p.s. Hey. I think there was something I wanted to tell you or alert you to this morning, but I can't remember what it was for the veritable life of me. I should write these things down. If it reasserts itself while I'm doing the p.s., I'll come back up here and stick it in between this sentence and the next one. If you're reading this sentence, I didn't remember, damn. ** Heliotrope, Hey, Mark. Your friend's totally out to lunch. Apart from a few years in the early 70s, Sparks has lived and been based in LA their entire career. Their whole second wave of popularity in the 80s beginning with 'Whomp That Sucker' began with and, unfortunately, mostly stayed confined to LA where they recorded and played live more frequently than they ever ever had or have since. They're an LA band from the outermost surface of their aesthetic to their coursing blood stream. Your denier of a friend is just plain wrong. So there, ha ha. Oh, I'm coming to LA on the 11th, man. Get ready for some hanging. ** Bernard Welt, Blushing is a fairly obscure part of my repertoire, so congrats, yes. ** David Ehrenstein, Unfortunately, my blush turns a camera's lens into a vampire's mirror, so I guess you'll just have to figure out a way to flush my blood into my facial surface in person. Surely, there must be some way. I'll seek out and watch 'Tropical Malady' asap. Oh, what a marvelous post by Bill about Leslie Hutchinson. Everyone, the oft mentioned around here and ultra-knowledgeable Bill Reed has a post on his blog about the legendary British entertainer Leslie Hutchinson that I highly recommend to you. It's here. Thanks, D. ** Scunnard, French customs agents practically yawn when you step up to their windows, but the real problem might be getting back into the UK, 'cos UK custom agents tend to be paranoid, testy bodyguard types. ** Renaud cerqueux, Hi. Oh, yes, I know where Philippe Le Libraire is. Great. I'll walk over there today, and hopefully it'll be in stock. If I end up having trouble finding it, I'll gladly accept the free copy, but I'd prefer to put my money where my admiration is. Thanks much, Renaud! ** Bacteriaburger, Hey. Oh, I see, and, yes, the illustrations might be a hindrance, I guess. Or maybe not. A wise press might well recognize the distinction and selling point that would come along. Still, if self-publishing the book seems like the best option, it's totally a fine, and, yeah, like you said, beautiful and even noble decision, obviously, and I'm sure my blog isn't the only place online that will offer if not demand, ha ha, the opportunity to celebrate and promote the book's existence. Hopefully, either way, you'll be covered. ** Steevee, Thanks for the added push to see 'TM'. No, unless I'm blanking, and I do blank, I haven't seen Weerasethakul films. I'm guessing I should, yes? What's their calling card? ** Jesse Hudson, Thanks a whole lot for that, Jesse, my pal. ** Oscar B, Hey. Your parents seemed really darling, I must say. Oh, yeah, we can talk about that publishing thing. Call me or I'll call you shortly. The request for you to pay to have the book published might or might not be a strange, suspicious thing. Tell me more. ** Alan, Hey, Alan. You good? You've been a little quiet. Btw, between those flooded Paris postcards and the Felix Feneon entries and everything else, your blog has been ruling the roost lately, man. ** Stephen, Oh, you're from LA, duh, I forgot. All the more reason to skedaddle and use it as an emergency 'shute then. Southern rivers can be kind of swampy, and watch out for them gators. Clifton's, sigh. I'm in a missing LA state of mind. ** Sypha, Well, I'm glad I did the post then. Nice site, right? Of course in general you're right about the pay-to-publish thing, but the prevalence of that practice is one of the dirty little secrets of the art book publishing world, for instance, and it's possibly not as bad a sign as it seems. I have to counter your opinion of publishing a bit. Major publishers always have and always will mostly buy writers whom they think will bring in big bucks, but I would say that in the last couple of years, the major publishers are getting notably better at trying out interesting new writers too. Just to name some names off the top of my head who are familiar to the blog, in the last year or so Justin Taylor, Blake Butler, Tony O'Neill, and Shane Jones are examples of new and very interesting who've found homes with major publishers. And with the explosion of new indie presses, and it literally seems like there's a new and very promising press launching every day of late, the chance has never been better, at least within the span of my life as a writer, that a young fiction writer with an original voice will find a really good home. And, actually, most of these indie presses' book covers/ designs are quite striking and artful at the very least. Self-publishing is a totally legit way to go, and obviously you chose that option with 'Grimoire' rather than trying out the new literary indie presses or the majors, and that's totally cool, but I just want to say that your particular beefs with the publishing situation right now don't really ring true based on my experience, observations, and opinion. ** Stan_cz, I'll have to ask Oscar today what the brand of her absinthe was. As