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Miscellaneous
Act da fool
Crutchnap
Opening night of Harmony Korine’s Pigxote exhibition
Umshini Wam by Die Antwoord Harmony Korine
Rebel by Harmony Korine and James Franco
Shadow Fux by Rita Ackermann and Harmony Korine
Curb Dance
Some music videos directed Harmony Korine
Sonic Youth – Sunday
Cat Power – Living Proof
Bonnie Prince Billy – No More Workhorse Blues
Some clips from Harmony Korine’s feature films
Gummo
Julien Donkey Boy
Mr. Lonely
Trash Humpers
Harmony Korine, The Letterman Years
1995
1997
1998
Into the Night with Harmony Korine and Gaspar Noé (directed by Bruce Labruce)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
A really great Harmony Korine fansite: http://www.harmony-korine.com/
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p.s. Hey. Today, one of the poet/masters of the cinematic form gets loved by one of the masterful poets of this blog and and ever increasing portions of the real world, and all you have to do is sit back, click some buttons, and have a fine day, and I hope you will, of course. I doff my hat including feather to you, Mr. Thomas Moronic. ** Tomkendall, And thank you again, Tom. It was a treat and an honor, pal. ** Empty Frame, Hey, man. Your email hit the spot. Sounds great. Whenever you’re ready, my imaginary white cube will be yawning (in the wide-open sense, obviously). Scotland, nice. Romp and romp, man, and maybe while you’re there you can sort out that Loch Ness Monster thing for us once and for all. ** Wolf, I know, it feels weird on this side of the line. What have I done? How do I get back? Can you even hear me? Thank Babelfish. Hm, now that’s an idea: you as the Recollets-ensconced Nouveau Festival official cook. Don’t think Chrystel won’t go for it, apart from the free room thing, but maybe even that. It’s worth a try. I’m serious. I’ll start the schmooze today. Wait, it’s your birthday today? Like … today? Happy happy happy, Wolfie! Everyone, it’s the singularity inhabiting artist/d.l./god Wolf’s birthday today! I think you know what to do. How are you marking this auspicious occasion, bud? No, really, how? ** David Ehrenstein, No, I did not know that about Jerry Lewis and ‘CitR’. Whoa! That’s so crazy, it might just have worked. I should do a Jerry Lewis Day here. Yeah, actually, that’s kind of a really good idea. Hm. ** Allesfliesst, Me too. I used to and could probably still spend hours slowly turning the revolving display rack where the cool stores at least used to put the gag gifts. They at least used to be to me what the night sky is to astronomers. I think I’m actually pretty level-headed about Berlin at this point. Hype will do that to you. When I finally get to explore it, I will do so with the same essential hope but deep seated trepidation with which I listen to new Kanye West or Fleet Foxes albums. I really, really do want to go, though. Gotta figure that out. Pierre Clementi is all over my novel. He almost is my novel. ** Kyler, It was Full Moon? I didn’t look up, apparently. I wonder what its effect was? I slept kind of crappily for no seeming reason. Oh, or is it Full Moon tonight? Is that what you mean? If so, I’ll be prepared. Or is there some way to prepare for such a thing? Should I cancel my flaming swords juggling class? It would break my heart, but I’ll do it. I think the new PR issue should be out and about this week sometime maybe? Good day to you, maestro. ** Sailor, Hey. Wow, that Kristopher Pateau and Ondrej Brody work is a total find! I can’t believe I’d never heard of them before. Yeah, that’s fascinating and, obviously work that’s operating in areas that really interest me. Thanks a billion for the intro. Everyone, d.l. Sailor has pointed out the work of the artist duo Kristopher Pateau and Ondrej Brody, and it’s very interesting, wild stuff that I highly recommend you check out. One look at their website will tell you their basic tale. And, if you’re sufficiently intrigued, Sailor, in her own words, particularly notes ‘the “ANDY!” (2008) project (a dog was trained to piss on a copper “canvas” at the command “ANDY!”) and “Protest” (2005) where the artist set himself on fire “..for no particular reason”. Afterwards he had to endure 2 months in a hospital having his skin grafted. I also think you’d enjoy “Nightshots” (2004)…’ Do have a look. Yeah, thanks, Sailor! So, what are you up to and doing at the moment other than Harvesting the Natural? ** Bill, Hey. Oh, I read something about ‘Manga Scroll’. I wonder if there’s a vid. I’ll check. Man, that thing with Shelley Hirsch sounded good. Have you been able to work on your new pieces at all? ** Alan, I do, yeah. I was kind of a serious gag gift geek for a while when I was a kid, and that company was like the Gallimard of the gag gift industry. I never heard of the remote control ghost, yum. I hope the move today goes as smoothly as possible, and I’m really glad you found a place. Where is it? ** Jon Reiss, Usually I’m way into connecting threads, so there’s a very good chance that whatever you’re seeing there was put there deliberately, although my fingertips do surprise my brain a lot. I’m going to tiptoe carefully around your use of the h-word regarding ‘ToL’ and give you a high five on the ‘Enter the Void’ love. Fair enough. Okay, I need to see ‘Afterschool’ clearly. God knows if or when it’ll make it over to France. Thanks, buddy. ** Creative Massacre, Wow, that’s awesome, pal! That’s so many things you’re officially great at! Are you still thinking at all about the restaurant you were thinking of opening at one point? I haven’t seen you talk about cooking and stuff for a while, so I’m not sure where those gifts of yours lie in your priorities. Anyway, big, big congrats, M! ** Squeaky, You were on Good Time Island? Where did you stay? No, you don’t have to tell me. Dude, you’re in love! Fuckin’ A! And it’s love within the blog family? I should be able to figure out that puzzle of an indicator, but … oh, wait, maybe I figured it out. Well, you type like a man in love, that’s for sure, and I got a total contact high. Watch out below! D., that is awfully, awfully sweet news, my friend. Couldn’t be happier for you! Please feel free to exude here as needed. It’s a boon. