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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Un très bonjour de Paris! ** Nick Toti, Hi, Nick. Great, thank you so much! Obviously, whenever is easiest and best for you is awesome. For guest-posts, the usual way to do it is to send stuff to me by email: denniscooper72@outlook.com. You can send the text of the post either by Word, Text Edit, or in the body of the email. Indicate in the text where you want any images or video embeds to go. Send the images as attachments or embedded in the email. For videos, you can either give me the embed codes or the links to the videos, and I can make the embed codes them on my end. Is that clear and easy enough? There are surely other ways to send the post which would be okay, but that’s the usual way people get them to me. Oh, great, about your new piece on KOKOFREAKBEAN. I’m excited to read it, and I will once I launch this thing right here! Thank you! Everyone, The really, really excellent writer and awesomely adventurous minded fella Nick Toti has written a new entry in this always fascinating and treasure-discovering series he’s doing on underseen digital films and filmmakers @ Hammer to Nail, which is a great site in general if you don’t already know it. This new piece is about “the maximalist, dada, chaos-priest animator” Kokofreakbean, and it’s sure to be impactful, so please take time this weekend to read it and check out the illustrations. Here. Thanks again, Nick! ** Steevee, Hi. Understood, and, yeah, letting what they now know about you sink in however it will sink in seems like the only good option. I hope they open. Good, very promising start with your actor. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Thanks a lot. We’re seeing the actor this afternoon. The big possible glitch is that he’s in school, studying fashion design in Antwerp, and he has to finish and present a new collection in May, so it’s a matter of seeing if he can spare the time for the shooting so close to when his assignment is due. We sure hope so, but it seems like it might be a stretch. Re: the river, we now have a new guy there looking specifically for a nearby, appropriate river. We know there is a good one, but it’s quite a long ways from Cherbourg, and since we might only have two weeks to shoot the whole film, which is going to very difficult to do, the time it would take to transport the crew and equipment and cast far away is a real problem. We can alter the scene a little if we have to. In the scene, two of the characters swim in the river, and we could take the swimming out if we can’t find a big enough river, but that would kind of suck. The apartment hunting is grim, and, honestly, getting pretty scary. No luck at all. We keep being rejected. We have to find something very soon because time is beginning to run out. So the hunting continues. Really, this is the first time you’ve really known that what you’re writing is a book? That must be such an exciting feeling. I mean, I know that feeling too, but I can only guess at how it must have felt the first time. So great! I’m very excited for you and, ultimately, for us all! Oh, wow, the group starts today already! Obviously, I’ll be extremely interested to hear what that was like and how you felt the experience went. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’re going to ace it. My reading went pretty well, I think. It was a big crowd, and people were very attentive, and people said good things about it afterwards, and the bookshop is a great place so, yeah, all in all, I think it was good. And it was strange and kind of nice to read poems that I wrote a super long time ago and try to get back into the head and mood I had when I wrote them. Everything else other than the apartment mess is very good, thank goodness. Well, again, I hope the meeting goes spectacularly today and that the rest of your weekend suits what you want perfectly. Please tell me all about it. ** New Juche, Hi, Joe. Yes, ‘Mountainhead’ Day! I can’t wait! Years ago now, Chip Smith wrote this nasty little screed against my work and me on his site The Hoover Hog, and I happened across it. It seems to have been deleted. I did this blog post long ago called something like ‘People Who Hate Me’, consisting of the most horrible reviews of and attacks on my work, and his thing was in it. I guess he changed his mind at some point. I think Peter Sotos talked him into thinking my work wasn’t so horrible, and it’s all cool betwixt him and me now. That’s very interesting about your upcoming talks. What are the talks about? I’m very curious. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Thanks about my reading, man. It seemed to go pretty well. Is the reissued ‘Blue Velvet’ just visually cleaned and spruced up? Nothing got added or changed or anything? ** Kier, Hi, Kier-ster! I read poems, most of them from quite long ago, written in the late 70s and 80s, mostly ones in ‘The Dream Police’ and then some from ‘The Weaklings XL’. It was kind of nice to read poems again. I think I like reading poems much more than I like reading fiction. Thanks about the apartment hunt. It’s getting pretty worrisome. Yes, I’ll say hi to Zac who will, guaranteed, say hi back to you. Have a super superb weekend, and talk to you soon! ** Bernard, Bernard, sir, bonjour. ** Cal Graves, Hey! Oh, my total and amazing pleasure, my friend, thank you! I hope Saturday and Sunday prove to be your oysters! ** Okay. So, I made a new gif work. This time I tried a genre thing to see what would happen. And I thought of it overall as a trailer for a non-existent sci-fi themed video game. And possibly for the inevitable spin-off movie franchise it would inspire. That’s deal. I hope it pleasures you in whatever way. See you on Monday.
Now available in North America 
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i really hope something comes through ASAP on the apartment. It must be very difficult to work on pre-production for the film with this hanging over your head.
Speaking of which, a friend gave me the E-mail address of a woman who might be able to work as a cinematographer on my film. My friend said she’s very busy right now because she’s getting an M.A. in education, but since I’m planning to probably shoot in June, maybe her summer schedule will be freer.