it was explained to me, the problem with importing absinthe into the US is that they only allow absinthe of a limited strength to cross the US border, but I don't know exactly, and I'm investigating that myself right now with the thought of absinthian gift-giving. That Everyman's Library edition of Baudelaire is a beauty for sure. ** Statictick, Oh, I like Patti Smith. I haven't kept up with her most recent stuff, though, it's true. She and I were pen pals for a while back in the early days. I made her a Rimbaud t-shirt, and there are old promos photos of her around somewhere in which she's wearing it. So it doesn't surprise me one bit that the show was amazing. ** Paul Curran, Got some pretty solid writing done this weekend, and you? ** Kier, 'Irreversible' is a total masterpiece, I agree. Man, am I antsy for 'Enter the Void'. Ha ha, yeah, I brush my teeth a lot, far more often than I'm sure I need to, and not just after I eat. I think it's my delusional idea of how to counteract the problems that have surely arisen inside my mouth due to my not having been to a dentist since 1983, and I've been a bit of a teeth brushing devil ever since I first chickened out on making a dentist appointment. You sent me something in the post? Hm, before I say I didn't get it, let me search through the piles here because what with Yury and I both picking up the mail, putting it in some random place, and forgetting to inform the mail's intended receiver sometimes, things do get here but then get lost. ** Creative Massacre, I'm kind of a believer that a fair amount of what seem like normal illnesses are physical explosions of stress, so, yeah, that doctor could have a point. Still, I'll second Sypha and say that doing the endoscopic exam seems like a very good idea. Either it'll find something wrong or it'll find nothing, and you can start to think it probably is stress and try to ease that away rather than going for a directly medical fix. Flair wrestling again? Yikes, that's an unsavory image, ha ha. My weekend was probably better than yours sounds to have been, but now it's your turn. Next weekend I expect yours to kick mine's ass, pal. ** Postitbreakup, Hey, man. Wow, that was a very cool and rich day you gave me there. Not so mini- in fact. It would have done the blog's front page proud. You doing and feeling better, I hope? It's good to see you, and thank you a lot for the awesome day-shaped gift, man. ** Bollo, Obviously, that old church as studio idea sounds pretty amazing from over here. Is its inside still totally church-like, if you've had a look? No, no absinthe in my cabinet yet. But such a thing is destiny, I think. First I think I'll take some sips from Oscar's bottle, if she's willing. I've only drunk absinthe once back in the 90s, and all it did was give me a really bad headache, but it was homemade by a guy in NYC, so I don't know how representative that dose was. 'Irreversible' as a first date movie, ouch and oops, yeah. ** Bill, Strangely if conveniently, I seem to have forgotten that pick-up line yet again, ha ha. I haven't seen 'Anti-Christ', so I don't know, but, if I do, I'll be amazed if I'll even see a few spectacular images. ** Chris Goode, Hey there, Chris. Yeah, I very excitedly got the book in my mail this past Saturday, in fact, and it's eight inches if that away from my right hand at this very moment awaiting examination. Thank you, man. I'm so, so looking forward to that baby. Your Transductions entries are positively floating in the air. Loved that recent poem. Wow, you're busy like even the busy me can scarcely imagine. Jeff Nuttall, nice. Naked women wrestling ... it's true you don't quite have me at that hello, but if you've got a link, I'll greedily see what all the fuss is about. Great Jarman-related stuff. Actually, that Ken Campbell anecdote worked pretty damned well, if my new facial expression is any judge. ** Tomkendall, Not as smart as the other guys?! Did you just take another swig of that absinthe or something? Phooey on that very faulty self-observation. Good news on the housing front stuff. 14,000 isn't so bad. It's, duh, quality not quantity, blah blah blah. But that's true, man! ** _Black_Acrylic, Fire and brimstone, nice. I'm all ears when the time comes. That sound of your own voice being trancey makes sense, especially with the repetition involved. When I've had to record and re-record ad infinitum sections of the spoken parts of our theater pieces in which my voice is featured, I've gotten pretty zonked. ** Rigby, Glad, I am. About your post love stuff, and, if my eyes did not deceive me, about the maybe new job thing? Really? Are my fingers now torturously crossed with regards to you for a good reason? Can you say? ** Justin, Yeah, Yury was telling me yesterday about you guys' conversations re: you going into hair dressing. As he no doubt said, he seems to quite like the profession, even if I don't think he wants to dwell in that field forever. But it seems like a good job and a good set of skills to have in terms of being able to get an income when need be at the very worst. Where are you thinking of studying? ** Chris (British), Hey, man. A pleasure to have you back here, obviously. Ha ha, do I invariably seem to be okay? Hm, I suppose I do have fairly good luck with okayness, come