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! Well, I wonder why you thought of me when you saw that. Maybe for the same reason that I bookmarked that sucker so fast your head just spun in circles if you noticed, which you probably didn’t because it’s the dead of night in LA, but if your pillow is all weirdly twisted up when you awake this morning, that’s why. Thank you, man. I’ve been hoping that ‘Warrior’ would be awesome in precisely the way you describe. It opens here next week, and I bet if there’s ever a movie that I’m going to end having to see alone, it’s that one. Best to you, mister. ** Sublethal, Hey. I used to read Boy’s Life because, I think, you got it free if you were in the Boy Scouts? No, wait, I think that was another magazine with a similar name. Does Boy’s Life still exist? And if it doesn’t, why not? Were you ever in Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts? I was until I got kicked out of the latter for refusing to cut my hair. You might have loved things about the Scouts if you weren’t in it except for all the dust. There was always so much dust. Dusty eye candy, dusty shenanigans. I used to prank people a lot, but I was into the kind of mild, elegant gag gifts like the fly in the ‘ice cube’ and the super-salty chewing gum and fake barf. I was a tender-hearted humiliator. Yeah, I need to read the Koestenbaum too. Someone promised to send it to me months ago. Someone is going to pay. Someone is going to feel really bad. ** Chilly Jay Chill, I wondered if that toilet mug was too much. I debated the possible gag reflex triggering, and then I weighed the horrible poetry of its existence, and then I took a chance. I’m sorry. I think probably next Monday or Tuesday is better for me. Tuesday, actually, as I think I have a meeting on Monday. When are you up and awake and ready to talk generally? I’d like to see the newfangled Swans, yeah. I saw them twice back in the day, once in NYC, once in Amsterdam. Favorite album of theirs … that’s tough. I would say either ‘Cop’ or ‘White Light from the Mouth of Infinity’ or the Gira parts of ‘Children of God’. I pretty much really like all their stuff except for ‘The Burning World’, which I’ve thought was just awful. Yours? ** Steevee, Hey. Sucks about the guy not getting back to you. But I’m just about the world’s flakiest correspondent. I say nudge him. I know I appreciate and need gentle nudges when I get flakey. Fingers very crossed on the Cronenberg interview. ** Chris Cochrane, Cool, yeah, Ira’s great, and he’ll help out the best he can. Can’t wait to get the real thing. I hope the solo show tonight goes like heavy, heavy gangbusters. ** Chris Dankland, Nothing says ‘I have trouble expressing my emotions’ like a gag gift. It’s the perfect gift for someone who has a fondness for emotionally complicated people and who tends to try to read too much into others’ gestures. If you know people like that, I say you are cleared to fill their Xmas stockings. In my world, having fun working on one’s book is an ultimate form of fun, so big congrats on that! The online Paris Review interviews are a total boon, yeah. Mine should be free online in about 10 years, so set your watch. Interesting concept: the physical battle of the writers. I’m trying to think of a tough guy writer who isn’t too much of an alcoholic to win. I can’t. I’ve never heard of Mark “Chopper” Read. I will go check out his Wikipedia page when I get out of here today. Intriguing. Thanks, Chris. ** Sypha, I used to spend every penny I got on that kind of stuff. And magic tricks. It was a long time ago, though. Hunh, I’ll go see if that J-Pop song puts a top spin on my current mood, thanks. Everyone, Sypha says this J-Pop song and video is, quote, ‘one of the most beautiful, inspirational, and awe-inspiring music videos ever committed to film, and I find when I’m in a sour mood it’s great at lifting up my spirits’, end quote. Sounds like something you should visit, no? ** 5strings, Hey. You have a really nice and colorful extended musical family there. No, I don’t think I saw that Dudley Moore Santa Claus movie. I guess I will? I never saw ‘Bad Santa’. Is it as funny as everybody says? I forgot about Coverdale-Page. How weird. It was good? I’ll hit youtube. If food isn’t important for you, you’re custom made for being a vegan. I think it’s going to work, man. I’ve been to one of the LA Hard Rock Cafes — there are at least three — a couple of times. The one at Universal Citywalk. It was okay. But going to Hard Rock Cafe here is really exotic, and going in LA is just going in LA. Veruca Salt: ‘Naked Eye’, right? I love that song. Yeah, right, about pre-smashed up Eric Roberts. That smash up was a tragedy. I’m trying to figure out if being on acid in Belgium would make Belgium better or worse. I’m thinking worse. You have an iPad? You’re so … I don’t know, up to date. Should I get one? ** Brendan, Hey, B! I missed you, man. So you’ve been giving 100% to the job. That’s cool. I think all or nothing is a good place to start. And it worked? You’re glancing nervously but forcefully in you studio’s direction? Come on, man, just put one foot in front of the other. You can do it. Yeah, I only knew George Kuchar as a devotee from afar, but it’s so sad. I’m sorry, man. It’s very good to see you back, my buddy. Try to keep one of those feet that are walking towards your studio in here, if that’s physically or psychically possible. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, How interesting if he’s only silent around you. I like that idea. I hope it’s true as long as his silence is cowed or intimidated or insecure or one of those sorts of things. No, I’ll wait for the DVD of the Herzog. The caves were nice and everything, but life is short. I was so sure you were going end up taking the dog. And then I was so afraid it was going to get put to sleep and that you would feel really terrible about that. The happy ending was a nice surprise. And I guess it’s good that the dog got an owner with good calves. I think Pit Bulls have some of the best calves in the canine world, if memory serves. That last dialogue with Eyebrows was just full of interesting information. He clarified notably or else became more complicated, I’m not sure which. Did it clarify him for you too, or was that the power of written words? He sounds kind of mixed up but good hearted. Me, I like people like that. I like the idea of you running off to Baton Rouge with him. I don’t know if it’s a wise idea or not, but wisdom is really overrated anyway. Most of those so-called ‘adult’ emotions are. I can’t believe all of that happened so fast, but, okay, I just tried to time it out in my head, and, yeah, I can see that it did. I’m glad you made it through Season One of ‘Angel’. Now, all you have to do is maintain your patience through Season Two, which is definitely better but not great, and then, when you get to Season Three, it’s all very good to great from there on out. My day: Not a ton. I’m trying to be good and catch up on at least some of the zillions of emails I’m behind on, so I did that for quite a while. This British magazine called Little Joe wrote to me last week wanting to do something on me, and they suggested maybe printing a scene from the script of that doomed porn movie I wrote a couple of years ago with an interview about it and ‘TMS’, so I sent them that scene on, uh, Saturday, and they haven’t written back, so maybe … I don’t know. Anyway, I noticed yesterday that they hadn’t written back. I had a visit and coffee with Kiddiepunk and Oscar. He tried to talk Oscar and me into going to see that new Gus van Sant movie ‘Restless’ with him, and I said I have zero interest, and she said she would only go if he paid for her ticket. I was telling them about how much Wolf’s talk about pancakes here on the blog has made me hungry for pancakes, and they said they could totally see eating pancakes too, so we kind of decided we’re going to go this little restaurant here called ‘American Breakfast’ and chow down, maybe even today. The light in my kitchen burned out for about the eighth time in four months. I had to make my food in the dark, and that was scary ‘cos there were a bunch of tiny fruit flies flying all over the place in there the last time I could actually see while I was in there. There was a bunch of talking with Gisele about our Pompidou festival by phone. Nothing interesting enough to recount. I bought my plane tickets for my LA trip in October, so that’s finally official, and I’m excited. Mm, I think everything else was pretty blah. I’ll stop there. Sir, dude, my friend, how was Tuesday? ** Cap’m, Cap’m! How very nice to see you! Where you been? Very happy to have induced a emittance of hahaha’ing from you. ** Misanthrope, I would say Alex James is more snooty than asshole-ish, but it seems to me that snoot-ishness is a bondage-able offense. The Library Journal review was totally tossed off with one eye on my Wikipedia page. Cohen’s review of ‘Richard Yates’ is appalling and nothing but self-indicting. Compared to that, I got off easy, if you want to call it easy. Whoop-whoop and can I get a witness on the NYC looking good front for you, natch, pally wally! ** David, Oh, tomorrow is the big day? Very, very best of luck to you, my friend. May you suffer not a whit, and please check in here as soon as your fingers can accommodate such a task. ** Finis. You’ve got Korine, Moronic, and even some Noe up there for you today. What more could you possibly want? Dig it. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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No Dennis today is the Big Day! in about an hour and fifty mins I'm gonna be sedated. Apres le petit mort of chemically assisted sleep (funny it is nothing like what I do w/eye closed and fists clenched at night) I will arise and walk the earth a new and hurtin' man. After a stop at the nearest druggiste''s shop, shall be righter than rocky.
I actually thought I hated Larry Clark until I saw Bully / Whssup Rockers and realized HKorine was the culprit. I say that as a veteran of much debatelike chat w/Flit, who idolizes HK. I enjoyed Gummo, the scenes of Juliendonkeyboy and really hated Kids. Haven't seen Trash Humpers, Mister Lonely etc.
wv swancess
we who are about to thigh salute you
Dennis, whatever you do, don't cancel your flaming swords. Those swords juggle my senses always in the best way. The Full Moon was actually Sunday night/Monday morning, so it might have accounted for your lack of sleep. For some reason, I was able to sleep, don't know why.
I found the Paris Review at McNally Jackson, where you'll be doing your reading AND will be meeting me! Really look forward to that. It was a nice surprise hearing Ira do the interview. I was really taken with it and was actually moved to tears once or twice. Hearing about George had a big effect on me. The playwright Sarah Kane was a close friend of mine, and some of her work and subsequent suicide are in my first novel. So it hit close to home. It's not often that I can say this these days, but I've learned a lot from you. You teach me stuff all the time and the interview was another fine example. Thanks…Keep those swords flaming!
