fRuoMIfpw
As for me, I’m still wading through the jobhunt swamp, getting wayward shifts where I can find them. I read Watership Down last week and was absolutely spellbound from cover to cover. I had only seen the film, but the novel is just great, an epic full of mythology and kindness and peril. I also watched I Saw The TV Glow, which you’ve probably already seen (or heck, even blogged about, I am out of the loop). A really good film that left me feeling particularly bleak, even though for a lot of friends of mine (especially trans friends) they found it pretty affirming. I’ve heard/read people discuss it as part of a new “canon” of queer filmmaking, and I can understand why. I hope The People’s Joker is also considered part of that canon, because that was a riot.
Finished the draft! Working on the next one. Also maybe a novel. I keep trying to write stuff that I know I’m never going to show anybody so that by the time I’m inspired enough to write something to share I have enough practice to be decent. Or at least not worthless. But yeah it’s been a big weekend. Not to get into too many details in public but I had my first experience of being desired as a person, instead of as an object, and it was wonderful. Game changer for possibilities within my sex/dating/love life because until now it’s either been people being completely uninterested of just fully obsessed in not-good ways. Still processing it, even if the thing itself was a minor fling between friends and has little to no meaning. I’m going to make an effort to come back to being fully regular here, even if I have to delay bedtime.
Hey Dennis,
Thanks for this post! In other film news, I watched Anontioni’s “La notte” last night. It was ok, but I preferred “L’aventura” and I’m hoping “L’eclisse” will be better.
Have you ever read any Giorgio Bassani? I’ve just started “The Garden of The Finzi-Continis” and it’s good so far. Kind of dreamy and foreboding. (I seem to be on some kind of Italian kick.)
Just two weeks until my Paris trip if you still want to get a coffee. I’ll be around from 28 June to 1 July.
Writing’s happening with difficulty at the moment, and I feel like forcing it isn’t the answer. I’d like to find some spark of curiosity, some thread I can follow that doesn’t feel like a slog? There’s a voice saying that’s just me avoiding hard work, but I don’t know if I believe it.
I hope all your endeavours are going how you’d like them to.
Xo
J