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I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements and an angelic sprite,
But black sin hath betray’d to endless night
My world’s both parts, and oh both parts must die.
You which beyond that heaven which was most high
Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write,
Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might
Drown my world with my weeping earnestly,
Or wash it, if it must be drown’d no more.
But oh it must be burnt; alas the fire
Of lust and envy have burnt it heretofore,
And made it fouler; let their flames retire,
And burn me
O Lord, with a fiery zeal
Of thee and thy house, which doth in eating heal.
— John Donne – Holy Sonnets
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When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked toward the east for any light but there was none. In the dream from which he’d wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark. — The Road, Cormac McCarthy
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“Elephant Skull” was a unique sight, as one elephant after another came over to the skull during the course of half an hour, quietly, gently smelling it, feeling it with their trunks, clearly knowing exactly whose skull it was.” — Nick Brandt
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p.s. Hey. ** As today is France’s tentative reopening day, I thought I would celebrate by restoring this beautiful guest post that was made for here around eight years ago by the legendary spell caster, brainiac, dl emeritus and much more aka (Emma) Wolf. It’s a dreamy classic. Do enjoy yourselves. Thank you again from the future, Wolfie. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, wow. Everyone, Check out a coupla snapshots of Mr. Phoenix shot by our own Mr. Ehrenstein back in 1991. Here. Thanks, D! And, yes, RIP Little Richard. Two major music geniuses (LR and Florian Schneider) knocked off in just a couple of days. Fucking hell. ** jamie, Well, hello there, Jamie! Welcome inside this place. Can I serve you a refreshment? Thanks about my little obit thing. Oh, I actually think Joaquin Phoenix is a terrible, stagey actor — an unpopular opinion, I know — so, no, I wouldn’t say he has carried on River’s promise in the slightest. You good, bud? You hanging in there? You getting freed up at all? Love, me. ** MANCY, Hey, hey, S! Yay, a Power Pop sympathiser at last. Twilley, in his early stuff, is among pop music’s least acknowledged genius auteurs. Yes, my eyes/ears perked up at your description of that segment, you bet. I’ll … see if I can find a fragment. How are you? Are you getting through this messy hell phase in an okay or more fashion? ** Armando, RIP LR, a true greatness source. I’m good. Well, Paris has done a rather dramatic shift into semi-openness today, and I haven’t been out yet, so I’ll go find out how it’s doing. Ah, big congrats on the review! Emily Colucci is great and a smarty! Awesome! Everyone, Armando’s first novel ‘Hey Boy’, celebrated here on the blog a few weeks back, has been reviewed, and ultra-positively, by the terrific Emily Colucci on the excellent site Filthy Dreams, and … go read it, of course. Sweet! ** Misanthrope, Hi. Sleep’s good. I could use a little bit more. Yeah, friends and I went and added some flowers to the tower of flowers on his death spot the morning after. I did the only thing on Mother’s Day I could: thought about mine. ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul! You’re the same age as RP. Wow. I don’t know why that seems so strange. Yeah, I decided the Scientists didn’t quite fit. I did check to see if they’ve been categorised within that fold to make sure, and they haven’t as far as I can tell. I’m good, curious to go outside post-p.s. Interesting about your online teaching gig. 12 weeks! What’s the gig, i.e. what are you teaching? How’s everything pandemic- and otherwise in Tokyo at the moment? ** Ian, Hi, Ian. Oh, I would kill for some snow flurries. We only got about 40 seconds of very shitty snow our entire winter. Try to enjoy? The internet is one very, very mixed bag, that’s for sure. ** Steve Erickson, Yep. Everyone, Steve E. has reviewed the new Perfume Genius album in a very positive manner for the world’s and your delectation, so take advantage. I’m happy to learn that you like Daniel and Clara’s work. Me too, and ‘Notes from a Journey’ might well be their best yet, and I’m putting together a Day about them right now. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Did I forget to tell you how much I liked your story? I can’t remember. If so, I did, very much. It’s really sharp. Congrats to X-R-A-Y and to its readers and to you! ** Dominik, Hi, D!!!! I know what you mean. Jeff Jackson mentioned in his comment that a friend of his wrote a bio book about River, but I don’t know if that’s the same book you read. My weekend … I finished a draft of the fiction (?) thing I was working on and sent it to Zac. Oh, I sent it to him because, as I may have mentioned (?), what it is is an attempt to transfigure the doomed TV show script into something readable that stands on its own, and Zac is half of that. Otherwise, I Skyped with a friend, worked on stuff, took a last stroll through Paris-as-tomb, and … ? Did you have a good one and a good Monday? 15 year old love secretly reading Shotacon during tennis lessons, me ** Bill, If you haven’t seen it, the rather ugh James Franco edited together 90 minutes of outtakes from MOPI, and there are several incredible RP sequences in it. I wouldn’t have pegged you as a Power Pop guy, it’s true, ha ha. I don’t hear Gary Numan, but I’ve been listening to ‘Jet Fighter’ since it was born, so … Reorganising old code … that’s what I’ve been doing too if wordage counts as code, which it does in my book(s). Ha ha, I don’t do selfies. In fact, if I ever accidentally do, shoot me in the head. I have not seen ‘Chambre 212’, no. I watched the preview and decided I wanted to stay away from it. It had a very mixed reception here. If you watch it, let me know your take. ** brendan, Hey, hey, hey, B! Lurking’s fine. My whole life has been an act of non-stop IRL lurking for two months. Yes, that’s a big loss, Little Richard. I saw him live a bunch of times in the late 60s, early 70s when he suddenly became cool again to the hippie and post-hippie set. I can imagine about downtown LA. Paris too, in its French way. But we reopened this morning. It’s gonna be so weird to step outside and see people/cars/etc today. Happy to hear about your photo making! Very happy! I can’t wait to get to LA. I was supposed to come in June, and now it’s October, and prayers that the US will let me in by then. Take care, pal. Wonderful to see you. ** Jeff J, Hey, man. Thanks about the Power Pop shebang. Such a shame that The Quick only recorded that one album, as good as it is. They became substantially greater, but there’s only that comp album of demos and things left to show it. Great about where your nose has been. What’s the book your friend wrote? What’s its title, I mean? I’m all right, ready to check out reborn-ish Paris. As I mentioned above to Dominick, I sent a draft of the maybe fiction (or something) thing to Zac to read/consider. It’s based on the ‘dead’ TV script, so he will be its co-author if it isn’t a failure. We’ll see. Fingers crossed. ** Corey Heiferman, Hi. He’s great in everything even when the thing is far from great. I intend to enjoy my semi-liberation to the max, and I mostly expect to feel weird. New things by you! I’ll get on them in a bit. Everyone, The multi-talent Corey Heiferman has made two audio works intriguingly titled ‘I Wish I Loved Computers’ and ‘My Tiny Little Corner’, and I’m just about to go fill my ears with them. You? Highly recommended, I don’t even need to say. Here. ** Okay. I’ll go take a shower and then go see what reopened Paris has in store, and you guys please feast your eyes and brains on Wolf’s lovely construction, and let’s meet back here tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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So many great recommendations – playlist sorted for today, thanks. Such mesmeric photographs. I enjoyed looking at them during my break from reading FRISK [insert the black heart emoji].
I hope you enjoy your explorative stroll in reopened Paris and keep us inspired!
Hi!!
Hm, I don’t know! About the book Jeff mentioned. Based on his description it could be Last Night at the Viper Room. I found it interesting, very correct about factual details but somehow lacking in… “soul”. I don’t know how else to put it.
I think when we last talked about the TV show script, you said you might try to turn it into a stand-alone film – if you get full artistic freedom. So now, if I understand it correctly, it’ll be a book or at least a written story instead?
I had a good weekend though nothing hugely exciting happened. I worked on some collage and started reading Tim Tate’s Child Pornography (timely, with your shotacon-reading love whom I’d love to meet, haha). Today, I’m back to learning psycho stuff – I’ll have sessions tomorrow and on Wednesday!
How was your first post-strict-quarantine day?
Love wearing his socks inside out for good luck, D.!
Incredibly beautiful images, Wolf!
“Chambre 212” is being distributed stateside by Strand so I’ve been sent a DVD. It’s not much, Chiara is marvelous as always but Christophe doesn’t give her anything interesting to do.
Jerry Stiller RIP — at 92 of natural causes (according to his son Ben. Phenomenal career.
Take care wit that “Reopening” Dennis. Here its led to huge spikes in Covind-19
@ Wolf, kudos for this optical-aural-neural feast! It’s still fresh as a daisy.
@ DC, thank you for your kind words re Jake’s Détournement, it really means a whole lot.