PS: Swords in the Tarot represent the mind, the realm of ideas. Fire makes them hot. Your ideas are hot, man.
Thomas – Great Harm day! Been wanting to see the video with Gaspar Noe and excited to check that out. You a fan of his doc about David Blaine "Above the Below"? Always been curious about that one.
Dennis – Next Tuesday is great for me. I'm always up and about by 9 am EST, but I'm much more coherent by 10 am. So that would be 4 pm your time? Does that work? I can easily do an hour earlier if that's more convenient and will just shake off the cobwebs. Thanks again.
I vacillate on my fave Swans. Really like both The Great Annihilator and Cop. Different parts of their work seem to hit me harder at different times. The new stuff sounds like it'll be really interesting & different from the new album (which I like but don't love). Haven't investigated Gira's Angels of Light stuff. You a fan of that? What about his writing?
Off to teach the kids tonight about Warhol's films which will be interesting. Showing them Blow Job. Plus some Robert Frank and George Kuchar (RIP).
Yes. Boys' Life is still around, and yes it is pubished by Boy Scouts of America. I always really wanted that magazine to live up to its title, but to my knowledge it never contained any articles like "Masturbation Aids from Around the House" or "How to Spy On the Sexy Neighbor Boy and Learn About Optics at the Same Time." I was never a scout, but I was a Brownie. Brownies were the Girl Scouts' pre-teen division. My mother was a troop leader or whatever they were called, and my sisters were both Brownies, so I became an honorary Brownie for babysitting purposes. I even got a sash. I did like that sash, and the jaunty beret, and I did learn useful skills like how to make smores and start fires, and of course the formative gender confusions stood me in good stead in later life, but I sure would've preferred watching boys do things.
Great Curb Dance. Flying nuns, yes. Cat Power running around with a cross tied to her back. What's not to like? HK's world is fun. It just is. Excited to watch the Noe/La Bruce thing too, so a gazillion thanks Monsieur Moronic!
Afternoon, Dennis! Sure, I'll put my paranormal investigator hat on and finally crack that Loch Ness Monster enigma. Ideally I need one of those cute underwater boats Bill Murray pilots in " The Life Aquatic", but if not, I'll improvise. I WILL actually be at Loch Ness next Monday, so keep your eyes peeled to the TV in case I find something of global significance. I'm half-Scottish, so I know the special whistle that brings the monster up from the inky deep. Seriously. I do.
WV: grismos.
Thanks Thomas. Harmony Korine is a Fabulous lunatic. Mister Lonely is my favorite.
Meanwhile. . . .Arthur Evans has died, and so —
Latest FaBlog: Bobo‘s Delicious Dilemma or Arthur Evans Explains It All For You
5strings,
I think this is the Father Time I was thinking of, The Ancient One
I was really hoping Santa Claus would come wake me while I was sleeping in Schipol at Christmas.
And he did! =)
Bad Santa, is that Billy Bob Thornton? I read Steinbeck and McCarthy some, so I loved Slingblade.
If I was an oral guy I would so date over-the-hillers.
The Silent Night Deadly Night series rocks!
Coverdale-Page was ok not like Page-Plant good, but pretty cool. Coverdale's voice is great and I think Page was recovering from the Rosewood Tele days.
Vegankore! "Let's talk tofu."
Paris needs more American Theme-Restaurants.
There's like only two KFC's in the whole freakin' city for gods-sake!
I hope to go back to LA soon, the boy wants to go, we kinda got stuck on Santa Monica Blvd, loved it!
No Veruca Salt was "Seether". You're thinking of the Beastie Boys', Luscious Jackson.
They had a couple of other good songs, "City-Song" and "Lady Fingers", the rest of their stuff is like electronica and only so, so.
They had that little junky badguy from Drugstore Cowboy in the "Naked Eye" video, very cool song/vid.
Heart-throb actors? I guess Bratpackers? McCarthy or Lowe.
Dennis, so what's the third Bresson, love Pickpocket and The Devil Probably is fucking God, what's the third one?
I've got this feeling I'm going to get so laid when I go to Luxembourg.
I love Belgium, I sorta thought it was gonna be laid to waste.
I saw super-models getting off at Lille to the sound of an Italian guy talking on his cellphone.
I had just bitten into the most superb lamb dinner as Enter Sandman blasted from some bar on the corner LOL.
Acid and continental Europe, don't think I could handle it in Amsterdam.
ipad is ok, I'm a pictures guy, so it's a great browser, otherwise it's fairly useless if you ask me.
I never had an iphone, don't believe in cellphones, internet is the only communications I do, so it's somewhat novel.
I think you like it as a novelty.
Thomas,
Harmony Korine! I remember the first time we watched Gummo my friends cat attacked us viciously. I really loved Mr. Lonely. My internet connection sucks, so Trash Humpers was an awesome experience. I've not seen most of this stuff. Anxious to check it!
Regards
Excellent fun Thomas..!