Things seem to be going quite well with Chris! I saw a movie with him last night and will be doing the same again tonight. I think it’s best to hang out with him and get to know him a bit before asking him if he’s gay and mentioning how attracted I am to him. We’re now Facebook friends, so I have a way to contact him. At least I learned from his FB wall that he hates Trump too!
The movie we’re seeing tonight is the Canadian animated sci-fi rock musical ROCK & RULE. I’d never heard of it until Anthology decided to show it, but the cast of singers is very promising: Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Debbie Harry and Robin Zander! Have you seen this?
Dennis,
Yes, that all sounds good. I’ll email you everything once I’ve had the chance to put a post together. Thanks!
Also, excellent GIF piece! It made me feel weird feelings that I’m going to sit with rather than try to articulate. Loved it!
Also, do you know about this book: thecriticalpress.com/books/happy-place/? The author is an acquaintance, but I haven’t read it. However, given your interest in Disney theme parks, it seems right up your alley.
Klatu Barada Nikto to you, Zach!
Great piece! Very refined work. I enjoy it here in my hotel room in Kyoto. When I’m in Tokyo I pretty much live walking distance from your old hotel Dennis. When I see that building i think of you. love, Tosh
Jeremy Cavaterra “Los Coast”
Hi Dennis,
Love this new gif work. This piece in particular seems to have a space dimensional for something very young, thoughtful, and intractable. I wish I can write a word poem after it.
Sounds like your film work is going very well. Are you continuing your new apartment search now? I found a room (though strictly temporary) in NYC, so I don’t get why this happens to you and troubles you. Keeping my arms crossed.
Reading Julien Gracq, DARK STRANGER this weekend. I like its prose. Did you like Gracq? I read his BALCONY IN THE FOREST a while ago. I remember that the book felt strange and serene, so I decided to read others by him when things here (usa) sound more wildly stupid. And then, Peter Handke.
Oh, PS. I was wondering you like work by Virginie Despentes. This film school has a focused class on her films this Spring and I’m half-accidentally in it. I don’t dislike it and I understand its virtues, but I don’t feel much about it. But the instructor is very enthusiastic about it, so I don’t know how to respond to it. And spending much time for weekly assignments to which I feel cold has been quite stressful.
Hi!
Thank you so much for this new GIF piece! I enjoyed it a lot! And I especially like that you’ve got this whole “video game and movie spin-off trailer” idea behind it.
Oh, damn, I see! Well it really is a tough situation for him – and consequently for you, then. What did he say?
And another not-too-easy-to-solve situation with the river. I completely understand the problem. Maybe if you get those few extra days you said you might ask for, you could squeeze in a trip there. Though I guess it’d mean additional expenses which would raise another problem. Geez. It must be awfully difficult to organize this whole thing!
I’m so sorry to hear the apartment situation is getting so depressing. I wish it’d get solved already!!
Yes, this is the very first time! I’ve had a few attempts before but they all felt a bit forced, I had to “make myself” write them. This comes naturally and I just know it’ll be a book. So this is, indeed, a truly exciting and motivating and beautiful feeling!
Thank you. The group was… a bit amateur but all in all a positive experience. I see a lot of areas where we need to improve but I think we’ve got potential. And even more importantly, I think the people who came think so too.
I’m happy to hear your reading went well! I hope I’ll be able to attend one of them in the future, even if you don’t have too many of them nowadays!
How was your weekend? I hope it was lovely!!
This sci-fi gif trailer is a pleasingly retro experience, at least on the surface anyway. It put me in mind of blockbuster cinema of the 70s, back when optimism was the Hollywood currency, although it does wind up being something quite unnerving. Kind of related, this is a picture of ET I did when I was 3 years old and no doubt dazzled by all the special effects.
@ DC, re the Blue Velvet screening, it’s a 30th anniversary thing. No new footage but hey, it’s a thing of perfection already.
Hey Dennis
Fucking hell, you and Chip. Well, very glad that’s no longer the case.
Gif-work hypnotic and unsettling as ever. I read this one as a barely veiled critique of my sexual performance.
My talks are on Southeast Asian idolatry and the semiotics of spirit shrines and other vernacular religious art, mostly. And associated practices. I’m into these shrines for years now, and might start describing myself as a ‘shrinologist’ exclusively, though I must admit it was a German colleague who came up with this term. Speaking of which, I finally watched Cemetery of Splendour recently – replete with shrinological data. As are his other films. Have you seen it? I know you like Apichatpong. I’m seriously thinking about writing a book on him. I wrote this paper that explains exactly what Syndromes and a Century means, and why his government was/is so hostile as a result, but publishing it might compromise him unfortunately, so I can’t.
Hope your weekend went well. By the way – have you got a postal address I can send your hard copy of Mountainhead to?
Best
Joe
Hey Dennis, long time. Actually, I was thinking about your post the other day but forgot to comment, the one about those “diaries” and “satanic ritual abuse.” I remember reading Jay’s Journal and loving it. I think I read it the wrong way. That summer I went to summer camp and there was a boy there that everyone said was satanic. He was older, probably 15. Kids in my bunk said, “at night, he wishes on a satanic bible.” I started following him around and bought Lavey’s book as soon as I got home. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with the Franklin Cover Up and Johnny Gosch. Of all these stories, that seems to be the one with some morsels of truth.