to think of it. I did see 'Office Space', and I can picture that of which you speak even with the revision involving the nice people. Glad you're out of that job, and, yeah, love is the ultimate travel agent. ** JW Veldhoen, How come you're JW over here and Jw over there? Lit prof. dinner sounds good. I like the poems of Anselm Berrigan's that I've read. That guy has some pedigree. Ace about your still doing the Columbia film series, and, yeah, heads up please when it's scheduled. What, you're trying to tell me those owls got that way all by themselves? ** L@rstonovich, Glad you're feeling better. So what have you been doing on that couch besides watching the Olympics and tearfully observing Bode Miller's newfound maturity and heartening return to form result in a bunch of gold shit being hung around his neck? Thanks about the 'Best American Poetry' props, man. Pretty trippy. ** NB, Well, it can't be easy to make sure that place runs, so forgive me if I see you as the site's real Wizard of Oz and David merely as the site's big, growling head-shaped hologram. Writing, 50% confidence level ... I'm liking the sound of that. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, I was going to say, 'Things that happen in 'Closer' stay in 'Closer',' but then I thought about that statement more, and it's not true. I will let you know about the absinthe once I have imbibed it, assuming I don't decide while inebriated that staring at the sun is Truth incarnate and subsequently go blind, necessitating the immediate death of this blog. If you don't want 'The Dream Police' as your song of the weekend, I'll take it. Cheap Trick record their albums while sitting in God's right hand, as far as I'm concerned. Coincidentally, I had Cheap Trick's 'Big Eyes' stuck in my head all day Saturday, so I'll make that my song of weekend to keep you company. That club sounds offbeat and kind of charming. That hangover sounds brutal, literally, I guess. Ooh, you should write that depressing thing. I want to see it. Do it for the Gipper. My weekend, hm ... It was mostly spent in-house or rather in-room. I actually got a pretty decent amount and maybe even quality of work done on my novel, so I'm feeling good about that even if that accomplishment makes my weekend report kind of a dud. I bought my LA trip/plane tickets finally, so there's that. I met Oscar's very lovely seeming parents and aunt and uncle. Only the aunt speaks English, so it wasn't an in-depth kind of meeting, but the smiles all around seemed genuine. I got two books in the mail: the kind of aforementioned collection of our own Chris Goode's writings, which is entitled 'The History of Arports', and which I'm about to bury myself inside, and the first book from our own Ken Baumann's new press, i.e. a novel called 'The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney' by Christopher Higgs, and I read the first third of that, and it's a total stunner so far. I watched a bunch of Olympics. My favorite thing was a crazy, dangerous looking race where four skiers rush across a wacky course at the same time and sometimes accidentally whack each other tumbling and crashing off the track. Intersect all of that with some eating and smoking and cleaning myself, and you've got the big picture. How was Monday? ** Misanthrope, I don't know why you didn't know about it. Your eyes may be beautiful, but apparently they can't see everything. Better pretty than full of expertise, don't you think? What a jerky ex- you've got there. I probably have a jerky ex- too, but I can't think of one. Yeah, Joubert kind of flamed out. I don't even know if the French have won a single medal yet. Wait, I know they've won at least one. But the commentators here are starting to sound kind of stressed out. And what would be this new profession wherein Johnny Weir would never be a victim of stupid politics or homophobia? Experimental novelist maybe? Or, hm, Vegas Showboy or a waiter at a restaurant in San Francisco or ... ? ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, Yeah, I hear you about giving up the London apartment fear. Here I am four plus years later still hanging on to and paying for my LA apartment for, well, a lot of reasons, I guess, but the idea of not having a home there scares the shit out of me. Strange stuff. I love the 'palindromes' approach idea a lot. Yeah, that really sounds like it could be a key to the performance in theory. Yeah, very nice. And that's a really interesting plan to consolidate the performance oriented courses and 'students' into a program of performances. I love that idea and that kind of creating of peer artists and hot houses to everyone's benefit. Man, no wonder that orange is in danger of getting slapped! Best of luck in Birmingham. I'd love to hear how it went, if you don't mind sharing that. Great, Nick, and lots of love. ** Slatted Light, Thanks so much for letting me be one of the bearers of your glad tidings, David. I don't envy you that heat, not even as chilly as it is here right now. Are we still on for blabbing tomorrow? ** I think that's all. Post: Oh, since I already have a Galerie, and that seems to be working out okay, I thought I'd try out having a runway for a day and put that stuff up there on it, and that's what I did. See you on Tuesday.