Dennissos! "singularity inhabiting", haha, nice. Thanks. Not much marking, i'm afraid, being "singularly" antisocial by nature… Though we've just got back from the best restaurant in the world, Terre A Terre, an award winning high fucking cuisine vegetarian joint i believe i might have told you about before. Seriously, it's worth the Eurostar fare if you ever fancy. So, that was some lo-key celebration though yummier than, well, i don't know, a mountain of blueberry pancakes served warm on VK's ass? Which would gross -me- out but not you i reckon. What's the yummiest thing you can think of? Times ten.
Anyway. Since i'm turning 30 it makes sense that i should get a little rite-of-passagey (read that "oops, what the fuck have i done with my life so far? zilch. oh crap. oh DEAR…" — cue brutal head and desk meeting), SO i've decided that i was gonna emigrate to Norway and find or build in a cabin somewhere near the Lofoten, and live on dry peas, berries and potatoes (which basically means, give up social life altogether since all it does is fuck me up). I'll get a dog, and spend my days hiking. Sometimes next year. Watch this space.
Happy Birthday WOLF
your name is wolf, you are a wolf, or both?
5STRINGS: cat attack while watching GUMMO? whoa!!! That's like sensurround revenge.
TM: thank you. i <3 HARMONY as well but had yet to do that youtube trail. Thank you for clearing the path and making it EZ as pie.
DENNIS: yep. but in my way–which is logic obsessed–the love thing started off with a big research jag. basically i was freaking out because i'm more of a "date and get to know each other first" kind of guy, so it was meddling with my need to control shit that the emotions were all running forward and taking over the ship.
TOTAL MUTANY.
in my research i learned that scientists now know exactly what happens in our brains when we fall in love, but after the billions they spent on that research, they still have no clue as to why we fall for one person and not another.
by the time i got to that information i was thrilled for the gap, because by then the lover in me had grown big enough to sooth the baby control freak, and i raise my fist to shout, VIVA LE MYSTERY!
of course, being in love, i secretly know
what the scientists do not: we can fall in love so quickly because our instincts sharpen to read all the information we seek. information that would take months of conversation otherwise.
love is not blind, love is blinders:
an intense focus that blocks out all the pointless peripheral information.
the more i get to know my love, the more i thank my instincts for their terrific insight. so far the only flaw is not in him, but in the land mass that would separate us: he doesn't live in SF, but we're looking into changing that. (read: he's considering it, and i'm praying for it.)
yes, already.
feels great.
I hate it when I can't see the posts, at work. Of course, I'm not supposed to be looking at such things, at work, the long reach of the metaphorical ruler upon my hand, goddamn them !
Boy Scouts, and Cub Scouts, I loved my time in both. I even liked the regimental shit, shined shoes, and uniforms. What I loved the most were the camporees. They taught me how to burn eggs, bacon, and trailburgers over a blazing, two minute fire of dog fennel. We must've drank burned hot chocolate, too, yum !!!
Boy's Life magazine advertised guns, gag gifts, and x-ray specs, but, nothing practical like pimple medication. Fuck Charles Atlas and his pects and biceps, I need to do something about this festering mountain range on my face ! Mastubatory devices would've done well, too ! We could've coined the phrase, "More popular than a pocket pussy at a camporee !"
OH,
P.S. (to anyone) … i'm having trouble with the links to the artists that SAILOR recommended: Kristopher Pateau and Ondrej Brody. I see a flash of the website and then it throws me to a mostly blank page for a thing called "stumble upon". is this happening to other people? am i supposed to join stumble upon in order to see the site?
Today is super moronic! Or rather, today is super, Moronic! Haha! Thanks for the uber great harm comp.
ps: Happy birthday again, Wolfhead!
pss: Happy birthday Dennito!
It's taken me years to be able to appreciate Harmony Korine. Even now I have to take his trash-america outsider filmaking with a grain of salt. But he certaily is an artist.
Hi Dennis. Between this PR interview and the one you did for htmlgiant I have to say I'm fully satieted by your hidden writer knowledge.For the moment. I'm doing alot of philosophy reading over the next four months and I'm wondering have you ever gotten into anything by Adorno? He seems lke kind of a righteous badass to me.
Richard Hamilton R.I.P.
Dennis, pancakes!
Thomas, great day thank you! How are you?
Wolf, bonne anniversaire! The 'Happy Birthday' song in French is the most complicated thing I've ever heard in my life! How many words do they need to express a concept like that?
SQUEAKY, both!
and thanks, you too Kiddo, twice!
That cat was fucking SCA-RY!
Oscar, haha, i know, that long version is just a complete fucking joke, i mean i don't actually know anyone who even knows the words to it let alone sings it to anyone..!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WOLF!!! Terre a Terre! Oh. My. Fucking. God. Went there for the first time earlier this year…. it was multiply orgasmic! Heavenly. Like so unbe-fucking-believably delicious I could've cried, I could've danced, right there. Leaving there I felt freaking postcoital. Jesus … just the BEST. Food of thee Gods, and no animals were harmed in the making of this production…
So happy returns, Wolf, enjoy your day. And Lofoten with a dog sounds cool….