Dennis, Nice tease here. I don’t know, for me, the “GOD DOESN’T EXIST” gif seems to tie it all together. Hmm…
Yes, I’m much better. I swear by Zicam. Or zinc therapy (many brands out there). It really lessens the severity and duration of colds. I got symptoms on Sunday and was perfectly fine by Wednesday evening. So far, so good in not getting anything else. Though my friend at work who got me sick the first time came in sick again Thursday. Ugh. But I stayed away from her.
So we had a tornado in our area yesterday. Some fucking hellacious storm blew in out of nowhere and wrecked a lot of shit. I could walk to where in passed by us in about 30 seconds or less. We were very fortunate. No damage to property or persons, though the apartments behind us got a tree in the side and the neighbor we share our duplex with had a bunch of shingles ripped off and a lot of water damage inside his house. Trees everywhere. No deaths, though. So that was that.
Mesmerizing. Liking the way the smaller groupings are interacting with each other to form the whole, it reminds me of that transformers toy where the smaller figures would join to form a large robot, retaining a partially transformed version of their original identity. If that makes sense, ha. The more I look at your GIF work the more I notice a kind of ambient quality that reminds me of your written fiction. That really impresses me.
Hope you are good
Dennis,
I really enjoyed this space trailer gif… it appears, at least to me, that you are becoming a lot more playful with your gifwork… I guess as you create more gifs, you are becoming more playful and somehow more fluid with them? Their energies seem to be more malleable? I don’t know, does that make sense? I hope it’s a fair assessment. It does seem like you are having fun with them, that definitely comes through. And what are you saying about the Biebs? That his body can help flying saucers defy gravity, or that he is so beautiful and otherworldly that aliens want him, too? Either way, I agree on both sides.
Man oh man, Dennis, I’ve been experiencing a lot of death over these past few weeks. I went to visit a friend after work last night.. he is in the final stages of death and is in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) ward at the Seattle VA hospital. When I went to visit him, he was asleep, so I hung out with his wife for about an hour. He is a friend of mine from work. He is a good guy and we would always crack sick and inappropriate jokes at work all the time, and I came to know his wife, too. He would always teasingly ask me why I have women flocking around me and joking with me and I’d say ‘because I’m queer and the ladies love me!’ And then he would say (this guy rode a Harley to work, mind you .. with the little crazy German-looking helmet thingy and the leather jacket, the whole nine –) ‘maybe I should work this gay angle, maybe I’d get more pussy…’ and I’d say yeah But what about your wife, Vince? Oh yeah, well then maybe not…… ha ha
Anyway, a very good guy… and about 45 minutes into my visit with his wife, who was not doing well at all, he wakes up and looks over and smiles at me, and kind of grunts a bit, as he is no longer capable of talking at all. .. and I just kind of lost it right there. I was trying to be strong for his wife, but I broke down at that point. Anyway, slushy and gooey and not at all how I wanted to comport myself around his very lost wife right now… then she says to me ‘ I feel so lost right now and I don’t know what to do… He is my entire life’ — Well what can you say to that? And I just lost my mother three weeks ago, which you knew already, so it’s like it all came rushing back when Vince looked at me. His wife texted me this a.m. and said he isn’t recognizing her now…. So I’m glad I went to see him last night. Too much death, Dennis. Such a drag. He is only 63 years old… only 16 years older than me.. very scary. Doesn’t death totally suck balls? It’s such an evil, destroying thing. And makes it all seem rather meaningless, to gain knowledge for 60 years or so, to experience things, only to lose it all, like a light shutting off.
Anyway Dennis, just wanted to drop by and tell you I love you, and I’m really glad your work is out in the world, and I also feel like all the DC’ers are my family, too. I’m just feeling a little sad but also in a lovable mood tonight.. funny how death blows shit open like that.
I know you must be tired of hearing this, but I really hope your apartment worries are over very soon.
Xoxo
James
Well, that was a hell of a lot more entertaining than “Arrival.”
I always feel like science fiction is the genre that’s the most often badly done in movies. It’s nice to see your new work here as a consideration of common tropes.
Hey Dennis, loved the GIF trailer, now that you’re a Sci Fi Man. Guess what? You’ll be happy to know I couldn’t get through the Paul Auster…liked it at first, but hey, over 800 pages of every thought that goes through the head of the main character? I just don’t have the patience. So I was at the library today, looking for something to read…I just can’t read anything these days. So I went to your section, hoping to see something I haven’t read of yours, but alas, your section was checked out. So guess what I found. The one thing I’ve promised myself I’d read before I die: The Brothers Karamazov. I’m gonna try. I’ve read his introduction (very funny) and first chapter, which I liked. But I’ve also reserved the DVD of the film – never knew there was one – and will try that if and when I give up on the book – but it probably won’t work in my DVD player if it’s scratched…I still always test my player with LCTG! Always works! haha – please have some good luck with your apartment, something will work out…I’m sure.