Dude!! Ooooh, ok, yeah, I have the vaaaaguest memory of putting this together now – although still murky. Damn. Having a brain like a sieve does make you wonder what else you’ve done and aren’t remembering… boy would I be a terrible witness or suspect in an investigation hahaha! Imagine! ‘Ma’am it says right here “I killed Bob”, and it’s your handwriting’ – ‘Right, well, if you say so officer…(*shrugs*)’. In fact I always wonder if the trope of the old lady spotting some dodgy dude one evening and 3 weeks later, in front of the obligatory bulk-order panel-of-rogues, announcing without a hint of doubt ‘yes, THAT one – I remember him well’ isn’t a whole lot of horse manure with barely a passing resemblance to procedural reality. …I mean, do you, old lady? Do you really?? How?!? You saw the guy for 2.5 seconds in the dark!!
I don’t buy it.
So, what did you do today then – anything fun? What’s Paris like?
Hope you’ve enjoyed opening day, Dennis. We’re getting a sliver of an opening here; among other things, bookstores can do pickup/delivery. It’s weird not to be able to browse in the physical store, but at least my bookstore staff friends will go back to work.
Yeah, brutal week for musician deaths. But good to see this luscious gallery from Wolf!
I wasn’t going to check out the MOPI outtakes, but I’ll put that on my list.
I’d say reorganizing wordage is very similar to reorganizing code! A lot more tinkering on my schedule today.
Bill
Wolf – Really enjoyed this post, it holds up so well. The alternation between the music and images, visual art and film stills (cool to see the Tarkovsky images shorn of color), the rhythm of it all. Super compelling.
Dennis – My friend’s book on River Phoenix is ‘Last Night at the Viper Room.’ He apparently had to write it on a tight deadline, but he still managed to unearth a good amount of brand new info through interviews and research, plus put together pieces of his story that hadn’t been connected. It’s a very sympathetic portrait if you’re interested in a deep dive.
The power pop post soundtracked today’s freelance work and was a real gift, so thanks for that. That Quick track ‘Pretty Please’ was amazing. What’s the comp that has their material post-debut album? You mentioned they got even better — did they never officially record those later tunes?
Among the bands I didn’t know, I was really struck by 20/20, The Flys, and Great Buildings. Any of their full albums worth seeking out?
Dug the tunes by Pandors and Yachts, too, both of whom were new to me. Hadn’t heard the Dickies in ages and forgot how they are. And the Jam’s live version “Private Hell” – wowza.
Off topic, have you ever done a post on the books put out by Little Caesar press? If not, would you consider it? Love to see all those titles in one place and get a better sense of who was published, etc.
Relatedly, will have some poetry Qs for you via email in the next day or so.
Excited that you’re salvaging the TV script and giving it a new form. I know the project had so many different iterations. Is the fiction closer to the original impulses of the project? Or taking off in a different direction?
Is it disturbing that a lot of these images are familiar to me? Nice to see Odilon Redon getting represented (and the Chernobyl elephant’s foot, ha ha).
Here’s “Acid Rain,” a song I wrote over the weekend: https://soundcloud.com/user-229390367/acid-rain. I thought I completed another one today, which lays Stockhausen samples (among other things) over a hip-hop beat, but listening to it now, I think it needs some more editing and I should upload a more polished version tomorrow.
My super told me today that he can replace my current crumbling mattress with one from the apartment of a woman who just vacated New York. I am going to look at it tomorrow, and if I like it he is willing to bring it over here and take my old one away.
The first 2 episodes of the Netflix series TRIAL BY MEDIA were interesting. However, I got annoyed by the focus on the Jenny Jones show in the episode devoted to it. Sure, they behaved irresponsibly, but ultimately if you can’t deal with a gay man declaring his desire for you on TV and murder himself a result, it’s a product of your homophobia and the acceptability of “gay panic” in America. Actually, both of these episodes – the second one is about Bernhard Goetz – show a lot about the way American men feel entitled to commit violence.
I also saw Amir Naderi’s 1974 TIGHT SHOT, an attempt at a Persian spaghetti Western, and THE WOLF HOUSE, which is as nightmarish as I expected.
Dennis, I remember this day. A good restoration. Love Wolf and Marc, they’re just great.
Yeah, it’s tough. That’s what I do on Father’s Day, and I know you know about that too. My mom is 77, so who knows how long, you know? That’s if I don’t sign out before she does. You never know.
We got carryout from an Italian place, and of course they screwed it up by not having my mom’s meal in the bag. Kayla had to run back and get it. Otherwise, things were nice and low key.
My friend is doing the bonfire thing this weekend, so that’ll be nice. One of my friends is scared to come, wants to keep isolating for some reason. Oh, well. I mean, we’ll be outdoors and it’ll be warm and it’ll be all spaced out, but to each his own.
Wolf, very creative structure and selection to make something special even by this space’s standards.
Steve, I enjoyed your track a lot.
Dennis, thank you for the good publicity on blind faith. And enjoy your relative freedom!