WV: untedog! ( Sounds better with a German accent)
Thomas— Thanks for today. HK has been a favorite since Gummo, and no matter what, that will always remain my favorite of his. The "Like A Prayer" scene is hands-down one of the best slices of contemporary film-making, in my humblest of opinions.
Dennis— The thing at Dodie/KK's was great. Afterwards I got some bad news from a friend about another friend, and proceeded to get very drunk, but… thems the breaks. It's just stupid when someone commits suicide, nothing more can be said on that end, at least for me at the moment.
Today, I'm doing some work (for money) and sending letters to people. I have a date later tonight, but I'm not sure how I feel about him. Too timid, maybe. But then again, I'm rather vocal I guess, so it could just be a weird projection thing. Anyway.
Maybe sometimes soon I'll send something in to the workshop. I need to work on this longer fiction piece a bit more to figure out its 'path' or whatever, but I think that in the future, that one would be a good candidate.
Hope all is well with you.
xoxotrees
Dennis –
Thanks! I'll be honest, I haven't given opening up a restaurant anymore thought. I've been really burnt out on cooking and anything to do with food. Although, when I was in NYC my passion for it did come back some. The only thing I've been doing food wise, I guess, is photographing it.
I've added some new ones since my NY trip. Photos
I told you I would update you on this music project. Well, the chick that we had for vocals didn't work out at all, so we went ahead and added another song. You can check it out if you want.
When You're Lonely
Thomas Moronic, Thanks for this. Just incredible talent. No need to explain your love.
Super Happy Birthday, Wolf.
Trees, sorry to hear about your friend.
Tomkendall and Dennis, Sorry I missed the workshop when it was live. It was my son's first day of school yesterday. So I was doing lots of stuff with him over the weekend. But thanks for posting the excerpt, Thomas. What you're doing is really inspiring and the comments coming off it were so well thought out that I didn't just want to pop in and say hi without thinking about the work and the comments. I always get pulled in by your writing and maybe try to ignore grammar or consistency because that's what I guess the text is asking me to do. It's a really tricky balance between wildly poetic description, metaphors on metaphors, slowly unfolding narrative, and exposition or meta-exposition. I remember you saying you were reading Robbe-Grillet. Did you read 'Jealousy'? I could see a similar kind of thing happening here with the description of angles and light, blocks, cubes, cubicles, hospitals and council estates, that obsessiveness, parallelling and dividing, but on an English council estate rather than a French colonial plantation. Also thought you might find the groundless but very much grounded, or squashed, narrator interesting and maybe helpful in thinking about the comments about the voice and narrative positions (who's saying/thinking/reporting this or that phrase/sentences/chunk/section). Voices can spiral out or in endlessly but you as the author have to decide which goes where and how far and I guess somehow work with how to do that while also rejecting or acknowledging the difficulty or commenting on the desire to avoid prescriptiveness. There are so many great images that foreground the kind of narrative questions that the text is itself dealing with: words as describing untouchable phantom realities, spirit levels, the searching for and also resisting or erasing patterns of control, manipulating or playing with senses of narrative integrity ("Words like broken toys assembled into brief novelties resembling play, a linguistic cube functioning within its messily stickered logic"). Just some of the things I thought about reading the day. More of a recap than anything. But amazing work.
I'm afraid of becoming a pest to people I'm asking favors from. That's why I'm reticent to be too pushy with the CNN anchor whom I've approached.
I've looked over Kickstarter, and most people seem to be giving gifts to their donors. I'm afraid I don't have anything to give.
I did get in touch with David Cronenberg's publicist, and she seems up for setting up an interview. His NYC press day will take place during the New York Film Festival. A DANGEROUS METHOD has a press screening here then on Oct. 3rd.
WOLF: cool. me too, not the name, but the animal.
RIP Richard Hamilton. Legend is an overused word, but he was a legend.
@ Thomas, I love HK and today has been a most pleasurable day.
@ Dennis, the new issue of Yuck 'n Yum is now pretty much done and dusted. The Austin Spare article is finished, and Sypha has very generously contributed a quote to it.
People seem to be submitting very ass-oriented work, more so now than ever for some reason. It prompted me to make this flyer to advertise the next deadline.
Dennis, don't give up on Little Joe just yet. I never felt more appreciated and wanted than when I was writing my story for its most recent issue. Editor Sam Ashby's not a writer himself, he's a designer I guess, and his ideas come from some place foreign to me—some design place perhaps, but I think he's tops. And he's not bad to look at either, though maybe more my type than yours. Anyhow cheers Dennis, just wanted to put in my two centimes.
@Squeaky Oops, dunno what happened with those links, this is the site anyway..
http://brodypaetau.com/
Great Harmony post Thomas Moronic, he's so sweet and strange in the interviews, like the stage lights or David Letterman are gonna swallow him up or something. I haven't seen Mister Lonely yet but that nun scene was incredible! Wow. And Werner Herzog is always surreal and brilliant. Downloading it as we speak, I can't wait!
I love Bruce LaBruce, has there been a Bruce LaBruce day yet?? "Masturbation is the highest form of magic."
Dennis – Apart from cooking with cum I'll mostly be getting my shit together to move back to London this week. I've had a 2 year interlude in a depressing midlands town to escape impending London burnout.. It's been good for me though. Lots of reading, writing, drawing. No(t as many) drugs.. heh. I lie, I actually have a raging heroin habit I'm aiming to kick when I leave here..
Missed the decadance and drama of the Big Smoke too. I guess it's my spiritual home. Are you still an L.A boy at heart or does Paris feel like home to you now?
Take care all of you! S x
crazy day – this afternoon I went to an apartment in the Bronx of one of our clients – he is 28 and just refused ever to take any med's – he will probably be dead quite soon. I only met him once – he was lovely and funny. sad. an ex and one of his best friends are taking care of him while he dies and fending off his abusive family. We were there basically to support them. then ton's of traffic in the Bronx – I hate cars – why people are so addicted is beyond me – traffic, the globe etc… then a great gig with audience of six – we all seemed to hang out in the same space together – very lovely – some guy from London and his girlfriend talked about all the space I let happen – a full day.
Thomas Moronic, cool day. I'm not sure how I feel about Harmony Korine, because of his three films I've seen I hated, liked and loved one. But I still think it's weird that he hadn't ever seen Street Trash.
Hey Dennis,
He does seem sort of intimidated, but that's probably because he doesn't really look at me much, or when I catch him he looks away. I don't know, he seems happy ish most or some of the times.
Eyebrows is, I don't know. He confuses me but he doesn't, which means absolutely nothing, but yeah. I feel like he's definitely one of those people who're destined to leave your life soon and forget all about you, which is horrible to say, but I don't know. He makes me happy when I'm with him and sad sometimes and lately I miss him kind of a lot when he's not around. I don't think that answered your question at all. Sorry.
My friend said the fourth season of Angel was kind of a mess. But she liked the first and second, so maybe she shouldn't be trusted.
I hope Little Joe emails you soon. I'd like to see the scene from your porn movie. Oh, well, yeah, and read it.
I don't blame you on Restless. But I hope you got your pancakes. I almost had pancakes the other day but decided against it.
Your kitchen encounter does sound slightly frightening. Do you know when you can replace the light?
My day was pretty boring:
Sleep, for two hours. Spent another hour laying in bed trying to fall back asleep, but after constantly shifting and dragging my arm across the mattress I finally pried my head from the bunched together pillows (they always end up bunched yet falling off, I'm not quite sure how) and began, sort of.
Watched an episode of The Love Boat, kind of. I'm not sure why, because it was really horrible, but I couldn't finish it, so that's the silver lining, I guess.
Worked out, which was fine. I think I got overheated or took it too far though, because after I finished and was sitting I had to rush to the bathroom. Panting I threw up a little, lean against the toilet for a brief horrible headache, then brushed my teeth and peeled my clothes off. I stared at myself for a while in the mirror because the sweat looked nice and shiny, then Shower.
Read a little. Played with my cat and layed on my bed with the blinds open, despite the heat being over 100 again. The sun felt nice from inside, and I was crooked there for a while when my friend called. She came over and mostly talked about how tired she was and asked if I knew how to open a padlock, one of those master ones. I did, so I did, "And I can't remember the combination," so I found that out for her. Swung it on the blanket, her: "Let's go get food," so she did.
We ended up going to a few places after that, but I wasn't much fun because my muscles were getting tighter every minute because I hadn't slept, so I would talk very lowly and reach for something and ignore it. I imagine the special effects would've looked cheesy because that's how it felt, like I was some second rate superhero who was melting and reforming, skin shifting as the muscles and ligaments wound and unwound themselves. Why this superhero would do this in a Walgreens aisle as their friend talked about how to make sweaters I'm not sure, but Superman had a phone booth, didn't he?
Well, yeah, that's pretty much it. But I am about to watch Ringer, which is pretty exciting. It's Sarah Michelle Gellar's new show and the reviews are either really good or really bad, so I guess I'll find out. How was your day, Dennis?
sublethal – assuming you have even a casual interest in my writing, although it's more doped WEAKLING'S BANDAGED OPErative hand collides with iBook, the little ggame begins at http://iloveagenre.tumblr.com, possibly after scrolling down from 5strings profile pic if s/he dont object, passing through her like shout thru a geist and landing on http://www.dirtystory.blogspot.com, my sleeping giant genre films and indie movies blog.
wv lovecraftian muulm
@Thomas Moronic: Korine is one of my favorite directors and my love for him is similarly beyond expression–those videos were great. I love that Die Antwoord film, I've watched it a million times and I never get tired of it. "If we want to BE next level, then we've got to fuckin ROLL next level" is something I tell myself on a more or less weekly basis.
@Wolf: Happy birthday! Hope you had a good one…
@Sailor: I really liked the Pateau and Brody stuff–they consumed nearly two hours of my evening time, in which I squinted at the computer screen with rapt attention–thanks for the tip!
@Dennis: When you were a kid, did you have a favorite/trusty gag gift or magic trick? There was one time I was teaching an elementary class and one kid had a trick that made a coin float into the air, he was pretty good at it. The rest of the class had a pretty much evenly divided reaction, which was either a) jaw-dropping, wide-eyed astonishment or b) intensely squinty-eyed suspicion. Like J. Edgar Hoover type suspicion. There was no middle ground, people either loved it or hated it.
I'm about 3/4 finished with The Wind Up Bird chronicle by Murakami. I had read Norwegian Wood and a book of short stories before that, but Wind Up has really blown my head open–I have to finish it, but so far I'm really impressed with it. It moves in such a weird way, how the plot keeps shifting further and further off axis.
For the last few months I've got in the habit of reading at least one story a night from this book of Chinese folktales called Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio, which was written in the 1700s. It reminds me of Murakami in a couple ways, partly because of the fantastic/magical bits–the stories have lots of werewolves and fish spirits and ghosts and city gods–but they also have this weird trick where the plot moves so quickly and take so many sudden turns, that you forget some of how the story started, even though it was only three pages ago. Like, a character might fall in love with a girl in a painting and then crawl into the painting and start kissing her, so they go back to her room…but wait, she's got a husband and he's about to come home! There's a big fight! Then the man gets arrested and sentenced to death! But the girl seduces the judge and sneaks into the jail to rescue him! But when the girl tells the guy that she seduced the judge to rescue him, he gets so angry–how could you do that to me? You broke my heart! I didn't know you had a husband! And now the husband has a scythe and he's looking to chop up the other guy! So the girl decides to seduce the judge into putting her husband in prison instead, but…and then after a few more plot turns, the story ends with the guy staring at the painting with sweat rolling down his face from too much overactive daydreaming. In the meantime, so much has happened that you kind of forgot that the story started out with a guy crawling into a painting, and you're shocked that you forgot, and then you laugh because you're exactly like the daydreaming protagonist.
I've been thinking a lot about the advantages of using broad strokes like that. In highschool and college I was such a fanatic James Joyce fan, I thought that he was God. My enthusiasm has cooled for him a bit since then, but he's still one of my favorite writers. I think the main thing I picked up from him the importance of meticulous detail–that fiction is a string of very precise descriptions and attention to minutiae. The idea that you should keep your eye on the character from minute to minute–and part of the narrator's job is to "track" him or her in a thorough and interesting way, if that makes any sense. A lot of this is also probably unconcious training I got from tv and movies…to think about a scene as something that passes second by second and minute by minute. Usually when I think of writing a scene, I tend to picture it like a scene from a movie, and then try to transcribe that mental scene to paper in the most articulate and detailed way possible. And that's cool, but in the last few years I've been encountering all these writers like Bolano and Philip K Dick and Purdy and Murakami, and for me it seems like they all use these really broad strokes when they tell their stories. The languague is generally easy to read and very quick moving–sometimes it's even a bit sloppy, especially with Dick and Purdy–and things keep constantly jumping from one thing to the next in this zig-zag type of way. When it's done right it can have this really disorienting effect, like when you forget that the entire story is taking place inside a painting.
Anyway. I didn't have any big point, it was just something I was thinking about earlier. Thanks for letting me write some of it down, hope you have a good day!
Flying nuns and bunny boy and Herzog flying planes.
squeaky,
sensurround sound revenge!!! yeah!
LOL My friends cat was a Himalayan, she was pissed!
She kept attacking my really tall friend that wears a ski-mask and carries around a JD bottle.
We were doing NO2. The last thing I remember from that night was
my friend crashing her head into some china stacked on the floor.
Hyrule Dungeon,
If I may…
I studied anthro/Marxism at uni, found one very large book on Adorno.
It looked like it was being cleared from the stacks.
I think his work may have culminated in Ballard.
If I remember it well, it was fairly light-hearted Hegelian aesthetics.
I prefer Gadamer's work on aesthetics, it's a little philosophically heavy, but intense.
For the more "Domination" sort of concepts I would advise consulting Marcuse
His book One-Dimensional Man probably makes my 20th-Century Top Ten.
Never read Horkheimer, I think he may have been the dandy banker of the group.
I went for Merton for my contemporary theory thesis.
Habermas is generally trash in my opinion.
Hope this helps.
Weird that I've never seen any of Harmony's films.
Happy birthday Wolf!
Thanks Black_Acrylic… it was nice to be able to contribute something, however small, to Yuck & Yum.
5STRINGS: funny! ha ha, you had the FULL GUMMO experience.
Had to chime in here…
The scenes Harmony got out of Werner Herzog in Julien Donkey Boy are pure gold. Of course, you're all probably familiar, but, for old times sake, enjoy these one more time:
http://youtu.be/yqiCQOcBZ6c
http://youtu.be/zt7x0hhDGB0
Challenge: A million points to whoever uses "Give me some Everest" as a successful pick-up line.
That's it! Bye!
@ Sypha, the zine launches on 7th October. That might seem very far away, but it'll roll around before you know it.
TM, Nice. 😀 It's funny, I'm a Korine fan but haven't seen but a fraction of his movies. What the hell?
Dennis, Whoop-whoop and I'll be your witness! Damn, when did you get all Naughty by Nature?
You know what totally sucks? We used to have a magazine shop in this one-horse town that carried everything. And now it's gone. And so is that awful Borders. So I don't have a way to buy any of these mags with you in it one way or the other (Paris Review, Bookforum, etc.). Or with anyone in them for that matter. Kind of pisses me off. I guess I'll have to take a trip to DC sometime soon.
Snooty? How dare a rock 'n roller be snooty. Yeah, that's worse than asshole-ish. Let's find him pronto!